Emanuel Gruber and Arnon Erez's classic account of Beethoven's music for cello and piano has been remastered for this 2-CD release. The Jerusalem Post called Gruber "one of our great artists" citing "his extraordinary capacity for projecting the deepest meaning of the music". Gruber was awarded the Pablo Casals prize by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Arnon Erez has been the head of the Chamber Music Department at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University for nearly two decades. With Emanuel Gruber, Erez has recorded the complete cello and piano Sonatas by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Brahms.

Since his student days, the German-Taiwanese pianist Marcel Mok has hardly studied any other work as frequently and intensively as Bach's Goldberg Variations BWV 988. It was therefore only logical not only to conclude his studies with this variation cycle, but also to make his recording debut with it. The result of this exploration absolutely proves him right!

The quartets featured on this CD belong to the first collection of quartets that Telemann wrote in Hamburg in 1730, in anticipation of a trip to Paris (which he would only make in the autumn of 1737, staying in the French capital for eight months), invited by four important French musicians: the flautist Michel Blavet, the violinist Jean-Pierre Guignon, the gambist Jean-Baptiste Forqueray and a cellist and harpsichordist named Prince �douard. The collection was published in 1730 and contributed significantly to the spread of the composer's fame throughout Europe, particularly in France (so much so that it was reprinted by the Parisian publisher Le Clerc in 1736); it includes six quartets, and was published under the Italian title Quadri a violino, flauto traversiere, viola di gamba o violoncello, e fondamento: ripartiti in 2. concerti, 2. balletti, 2. sonate. The six Quadri constitute a r�union des go�ts, as they incorporate diverse national styles. Although traces of the "German style" can be detected in each of them, the French style clearly prevails in the suites, while the Italian style dominates the sonatas.

Paul Hindemith's Der Schwanendreher (literally 'the swan turner') is a viola concerto based on medieval German folk songs. While the 'swan turner' was literally someone who turned the spit of a roasting swan, metaphorically it referred to an itinerant minstrel whose street organ or hurdy-gurdy was cranked via a swan's-neck handle. He composed the work between September and October 1935, and it was premiered at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, with the composer (a virtuoso violist who did much to elevate the instrument's status) serving as soloist. In it, Hindemith creates a musical 'structure' that enhances the solo viola by contrasting it with a uniquely scored tutti ensemble of winds with four cellos and three double basses. After the slow introduction to the first movement comes a section in classic sonata form with orchestration evoking the world and art of minstrelsy. The second movement opens with a sad dialogue between the viola and harp, inspired by an ancient song on lost love; this is followed by a contrasting fugato in which the sadness of the cuckoo (an omen of doom) is alleviated by the musical writing. The third movement features seven variations on the titular 'Schwanendreher' song, whose jovial, light character is skilfully rendered with iridescent rhythmic articulation. A prolific and versatile composer, Hindemith was initially drawn to expressionism and atonal harmony before embracing a neo-Baroque style along his journey towards abstract objectivism. By the end of the first quarter of the 20th century, Hindemith had become one of the leading exponents of Gebrauchsmusik ('Utility Music'), a musical approach designed to respond to societal needs as opposed to individual abstract aesthetic feelings. It saw the creation of much music aimed at amateurs, though with no compromise on quality. It was in this context that Hindemith composed the set of Schulwerk fur Instrumental-Zusammenspiel (Educational Music for Instrumental Ensembles) between March and April 1927. Designed for a youth orchestra, the music is by no means uninteresting or technically simple. It's fourth section is made up of the Funf Stucke (Five Pieces) scored for a five-part string orchestra with an additional solo violin introduced in the fifth piece. While the writing remains within certain technical bounds, the score is brimming with expressive variety, rhythmic dynamism, harmonic freedom and timbral sensitivity, all of which can be recognized as hallmarks of this period in Hindemith's compositional career. They showcase the composer's contrapuntal expertise, a quality particularly pronounced in the third piece, Lebhaft, with it's direct connection to Johann Sebastian Bach. In these 'teaching works' Hindemith's meticulous attention to detail reveals a distinctly German penchant for musical craftsmanship meeting the expectations of even 'professional' musicians. - Recorded March 2023, Sala Bianca, Foggia, Italy - Bilingual booklet in English and Italian contains liner notes by Alberto Mammarella - Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) was one of the most important and influential composers of 20th century Germany. His eclectic style incorporates diverse influences such as expressionism, neo-classicism and even jazz. His music is energetic, rhythmically vibrant, witty and joyous, but also able to express deeper and tragic feelings. - Der Schwanendreher is a viola concerto composed by Paul Hindemith in 1935. The title translates to "The Swan Turner, " referring to a medieval kitchen servant who turned roasting spits. The piece is based on old German folk songs, giving it a unique blend of the modern and traditional. Hindemith, himself a violist, premiered it with the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, conducted by Willem Mengelberg. The work is admired for it's inventive orchestration, lyrical themes, and balance between historical charm and contemporary technique. - Performed by Luca Ranieri and the orchestra Ico Suoni Del Sud, conducted by Mario Moresco. Luca Ranieri successfully recorded the Suites for viola solo by Hindemith for Brilliant Classics.

