‘Enigma’ is the Greek word for ‘riddle’, ‘mystery’, ‘secret’. At the moment of entering or leaving life, there is always a sound: the cry of a newborn baby or the last sigh of a dying person giving up the ghost. Soprano Sarah Aristidou sets out in search of the original sound in this programme, which opens with Andreas Tsiartas’s Lamento Turco . The voice emerges from silence in a wordless lament on the vowel ‘A’.

“Sergei Nakariakov plays the trumpet the way the rest of us breathe – if we are lucky.” (San Francisco Chronicle)

Two great artists, pianist András Schiff and composer/clarinettist Jörg Widmann, join forces for the first time on record, performing Brahms’s late masterpieces, the clarinet sonatas op. 120, written in 1894. In between the sonatas Schiff plays Widmann’s evocative Intermezzi for piano. As Jörg Widmann explains in a programme note, these are works inspired by his friendship with András Schiff and by a shared love of Brahms, to whom they pay tribute. The album was recorded at Neumarkt’s Historischer Reitstadel.

For this 2013 release from Ondine, violinist Christian Tetzlaff, conductor Daniel Harding, and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra present three exciting works by Jörg Widmann, a German composer who possesses an impressive talent for orchestration. The Violin Concerto is the most imposing piece on the program, at nearly a half hour in duration and of an exceptionally wide range of techniques and sonorities, and it serves as a powerfully expressive vehicle for Tetzlaff. Long lines predominate, and the tonal inflections of the chromatic writing make it quite accessible to listeners who don't normally listen to contemporary works.

Hardly any combination of instruments is more appealing than a string quartet and a clarinet; together they make a magical melange. The Hagen Quartet and Jörg Widmann have recorded Mozart's Clarinet Quintet, a "work among friends", in this irresistible blend. Jörg Widmann, clarinettist and composer in equal measure, picks up on the omnipresent themes of "floating, love, and chant" in Mozart's notes and creates a weighty counterpart to Mozart's popular work with his own clarinet quintet, which is available here in a world premiere recording.

This cd is a passionate plea on behalf of this brilliant composer, whose virtuosity is never empty but always inspired, glowing with dramatic tension. particularly in slow movements there is a menacing depth to his tonal colours and atmospheres, whose originality and sheer joy in experimentation still fascinates us today. Weber knew and loved the clarinet like no other, excepting only Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. the works gathered together on this cd are all declarations of love to the clarinet. and so i join in, unisono, with berlioz’s enthusiastic cry from the heart:o Weber!!!