Venice - the 'incomparable city, the most beautiful queen, this paradise' - is how the Englishman Thomas Coryat describes the lagoon city that deeply impressed him on his trip to Europe in 1608. But in addition to the architecture, the canals and the people from a wide variety of cultures, it was the music in particular that fascinated Coryat: 'It was so beautiful, so delightful, so unique, so admirable, so unsurpassable that it enchanted and amazed all the strangers.' UPC: 4039956925057Label: Coviello ClassicsRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
The Ensemble InterContemporain and it's musical director Pierre Bleuse continue their monographs on the great figures of contemporary musical composition. After the multi-award-winning Ligeti, it is the composer Unsuk Chin who is celebrated here. Of Korean origin, she moved to Germany in the 1980s. Her music shines with an immediate sensuality, and the inexhaustible transformations of her instrumental polyphony produce unprecedented sound constellations. This programme presents her piece Gougalon (2009/12), which evokes the memory of the travelling amateur theatres of her native country, with deliberately offbeat instrumentation in six episodes. She presents it as 'imaginary folk music that is stylised, fractured and only appears to be primitive.' Chin titled her 2013 piece for large ensemble Graffiti. All sound registers are exploited in a colourful, lively and varied manner. 'The musical language of Graffiti oscillates between roughness and refinement, complexity and transparency,' says the composer. Her double concerto for piano and percussion completes this programme. UPC: 3701624512005Label: AlphaRelease Date: 4.10.26Format: CD
Winter - from First Frost to Carnival FestivityA sparkling musical panorama of winter - harking back to the legendary Great Frost of 1708/09. From the beginning of the season over Christmas to a festive carnival: songs, opera scenes, instrumental as well as traditional pieces from France, Germany, and Great Britain.Music by Jean-Baptiste Lully, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Michael Praetorius, William Byrd, among others. UPC: 719279934205Label: Perfect NoiseRelease Date: 4.24.26Format: CD
Less is more: true to this motto, nine orchestra musicians who were friends, founded the Ensemble Minui in 2016. Active in renowned orchestras such as the Carinthian Symphony Orchestra, the Slovenian National Opera, and the Vienna State Opera, they devote themselves here to exquisite minimalism with elegance and sophistication. Homogeneous and balanced, the five string players and four wind players offer previously unheard, sonically differentiated perspectives on large-scale operas such as Wagner's Die Walkure, Puccini's Manon Lescaut, and Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten. UPC: 4260052386934Label: Ars ProduktionRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
Twilight's dancing glowYearning for love: Where is my beloved? I have searched for him, both high and low. Bid him come to me, for without him I cannot live.Longing for an end to suffering: The soul glides across the shimmering waves, the glow of twilight dancing around the boat. Time flows on, until I too shall slip beyond it's reach.Burning desire: You were stolen from me, but in my heart, you linger still: I embrace you, I kiss you!Ensemble Rossignol owes it's name to the title of it's first concert series in 1998: The virtuoso song of the English Nightingale. Indeed, the virtuosity and refined, playful, inspiring, intimate and musical performance of the ensemble immediately call to mind the enchanting song of this remarkable bird. Ensemble Rossignol has since released four CDs: LocLoc Locke and Locatelli larded, London Love, Master composers in the shadow of Handel and Vrouw Women in Baroque and Early Romantic music, from in love to inconsolable. UPC: 8717775552208Label: Aliud RecordsRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
This double CD brings together two of the most impressive sacred works of the 18th century, composed in different cultural and religious contexts - yet linked by their extraordinary expressive power: Jan Dismas Zelenka's little-known Missa Paschalis ZWV 7 and George Frideric Handel's Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline HWV 264. In the interpretation of the ensembles Zeronove and I pizzicanti under the direction of Lukas Wanner, these works unfold their full emotional and dramaturgical depth. Zelenka's Missa Paschalis, composed for Easter, is one of the Bohemian master's most original mass settings. It is juxtaposed with Handel's Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline, a work of monumental dignity and haunting simplicity. The ensembles Zeronove and I pizzicanti approach these works with stylistic sensitivity and tonal transparency. Historically informed but never academic, they focus on expressive articulation, lively tempi and clear emotional expression. UPC: 4262353970980Label: Prospero ClassicalRelease Date: 6.12.26Format: CD
