Franz Schubert's chamber music occupies a vital place in the Western classical canon, demonstrating both his lyrical genius and emotional depth. Though he is widely known for his lieder and symphonies, his chamber works represent some of the most profound and innovative compositions of the early Romantic era. The String Quintet in C major, D. 956, written just weeks before Schubert's death in 1828, stands as one of the towering achievements in chamber music. Scored for two cellos instead of the more common two violas, the work is known for it's rich, warm textures and emotional contrasts. The slow movement, in particular, is a masterclass in stillness and poignancy, often cited as one of the most sublime moments in all of chamber music. Schubert's string quartets trace his compositional development and deepening expressiveness. The Death and the Maiden quartet (D. 810) is especially significant, combining dramatic intensity with variations on his earlier song of the same name. The juxtaposition of lyrical beauty with stark fatalism reflects Schubert's own grappling with mortality and human vulnerability. His piano trios blend lyricism and formal sophistication. The trios are notable for their expansive melodies, rich harmonic language, and a sense of narrative continuity that hints at the symphonic. The violin sonatas (often referred to as "sonatinas") are earlier works, more modest in scope but filled with charm and grace. While not as emotionally profound as his later chamber works, they already display Schubert's melodic gift and innate sense of dialogue between instruments. The Trout Quintet (D. 667) is perhaps Schubert's most popular chamber work. It's unusual instrumentation featuring piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass and the famous set of variations on his song "Die Forelle" make it instantly appealing. Yet beyond it's surface charm, the work demonstrates Schubert's brilliance in crafting color and contrast, blending joy and depth seamlessly. Altogether, Schubert's chamber music reveals a composer capable of exploring the most intimate corners of the human soul. These works remain essential listening, offering profound insight into the expressive potential of small ensembles. Excellent performances by the Diogenes Quartet, the Amsterdam Piano Trio and the Berlin Philharmonic Octet.

The largest collection of piano nocturnes on CD, celebrating the art of the romantic piano song without words. Over a century of repertoire in all modern recordings, plus a new booklet essay exploring the history and context of the nocturne. Composers of the 18th century such as Haydn and Mozart wrote notturnos as serenades to be sung and played at night time, both on an operatic stage and as independent pieces for entertainment. The early 19th century saw a rapid evolution in the technological, the cultural and the musical development of the piano - as an instrument of longer sustaining power and greater volume than before, offering a broader palette of tone-colours, presenting composers with the potential to write quasi-orchestrally for a single instrument, as Baroque composers had done for the organ. At the same time, musical forms were becoming looser, more shaped by extra-musical inspirations in literature, poetry and the natural world. The Irish composer John Field was the first to publish nocturnes for the solo piano as standalone works, rather than as poetic interludes within larger pieces such as suites or sonatas. Having inherited the form from Field, Frederic Chopin then raised the nocturne to new heights of inward expression. As much as the salon became a place for pianistic display of technique, it also became a space for quiet soliloquy through the course of the 19th century, accessible to the rapidly expanding bourgeoisie with access to an instrument at home and to the education required to play it. Thus publishers commissioned nocturnes from both greater and lesser composers to satisfy an ever-growing market. The nocturnes in this box cover all the great names of Romantic-era piano writing, and many lesser-known ones too. Many of the performances are played on instruments of the period, enabling listeners to immerse themselves into a 19th-century world of softer and more gentle colours and expression. This new box also features an essay by Peter Quantrill outlining the history of the nocturne and it's lasting hold upon our affections and imaginations.

One of the most important vocal projects of recent years: the complete songs on 5 CDs by Nikolai Medtner, performed by Ekaterina Levental and Frank Peters. Nikolai Medtner was born in Moscow in 1880. After piano lessons with his mother he entered the Moscow Conservatory where he had lessons from Pavel Pabst and Sergey Taneyev. He won the prestigious Anton Rubinstein Prize at age 20. A younger contemporary of Scriabin and Rachmaninoff he was destined for a brilliant pianistic career but he chose to concentrate on composition. In 1936 he settled in London where he spent the rest of his life teaching and composing till 1951. Medtner's style is rooted in the 19th century, full-blooded romantic, with a highly personal harmonic and melodic language, often complex and dense, but hauntingly beautiful. His vocal works fuse intricate piano accompaniments with expressive melodies and poetic texts, often by Goethe, Pushkin, or Tyutchev. Ekaterina Levental was born in Uzbekistan. She settled in The Netherlands where she studied at the Conservatory of The Hague. She embarked on a successful career as singer, dramatist and theatre producer. Pianist Frank Peters is a highly respected Dutch pianist, both as soloist and chamber music partner. He is an indefatigable champion of the piano works of Medtner. 'Levental's soft high notes are truly exquisite, and she can do things with the voice that most modern singers cannot, such as to drain the voice of vibrato for expressive effect. All things considered, she is a virtuoso vocalist of the old school, and such artists are extremely rare nowadays... "We are very lucky to have a pianist like Peters, who fully understands this dichotomy, as the pianist on this album. " (Artmusiclounge. Com). "Levental has a dark, rich voice, but her pure tone is never burdened by excess vibrato... She couldn't ask for a more responsive partner than Peters, who reveals an astonishingly deft touch and an uncanny ear for detail. " Fanfare (Volume 1, 96056). "The phrasing is so perfect, the sense of line so keen, the rubato so natural sounding, that this seems the only way to sing them... this lucidity is due to the purity of Levental's voice, which she employs with sure intonation and minimum vibrato, as well with an exquisite (but always controlled) play of colour... This is a major release. " Fanfare (Volume 2, 96061).

