This recording is dedicated to two now almost forgotten voices in the history of Romantic music: Heinrich Stiehl (1829-1886) and Carl Schuberth (1811-1863). Both were highly respected musicians of their time: one as an organist, teacher, and composer working between Leipzig, St. Petersburg, and the Baltic states; the other as an internationally acclaimed cello virtuoso. Their works exemplify a musical 'second tier' that characterized 19th-century musical life, yet whose quality can only be rediscovered today.

Central to this recording is Heinrich Stiehl's Sonata for pianoforte and cello in A minor op. 37, while Carl Schuberth is represented by two works that impressively demonstrate his melodic inventiveness and virtuosic approach to the cello: the Grand Nocturne élégiaque op. 6 for two cellos and piano, and the Grande Sonata for cello and piano in D major op. 43, a late work that combines orchestral sonority with a balladic gesture.

This music is performed by Martin Seemann and Bettina Messerschmidt (violoncello) and Mira Lange on the historic fortepiano by Streicher & Söhne (Vienna 1864). The historically informed performance practice lends the works a transparent, colorful sonority and allows their Romantic expression to be experienced in all its complexity.

This recording is an invitation to rediscover music—not by unrecognized geniuses, but music that helped shape the aesthetic foundations of its time—vibrant, refined, and full of narrative power.