Rahel Rilling; Gabriel Adorjan; Guy Ben-Ziony; David Adorjan; Isabel Charisius; Martin Menking; Daniel Rohn; Jorg Widmann; Lena Neudauer; Amihai Grosz; Zvi Plesser; Yejin Gil; Nora Chastain; Annika Treutler; Florian Menzel; Giovanni Weiss; Mini Schulz; Eckhard Stromer - 20 Years Hohenstaufen Festival

The special vibrations that the Hohenstaufen Chamber Music Festival generates are directly audible in the contents of this anniversary CD box, which consists solely of live performances. The choice of music ranges far and wide through all periods and genres: from Johann Sebastian Bach through key works of the Viennese Classical school and the German Romantics to French Impressionist compositions and classics of the Modern era. There are jazz numbers and contemporary works too, a further pointer to the ethos of the Hohenstaufen Chamber Music Festival, which does not call for tradition to be upheld on principle but aims at a constant rediscovery of the world and its inhabitants through their sounds and timbres, no matter whether they come from old or new, serious or light music. Hohenstaufen doesn't pigeonhole things like that; it believes in taking your partners to make good music. Music is good, quite simply, when it moves us, uplifts us, challenges us. Music must never be comfy, to quote the pithy conclusion that Helmuth Rilling, to whom the Festival is greatly indebted, once drew. It must stir people, touch them personally, give them food for thought. If the pieces brought together here can achieve this, the Hohenstaufen Chamber Music Festival will have received the biggest twentieth birthday present it could have.