A Forest Unfolding is a collaborative work inspired by recent scientific research into the rich communication and subterranean connectivity between trees. Four writers-the environmentalists Bill McKibben and Joan Maloof, along with the novelists Richard Powers and Kim Stanley Robinson-selected prose passages and poems on the relations among people and trees. They presented these selections to four composers-Eric Moe, Melinda Wagner, Stephen Jaffe, and David Kirkland Garner-who set these words into a linked sequence of recitatives and arias. The resulting whole traces a narrative arc beginning with human estrangement from nature and ending with a glimpse of the endless cooperation that knits a forest together. UPC: 613527005085Label: New FocusRelease Date: 5.15.26Format: CD
Alongside Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, this release features the world premiere recording of Mikhail Pletnev's Rachmaniana, which will be first performed in January 2026 at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. The eight short pieces of the Rachmaniana Suite succinctly outline some of the composer's character traits: passion, tenderness, a joie de vivre both exuberant and rooted in pain, and an all-encompassing melancholy. This music can be called "contemporary" insofar as it was composed in our time. However, it is not entirely untouched by what has been composed since Rachmaninoff's time, and these experiences are incorporated into it in a very subtle way - it does not follow the path of describing the ugliness of this world; rather, the music professes an imagination of beauty that we might find old-fashioned, yet desperately need again today.
Tracklist:
Symphonic Dances, Op. 45: I. Non Allegro
Symphonic Dances, Op. 45: II. Andante Con Moto. Tempo Di Valse
Symphonic Dances, Op. 45: III. Lento Assai - Allegro Vivace
Rachmaniana: Dance
Rachmaniana: Nocturne
Rachmaniana: Serenade
Rachmaniana: Landscape
Rachmaniana: Allegretto
Rachmaniana: Melody
Rachmaniana: Farewell
Rachmaniana: Hungarian Dance
UPC: 0880242111425Label: EuroartsRelease Date: 5.29.26Format: CD
Stradivari Classics - The World's Great Music, Captured at it's Finest
Tracklist:
Largo - Allegro Moderato
Allegro Molto
Adagio
Allegro Vivace
Scene
Waltz
Swan Dance
Scene
Czardas
UPC: 699246656692Label: Hindsight RecordsRelease Date: 5.22.26Format: CD
After the success of Mandolin on Stage, dedicated to the most emblematic 18th-century concertos for mandolin and recorded with Il Pomo d'Oro directed by Francesco Corti, Raffaele La Ragione returns with his third album for Arcana. This time he recounts a fascinating chapter in French musical history, joined by pianist Francois Dumont (who has chosen an exceptional 1896 Pleyel for the occasion) and special guest, soprano Sandrine Piau. In the 1880s and 1890s Paris discovered a deep passion for the mandolin: a fondness fuelled by the concerts held at the Trocadero during the Universal Exhibition of 1878. In the drawing rooms of high society the Neapolitan instrument became a supreme symbol of elegance and exoticism, conjuring up the atmosphere of southern Italy and immediately winning over poets and composers. The recording, created in collaboration with the Palazzetto Bru Zane, brings together original pieces, contemporary arrangements from French operas and operettas, and vocal works dedicated to the mandolin, thereby effectively recreating the soundscape and distinct allure of a fin-de-siecle salon. UPC: 3760195735961Label: Arcana RecordsRelease Date: 5.22.26Format: CD
"My God! What a child! No one has understood me as this boy does... this is not imitation, it is the same feeling, an instinct that makes him play without reasoning, as if he could not be otherwise. He plays almost all of my compositions without having heard them performed, without my having shown him the slightest thing - not exactly like me (having his own personality), but just as well." Chopin on Filtsch (The Humorist, 1843) UPC: 8051773578366Label: Urania RecordsRelease Date: 5.1.26Format: CD
Divine Impresario is countertenor Randall Scotting's portrait of the celebrated castrato Nicolo Grimaldi ("Nicolini"), performed with the Academy of Ancient Music and Laurence Cummings. Drawing on arias and duets written for Nicolini by Handel, Porpora, Gasparini, Mancini, Giaj, Broschi, and Ariosti, the album revives music closely tied to his stage career across Italy and London. Many pieces are recorded in new performing editions based on early sources. With contributions from soprano Mary Bevan, the programme highlights Nicolini's influence as singer, actor, and collaborator, presenting repertoire that shaped early 18th-century opera. UPC: 635212098622Label: Signum ClassicsRelease Date: 3.27.26Format: CD
