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This week on the New Canon, we help German label Wergo celebrate 50 years of groundbreaking music with a handpicked selection from their 5-disc, commemorative box set, Music of Our Time, featuring music by Nono, Stravinsky, Schnebel, Stockhausen and Cage. It's our album (or, rather, albums) of the week.

The piano, or, to use its full name, pianoforte, earned its name because it can be played both quietly (piano) and loudly (forte). Lately there seems to be a trend toward the quiet side. Suddenly there are a number of young composer/pianists exploring a relaxed and alert sensibility in their music. David Garland presents an hour pianissimo pianos.

For this New Sounds, we'll hear music from Hauschka, also known as  Volker Bertelmann. He's a German composer whose indie-chamber/post-rock music revolves around the sound of the prepared piano.  He'll prepare our Steinway and play live.  That, and more.

Hear the startling sounds of horns...of the North...on this New Sounds.  There's Alpine music for horns by the Russian composer Arkady Shilkloper, a member of the Moscow Art Trio, along with Danish composer Niels-Ole Bo Johansen's trombones and electronics.  Not to be outdone, Hauschka, (aka German pianist/composer Volker Bertelmann), has been at it again.  This time a playful collaborative “post-classical” record, “Salon des Amateurs,” with Calexico members John Convertino and Joe Burns, múm’s drummer Samuli Kosmine, and a guest spot by violinist Hilary Hahn. 

"Solo" can mean several things, including playing inside on the piano strings, preparing the instrument, and even just playing on the keys.  We’ll hear all of the above, in music by Jon Balke, John Cage, Stephen Scott, Hauschka, and Hans Otte.

Though it developed in the States, Minimalism has spread, and now post-minimal music can be heard on both sides of the Atlantic. We'll hear music by Hauschka, Howard Skempton, Max Richter, the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Wim Mertens, and more.  Hauschka is the alias of German pianist/composer Volker Bertelmann, who playfully explores the  ‘prepared’ piano in his works.  We'll hear something from his latest release - "Ferndorf."  There's also music by British composer Howard Skempton, Belgian minimalist Wim Mertens, and much more.

Listen to a musical tour through cities of Eastern Europe (mostly) on this New Sounds program.  German composer Max Richter presents his latest collection of ringtones for piano, "24 Postcards in Full Colour."