In Monteverdi's Lament, the Erik Westberg Vocal Ensemble presents two contemporary works that reimagine poetry and music connected to the legacy of Claudio Monteverdi. Drawing on 17th-century sources, these compositions set historical and contemporary choir music in dialogue with interactive technologies and the hyperorgan-an instrument enhanced with digital control functions that allow performance beyond the traditional keyboard. The result is an exploration of the creative tension between past and present, echoing the spirit of innovation that shaped Monteverdi's music in the early 1600s.Carl Unander-Scharin's Lamento è più takes inspiration from Ottavio Rinuccini's libretto for the lost opera Arianna, originally set by Monteverdi in 1607. Created in collaboration with choreographer Åsa Unander-Scharin, this 2023 work expands the expressive potential of the 17th-century text through a dynamic interplay of choreography, choir, and hyperorgan. UPC: 822359005037Label: Swedish SocietyRelease Date: 5.1.26Format: CD
Erling BlochHe was born into a home where artistic matters held pride of place. His father was a painter and at the same time extremely interested in music, therefore a musical education was a wholly natural thing for the young Erling. Already at the age of seven he received violin tuition and was made familiar with chamber music through the cellist Emil Robert Hansen, the brother of the pianist Agnes Adler, whose piano trio was to be of great signifi- cance for him. He entered the conservatoire at the age of fifteen where already in 1922 he gave his de'but concert, and only one year later became a member of The Royal Danish Orchestra. Here he was active until 1954, when teaching steadily began to take up more of his time. He had taught at the conservatoire since 1946 and became a professor there in 1949. Here he was held in affection and admired by his pupils, and was musically a central force at the conservatoire until he had to retire at the age of seventy. After his retirement he continued as an examiner. I met him repeatedly for many years at The Royal Academy of Music where I was a member of the staff. He was always friendly, attentive and witty, in short, a person whom we always looked forward to meeting. UPC: 5709499001066Label: Danacord RecordsRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
Caspar Joseph Brambach, who was two months younger than Johannes Brahms and survived him by almost five years, once basked in the glow of considerable attention. He studied and later taught at the Cologne Conservatory and was music director in Bonn for eight years before he dedicated himself solely to his own compositions, in which vocal music played a predominant role. His works for male chorus were especially well received, but his instrumental works were also popular. Brambach, who was from the Rhineland, left no doubt that the masters of the Romantic era, above all Robert Schumann, played an important role in his musical world. This first recording includes the sextet for piano and strings from his last year in Cologne and just as he moved to Bonn (around 1860). Also featured are his three piano quartets, the last of which the composer used to champion his ideals shortly before the turn of the 20th century. UPC: 761203565320Label: Cpo RecordsRelease Date: 5.1.26Format: CD
In 1975, coinciding with the inauguration of their new headquarters in Madrid, the Fundacion Juan March launched their Young Performers recitals, a series of presenter-led concerts for secondary-school students, performed by leading Spanish artists. In their first season, five outstanding Spanish pianists-all former fellows of the Fundacion-guided young listeners on a journey through the European piano tradition, from Mozart to Debussy. This remastering brings back to life the historical recordings of several performances from that first season. The selection included on the original 1976 LP, released under the title Conciertos para jovenes. Recital de piano romantico, constitutes a valuable documentary record of Spanish pianism, now returned to circulation following a meticulous remastering process. UPC: 8435725606466Label: MarchvivoRelease Date: 6.5.26Format: CD