Widor is a composer best known for writing the thunderous organ symphonies that echoed throughout the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris, where Widor was organist for over 60 years. His famous Toccata for organ continues to be a favorite piece at weddings and concert halls around the world.We share this album in order to shine a light on a quieter, more intimate side of Widor, as a composer of French solo songs and duets for voice and piano. In these songs, Widor let's go of the grandiose sounds of the cathedral organ, and offers delicate, expressive meditations on human emotion, poetry, and connection. In this spirit, we invite you to join us in hearing these rarely performed and little-known works, Six duos: six duets for soprano and contralto, and Soirs d'ete: eight solo songs set to the poetry of Paul Bourget. UPC: 044747416526Label: CentaurRelease Date: 4.3.26Format: CD
This album by pianist Reinis Zarins and the Trio Palladio is a special personal tribute to composer Arvo Part (b. 1935), one of the most influential composers of our time. This album includes Part's timeless piano works together with a selection of his chamber works, including the famous Fur Alina, Fratres and Spiegel i'm Spiegel alongside his early works. The programme also includes two special dedications by two Latvian composers, Georgs Pelecis and Andrejs Selickis, who both as composers have been greatly influenced by Arvo Part's example and ideas. These two works, written in 2025 for Arvo Part's 90th birthday, receive their first recordings. UPC: 761195147825Label: OndineRelease Date: 4.3.26Format: CD
The versatile French conductor and violinist Remy Ballot, following his recent chamber music recordings, now presents a milestone in music history for solo violin: the Six Sonatas for Solo Violin, Op. 27, by the Belgian violinist and composer Eugene Ysaye. Ysaye composed these sonatas for six outstanding violinists who were at the peak of their artistry in the 1920s. They form a kind of visionary synthesis of the achievements of Bach and Paganini and the spectrum of Romantic violin music and the French schools from Franck to Debussy. Together with his wife Iris Ballot, the second CD of the album features the Sonata for Two Violins, a work that remains widely underrated to this day, uniting within itself the full abundance of all musical currents present at the time (1915) during a period of transition. UPC: 9003643993624Label: GramolaRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
Transience is one of the major themes of the Baroque period, and Gabriel Garrido has put together an entire program for this production featuring works from Baroque Rome whose lyrics deal with the transience of the world. The texts are sombre and brimming with charged symbolism of death - in stark contrast, the music of Giacomo Carrismi, the brothers Vigilio and Domenico Mazzocchi, Marco Marazzoli and Kaspar Forster is cheerful and magnificent. The grand seigneur of Baroque music, Gabriel Garrido, works with a large ensemble of young musicians and singers on this recording, which was brought together for the first Rencontre Baroque de Montfrin festival. The result is a wonderful example of Baroque splendour in 17th-century Rome, which sweetens the transience of life for the listener with the most beautiful colours and Baroque soundscapes. UPC: 4011254260047Label: Note OneRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
Music to Hear... Alfonso Ferrabosco: Music for Lyra Viol from 1609, Volumes 2 & 3 continues Richard Boothby's acclaimed exploration of early English viol repertoire. Joined by Sam Stadlen and Jo Levine, Boothby performs Ferrabosco's Lessons for 1, 2 & 3 Viols - a rich sequence of pavans, almains, galliards, and corantos that illuminate the expressive range of Jacobean consort music. Written for Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, these pieces showcase Ferrabosco's invention and refinement at the heart of the early 17th-century English court. Recorded on period instruments and gut strings, this release captures the music's depth, intimacy, and quiet brilliance UPC: 635212098721Label: Signum ClassicsRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
