A surprising and refreshing journey which explores the confines of the repertoire for saxophone and piano, Walking the Dog unites two formidable virtuosos of the contemporary classical scene, the Austrian Andreas Mader and the German Joseph Moog.Walking the Dog is a multifaceted work, an authentic melting-pot, a surprising witness to the richness of the international musical scene at the beginning of the 20th century.

Three pianist-composers from the first half of the last century form the programme for Joseph Moog’s new album. For this recording he is partnered by pianist Kai Adomeit in three works for two pianos – Rachmaninoff’s late Symphonic Dances from 1940, York Bowen’s Theme & Variations from 1951, and Rachmaninoff’s friend and compatriot Medtner’s Two Pieces. York Bowen had many Rachmaninoff works in his extensive concert repertoire, and he became known without much justification as ‘The English Rachmaninoff’. However strange that may sound, he like the two Russians on this recording represent (with Prokofiev) the last of the great pianist composers of the 20th century.

Joseph Moog, after recording both Brahms piano concertos for Onyx Classics, turns his attention to one of the most demanding and forbidding of piano concertos. Max Reger's concerto dates from 1910. This rugged giant of a concerto displays all Reger's formidable skill at using large orchestral forces with great clarity, making the piano part of the orchestral fabric. The concerto has much music that is both brilliant and poetic as well as passages of great turmoil.

Paganini’s Caprices have exerted a mesmeric attraction for composers since their publication in 1820 (they were composed between 1802 – 1817). Liszt, Chopin, Berlioz, Rachmaninov to name a few. Schumann’s two sets of Etudes were the result of hearing Paganini play in Frankfurt in April 1830.