Paavo Jarvi and the Estonian Festival Orchestra pay tribute to Arvo Part, who celebrates his 90th birthday in 2025. The Estonian composer has been part of Paavo Jarvi's life since childhood: "Arvo was my sister's and my father's supercool friend. He wore a baseball cap, jeans and a denim jacket". The history of the Jarvi family is intimately linked to Part's work, since it was the now legendary concert in which Neeme Jarvi - Paavo's father - conducted Part's Credo in 1968 that caused the Soviet regime to blacklist the Jarvi family and precipitate their departure from Estonia. Credo is also included in this vast programme that covers 45 years of composing. What lies behind this music's simplicity and depth? One answer possibly lies in a remark that Part made in London during a rehearsal with Paavo: "I have the impression that the orchestra doesn't like this chord enough". The transformation that then occurred was incredible; the same notes, when played "with love", sounded completely different. UPC: 3701624511589Label: AlphaRelease Date: 1.16.26Format: CD
Eugenio Catone continues the development of Shostakovich's complete piano works bypresenting the third volume. Few piano cycles of the 20th century can boast an impact and a resonancecomparable to those of Dmitri Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues Op. 87. This work,which holds a special place both in the composer's output and in the history of the genre itself,represents a significant return to writing for his instrument, seventeen years after Piano Concertono.1 Op. 35 (1933), in a context deeply changed both on a personal level and in relation to theevolution of his musical language. Shostakovich held Op. 87 in special consideration: he recordedseveral numbers on multiple occasions and devoted himself to transcribing each Prelude andFugue for several performers, with the aim of recording the entire work with a home recorder,thus making it's polyphonic architecture as clear as possible. UPC: 8011570372253Label: StradivariusRelease Date: 6.5.26Format: CD
There are moments in music when time seems to pause, and with Arcangelo Corelli's music, I have experienced that enchanted stillness-where each note is not just heard but felt deeply. His music, elegant and radiant, is the gentle whisper of a bygone era, yet it breathes timeless warmth and light.Corelli's art is a delicate conversation between violin and continuo, a living breath of harmony and counterpoint that dances with noble grace. Each phrase unfolds like a tender story, where voices seek, answer, and embrace one another-like cherished friends sharing secrets across the ages. It was through my mentor, Ryo Terakado, and his luminous recording of the Violin Sonatas, Op. 5 that I first stepped into this radiant world. Since then, Corelli's melodies have been a constant companion-like a soft glow in the twilight, a source of inspiration and solace.Corelli's influence extends far beyond my own story. His style shaped the musical language of generations-admired openly by Francois Couperin, absorbed deeply into the work of Jean-Marie Leclair, and echoed, even centuries later, by virtuosi such as Pablo Sarasate and Niccolo Paganini.His music is both spiritual and earthly-a beacon of simplicity and profound beauty.I am deeply grateful to Ryo Terakado for guiding me to this wellspring of grace, to Kaori Uemura and Francois Guerrier for their artistry, and to our magical producer Guido Tichelman and the Byucksan Corporation for nurturing this project. -Â Eun-Shik Kim UPC: 608917200331Label: Challenge ClassicsRelease Date: 4.10.26Format: CD
Modern American music has long been characterised by kaleidoscopic variety, reflecting the vigour and optimism of American culture more generally. John Corigliano's early Violin Sonata is a work of the mid-twentieth century. But his own assessment of the piece - 'It's eclecticism, it's rhythmic energy, and it's bright character give the Sonata a very American quality' - could be applied with equal merit to the three 21st-century scores that accompany it here, all four switching easily between gentle introspection and spirited exuberance. UPC: 5060640070417Label: Toccata NextRelease Date: 4.10.26Format: CD
