Creating a CD with my own music was not my idea. It was Elena Puszta who, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting closures that put the cultural sector to sleep, came up with the idea of recording a CD of Winkler Lieder. A pure Lied CD, on the other hand, would not have been particularly appealing and also not very representative, since piano and chamber music play a quite significant role in my slowly growing oeuvre. The musicians of the A-Trio were quickly recruited as instrumentalists for the recordings. The "Auf-geht's-Stipendium" scholarship of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia offered the four of them the perfect opportunity to record a cross-section of my work, which of course delighted me immensely. [...] I also do not share the view that one cannot, shall not or must not write sonatas, fugues and certainly not Lieder any more (for whatever reason), above all also because prohibitions in art are no longer attractive, not even for the possible tempting transgression's sake. Moreover, I am one of those composers who seem to be becoming rarer and who definitely care about being understood, even liked, as an artist. I believe that moving listeners with music is a good thing, and I hope that this recording will do just that. (Andreas J. Winkler)