In 2014, the Museum Kleines Klingental in Basel presented the exhibition "Hans Huber and Basel's musical life around 1900". In 2015, the exhibition provided the impetus for the founding of the concert series "Basel composes" at the Museum Kleines Klingental. The idea was to create a platform for chamber music by composers who were born, lived or worked in Basel. Since then, numerous ensembles have performed works by well-known, unknown and forgotten composers from Basel. At the centre of this anniversary recording are compositions by Hans Huber, which were the starting point of the concert series, played by Andrea Wiesli, who has been particularly committed to promoting Basel's musical culture in the Klingental with the Trio Fontane. On the occasion of the exhibition, a concert series was organised as part of the accompanying programme with music by Hans Huber, by composers who influenced his music or were his pupils and friends. To realise this chamber music series, the Museum Kleines Klingental, advised by the pianist Andrea Wiesli, decided to acquire a historical Bluthner grand piano from around 1875. The Museum Kleines Klingental is located in the founding building of the Klingental Dominican convent dating from 1274. In 1929, the Cantonal Monument Preservation Office moved into the former convent. It founded the Museum Kleines Klingental in 1939. The large refectory, the former convent kitchen, the small refectory as well as the "Schaffnei" and the roof truss from the construction period of 1274 are particularly impressive.

The Crown of Life continues the Choir of The Queen's College, Oxford's exploration of overlooked treasures in twentieth-century English choral music under Owen Rees. At it's centre is the first recording of Kenneth Leighton's Missa Christi (1988), the composer's final large-scale sacred work, commissioned by Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis. Alongside it are world premiere recordings of Harold Darke's Blessed Is the Man That Endureth Temptation and Imogen Holst's Out of Your Sleep Arise and Wake. Works by Rebecca Clarke and Gustav Holst complete the programme, offering a richly varied portrait of composers linked by study with Stanford and united in sacred expression.

Anatolijus senderovas, one of the most interesting voices in Lithuanian music, passed away in 2019. This production presents all the string trios by the composer, who was awarded the European Composer Prize in 2002. Senderovas had a lifelong friendship with cellist David Geringas, who can be heard here as cellist of the Grand Trio Vilnius. The piano trios represent the most important phases of senderovas' work: Beginning with Piano Trio No. 1, which the 26-year-old wrote while still under the influence of Dmitri Shostakovich's music, to the late works "Song and Dance" and "Pages from a forgotten book," which reveal a composer who has grappled intensively with the roots of his Jewish heritage.

Haydn's Passiontide masterpiece in it's string-quartet version, with the Latin inscriptions to each movement intoned as a liturgical preface. Invited to compose reflections on the Seven Last Words for a Good Friday service to be held in Cadiz in 1787, Haydn originally wrote a cycle of pieces for chamber orchestra. Ever practical, he soon adapted the piece for string quartet, and then as a vocal oratorio, while also authorizing a solo-piano arrangement for publication. Thus widely disseminated, the Seven Last Words soon became widely performed and recognised as Haydn at his most inspired. For all that the form of the work - seven slow movements capped by an Presto evoking the terrible effect of the earthquake which had reduced Cadiz to rubble just a generation earlier, in 1755 - promises more solemnity than variety on paper, Haydn takes his cue from the texts which have come down to us as Christ's final phrases. Thus the melodies for each movement have their own, specifically vocal contour, while the accompaniments graphically evoke the agony, the loneliness but also the peace and serenity which these phrases embody. While quartet performances of the Seven Last Words are probably more frequently encountered than any other version, they lose sight of this specific, spiritual context to Haydn's fervent and devout inspiration. The present, new recording restores that connection between text and music. As an ensemble resident at the Duomo in Milan, this fine quartet of Italian musicians is in any case well practised in striking the balance between solemnity and drama in such music. For the sake of clarity, however, they have made this recording in a modern studio. Away from the cathedral, the musicians of the quartet (violinists Andrea Pecolo and Stefano Lo Re, violist Matteo Amadasi and cellist Alfredo Persichilli) are all permanent members of the Orchestra of La Scala. Bringing both dignity and authority to the inscriptions, Aldo Cazzullo is an experienced Italian reporter and journalist, and current deputy managing director of the Corriere della Sera.

