Gade / Gretschaninow / Medtner - Nicht Nur Fantasiestucke [CD]

?The idea to record a CD of chamber music for clarinet and piano by composers from Germany, Denmark and Russia arose quite spontaneously. The starting point of our research was the "Fantasiestücke" by Niels Wilhelm Gade Op. 43. After we had successfully performed this cycle in some concert programs, the desire came to look at the genre of European instrumental romantic miniatures of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. So it was only logical that our choice fell on the "Fantasiestücke" by Robert Schumann Op. 73. His work is a kind of starting point for the whole CD concept. The Second Sonata by Alexander Gretschaninow came into our repertoire not long ago, but took a permanent place thanks to it's luminosity, sublimity of figures and sincerity of romantic statement. The same is true of the unique "Sonata-Vocalise" by Nikolai Medtner, which is an excellent example of an organic synthesis of German and Russian schools of composers and embodies the continuity of Schumann's artistic ideals. The multidimensional term "fantasy" (in the old variant "phantasy") means "to imagine something", "to improvise". And it is precisely the rich, radiant, outstanding and - this is actually the most important thing - free imagination of the artists presented on the CD that has given us the happiness of encountering their art. This joy of fantasizing, full of inspiration, we would like to share with you.