John D. Gottsch spent his youth in the lake country of Florida, which instilled in him a love of nature that has informed his music ever since. His symphonic poem Sunset is almost cinematic in its opulence and in its depiction of both the beauty and fragility of Key West, and the area’s vulnerability to climate change. By contrast, Princess Yurievskaya charts the passionate love of Catherine Dolgorukova and Tsar Alexander II from their first meeting and eventual marriage, to his assassination. This vivid narrative is full of exciting dances and torrid romance, irradiated with evocative orchestral solos.

Over the past decades, Dan Laurin has established himself as one of the most interesting recorder players of our time. His more than 30 critically acclaimed releases on BIS range from a seminal 9-disc set of van Eyck's Der Fluyten Lust-hof to contemporary concertos. The first recordings Laurin made for the label were of duets by Georg Philipp Telemann, and since then he has returned to the composer several times, recording chamber music and concertos. It is only now that he has set the complete sonatas on disc, however – works that he describes in his liner notes as forming part of most recorder players’ ‘musical DNA’. Performing them here with his regular chamber music partners Anna Paradiso and Mats Olofsson, Laurin revels in the wide technical and emotional scope of the sonatas as well as their stylistic diversity. In the C major sonata TWV 41:C5 Telemann looks backwards as he pays tribute to his illustrious forerunner Corelli, while the Empfindsamkeit of the Affettuoso of the D minor sonata is very much of its time – and throughout the collection there are traces of composer’s fascination for Polish folk music.

With his Op. 44 quintet from 1842, Robert Schumann transformed the constellation of piano and string quartet from one that just served as a showcase for the pianist into a true chamber ensemble. Following his example, Brahms and Dvorák produced their own masterly quintets, and during the 20th century composers as diverse as Elgar, Fauré and Shostakovich added to the short list of piano quintets that get regular performances. On the rather longer list of rarely heard quintets we find those recorded here, by pianist Bengt Forsberg and a quartet of some of Sweden's finest string players. Both works were composed during the 1910s, and straddle in different ways the divide between post-romanticism and modernism. Of French descent, the Russian composer Georgy Catoire studied the piano in Moscow as well as Berlin and it is primarily his piano music that is heard today. With its original use of harmony and inventive rhythmic structure, the quintet is nevertheless one of the most seductive works in Catoire’s output. Although better known than Catoire, Polish-born Ignaz Friedman is famous not for his compositions but as one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century, admired by Rachmaninov as well as Horowitz. Written in 1918, his Quintet in C minor is tuneful, but also dramatic, sombre and melancholy at turns. This may be a reflection of the ongoing war, but it has also been suggested that it was inspired by the death of Friedman’s father, an itinerant Jewish musician, and that the theme of the third movement, derived from Polish folk music, may be a tribute to him.

As individual musicians, Katarina and Svante Henryson have carved out quite extraordinary careers: Katarina touring internationally as a member of the highly successful Swedish vocal ensemble The Real Group, and Svante appearing in the most varied collaborations – on the cello, double bass and electric bass, and as performer, arranger and composer – with musicians as diverse as Elvis Costello, Anne Sofie von Otter, Chico Freeman and Martin Fröst. The duo they form together, on the other hand, has been a more private affair, performing for their relatives at christenings and weddings, at birthdays and funerals. One reason for this has been the fact that they don’t only share a surname, but also two children, and when one of them toured professionally the other would have to be at home. Their duo repertoire has grown from zero to CD at the same pace as their children – and now the time has come to ‘go public’. Representing their own broad musical tastes, the repertoire is as varied as it gets: it is truly ‘High, Low or In Between’, with pop songs by Elton John and George Harrison rubbing shoulders with Prince’s funk hit Kiss, Bill Evans’s jazz classic Waltz for Debby and Tom Jobim’s bossa nova Chega de Saudade. These last two Katarina performs in the versions made immortal by the Swedish jazz singer Monica Zetterlund, while a third song to a Swedish text, Det växer från Edens tider, also displays its Swedish origins proudly through its folk-like idiom. A handful of tracks consist of original material by the performers themselves – Eyes of a Child they wrote together after the birth of their son – including three cello improvisations and Svante’s instrumental piece Green. In these, Svante’s cello – and his very special treatment of it – steals the spotlight, but in fact it plays such a major role throughout the programme that it becomes a third, equal partner of the duo!

