The French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, a leading figure in contemporary classical music and an insightful interpreter of the core piano repertoire, has joined Alpha Classics and launches the partnership with an album that has long been close to his heart: Schonberg's piano works. He has waited more than forty years to record them - a journey that began in 1973 when, as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, he performed Schonberg's Opus 11 live on TV after winning the Olivier Messiaen Competition. At a time when the composer's music was often misunderstood, Aimard developed a lasting connection to it's originality and expressive power. In this long-awaited recording, he traces the composer's artistic evolution through five landmark piano works, from the Expressionism of Op. 11 (1909) to Op. 33b (1931), written on the eve of Schonberg's emigration to the United States and reflecting both Brahmsian tradition and a world in transition.

He was still young, but already an experienced composer: after all, Attila was already his ninth opera. In March 1846, the 32-year-old Giuseppe Verdi premiered it in Venice. The experience gained from his previous works is evident in the musical quality in many places: Verdi masterfully commands the dramaturgy of the grandiose choral scenes, which also play a major role in key moments of the plot in this work. At the same time, the portrayal of the individual characters' inner conflicts becomes increasingly nuanced and musically tangible. The ancient subject of the murderous Hun king offers many opportunities to present these. Marcus Bosch, the Cappella Aquileia, the Czech Philharmonic Choir of Brno, and the hand-picked ensemble of soloists work together with their usual precision and add another jewel to the multi-award-winning series of Verdi's earlier and often less-noticed operas.

How do you give new impetus to your artistic life after completing a project as intense as recording Johannes Brahms' complete piano works? Geoffroy Couteau's answer was to climb an Everest. For to perform Bach's Goldberg Variations is to undergo an exceptional musical and human experience. It is also to grasp the expressive power of polyphony and it's extraordinary force of attraction.

The music of composer and pianist Nicolas Worms (born in 1993 in Paris) is a space where contradictory times and places converge. He develops the concept of 'music-fiction', as in the series FLOT, released by Alpha Classics in 2024. This new album arose from the "simple yet dizzying need to summon the unknown within me. What can I draw from my heritage and my keyboards?' says Worms. With four of them - the grand piano, the CP-70 electric piano, the Prophet-V analogue synthesiser and the modular system - he embarks on a grand investigation and uses his instruments as 'pieces of evidence'. L'Enquete comprises four parts and a coda. Some pieces are written in the style of a toccata or a nocturne. Others are improvised, more melodic, and others still more abstract as in any investigation, it is a matter of changing perspective, retracing one's steps, and allowing oneself to be surprised.

The most comprehensive set ever dedicated to the music of a neglected Italian Romantic, reissuing modern performances which have been recognised for their sensitivity and dynamism. As a one-time pupil of Franz Liszt, winning admiration from Richard Wagner at an early stage in his career, Giovanni Sgambati pursued a vocation outside the mainstream of 19th-century Italian music. Rather than opera, he was drawn above all to Germanic instrumental models of the concerto, quartet and symphony, prefiguring in this way the music of Martucci and Respighi as they sought to reclaim those models within an Italian tradition. Another of his successors, Alfredo Casella, paid warm tribute to him as a pioneer: 'The work of Sgambati, is of real importance in musical history it was he, at all events, who pointed the way which Italian composers are now treading in ever greater numbers, with growing confidence, and with increasing success.' Particularly notable in this set is the inclusion of the third and last of Sgambati's symphonies. The First and Second have attracted recordings elsewhere, but under the direction of Francesco Attardi, who has made modern editions of several Sgambati works, the Third is revealed as a powerful symphonic statement in five movements and three parts - in this regard, if in few others, resembling Mahler's Fifth, and taking marriage for it's programmatic theme. There is a nobility of utterance to the Third which makes a striking contrast with the blood and thunder of the G minor Piano Concerto, as well as with the intricately worked counterpoint of the Nonet for strings and the two Piano Quintets. Sgambati was agile in both mind and technique, adapting his idiom to his genres. Any listener hungry for out-of-the-way Romantic rarities will find rich rewards in this new, super-budget collection. In previous Fanfare magazine reviews, it was noted that 'Gaia Federica Caporiccio plays with a winsome freshness.' 'Caramiello's performance is more ruminative, less frenetic... this is highly recommended.' In reviewing the chamber music: 'I find Brilliant's newer recording much more to my liking.'