Composed during Antonio Vivaldi's stay in Prague in 1729-30, the Concerto for Lute RV 93 is the most celebrated example of a repertoire, almost totally neglected today, but once extremely popular in the German-speaking world, particularly in the Habsburg lands of Austria and Bohemia. After offering us a reference edition of the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach (2022) and a representative anthology of the output of Silvius Leopold Weiss (2024), Evangelina Mascardi concludes her 18th-century trilogy by illuminating a fundamental, yet hitherto largely sidelined, chapter in the history of the lute. Alongside the Vivaldi Concerto, which guitarists have embraced since the early 1960s making it one of his most acclaimed works, we find four genuine and practically unknown gems, such as those composed by Joachim Bernard Hagen and Karl Ignaz Augustin Kohaut, now given their first recording. Accompanied by the Estrovagante orchestra directed by Riccardo Doni, Mascardi ventures into the rococo idiom, the stylistic context for the final virtuosic showpieces of an instrument boasting a rich history, but destined - in the space of just a few years - to be definitively eclipsed. UPC: 3760195735930Label: Arcana RecordsRelease Date: 4.24.26Format: CD
Vers la vie nouvelle - the title of this program is more than just the name of a piano piece by Nadia Boulanger. It symbolizes a new direction in early 20th-century music; a quiet but determined departure. At it's heart are three female composers who forged their own musical paths against traditional role models and social resistance. Evgenia Nekrasova belongs to a well-known family of musicians in Minsk and graduated from the Saint Petersburg State Conservatory with a diploma. She then went on to study at the Cologne University of Music (graduating with honors). UPC: 4260052386880Label: Ars ProduktionRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
This recording marks the first-ever release of works by composers whose lives and artistic legacies still await wider recognition. Written at the dawn of the 20th century, these pieces capture the final echoes of Romanticism while embracing emerging new directions-freer, impressionistic forms and unexpected harmonic relationships-yet they also reveal the enduring influence of great predecessors such as Chopin and Stojowski. Acclaimed soloist and chamber musician Ewa Skardowska brings these rarely heard works to life with insight, commitment, and a deep understanding of the rich musical culture of the fin de siècle. UPC: 5902547021843Label: Dux Recording Prod.Release Date: 5.1.26Format: CD
ELEMENTUAK marks the debut album of Expressio Duo, the Basque accordion partnership of Maria Zubimendi and Garazi Navas. Conceived as a journey across three centuries of music, the programme explores the art of transcription as a creative dialogue between past and present, revealing the extraordinary expressive range of the modern accordion. From the refined elegance of the French Baroque to the evocative sound world of early 20th-century Basque nationalism, ELEMENTUAK highlights the instrument's versatility in repertoire originally conceived for orchestra and keyboard. Works by Jean-Baptiste Lully and Jean-Philippe Rameau unfold with clarity, colour and rhythmic vitality, while Jean-Fery Rebel's visionary Le Cahos from Les elemens acquires striking modern intensity through the duo's rich harmonic textures and dynamic control. The programme concludes with music rooted in Basque identity. Aita Donostia's Acuarelas Vascas evoke landscapes and traditional dances with impressionistic delicacy, and excerpts from Jesus Guridi's El Caserio and Amaya celebrate folkloric energy transformed into symphonic brilliance. Recorded at the Manuel de Falla Auditorium in Granada, this release affirms Expressio Duo's artistic depth and positions the accordion as a powerful mediator between tradition and reinvention in today's classical landscape. UPC: 8436597701181Label: Ibs ClassicalRelease Date: 6.5.26Format: CD
Jazz with MACV presents a unique concert recording of Mozart's Piano Concertos KV 413 in F major and KV 466 in D minor, performed on historical instruments by Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense.Classical elegance meets creative freedom as Filip Wojciechowski, an outstanding pianist equally at home in classical and jazz idioms, enriches Mozart's scores with original jazz-inspired cadenzas.The result is a bold and refined reinterpretation that bridges centuries, blending period performance practice with the spontaneity of jazz. This album captures an electrifying dialogue between tradition and improvisation, revealing Mozart's music in a fresh, vibrant, and compelling new light. UPC: 5902547022123Label: Dux Recording Prod.Release Date: 5.1.26Format: CD
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING. The complete surviving works of Rev. William James Foxell (1857-1933) - composer, scholar, and educator. Rare manuscripts, unheard for a century, recorded from the original scores (Vol. 1)
Tracklist:
Couer Joyeux
Soliloquy 1
Soliloquy 2
Soliloquy 3
Soliloquy 4
Soliloquy 5
Soliloquy 6
Soliloquy 7
Presto
L'apres midi d'un enfant
Birthday Greeting to MEWH
Sonatina Allegro
Importunity for strings
No Great Matter
