'The subject of Mazeppa has inspired Mme Clemence de Grandval to write a truly remarkable score, the success of which will cause a stir in the musical world.' It was with these flattering words that the press greeted the premiere of the five-act opera by one of the women composers most frequently performed in late nineteenth-century France. For her career was regularly marked by flattering reviews and lasting successes, spanning all genres, from chamber music to oratorio and opera. Yet Mazeppa, though regarded as her testamentary work, did not enjoy the honour of a premiere at the Paris Opera and had to fall back on Bordeaux to reap the rewards of glory. A model of concision, this powerful, dramatic opera relates in a little over two hours the apotheosis and fall of the Cossack general Ivan Mazeppa, a fugitive in war-torn Ukraine. It was predicted that the work would enjoy a long career, but the subsequent evolution of the musical language of the Belle epoque, followed by the composer's death, meant that Mazeppa sank into oblivion for more than a century. It was high time for it's hero to get back in the saddle. UPC: 8055776010250Label: Bru ZaneRelease Date: 4.10.26Format: CD
Between Fire and Silence is the debut album of the young Danish pianist David Munk-Nielsen, presenting a programthat brings together the Romantic worlds of Robert Schumann and Jean Sibelius. Through this combination,the recording explores a rich musical landscape shaped by contrasts between intimacy and passion, reflection andintensity.At the heart of the album are two central piano works by Schumann: Kinderszenen, Op. 15 and the monumentalFantasie, Op. 17. In Kinderszenen, Schumann looks back on childhood through a series of poetic miniatures thatcapture innocence, nostalgia, and quiet reflection. Pieces such as the famous Traumerei reveal the composer'sdeeply lyrical voice and his gift for expressing profound emotion within a small musical frame.The Fantasie, Op. 17, composed shortly afterwards, represents the other side of Schumann's artistic personality.Vast in scale and emotional scope, the work is filled with longing, passion, and dramatic power. Written during a periodwhen Schumann was separated from Clara Wieck, the Fantasie became a deeply personal expression of loveand yearning. Together, these two works reveal the dual nature often associated with Schumann's artistic identity:the poetic introspection of Eusebius and the fiery intensity of Florestan.Complementing Schumann's music are selected piano pieces by Jean Sibelius from Op. 5 and Op. 24. AlthoughSibelius is best known for his orchestral works and symphonies, his piano music offers a more intimate perspectiveon his compositional voice. These miniatures are refined, atmospheric, and rich in subtle color, revealing a quieterbut deeply expressive side of the Finnish composer.Placed alongside Schumann's Kinderszenen, Sibelius' piano works create a contemplative counterpart to thedramatic scale of the Fantasie. The program thus unfolds as a dialogue between two composers and two musicalworlds, balancing Nordic lyricism with German Romantic intensity.With Between Fire and Silence, David Munk-Nielsen introduces himself as a thoughtful and expressive interpreter,presenting a debut recording that reflects both his artistic roots and his commitment to exploring the storytellingpower of Romantic piano music. UPC: 0636943693827Label: Our RecordingsRelease Date: 6.19.26Format: CD
This album offers an intimate journey into Schumann's world through three emblematic works. At it's heart stands the original 1841 version of the Fourth Symphony, a rarely performed score whose transparency and almost chamber-like clarity reveal a Schumann of striking immediacy, far from the heavier later revision. The Cello Concerto and the Fantasia for violin, the latter performed here in an idiomatic and expressive transcription for cello, both belong to Schumann's final Dusseldorf years and share an atmosphere of shifting moods and luminous shadows. Throughout the album, Alexander Rudin - appearing both as conductor and as solo cellist - joins Musica Viva in shaping a vivid, deeply human portrait of Schumann's imagination and it's fragile, radiant beauty. UPC: 5400439008663Label: Fuga Libera LabelRelease Date: 5.22.26Format: CD
