Ernest Bloch: Prayer
+Johann Sebastian Bach / Charles Gounod: Ave Maria; Air
+Gabriel Faure: Apres un reve; Le secret
+Marcel Tournier: Promenade a l'automne
+Antonin Dvorak: Melodie
+Camille Saint-Saens: Der Schwan
+Jules Massenet: Elegie
+Peter Iljitsch Tschaikowsky: Valse sentimentale; Nocturne
+Alexander Glasunow: Chant du Menestrel
+Arvo Pärt: Spiegel im Spiegel

Cellist Olga Dowbusch-Lubotsky has given numerous world premieres and worked closely with some of the most important composers of our time, including Sofia Gubaidulina, Knut Nystedt, Alexander Raskatov, Alfred Schnittke, Viktor Suslin, Valentin Silvestrov and Galina Ustwolskaja.

Born and raised in Russia, she has lived in Germany for many years and gives concerts throughout Europe and the USA with fellow musicians such as Schnittke's widow Irina, the violinist Mark Lubotsky, the pianists Geoffrey Douglas Madge and Ralf Gothoni and many others.

Their latest album is inspired by a song by Gabriel Fauré, which sets a text by Armand Silvestre to music: "If only the morning didn't know / The name I called the night, / And if it would pass away in the morning breeze / Like a tear."

The idea of this intimate confession runs through the arrangement and performance of famous and unknown music. The Fauré song unfolds its sensual magic in an instrumental transcription. The reflective mood is carried by Tchaikovsky's Valse sentimentale, Glasunov's Chant du ménéstrel and Bloch's Prayer.

Le Secret is not the only small masterpiece by Fauré on the album; Olga Dowbusch-Lubotsky and Sophia Whitson also play a transcription of Après un rêve. The musical intimacies with a French accent include "The Swan" from Saint-Saëns' "Carnival of the Animals", Massenet's "Elégie" and a "Promenade" by Marcel Tournier.

Bach in his most cheerful form also belongs to this group, with the "Air" from Suite No. 3 and the "Ave Maria" in Gounod's new composition of the C major Prelude.

Olga Dowbusch-Lubotsky's partner in this unique concert is harpist Sophia Whitson, who has performed with many of Germany's finest orchestras in Hamburg, Bamberg, Munich and elsewhere.

- This new album presents a generous selection of popular short works for cello and harp - an unusual but attractive and highly entertaining combination.

- The program includes absolute favourites such as Ave Maria (Bach / Gounod), Après une rêve (Fauré), Le Cygne (Saint-Saëns), Élégie (Massenet), Melodie (Dvořák), Prayer (Bloch), Valse Sentimentale (Tchaikovsky) and Spiegel im Spiegel (Pärt).

- Lovingly played by Olga Dowbusch-Lubotsky (cello) and Sophia Whitson (harp).