Clara, Robert, Johannes - Living Art (Complete Collection)

Each of the four sets of double CDs has been curated as a musical story, an exploration, an experience to be enjoyed in one sweep, if time allows. The symphonies mirror one another, serving as bookends, the songs and chamber music draw us into a tender, intimate realm and inspiring contemporary improvisations remind us that extemporisation was the engine of creativity for these prodigious artists.

In many ways this repertoire sits in the sweet spot of our ensemble, formed, as it is, in the mould of a late-Classical, early-Romantic symphony orchestra. And indeed this is where these three phenomenal composers - Clara, Robert, Johannes - themselves sit: as bridges between the Classical and the Romantic. On the one hand they were rooted, deeply, in the philosophy, sensibility, instrumentation, and musical architecture of the Classical period. On the other they strove to mould the sound of the future, a future invited by the power, passion, and profound humanity of their great forebear Beethoven.

- Alexander Shelley