With Missa Iste Confessor Domini, the Musurgia Ensemble presents a fascinating journey into the music of the 16th century, taken directly from the historical manuscripts of the Santa Cruz monastery in Coimbra, Portugal. The focus is on the mass of the same name, which comes from the choir book P-Cug MM 2 - one of Portugal's most important musical sources from this period. This manuscript, probably produced shortly after 1530 in 's-Hertogenbosch, contains eleven masses by renowned Franco-Flemish composers. The program is complemented by colorful instrumental works from other Coimbra manuscripts. Joao Francisco Tavora, renowned recorder player and artistic director of the Musurgia Ensemble, draws on his many years of experience with Portuguese Renaissance and Baroque music. After studying in Porto and Leipzig, he has toured international stages as a soloist and ensemble musician and has made numerous recordings. UPC: 4039956926030Label: Coviello ClassicsRelease Date: 5.15.26Format: CD
Music as ritual: On their debut GENUIN album, the internationally acclaimed piano duo Pisareva-Tchaidze presents three landmark works of early modernism. Stravinsky's "Le Sacre du Printemps" - a piece that has stood at the heart of their repertoire for fifteen years - is set alongside Debussy's "epigraphes antiques" and Bartok's "Two Pictures".Written within the same turbulent historical moment shortly before the First World War, these compositions reflect a time of profound cultural upheaval. The album explores the interplay between them - their archaic energy, their rhythmic vitality, and their dialogue between past and present. The duo's finely calibrated ensemble playing brings striking rhythmic precision and luminous clarity of sound to these works. UPC: 4260036259681Label: GenuinRelease Date: 6.5.26Format: CD
Each composer on this album encounters the season differently: Schumann with rapture, Grieg with grace, Schubert with introspection, Suk with radiant yearning, Sinding with luminous vitality. In "Fruhlingsrauschen", Nareh Arghamanyan brings together these diverse voices to celebrate not one single vision of spring, but a dialogue of many: an unfolding of human feeling in harmony with the turning of the seasons.Lieder are at the centre of the album: from Schumann's Spring Night to songs about spring by Schubert, transcribed for solo piano by Liszt, Godowsky, Frederic Meinders, and Nareh herself. UPC: 881488250343Label: Hanssler ClassicRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
This is a first-rate album of contemporary American piano works for the left hand, performed by Nariaki Sugiura. UPC: 044747416823Label: CentaurRelease Date: 5.22.26Format: CD
Naruhiko Kawaguchi's A Journey with Beethoven presents a thoughtfully curated selection of shorter piano works and arrangements that reveal the composer's diverse character beyond the sonatas. Performed on three historical fortepianos from the Finchcocks Collection, the programme traces a musical and emotional path through bagatelles, rondos, dances, transcriptions and the Fantasy in G minor, alongside a rarely heard 1822 revision of Fur Elise. The recording highlights the evolving sound world of Beethoven's era while showcasing varied expressive styles, from wit and lyricism to introspection. Through historically informed performance, Kawaguchi offers a fresh perspective on familiar and lesser-known repertoire within a cohesive artistic narrative. UPC: 635212100127Label: Signum ClassicsRelease Date: 6.19.26Format: CD
Lieder by Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Strauss, Wolf, Barber, Stahuljak, Ruzic, Skender, Durovic, Keprt Longing belongs to the deepest and most moving human emotions. Time and again, we are drawn back to the beautiful sensations we have already experienced-whether it is the love for a cherished person, the bond with our homeland, or memories of our birthplace. At the same time, we yearn for the unknown, for what lies ahead yet already captivates our hearts: love, passion, success, fame, or wealth. UPC: 881488250558Label: Profil - G HaensslerRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
Pianist Natalia Ehwald's debut album on Prospero Classical is dedicated entirely to the composer Franz Schubert. In addition to a selection of his (mainly early) landler and waltzes, the artist has chosen the late piano sonatas in A major, D664, and B flat major, D960. Both sonatas are characterised by their profound emotionality and unusual and pioneering harmonies. Particularly noteworthy is the fusion of lyrical melodies with complex structural elements that emphasise Schubert's singular mastery. They also show a remarkable development in form and expression, making them a high point in Schubert's oeuvre. UPC: 4262353970812Label: Prospero ClassicalRelease Date: 4.24.26Format: CD