Both these violin concertos have been long-neglected for the same reason: their composers were much better-known for their achievements in musical theatre rather than for their works for the concert-hall. Robert Russell Bennett studied composition in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, and his output includes seven symphonies. He also orchestrated some of the highest-profile musicals in Broadway history, including works by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Rodgers and Hammerstein. (Richard Rodgers modestly claimed that Bennett's skills in instrumentation had made his music 'sound better than it was'). Vladimir Alexandrovich Dukelsky changed his name to Vernon Duke at the suggestion of his friend Jacob Gershovitz - better known as George Gershwin. Duke received a rigorous training in classical music at the Kyiv Conservatory; was friends with Prokofiev and composed ballet scores for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in Paris, as well as three symphonies. He remains better known as the creator of hit shows, such as Cabin in the Sky, and as the composer of numerous songs that became jazz standards, including 'April in Paris'. Chloe Hanslip, Andrew Litton, and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra perform both concertos with aplomb, and Andrew Litton also takes the role of pianist in Bennett's Hexapoda.

The Flying Dutchman was Wagner's breakthrough opera. Though Wagner still employed independent arias and choruses, his operatic concept transcended earlier works such as Rienzi, which was influenced by French grand opera. The supernatural tale of the Dutchman, condemned to roam the seas unless redeemed by a wife who will be faithful to him unto death, inspired an ambitious work in which Wagner was able to unite his dramatic and musical vision with a powerful combined effect for the first time.

This new album presents three major orchestral works by British composer William Mival, performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra under Martyn Brabbins. Spanning two decades, the album features the expansive new symphony Vale, the contemplative Tristan - still, and the Welsh-themed Pluen (feather). Together, they trace Mival's engagement with tradition and landscape. From the concentrated focus of Tristan - still to the folk-song variations of Pluen and the broad, five-movement design of Vale, the recording offers a clear overview of Mival's approach to writing for large forces.

Divine Art is delighted to present the February 2026 release of two piano quintets from composer Jim Aitchison, both drawing on his unique dual practice as composer and artist, creating music that responds to encounters with powerful works of art by leading visual artists. The collaboration between music, art, and artistry came together as part of a project with the Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, "Hearing Shadows Wordless Light". Both Piano Quintets also grew out of his close collaboration with Peter Sheppard Sk�rved, Roderick Chadwick, and the Kreutzer Quartet, whose fiercely intelligent commitment and unique experience of working in visual art contexts have underpinned so much of Aitchison's work over the past two decades. Aitchison has always been fascinated with chamber music for piano and strings, inspired by the interplay of texture and timbre, and the huge expressive range of the great masterpieces. His own piano quintets are astonishing and unexpected, recreating yet "busting down the walls" of the Germanic canon. Neither of the quintets attempts to convey, "explain", or illustrate the artworks. "Rather, there is an exploration of territory provoked and revealed in me: I am not responding directly to the artworks themselves but rather to the range of my own reactions emerging from experiencing them." Jim Aitchison studied composition at Nottingham University in the early 1990s. Then in 2000 a move to Cornwall brought a life-changing encounter with the artists of the St Ives School, and a decades-long interest in exploring correspondences between music and art was born. As a composer, he has worked in response to a range of internationally important visual artists including Gerhard Richter, Antony Gormley, Doris Salcedo, Anthony Caro, Peter Randall-Page, Mark Rothko, Richard Serra, Anish Kapoor, Richard Deacon, Terry Frost, Bridget Riley, and John Hoyland, with various galleries such as Tate Modern, Tate St Ives, the RA, and the Henry Moore Institute. This release marks the combined 50th album from Peter Sheppard Sk�rved and the Kreutzer Quartet on the Divine Art, M�tier, and Athene labels.

