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
Brooklyn based SydeBoob Duo is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of contemporary performance in repertoire for soprano and flute, bringing their virtuosity to ambitious works that highlight their committment to broad representation alongside the highest aesthetic standards. On this debut full length release, they perform works by Rebecca Saunders, Eric Moe, Anthony Braxton, Ramin Akhavijou, Max Johnson, and Beat Furrer that are both landmark works for the instrumentation and core works that have shaped Sydeboob as an ensemble. UPC: 613527285852Label: New FocusRelease Date: 4.24.26Format: CD
The distinguished Swedish conductor Herbert Blomstedt, long associated with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra as a regular guest, conducted Johannes Brahms' Variations in B-flat major on a Theme by Joseph Haydn, Op. 56a, in concerts on February 13 and 14, 2014 in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz. This new BR-KLASSIK CD presents not only the live recording of this compelling interpretation but also a live orchestral rehearsal recording from February 10, 2014. The latter forms part of BR-KLASSIK's acclaimed series Conductors at Rehearsal, offering a glimpse into their artistic work with the orchestra. Brahms composed the Variations on a Theme by Haydn in Tutzing during the summer of 1873. The work was premiered on November 2, 1873 in Vienna, conducted by the composer himself. A short while later, Brahms introduced an alternative version for two pianos (Op. 56b), which premiered in 1874, also in Vienna. The Variations are based on the melody of the so-called "Chorale St. Antoni, " taken from the second movement of a Divertimento in B flat major (Hob. II:46) that was most likely mistakenly attributed to Joseph Haydn. The chorale may not even have been written by the composer of the Divertimento and could originally have been a pilgrimage song honouring St. Anthony of Padua in western Hungary (present-day Burgenland). Regardless of their origins, Brahms' Variations (theme with nine variations and finale) stand as one of the composer's most important and most celebrated orchestral works, and remain a cornerstone of the Romantic repertoire. The detailed rehearsal recordings on the CD provide a deeper insight into this magnificent work. Listeners can experience first-hand how the conductor's wishes, ideas and instructions are implemented, how his explanations and his temperament change the resulting sound, and what thoughts lie behind the interpretation of the work. Thanks to this series, which is now also available on CD, the unique artistic partnership between Herbert Blomstedt and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra can be documented. Blomstedt's seemingly inexhaustible source of energy - music itself - is palpable in every word and every bar. ? Herbert Blomstedt conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in concerts on February 13 and 14, 2014? Live recording of Johannes Brahms' famous Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56a? Includes "Conductors at Rehearsal": live recording of the orchestra rehearsal on February 10, 2014 for the Munich concerts? Electrifying live atmosphere from the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz UPC: 4035719002164Label: Br KlassiksRelease Date: 5.15.26Format: CD
The Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra enjoyed a long and intensive artistic collaboration, which came to an abrupt end with Haitink's death in October 2021. BR-KLASSIK now presents outstanding and previously unreleased live recordings of their concerts from past years. This recording of Shostakovich's Fifteenth Symphony documents a concert given in February 2015 in Munich's Philharmonie i'm Gasteig. This recording of Gustav Mahler's Fourth Symphony documents concerts from November 2005 at Munich's Philharmonie i'm Gasteig. Haitink first conducted a Munich subscription concert in 1958, and from then on was a regular guest with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra - either in the Herkulessaal of the Residenz or in the Philharmonie i'm Gasteig. This congenial collaboration lasted for more than six decades. The orchestra musicians and singers enjoyed working with him just as much as the BR sound engineers. As an interpreter of the symphonic repertoire, and especially that of the German-Austrian Late Romantic period, Haitink was held in high esteem throughout the world. With him, the symphonies of Dmitri Shostakovich were always in the best of hands. Haitink's driving principle was to make the sound architecture of a musical composition, with it's complex interweaving, transparently audible; extreme sensitivity of sound was combined with a clearly structured interpretation of the score. In his Fourth Symphony, Gustav Mahler brought his preoccupation with the poems from Des Knaben Wunderhorn to a preliminary climax. Texts from the collection, published between 1805 and 1808 by Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim, had already been incorporated into the "Wunderhorn Symphonies" Nos. 2 and 3. In Mahler's Fourth Symphony, composed between 1899 and 1901, the final movement features the Wunderhorn poem "Das himmlische Leben" (The Heavenly Life), which the composer had already set to music in 1892. It depicts a paradise beyond the grave, seen from a child's perspective. Mahler's sceptical view of the world of his time forms a utopian counter-concept to this "heavenly world". A mature and convincing interpretation of Mahler's impressive Fourth Symphony. Concerts recorded on November 3 and 4, 2005 at Munich's Philharmonie i'm Gasteig. A fine example of Bernard Haitink's long-standing collaboration with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. UPC: 4035719002379Label: Br KlassiksRelease Date: 6.19.26Format: CD