For his tenth solo recording for Alpha Classics and Outhere Music, Nelson Goerner returns to a composer he particularly cherishes: Schumann, here with the Davidsbündler, his imaginary music society created to combat the Philistines, musicians considered decorative and traditionalist (such as Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti). Robert began the Davidsbündlertänze a few days after 14 August 1837, the date of his engagement to Clara. Between idyllic dreams and impassioned protests, Goerner is able to develop his full sense of narrative... In addition, he puts his sensitivity to work on Handel's 21 variations on the Chaconne in G major, published in 1735 under the title 'Suite No. 2'. Viennese sweetness and virtuoso intoxication conclude this recital with the Arabesques on 'The Blue Danube' by Johann Strauss Jr., written by the Polish composer Adolf Schulz-Evler (1852/4-1905). UPC: 3701624511343Label: AlphaRelease Date: 5.8.26Format: CD
Troubled Times: Music and Espionage in Renaissance England explores sacred music written amid the religious and political instability of 16th-century England. Performed by The Queen's Six with The Rose Consort of Viols, the programme examines how composers navigated shifting allegiances, censorship, exile, and suspicion, from the Henrician Reformation to the Elizabethan settlement. Works by Byrd, Taverner, Morley, Philips, Ferrabosco, and others reflect strategies of adaptation, concealment, and survival, whether through recusancy, foreign travel, or service at court. Placing music within it's historical context, the recording highlights the complex relationship between faith, power, and artistic expression during a period of sustained upheaval. UPC: 635212097823Label: Signum ClassicsRelease Date: 5.22.26Format: CD
Lamenting Earth, the latest release from GRAMMYr Award-winning tenor Nicholas Phan, in collaboration with The Jasper Quartet and his long-time performing partner pianist Myra Huang, explores humanity's interaction with nature as expressed through composers of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.Franz Schubert's songs evoke images of water, stillness, and solitude as mirrors of human emotion. Vaughan Williams's On Wenlock Edge, drawing on A. E. Housman's poetry, places the individual within vast cycles of time and landscape - hills, wind, and earth - which persist beyond human joy and grief alike. Ives's Housatonic at Stockbridge memories, hymns, and the river blend together into a shimmering meditation on transcendence, where nature becomes a spiritual threshold rather than a backdrop.21st century responses include Patrick Castillo's Skyline Palimpsest, an homage to New York City, once his hometown, that reflects on how nature's effects may shape the future of the metropolis. The title track by Canadian-born composer Vivian Fung, pairs American writer Claire Wahmanholm's poem "O" - which has been described as a lament, an elegy, and a clarion call to action - with Gen Z-ers urgent written responses to climate change.Nicholas Phan's burnished tone and passion for vocal chamber music bring vivid beauty to the range of repertoire that shares a central theme.Lamenting Earth is released to coincide with World Earth Day (22 April 2026). UPC: 822252282825Label: AvieRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
SOMM Recordings is proud to present The Mira Ensemble, taking it's name from the Latin word meaning "wonderful" or "admirable" and comprising professional singers from across the UK. The group was founded in 2025 to champion the extensive, yet little known and often-neglected body of music for upper voices. Their debut disc focuses on the upper-voices repertoire by Herbert Howells, and it features entirely premiere recordings that shine a light on a rarely discussed part of his output. The ensemble is directed by Newcastle-born conductor, composer, academic, editor, and orchestrator Tom Edney. They're accompanied by pianist Nick Salwey, who has performed live on BBC Radio 3, ITV, Channel 4, and Classic FM. Nick taught at Oxford, Eton College, and Winchester College, where he was Head of Piano from 2005 to 2025, and where he continues to teach and work as accompanist.Herbert Howells (1892-1983) composed a significant body of lyrical, often pastoral partsongs characterized by rich harmony and expressive text-setting. Early partsongs featured on this disc include The Shepherd, a setting of William Blake; A Croon from an old cradle song; An Old