Volume 11 of Mathieu Gaudet's complete Schubert piano sonatas cycle brings us the fascinating second book of Impromptus D. 935, including the immortal Theme and Variation in B flat major. The youthful Sonata no. 2 in C major D. 279 and the « Noble » Waltzes D. 969 round up this spectacular album, full of singing melodies, contrasting atmospheres and romantic drama.

Montreal-based string nonet Collectif9 presents another innovative programme, featuring works by Hildegard von Bingen, Arvo Part, Michael Tippett, Nicole Lizee, Bryce Dessner, and Jocelyn Morlock. Rituaels is a new collection of music from the medieval to the modern era with a narrative - an artistic gesture - that recalls the human tradition of passing on knowledge and practices in culture and art. An element of continuity ties each work of music to the next, whether introduced as a drone or held note, a chord that imperceptibly transforms, or a group of continuously repeated notes. The earliest performances included dance and movement, an idea that influenced the interpretation and development of the programme that is revealed on this album.

For the tenth volume in his series of Schubert's Complete Sonatas and Major Works for Piano, Mathieu Gaudet turns to a work of unabashed Romanticism: Sonata No. 4 in A minor (D. 537), composed in 1817. Whilst the outer movements are highly dramatic in character, the central slow movement features a long and enchanting melody of an almost fragile delicacy. He returned to this melody eleven years later in 1828, using it as the theme of the last movement of the Sonata No. 19 in A major D. 959, his penultimate sonata. This Allegretto is perhaps the most "Schubertian" of all: it is generous, graceful, full of hope despite a weighty melancholy, and always in motion. Schubert's return to the melody that he had composed when he was twenty years old attests his particular love for it; it was his personal hymn, his secret melody.