Paul Buttner was born in Dresden in 1870 and studied violin and oboe there at the Conservatory. Over the years Buttner could increasingly establish as a fantastic musician in Dresden. But he stayed virtually completely unknown before 1915, when famous Arthur Nikisch premiered his Symphony No. 3. Since that, Buttner was named one of the greatest and most important contemporary symphonists in succession to Brahms and Bruckner. His Symphony No. 4 from 1917 continued the success and was performed by many different orchestras.In 1933 his music was marked as "unwanted" and the regime deleted him completely fromthe public music culture. UPC: 845221055541Label: CapriccioRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
Celebrate the legacy of Ryuichi Sakamoto with Opus, a definitive 2-CD collection curated by the composer himself. Spanning decades of groundbreaking work, this anthology brings together iconic film scores, Yellow Magic Orchestra classics, and deeply personal compositions that reflect Sakamoto’s singular musical voice. Featured tracks include Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, Andata, and Aqua, alongside never-before-recorded pieces such as for Jóhann (a tribute to Jóhann Jóhannsson), BB (dedicated to Bernardo Bertolucci), and 20180219 (featuring prepared piano).Presented in a deluxe six-panel digipak constructed from premium black stock with black foil stamping and silver text, the CD edition is wrapped in a custom eight-panel sleeve showcasing evocative black-and-white imagery of Sakamoto during the Opus performance. A collector’s booklet offers liner notes and credits, providing deeper insight into the music and the artist’s final reflections. Opus is more than a retrospective; it’s a lasting tribute to one of the most influential composers of our time.
Tracklist:
Lack of Love
BB
Andata
Solitude
for Jóhann
Aubade 2020
Ichimei - small happiness
Mizu no Naka no Bagatelle
Bibo no Aozora
Aqua
Tong Poo
Wuthering Heights
20220302 - sarabande
Sheltering Sky
20180219 (w/ Prepared Piano]
Last Emperor
Trioon
Happy End
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
Opus [ending]
UPC: 198028351126Label: MasterworksRelease Date: 3.27.26Format: CD
Michael Finnissy's output for the guitar spans almost 60 years of his career and represents an enormous contribution to the repertoire of the instrument from one of Britain's most significant composers. Published a few days before Finnissy's 80th birthday, this bold and ambitious album celebrates this day by bringing together all of his works for solo guitar and guitar ensemble for the first time in performances by Finnissy's collaborators and led by new music virtuoso and tireless guitar explorer Sam Cave. UPC: 5060216341842Label: First HandRelease Date: 4.24.26Format: CD
Portraits of france and spain:piano music from impressionism and national romanticism to the avant-garde, 1880-1960 UPC: 5902547019611Label: Dux Recording Prod.Release Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
SOMM RECORDINGS celebrates the powerful and dynamic relationship between soloist and orchestra with three works by Nimrod Borenstein, whom Opus klassiek called "Brilliant... an inspired composer but also an inspiring conductor." Borenstein leads the English Chamber Orchestra in his Concerto for mandolin and orchestra; Shakespeare Songs for soprano and orchestra; and Legende - Concerto for oboe and orchestra. The program features mandolinist Alon Sariel, honored for his "dazzling virtuosity" by The Vancouver Sun; soprano Sarah Fox- Honorary Fellow at the University of London's Royal Holloway College and winner of the Kathleen Ferrier and John Christie awards-praised for her "shining intelligence" by Gramophone; and oboist Sanja Romic, hailed by Zubin Mehta for her "musical depth and lovely tone" and applauded worldwide for her expressive sound and charismatic stage presence.Nimrod Borenstein-whose substantial catalogue currently numbers more than 100 works ranging from orchestral and chamber music to solo instrumental pieces-made his SOMM debut [SOMMCD 281] conducting the first recordings of his Piano Concerto, piano quintet Light and Darkness, and Shirim for solo piano, celebrated by Pizzicato as "feel-good music of exquisite quality." With reference to this present release, Borenstein describes the relationship between soloist and orchestra as having an epic, almost theatrical quality. "It can become a moment of confession, or of confrontation," he says, "a personal voice rising against, or carried by, a collective force." These