Man's Lullaby by Elizabethan Thomas Dekker; and A Tinker's Song, an anonymous old London song from 1667.Two unison songs from the 1920s-an old rhyme The Wonderful Derby Ram and a Spanish Lullaby-hint at Howells's own childhood singing experiences. A Golden Lullaby is another setting of An Old Man's Lullaby by Dekker, and Howells's different approaches to voicing are striking. My Master Hath a Garden, on an anonymous text, reflects the influence of Gustav Holst, while the old rhyme Sing Ivy evokes some of Holst's folk song arrangements-though it shifts midway to a sound reminiscent of Tudor keyboard music. Howells's interest in dance forms grew from his fascination with English Tudor music, and he adopted a Sarabande in setting a text by the late-Elizabethan Thomas Campion, Tune thy Music.In the early 1930s, Howells dedicated a setting of one of Walter de la Mare's miniatures, Bunches of Grapes, to his two children. In similarly light-hearted vein, Sea Urchins with texts by Gladys Balcomb describes a seaside holiday across ten movements. Two poetic meditations on Elizabeth texts-Sweet Content by Robert Greene and To Music Bent by Campion-also come from this decade. Howells lost his nine-year-old son to polio in 1935, and Piping down the Valleys Wild-William Blake's depiction of a divine child asking the piper to continue to play-is the bittersweet offering of a grieving parent. Howells composed fewer upper-voices partsongs after the Second World War. Featured among these are The Key of the Kingdom, another de la Mare text adapted from an old rhyme; Pink Almond, with a text by the Irish writer Katharine Tynan, in Sarabande form; and the delightful A Christmas Carol, to a text by 17th century writer George Wither, composed on Christmas Day in 1957. UPC: 748871072527Label: Somm RecordingsRelease Date: 6.19.26Format: CD
Nicolas Altstaedt's starting point for this recording was the magnificent Second Concerto for Cello and Orchestra by Polish composer Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969): "On reading through the work for the first time, I immediately thought: why is this never played? Astonishing, how with just a few notes she can make a whole world appear." Pianist and conductor Maxim Emelyanychev conducts the Swedish Radio Orchestra and accompanies his friend in a work composed two years earlier: Benjamin Britten's Sonata for Cello and Piano, as well as a work by Morton Feldman from 1960, Durations II... Next comes a sonata by Sandor Veress, one of Altstaedt's favourite composers, this time for solo cello: composed in 1967, this landmark work in the solo cello repertoire completes this overview of music from the 1960s, which concludes with a live recording of John Lennon and Paul McCartney's famous Blackbird, recorded with Thomas Dunford on lute and vocals, in a church in Portugal as the bells strike midnight. UPC: 3701624512135Label: AlphaRelease Date: 4.10.26Format: CD
After exploring the Gran Partita, Nicolas Baldeyrou opens the doors to concertante music in this second volume. The programme displays the two faces of Mozart: the youthful, all-conquering genius of his Parisian period, and the supreme master of his final year in Vienna - the two phases united by his overriding desire to make the instrument 'sing'. 'Performing these major works on historical instruments is not a nostalgic exercise, but an attempt to recover the music's acoustic authenticity,' says Baldeyrou. For the Concerto, the use of a copy of the period basset clarinet is essential in order to recreate the melodic line, tessitura and colours demanded by Mozart. Where the modern clarinet 'homogenises' the sound, the historical basset clarinet offers an infinite palette. With the Kolner Akademie and leading soloists, Baldeyrou plays with the intrinsic vulnerability of the instrument and sculpts each note, bringing us as close as possible to the composer's last creative impulse. UPC: 3701624512432Label: AlphaRelease Date: 4.24.26Format: CD