Carl Friedrich Abel was known in 18th-century London as the greatest gamba player of his day. Having been taught in Leipzig by JS Bach, Abel later worked closely with 'the London Bach', Johann Christian, and his own music shares a quality of liminal fantasy with that of his friend, poised as they were (in retrospect) on the threshold of the Baroque and Classical eras. Having moved to London for good in 1759, Abel soon attracted the admiration of the greatest English portraitist of the day, Thomas Gainsborough. The artist painted the composer, and played the gamba himself. It may well be that Abel wrote this collection of quasi-improvised solo works towards the end of his life with Gainsborough in mind. At any rate, the 'Drexel' nomenclature arose only once the manuscript of the pieces found it's way into the hands of the philanthropist Joseph William Drexel in 1877. As Alejandro Marias remarks in his booklet essay for this remarkable new recording, the manuscript asks more questions than it supplies answers. 'Why did he compile them, for whom, why in that order, did he ever play any of these scores, or was it an attempt to capture what inspiration had led him to improvise the night before?' For Marias, the collection is nonetheless 'one of the most important works in viola da gamba literature. It represents the last great viola da gamba player's most intimate moments, where he found the formal and stylistic freedom to express his deepest emotions, using his virtuosity to put it at the service of the music and not to make a mere technical display, however difficult some of these pieces may be. Recording it is one of the greatest challenges a viola da gamba player can face.' This album of the Drexel Manuscript makes a fine sequel to the previous collection of Abel's music led by Marias on Brilliant Classics, 'Between Two Worlds' (97437), which attracted great critical enthusiasm: 'The gamba playing by Alejandro Marias is superb, with a clear tone and sonorous depth... There is surely more to come, and I for one will look forward to further releases.' (Fanfare)

According to an old tradition, it is perfectly legitimate to arrange works for one instrument to another, if this does not detract from the substance of the work. This is what the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart likely told himself when he arranged three piano sonatas by his admired role model Johann Christian Bach into small concertos (KV 107) in his early years. This is also what Silke Aichhorn told herself with equal justification when she arranged one of these pieces for the harp alongside concertos by the German Johann Samuel Schroter, who was almost the same age. The pairing is no coincidence. Mozart and his father both admired the works of Schroter, born in Guben, Lusatia, who enjoyed a distinguished career as a pianist. In 1782, he succeeded the "London Bach" as music teacher to Her Majesty Queen Charlotte - unfortunately not for very long. Schroter died three years before Amadeus and at the same age.

New recordings of High-Baroque concertos and sonatas by a forgotten English composer living in 18th-century Rome. Born in Leicester around 1673, Robert Valentine came from a family of musicians, but found his vocation and his career path once he moved to Rome in his 20s. Working as a violinist and flautist for several churches, he was evidently proficient in several other instruments such as the oboe, and quickly found his feet as a composer with an ear for public taste, and the ability to translate his instrumental virtuosity into original invention on the page. The present album takes a representative sample of that fluent invention with sonatas and 'concertos' (also written for chamber forces) from several different collections. A Sonata for two recorders holds instant appeal for anyone captivated by Vivaldi's writing for the instrument. A Concerto in B flat, for recorder, two violins and ensemble, is worthy of comparison with the work of the Venetian master, for it's brilliance and intensity. By contrast, the style of the 'Concerto con Flauto Traversiero' leans towards a crystalline simplicity, well suited to the delicate sound of the transverse flute of the period, and capable of producing those chiaroscuro effects and dynamic nuances that the recorder lacks. In each case, Valentine writes sensitively for his chosen forces. A pair of sonatas for flute and basso continuo, published in 1735 as part of Valentine's Op.13, are effectively elegant Baroque dance-suites - whereas an Op.13 published elsewhere under Valentine's name includes a violin sonata written in the galant style, full of rustic fanfares and flourishes. Founded and led by the flautist Enrico Casularo, Ensemble Afflatus specialises in the performance and recording of little-known, often unpublished music from 18th-century Italy. Casulero is also an editor of this repertoire, and a teacher of Baroque flute at the Santa Cecilia conservatoire in Rome. He is joined here by colleagues with no less expertise in the repertoire, and the album makes an ideal introduction to the art of Robert Valentine.