Composer Maria Lithell Flyg will release a new album on September 25, 2026. This album brings together two works on environmental, climate change and biodiversity themes, and a third piece about a loving percussion duo. Now that climate change is more and more noticeable, it is urgent to bring attention to what we are in the process of losing. Ecce arbor! (Behold the tree!) is written for the soprano Alexandra Buchel and the musicians Ivo Nilsson, Helene Sikdal, Johannes Thorell, and Tora Thorslund. Right now, in Sweden, woodlands are rapidly being deforested and replaced by timber farms. Alongside climate change, the forest industry poses the biggest threat to biodiversity in this country. In order to shine a light on this matter, Lithell Flyg has used music to illustrate what is going on.

If there is one idea that unites Christian Ridil's chamber music, it is a fascination with musical communication. His music thrives on interaction: voices converse, challenge one another, overlap, and continually reshape their relationships. On the sixth album in GENUIN's Christian Ridil series, the musicians of Ensemble Modern illuminate these relationships with remarkable acuity and infectious vitality. These world premiere recordings bring together works from different phases of the composer's career and offer a multifaceted view of the chamber music of a composer now over eighty-from a work for solo viola and pieces for wind trio to large mixed ensembles with piano.

Violinist Noe Inui presents a recording of the Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin that is as personal as it is profound. Shaped by early inspiration, great role models, and a decades-long process of artistic maturation, this recording masterfully combines historically informed performance practice with modern interpretation. With emotional depth and technical brilliance, Inui opens up new perspectives on one of the most significant works in music history. This recording is more than just a milestone for every violinist - it is an invitation to all music lovers to rediscover Bach's timeless masterpieces.

A city as a soundscape: On their new GENUIN album, violinist Eva Wetzel and pianist Antonio Di Dedda invite listeners to embark on a musical journey of discovery through Hamburg. Spanning composers from Johannes Brahms to Sofia Gubaidulina and Alfred Schnittke, the program blends the familiar with the rarely heard, revealing a multifaceted panorama of Hamburg's musical life from the 19th century to the present day. Guided by a keen sense of connection and context, they craft a musical city tour whose colorful and nuanced interpretation brings the many facets of this rich musical landscape into vivid relief.

This recording brings together the complete works for clarinet and piano by Paul Ben-Haim, Mordecai Seter and Tzvi Avni, three central figures in the development of Israeli art music. All three composers were born and trained in Europe before settling in Israel, where each forged a distinctive musical voice shaped by new cultural surroundings and traditions. From Ben-Haim's richly lyrical writing, influenced by Mediterranean and Middle Eastern elements, to Seter's more introspective and historically informed approach, and Avni's later exploration of modern and experimental styles, these works offer a compelling overview of a changing musical landscape. The clarinet, long associated with both Western chamber music and Jewish musical tradition, serves as a unifying voice throughout, revealing a repertoire of striking contrast, colour and expressive depth.

Herve Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel are paying tribute to Michel-Richard de Lalande, who died 300 years ago: 'Louis XIV's master of music, renowned for his sacred music and numerous divertissements, was also a remarkable composer of symphonies,' says Herve Niquet. Niquet imagines 'a rehearsal at Lalande's home as he prepared his latest compositions for the King's supper. And Massialot, his cook and maître d'hôtel, not only brought him food and drink, but also read him numerous letters and newspapers delivered by mail coach." In addition to the suites and caprices, we therefore hear a "delightful" letter from the Princess Palatine, wife of Monsieur, the King's brother, and a drinking song from 1683, entitled Pourquoi boirions-nous de l'eau? This colourful album confirms that in aristocratic France of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, "the most exquisite refinement coexisted quite unashamedly with the most unabashed vulgarity" (Francoise Rubellin).