An exciting release from SOMM Recordings, featuring the Russian-born pianist Nikolay Medvedev, is the aptly named Fusions, which brings together the music of George Gershwin and Nikolai Kapustin-two diverse pianist-composers who share the influence of jazz in their work-while also highlighting the virtuosity of Earl Wild, one of the greatest American pianists of the 20th century. George Gershwin, whose compositions spanned jazz, popular, and classical music, hardly needs introduction, yet the unique fusion of jazz and classical forms of Nikolai Kapustin-who was born the year of Gershwin's death in 1937-was limited to a niche audience in Russia, until his music became internationally known in the early 2000s.These classical and jazz infused works are vividly performed by award-winning pianist, Nikolay Medvedev, whom BBC Music Magazine has named "a pianist with poise and precision," while the Berliner Morgenpost has described his performances as "a mesmerizing combination of technical mastery and emotive depth."What sets Nikolai Kapustin apart as a composer is that, although his music inhabits jazz idioms naturally, everything in it is carefully notated on the page and not improvised as traditional jazz would be. His Second Piano Sonata, which opens this programme, dates from 1989. It's an optimistic four-movement work that blends classical sonata form with jazz elements, requiring high-level technical skill to manage it's complex, syncopated rhythms.The sophisticated harmonic and rhythmic language that Kapustin derived from jazz fusion, bebop, and stride piano is also very much in evidence in his Eight Concert etudes of 1984. These are not intended to be played together as a set, and this recital features five etudes, ranging from a thrillingly atmospheric stylisation of South American carnival time to Joplinesque ragtime riding above a powerful left-hand stride.Kapustin's 1984 Variations for piano, which close this recital, are in the classical form of variations while seeming to contain every conceivable jazz influence. The rousing finale in particular is one of Kapustin's most exhilarating compositions.Had George Gershwin not died tragically at the age of 38, he might have completed his projected set of Twenty-Four Preludes for solo piano. As it happened, he wrote eight, and the first Three Preludes were published as a set in 1925. Prelude I is an exercise in energetic syncopation, Prelude II is a lyric blues, and Prelude III closes the set brilliantly with rugged rhythms and further syncopations. In 1932, Gershwin was persuaded to publish The George Gershwin Song-Book for solo piano, and in the 1950s Earl Wild-named by music critic Harold C. Schonberg a "super-virtuoso in the Horowitz class"-released two collections of his own unique versions of Gershwin songs. His 7 Virtuoso Etudes after George Gershwin-including Fascinatin' Rhythm and the haunting The Man I Love-raise Gershwin's inherent genius to an exceptional level of concert standards. UPC: 748871072428Label: Somm RecordingsRelease Date: 6.19.26Format: CD
Bringing together radiant carols, expressive anthems and the seven-movement Sleep Cycle, the collection of music by Edmund Jolliffe showcases the composer's lyricism, rich harmonic language and immediacy of text, beautifully interpreted by the Nonsuch Singers, an ensemble with a close and longstanding connection to his UPC: 726436300285Label: Convivium RecordsRelease Date: 6.5.26Format: CD
Peter Heise (1830-1879) is Denmark's peerless master of song, yet his string quartets lived for decades in the shadows. This complete 3-CD set brings together the Nordic String Quartet's entire survey, including world-premiere recordings of Nos. 1-6. Alongside the previously released first volume, these works reveal Heise's musical imagination in all it's brilliance, performed with a spacious, lyrical sensibility attuned to the composer's distinctive poetic touch. UPC: 636943628324Label: DacapoRelease Date: 5.22.26Format: CD
"Who doesn't know this loveable master of light entertainment?" asked an admiring critic in 1925, when Berlin composer and publisher Siegfried Translateur celebrated his 50th birthday. Although this rhetorical question does not likely garner even a nominal response today, 150 years after his birth, concert halls were once filled with thunderous applause. The man from Upper Silesia did well for himself with his compositions, not to mention that his student work Wiener Praterleben had just become the hymn of Berlin's Six Day Race and had been transformed to the "Sportspalastwalzer". When Reinhold Franz Habisch aka "Krucke" whistled, the "Nudeltopp" boiled over. But Translateur is so much more. He knows what flowers are dreaming of, he takes a stroll through the big city, waltzes jauntily through life - a charming proponent of a silver era that never really went away. UPC: 761203561421Label: Cpo RecordsRelease Date: 5.22.26Format: CD
