Percussion, helped also by alternative playing techniques and amplification, enabled true exploration of the uncharteddepths of sound. They revealed a world in constant transformation, where every sound is no longer conceived as a fixedand immutable entity (no longer limited to the notion of "note"), but contains within itself, in it's becoming, multiplicities.An organic yet unstable ensemble in which it is possible to find all the elements necessary for elaborating compositionalprocesses and diverse musical solutions.The pieces presented in Indeterminate State fall within contemporary musical experimentation, as each compositionarises as an investigation of the ancestral sonorities of indeterminatepitchpercussion, relying on multiple opportunitiesoffered by electronic and digital technologies. The works, commissioned by Keyhole and Loxosconcept for the MA/IN Festival,were realised during an artistic residency in the municipality of Brienza (PZ), where a heterogeneous group of sixcomposers - Maurizio Azzan, Giulio Colangelo, Stylianos Dimou, Marta Gentilucci, Sarah Nemtsov, and Cesare Saldicco- collaborated directly with percussionist Fabio Macchia.The relationship established between composers and performer represented a key element of a shared creative process,typical of contemporary music, developing through a virtuous dynamic. The compositional path originates from the musicallanguage and finds reflection in the instruments used, mutually influencing the stylistic expression of each authorand, consequently, the form of each piece. This process, nourished by a multidirectional exchange of knowledge and intuitions,takes shape from the interaction between the composers' imagination, the performer's technical skills, and thepercussion ensemble, initially proposed by the musician and later expanded in the compositional phase. The entire pathis further enriched by the integration of electronic technologies, resulting in an open map of sonic experiences revealedover the time of listening. UPC: 8011570373106Label: StradivariusRelease Date: 6.5.26Format: CD
Famous horn player Felix Klieser presents Italian arias on his instrument, the follow-up project to the Pop Chart award-winning album "Baroque Arias for Horn". He is joined by the Italian orchestra I Solisti di Pavia, recorded in the famous Teatro Fraschini at Pavia. The album contains well-known opera arias from Rossini, Verdi, Puccini and Italian songs like O Sole Mio and the Nino Rota's film music from "The Godfather". All tracks have been newly arranged for Felix Klieser and the ensemble. UPC: 885470044811Label: Berlin ClassicsRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
A compelling survey of contemporary Polish choral writing.These sacred works range from inward, contemplative meditations to radiant, exultant hymns, their contemporary musical language finely balanced with the lucid, finely blended sonority of a chamber choir. With ten widely admired recordings to it's name and numerous festival distinctions, the Kielce-based choir Fermata has earned a reputation for interpretative insight, tonal refinement, and exemplary musicianship. For the listener, this is music experienced ex anima-from the soul-inviting a deeply felt and spiritually resonant encounter. UPC: 5902547022369Label: Dux Recording Prod.Release Date: 7.3.26Format: CD
Kammersymphonie presents a compelling journey through the fractured soundscape of early 20th-century Europe, brought to life by the acclaimed ensemble Fin du Temps. This release brings together three landmark chamber works by Arnold Schoenberg, Hanns Eisler, and Paul Hindemith, composers who each responded in radically different ways to a period of intense artistic, political, and social upheaval.At the heart of the programme lies Schoenberg's Kammersymphonie, Op. 9, heard here in Anton Webern's refined chamber arrangement-a masterpiece that condenses symphonic thinking into a single, highly concentrated movement and marks a decisive step toward musical modernism. Eisler's Vierzehn Arten den Regen zu beschreiben, Op. 70, conceived originally for experimental cinema, offers fourteen sharply etched miniatures of striking expressive power, balancing lyricism, irony, and political awareness.Completing the disc, Hindemith's Quartet for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano reveals a contrasting aesthetic: rigorously constructed, communicative, and rooted in an expanded sense of tonality. Recorded at the Auditorio Manuel de Falla in Granada, this album combines intellectual depth with exceptional sonic clarity and interpretative authority. Kammersymphonie is an essential release for listeners interested in modern chamber music, historical context, and performances of the highest artistic calibre. UPC: 8436597701020Label: Ibs ClassicalRelease Date: 5.1.26Format: CD