This Signum Classics release presents four orchestral works by leading Chinese composer Xiaogang Ye, performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Dane Lam. Recorded in February 2024 at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, the album features The Backyard of the Village alongside two concertante works: The Memories of Mount Jing Gang with violist Diyang Mei, and My Faraway Nanjing with cellist Guy Johnston, plus the overture The Loquat in Five Colors. Ye's music blends contemporary orchestral writing with Chinese history, landscape, and cultural memory, reflecting his distinctive international voice.

Maurice Durufle (1902-1986) was a French composer, organist, and teacher renowned for his meticulous craftsmanship and deeply spiritual music. A student of Charles Tournemire and Louis Vierne, Durufle inherited the rich French symphonic organ tradition, which he blended with Gregorian chant and impressionist harmony to create a unique and transcendent style. Durufle's complete organ music is limited in quantity but monumental in quality. His small output includes only six published organ works, yet each piece reveals an extraordinary depth of expression and technical mastery. Chief among them is the Suite, Op.5 (1932), which consists of three movements: Prelude, Sicilienne, and Toccata. The Toccata, while virtuosic and brilliant, is famously considered one of the most difficult in the repertoire and is sometimes omitted in performance due to it's formidable demands. The Prelude, Adagio et Choral varie sur le th�me du "Veni Creator", Op.4, exemplifies his affinity for Gregorian chant, a hallmark of his style. The Fugue sur le th�me du Carillon des Heures de la Cathedrale de Soissons, Op.12, demonstrates Durufle's love for musical architecture and his capacity for blending modern harmonic language with traditional forms. The Meditation, a posthumously published piece, reveals a more intimate and reflective side of his writing, while the Scherzo, Op.2, composed during his student years, shows early signs of his technical prowess and inventive use of the organ's color palette. Durufle's organ works, though few, have become central to the instrument's repertoire. Their combination of liturgical solemnity, compositional rigor, and sensuous beauty ensure that they continue to resonate with performers and audiences alike. They stand as a testament to a perfectionist who preferred quality over quantity, and whose music remains timeless. Played by Roberto Marini at the magnificent Stahlhuth-Jann organ of St Martin, Dudelange, Luxembourg, the specifications of which are included in the booklet. Roberto Marini made an authoritative recording of the complete organ works by Max Reger on 17 CDs, published on Brilliant Classics.

This arresting new album presents a major addition to the solo flute repertoire, bringing together the visionary artistry of flautist�Noemi Gyori�and the intricate, evocative music of composer�Sinan Savaskan. Spanning nearly five decades of Savaskan's compositional output, the album explores the full expressive range of the flute it's lyric warmth, it's structural clarity, and it's capacity for sonic transformation-often in dialogue with subtly woven electronic elements. At the heart of the album lies�Sonata '... una rilettura indipendente', a five-movement tour de force that is both architectural and deeply intuitive. Conceived as part of the composer's epic cycle�Many Stares through Semi-Nocturnal Zeiss-Blink, this work embodies Savaskan's radical approach to form and harmony an evolving narrative shaped by transformation, resonance, and reflection. Written specifically for Noemi Gyori, the Sonata draws upon her exceptional virtuosity and interpretative insight, and represents a rare synthesis of structural rigour and emotional intensity. Alongside the Sonata are three additional works, each revealing a distinct facet of Savaskan's sound-world.�The Sleep of Reason, for solo flute, offers a tightly coiled musical meditation, born from a nocturnal journey and haunted by socio-political undercurrents and subconscious recollections.�Always at Dusk, No.3, for alto flute and electronics, distills a fleeting emotional memory into an atmosphere of suspended time, echoing the concept of�duree�rather than chronological sequence. Finally,�Pas de Deux for One, originally composed in 1978 and revised in 2023, draws from Savaskan's background in dance and experimental film, resulting in a vivid theatricality that unfolds through extended techniques and shifting gestures. The electronics, composed entirely from transformations of flute sounds, serve not as backdrop but as an active, organic extension of the instrument's breath, resonance, and timbral possibilities. Whether experienced through speakers or headphones, the recording invites deep listening preferably in dim light, as Gyori suggests offering an immersive sonic space where listener, performer, and composer meet. An album for connoisseurs of contemporary music,�Sonata '... una rilettura indipendente'�is a profound collaboration between two artists whose shared sensitivity reshapes what solo flute music can mean today.

