One year before almost two secula

The idea is simple, but in this case captivating. You don't cut the time sausage lengthwise, but crosswise and see what comes next to each other. For example, in 1824, when Beethoven's Ninth was premiered. It was an eventful year, as the comprehensive CD booklet by Johannes Bosch shows, but also a musically moving year, if only because of the young Viennese composer who experienced an enormous creative surge, composed grandiose music and strove for new forms: Schubert. His Arpeggione Sonata may have been the starting point for the program. Basel-based cellist Christoph Dangel, the central figure around whom everything revolves here, plays it together with guitarist Stephan Schmidt - a distinctive and logical combination, as the arpeggione was a string guitar.

Next to him appears the somewhat older Rossini, who two years earlier had bought Schubert's heart in the Viennese opera business and is represented here with a duet for cello and double bass - which one would have expected from him last of all. Then there is the brilliant Johann Nepomuk Hummel with the mature Cello Sonata op. 104 - played on the fortepiano by the lively Els Biesemans. And finally, the somewhat forgotten cello virtuoso Bernhard Romberg with an unusual trio for solo cello, viola (Katya Polin) and cello (here double bass).

Of all things, the larger-than-life Beethoven is missing from this cross-section, but the CD from the innovative Zurich label Prospero offers delightful discoveries and careful interpretations. Take Rossini, for example: Dangel and double bassist Stefan Preyer play around what is schematic about it with charm, subtle wit and thoughtful phrasing, delicately demonstrating the walking bass and being equal partners. The music and booklet allow you to dream yourself back to that year almost two decades ago. The CD is a small work of art to read and listen to.