Aldilà Records is a Munich based label focussing on the presentation of great musicians of past and present times as well as on promoting unsung masterworks. It is led by
Christoph Schlüren, conductor, music pedagogue, and one of Germany's most distinguished writers on music.
The programmes of Aldilà's CDs regularly show how the different aspects, on which the label focusses, come together. You will often find CDs dedicated to special performers, on which unsung works are presented along with well known pieces to show how good they can stand together with each other in terms of quality. Most CDs contain works of different composers, often from different times, with a special idea in the background on which the programme is built. There is, for example, a double CD by Hugo Schuler, an Argentinian pianist with a special talent for polyphonic music. Here Bach's Goldberg Variations and three Preludes and Fugues from the Well Tempered Clavier are combined with pieces of contrapuntal art from different times: a Fantasia by Froberger, and works by Heinrich Kaminski and Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling.
One of the next CDs, the publication of which is scheduled for February, will deal with the genre of String Trio. The
Trio Montserrat (Joel Bardolet, Violin; Miquel Córdoba, Viola; Bruno Hurtado, Cello) will play
Mozart's famous Divertimento, and then follow the path into the 20th century. The next piece is
Paul Büttner's Trio Sonata from the 1920s, a work in seven short movements, which shows this great late romantic symphonist as a master of canonic writing in the tradition of his teacher Felix Draeseke. The programme is finished by Trios of
Heinz Schubert and
Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling, both belongig to the circle of Heinrich Kaminski. Like their mentor, both were contrapuntists by heart, heavily influenced by Bach's art, and wrote music of impassioned introvert solemnity. Schubert's Trio Sonata dates from the 1930s, it is written in three movements, containing a chorale-passacaglia and ending in a highly active fugue. Schwarz-Schilling's Trio is one of this composer's last pieces, written in the 1980s. It is a rather quiet work in two very concentrated movements.
The Youtube channel of Aldilà Records contains videos from the rehearsal sessions for this new CD, in which some movements of the pieces can be heard in full. You can get vivid impressions, too, of the Trio Montserrat's formidable musicianship and Christoph Schlüren's profound work as a chamber music coach (sessions were made in English language):
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHdzLpiL6Yldrnz5_Z196kg