The key to Buxtehude's trio sonatas, both for performers and for listeners, is an awareness of the stylus fantasticus which German composers of the late 17th and early 18th centuries developed in response to the new freely inventive style of Italian composers such as Claudio Merulo and Girolamo Frescobaldi. 'It is the most free and unrestrained method of composing,' wrote one contemporary theorist. 'It is bound to nothing, neither to any words nor to a melodic subject, instituted to display genius and to teach the hidden design of harmony and the ingenious composition of harmonic phrases and fugues.' The seven sonatas in each of these collections, published in Hamburg in 1696, offer a continuous succession of short movements, up to eight per sonata, which alternate between slow and fast tempi, and improvisatory and contrapuntal textures, dominated by a dazzling array of ostinato variations which embed the melodies in the listener's consciousness. We encounter witty solos, dialogues and conversations, sublime suspensions, jaunty syncopations and occasional excursions into strange and modal harmony. The expressive range is accordingly wide, venturing in Op.1 No.6 into a D minor realm of darkness and desperation. The musicians on this new recording of Buxtehude's trio sonatas are experienced and skilful practitioners of Baroque style, with an impressive catalogue of albums on Brilliant Classics to their credit. Valerio Losito has recorded the violin sonatas of Scarlatti, Telemann and Tessarini, among others, while Simone Stella has made complete surveys of the organ and harpsichord output by Froberger and Pachelbel - 'performed with natural flair, especially with respect to clarifying counterpoint' (Gramophone). Simone Stella introduces these fascinating works, milestones in the history of German-Baroque chamber music, with an extensive booklet essay. This is 'music full of lyrically delicate, sorrowful, and dramatic emotions,' he says, 'as well as melodious, harmonically gratifying, and full of vitality, a world of sound that consecrates him as a unique genius in the Pantheon of Music.' - Dietrich Buxtehude (c. 1637-1707) was a prominent German-Danish composer and organist of the Baroque period, renowned for his influence on later composers such as J.S. Bach and Handel. Best known for his sacred vocal music and virtuosic organ works, Buxtehude also wrote a substantial body of chamber music. - Published in 1694 and 1696 respectively, Buxtehude's Trio Sonatas comprise two sets of seven sonatas each. On this recording they are played with one violin, viola da gamba and harpsichord. These works represent a blend of German counterpoint and Italianate style. The sonatas are notable for their variety of forms, including fugal sections, dance movements, and expressive slow passages, the inventive use of harmony and rhythmic vitality reflecting the lively spirit of the early Baroque. The Op.1 and 2 sonatas are among the earliest significant instrumental works in Northern Germany, and they contributed to the development of the sonata genre. - Played by three foremost representatives of the Italian Historically Informed Performance Practice: Valerio Losito, Bettina Hoffmann (viola da gamba) and Simone Stella. Valerio Losito successfully recorded for Brilliant Classics works by Tessarini, Veracini, Dal Barba, Telemann and Alessandro Scarlatti.

This album features three works by distinguished composer Alec Roth, each setting poetry on themes of nature and human reflection. A Road Less Travelled is a cantata for tenor and guitar using poems by Edward Thomas, written before his death in 1917. The Garden Path is a cycle for mezzo-soprano and string quartet setting poems by Amy Lowell, many inspired by her garden. Other Earths and Skies sets Vikram Seth's translations of LI Bai's poems for tenor and oboe. Performers include Mark Padmore, Morgan Szymanski, Martha McLorinan, the Sacconi Quartet, Hugo Hymas, and Nicholas Daniel.

