Die Geigerin Natalia van der Mersch und die Pianistin Natalia Kovalzon spielen in dieser Aufnahme die drei Sonaten fur Violine und Klavier von Edvard Grieg bieten. Ihre Spielweise, brillant, dynamisch und zugleich der interpretativen Tradition verpflichtet, fuhrt dazu, die Eigenheiten und Starken dieser drei Sonaten neu zu entdecken, die sich in ihrer Sprache und in ihrer Aussagekraft sehr voneinander unterscheiden - mit Momenten lyrischer Abschweifung, aber auch mit Hohepunkten virtuoser Gestaltung, insbesondere in der dritten Sonate, einem charakteristischen Werk aus der vollen Reifezeit des Komponisten. Grieg schreibt: "Die drei Sonaten gehoren zu meinen besten Kompositionen und reprasentieren verschiedene Perioden meiner musikalischen Entwicklung: die erste ist naiv und ideenreich; die zweite ist von nationalem Schwung inspiriert; die dritte ist die mit dem weitesten Horizont."

Electrifying debut album from a bold new voice in classical piano. British pianist Ophelia Gordon makes a striking debut with this album of works by Nikolai Kapustin, the Soviet composer whose music fuses the harmonic language and rhythmic drive of jazz with the formal precision of classical composition. Though Kapustin's music sounds improvised, every note is meticulously written - jazz in spirit, but classical in structure. Gordon brings rare authenticity to this repertoire, having tracked down long out-of-print vinyl recordings of Kapustin's own performances in a personal search for the composer's true voice. The programme is carefully curated to offer a compelling listening arc, capturing Kapustin's wit, lyricism, and fire with both intimacy and flair. Recorded on a characterful 1961 Steinway D, the album's sound is warm, immediate, and rich in detail - engineered with a microphone setup designed to balance the immediacy of a jazz trio with the depth and clarity of classical solo piano. This release marks two milestones: the first full Kapustin album by a British female pianist, and the first classical album by a BRIT School alum. With a growing reputation for fearless artistry and cross-genre fluency, Gordon offers a vital new perspective on one of the most original piano voices of the 20th century.

Das Bearbeiten eigener oder fremder Werke ist eine seit der Barockzeit eingefuhrte Verfahrensweise, um Werke einem breiteren Auffuhrungsspektrum zuganglich zu machen. Dabei war den Komponisten jener Epoche bei solchen Transkriptionen eine wertende Differenzierung zwischen Originalwerken und Bearbeitungen fremd. Sie gingen noch von der Einheit geistlicher und weltlicher Musik aus und von hoherbestimmten, den Komponisten vorgegebenen Affekten. Dies fuhrte in vielfacher Weise zur Wiederverwendung und Wiederverwertung bereits vorhandener Werke i'm sogenannten "Parodieverfahren", wobei diese inspirierte Bearbeitung nahtlos an neues Schaffen anknupfte, etwa durch das Transponieren in andere Tonarten, durch Besetzungsanderungen und vieles mehr. Romain Nosbaum spielt Klavierbearbeitungen von Liszt/Bach, Bach/Marcello, Kornienko/Tschaikowsky u.a.

George Lloyd will mostly remembered for his 12 Symphonies, but his compositions include Opera, Choral, Concerto, Piano and Chamber Music. In 2023 the Trustees of Lyrita Nimbus Arts reached an exclusive agreement with The George Lloyd Society to take over the sale, hire, archiving and preservation of all George Lloyd's scores as well as the commercial exploitation of the collection of recordings made by the Society in the 1990s and conducted by the composer. Because George Lloyd's personal attention is a dominating influence on the scores and recordings, which he mostly conducted himself, we have decided to headline this representation the 'Signature Collection'. Scores will be cleaned, and new orchestral parts created, recordings will be reorganised into collectable sets available on CD, Download and Streaming with new notes commissioned from Paul Conway.

High Hopes, the debut album by Arvid Fagerfjall and Hikaru Kanki, is dedicated to the search for a balance between reality and our inner self - and the attempt to maintain hope in life. For their program, the two drew from two centuries of song repertoire, with each of the selected works also being lively and complex in it's own unique way.

Now that more than 40 years have passed since Mario del Monaco's death, and the venomous criticism of recent decades has dissipated, given his extensive and detailed discography, it can be established that the Italian tenor's voice was undoubtedly the most beautiful, powerful, and important of the last century, surpassing even that of Caruso or Pavarotti. These two CDs, which collect his most spectacular performances from his golden years, and meticulously recorded by Decca of London, are presented here in their entirety and in chronological order.

For this album, Narek Hakhnazaryan has selected works that showcase the characteristics of cello playing: it's tonal warmth, emotional depth and versatility. The interplay of original works and arrangements has resulted in a program that sees the cello as a unifying voice - inspired by the figure of the medieval minstrel in Glasunov's Chant du menestrel Op.71.