This album by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Nicholas Collon joins together two impressive cosmic visions: Gustav Holst's iconic orchestral masterpiece The Planets, together with a gem from Finnish orchestral literature, Väinö Raitio's (1891-1945) Moonlight on Jupiter. Raitio's work from the 1920s is recorded for the first time in 50 years and receives it's first CD recording. UPC: 761195149126Label: OndineRelease Date: 7.3.26Format: CD
The fact that Johann Sebastian Bach was able to take up the post of the cantor of St. Thomas in 1723 is thanks to the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. He refused to release his court Kapellmeister Christoph Graupner to Leipzig. He declared the appointment of the magistrate there to be invalid and increased the salary of his subordinate. In this way, he was able to long admire the diversity of the man who wrote outstanding works in all areas of composition. For example, in orchestral music, he sought out unusual experiments with unique results by combining seemingly disparate instruments and ignoring formal conventions. Would he have been as successful with the honourable councillors on the river Pleisse as he was under the aegis of his aristocratic employer? After hearing a two-and-a-half-hour selection of Graupner's works, we must thank His Excellency for not letting him go three hundred years ago UPC: 761203577927Label: Cpo RecordsRelease Date: 6.19.26Format: CD
The title ("everything flows") reflects a musical exploration of change, impermanence, and transformation. Francesca Guccione combines neoclassical piano with ambient textures and subtle electronic layers. Each composition feels like a flowing river of sound, shifting between intimacy and expansiveness. Inspired by philosophy and nature, the album invites listeners into a meditative, timeless space. UPC: 885470043012Label: Neue MeisterRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
Of his important contemporaries, Hans Pfitzner was certainly the one who devoted himself most strongly to chamber music. Often described as the last Romantic, Pfitzner also represents this epoch in a very personal way in his chamber music works. UPC: 761203581627Label: Cpo RecordsRelease Date: 6.19.26Format: CD
This double SACD (stereo and 5.1 multichannel surround sound) brings together Louis Vierne's complete works for solo voice and organ for the first time, with AEOLUS securing the services of Wurzburg soprano Franziska Bobe and Wurzburg Cathedral organist Stefan Schmidt. In addition, Stefan Schmidt plays rarely heard pieces from the composer's early creative period as well as little-known late works. Another highlight is the complete 6th Organ Symphony from 1930. The large French symphonic instrument at St. Peter's in Dusseldorf, built by the Karl Gockel workshop, was inaugurated 25 years ago and attracted a great deal of attention from experts at the time. In combination with the cathedral acoustics of the large neo-Gothic sanctuary, it is ideally suited to Vierne's music. UPC: 4026798115210Label: AeolusRelease Date: 8.21.26Format: CD
Giuseppe was composed by Mayr in 1829 for graduation concerts at the academy of music in Bergamo over which he presided. His inspiration was a Biblical opera that had won great popularity, Mehul's Joseph, which had premiered in Paris in 1807, featuring prayers, hymns and unassuming arias. Mayr, however, drew on a much wider musical canvas to include grand arias, duets, a cavatina and a final chorus. He also repeatedly references popular melodies by his contemporaries Donizetti, Rossini and Bellini as befits a pasticcio oratorio. UPC: 747313471072Label: NaxosRelease Date: 6.26.26Format: CD
The program of the CD with the Swiss pianist Gabiz Reichert with works by Schumann, Rachmaninoff and others presents itself as a unity of three parts: Images that convey different facets of the principle of return. They are all inspired by various influences that defy conventional interpretation, as the pianist explains in an accompanying text. UPC: 4260052383674Label: Ars ProduktionRelease Date: 4.24.26Format: CD
This exceptional double album stands as a landmark historically informed recording of Handel's solo sonatas, uniting pioneering scholarship, extraordinary period-instrument artistry, and superb audiophile sound in one of the most compelling chamber music portraits of the Baroque era. The Ganassi Consort, joined by guest violinist Anne Rohrig, illuminate the astonishing breadth of Handel's imagination across four decades of his creative life, revealing music of remarkable elegance, invention, and emotional depth. UPC: 760623240022Label: MdgRelease Date: 8.21.26Format: CD