elements are richly evident in all three works presented here. While the qualities of a mandolin can be delicate, quiet, and soft, Borenstein's choice in composing his Concerto for mandolin and orchestra was to create a work that feels monumental in scope while showcasing the virtuosic capabilities of the instrument. To this end, the composer explored many of the technical ideas and expressive tools pioneered by Paganini for the violin, adapting them to the mandolin's unique sound.This release of Borenstein's Shakespeare Songs reprises his performance in March 2025 at London's Cadogan Hall with Sarah Fox and the English Chamber Orchestra. In choosing and setting these five Shakespeare sonnets, Borenstein has created both variety and a sense of overall structure ranging from the enchantment of pure beauty in "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" to the despair-turned-hope in "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes." The two-movement Legende - Concerto for oboe and orchestra was written for and premiered by Sanja Romic in 2024. The slow, dance-like opening is like a preamble to a tale about to be told; "Let me tell you a story about a legend I once heard." The second and final movement is more fiery, with contrasts leading to a faster tempo return of the opening theme, creating a sense of narrative closure before a brilliant, virtuosic conclusion. UPC: 748871071926Label: Somm RecordingsRelease Date: 3.27.26Format: CD
Greek-Russian pianist Sasha Stychkina, born in December 2003 in Moscow into a family of musicians and filmmakers, is the youngest finalist and winner in the history of the Marguerite Long International Piano Competition in Paris in November 2019. Today she presents her first recital, recorded at the Teldex studio in Berlin under the artistic direction of her teacher, the charismatic and renowned pianist Kirill Gerstein. A decidedly varied programme-Weber, Bartok, Ravel, Chopin, Liszt-it is by turns virtuosic, dance-like and spiritual. Sasha Stychkina also introduces us to a little-known composer, Alexei Vladimirovich Stanchinsky (1888-1914), a mystical figure, considered mad - he spent a year in a psychiatric hospital - who drowned at the age of twenty-six. A student of Taneyev, encouraged by Scriabin, and introduced to Tolstoy, the composer nevertheless had a bright future ahead of him. The Five Preludes (1907-1912, published posthumously in 1928), chosen by Sasha Stychkina, are particularly evocative and visionary. UPC: 3701624512500Label: AlphaRelease Date: 6.5.26Format: CD
It crunches, rustles, whispers, rattles, bubbles - extended playing techniques, preparations, and various everyday materials produce a seemingly endless variety of sounds in Eloain Lovis Hübner's compositions. Hübner does not understand sound as fixed material, but rather as a state or "as a living relationship between bodies - instrumental, vocal or electronic," as booklet author Sophie Emilie Beha describes it. "The music is constantly in motion, attracting, repelling, tilting, shimmering, breaking apart, and reassembling itself. It creates spaces in which listening itself becomes a physical experience: focused, fragile, and yet full of energy."Two series of works are at the heart of the album. "crunch modes 1.0" (Schallfeld Ensemble) and "crunch modes 3.0" (Spóldzielnia Muzyczna Contemporary Ensemble) initially reveal what is typical of Hübner's composing - they zoom between micro- and macrocosm and move between structure and loss of control, accumulation and decay, and radicalism and delicacy."Trauma und Zwischenraum" [Trauma and Interstice] was composed under the influence of the coronavirus pandemic and features three very different instrumentations: in the first part of the work, the ensemble airborne extended plays the recorder, flute, prepared harp, and harpsichord. In the second part, the musicians of the Arditti Quartet swap their bows for whisks, corks, or toothbrushes, creating acoustic metaphors. In the third part, interpreted by the Lange//Berweck//Lorenz Trio, hybrid sound bodies such as accordion plus effects unit or Korg MS 20 Mini with electric guitar are used.In "[untitled]," the only vocal work on the album, AuditivVokal Dresden deals with nonsense speech, noise imitation, and film language, referring to the legendary airport scene from the film "Casablanca". UPC: 4010228644920Label: Wergo GermanyRelease Date: 5.8.26Format: CD