Jean Langlais was born on February 15, 1907, in La Fontenelle, Brittany, France. He became blind from the age of two. Sent to the Paris National Institute for the Blind Youth in 1918, he studied piano, violin, harmony and organ with great blind teachers (among others Albert Mahaut and Andre Marchal). Later on, he entered the Paris National Conservatory of Music in the Marcel Dupre's organ class, obtaining a First Prize in 1930. In 1931, after studying improvisation with Charles Tournemire, he received the "Grand Prix d'Execution et Improvisation des Amis de l'Orgue". He completed his studies obtaining a Composition Prize in Paul Dukas' class at the Paris Conservatory in 1934. In 1945, he became the successor to Cesar Franck and Charles Tournemire at the prestigious organ tribune of Sainte-Clotilde in Paris. He gave countless concerts worldwide, and was a prolific composer. He died on May 8th, 1991 in Paris. Langlais' distinctive style combined traditional harmonies with contemporary techniques. His compositions often feature intricate organ textures and colourful harmonies, influenced by his background as a church musician. Langlais was also known for his use of modes and complex rhythms, which added to the unique character of his music. His works often have a strong emotional intensity and sense of drama, with frequent shifts in mood and dynamics. This is the third volume of the complete organ works includes sonatas, suites, Noels, the Symphony "Alla Webern", and many miscellaneous shorter works. Played by 3 excellent Italian organists: Giorgio Benati, Fausto Caporali and Alessandro Perin. The extensive booklet includes information on the organs used on this album.

Recorded in Perugia between 2023 and 2025, a major new set of Schumann's song output for mixed voices - vocal duets, trios and quartets - by a fine team of Italian singers, and led by the pianist Filippo Farinelli. In recording previous, adventurous surveys of the songs and chamber music by Ravel, Berg, Dallapiccola, Hindemith and others, the pianist Filippo Farinelli has demonstrated his deep knowledge of and affinity for a wide range of chamber music. As he does here, he has gathered together a carefully selected cast of singers in order to present both rarities and established masterpieces within the catalogues of these composers, shedding new light on their evolution as creative thinkers and musicians. The solo song output of Robert Schumann is well established among the peaks of the rich heritage of German Lieder. But alongside cycles such as Dichterliebe and Frauen-liebe und -leben, Schumann often returned to the combination of mixed voices, and these cycles are much less familiar to most listeners. Many of them catch the composer at his most genial and Biedermeier in tone, such as the female Duets Op.43 and the Madchenlieder Op.103. The Spanisches Liederspiel Op.74 and the Spanische Liebeslieder Op.138 are strikingly under-rated precursor to Hugo Wolf's Spanisches Liederbuch, in which a group of singers take turns their individual turns (in solo or duet) to outline 'sketches of Spain' from a German perspective (and from one who had never been there), full of charm and grace. The Op.79 Liederalbum fur die Jugend likewise reminds us of Schumann's genius for song-melody at it's most artless, a vocal counterpart to piano cycles such as Kinderszenen. The poet Emanuel Geibel had adapted many of the 'Spanish' texts, and Schumann's Op.29 trio of songs based on texts by Geibel catch the authentic spirit of the German wanderer. Here and elsewhere throughout the set we find Schumann's affinity for the world of fantasy and fairy tale. Lieder collectors will find this new set an essential acquisition, but anyone new to Schumann's song writing will find much to delight them. - Robert Schumann (1810-1856) devoted himself to composing Lieder at different periods of his life, especially in the 1840s, the so-called Liederjahr, and in his later years, starting in 1849. Alongside Lieder for solo voice and piano, he composed numerous duets and some Lieder for three and four voices, either in homogeneous collections, or by including a few songs for several voices in collections of solo Lieder. - This highly valuable 4-CD set of new recordings contains the complete songs for multiple voice and piano, on poems by Geibel, Heine and Ruckert, but also a substantial part of folk songs, drawn from the rich German culture of folk literature and poetry. - Sung by Elisabetta Lombardi (mezzo-soprano), Elisabetta Pallucchi (contralto), Valentina Valente, (Mark Milhofer tenor) and Mauro Borgioni, accompanied on the piano by Filippo Farinelli, the indefatigable champion of important song projects of lesser known repertoire.