Georg Nigl and Alexander Gergelyfi present Die schone Mullerin in a version that is quite different from what we usually hear. Thanks to the use of a Tafelklavier (square piano) built around 1810 by Carl Withum, the baritone says he has 'renewed his experience of singing the Lied,' as the piano's range of timbres opens up new perspectives. Since the publication of Schubert's famous song cycle in 1824, the way the work is interpreted and received has changed drastically, due to the power of modern grand pianos' sound and the exponential growth in the size of concert halls. Whereas in Schubert's time, the intensity of expression and the power of the words themselves took precedence, 'to such an extent that one might think the instrument-that is, the accompaniment-becomes the starting point of the musical message,' says Nigl, who decided to add and recite Wilhelm Muller's texts that were not set to music, notably the prologue, the epilogue, and a few other poems. Following in the tradition of the 'Liederspiel' (song play), which was very popular in 19th-century Berlin salons, Nigl and Gergelyfi offer a profoundly renewed listening experience. UPC: 3701624512524Label: AlphaRelease Date: 8.14.26Format: CD
Christoph Graupner must have made a deep and lasting impression on his contemporaries. Otherwise, more than two decades after his death, an admiring epitaph would scarcely have attested that he regarded church music as "so lofty, venerable, and sacred that he distinguished it from operatic and chamber styles as far as heaven from earth; the stranger who heard him for the first time marveled and believed himself transported into another world." Our catalogue now offers ample opportunity to test the truth of these words of praise. The cantatas released thus far represent only a small fraction of the nearly fifteen hundred works Graupner left behind. Yet, in every single one, we hear that he approached this genre "with diligence, punctuality, quiet serenity, and joy of heart." These same qualities have clearly inspired the performers, who now join forces for the sixth time in their commitment to the long-serving Kapellmeister of the Darmstadt court. UPC: 761203578528Label: Cpo RecordsRelease Date: 7.17.26Format: CD
Ludger Vollmer's "Concerto for Violin, Lower Strings, Winds, and Percussion" was composed in 2020 during the lockdown as a commissioned work for the Staatskapelle Weimar and reflects the atmosphere of that exceptional period.The starting point of the composition was a six-note, free-floating melodic formula without a fixed rhythmic scheme, which the composer associates with the image of a seagull gliding over the water and which shapes the entire work. In this four-movement violin concerto, each movement carries it's own thematic profile, through which Vollmer presents his musical sound world and his way of storytelling through rhythmically melodic composition.Over nearly 40 minutes, the composer's musical universe captivates with a dense, narrative sound world and clear formal design. UPC: 4022143978356Label: AuditeRelease Date: 7.3.26Format: CD
Following the success of Intrecci - New Compositions and Arrangements for Solo Guitar (Stradivarius, 2024), winner of the Amadeusd'Oro award, Giacomo Susani presents his new recording project Under a Crescent Moon, an album that continues and deepens the explorationof the expressive possibilities of the classical guitar. The CD is the winner of the "Per Chi Crea" grant by SIAE and the ItalianMinistry of Culture (MiC), 2024 edition, as was the previous album Intrecci, which won the 2023 edition. Unlike the previous work,structured in distinct pairs of pieces, Under a Crescent Moon takes on a more unified character. All the music-original compositionsand arrangements-was conceived, studied, and recorded within a highly concentrated period of just over one month, giving the albuma strong linguistic and expressive coherence. The three original works share a consistency of language that defines a distinctive style,while remaining sufficiently flexible to convey clearly defined expressive nuances and, consequently, ever-changing musical qualities.The album's title is drawn from a haiku by Matsuo Basho and serves as a poetic invitation to delve into the intangible and evocativesonorities of the guitar, it's resonances, and the richness of it's sound. As the artist explains:"The guitar is not only the recipient of my abstract ideas, but a generative engine of visions, sounds, and form: at once a poetic inspirationand concrete destination of the creative act"The album features three large-scale original compositions:Due appunti - structured in two movements (Preludio and Toccata), the piece moves from the mysterious and questioning character ofthe Preludio to the brilliant and highly fluid Toccata, which radically transforms the music's character from suspended to assertive andforward-driving.Under a Crescent Moon - six musical miniatures inspired by as many haiku by Matsuo Basho, translating poetic imagery and contentinto sound. These brief yet densely expressive poems inspire six musical moments, each