Domenico, son of Alessandro Scarlatti, one of the great Italian composers, was born in Naples in 1685. In a letter addressed to Ferdinand de' Medici, Alessandro says, 'This son of mine is an eagle whose wings are grown; he ought not to stay idle in the nest, and I ought not to hinder his flight.' Curiosity about distant places and love of the unexpected made him leave Italy in 1719 for London, where his opera Narciso was performed the following year. From London he went to the Iberian Peninsula. In Lisbon he was appointed Maestro of the Royal Chapel, and he guided the musical education of Princess Maria Barbara. A desire to see his father again took Scarlatti to Naples in 1724. While there, he played the harpsichord for the great composer Hasse, who was delighted and amazed. Domenico left Italy and went back to Portugal, where he resumed his position and his harpsichord lessons with the Princess Maria Barbara. It was for her that he composed harpsichord pieces which he called Esercizi. Maria Barbara worshiped her Maestro and invited him to join the royal suite when she went to Madrid in 1729. From this time on Scarlatti did not leave Spain. Scarlatti wrote 555 Sonatas for the keyboard. Composed primarily for the harpsichord, these short, single-movement pieces explore bold harmonies, rapid hand crossings, and rhythmic vitality influenced by Spanish music. Each sonata feels like a miniature experiment, full of surprising contrasts and inventive ideas. Despite their brevity, they demand great skill and sensitivity from performers. Scarlatti's music stands apart from his Baroque contemporaries, anticipating Classical clarity while retaining a distinct personality. Played by Finnish keyboard player and conductor Aapo Hakkinen. A personal note from him: 'Scarlatti is the only composer who reminds me of the playfulness of a cat, and he does not suffer from this comparison. We all have seen a kitten play with a twig. It is impossible to describe it's grace, charm, vivacity, and inventiveness. For a very serious man, these puerile marvels are, of course, useless, to say the least. After all what is the cat's aim in playing with a twig? If only it were on the lookout for a mouse, it would be useful to the household and therefore acceptable. Among all the Scarlatti sonatas which appeared the most beautiful to me, I chose to play those which according to their affinities and to my fancy form a chain and pursue a single tale of love and wild adventure.' Hakkinen plays on a famous historical instrument, the Joao Baptista Antunes 1789, located and recorded in the Museu Nacional da Musica, Lisbon, Portugal.

The most extensive survey ever produced of music by an outstanding Baroque violinist-composer whose accomplishment and originality has only been rediscovered in recent years. In 2009, Brilliant Classics released the first album ever dedicated to the music of Carlo Tessarini. His music had featured before in a few compilations of Italian Baroque chamber music, but only with this, and three further collections also issued by Brilliant Classics, has the stature of Tessarini become clear, as among the most individual and impressive contemporaries of better-known violinist-composers such as Pietro Locatelli and Arcangelo Corelli. This set compiles several of those previous albums to present an attractive, budget-priced introduction to the appealing world of Tessarini. The historically informed interpretations communicate a lively sympathy for his music, and extensive booklet notes give full details of his life and career, in so far as they can be traced in the historical record, as well as discussions of the salient features of the music. Born in the Adriatic port of Rimini in 1690, Tessarini moved north to Venice for his training, and joined the musicians attached to the Basilica San Marco. His own compositions seemed to have travelled across Europe before he did, thanks to their fresh and appealing melodies and elegant construction. Thus his rising reputation enabled him to undertake extensive tours as a violinist, and eventually he settled in Holland (possibly the city of Arnhem), where he died in 1767. The Op.9 collection of trio sonatas dates from Tessarini's years in Venice and then Urbino, while the Op 12 and Op.14 set of sonatas belong to his touring years in the late 1740s. Engaging and various as these collections are in themselves, they only scratch the surface of Tessarini's productivity. He published at least 20 opus-numbered collections, and his surviving output amounts to around 280 works including 40 concertos. While his music could be summarised as a skilful synthesis between a Vivaldian, Venetian idiom and a new, French-accented galant style, Tessarini evolved and developed like every artist of note, and this set traces a portion of that personal development. Anyone who has not encountered Tessarini before will find that this set presents an ideal opportunity to make amends.