Discover the allure of Gran Teatro La Fenice, one of Italy's most iconic theatres and among Europe's grandest opera houses. Known for hosting groundbreaking opera premieres in the 19th century, La Fenice has staged legendary works from the masters of the Bel Canto era-Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi. Each year, a quarter-million visitors from around the globe are drawn to this historic venue, while the Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro La Fenice now perform worldwide, including a celebrated appearance at Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie in July 2024.Now, Teatro La Fenice proudly presents a collection of it's finest opera recordings from the past 30 years, available for the first time on CD. Featuring between 10 and 15 carefully selected operas each year, these recordings bring the magic of La Fenice's world-renowned performances to your home. Indulge in the timeless beauty of Italian opera at it's best. UPC: 4260193298202Label: Mondo MusicaRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
Discover the allure of Gran Teatro La Fenice, one of Italy's most iconic theatres and among Europe's grandest opera houses. Known for hosting groundbreaking opera premieres in the 19th century, La Fenice has staged legendary works from the masters of the Bel Canto era-Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi. Each year, a quarter-million visitors from around the globe are drawn to this historic venue, while the Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro La Fenice now perform worldwide, including a celebrated appearance at Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie in July 2024.Now, Teatro La Fenice proudly presents a collection of it's finest opera recordings from the past 30 years, available for the first time on CD. Featuring between 10 and 15 carefully selected operas each year, these recordings bring the magic of La Fenice's world-renowned performances to your home. Indulge in the timeless beauty of Italian opera at it's best. UPC: 4260193298165Label: Mondo MusicaRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
Andrew Wan, Concertmaster of the Orchestre symphonique de Montreal, and Charles Richard-Hamelin, internationally acclaimed pianist and silver medalist at the Chopin Competition, unite their artistic chemistry in a pinnacle of the Romantic repertoire. Through Brahms' three violin sonatas, they unfold a sweeping expressive arc: the intimate lyricism of Op. 78, the radiant warmth of Op. 100, and the dramatic intensity of Op. 108. Their interpretation combines depth, architectural balance, and controlled intensity, supported by a rich and resonant recorded sound. A landmark recording, at once noble, incandescent, and profoundly compelling. UPC: 774204902728Label: AnalektaRelease Date: 6.5.26Format: CD
This landmark triple CD release presents for the first time the complete solo piano works of Denmark's nationalcomposer, Carl Nielsen, performed by one of the country's most distinguished and visionary pianists, RikkeSandberg. She has worked with Nielsen's music since she began playing the piano as a child, and her teachersform an unbroken lineage back to the pianists for whom Nielsen originally wrote his piano works. On this releaseyou will find Nielsen's original piano music as well as his own arrangements of his compositions. All of Nielsen'ssolo piano music is included.The Danish press has repeatedly celebrated her artistic integrity. Politiken writes: "She gathers torrents of notesinto long, breathing arcs with sharply etched detail and colourful nuance... First and foremost she is an artist;display does not interest her." The same paper concludes: "Few Danish pianists make as great a difference inour musical life as she does." Jyllands-Posten praises her "richly nuanced and superbly controlled playing," whileinternational critics highlight interpretations where "nothing sounds overheated or overplayed... full of fire andsparkling esprit... with such restrained dynamics that one's breath is taken away."At the heart of Sandberg's artistry stands the great Romantic tradition, notably her acclaimed interpretations ofJohannes Brahms, alongside a profound commitment to twentieth-century and contemporary Danish music.Now, that lifelong dialogue between heritage and renewal culminates in Nielsen's piano oeuvre: music of rhythmicvitality, bold architecture, folk-like simplicity and daring modernity. Spanning nearly forty years, from intimateminiatures to monumental works, this edition reveals Nielsen in his full creative breadth.More than a recording, this is a definitive artistic statement, and the ultimate document of Carl Nielsen's pianoworld. UPC: 0636943693926Label: Our RecordingsRelease Date: 6.5.26Format: CD