aiming to depict not only the image evoked bythe words, but also their emotional resonance in the composer.Suite a uno - a five-movement suite (Preludio, Arabesque, Interludio, Corale, Finale) built upon a single harmonic structure, maintaininga clear formal coherence.Arrangements of masterpieces by Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel frame and permeate the original compositions: from Ravel'sPrelude in A minor to selected piano pieces from Debussy's Children's Corner and Preludes (Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum, The LittleShepherd, Golliwogg's Cakewalk, La Fille aux cheveux de lin). These are not simply transcriptions, but true arrangements that engagedeeply with the idiomatic nature of the guitar.The recording was made using a remarkable historical guitar built in 1926 by Spanish luthier Domingo Esteso. Now celebrating it's 100thanniversary, the instrument displays extraordinary elegance, depth, and nobility-an ideal medium for these sonorities and a powerfulsource of inspiration for their imagination. UPC: 8011570373595Label: StradivariusRelease Date: 7.3.26Format: CD
Antonio Stradivari's 1700 'ex Cristiani-Stauffer' cello, considered to be one of the master's finest works, was purchased by the Walter Stauffer Musicology Center in Cremona. It is now on display at the Violin Museum in Cremona.The history of this cello, though at times uncertain, suddenly becomes clear when it comes to Lisa Cristiani, a Parisian cellist who acquired the instrument, definitively linking her name to Stradivari and the cello. Lisa died very young in 1853 at just 26 years old, a fleeting star on the musical scene of her time: in just a few years, she enchanted audiences with her extraordinary cello. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy dedicated his Song Without Words, Op. 109, to her. But today, you can hear 'The Voice of Stradivari,' the voice of this precious cello, on this CD released by the Italian label MVcremona. The excellent performers are the cellist Giovanni Gnocchi, born in Cremona like Stradivari's cello, and the pianist Alessandro Stella. According to the renowned Italian critic Angelo Foletto, on this CD, 'Gnocchi exploits with loving interpretative skill and virtuosic ease every quality of the 18th-century 'Stauffer ex Cristiani' Stradivari cello, constructing a listening adventure of intriguing poetic subtlety and an intelligent assortment of accents.' SUONARE news, dicembre 2025This cd includes some pieces written by cellist-composers themselves (Popper and Klengel). Other pieces were transcribed by famous concert performers and cello virtuosos of modern and contemporary times (Piatigorsky, Schiff, Isserlis). Others were dedicated by composers to their cellist friends, as in the case of Dvorak and Hanus Wihan, Liszt and Bernhard Cossmann, the living composer Ducros and Jerome Pernoo and Mendelssohn, who dedicated his Romances sans paroles op. 109 to Lisa Cristiani, then owner of this beautiful Stradivari.The final piece is an Italian masterpiece composed by Gioacchino Rossini: 'Une larme, theme et variations'. The combination of elegiac cantabile and explosive virtuosity encapsulates the characteristics that have inspired the musical choices in this CD. Rediscovered only in recent decades, it belongs to the Peches de vieillesse, the 'sins of old age' as Rossini called the many compositions he wrote in his later years and never published because, as he said, 'I do not publish anything; I only write because I cannot do anything else'. Composed in 1858, it offers the musician all the most typical elements of Rossini's genial style. UPC: 8032632230700Label: MvcremonaRelease Date: 8.7.26Format: CD
Outside Italy - perhaps beyond the shores of his native Sicily - the name of Eliodoro Sollima (1926-2000) has not travelled wide, beyond the accomplishments of his five musical children, and in particular the cellist Giovanni Sollima. On a previous Brilliant Classics album (96287) from 2022, Giovanni paid a touching tribute to his father's memory with a collection of chamber music.'This album is a winner!' reported Fanfare magazine, and noted how the 'compositional style of this substantial and serious composer developed significantly' between 1945 and 1995. This new album of Eliodoro Sollima's orchestral music covers a similar period, between the Aria for cello and strings (1945) and Attesa (1997). Attesa ('Waiting') is the most substantial piece on the album, scored for the unusual combination of piano, horns, strings and percussion: a powerful seven-movement suite inspired by the suffering of a man given the death penalty in the US state of Virginia and executed in 1997. Sollima worked within a tonal framework to evoke, in his words, 'the frantic sequence of images, memories and emotions that torment the last hours of a condemned man's life.'The pianist and