The St. Petersburg Trumpet School at the beginning of the 20th century was famous and attracted the best trumpeters in Europe. At the same time, melodies from Russia exerted a great fascination worldwide. On his new CD, Joachim Karl Schäfer presents virtuoso salon pieces for trumpet, which arose from this fascination for Russia and have titles such as "Grand Russian Fantasia", "Russian Dance" or "Soirée de St.- Pétersbourg". Composers such as Wassily Brandt, Oskar Böhme or Jules Levy were themselves among the best trumpeters of their time. Their bravura pieces sound light and elegant on the one hand, but are hardly ever played today because they are among the most difficult pieces written for the trumpet.