Schubert's Octet in F Major, D 803 stands as one of the crowning achievements of chamber music - an expansive, symphonic vision distilled into eight voices. For the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin, this masterpiece lies at the very heart of their artistic identity. Founded in 1983 by members of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the ensemble takes it's name from Hans Scharoun, architect of the Berlin Philharmonie, whose Kammermusiksaal has been their musical home since their very first public performance - and the venue of this recording. Shaped by decades of deep familiarity, the Octet reveals Schubert's entire emotional world: joy and exuberance, tenderness and nostalgia, fear and defiance, all unfolding across what violinist Rachel Schmidt calls "one glorious hour of music" that portrays an entire life.This new recording marks a significant moment in the ensemble's history. Having performed the Octet close to 500 times and recorded it once before, the Scharoun Ensemble now returns to it's signature work to document a new generation of players, with founding member and double bass player Peter Riegelbauer. Captured in the Philharmonie's Chamber Music Hall, the performance combines interpretative maturity with renewed freshness, allowing Schubert's extraordinary range of colour and dramatic depth to shine. With it's intimate connection to place, tradition, and living musical continuity, this recording offers a definitive and deeply personal account of one of the most beloved works in the chamber repertoire. UPC: 8717306265201Label: PentatoneRelease Date: 4.10.26Format: CD
Sean Shibe's fifth PENTATONE album, Vesper, presents a striking collection of contemporary guitar works by the late Harrison Birtwistle, James Dillon, and Thomas Ades, all composed by musicians who do not play the instrument themselves. Recorded here for the first time, these recent miniatures explore the guitar's expressive range in profoundly different ways: ritualistic and evocative in Birtwistle, elemental in Dillon, and allusive in Ades. Shibe's interpretations reveal the instrument's extraordinary colour, subtlety, and capacity for transformation, bringing each work to life with imagination and nuance.For some of Birtwistle's pieces, Shibe performs on Sylvette (2021), a guitar made by luthier Simon Ambridge in collaboration with French-British artist Lydia Corbett. A muse to Pablo Picasso - who was himself an important influence for several of Birtwistle's works on this album - Corbett also inspired Picasso's celebrated Sylvette series. Modelled on the small, responsive instruments of the Andalusian luthier Antonio de Torres, the guitar features Corbett's artwork on it's body, adding a visual and symbolic layer to the performance. Shibe is a former BBC New Generation Artist, a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship 2012 winner, a Royal Philharmonic Society 2018 Young Artist Award winner, a multi-GRAMMY nominee, and the recipient of the 2022 Leonard Bernstein Award. His recordings have won BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone Awards. UPC: 8717306265188Label: PentatoneRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
Sebastian Berner is one of the most prominent trumpet players of his generation: in 2022, he won first prize at the Maurice Andre International Competition in Paris and is principal trumpet of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. While Henri Tomasi's trumpet concerto, composed in 1948, is fairly well known, the Concertino for Trumpet and Orchestra, composed in 1913 by the Belgian Joseph Jongen, is much rarer, and the concerto by his pupil Leon Stekke, dated July 1937, is being recorded for the first time. Another world premiere is Charles Koechlin's Chants de Kervelean, transcribed in 2008 for trumpet and orchestra by Robert Orlidge. Finally, Florent Schmitt's Suite in Three Parts was premiered in it's orchestral version in 1956 by Maurice Andre. UPC: 723385498261Label: Channel ClassicsRelease Date: 4.10.26Format: CD
Pianiste (FR): Not to be missed!Musicweb (UK): Now, however, Rhine Classics has collected all Fiorentino's Saga records, in recordings made between July 1958 and June 1960, and remastered them in this 10-CD box. The pianist at the time seems to have been omnivorous UPC: 4713106280332Label: Rhine ClassicsRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