Con silencio vibrante presents a compelling portrait of the Spanish and Latin American musical avant-garde during one of it's most creative and transformative periods. Performed by the acclaimed ensemble Taller Sonoro, the album brings together eight chamber works composed between 1963 and 1976, offering a rare and illuminating perspective on a repertoire that remains insufficiently documented.The recording traces a dense network of aesthetic ideas, personal connections, and transatlantic exchanges that shaped mid-20th-century contemporary music. Serial rigor, controlled chance, graphic notation, literary inspiration, and refined timbral exploration coexist in works by Mario Lavista, Joan Guinjoan, Aurelio de la Vega, Graciela ParaskevaÃdis, Gonzalo de Olavide, Enrique Raxach, Jesús Villa-Rojo, and Luis de Pablo-several of them presented here in world-premiere recordings.From the fragile, poetic resonance of Lavista's Quotations to the architectural clarity of de Pablo's Cesuras, the album reveals a shared search for new expressive territories, while preserving the distinct voices of each composer. Silence, texture, rhythm, and space become structural elements in a music that balances intellectual rigor with striking expressive power.Recorded in Seville and produced by IBS Classical, Con silencio vibrante confirms Taller Sonoro as one of today's leading interpreters of contemporary repertoire and stands as an essential release for listeners interested in the avant-garde heritage of the 20th century. UPC: 8436597701112Label: Ibs ClassicalRelease Date: 5.8.26Format: CD
Nico Muhly and The Tallis Scholars present 'No Resting Place', a collection of world premiere recordings of works that Muhly wrote for The Tallis Scholars over the last 10 years, by invitation of their director Peter Phillips. Phillips says that Muhly 'immediately understood our particular sound. A succession of masterpieces followed, each as powerful as the last.' The title work, No Resting Place, is a setting of Jeremiah's Lamentations, interspersed with contemporary interviews with people from the Windrush generation. Recordare, Domine also sets texts from Lamentations, while Marrow is a setting of Psalm 63. Rough Notes, using cold textures, austere counterpoint and unstable harmonies, draws from Captain Scott's diary on his doomed mission to the Antarctic. Prosperitie was written to celebrate Peter Phillips' 70th birthday, and A Glorious Creature praises the glory of the soul. This album marks the start of a new collaboration between The Tallis Scholars and Linn. UPC: 691062079020Label: Linn RecordsRelease Date: 4.10.26Format: CD
Performed by Tanya Houghton, Jennifer Sturgeon, Jenny Bourke and Lynda Barrett, Sweet Chance is a lyrical journey for harp, flute and voice, inspired by artistic relationships forged through travel and chance encounters. From Parisian inspiration to a Belfast home, this recital programme ranges from Britten's Interlude to songs newly arranged with harp accompaniment, and Alwyn's virtuosic flute and harp duet, Naiades. UPC: 726436300261Label: Convivium RecordsRelease Date: 6.5.26Format: CD
Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) was an Argentine composer and bandoneon virtuoso who revolutionized the traditional tango by infusing it with elements of jazz, classical music, and modern harmonies. His work transformed tango from a dance genre rooted in Buenos Aires' popular culture into a sophisticated art form suitable for the concert hall. Central to this transformation were his bandoneon concertos, which showcased the expressive possibilities of the instrument and blurred the boundaries between popular and classical traditions.The bandoneon, a type of button accordion originally developed in Germany, became the soulful voice of Argentine tango. Piazzolla mastered it's complex mechanics and extended it's expressive range far beyond it's traditional role.Aconcagua: Concerto for Bandoneon and Orchestra (1980) represents the peak of Piazzolla's orchestral writing. Named after the highest mountain in the Andes, it symbolizes artistic ascent and ambition. This concerto highlights the instrument's dual nature-melancholic yet rhythmic, intimate yet dramatic. In this concerto, Piazzolla combines lush textures, driving rhythms, and virtuosic passages to create a dialogue between the bandoneon and orchestra that is both lyrical and dynamic.Also included on this disc are the Tres Tangos for orchestra and the immensely popular Oblivion, known from Marco Bellocchio's film Enrico IV.Played by Klaudiusz Baran, one of the leading bandoneon players of his country, and the Czestochowa Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Adam Klocek. UPC: 885470044668Label: Berlin ClassicsRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
