An oceanic dialogue between two composers from the first wave of the modern musical era: such is Aline Piboule's daring new solo venture. Here the epic La Mer sprays it's rainbow of colors as idiomatically as if Debussy had written it for solo piano, like D'un cahier d'esquisses and the famous Clair de lune. In echo, John Ireland's piano triptychs, Sarnia and Decorations, conjure up the Channel Islands in bewitching musical poetry.

The empathy between Robert and Clara Schumann, Joseph Joachim and Johannes Brahms engendered one of Romanticism's most fruitful artistic friendships. With the aim of mining the precious jewels of that unique intimacy, three great artists have devised a program in the form of a poetic conversation; here chamber music once more becomes shared human emotion in it's purest expression.

In this third volume of the series, A Life in Music, Paul Agnew and Les Arts Florissants take us to Cothen (1717-1723) where Bach enjoyed one of the happiest times of his life. With a group of distinguished soloists, they help us rediscover some of the outstanding works of these inspiring years, including the famous Cantata the composer dedicated to his patron and friend, Prince Leopold.

The music for Assassin's Creed is here re-invented for piano, with the inspired playing of Nicolas Horvath. Recorded on a historic piano that formerly belonged to Nadia Boulanger, this album presents the iconic themes of the saga in a new artistic dimension, while totally respecting the milieu of the game. A landmark event, uniting musical demands with the culture of the video game.

For three decades Alexandre Tharaud and Jean-Guihen Queyras have shared their rich and rare musical friendship with harmonia mundi. From Marin Marais to Debussy and Berg via Schuber, this anniversary double-album brings together some of their finest recordings. For the occasion they have also recorded several new pieces, including the Britten Sonata, Faure's Elegie, and Weill's Youkali.

From the lyricism of Bloch's Schelomo to the modernity of Lutoslawski's Cello Concerto, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Gustavo Gimeno explore the cello's lyrical side, revealing itself as prayer, lament, or murmur. In contrast, the Polish composer's Concerto for Orchestra celebrates vitality and collective energy. This program is a journey from inner song to orchestral power.

Paul Lewis explores the world of late Brahms, wherein the old master, far from growing more sedate, deploys a palette of infinite colors and sensibilities in his last four collections for solo piano. By turns tender and dazzling, intimate and tempestuous, these pieces appear to us as their composer's final confidences, entrusted to a crepuscular diary.

Icelandic music of the last half century is the focus of this recording by the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, led by it's conductor, Graham Ross. Born from his close collaboration with the native composers of the 'Land of Fire and Ice', this program sets out to explore and highlight their hypnotic soundworld, instinctively leaning towards contemplation. A prime example is the touchingly beautiful Requiem by Sigurður Sævarsson, which here receives it's world premiere recording.

With the intention to record music that has spoken to her, and driven her throughout her career, Orli Shaham chose to record Mozart's Piano Concertos Nos.17 and 24 with the her husband David Robertson leading the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra - two collaborators she knows and loves. Both works are emblematic of the extraordinary theatricality of Mozart's mature concertos. They are the only two that conclude with a movement cast in variation form. It is a virtuosic display of his mastery of melodic invention, highlighting the spirit of dialogue between soloist and orchestra. Orli Shaham revels in their richness and breathtaking originality.

In these love songs in waltz style for chorus or solo voices accompanied by piano four hands, Brahms freely indulged his taste for Viennese folk music. The RIAS Kammerchor Berlin instills a wonderful inner life in these musical landscapes, sometimes cheerful, sometimes melancholy, punctuated here by a selection from the Hungarian Dances - also eminently popular in their inspiration.

After a recording of Book II of The Well-Tempered Clavier that earned unanimous acclaim from the press, Andreas Staier now gives us an equally poetic and flamboyant interpretation of the first book. At once architect and colorist, he constantly varies the atmospheres, unfolding an infinite palette of musical landscapes. Under his fingers, this immense cathedral in sound is revealed in all it's thrilling diversity.

While paying glittering homage to the animal kingdom, this program also takes us on a journey through the centuries. The existing pieces, freely inspired by birdsong, from Couperin to Ravel, are mirrored by an astonishing Carnival of Animals in Peril. It's composer, Vincent Bouchot, reminds us of the disappearance of certain species of animals - but also of certain unjustly neglected musical instruments.

The narrative of the last hours of Christ's life by the German poet Barthold Brockes inspired Telemann to write one of the most powerful Passion settings of the early eighteenth century. In 2009, Rene Jacobs revealed this somewhat neglected masterpiece in all it's splendor, arousing justified enthusiasm from press and music-lovers alike. This is now a benchmark version.

Volume 4 of Benjamin Alard's complete recording of Bach's keyboard works continues to explore the Weimar period. After A la francaise, we turn to Italy, where the Vivaldian concerto reigned in Venice. The young Bach created here a wonderful space of freedom between the transcriber and the improviser. Benjamin Alard performs on three exceptional instruments, including a magnificent 1702 harpsichord by Mattia de Gand, preserved in Treviso and recently restored.

Notated on four staves, as though intended for some unspecified set of instruments (or even voices), these thirteen erudite contrapuncti, four canons, and an unfinished triple fugue-incorporating the letters of Bach's name-are often considered to be his musical testament. Shrouded in myths traceable to it's very origins, The Art of Fugue is a puzzle for the performers and for the listeners alike, but when a brilliant string quartet takes up the challenge, a solution becomes obvious, and the music takes flight.

A hybrid work between oratorio, ode and serenata, L'Allegro is undoubtedly one of Handel's most mysterious works, but also his most inspired. With their accustomed poetry, William Christie and Les Arts Florissants offer us the chance to rediscover this masterpiece, in which the composer transforms metaphysics into painting and ideas into pure emotions.

If the shadow of Mozart still haunts Schubert's Symphony No.5, the Seventh (in no way 'unfinished' in the eyes of it's creator) already looks far into the future. Pablo Heras-Casado and the musicians of the Freiburger Barockorchester lead us towards that Romantic elan. Their flexible approach, keen and swift in the earlier symphony, making room for shadows and mystery in it's successor, meets the challenge of bringing out the contrast between these 'two Schuberts', here more audible than ever.

Locatelli was one of the most impressive violin virtuosos of the first half of the eighteenth century. Considered today as a sort of Baroque Paganini, he left picturesque, colorful, strikingly modern pieces for his instrument. A few years after a Mozart collaboration that earned them worldwide acclaim, Isabelle Faust and the musicians of Il Giardino Armonico bring out the full narrative intensity of these concertos, worthy of the operatic stage.