musicologist Anna Maria Sollima (sister to Giovanni) supplies insightful annotations, which trace the course of Eliodoro's life and career through the works recorded here. World premieres on record include the early Ouverture da camera (1948/50) and Rondo burlesco (1951) for piano and orchestra, carried forward by strong, cinematically flavoured melodies. From 1968, the Concerto per archi (Concerto for strings) is another work with a political subtext, inspired by the shock arising from the assassination of Bobby Kennedy. But Sollima always stayed true to his Sicilian roots, and continued to translate the idioms of local folk music in his own, contemporary style: a commitment exemplified by Nenia e recitativo, a concertante piece for cello and strings. Seekers of 20th-century tonal voices will find in Eliodoro Sollima a distinctive and compelling personality, to which these performers do full justice. UPC: 5063758967259Label: Brilliant ClassicsRelease Date: 7.3.26Format: CD
Frank and Francesco. It all began with a misunderstanding. In the early 1980s Frank Zappa came across an entry on "Zappa" in the New Grove Dictionary, only to discover it concerned an obscure 18th-century Milanese composer of almost the same name. Convinced he had found an ancestor, Frank investigated Francesco Zappa and in 1984 devoted an entire album to him (his 42nd) - saving him from oblivion and, as he proudly noted, producing his first recording in over 200 years. Some forty years later, that misunderstanding inspired this Il Pomo d'Oro project: a recording adventure bringing together Francesco's galant music, Frank's 'contemporary' works for string quintet, and some original compositions, where all hierarchies are abandoned. Giovanni Sollima, a native of Palermo like Frank's family, brings his own sound world in dialogue with both Zappas. Vanni Moretto, a Milanese like Francesco and a leading expert on 18th-century Milanese music, imagines a posthumous revenge: what if Francesco had rewritten Frank's music? He does precisely that, composing a sinfonia concertante to match Francesco's own. On Wild Love the two friends serve Francesco entirely - Giovanni Sollima as cellist, Vanni Moretto as music director - ensuring that Francesco Zappa is at last rediscovered, restored, and no longer anyone's phantom. UPC: 3760195736005Label: Arcana RecordsRelease Date: 8.28.26Format: CD
"Ask 100 people and you'll know 100 things." Talking about numbers in Vivaldi's work is mind-boggling! 96 operas, dozens of cantatas and sacred pieces, over 600 instrumental pieces, including 230 violin concertos. One movement per day over a 40-year career... With this recording, Giuliano Carmignola reaches the milestone of 100 violin concertos for the first time in the history of recordings! 13 new compositions reveal the Treviso virtuoso's incomparable affinity with this repertoire of inexhaustible charm. UPC: 3760195735947Label: Arcana RecordsRelease Date: 4.24.26Format: CD
From Manuscript to Invention is a deeply imaginative musical journey that bridges past and present, reviving forgotten Romantic voices while transforming them through contemporary creativity. At it's heart stands Emilie Mayer - one of the most prolific yet historically overlooked female composers of the 19th century - whose remarkable career defied the conventions of her time. Alongside the music of Ferdinand Ries, a close associate of Beethoven, the album brings rare manuscript sources to life. Several works are presented here in world premiere recordings, offering listeners a first encounter with music long hidden from the repertoire. By returning to Mayer's original Duet in F Major and Ries's Cello Sonata, the performers reveal a rich sound world shaped by expressive freedom, historical performance practice, and the intimate, improvisatory spirit of 19th-century salon culture. At the same time, the album becomes an act of creation in it's own right: newly composed works inspired by these historical materials unfold alongside them, blurring the line between interpretation and invention. Through this dialogue, the performers not only reawaken the art of musical spontaneity - ornamentation, rubato, and improvisation - but also restore Mayer's voice to it's rightful place within the Romantic canon. The result is an evocative exploration of continuity and renewal, where rediscovery becomes both an act of justice and a catalyst for new artistic expression. UPC: 608917200690Label: Challenge ClassicsRelease Date: 8.14.26Format: CD