FLORENCE B. PRICE. A composer advocates for the exchange of different traditions and cultures. Florence B. Price's works combine a fascinating spectrum of intense emotion, buoyant lightness, and playful charm, which captivated me from the very first moment. In particular, her songs, which bear witness to great sensitivity and melodic ingenuity, have made a lasting impression on me in terms of their expressiveness and complexity. However, it is not only her music that touches me; I also feel profoundly moved by her life story. Florence B. Price was a single mother of two children after separating from her husband. Tragically, she had to cope with the loss of one of her children at an early age-a fate that is sure to have shaped her life profoundly. As an African-American artist, she also had to assert herself in an era characterised by deep-seated racism, and in a world where women in classical music rarely found recognition. Astonishingly, her works have not yet been fully published or featured in the standard repertoire. Her music, culturally rich, full of history, and brimming with emotion, deserves to be elevated to it's rightful rank due to it's artistic quality. The apparent lack of widespread recognition of Price's oeuvre cannot be explained by a lack of compositional quality, but rather by socio-historical circumstances that marginalised artists like her. It is very surprising that her works have not yet been published in their entirety...(Excerpt from the liner notes by Sascha EL Mouissi) UPC: 028948685615Label: Cavi-musicRelease Date: 5.8.26Format: CD
Æternum marks the impressive debut recording of the Tempus Trio, presenting four contemporary works written expressly for the ensemble by leading composers Helena Cánovas, Marc Migó, Miquel Oliu, and Albert Guinovart. The album offers a uniquely coherent yet stylistically diverse journey through today's chamber music, unified by a central exploration of musical time-it's suspension, fragmentation, and expressive expansion. The programme opens with Helena Cánovas's tanta llunyania no ha estat un error (2025), a single-movement work built from contrasting sonic "states," where fragile harmonies, atmospheric textures, and sudden transformations create a poetic sense of distance and expectation. Marc Migó's GEM(S)TONE (2022) continues the journey with a vivid triptych inspired by three gemstones-Onyx, Ruby, and Diamond-each transformed into symbolic sound worlds that highlight the ensemble's dynamic range and technical finesse. Miquel Oliu's Un simple aleteig... (2023) offers a delicate, introspective reflection inspired by the proverb of the butterfly effect. Through natural harmonics, oscillating tremolos, and transparent textures, Oliu crafts a meditative work that pays subtle tribute to Kaija Saariaho. The album concludes with Albert Guinovart's expansive Trio Celebration (2025), a four-movement composition that draws from the great Romantic trio tradition while incorporating personal gestures and a final homage to Purcell's The Cold Song. Recorded at the Auditorio Manuel de Falla in Granada, Æternum showcases the refined musicianship of Maria Tió (violin), Ferran Bardolet (cello), and Ricard Rovirosa (piano), establishing the Tempus Trio as a compelling new voice in contemporary chamber music. UPC: 8436597701143Label: Ibs ClassicalRelease Date: 5.8.26Format: CD
Darkness explores the symbolic depth of the bass and baritone voice as a vessel for humanity's most profound questions. Across works by Schumann, Wolf, Strauss, Martin and Brahms, the album traces a wide emotional and spiritual landscape shaped by themes of death, transience, loneliness, melancholy and, ultimately, transcendence. The programme opens with Schumann's Requiem, added as a tribute to Nikolaus Lenau and placed at the beginning as a motto: a union of heaviness, longing and gentle, affirmative melancholy. From there, the journey unfolds through composers often writing at pivotal or final stages of their lives. Wolf's Michelangelo Songs, composed shortly before his mental collapse, meditate on love, devotion and artistic melancholy; Strauss's dark-hued songs reflect retreat, solitude and a wistful dissolution into nature; and Frank Martin's Six Monologues from Jedermann plunge into the raw confrontation with death, charting a moral and spiritual transformation from terror to humility and faith. Together, these works reveal darkness not as mere despair, but as a space in which existential truth is sought. Yet this album is not confined to shadow alone. In both Wolf and Brahms, the selected works bear witness to late creative phases in which despair is counterbalanced by reconciliation. Brahms's Vier ernste Gesange, written in anticipation of loss and drawing on biblical texts, move from stark reflections on mortality toward a final affirmation of love as the greatest human force, closing the circle begun with Schumann's Requiem. Throughout the programme, sorrow is repeatedly transformed into acceptance, and fear into insight, illuminated by what the liner notes describe as a "gentle compositional light." Darkness thus becomes a deeply human meditation: an artistic passage through emotional abysses toward consolation, spiritual clarity and an enduring sense of love that transcends life and death. UPC: 608917200294Label: Challenge ClassicsRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
The Christmas compilation 'Sind die Lichter angezundet' brings together the most beautiful and time-honoured treasures from the Eterna archive on two CDs. Available on CD for the first time ever, the album offers numerous recordings from the 1950s to the 1970s, with a focus on children's, youth and boys' choirs. The most beautiful and best-known Christmas melodies are contrasted with regional carols, rarely performed and recorded works and almost unknown gems - the perfect comprehensive and varied musical accompaniment to the Advent season and Christmas Eve. UPC: 885470023182Label: Berlin ClassicsRelease Date: 4.24.26Format: CD
