The idea behind the thematic programming of this disc is a journey from the earthly to the light, it is about the question of how life and death are connected.

"The starting point was Beethoven's Sonata op. 111, but this little piece by Scriabin exemplifies an idea, and the title is ideal for the whole CD. The idea is a journey from the earthly to the light, it is about the question of how life and death are connected. Now you can say that it is generally a function of music that it catapults you into a new level of consciousness.

But I think the four works on this CD do that in a special way, they radiate a tremendous power. They reflect different personal worlds, were written at different times and spring from different genres and sound ideas, yet they all have a similar function. Strauss is about a terminally ill person who suffers, but at the end of his life ascends to new spheres and finds redemption. Beethoven is also initially about something threatening, earthly, but he looks at it more philosophically.

Beethoven does not reveal much of himself directly, everything is subject to a strict, architectural form, and that is why his music seems to be carved in stone. But in his last piano sonata, he crosses a boundary, one senses the jagged world he is divining, here he has finally expanded the form so much that he can ascend to new spheres. (Excerpt from the booklet Interview with S. Von Eckardstein)