Alessandro Longo (1864-1945) was an influential Italian composer, pianist, and musicologist whose legacy is often linked to his scholarly editions of Domenico Scarlatti's keyboard works. Yet his own compositions reveal a refined musical voice shaped by late-Romantic lyricism, classical balance, and Italian melodic elegance. Central to Longo's style is a clear, singing melodic line, often entrusted to the violin while the piano provides a harmonically rich and supportive texture. His works frequently employ a warm tonal language, with occasional excursions into modal or chromatic inflections that reflect the broader European trends of his time. Rather than pursuing virtuosic display for it's own sake, Longo typically emphasizes expressive nuance and poised interaction between the two instruments. Among his most representative compositions for this ensemble are his character pieces and salon-style works, which combine lyrical charm with formal clarity. These include graceful miniatures such as the Romanza, shaped by a cantabile violin line and elegantly crafted accompaniment. In these pieces, Longo demonstrates his gift for shaping compact musical forms that evoke atmosphere and emotional depth without excess. His more expansive works-such as the larger-scale multi-movement suites-display a broader architectural sense, often organizing thematic materials through subtle variation and motivic development. Played by the Gran Duo Italiano, Mauro Tortorelli (violin) and Angela Meluso (piano), whose previous recordings for Brilliant Classics (Saint-Saëns, Milhaud, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Scalero, Santoliquido, Caetani, Fano) were highly praised in the international press. "Tortorelli is equally impressive on viola and on violin... On both instruments he spins a flawless, silky line with perfect intonation." (Fanfare, May 2017 - Milhaud). "This release is not just for violinists and lovers of violin music; it's for everyone. Urgently recommended." (Fanfare, July 2021 - Scalero), "Sympathetic performance... employing many idiomatic (at least to the period) expressive devices." (Fanfare, May 2015 - Saint-Saëns) UPC: 5063758974950Label: Brilliant ClassicsRelease Date: 5.1.26Format: CD
This set is the second instalment of an ambitious project: the recording of the complete codex of Las Huelgas, one of the most important sources of music of the High Middle Ages, an anthology of songs from the 13th century representative of the Ars Antiqua. The manuscript was written in the Cistercian monastery of Santa Maria la Real de Las Huelgas in Burgos, with the authorisation of Alfonso VIII King of Castile. The manuscript contains 45 monophonic pieces (20 sequences, 5 conductus, 10 Benedicamus tropes) and 141 polyphonic compositions. Most of the music dates from the late 13th century, with some music from the first half of the 13th century (Notre Dame repertory), and a few later additions from the first quarter of the 14th century. Many of the pieces are not found in any other manuscripts.This second volume contains two CDs with performances by the Gruppo Vocale Armoniosoincanto and the Gruppo Vocale Garda Trentino. We find two tonally different types of performance: the young voices of Garda Trentino offer a luminosity and rhythmic precision, always expressive and communicative. Armoniosoincanto presents a more reflective and controlled interpretation, strongly linked to the texts. The instrumental ensemble includes medieval harp and portative organ. UPC: 5063758966221Label: Brilliant ClassicsRelease Date: 8.14.26Format: CD
From Another World is more than an album title : it's an invitation to travel across centuries, continents, and emotions. At it's heart lies an encounter between two musical traditions: the elegance and architecture of European classical music and the expressive pulse of Argentine tango. Bridging these worlds is Guttman Tango Quintet, formed by musicians who draw naturally from both traditions under the direction of violinist Michael Guttman. In From Another World, tango is not nostalgia. It is evolution. Just as Astor Piazzolla once liberated tango from the dance hall into the concert hall, Guttman dialogues with the classics that shaped Western music. Each track on this album begins with a familiar theme (Beethoven, Mozart, Mahler, Dvorak, and others) and let's it wander into Buenos Aires. What emerges is neither parody nor pastiche, but a transformation. Recorded in January 2025 at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, this debut album captures a moment of creative alchemy, an ensemble of classical virtuosos surrendering to the irresistible gravity of tango. UPC: 5414706107829Label: Avanti ClassicRelease Date: 7.17.26Format: CD
