Through a very long period classical music has been channelled and focussed to a more or less limited number of admittedly outstanding composers. The result was that our taste was permanently kept under guardianship of the "maestro conductors" of our times and the dominating labels behind them.
Remarkable composers of different centuries had been deliberately neglected by concentrating the overall music taste to their choice to maximize their profit. There was hardly a chance to follow one's individual taste and to escape from the mainstream.
Composers like Emilio De'Cavalieri, Martin Soler, Antoine Dard, M. Marais, Giuseppe Tartini, Johann Adolf Hasse or Joseph Joachim Raff, to mention a few, were nearly completely forgotton. Due to a number of reasons this situation fortunately keeps on eroding in favour of those composers who need not hide behind the numerus clausus of the best known.
Artists like Eric Le Van with their extraordinary talent and their unprejudiced search for all time jewels in music have contributed a lot to this highly welcome development. Give yourself a chance to listen to his latest album Joseph Joachim Raff " Sonatilles for Violin & Piano Op.99 / 6 Morceaux for Violin & Piano Op. 85", in which he has found a congenial partner in Michaela Paetsch Neftel.
Dr. Dr. Claus Schulz