When Hans G�l died in Edinburgh on 3 October 1987, he had just celebrated his 97th birthday and could look back on a life that had truly experienced personal, cultural, and political upheaval. Astonishingly, there is no trace of these often tragic and dramatic events in his music. The core of his output is dominated by the cheerfulness of a spirit who never forgot his artistic home-the old imperial city of Vienna, whose special, inimitable flair can even be seen in his final works. The chamber music for strings collected here offers convincing examples of this fidelity to himself. G�l was 24 when his Intermezzi were printed and 86 when he completed his transfigured string quintet-and despite all blows of fate, there was obviously nothing that could destroy his optimistic belief in beauty.

Arthur Honegger's song output falls into two distinct periods. The first spans his apprentice years from 1914 - the date of the first of the 4 Poemes H.7 - to 1924. He returned to art song on the eve of the Second World War, and Eleni-Lydia Stamellou sings two further sets of songs originally conceived as film accompaniments. In the 4 Poems there is a Debussyan turn to the harmony which mirrors the symbolist flavour of the text. More distinct from the model of Debussy is the album's title track, 'Petite Chapelle', with it's avowedly spiritual character. Honegger conceived his 3 Poemes de Paul Fort in the autumn of 1916. Here the relationship between music and text is more directly illustrative, as in the distant hunting horns to accompany the hunter lost in the forest. From February 1917, Nature morte stands alone as a musical still-life, a brief sketch of a bowl of peaches and white grapes. No less epigrammatic, but more musically adventurous as befitting the text, are Honegger's settings of the 6 Poemes d'Apollinaire which he composed between August 1915 and March 1917. But, for all Apollinaire's influence over the composers of 'Les Six' - Honegger included - Jean Cocteau was far more instrumental in determining their aesthetic aims. And though it was Apollinaire who had coined sur-realisme in response to seeing the premiere of Satie's ballet Parade in 1917, this new, mischievous spirit courses through Honegger's deft settings of Cocteau. Honegger makes a sincere tribute to one of France's most celebrated Renaissance-era poets in the Chanson de Ronsard from February 1924. From 1926, the 3 Chansons de La Petite Sirene feature whole-tone rising harmonies in the opening song, and the even briefer companions uphold a Satie-like inscrutability. At this point, Honegger continued in vocal music (operas, operettas and oratorio) but left song alone. However, in 1937, his soundtrack to Jean Choux 'talkie' remake of Louis Mercanton's 1920 silent film Miarka, la fille � l'ourse afforded an opportunity to write two brief songs. Eleni Lydia Stamellou's recital closes with another pair of songs written for the cinema, the Romances sentimentales for Un seul amour, a story by Balzac very loosely adapted for the screen by Pierre Blanchar. In a genre all their own are the settings of 3 Psaumes, which Honegger composed in occupied Paris over the winter of 1940/1. The sound of the organ underpins the Bachian flow accompanying Psalm 34 and the misty F minor chords beneath Psalm 140, even if the vocal line itself harks back to Honegger's song-writing of the 1920s. Other information: - Recorded April-December 2024 in St Petersburg, Russia - Booklet in English contains liner notes by Peter Quantrill and profiles of the musicians - Arthur Honegger (1892-1955) was a Swiss composer associated with the French musical movement Les Six. Known for his eclectic style, he blended elements of French impressionism, German romanticism, and modernist techniques. While Honegger is best known for his orchestral works, such as Pacific 231 and Jeanne d'Arc au b�cher, his vocal compositions show a more intimate and lyrical side of his artistry. - Honegger's songs reflect his deep sensitivity to poetry and text, setting works by prominent French poets like Paul Fort and Jean Cocteau. His melodies for voice and piano exhibit rich harmonic textures and expressive phrasing, demonstrating both refinement and emotional depth. Unlike his orchestral pieces, which can be complex and rhythmically driven, his songs favor clarity and directness, allowing the poetry to shine through. - Greek soprano Eleni Lydia Stamellou was Prize Winner at the Ferruccio Tagliavini Competition in Austria, with Dame Joan Sutherland as the president of the jury. She subsequently attended masterclasses given by Teresa Berganza, Edda Moser and Christa Ludwig. She sang in opera productions with MusicAeterna conducted by Teodor Currentzis. Her specialization is Renaissance/Baroque and Contemporary Music. She sang in productions of Berio and Hersant.