Olga Pashchenko and Il Gardellino present a third recording of Mozart's piano concertos, following two volumes (Alpha 726 and 942) that were very well received by the press and the public: 'The most exhilarating "authentic" Mozart I have ever heard,' wrote The Spectator... In January 1776, Mozart composed his Piano Concerto No. 6, followed by the Eighth in April. Then aged 20, he did not want to shock the aristocracy of Salzburg and wrote simple music, but music that transports us 'to the calm gentleness of a paradise garden, in the manner of the Elysian Fields evoked by Gluck and Rameau', as Olivier Messiaen said. Completed on 30 September 1784, Concerto K 465 remains shrouded in mystery as to when it was first performed. It is thought that Mozart premiered it in February 1785 in Vienna in front of his father Leopold, who wrote to his daughter Maria Anna that Wolfgang had triumphed and that the emperor took off his hat and exclaimed 'bravo Mozart'! As with all her recordings, Olga Pashchenko has chosen appropriate instruments, a copy of an Anton Walter fortepiano (ca. 1792) by Paul McNulty and a copy of a Spath & Schmahl tangent piano, (Regensburg, 1794) by Chris Maene. UPC: 3701624511992Label: AlphaRelease Date: 4.10.26Format: CD
A student of Einar Englund and Einojuhani Rautavaara, Kjell Flem, born in Ã…lesund in 1943, has long been considered an international insider tip of the contemporary Scandinavian music scene. His compositions are traditionally non-radical, atmospherically unconstructed, and creates an ambience deeply rooted in the natural landscape of his homeland. His oeuvre is not extensive; rather, he allows himself a long creative period because, in his own words, truly magical moments of inspiration are rare. UPC: 845221055657Label: CapriccioRelease Date: 6.5.26Format: CD
She was Igor Stravinsky's piano teacher and studied herself with Anton Rubinstein. But to this day, her compositions have remained in the shadow of the great male masters. A fate that many women of this era share with her. Although her oeuvre is nowhere near as comprehensive as that of her composing colleagues, these few works still demonstrate incredible talent, mature skill and a deeply romantic Russian sound language that is so typical of this time. UPC: 845221055497Label: CapriccioRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
Max Meyer-Olbersleben, born in 1850 in Olbersleben, Thuringia, studied at the Weimar Orchestral School under Franz Liszt, and later at the Royal Music School in Munich under Gabriel Josef Rheinberger and Peter Cornelius. He settled in Wurzburg as a professor of counterpoint and composition and served as director of the Royal Conservatory of Music until his retirement in 1920. During his lifetime, 114 works were published, primarily smaller forms such as choral works, songs, and piano pieces. Through his studies in Weimar and Munich, Meyer-Olbersleben was familiar with both the traditionalist and the new German musical language of that era, and thus the chamber music gems recorded here for the first time bear witness to profound Romantic sensibility and the spirit of a new musical awakening. UPC: 845221054247Label: CapriccioRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
Two composers. Two bassoonists. Two premieres. One big musical feast.The bassoon as a solo instrument does not appear all that oftenin the concerto literature, but a concerto for two bassoons is truly rare,being something that could arise only in the environment of an ensemblethat possessed two soloists on that instrument. One such double concertohas been played for many years under the name of the important Czechcomposer Jan Krtitel Vanhal. But what if it had really been composedby someone else? The question has been raised by Ondrej sindelar, a playerof the classical bassoon, who has found the same concerto bearing the nameof Anton Zimmermann in one of Prague's archives. The two works differ fromeach other only in the slow movement. Theft? Plagiarism? A copyist's error?Collegial assistance? We are left with the unsolved mysteries of authorshipand of whether the two masters may have met. Vanhal's travels took himfrom Hradec Kralove to Vienna, Italy, Hungary, and Croatia. Having establishedhimself professionally in Hradec Kralove, Zimmermann went on to a successfulcareer in Pressburg (Bratislava) in the service of Archbishop Jozef Batthyany.What is important, however, is that Ondrej sindelar has now joined his formerteacher, the bassoon wizard Sergio Azzolini, to record Zimmermann's versionof the double concerto in it's world premiere, supplemented by a soloconcerto by Zimmermann (another premiere) and one of Vanhal's threepreserved concertos. Noteworthy music that is previously undiscoveredin the hands of wonderful soloists and orchestra - that's a real musical feast. UPC: 099925437527Label: SupraphonRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