Chant D'avril
No. 4
No. 71
No. 76
No. 91
No. 95
Fugue in 5 Parts
XXXVII
Fugue In A Minor
In Memory of E.W.L.F
Romance For Piano
Waltz 1
Prelude in B
Husband ; Wife; A Friendly Altercation
There's Rosemary that's for Rememberance
X
XL
UPC: 741869418048Label: Prestige Elite LlcRelease Date: 5.22.26Format: CD
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS The complete surviving works of Rev. William James Foxell (1857-1933) - composer, scholar, and educator. Rare manuscripts, unheard for a century, recorded from the original scores (Vol. 2)
Tracklist:
Mozart Oboe Quartet in F (1st Movement)
Mozart Oboe Quartet in F (2nd Movement)
Mozart Oboe Quartet in F (3rd Movement)
The Oil of Joy For Mourning
Waltz 7
Graceful Dance
Aprille with his Shoures Soote
Rustic Dance
Waltz 4
XII
XV
XXI
XXIV
XXV
XXXI
Anne At The Zoo
Salut a mon Petit-Fils
Fughetta
XXXII
Waltz 8
Gigue
Prelude In A Flat
Waltz 11
XVII
Troubles Coming ; Going
On Recieving A Letter From A Friend
Sonata in F for Strings (Part 1)
Sonata in F for Strings (Part 2)
UPC: 741869418055Label: Prestige Elite LlcRelease Date: 5.22.26Format: CD
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS. The complete surviving works of Rev. William James Foxell (1857-1933) - composer, scholar, and educator. Rare manuscripts, unheard for a century, recorded from the original scores (Vol. 3)
Tracklist:
Dance Gracieuse
Lucinda Ballet Piece
C (No. 100)
In A Wayward Mood
May Still Seems Love to Me Through Love's Face Altered New
A Daydream
Nocturne
An Eccentricity
Piece Inspired By Handel
No.66
Pianforte Sketch II
Waltz 5
No. 96 (Allegro)
Waltz 2
XXXVII
Waltz 6
The Game ; The Candle
Waltz 9
XXIII
Waltz 10
No. 94
Waltz 12
Fugue In F
No. 92
No. 74
No. 55 Poco Lento
Chanson De Guerre
UPC: 741869418062Label: Prestige Elite LlcRelease Date: 5.22.26Format: CD
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS. The complete surviving works of Rev. William James Foxell (1857-1933) - composer, scholar, and educator. Rare manuscripts, unheard for a century, recorded from the original scores (Vol. 4)
Tracklist:
Sonata in F (1st Movement)
Sonata in F (2nd Movement)
Sonata in F (3rd Movement)
Sonata in F (4th Movement)
Sonata in E (1st Movement)
Sonata in E (2nd Movement)
Sonata In E (3rd Movement)
Sonata In E (4th Movement)
Funf Klein Klavierstuke
No. 93
Birthday Greeting 2
Smiling Joan
In Memoriam 2
The Happy Ending
Waltz 3
Andante Con Moto
Allegretto
Andante Con Moto in C Minor
A Christmas Piece
No. 39
No. 56
No. 57
No. 58
UPC: 741869418079Label: Prestige Elite LlcRelease Date: 5.22.26Format: CD
Francesco Palmieri has gathered in this album pieces that are special to him, with which he has sustained an intimate, lasting relationship - one might even say, of friendship. This is testified also by his fruitful collaboration with some of the composers presented here. The collection's title, Sans dire, taken from one of the works, evokes the familiarity that sometimes arises between friends; or, at times, between a performer and, through their instrument, a piece of music. As the composer himself notes: "Sans dire is a confidential, wordless conversation between intertwined souls, taking place around the body of the guitar - the instrument that, more than any other, reminds me of the tone of friendship and of those intimate connections that render words effective even when only hinted at".The program presents works for guitar or e-guitar, in some cases with added electronics. Composers include Luciano Berio (the famous Sequenzia), Salvatore Sciarrino, Marco Momi, Fausto Romitelli and Pierluigi Billone. A fascinating journey through a sometimes hallucinating soundscape of unheard-of colours, timbres and soundscapes. Francesco Palmieri (b. 1996) is a Berlin-based classical and electric guitarist whose work intertwines Dedicated to contemporary music, he has performed at major festivals and concert halls, including Festival d'Automne, ManiFeste, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Ruhrtriennale, Wittener Tage fur Neue Kammermusik, Darmstadter Ferienkurse, Staatsoper Berlin, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Bregenzer Festspiele, ZeitRaume Basel, Musikfestival Bern, Festival di Nuova Consonanza, and Milano Musica. UPC: 5063758975827Label: Brilliant ClassicsRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
Franco Corelli, along with Mario Del Monaco and Carlo Bergonzi, is universally recognized as the greatest Italian tenor of the last century. This edition of his performances is based primarily on the early recordings he made for the Italian Cetra and includes a selection of great scenes from his repertoire, including a crucial, high-quality live version of Don Carlo, which Corelli never recorded in a studio. UPC: 8051773574283Label: Urania RecordsRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