This program offers a generous and varied selection of arias by three of the greatest composers of the Baroque: Henry Purcell, Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel.Presented are dramatic and moving arias from Handel's Theodora, Jephta and Acis & Galatea, Purcell's King Arthur, Oedipus and Diocletian, and Bach's St. John and St. Matthew Passion. This recording is a vocal showcase of two of the most prominent young vocalists of today: tenor Guy Cutting and baritone Alvar Tiisler.Guy Cutting is recognised internationally for his compelling performances and refined musicianship, with a particular reputation in the music of J.S. Bach. A regular soloist with Collegium Vocale Gent and Philippe Herreweghe, he has performed across Europe's leading concert halls and festivals including La Scala Milan, the BBC Proms, The Philharmonie Berlin, Tonhalle Zurich, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. He has collaborated with many of the world's foremost period conductors such as Philippe Herreweghe, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Maasaki Suzuki, John Butt, Paul McCreesh, Jos van Veldhoven and Marcus Creed.Baritone Alvar Tiisler has performed with orchestras such as the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, the Israeli Chamber Orchestra, the Israel Camerata, the Sinfonietta Riga, the Klaipeda Chamber Orchestra, the Barrocade Ensemble, and the Estonian Sinfonietta.Ensemble Floridante is an Estonian Early Music ensemble founded in Tallinn in 2014. It is anchored by two core members: harpsichordist Saale Fischer and viola da gamba and cello player Villu Vihermae. The ensemble brings together several dozen professional Estonian musicians united by their passion for Early Music. UPC: 5063758977623Label: Brilliant ClassicsRelease Date: 8.14.26Format: CD
The debut album of violinist Hannah Cho, born in South Korea and member of the Vienna Philharmonic, is shaped by the idea of paying tribute to her adopted home of Vienna through sonatas by Mozart, Schubert, and Brahms-composers who are closely associated with this city. Although their lifespans (born in 1756 in Salzburg, in 1797 in Vienna-Himmelpfortgrund, and in 1833 in Hamburg, respectively) by a thin margin don't overlap, they can be described as bearers of a relay baton, their connection found in the tradition of Viennese Classicism. Together with pianist Srebra Gelleva, Hannah Cho presents Sonata No. 21 in E minor, K. 304/300c by W. A. Mozart, Sonata in A major, Op. Posth. 162, D 574 by Franz Schubert, and Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108 by Johannes Brahms. This selection offers a cross-section of the historical development of the violin sonata genre, which experiences an early flourishing with Mozart, was almost naturally incorporated into Schubert's oeuvre, and finds a peak of maturity in the Romantic era with Brahms. UPC: 9003643993730Label: GramolaRelease Date: 6.19.26Format: CD
The Landscape of Clara Schumann unfolds like a finely drawn musical panorama: a recording that combines historical resonances, personal perspectives, and contemporary sound to create a multi-layered overall picture. Pianist Heike-Angela Moser - a descendant of Clara Schumann- dedicates herself here in a special way to the legacy of her ancestor; not in the form of a nostalgic retrospective, but as a lively, artistic exploration of origins and the future. A central element of this recording is the 1859 Schiedmayer fortepiano, whose historical character and fine timbre allow the repertoire to shine with a rarely heard authenticity. The Landscape of Clara Schumann is a poetic journey of sound: a dialogue between generations, between memory and renewal, between the historical breath of an instrument and the living voice of it's contemporary interpreter. UPC: 4039956926085Label: Coviello ClassicsRelease Date: 8.21.26Format: CD
Conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste has been conducting the symphonies of Sibelius all over the world throughout his conducting career. Thirty-five years after his first recording of the complete cycle, Saraste returns to the symphonies of Sibelius with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra-the orchestra with which Sibelius conducted the premieres of his symphonies back in the day. UPC: 0761195152522Label: OndineRelease Date: 7.3.26Format: CD
"I made my first public appearance as a soloist the same year I graduated and pursued advanced studies in Copenhagen with Emil Telmanyi and in Berlin with Willy Hess from 1919 until 1921, and when I returned home, I succeeded in securing a position as a violinist in the Royal Danish Orchestra". But already not long afterwards in 1923 he presented himself as a candidate for the leader of The Berlin Philharmonic, which after the death of Artur Nikisch in the previous year now had Wilhelm Furtwängler as it's chief conductor. He won the position over 14 competitors and relates himself: "That was quite something for an enthusiastic young violinist! From the last desk of the second violinists on Kgs. Nytorv to the highly responsible first desk in Bernburger Strasse, enjoying a close working relationship with such a great figure as Wilhelm Furtwangler". UPC: 5709499100905Label: Danacord RecordsRelease Date: 7.17.26Format: CD
