„I get very nervous when I am making records (...) when the stage is set for the final recording and I realise that this will remain for good, my hands get tense.“ No, this isn’t Claire Huangci, who recently recorded Sergei Rachmaninov’s complete piano preludes for Berlin Classics, but rather the Russian composer himself who admitted to nerves. One of the greatest pianists of his time, Rachmaninov made landmark recordings of both his own works and music by other composers, but always had a certain mistrust of sound recordings.Nearly a hundred years later, committing any works to disc still presents its own exciting challenges. This is especially true in the case of the preludes, which are not only technically difficult, but since many of the individual works are relatively unknown, the whole cycle has been rarely recorded in its entirety. Claire Huangci confirms this: “There are a couple of favourites which everybody knows, and everybody plays. These few preludes, which Rachmaninov recorded himself, overshadow the rest of the cycle. I find this a great pity – for me, there isn’t a single prelude that is a little sub-par. Every piece is simply so unique and a small masterpiece in its own right.”...

On 1 July a world premiere at the Opera Stuttgart is hoping to be ground-breaking in the true sense of the world: Toshio Hosokawa’s Erdbeben. Träume (“Earthquake. Dreams”) is based on Heinrich von Kleist’s novella The Earthquake in Chile. Marcel Beyer, winner of the Kleist Prize in 2014 and Büchner Prize in 2016, transforms this parable about the instability of humanity in the face of threatening situations into a libretto in which the corruptibility of the masses also plays an important role. This inspired Toshio Hosokawa to create a leading role for the Staatsopernchor Stuttgart, nine-time winners of the “Opera Choir of the Year”. Intendant Jossi Wieler will bring Toshio Hosokawa’s work to the stage with director Sergio Morabito and stage design by Anna Viebrock, and with this production bids farewell to the city, as too does long-standing music director Sylvain Cambreling, who leads the premiere on the eve of his 70^th birthday....

Antje Weithaas’ latest escapade is just a little bit crazy; in May with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra she will perform three violin concertos by Bruch, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky. The violinist is attempting this “solo triple” for the first time, but such a mentally and physically ambitious undertaking is nothing new to her. “I very often do very challenging projects, like playing the complete Bach for Violin solo in one concert, or leading entire Chamber Orchestra programs including a solo concerto without conductor,” she explains.  Also challenging is the fact that this trip to Japan falls at the end of a residency in Schwetzingen, where she presents chamber music, solo works and leads the Camerata Bern....

Congratulations to Sini Simonen, Daniel Roberts, Charlotte Bonneton and Christopher Graves: the four young members of the London-based Castalian String Quartet have won the first Merito String Quartet Award and the Valentin Erben Prize, which will be awarded to them on 23 April at the Vienna Konzerthaus. “It was impressive, how clear the decision was for the Castalian String Quartet,” commented the award’s founders, Wolfgang Habermayer and Valentin Erben. The decisive factor for the jury, who anonymously observed the quartet over a long period, was the quartet’s outstanding instrumental abilities and impressive interpretation. The Castalian String Quartet has previously received acclaim at competitions in Lyon, Banff and Hannover. The musicians introduce themselves in the following video:...

An outstanding soloist, chamber musician, pedagogue, artistic director and essayist – and in all these things a musical bridge-builder and partner to musicians, composers and artists alike from various fields: Anssi Karttunen forges his own path. His journey started in Finland at a very special time. “I was born into a lucky generation,” he explains. “This was a time when the windows to the world were more open than before and perhaps even more so than later on. There were many like-minded people my own age who were interested in being more than just one thing; the cellist, the pianist or the conductor. We saw that being a musician can mean many things.” This lucky generation includes Anssi Karttunen’s contemporaries Esa-Pekka Salonen, Magnus Lindberg and Kaija Saariaho, with whom he started his voyage of discovery....