ABOUT THE CD The two works on this CD represent transformations of original songs for voice and piano by Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert. Ludwig van Beethoven's haunting "An Die Ferne Geliebte" (To the Distant Beloved) opus 98, originally for voice and piano, here is heard in a piano solo transcription by Franz Liszt (1849). This less familiar version evokes all the emotions of the original while allowing the pianist's hands to become singer and accompanist. While staying true to the original flow of the songs, Liszt allows the pianist to shine in the limelight. Franz Schubert's Piano Quintet in A Major, "Die Forelle" (The Trout) was composed in 1819. This is music "we cannot help but love" according to the German/American musicologist Alfred Einstein. The fourth movement is a set of variations on Schubert's earlier lied by the same name, composed in 1817 on a text by Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart (1739-1791) This recording captures the freshness of a live performance by musicians celebrating the joy of playing. It took place at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst on April 11, 1979. ARTIST BIOS Estela Kersenbaum Olevsky made her piano debut at the age of 8. Throughout her multi-faceted career Ms. Kersenbaum Olevsky has appeared in recital and with symphony orchestras in Europe, Latin America and the USA. Born and educated in Argentina, she came to the United States in 1965. An avid chamber music player, she has collaborated with distinguished soloists and instrumental ensembles such as the Berlin Philharmonic Festival Soloists, the Olewsky Trio, the Lark Quartet and in partnership with jazz pianist Billy Taylor at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Ms. Olevsky has been a guest teacher at major Music Schools and Conservatories. Her recordings cover an eclectic repertoire ranging from Mozart's Complete Works for Violin and Piano (with her husband Julian Olevsky) to Piano Solos of Latin America. She is Professor Emeritus of Piano at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Julian Olevsky was born in Berlin in 1926. The son of a professional violinist, he began his studies at 7. In 1935, mindful of the growing danger in Germany, the family moved to Buenos Aires. Olevsky became a scholarship pupil of the famous Russian violinist Alexander Petschnikoff (1873-1949). He made his recital debut at 10 and his orchestral debut at 12 in Buenos Aires under the baton of Fritz Busch. A series of recitals and orchestral appearances throughout South American ensued. In 1947 he immigrated to the United States. His 1949 Town Hall debut in New York was a great success, and in 1951 he became an American citizen. Throughout the 1950s and 1970s he performed widely, touring the great musical centers of the world and appearing with the finest orchestras and conductors such as William Steinberg, Zubin Mehta, and Fritz Reiner. In 1967 he was appointed Professor of Violin at the University of Massachusetts. Olevsky died in Amherst in 1985 at age 58. Ernst Wallfisch was born in 1920 into a musical family. He studied violin with Cecilia Nitzulescu-Lupu at the Bucharest Conservatory. Having a strong attraction to the sound of the viola, he turned his attentions to the instrument at the age of 14 and made his highly praised début at 18. He was a member of the Pro Musica Quartet and the Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra prior to his immigration to the USA, later a member of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, and principal violist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra from 1953 to 1955. As the Wallfisch Duo, he performed with his wife, pianist Laurie Wallfisch throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, North Africa and Israel. As viola pedagogue, he taught at the Salzburg Mozarteum and at the Lucerne Conservatory. Wallfisch joined the music faculty of Smith College at Northampton, Massachusetts in 1964. He died in 1979. Philipp Otto Naegele was born in 1928 in Stuttgart, Germany. The German political calamity necessitated emigration to England in 1939 and in 1940 to America. Concurrent violin and academic studies in New York City led to a doctorate in musicology from Princeton University and a graduate year of violin studies at the Vienna Academy of Music on a Fulbright Fellowship. The fortunate encounter with the founders of the Marlboro School and Festival in 1950 began a participation as violinist and violist that lasted over sixty years. After eight years as violinist in the Cleveland Orchestra under Georg Szell, thirty-six years on the music faculty of Smith College, countless concerts in various chamber music configurations - such as Musicians From Marlboro, the Cantilena Piano Quartet, the Vegh Quartet and many recordings made here and abroad - he became the William R. Kenan Professor of Music Emeritus, Smith College, and was an active teacher at Amherst College and elsewhere till his death in 2011. Salvatore Macchia enjoys an active career as both performer and composer. As a contrabass soloist he has given recitals all throughout America and at important European festivals. Equally at home in both the jazz and classical idioms he has been a member of the Ancora Chamber Ensemble, and the Duo Cambiata, groups which frequently cross the borders between written and improvised music. He is also a member of Caix an early music duo. A prolific composer, Mr. Macchia's catalog contains works in virtually every genre, symphonic, opera, ballet, and a large amount of solo and chamber music. His music may be heard on the Gasparo, Open Loop, CRI, Spectrum and the Rivoalto (Italia) label. He has served as a member of the International Composer Competition Città di Udine and is Professor of composition and contrabass at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.