Composition / All styles

Anja Lechner (cello) and Vassilis Tsabropoulos (piano) play music by G.I. Gurdjieff arranged for their duo, with Tsabropoulos's own pieces after Byzantine hymns. Recorded December 2003 at the Festeburgkirche, Frankfurt, produced by Manfred Eicher.

Friedrich Cerha's Cello Concerto (1989/1996), with its dedicatee Heinrich Schiff as soloist, and Franz Schreker's Chamber Symphony (1916), played by the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra under Peter Eötvös. Recorded September 2003 in Hilversum.

Seventeen scenes for speaking voice and cello: Paul Griffiths reads his poems drawn from Ophelia's words in Hamlet, Frances-Marie Uitti plays her own music. Recorded August 2003 at Rainbow Studio, Oslo, produced by Manfred Eicher.

Michelle Makarski plays three solo violin sonatas by Giuseppe Tartini and two works by Donald Crockett, one with violist Ronald Copes, recorded in March 2004 at Radio Studio DRS, Zürich.

Trio Mediaeval (Anna Maria Friman, Linn Andrea Fuglseth, Torunn Østrem Ossum) sing Leonel Power's Missa Alma redemptoris mater alongside new works by Gavin Bryars, Ivan Moody, Andrew Smith and Oleh Harkavyy, recorded in April 2003 at Propstei St. Gerold.

Two vocal works by Stephen Hartke, Tituli (1999) and Cathedral in the Thrashing Rain (2000), sung by The Hilliard Ensemble with violinist Michelle Makarski and two percussionists, conducted by Donald Crockett, recorded in February 2003 at Mechanics Hall, Worcester.

Elliott Carter's one-act opera What Next? (libretto by Paul Griffiths), recorded live at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, in September 2000, and his Asko Concerto (Hilversum, 2001), with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra conducted by Peter Eötvös.

Two choral works by Giya Kancheli: Little Imber, recorded in August 2003 in the evacuated village of Imber with the Matrix Ensemble, Rustavi Choir and Mamuka Gaganidze, and Amao Omi, recorded in May 2006 in Amsterdam by the Nederlands Kamerkoor and the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet.

Heiner Goebbels's opera Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten, with texts by Stein, Bruno, Michaux, Eliot, Leonardo and Poussin, performed by Georg Nigl, David Bennent, Ensemble Modern and Deutscher Kammerchor under Franck Ollu, recorded live in October 2004 in Nanterre.

Eleni Karaindrou's music for Antonis Antypas's 2001 Epidaurus staging of Euripides' Trojan Women, for women's chorus, soprano and traditional Greek and Eastern instruments, recorded in July 2001 at Studio Polysound, Athens, produced by Manfred Eicher.

Debut solo album by Norwegian accordionist Frode Haltli: Nordic works by Sørensen, Lindborg, Ratkje (with the Vertavo String Quartet), Lindberg and Schaathun, recorded in August 2001 at Sofienberg Kirke, Oslo, produced by Manfred Eicher.

Schumann's String Quartets No. 1 in A minor and No. 3 in A major, Op. 41, played by the Zehetmair Quartett (Thomas Zehetmair, Matthias Metzger, Ruth Killius, Françoise Groben), recorded at Radio Studio DRS, Zürich, in July and August 2001.

Valentin Silvestrov's Metamusik (1992) and Postludium (1984) for piano and orchestra, played by Alexei Lubimov with the Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien under Dennis Russell Davies, recorded at the ORF Studio, Vienna, in April 2001.

Premiere recordings of three works by Israeli composer Gideon Lewensohn: the Piano Quintet and Odradek Quartet played by the Auryn Quartett and Alexander Lonquich (Zürich, February 2001), and the Postlude for piano, also heard played by Ora Rotem Nelken (Jerusalem, 1997).

Heiner Goebbels's homage to Hanns Eisler, built from Eisler's songs, instrumental music and recorded voice, performed by Ensemble Modern with actor Josef Bierbichler, recorded live at the Hebbel-Theater, Berlin, in October 1998.

Chamber music by Valentin Silvestrov (1974-2001) played by Anja Lechner, Silke Avenhaus, Maacha Deubner, Simon Fordham and the Rosamunde Quartett, with the composer at the piano; recorded January 2001 at the Festeburgkirche, Frankfurt.

Sofia Gubaidulina's Seven Words, Ten Preludes and De Profundis, played by Elsbeth Moser (bayan), Boris Pergamenschikow (cello) and the Münchener Kammerorchester under Christoph Poppen; recorded January 2001 in Munich.

Alexei Lubimov plays ten piano elegies from C.P.E. Bach, Liszt, Glinka, Chopin, Debussy and Bartók to Cage, Mansurian and Silvestrov; recorded December 2000 at Radio Studio DRS, Zürich, produced by Manfred Eicher.

Bach's Partita in D minor BWV 1004 played by Christoph Poppen on baroque violin, interleaved with chorales sung by The Hilliard Ensemble after Helga Thoene's analysis; recorded September 2000 at Propstei St. Gerold, Austria.