Newly recorded at the Basilica in Assisi, the birthplace of the Franciscan order, a comprehensive set of the 'Rhymed Offices' chanted by religious communities to bear witness to the miracles and virtues of St Francis and of St Antony of Padua. During the Middle Ages, the Church established the custom of chanting original poetic texts during the Hours of the Office (in particular, Vespers, Matins and Lauds). Their purpose was to construct a story which linked biblical texts, such as psalms and canticles, to the deeds and virtues of the Saints of the Church. Those Offices dedicated to St Francis of Assisi and to St Antony of Padua are attributed to Brother Julian, a musician-poet monk born in the Rhineland town of Speyer between 1175 and 1180. Most of his life was spent in Paris; he took formal Franciscan orders around 1225, and died in 1250. Saint Francis had died in October 1226. A biography was soon produced, by Tommaso of Celano, and Julian seems to have based his Offices on this text; they were widely sung in monasteries and convents across Europe from 1235 onwards. Meanwhile, the Offices dedicated to St Antony, who died in 1231 and was canonized the following year, seem to be entirely Julian's work, both text and music. Julian writes in flowing Latin iambic pentameter verse, and composes in a style increasingly detached from the formulas of Gregorian chant proper, inflected by the contemporary emergence of polyphony, exemplified by the music of Perotin in works such as Sederunt principes. The musicians and singers of the Nova Schola Gregoriana of Verona have recorded several volumes of Gregorian chant over the course of their 40-year history, while performing at major international festivals in Paris, Avignon and Cremona, and touring Japan and the United States. They also feature on Brilliant Classics albums of organ masses by Fasolo, Frescobaldi and Merulo. Their new account of these meditative Offices is impeccably authentic in style, text and origin.

Heinrich Schutz (1585-1672), often regarded as the most important German composer before J.S. Bach, stands as a central figure in the early Baroque. His music blends the expressive intensity of the new Italian style -absorbed during his studies with Giovanni Gabrieli in Venice-with the rigorous counterpoint and textual clarity favored in Protestant Germany. Schutz devoted much of his long career to sacred music, serving as Kapellmeister in Dresden and producing works that profoundly shaped the development of German liturgical composition. Among his most significant contributions are his Passions. Today, three authenticated Passions by Schutz survive: the St. Matthew Passion (1666), the St. Luke Passion (1665), and the St. John Passion (1664). While no St. Mark Passion by Schutz has survived, the existing three form a coherent and deeply expressive trilogy. Schutz's Passions are notable for their austere, devotional character. Unlike later Baroque Passion settings, they contain no instrumental accompaniment beyond the continuo pitch support used for recitative; instead, Schutz employs unaccompanied choral textures to emphasize the solemnity of the narrative. The Evangelist's recitation is delivered in a chant-like, highly inflected recitative, carefully shaped to illuminate the nuances of Luther's German Bible. Turba (crowd) choruses, though similarly unaccompanied, provide dramatic contrast through sudden harmonic shifts, rhythmic intensity, and dynamic changes. The St. John Passion, the most concise, is often admired for it's emotional directness. The St. Luke is more restrained, reflecting that Gospel's narrative tone, while the St. Matthew stands out for it's broader scope and particularly poignant choral writing. Founded in 2000 by the harpsichordist, organist and conductor Matteo Messori, the ensemble Cappella Augustana -composed of excellent European historically-informed singers and instrumentalists -focuses on the relationships between the Italian and Northern European music from the late Renaissance, through the Baroque era up to the Romantic Period. The Evangelist in the recordings is the eminent Gerd Turk.

A first-ever complete recording for keyboard collections which capture the elegance and cosmopolitan style of Georgian-era English music. Maurice Greene (1696-1755) belongs to the generation that followed Henry Purcell and preceded Handel. Becoming organist of St Paul's Cathedral in 1719, and in 1735 organist and composer to the Chapel Royal, he wrote a good deal of church music which is still in use today: memorably simple but effective anthems such as Thou visitest the earth and Lord, let me know mine end. Much less well known-and most of it previously unrecorded-is Greene's corpus of instrumental music. Published in 1745, his Six Overtures in Seven Parts alternate a slow and solemn French-style overture with fugal allegros and elegant dance movements such as minuets, gavottes, or airs. The original orchestral scores have recently attracted a recording: Fernando de Luca has made his own arrangements for solo harpsichord, following a long-standing practice and retaining the essential exuberance of the overtures while inflecting them with refined dynamic shading. Rarer still are the 15 keyboard "Lessons": Italianate suites which bear witness to a transition from the contrapuntal Baroque style to a more galant idiom, under the influence of Italian exemplars such as Corelli and Geminiani, as well as the seductive charms of French culture which captivated the upper end of Georgian society and culture. William Boyce (1711-1779) studied with Greene and followed in the footsteps of his teacher by attaining the same distinguished posts at St Paul's and the Chapel Royal. Again principally known for his church music, he also wrote a collection of overtures which have retained popularity on the fringes of the catalogue. His Voluntaries for the Organ or Harpsichord (published posthumously in London, c. 1779) represent one of the final great expressions of the genre in their refined counterpoint and graceful harmonies. "Harpsichordist Fernando de Luca does a splendid job," remarked Fanfare magazine in a review of the Brilliant Classics album dedicated to the music of Pierre-Claude Foucquet: one of many comprehensive collections through which de Luca has revived lesser-known composers of the eighteenth century. This volume of Boyce and Greene stands as a notable addition to the library.