In Dmitry Sitkovetsky's transcription, Bach's Goldberg Variations are revealed in a new light: a refined dialogue between violin, viola and cello, where each voice breathes and listens to the others. TrioFenix delivers a strikingly clear interpretation, combining architectural rigour, expressive freedom, and sonic poetry. Backed by nearly twenty years of musical complicity, these three chamber musicians breathe new life into one of the masterpieces of the Baroque repertoire, in a version that is as vibrant as it is intimate.

In 1775 Leopold Mozart made an offer to publisher Breitkopf in Leipzig: to print an opus of keyboard sonatas by his son mit veranderten Reprisen, following the famous example set by C. P. E. Bach. Breitkopf declined, but after 250 years the idea still resonates: what might Wolfgang Amade´ Mozart's Sonatas with Varied Reprises have sounded like? Played on a highly responsive Stein fortepiano, Tom Beghin's reconstituted score of K. 279-284 (Munich, 1775) provides a captivating answer-one that challenges our familiarity with six classics of the repertoire, while also paying tribute to Mozart's supreme improvisational skills.

Evil Penguin is proud to present the first recording by Joshua Brown, Second Prize at Queen Elizabeth Competion 2024. Joshua Brown chose a Schumann programme for his debut: the two Sonatas and the rare and tricky late Fantasie. A perfect match was established between him and the much experienced and great piano partner Paolo Giacometti

Close your eyes and surrender to Hypnos, god of sleep. Zefiro Torna pours a hallucinatory elixir of dreams, solitude, secret fantasies, and soothing whispers. Baroque masters like Kapsberger, Dowland, Moulinie´, and Huygens drew inspiration from night and sleep. The enchanting voice of Lore Binon pierces the darkness, carried by Jurgen de bruyn's theorbo and lute. Lean back and drift away into... Somnia.

What does it mean for Schumann's Kreisleriana to be Romantic? Is it the violent contrasts, the mercurial shifts in mood, the fragmentary architecture, the raw and unfiltered expression? Is it the breathtaking lyricism? Or is it the spectre of the tormented kapellmeister Kreisler haunting this work that dissolves the boundaries between music, literature, and psychological portraiture? Acclaimed virtuoso Paolo Giacometti brings both poetry and psychoanalysis to Kreisleriana and Kinderszenen, performing them on a resplendent 1838 E´rard born in the very year these works first saw the light.

Franco-Swiss violist Mathis Rochat presents British repertoire for viola and orchestra, pairing William Walton's well-known concerto with rarely recorded works by Herbert Howells and Arthur Benjamin. Featuring violinist Abigel Kralik, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under the direction of Howard Griffiths, the program highlights romantic styles and lesser-known voices within the first half of 20th-century British music.

For his solo recording debut, Ivan Moshchuk explores the bond between Medtner and Rachmaninoff. Their distinct piano cycles-Forgotten Melodies and Études-Tableaux-were conceived on the threshold of a violent epoch. Grounded in noble sensibilities, the sets reveal a portal to the idea of the Vergessene Weisen: the ideals of a veiled world. Here, the music becomes a lens for memory as a path that endures despite the relentless march of time.

Benjamin Britten's three Cello Suites rank among the most important solo works for the instrument since Bach. Written for Mstislav Rostropovich, they unite references to early music traditions with a distinctly modern voice, combining formal mastery, dramatic imagination and profound emotional depth. In this recording, Pieter Wispelwey brings his new reading of a 45 year long engagement with these remarkable works for cello solo.

Schubert's late string quartets are important for their unprecedented emotional depth, formal expansion, and daring harmonic language. They transform classical quartet traditions by infusing them with romantic intensity, confronting themes of mortality, inner conflict, and lyric beauty. Through large-scale structures, stark contrasts, and expressive unity, these works reshaped the expressive possibilities of chamber music and influenced the development of the Romantic quartet tradition.