On the occasion of his 60th birthday, Herve Joulain is presenting - most of this first recordings - of composers who have dedicated these works to him partly. To be, in the truest sense of the word, a musician of his time, one must engage with today's composers and their works. This means having works dedicated to you that need to be created and promoted, entering into dialogue with the composers, inspiring them with your talent to create new works; it means exploring the instrument's possibilities and stimulating the musician's abilities to venture down bold and hitherto unexplored paths. This is achieved here in an exemplary manner! UPC: 4250702802051Label: TyxartRelease Date: 8.21.26Format: CD
Sand and Foam by William Knight uses words from Kahlil Gibran's book of the same name. The book is made up of hundreds of aphorisms, each beautiful and thought provoking. With all my music I try to follow the words of the poet and bring out the natu-ral rhythm and beauty of the text. Each aphorism can be taken by itself and offers the reader or listener a chance to reflect. My compilation of the aphorisms is an observation on the creation and fall of mankind: It presents a warning. However, when the apocalypse comes this is not in a calamitous way, what will come will come. Life and death present the beginning and the end but not apart from each other. After we are gone life will carry on and our footsteps betwixt the sand and the foam will be washed away by the sea. Missa pro defunctis by Victor Kioulaphides. Death is as univer-sally inevitable as it is generally misunderstood. Art and music helps- or does it? Vivid imagery and dramatic sounds capture the heartbreak, the devasta-ting loss felt by those left behind. Yet for the one that actually passes, often little is expressed. The Requiem Mass speaks of the eternal peace, the perfect conclusion, the ethereal serenity that is death. And this is the story this score retells. If the listener is left at peace, the music has succeeded. Het Nederlands Bach Consort shows courage in it's productions and does not shy away from experimentation. Artistic directors Heleen Koele (sop-rano) and Sytse Buwalda (counter-tenor) have both earned their spurs as singers and complement each other well with their different areas of expertise. All this leads to a daring approach based on the old foundation of Bach: "As a consort, we feel the urgency to translate our observations of social trends into an artistic form. In doing so, we always draw on the power of music. Raw, tranquil, abrasive, and comforting. In line with current trends, we commission compositions from established and young compo-sers, such as Victor Kioulaphides, Monique Krus, William Knight, and Lotte Pen. We give the resounding past a foundation in the present... Always accessible, never easy." - "Sand and Foam" by William Knight (b.1987) sets selected aphorisms from Kahlil Gibran to music, inviting reflection on humanity's creation, fall, and the quiet inevitability of the end. - In Knight's vision, life and death are inseparable, and after we are gone the traces of our existence are ultimately washed away "betwixt the sand and the foam." - "Missa pro defunctis" by Victor Kioulaphides (b.1961) retells the Requi-em's promise of eternal peace, aiming to leave the listener with serenity rather than spectacle. - Het Nederlands Bach Consort is known for courageous, experimental Bach-rooted programming that translates social trends into accessible, never-easy performances and commissions from both established and emerging composers. UPC: 5063758700399Label: Brilliant ClassicsRelease Date: 7.3.26Format: CD
Composed between 2004 and 2022 the seven works on this album reflect the concerns and crises of our time. These include the pandemic, racial unrest, global conflict, reflections on the realities of war, the pervasive use of gun violence, pollution and social strife. The music oscillates between struggle and celebration and gives powerful glimpses of redemptive hope in our shared experiences, one that values civic identity and collective expression and offers a fanfare for those who shape our future for the better. UPC: 747313919079Label: NaxosRelease Date: 7.24.26Format: CD
On her album Naiades, the young Korean concert organist Hyelin Lee presents a representative cross-section of French organ music from the late Romantic period. Interestingly, she enriches her program with organ arrangements of piano works by Gabriel Faure, as the composer actually left behind not a single work for organ, even though he served as organist at the Madeleine in Paris for nine years. For lovers of French organ music, this album is particularly appealing because it features the Cavaille-Coll organ of the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-d'Auray, an important instrument by the renowned French organ builder, of which there has been no official recording to date. UPC: 4026798115111Label: AeolusRelease Date: 8.21.26Format: CD