Gates presents the Riot Ensemble at the peak of contemporary ensemble performance. The album brings together works by Eric Skytterholm Egan, Eden Lonsdale, Kaija Saariaho, and Bernhard Gander, exploring the tension between order and chaos, structure and excess, historical reference and radical present. Riot Ensemble, one of the world's leading contemporary music ensembles, is renowned for it's precision, stylistic versatility, and close collaboration with living composers. Kaija Saariaho's Gates from her ballet MAA opens a space of fluid transitions, transforming Baroque sonata models into overlapping timbral clouds. In contrast, Bernhard Gander's (2005) channels raw, physical energy inspired by rock, yet retains a structural link to Baroque principles of excess. Gates is an album of thresholds: between past and present, ritual and corporeality, control and collapse. The Riot Ensemble renders these tensions audible with a blend of analytical clarity and visceral immediacy. UPC: 4039956925163Label: Coviello ClassicsRelease Date: 6.12.26Format: CD
Nkeiru Okoye's When the Caged Bird Sings is a 'musical celebration' whose compositional voice, though rooted in the African American church, also embraces minimalism and improvisational elements. Delivering a message of adversity turned to triumph, it celebrates the transformative ability of African American women, partly evoking the experiences of the author and activist Maya Angelou. The work functions as a communal ritual that, like oratorio, opera, and theatre, brings together vocal soloists, chorus, and orchestra in an experience that both commemorates and celebrates hope and possibility. UPC: 636943995327Label: NaxosRelease Date: 4.10.26Format: CD
Nine works - nine musical microcosms: this CD brings together contemporary monologues for trombone, composed by an international group of renowned composers. Between expressive sound theater, inner dialogues, and ecstatic outbursts, an impressive soundscape unfolds, showcasing the trombone in all it's facets - poetic, radical, virtuosic. UPC: 4260052386958Label: Ars ProduktionRelease Date: 5.15.26Format: CD
This album presents a new arrangement of Franz Schubert's song cycle Die schone Mullerin, performed by baritone Roderick Williams with the Carducci Quartet. Originally composed in 1823 for voice and piano, the cycle sets poems by Wilhelm Muller that trace the emotional journey of a young miller through hope, love, jealousy and despair. In this recording, the piano part is reimagined for string quartet, drawing out the implied instrumental textures in Schubert's writing while preserving the narrative flow of the songs. The arrangement offers a fresh perspective on the work's structure and atmosphere, highlighting it's central Romantic themes of nature, longing and reflection. UPC: 635212100325Label: Signum ClassicsRelease Date: 6.5.26Format: CD
While Rodolfo Ritter's repertoire encompasses many well-known and unfamiliar composers, he has made a speciality of Ponce's piano music. He recorded the two piano concertos (for Sterling) in 2013, as well as several solo pieces. Now, for Piano Classics, he embarks on a new adventure, which should win new friends everywhere for an idiom full of charm and optimism, essentially Romantic in spirit and piquantly coloured by the composer's Mexican heritage. A social and cultural revolution followed on the heels of Mexico's political revolution of 1910-1917, as a once largely rural nation became, within a matter of years, predominantly urban. Born in 1882, Manuel Ponce in some ways embodied the outward-facing spirit of that revolution, as the country's first internationally renowned composer of European-style art music ('classical'), and yet in the nostalgia-soaked language of that music evoked a romanticized past. This is the tension explored by Rodolfo Ritter as he begins a multi-volume journey through Ponce's piano output - only the second pianist to do so on record. Ponce was something of a child prodigy, already accomplished and cultivated as both a pianist and composer before he entered the national conservatoire in 1901. Take the dance for the left hand titled Malgre tout, which Ponce was inspired to write in 1900 as a homage to the sculpture of the same name by Jesús F. Contreras - a resonant depiction of a chained and defenceless woman who, "despite everything", looks up with hope (not so oblique as a politically charged metaphor). Earlier still is the bel-canto style lyricism of the Misterio doloroso (1899). Another pivotal work for the left hand dates from a full quarter-century later, the Prelude and Fugue which Ponce wrote in Paris while under the tutelage of Paul Dukas. No less schooled by an earlier period of study in Europe, as a pupil of Martin Krause in Berlin, comes the Variations on a Theme by Handel (1906). In the interim, Ponce channelled this classical technique through the melodies and rhythms of his home country in pieces such as the Rapsodia Mexicana No. 1 of 1911.Volume 1 of Rodolfo Ritter's survey contains all these and many more exciting discoveries. As a Mexican pianist, teacher and scholar of German heritage, Rodolfo Ritter is ideally placed to guide us through such unfamiliar territory. UPC: 5063758103671Label: Piano ClassicsRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
This first portrait album devoted to Annelies Van Parys reveals a distinctive voice in contemporary European music. Drawing on spectralism, she builds luminous orchestral textures that unite timbral exploration with clear musical architecture and strong dramaturgy. Conductor Marit Strindlund notes: "I find Van Parys to be one of the most interesting contemporary European composers... a uniquely individual artistic voice is always shining through her music." UPC: 608917738322Label: AntarcticaRelease Date: 6.5.26Format: CD
SOMM Recordings continues it's much-admired and long-running series The Beecham Collection with it's 35th release of live recordings by Sir Thomas Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The recording highlights the operatic side of Beecham with orchestral excerpts from Les Troyens and La Damnation de Faust by Hector Berlioz, and Tannhauser, Parsifal, Gotterdammerung, and Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg by Richard Wagner. Producer and audio engineer Lani Spahr, whose work for SOMM on Elgar from the Archives has been described by Gramophone Magazine as "astounding" and "revelatory," is once again responsible for the audio restoration on this release.The professional debut of Sir Thomas Beecham, Bart., C.H. took place on 6 December 1899 in St Helen's Town Hall when he was twenty years old. He conducted the Hungarian March from La Damnation de Faust by Berlioz with the Halle Orchestra, and the music of Berlioz was to become one of the cornerstones of his repertoire for the next six decades. This present recording of the Hungarian March is a gloriously uninhibited performance that brought the house down at the end of a 1955 concert at the Royal Festival Hall. That concert also included two excerpts from Les Troyens by Berlioz. The Prelude to The Trojans at Carthage is followed by The Royal Hunt and Storm, with the Oxford Bach Choir providing the brief choral contribution from Nymphs, Sylvans, and Fauns. These performances are remarkable for their atmospheric poetry in the slower sections and the rampaging energy in the faster music.During the same year as his professional debut, a young Beecham made his pilgrimage to Bayreuth, and he became an enthusiastic, instinctual conductor of Wagner's music. The renowned music critic Neville Cardus once noted that, while German conductors tended to take a reflective and philosophical approach in interpreting Wagner, Sir Thomas concentrated on the dramatic and picturesque parts of the music. This concentration on colour and drama makes his conducting of the orchestral extracts included on this release both satisfying and full of character.These four orchestral excerpts were recorded at the Royal Festival Hall on 17 December 1958. The concert opened with the Overture and Venusberg Music from Tannhauser; for decades one of Beecham's warhorses as a concert opener. Orchestral excerpts from Parsifal appeared regularly on Beecham's concert programmes, and this 1958 concert featured the Good Friday Music. Beecham conducted a number of Ring cycles during his career, and his  affinity with the music shines through in this recording of Siegfried's Rhine Journey from Gotterdammerung. This release closes with the Prelude to Act One of Die Meistersinger, about which the review in the Daily Telegraph said, "the thickly overlaid texture of the overture can seldom have been given with such golden clarity." UPC: 758871013529Label: Somm RecordingsRelease Date: 6.19.26Format: CD
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
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