There is a very special connection in the collaboration between composer and performer. While this connection most often exists through the veil of life and death, I have been blessed with the joy of working with a living composer. I began exploring the piano music of Gregory Mertl in 2015 when I first learned and performed his Souffle et Contresouffle and subsequently Pears on a Sill. I have always felt a deep emotional connection to the music that I perform, and I was immediately drawn to Greg's musical language. We were introduced by a mutual friend and have happily remained musically connected. It is because of this friendship that Pictures Without an Exhibition came into being, and it is truly one of the greatest gifts I have ever received. The sheer scope and imagination behind it are so far beyond anything I could have dreamed of when I commissioned him to write a piece for me in 2019, and I am hopeful that the musical world will delight in it as deeply as I have. UPC: 044747414522Label: CentaurRelease Date: 4.10.26Format: CD
Shura Cherkassky was introduced to Nimbus by Wilfred Stiff, then a director of the London agent Ibbs & Tillett. Wilfred recognised a young label pushing ahead fast at the transition point between LP and CD, one with a fondness for artists whose careers were waning. Accordingly, he dispatched one of his most prestigious names to the Nimbus Studio. Cherkassky was at that time acknowledged as one of the 'great' generation whose undoubted king was Horowitz, but after a long, notable career that began in his mid-teens, his popularity in the concert hall and recording studio had fallen. Shura's late career was in need of a final boost. Cherkassky's first visit lasted four days - 31 January to 3 February 1981; the results of that session were released on LP, but never on CD. They are once again available in Volume 1 of this series (NI 7112). For this second session, once again he stayed in the big house, having taken one look at Monmouth's finest hotel - The King's Head - and declared, 'Oh no, I won't be happy here!'. The studio and piano, a 1969 Hamburg Steinway, were set up as before. It was a studio so completely unlike the characterless spaces he had famously grown to decry. Here there was no sterile barrier to his inspiration. The grand Victorian reception room at Wyastone Leys served as a spectacular performance space, it's full-height windows framing commanding views down the Wye Valley. Shura loved it, signing a copy of his Pictures at an Exhibition LP, 'To everyone in Nimbus with love and the most wonderful feeling of inspiration'. UPC: 0710357711923Label: Nimbus RecordsRelease Date: 5.1.26Format: CD
Since their founding in 2007, the Madrid based ensemble Sigma Project has premiered more than 85 works and introduced hundreds more to audiences from Teatro alla Scala in Milan to Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires. Their commitment to commissioning new works is the saxophone quartet's parallel to the Kronos Quartet.Juan Antonio Cuellar's Cuatro Artificios is a four-movement work that follows the classical structure of the quartet or symphony (Allegro-Adagio-Scherzo-Allegro Finale) and draws on both Baroque and early 20th-century techniques. Each movement is an artificio: a skillful and inventive creation. From Fanfarrias (Fanfares) and it's rhythmic ostinatos and canon to Tocatas (Tocattas), a dizzying moto continuo culminating in an explosive finale.Carolina Noguera Palau's Canticos del Azar utilizes extended techniques to evoke the chirimias caucanas (flute-led ensembles from Cauca), but also introducing dance-like rhythmic patterns that evoke Cali's vibrant dance culture and are emphasized by expressive markings in the score such as con sabor (with spice), sonero (in the style of son music), or movido (swinging).The title of Rodolfo Acosta's Pidiendo agua, traian leña (Asking for water, they brought firewood), is drawn from The First New Chronicle and Good Government, a 1615 Peruvian chronicle describing how chapetones (newly arrived Spaniards) and Indigenous Peruvians were often caught in linguistic misunderstandings. The piece's form is conceived as a series of unrelated episodes that challenge monothematic development. Instead, the episodes function as what Acosta calls "single isles" that one must "visit" without pretending to understand them through the same logic. They are meant to be grasped in their uniqueness. The collaboration between the Spanish ensemble Sigma Project and the Colombian composers featured on this album evokes the narrative behind the work. This collaboration is a 21st-century update of the encounter between the Spanish and the Abya Yala people (the Americans)-an encounter rooted not in conquest, but in mutual recognition and respect for difference. UPC: 764593035329Label: Mode RecordsRelease Date: 4.3.26Format: CD