Always curious and seeking new horizons, the musicians of the Voce quartet fell in love with Argentina during their concert tours. In Buenos Aires and Rosario, they frequented penas and milongas (folk music dance clubs) and had exciting working sessions with the illustrious Dino Saluzzi... They decided to ask composers Fernando Fiszbein, Gabriel Sivak and Jean-Baptiste Henry to write music and arrangements for them. They perform these pieces with the great Argentine guitarist Pablo Marquez and Jean-Baptiste Henry on bandoneon. This colourful programme features tangos, but also zamba, chacarera, cueca, baguala... Not to mention a tribute to Piazzolla (Four for Tango for string quartet) and Alberto Ginastera, with his first string quartet and his emblematic sonata for guitar.

William Smethergell's oeuvre presents an intriguing challenge. Since little more is known of his life than his birth date and the fact that he worked as an organist at two London churches and as a violist at the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, we must form our impression of him solely through his music. That impression is certainly favorable-at least if we go by the two sets of six overtures published as Op. 2 (1778) and Op. 5 (1780): "Brilliantly scored, richly orchestrated works-ingenious, lively, and full of variety, bearing witness to Smethergell's great melodic inventiveness," was the verdict of klassik-heute on Op. 5 (CD 555 540-2), which Douglas Bostock and the Southwest German Chamber Orchestra Pforzheim introduced to us in 2023. The same ensemble now completes the dozen with the equally attractive Op. 2, a collection widely admired in late 18th-century London and beyond, and is now winning new friends.

Simon-Pierre Bestion immerses us in the world of Charles V and a Spain marked by Arab-Andalusian culture. From 1515 onwards, Spain also welcomed musicians and singers from Flanders: this Capilla flamenca had an explosive effect on Spanish music during the Renaissance, according to Bestion. He has composed an imaginary Requiem for the death of Charles V, using compositions actually intended for this service, such as Pedro de Escobar's Missa pro defunctis and Cristobal de Morales' Missa Mille regretz, based on the emperor's favourite song. As usual, the founding conductor of La Tempete takes a few liberties and breathes life into these works by arranging them with variations in timbre, tempo and expression: 'I chose to make extensive use of percussion and certain very distinctive instruments such as the shawm and sackbuts, which perfectly match the spirit of outdoor processions, such as those in the gardens of the Alhambra.'

In the 'glory days' of the 1970s recording industry (and, incidentally, the time of CRD Records' foundation), there was a rush to record the classical canon. Naturally, as a pioneering label, CRD was at the forefront of this trend and had the privilege to work with Paul on the complete piano works of Faure and Ravel, amongst others. Today, hidden corners of classical continue to be unearthed and we are encouraged to rethink genre boundaries as we elevate long-disregarded voices. Meanwhile, there is another important venture at play: the careful curation of a composer's works. This is the bent of this release. Frederic Mompou's piano works have been well-covered, not least by the maestro himself in his own performances recorded in Barcelona in 1974. So why record this repertoire again 50 years later? From our perspective, it is a fitting choice as we celebrate 50 years as a label championing classical repertoire through the performances of world-class artists. But there has to be something more than that. Such is the accessibility of music today and the desire to reach virality that we seem to have forgotten how, for it's originator, it could be a definitively private and intimate exploit. Paul invites us to listen to Mompou's' rehearsal of own'. He encourages us, as Mompou did from the outset, to listen for the silences and peer deeply into the shadows. In a world in which our attention is constantly divided, perhaps now more than ever such albums are needed. Emma Pauncefort & Tom Pauncefort

As chief conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Santtu-Matias Rouvali has spent five years recording Sibelius' symphonies and symphonic poems for Alpha Classics, landmarks of the discography which have received numerous awards worldwide. He wanted to continue this cycle with the famous violin concerto, for which he chose the young Swedish violinist Ava Bahari, artist in residence at the Gothenburg Symphony and ECHO Rising Star for 2026/2027... Together, they form a close-knit duo and share the same passion for the music of the Finnish composer who, heartbroken at not having realised his dream of becoming a virtuoso violinist, composed a concerto that would become an essential work in the history of music, in which soloist and orchestra merge... Rouvali and the GSO also recorded another work that demonstrates Sibelius' innovative symphonic thinking: the cycle of Four Legends of Lemminkainen, first heard in Helsinki on 13 April 1896.

Letters from Scandinavia is, I hope, an adventure... It certainly has been for me in creating it. It began with a chance stumbling on Mary Wollstonecraft's Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway & Denmark, written on the cusp of the nineteenth century, at a time when most of the rest of Europe was almost entirely ignorant of the 'wild north'. I soon discovered a treasure trove of historic travel writing about Scandinavia, which I duly devoured. It has grown into something between a song recital and a historical audio travel guide, I suppose. A weaving together of music and text as it follows in the footsteps of women journeying to nineteenth-century Nordic countries for the ?rst time. The music is drawn from a rich vein of song by composers and interwoven between the songs are new texts inspired by colourful and evocative nineteenth-century travel writing. I've had the huge pleasure of working with composer Peter Facer to bring these texts to life with new music to underscore the spoken word. I'm grateful that my fellow traveller is pianist Sholto Kynoch, who first introduced me to Backer Grondahl's works a few years ago, and who plays this repertoire so beautifully. Letters from Scandinavia is above all a love letter to all things Nordic. I very much hope you enjoy it. (Best served with a cinnamon bun...) Joanna Harries