With Every Petal Tells a Story, guitarist and composer Tiago Lageira presents an intimate musical portrait of love, commitment and the transformation of becoming a parent. Rooted in personal memory, the album unfolds like a sequence of emotional chapters: from the first spark of romance to marriage, from expectation to birth, and from uncertainty to the overwhelming discovery of a love growing beyond oneself. Lageira's music carries the imprint of several worlds. Born in Portugal and shaped by the traditions of Fado and Brazilian rhythm, he later immersed himself in Amsterdam's jazz scene, absorbing the language of improvisation, harmony and storytelling. His playing combines melodic sensitivity with rhythmic fluidity, bringing together Portuguese lyricism, modern jazz colours and a deeply personal sense of narrative. Across seven original compositions, Every Petal Tells a Story invites a rich cast of voices and instrumental guests. The album features Vanessa Torrens Juaneda, Anna Serierse, Hermine Deurloo, Jina Sudemi, Iris Feijen and Marisa Petraglia, each adding a distinct shade to Lageira's musical world. From the atmospheric opening of 'Under the Shadow of the Lotus' to the reflective closing piece 'Futuro Incerto,' the album moves through tenderness, wonder, doubt and devotion. The title reflects the album's essence: every moment, every memory and every fragile detail carries meaning. Like petals gathered from different seasons of life, these compositions form a story of love in bloom: vulnerable, resilient and profoundly human. Every Petal Tells a Story is both a personal dedication and a universal invitation: to listen closely to the quiet turning points that shape our lives, and to hear in them the music of becoming.

From the reserved charm of the three Nocturnes to the heroic struggle of the 'Sonata Epica': the major violin-and-piano works by Nikolai Medtner, in a new recording by musicians with an impressive pedigree in the music of this overlooked master of late Romanticism. While Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951) is best known for the cycle of piano sonatas which assure his stature as one of the great pianist-composers of the 20th century, his musical inspiration was hardly confined to expression through his own instrument. Brilliant Classics have already issued a magnificent cycle of Medtner's complete songs, which cover the course of the composer's long career from his Russian childhood to his exile and retirement in London from 1936. Medtner's wife Anna was a violinist, and he seems to have had her in mind when writing his music for violin and piano. Premiered in 1911, the First Sonata was inspired by the figure of Dionysus, Greek god of revelry. Thus the sonata concludes with a wild 'Dithyramb' which works a tango rhythm into the texture. From 1925, the Second Sonata bears the subtitle 'Spring' less in homage to Beethoven's example than to a poem by Fyodor Tyutchev. This is one of Medtner's most overtly 'Russian' works with it's folky spirit and evocations of balalaikas. The third, last and longest of the sonatas was composed in 1938, once Medtner had settled in London. We may hear in it the mingled relief and sadness at the turbulent state of his homeland, and his distance from it. Born in Naples in 1988, Fabrizio Falasca is Assistant Leader of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, regularly playing with the world's great conductors of our day, but he also pursues a busy solo career of his own, as both a recitalist and a recording artist. This survey of Medtner marks his third album for Brilliant Classics, following well-received collections of Viotti and Busoni: 'Fluent, musical and well-recorded performances' (MusicWeb International). His partner on this occasion is the pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi, who is renowned in his own right as a specialist in super-virtuoso piano music and neglected composers of the late-Romantic era. He is a regular guest at the Rarities of Piano Music Festival in Husum, Germany and a professor of piano at the Cleveland Institute of Music. His own extensive catalogue of recordings includes collections of solo music by Grieg and Hummel as well as concertos and chamber-music collaborations such as this one with his fellow Italian, Fabrizio Falasca. Together, violinist and pianist tap into the elusive but deep feelings flowing beneath the complex surface of Medtner's ambitious forms and grand narratives. Once Medtner has a listener in his spell, in works such as the violin sonatas, he does not let go.