Time brings with it many changes in the course of a lifetime. "The only constant in life is change," stated the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus. The Italian composer Carlo Alessandro Landini, whose string quartet was premiered by the renowned Arditti Quartet at the Darmstadt Summer Courses in 1994 and has made him famous in Germany since, has always been concerned with change and transformation, both embodying the deepest essence of music.In the meantime, his works have become calmer, more balanced, exuding aesthetic beauty and harmony through their tonal inventiveness. The listener is surprised by the extremely subtle sound visions that the pieces presented here suggest. They could be understood today as counter-designs-probably due to the composer's spiritually oriented creativity-to our restless times. This leads us right into the heart of these four works.In the background of his creativity, Landini believes in the special proximity of all art to the realm of metaphysics. He is virtually inspired by this aspect and sets out in his compositions in search of what holds the world together. His more recent works convey his message of a "world soul" of some kind.His music requires a listener who opens up in order to broaden the shared horizon and feel more strongly what is happening between heaven and earth. Landini continuously unfolds his music from a nucleus. The composer demands intensive, sensitive listening to space and time from himself, his performers, and his listeners. Olivier Messiaen, whose student Landini had been, must have encouraged and inspired him in this. UPC: 8011570373359Label: StradivariusRelease Date: 4.24.26Format: CD
Zarzuela Viva is a vibrant, direct, and deeply engaging celebration of Spain's most beloved lyric genre. This album brings together a carefully curated selection of the most popular and instantly recognisable zarzuela numbers, designed to connect immediately with a wide audience while fully preserving artistic and musical excellence.Under the direction of Alejandro Muñoz, the Córdoba Orchestra and the Córdoba Opera Chorus deliver a performance full of energy, colour, and stylistic authenticity. They are joined by two highly charismatic soloists, soprano LucÃa Tavira and baritone Javier Povedano, whose voices add warmth, expressiveness, and brilliance to each piece.The programme spans zarzuela's golden age, from the late nineteenth century to the early decades of the twentieth, featuring romanzas, choruses, and orchestral interludes that form part of Spain's collective musical memory. Love, humour, passion, jealousy, and popular life unfold in a lively and accessible recording, ideal both for seasoned listeners and for newcomers discovering zarzuela for the first time. Zarzuela Viva is not only a tribute to this national genre, but also an invitation to enjoy it today with freshness, rhythmic vitality, and genuine emotion-making this album an especially attractive and highly commercial title for a broad international audience. UPC: 8436597701013Label: Ibs ClassicalRelease Date: 5.1.26Format: CD
The development of an original classical repertoire for the accordion began with Mogens Ellegaard in his native Denmark and his student, the Scot Owen Murray, in the UK. In 1976 Ellegaard gave the first broadcast performance of Gordon Jacob's pastoral, elegant concerto, which treats the accordion almost as a chamber organ. A generation and more later, two concertos written for Owen Murray open out the possibilities of the accordion much more adventurously, exploiting it's extraordinary range of colour, it's striking range of expression and it's mercurial ability to weave through orchestral textures. UPC: 5060640070165Label: Toccata NextRelease Date: 4.10.26Format: CD
Featuring 13 premiere recordings, With Eys Lift Up is a new collection of works written by American composer Nico Muhly for - and the majority commissioned by - the Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford. Comprising settings of the mass and canticles alongside anthems for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascensiontide, Trinity Sunday and Remembrance, the collection sets a number of little-known texts, casting new light on familiar seasons of the church year. UPC: 828021622021Label: CoroRelease Date: 5.15.26Format: CD