Guillermo Gregorio (b. 1941, Buenos Aires) is an Argentine composer, clarinetist, and saxophonist whose career bridges avant-garde music, visual art, and architecture. Active on the Argentine experimental scene from the 1960s through the early 1980s, he was a key member of groups like Movimiento Música Más (a Fluxus collective), the Experimental Group of Buenos Aires, and the Group of Contemporary Music of La Plata, engaging in Fluxus events, multimedia spectacles, and experimental concerts. Gre…

German-language audio book from Harald Bergmann's 2000 film on Hölderlin's last 36 years in Tübingen: poems read by Walter Schmidinger, testimony voiced by actors, music by Mozart, Schubert, Bach and Peter Schneider. Recorded 1997-1998.

Haydn's The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross in its string quartet version, played by the Rosamunde Quartett (Reiner, Fordham, Nicolai, Lechner). Recorded May 2000 at the Festeburgkirche, Frankfurt am Main.

Kim Kashkashian (viola), Robyn Schulkowsky (percussion) and Tigran Mansurian (piano, voice) play two Mansurian works of 1998 and his arrangements of Komitas songs. Recorded May 2000 at Teldec Studio, Berlin.

Debut album of the Norwegian vocal trio Trio Mediaeval: the 14th-century Messe de Tournai with English polyphony, Italian laude and Ivan Moody's title piece. Produced by John Potter, recorded December 1999 in Gönningen.

Alexander Knaifel's Psalm 51 (50) for solo cello, played by Mstislav Rostropovich (St. Gerold, 2001), and Amicta Sole for soprano Tatiana Melentieva, Glinka Choral College boys and State Hermitage Orchestra under Arkady Shteinlukht (St. Petersburg, 2000).

Three cycles by György Kurtág: Hölderlin-Gesänge op. 35a and ...pas à pas – nulle part... op. 36 sung by baritone Kurt Widmer, and Signs, Games and Messages for strings, with the Orlando Trio and Mircea Ardeleanu. Recorded 2002 at Radio Studio DRS, Zürich.

Bruno Ganz reads T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land (German translation by Ernst Robert Curtius) and poems by Giorgos Seferis, linked by music by György Kurtág, Giya Kancheli and Nikos Xydakis. Recorded 1999 in Zürich and Basel.

Violin recital by Michelle Makarski, with Thomas Larcher on piano in Dallapiccola and Berio, setting Tartini's Sonata No. 7 among works by Petrassi, Carter, Rochberg and a 14th-century Lamento. Recorded May 1999 at Radio DRS, Zürich.

Kim Kashkashian plays Bartók's Viola Concerto, Peter Eötvös's Replica and György Kurtág's Movement for Viola and Orchestra with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra under Eötvös, recorded in 1999 at Muziekcentrum Vredenburg, Utrecht.

Alexei Lubimov plays Stravinsky's Serenade in A and piano sonatas by Shostakovich (No. 2), Prokofiev (No. 7) and Scriabin (No. 9), recorded at Radio Studio DRS, Zürich, in May 1998 and December 2000, produced by Manfred Eicher.

Giya Kancheli's Lament, music of mourning in memory of Luigi Nono, for violin, soprano and orchestra, performed by Gidon Kremer, Maacha Deubner and the Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra under Jansug Kakhidze, recorded in Tbilisi in March 1998.

Maya Homburger (baroque violin) and Barry Guy (double bass) play Biber's Annunciation prelude and five pieces by Guy, one for violin and seven-track tape, recorded in April and July 1997 at Propstei St. Gerold and Rainbow Studio, Oslo.

Eight pieces by Dino Saluzzi for bandoneon and string quartet, played by Saluzzi with the Rosamunde Quartett (Andreas Reiner, Simon Fordham, Helmut Nicolai, Anja Lechner), recorded in March 1998 at Propstei St. Gerold and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Brahms's two Sonatas op. 120 in the composer's viola version, played by Kim Kashkashian (viola) and Robert Levin (piano), recorded in November 1996 at the Liederhalle, Stuttgart, and produced by Manfred Eicher.

György and Márta Kurtág play 30 pieces from his piano cycle Játékok (Games) and four of his Bach transcriptions, for two and four hands. Recorded July 1996 in the Mozart-Saal, Wiener Konzerthaus, produced by Manfred Eicher.

Thomas Demenga's fourth ECM New Series pairing of Bach and the 20th century: Bach's Cello Suite No. 2, BWV 1008, with Bernd Alois Zimmermann's solo sonatas for violin (Thomas Zehetmair), viola (Christoph Schiller) and cello, recorded in 1995 in Sandhausen.

Giya Kancheli's Exil (1994), settings of Psalm 23 and poems by Paul Celan and Hans Sahl for soprano, instruments and tape, sung by Maacha Deubner with a chamber ensemble conducted by Wladimir Jurowski, recorded in May 1994 at Propstei St. Gerold.

Keith Jarrett plays seven keyboard suites by Georg Friedrich Händel on piano, recorded in September 1993 at the State University of New York, Purchase, produced by Manfred Eicher and released by ECM New Series in 1995.

Chamber music by György Kurtág and Robert Schumann for viola, clarinet and piano, played by Kim Kashkashian, Eduard Brunner and Robert Levin, recorded in 1992 and 1994 in the Kammermusiksaal of the Beethoven-Haus, Bonn.

Sacred polyphony from a Prague manuscript of about 1500, sung by the Hilliard Ensemble (David James, Rogers Covey-Crump, John Potter, Gordon Jones), recorded in January 1993 in the Stadtkirche, Gönningen.