"All the pieces I chose for this album grip me in a very direct way. On top of that, the fact that they immediately won me over when I first encountered them and now feel very close to me. This choice was therefore a gut decision, based on an emotional concept. The common thread lies in the immense will to express that all these works possess." Simon Tetzlaff about his debut CD UPC: 881488250275Label: Hanssler ClassicRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
Born in Bratislava, soprano Simona Saturova, internationally renowned for her opera and oratorio performances, dedicates her CD Nocturno to the fascination of evening and night - that time between dreams, longing, and silence that has always inspired composers and poets. The program ranges from Mozart's Abendempfindung to Schubert and Schumann to late Romanticism and early modernism. Two songs by Richard Strauss form the framework - Die Nacht as an atmospheric beginning and Morgen as a hopeful conclusion. Two piano pieces, Chopin's Nocturne in D-flat major, Op. 27 No. 2, and Schumann's In der Nacht, reflect nocturnal feelings in purely instrumental form. UPC: 4260052386903Label: Ars ProduktionRelease Date: 5.15.26Format: CD
Philip Glass, a towering figure in New York's musical life in the latter half of the twentieth century and an essential voice of the minimalist movement, crafted soundscapes that seem made for the screen. In 2002, the director Stephen Daldry commissioned him to compose the score for his new film The Hours, bringing together- in the roles of three women living in three different eras-none other than Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, and Meryl Streep. For this study on womanhood and the passage of time, the American composer devised a score that then became emblematic of his late style. It is a veritable manifesto of his expressive simplicity, in which layers and motifs are in constant, subtle transformation, giving rise to a richly wrought polyphonic universe that beguiles us with it's expansive sonic textures.The rich score composed for Daldry was later distilled by Michael Riesman-musical director of the Philip Glass Ensemble and a close collaborator of the composer-into a three-movement suite for piano, strings, harp, and celesta, which is performed here by pianist Simone Dinnerstein and her New York ensemble, Baroklyn. Their expansive phrasing (Movement I), their serene assurance, and the intense sonority of the American pianist combine to highlight the music's almost classical elegance, as if it were a newly discovered Mozart concerto. Such a moving interpretation reflects the profound artistic bond that has united Simone Dinnerstein and Philip Glass for many years, an affinity poignantly captured in the photograph at the centre of the album, of their hands tenderly intertwined.During the same recording session in May 2025, Baroklyn's musicians also immersed themselves in Tirol Concerto (2000), the first concerto that the composer wrote for piano, which is framed solely by strings. Two brief, fleeting movements in neo-Baroque vein enclose a broad elegy-music for an imagined film-threaded with numerous reminiscences of Glass's etudes for piano, which he began writing in 1994.Simone Dinnerstein sees a natural affinity between the music of Philip Glass and that of J. S. Bach-one of her most ardent "obsessions" and the main foundation of her work with Baroklyn. In her view, the American composer shares many traits with the Cantor of Leipzig: a deeply polyphonic vision, a quest for the absolute independence of each line, and an abiding concern for the singing quality of musical phrases. Repetitive in essence, Glass's music here 'unfolds' with an extraordinarily generous breadth of spirit, under the capable hands of Simone Dinnerstein and her Baroklyn musicians.25 FEBRUARY 2026 UPC: 3700187692384Label: NaiveRelease Date: 6.5.26Format: CD