Among the few recordings of Don Carlo, this recording stands out with great authority. Despite being a live performance, it is of the highest quality. It's importance lies above all in the participation of two great performers, Franco Corelli and Gundula Janowitz, who have never recorded Don Carlo in the studio. UPC: 8051773574306Label: Urania RecordsRelease Date: 5.1.26Format: CD
Franziska Fleischanderl calls her new CD solo un salterio - just a salterio. This title is not just an understatement, because Franziska Fleischanderl is quite simply THE salterio specialist worldwide. She has devoted herself entirely to her instrument, written a doctoral thesis on the salterio, discovered many works for the instrument in archives and researched historical playing techniques. The title also refers to the instrumentation: while the salterio is known today only as an accompanying or continuo instrument, Franziska Fleischanderl shows that the instrument was widely used and played in aristocratic and clerical circles in the 17th century. Here, for the first time, she presents an entire CD programme of works for solo salterio, allowing her instrument to shine in many colours. She plucks it with her fingers, with special plectrums, and strikes it with various small hammers, a compendium of playing techniques that she has brought back to life through her research. For the listener, this creates a sensual, multi-coloured world of sound with enchanting melodies full of lightness. UPC: 4011254260016Label: Note OneRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
Ein Traumspiel" (A Dream Play) - Aribert Reimann's first opera - is finally available on CD, in the production by the Hof Theater that was enthusiastically acclaimed by critics and opera audiences alike.Vocal music is a central element of Aribert Reimann's compositional output, and literature plays an equally central role for him as a source of dramatic impulse, inspiration, and subject matter - as well as providing an opportunity for creative friction and musical transformation. Reimann's compositions for the voice - from unaccompanied solo pieces to opera - are almost always settings of literary texts.The visually stunning "Traumspiel" captivates from the very first note with it's melodic diversity and intensity. Aribert Reimann succeeds in bringing the underlying theme of August Strindberg's play, compassion, to life in a sensual way, and at the end gives Indra's daughter a gift package of human worries, sufferings, and complaints, tied up with masterful music, to take with her to the afterlife to the god Indra.In addition to August Strindberg, Reimann was also inspired by the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, although he takes a completely different musical approach to Rilke's first "Duino Elegy": in his composition "Denn Bleiben ist nirgends" (For to Stay is to be Nowhere), he combines the text, recited by a speaker, with a symphony orchestra playing in a broad, expansive style to create a melodrama. Herein, the music corresponds to Rilke's poetic text that - according to Reimann in his notes on the work - "justifies the development of an independent piece of music and is not simply the point of departure for subsidiary background music." The result is "a constant exchange, in which the expressive impulses sometimes come from the language and are taken up by the music, or vice versa, until each becomes the instrument of the other. UPC: 4010228738124Label: Wergo GermanyRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
To mark the 85th birthday of the renowned Munich composer Wilfried Hiller, master of universal sound art, the CD VERNISSAGE Works for Violin, Piano, North Indian Singing Bowls, Wine Glasses and Tap Shoes will be released now: This unconventional instrumentation creates a synthesis of tradition and experimentation that takes the listener into new dimensions of sound. Several world premiere recordings can also be heard, some inspired by the expressive sculptures of the artist Antje Tesche-Mentzen. Interpreted by violinist Franziska Strohmayr and pianist Laura Pitz, who make the nuanced timbres shine, they also present solo works with virtuoso musicality and technique, interweaving harmonic worlds and percussive elements. This CD is a novelty in contemporary music: innovative, interdisciplinary and astonishing! UPC: 4250702801559Label: TyxartRelease Date: 6.12.26Format: CD