If the flamboyant guitarist who is Ga�lle Solal has grasped one truth above all, it is that some paths must wander before they arrive. Her devoted companionship with Brazilian musicians, whether in Rio or far beyond, has given her not only the language but also the effortless sway of the Carioca rhythms that have woven themselves into our musical imagination for more than a century. From Choro to Maxixe, these nostalgic or restless pieces carry us to a place on earth that never ceases to fascinate, precisely because it never ceases transforming. From the roots of Brejeiro to the Concerto of Heitor Villa-Lobos and through the luminous popular instinct of Chiquinha Gonzaga, Ga�lle Solal leads us toward an inspired celebration of the magical myth of the Saci. Here, through the voice of composer Clarice Assad, this mischievous spirit of Rio has become a Concerto for the sovereign instrument of a Brazil that we have long dreamed of hearing so closely.

In the official Fricsay studio discography the Samson does not appear. For this reason the present recording is so rare. Originally from a 1955 radio source and restored by Urania Records, it is a real rarity.

After exploring lesser-known works for light lyric tenor from the op�ra-comique repertoire with the multi-award-winning So Romantique ! (ALPHA924), this new recording focuses on a unique genre: French m�lodie with orchestra. "Deeply attuned to the chamber dimension of music, I was naturally drawn to this form, which is rarely programmed today. Attention to tone colour is essential here, particularly in the interpretation of such brief pieces, an exercise at the very heart of my approach as a m�lodiste," says Dubois. Designed by the researchers and editors of the Palazzetto Bru Zane, this programme allows us to rediscover lost treasures of French heritage: refinement, the art of suggestion, delicacy, nobility of expression - everything here is so poetic!

Vsevolod Zavidov (born in 2005 in Moscow) is now considered one of the most promising young pianists to emerge from the great Russian tradition. A pupil of Nelson Goerner's, he made his name on the international stage by winning the very first Radu Lupu Prize in 2024 and the UBS Young Soloists Prize in 2025. He chose to devote his first solo recording to Rachmaninoff with three transcriptions of Bach's violin pieces, the �tudes-Tableaux Op. 33 and the Variations on a Theme by Corelli: "Virtually unfathomable music. Not merely a composition, but an entire mythology. Interwoven with countless links to his works of every period, it is like a cipher - filled with disguises, transformations, ironies, reminiscences... yet one and the same story," says Zavidov, who concludes this colourful programme with his own magnificent transcription of the famous Vocalise from 1912.

Violinist Alexandra Tirsu presents her debut album comprising concertos by Dmitri Shostakovich and Paul Hindemith. Shostakovich's music has resonated with her since childhood, it's atmosphere reflecting the war stories she grew up with. Violin Concerto No. 1 unfolds like a psychological journey-from a shadowy opening to a fierce scherzo, an emotionally charged passacaglia, and a wildly ironic finale. Hindemith's rarely performed Violin Concerto, which Alexandra first explored at the ARD Competition in Munich, reveals a different voice: clear, structured, and quietly expressive. Recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Vasily Petrenko, this album captures a moment of depth, identity, and emotional connection through two powerful 20th-century works.

This album brings together Johannes Brahms' two masterful sonatas for cello and piano, works often regarded as "veiled symphonies" for their symphonic breadth within the chamber music form. Written over two decades apart, these sonatas showcase Brahms' profound love for the cello-an instrument he studied in his youth-and his deep engagement with musical traditions stretching from Bach to Beethoven. The E minor Sonata, Op. 38, conceived as an homage to Bach, unfolds with striking intensity, combining Romantic expressiveness with contrapuntal rigor. It's expansive first movement, dance-inspired minuet, and fugal finale embody Brahms' ability to blend historical influences with fresh emotional resonance. The F major Sonata, Op. 99, composed during a highly fertile summer by Lake Thun in 1886, reveals a very different Brahms: fiery, impassioned, and boldly lyrical. Written for cellist Robert Hausmann, the work opens with stormy piano tremolandi and soaring cello lines before moving into a tender, hymn-like slow movement. A dramatic scherzo brimming with rhythmic energy and a playful yet triumphant finale close the sonata, capturing both Brahms' intellectual depth and his more exuberant side. Contemporary critics may have disagreed on it's merits, but the F major Sonata has since stood as a cornerstone of the cello repertoire. In this recording, cellist Livia Stanese and pianist Wenjiao Wang bring their artistry and international experience to Brahms' sonatas, illuminating their balance of structural mastery and heartfelt intensity. Their interpretation underlines the works' timeless appeal: music that is both deeply rooted in the traditions of the past and unceasingly alive in the present.

Herve Niquet likes to say that recording is a source of stress and sometimes tension: "None of that was the case here," he continues. He has been performing this Couperin/de Lalande programme with the female singers of Le Concert Spirituel for over ten years: "The seven singers know every nook and cranny of these highly complex scores. So it was time to record this testimony to ten years of work. (...) I like the parallel between the singers of Le Concert Spirituel and the nuns who sing these lamentations every year throughout their lives in their monastery."