The year 1913 could be regarded as a kind of focus year of the most interesting upheaval period in the early years of the 20th century. Egon Kornauth's Clarinet Sonata is a discovery of a masterpiece, and appears on record first time ever – a world-premiere recording. Together with Berg's and Korngold's pieces it was published in 1913. For all of them Brahms was a kind of foster father.

The years 1900-1914 were perhaps the most thrilling period in European music history: the cradle of what we now call musical Modernism. This was the time when the great "avant-garde schools" took shape: in Paris, Berlin, Saint Petersburg, and particularly in Vienna. Music branched out into a multitude of aesthetics, styles, and genres, as we can see in in the variety of terms that attempt to describe art in that period: Impressionism, Expressionism, Art Nouveau, Neo-Classicism, Foklorism, Late Romanticism, Symbolism, and others.

Our programme selection for this CD focuses on two works written in Vienna in 1913 – the "summer of the century", as author Florian Illies calls a pivotal year that put an end to the long 19th century and introduced the sombre 20th century. The two works are Alban Berg's Four Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, op.5, and Egon Kornauth's Sonata for Clarinet and Piano. 1913 was the year of several "scandalous" premieres: Schoenberg's Gurrelieder, Berg's Altenberg Lieder, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, and others that were less scandalous: Debussy's Images pour orchestre, Max Reger's Isle of the Dead, Sibelius's Luonnotar, de Falla's La vida breve, and Richard Strauss's Festliches Präludium.

Kilian Herold and Hansjacob Staemmler are both highly regarded soloists and chamber musicians, both are holding a professorship at the Music Academy in Freiburg, Germany.