Today, it is a beacon in the world of music: a cappella choir culture at the highest technical and musical level. Clytus Gottwald had a decisive influence on this choir culture with his work, arranging solo songs for polyphonic choirs and thus enabling new, breathtaking sound experiences. In 2025, Gottwald would have turned 100 years old. The Stuttgart Chamber Choir, conducted by Frieder Bernius, has taken this anniversary as an opportunity to honor Gottwald's art with a special program. From Franz Schubert's Nacht und Traume (Night and Dreams) to Die Konige (The Kings) by Peter Cornelius to Solveig's Song by Edvard Grieg, the range of songs that Gottwald transformed into a cappella choral sound experiences through his transcriptions is vast. A vocal delight, not only in the anniversary year! UPC: 4009350835412Label: CarusRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
A companion and friend of Dmitri Shostakovich. 1919-1996. "The unique magic of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's music is not easy to describe. Closely interwoven with his biography, which bore the painful marks of the upheavals of the 20th century, his compositions emerged as a musical reflection of his life. And yet, they resist clear-cut interpretations: Weinberg's music is too complex and ambiguous, as technically demanding as it is fascinating. At times, contradictions become audible-for instance, when Weinberg, in his darkest hours, finds a musical language that expresses lightness and joy. Such is the case in his Concertino Op. 42, composed in the summer of 1948, when the ever-growing antisemitism of the Stalinist regime, clearly palpable since the end of the war, began to affect Weinberg's life directly. At the same time, in the spring of 1948, the music scene came under the grip of government censorship as part of a propaganda campaign. At it's center stood Weinberg's close friend Dmitri Shostakovich... In March 1948, in an attempt to deflect suspicion, Weinberg wrote one of the obligatory and painful self-denunciations, acknowledging his "mistakes" and pledging to adapt his style to official expectations. As if to underscore these statements, he composed his Sinfonietta No. 1 Op. 41 around the same time-a work that stands out in Weinberg's oeuvre for it's straightforwardness and simplicity. Yet only a few months later, in June 1948, Weinberg composed the Concertino, Op. 42. Unlike the Sinfonietta, however, this composition can by no means be called a strategic work of political calculation..." (Excerpt from the liner notes by Verena Mogl) UPC: 028948676613Label: Cavi-musicRelease Date: 5.1.26Format: CD
Tchaikovsky composed the Variations on a Rococo Theme for cellist Wilhelm Fitzenhagen, who re-ordered the variations, infuriating the composer. The cello part for the virtuosic Pezzo capriccioso was also altered by it's dedicatee, Anatoly Brandukov. In the performances heard here, Tchaikovsky's original intentions are restored. To accompany these pieces, Gabriel Schwabe has provided two of his own arrangements - the Canzonetta from the Violin Concerto and Valse sentimentale from the Six Morceaux. The album ends with the second version - never before recorded - of the romantic fantasy overture Romeo and Juliet. UPC: 747313474172Label: NaxosRelease Date: 5.8.26Format: CD
Wilhem Friedemann Bach's compositional work can be characterised overall as a permanent conflict between high artistic standards and the need to make concessions to playability, audience taste and contemporary understanding of music. However, as the eldest son of the famous Thomaskantor, he was only willing to a limited extent to subordinate his musical ideals to external constraints, as numerous contemporary anecdotes and documents attest.He preferred to accept being considered an outsider and deliberately moved his art beyond the boundary that Gotthold Ephraim Lessing described as the threshold at which the common people could 'distinguish the true from the false'. This uncompromising attitude not only shaped his contemporary failures, but also explains the enduring fascination that his work exerts today. UPC: 881488250596Label: Hanssler ClassicRelease Date: 6.19.26Format: CD
Like the Christmas and Whitsun festivals, the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus was spread out over three feast days. A cantata was sung at each day's church service; Bach, whose ambition in his first year was to present the worshippers of Leipzig with works he had written himself, was thus kept busy. Most of his work in 1724 undoubtedly went into the St John Passion (BWV 245.1), performed for the first time on Good Friday that year, two days before Easter. UPC: 881488230338Label: Hanssler ClassicRelease Date: 4.17.26Format: CD
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