Puccini is renowned as one of the greatest opera composers of all time and his early works - before Manon Lescaut catapulted him to international fame - offer a fascinating insight into his development as a composer. John Wilson and Sinfonia of London explore this repertoire with characteristic style and commitment, leading us on a journey through student compositions and orchestral extracts from his earliest operas. Studying under Amilcare Ponchielli at the Milan Conservatory from 1880 to 1883, he created the Preludio sinfonico (loosely based on Wagner's Prelude to Lohengrin), the Scherzo, Trio, and Adagetto, and Capriccio sinfonico, his graduation piece, which famously pre-echoes the opening of La boheme by a decade. The one-act opera Le villi was composed for a competition launched by the publisher Sonzogno (Puccini didn't win), whilst themes from the contemporaneous Tre minuetti and Crisantemi (both for string quartet) were subsequently re-cycled in Manon Lescaut. Verdi's publisher, Ricordi, bought the rights to Le villi, and commissioned a new work at the same time: Edgar, which, largely owing to the absurd plot, is arguably Puccini's only failure, despite some fully mature music easily the match of the more celebrated scores. UPC: 0095115538524Label: ChandosRelease Date: 3.27.26Format: CD
Principal conductor Ivor Bolton will bid farewell to 'his' orchestra, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, in summer 2025 with a 'French' album. He will hand over the baton to his successor Markus Poschner for the new season. So as a farewell, here are symphonic and vocal works by Ernest Chausson. The Symphony in B flat major recorded here is characterised by it's lyrical melody and harmonic sophistication, which builds a bridge between romantic expressiveness and impressionistic sounds. In comparison, the vocal works also presented here, such as 'Viviane' or 'Helene', often have a more intimate, vocal quality that emphasises the human voice. These differences illustrate Chausson's versatility as a composer and his ability to combine fascinating instrumentation with profound emotions in both instrumental and vocal music. UPC: 4262353970805Label: Prospero ClassicalRelease Date: 4.24.26Format: CD
This album presents four works by leading Polish composers, written especially for Sinfonietta Cracovia. Composed over the past five years and recorded here for the first time, these pieces showcase the remarkable breadth of today's Polish contemporary music. Spanning everything from bold tonal writing to daring microtonal textures, from driving, high-energy drama to immersive soundscapes enhanced by electronics, the album offers a vivid listening experience. Standout virtuoso performances by violinists Piotr Tarcholik and Maciej Lulek, along with the Krakow Wind Quintet, add star power and brilliance, inviting listeners to discover fresh, compelling voices of modern Polish music through the artistry of this acclaimed Krakow ensemble. UPC: 5902547021966Label: Dux Recording Prod.Release Date: 5.1.26Format: CD
Spain's Siglo de Oro, the Age of Gold, gave rise to some of the greatest sacred choral music of the Renaissance. Lead, Kindly Light is devoted to the music of two outstanding Spanish composers exploring majestic works by Cristobal de Morales, famed throughout Europe and in the New World, and the exquisite polyphony of Sebastian de Vivanco, whose intricately crafted counterpoint adorned services at the cathedrals of avila and Salamanca during the late 1500s. Contrasting and complementing these 16th-century masterpieces are spellbinding settings of words by Saint John Henry Newman: Sir James MacMillan's Nothing in Vain for soloists and double choir and the world premiere of Kerensa Briggs' Lead, kindly light, specially commissioned for this album. UPC: 828021621826Label: CoroRelease Date: 4.3.26Format: CD
In their second volume exploring lost American violin sonatas, Solomia Soroka, Phillip Silver and Arthur Greene survey a half-century of music-making, from the buoyant High Romanticism of the Bostonian Clara Rogers via the impassioned early Impressionism of the New York-based Albert Stoessel, to the explicitly Jewish sounds of Julius Chajes, who settled in Detroit, one of the many refugees from Nazism who added a new flavour to American music. All three works testify to the rich heritage of forgotten American music awaiting rediscovery by alert and curious musicians and listeners. UPC: 5060640070493Label: Toccata NextRelease Date: 4.10.26Format: CD
Sondra Radvanovsky, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Enrique Mazzola present Puccini: Heroines, a live recording of an all-Puccini program performed in February 2025. Radvanovsky's extraordinary voice brings vivid individuality to each heroine, from the tender lyricism of Anna and Mimì to the dramatic intensity of Tosca and Turandot, including roles not previously in her stage repertoire. With Mazzola and the Lyric Opera Orchestra, she captures Puccini's genius for combining concise, emotionally charged arias with profound character insight.From the grace of Le Villi to the passion of Manon Lescaut, the intimacy of La Boheme, and the virtuosic drama of Turandot, Radvanovsky's artistry illuminates every phrase. Encores include Musetta (La Boheme) and Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), highlighting both theatrical flair and heartfelt nuance. Sondra Radvanovsky and Lyric Opera of Chicago previously appeared on PENTATONE with The Three Queens (2022), while Enrique Mazzola conducted the 2019 PENTATONE release of Verdi and Donizetti with Michael Fabiano. UPC: 8717306264914Label: PentatoneRelease Date: 4.10.26Format: CD