Luigi Boccherini composed just a single set of sonatas, Op.5, specifically for violin and piano. However, his commercial celebrity and his artistic reputation at the time, as a composer considered in the same breath as Mozart and Haydn, encouraged publishers to commission arrangements of other works. Such arrangements include this set of Sonatas published in London in 1780, made by Thomas Billington but admitted to the catalogue of Boccherini's works as G34-39. Igor Ruhadze and Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya have made the first ever complete recording of this set as a sequel to their 5CD set of Boccherini sonatas (96612) issued by Brilliant Classics in 2023. 'Looking forward to the sequel!' concluded the review in Diapason of that set, after praising the stylish spirit of musicianship and authenticity in the playing of both artists. Compared to their rivals on record, remarked the reviewer, 'the seduction is more demonstrative, the contrasts more accentuated, the sensuality and the feeling more showy.' Today, as Rudolf Rasch's booklet note remarks, we may prefer original works over arranged works; in the 18th century, such a preference was unknown. No one looked down on them. In fact, they made a composer's music accessible for those who could not perform them in their original format. There was hardly a format more accessible for music-making among friends than the violin sonata, in which the piano would take the lion's share of the harmony from the original work, with the principal melody line assigned to the violin. As well as these violin sonatas, Thomas Billington arranged Corelli's concerti grossi for solo keyboard, and composed a good deal of his own music. In these sonatas, he drew from Boccherini's Trios Op.4 and Op.6, Quartets Op.8 and Quintets Op.10. He was in any case emulating the example of Boccherini himself, who made several such arrangements. As always with Boccherini, there is no shortage of attractive melodies and upbeat, galant invention to contrast with the lyrical beauty of the slow movements. - Luigi Boccherini was born in the Italian city of Lucca in Tuscany, on 19 February 1743, the son of Leopoldo Boccherini, a cellist and double-bass player. The young Luigi received his first music lessons from his father and at the Seminario di San Giovanni in Lucca. The cello was to become his instrument. At the age of ten, he was apparently already so advanced that his father sent him to Rome for further studies at the end of 1753, where he possibly remained until 1756. Apart from a brief period in Vienna around 1760, he was in Lucca until he set out to Paris (perhaps the major musical centre of the time) in the spring of 1768. Later that year he would go to Spain, where he would remain for the rest of his life until his death on 28 May 1805. - This new recording is the second volume of the complete violin sonatas, works in which the pianoforte plays a significant role next to the solo violin. - Critical praise for violinist Igor Ruhadze and pianist Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya: 'The early-music world needs more performers like Igor Ruhadze... This is some of the most accomplished historically informed violin playing I have heard in a long time.' Fanfare (Geminiani, 96524). 'Nepomnyashchaya provides a lesson in how one may realize such sonata bass lines. Her accompaniment is varied in texture and detail, balancing right-hand countermelodies with arpeggiated chordal washes of sound and heavy block chords at cadences. Like Ruhadze, she is a consummate specialist in Baroque style and practice.' - 'These musicians make a strong case for the violin-keyboard duo as an artistic medium. 'Strongly recommended for the music itself and for the dedicated, exciting performances.' Fanfare (Locatelli, 94376).

Violin and piano duo Tamsin Waley-Cohen and Huw Watkins explore a violin and piano programme spanning four generations of musical imagination. Prokofiev's F minor Sonata captivates with it's dramatic intensity and baroque-inspired clarity. Stravinsky's Duo Concertant enchants through five lyrical musical poems, blending wit, elegance, and classical poise. Knussen's 'Reflection', written for Waley-Cohen and Watkins, immerses listeners in a jewel-like world of colour and introspection, where every note is deliberately placed. Watkins's Violin Sonata fuses modern lyricism with bursts of earthy vitality, creating a dialogue of subtle contrasts.