This is the tenth Skalkottas CD produced by Bis since 1997. Very often these have been performed by Greek musicians and recorded by Greek production teams. Half of these discs have been of his chamber music. Each has been recorded and performed to the highest possible standards. The music is incredibly clever, complex, life-enhancing, joyous, shocking and tough by turns...The recording is clear, immediate and close...The performances are magnificent, bringing out all aspects of this emotionally complex music to its fullest extent. Highly recommended -- Gary Higginson, MusicWeb-International

Dividing his time between the United States and the United Kingdom, the composer Geoffrey Gordon writes music that has been described as ‘darkly seductive’ (New York Times), ‘richly satisfying’ (BBC Music Magazine) and ‘iridescent and fierce’ (The Chicago Tribune). The present album brings together three of his recent works, all composed between 2013 and 2018 for the soloist recording them here, the Danish cellist Toke Møldrup. In several of his works, Gordon takes his inspiration from other art forms – sculptures by Giacometti, a self portrait by Warhol, a children’s picture book by Maurice Sendak. The works gathered here are inspired by or reactions to three literary masterworks. The ‘creative blueprint’ for the opening work, the Cello Concerto, is the novel Doktor Faustus by Thomas Mann. Organized into a Prologue and Seven Episodes, the work traces the progress of Mann’s protagonist Adrian Leverkühn from innocence to madness, with the cello both embodying and (occasionally) commenting on the proceedings. For this recording, Møldrup receives the support of the Copenhagen Phil and conductor Lan Shui. In the score of Fathoms, Gordon’s sonata for cello and piano, each of the five movements is headed with a quotation from Shakespeare’s The Tempest which sets the scene for the musical impression that follows. Here Møldrup is joined by the American pianist Steven Beck. The amply-filled album closes with Ode to a Nightingale, with the words of John Keat’s immortal poem heard from the Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir, and given emphasis by Toke Møldrup’s obbligato cello.

HK Gruber (b.1943) is one of the more refreshing of contemporary composers. His music is widely performed today, but since it takes time to become a household name many people have yet to make his acquaintance. Some background material is thus in order. This is how he presents himself on the Internet: 'Composer, conductor, chansionnier and double bass player HK Gruber (Vienna, 1943), is one of the most well-known and well-loved figures on the contemporary music scene, and yet he remains something of an enigma. Composing in his own highly individual style, he has been labelled 'new-Romantic', 'neo-tonal', 'neo-expressionistic' and 'neo-Viennese', but his music remains refreshingly non-doctrinaire - a deceptively simple and darkly ironic idiom which often includes a heavy dose of black humour. Berg, Stravinsky, cabaret and pop music are all influences, but whatever stylistic ingredients he uses in his works, he remains inimitably himself: one of the major talents of post-war music. Gruber's most popular and beloved composition, the neo-gothic 'pan-demonium' Frankenstein!!, was premiered in 1978 by Simon Rattle and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Sicne then it has travelled across several continents in several languages and in different guises: in concert, in staged performances, on television, and on film. Among Gruber's other compositions are a cello concerto writtten for Yo-Yo Ma, the percussion concerto 'Rough Music' and a trumpet concerto 'Aerial' written for Hakan Hardneberger and commissioned by the BBC Proms. His dramatic works include the apocalyptic opera 'Gomorra and Gloria'. This disc contains three important works by HK Gruber including his 'Cello Concerto' which is performed by Robert Cohen. The Swedish Chamber Orchestra is the eloquent band and the composer conducts the programme himself. Those of us who may sometimes be daunted by 'the dryness and abstraction of the content of the rigorous serial approach' will surely rejoice at Gruber's humour, enthusiasm and joie di vivre. At BIS we are very pleased at being albe to add his name to our catalogue.

Allar Kaasik has enjoyed a long and fruitful career, in his native Estonia as well as abroad. Reflecting on it in the liner notes to this very personal album, he singles out one particular aspect: the ambition to embrace the very latest compositions by Estonian composers. Performing in churches as he often does, Kaasik finds music resounding in a church a part of the Holy Service. This is reflected in many of the works which have been written for him, with composers such as Galina Grigorjeva and Kuldar Sink enriching the tradition of Estonian church music. Among Kaasik’s many partners in performing these works, several appear on the present disc, including two eminent choirs – the State Choir Latvija and Estonian National Male Choir – as well as the Latvian organist Kristine Adamaite. A focal point of the programme is the cello concerto Pro et contra by the most celebrated of all Estonian composers, Arvo Pärt. Kaasik is supported by the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Peeter Lilje and the recording has a particular significance – originally released by Melodiya in 1989, it was the first recording of Pärt’s music published on disc in the Soviet Union following the lifting of the unofficial ban on his music. The remaining works on Timeless Light were all recorded between 2014 and 2016.