Robert Alexander Schumann (June 8, 1810, Zwickau - July 29, 1856, Bonn) was one of the most significant composers of the 19th century and a pioneering music critic. His works represent some of the purest expressions of Romanticism in music. The son of a bookseller, Schumann was deeply influenced in his youth by German Romantic literature, particularly the writings of Jean Paul and E.T.A. Hoffmann. UPC: 044747418629Label: CentaurRelease Date: 4.3.26Format: CD
Bittersweet - Sophie Pacini's own collection of encouraging masterpieces that feels like a gentle embrace in the midst of crises and challenges. In a world often dominated by uncertainty and stress, the music on this album offers a powerful solace - a reminder that beauty, pain and hope are mysteriously intertwined. Inspired by an intimate, moving concert in a women's shelter in Munich, the ECHOKlassik Award winner was passionate about giving hope and light to many otherpeople in dark hours with a compilation of her personal heartfelt pieces. It is probably the most personal album project to date by the Munich-born artist, who -unintentionally dubbed a "wunderkind" - had to fight against discrimination, exclusion and resentment from an early age and always drew all her strength from her music. Each piece on "bittersweet" is a little encouragement, a reminder that even in themost bittersweet moments of life, the beauty of music can lead to new strength. Sophie Pacini's interpretation, between virtuosity and sensitivity, opens doors to aworld that provides encouragement in difficult times - and shows that true strengthlies especially in fragility. UPC: 4260183513025Label: Avenir RecordsRelease Date: 4.10.26Format: CD
Austrian mezzo-soprano Sophie Rennert, accompanied by expert pianist Joseph Middleton, presents a selection of Schubert lieder blending beloved masterpieces with lesser-known gems.Sophie Rennert's extensive operatic repertoire spans Baroque to contemporary works, encompassing Purcell, Rameau, Handel and Vivaldi, through Mozart and operetta - numerous recordings with leading figures in the early music scene further highlight the quality of her voice. Hailed by critic David Nice as "a mezzo of many colours, subtlety, dramatic intelligence and a crucially brilliant top", it was only a matter of time before she lent her voice to Schubert's highly dramatic songs. The title of this recital, Irrlichter (will-o'-the-wisp), her first for BIS Records, comes from Rennert's favourite song, "Des Fischers Liebesgluck". And much like a will-o'-the-wisp, the composer leaves us in a state of uncertainty. Is the song a memory or just a deep, unfulfilled longing? This feeling, which permeates all of Schubert's music, is in a sense the thread that runs through this collection of songs with their twilight atmosphere. Every single one of these Schubert settings depicts a different dream, a different longing to be discovered. UPC: 7318599924588Label: BisRelease Date: 4.24.26Format: CD
PH16063 Bruckner 9, Vol. 54 Edition Staatskapelle Dresden.Christian Thielemann, Staatskapelle Dresden, Live Aufnahme der Saison 2014/2015 aus der Semperoper »Ich mag die Neunte gar nicht anfangen, ich traue mich nicht, denn auchBeethoven machte mit der Neunten den Abschluss seines Lebens!« Anton Bruckner UPC: 881488160635Label: Profil - G HaensslerRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
The Canzonette by Paolo Rolli (1687-1765) were among the greatest lyrical successes of eighteenth-century Europe. The poet, renowned for his cantatas, his extraordinary Italian translation of Milton's Paradise Lost, and his opera libretti for Porpora and Handel, likely oversaw the musical settings of the Canzonette himself, often reworking compositions by Handel and popular tunes of the time, such as the dance Aimable Vainqueur.Simple yet delightful melodies accompany amorous skirmishes between nymphs and shepherds, while also celebrating wine and the pleasures of love. This collection offers a unique glimpse into the eighteenth-century Arcadian world through the original work of one of it's greatest poets. UPC: 762497241686Label: Glaux RecordsRelease Date: 5.1.26Format: CD