Since the end of the nineteenth century, the large Wagnerian orchestra reached unprecedented dimensions, pushing listeners' expectations toward a gigantic sound overloaded with colour. Mahler continued this tendency, further enlarging the ensemble: additional winds, triple brass, and a rich percussion section became the norm. Today we naturally expect overwhelming power from Mahler's Titan, as if the very title evoked an immense orchestra. Scogna, by contrast, overturns this expectation through subtraction: he does not like to speak of arrangement, but rather of chiselling work. His idea is to reduce excessive doublings while leaving intact the principal lines chosen by Mahler, almost as if carving from marble only the contrapuntal skeleton of the work. Arnold Schoenberg (1918-21) had already theorized a similar idea with the Society for Private Musical Performances: the aim was to 'create a thinned-out sound in order to examine the essence' of symphonic works. In transcribing the First Symphony for only fifteen instruments, Scogna carries out a subtraction of the utmost rigor. Mahler's commanding orchestra dissolves into a small chamber ensemble, yet each fundamental timbre remains 'typically Mahlerian.' The result is a revelation, as if hearing Mahler with a new set of ears. Played by a select group of young Italian instrumentalists, conducted by Flavio Emilio Scogna himself.

In Motion explores the many ways music captures movement - through rhythm, dance, the passing of time, and the ever-changing colors of sound. Saxophonist Andreas Mader joins an exceptional ensemble of friends under the direction of Pit Brosius in a vibrant program that reimagines masterpieces by Ibert, Villa-Lobos, Ravel, de Falla, Caroline Shaw and Dubois. New arrangements place the saxophone at the heart of an intimate chamber ensemble, revealing fresh perspectives on familiar works while celebrating the instrument's remarkable expressive range. Inspired by the idea that 'time, like the tide, it's motion keeps,' the album unfolds as a journey of energy, elegance and constant transformation.  Recorded in the outstanding acoustic of Trifolion Echternach in Luxembourg and captured in high-definition sound by Bert van der Wolf-Oude Avenhuis of Northstar Recording, In Motion combines artistic imagination with exceptional sonic clarity. The result is an album that invites listeners into an immersive musical landscape where classical tradition, rhythmic vitality and contemporary creativity come together in performances of warmth, virtuosity and irresistible momentum.

The double bass, the largest and lowest-pitched instrument of the string family, has a rich and evolving history. It's origins date back to the 15th and 16th centuries, when early bass instruments like the violone were used in European music. Unlike the violin family, the double bass developed with influences from both the viol and violin families, which explains it's varied shapes and tuning systems. By the 18th century, it became a standard member of the orchestra, providing depth and harmonic foundation. Over time, makers refined it's design, increasing it's size and improving it's sound projection. This enterprising program presents works for double bass from 20th century Italy, ranging from double bass solo, duos with violin and duos with piano. Composers include Giuseppe Marangoni, Giovanni de Capua, Virgilio Mortari, Lucia Berio and Vito Mercurio. The guide through this fascinating journey is Antonio Mercurio, with his musical partners Mihaela Costea and Alice Baccalini. Antonio Mercurio held principal double bass positions at the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini in Parma, the L. Cherubini Orchestra under Riccardo Muti, he is regularly invited as principal by orchestras like the Orchestra Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Balthasar Neumann Orchestra, Teatro San Carlo, and Royal Northern Sinfonia and Filarmonica della Scala.

Hans Winterberg grew up in Prague where he was one of a whole cadre of composers in the new Czech musical tradition. He claimed to have been inspired by Schoenberg, but in reality, he cultivated a Central European Impressionism which he skillfully blended with complex rhythms. The two works presented on this CD mark high points in Winterberg's oeuvre. The circumstances in which they were composed could not have been more different. While the Second Symphony was written during the darkest moments of his existence, he composed the Second Piano Concerto less than ten years later, in what was probably the brightest moment of his life, the early 1950s, when his breakthrough as a composer, which he had been unable to achieve in Czechoslovakia, now seemed certain in the young Federal Republic of Germany.

24-year-old Tuva Bergenheim is a Swedish drummer, composer, and bandleader from Stockholm who, with her debut album Skargardsjazz (Archipelago Jazz), creates a dreamy and melancholic sound where Swedish jazz meets pop, visa, and Nordic folk music. Unlike other Swedish jazz artists, there are no influences here of traditional vocal jazz or the American standard repertoire. As a drummer, composer, and lyricist, she shapes a personal sound that defies expectations - dreamy, melancholic, and a unique blend of old Sweden and modern jazz.