Igor Stravinsky is renowned for his legacy of glittering fairy tales in treasured favourites such as Petrushka and The Firebird. Another favourite is the ballet Pulcinella, a lovable melange of Baroque theatricality, heard here in it's concert suite form. The other works in this programme are surprisingly less known: the luminous and symphonic Song of the Nightingale, and The Fairy's Kiss based on Tchaikovsky's music, are both derived from stories by Hans Christian Andersen. An astonishing rarity, The Faun and the Shepherdess is an ancient Greek tale that was Stravinsky's romantically sensual gift to his young bride. UPC: 747313473571Label: NaxosRelease Date: 5.22.26Format: CD
Giya Kancheli, one of Georgia's most eminent composers, became increasingly famous after the advent of glasnost in the Soviet Union, when his works, not least his seven symphonies, were heard internationally. Around the year 2000 Kancheli shifted away from the opulence of these pieces and moved towards a more restrained, introspective vein, which is exemplified by the three works on this album. Elements of folk and traditional music can be glimpsed in the abstract Ex contrario, while Middelheim is striking for it's overlapping succession of episodes. Tsutisopeli was Kancheli's final score. UPC: 747313445370Label: NaxosRelease Date: 4.24.26Format: CD
Following his critically acclaimed recording of Galina Ustvolskaya's five symphonies (BIS-2304), conductor Christian Karlsen, together with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, now takes on the orchestral and concertante works of Anders Hillborg, Sweden's most performed living composer. This recording opens with the Piano Concerto No. 1, a hyperactive and virtuoso work filled with filigree detail, performed here by one of the leading interpreters of contemporary piano repertoire, Tamara Stefanovich. Also included is the Cello Concerto, characterised by the intimacy of it's scoring, and a direct and paired-back simplicity of expression, performed by Nicolas Altstaedt-the dedicatee of the work and one of today's most sought-after and versatile artists. Also on the programme: the Kongsgaard Variations, a meditative composition based on the arietta from Beethoven's Piano Sonata Op.?111, and Vaporised Tivoli, a frenzied and hallucinatory invocation of funfairs. Hillborg's music appeals to musicians and music lovers around the world thanks to it's deep expressiveness, it's irrepressible energy, and it's love of the absurd and unexpected. This recording constitutes an excellent introduction to the fascinating world of this unique composer. UPC: 7318599926841Label: BisRelease Date: 5.1.26Format: CD
Rheinberger composed his Cantus Missae in 1878, during his tenure as court chapel master to King Ludwig II. The work bears witness to his successful reconciliation of the conflicting artistic currents of his time, and it is precisely this perfect equilibrium that has rendered it timeless. The Mass captivates with it's melodic, often almost Lied like character; yet, on closer listening, the music reveals a striking modernity for it's era.Nana Forte's Libera me was written almost 150 years after Cantus Missae. It is a spiritual drama in which the composer draws on the traditional techniques of double choir writing: she let's the choirs interlock contrapuntally or overlap in contrasting layers, as in the passage "tremens factus sum ego" ("trembling has overtaken me").Frank Martin kept the manuscript of his Mass for Double Choir in a drawer for nearly forty years, regarding it as something solely between himself and God. In sound and musical language, the Mass is unmistakably a work of the twentieth century, yet one hears echoes of Gregorian chant and senses that the composer consciously places himself within the centuries old tradition of double choir composition and the symbolic world of Mass settings. Martin's work is shaped by the tension between tradition and modernity, personal confession and doctrinal expectation; but rather than seeking a "golden mean," he approaches these themes as a seeker and questioner. The result is one of the most highly regarded Mass settings of the twentieth century. UPC: 0747313917181Label: SwrmusicRelease Date: 6.12.26Format: CD
![the album cover for Ryuichi Sakamoto - Opus [Digipak with Booklet]](http://tumbleweedsct.com/cdn/shop/files/4488403-3527735.jpg?crop=center&height=645&v=1774554135&width=465)