The union of cello and guitar belongs to that category of chamber ensembles which, despite their natural timbral affinity, have produced only a limited original repertoire. The literature for this instrumental combination is therefore relatively recent, with isolated episodes emerging mainly in the 20th and 21st centuries. Fuga dal Tempo, the recording project of Duo Escualo, was born from the desire to explore and promote this production, focusing on Italian composers or those of Italian origin, and offering a chronological perspective from 1969 to the present day. The title holds a dual meaning: on the one hand, it alludes to the temporal suspension that listening to music can generate; on the other, it evokes the possibility of escaping from the linear perception of time through a musical journey that, though rooted in history, aims to transcend it's boundaries. The three works presented here - the Sonata by Radam�s Gnattali, the Suite No. 1 by Raffaele Bellafronte, and Fuga dal Tempo by Francesco Sgambati - embody three different approaches to this idea, intertwining tradition and innovation, popular roots and contemporary languages. With this recording, Duo Escualo not only enriches the limited repertoire for this ensemble, but also offers a reflection on music as an experience that traverses past and present, tradition and research, in a flow that, precisely because it is musical, is both within and beyond time.

In his new CD recording, Swiss pianist Christian Chamorel focuses on four key works for solo piano by W.A. Mozart: the sonatas in C minor, K. 457; B-flat major, K. 333; and D major, K. 576; as well as the expressive Fantasy in C minor, K. 475, which originate from very different creative phases. Chamorel succeeds in creating a subtle interpretation that brings Mozart's music to life from within. Every phrase, every change in dynamics, articulation, and tempo seems like the result of a well-considered artistic decision and, at the same time, like a spontaneous impulse born directly from the moment.

The fourth volume of the complete recording of all 18 piano sonatas by W. A. Mozart - Mozart, the Traveling Whirlwind - includes the sonata movements in G minor, KV 15p, and Siciliano in D minor, KV 15u, from the London sketchbook of the 8-year-old Mozart; the sonata movement in B-flat major, KV 400/372; and Sonatas Nos. 7, 8, and 9. Michael Wessel combines the insights of historically informed performance practice with the rich, colorful tone of the modern B�sendorfer concert grand piano in a refreshing way: a lively, contrasting mixture of speaking and singing characters.

Why our title Bliss? It is a word that evokes a joy so perfect, so blessed, that it transcends daily life and is distilled into the work of art. The songs contained in this album explore the sentiment of love in it's several aspects, shading from feelings of desire to regret for absence, from passion to surrender, from tenderness to melancholy. Amy Beach, C�cile Chaminade and Gilda Ruta transformed the evocative power of love poetry into music, capturing in their canti d'amore moments of pure ecstasy and heartrending beauty. But Bliss refers not only to the ecstasy of love: it is also an ecstasy of artistic creation, the act of expression by which these composers gave voice to their sentiments, unrefined and in absolute sincerity.

In his finely curated program Serenade, Swiss pianist Benjamin Engeli dedicates himself to the chamber music treasures of the extraordinary composers Agathe Backer-Gr�ndahl, Amy Beach, and Rebecca Clarke, bringing their lyrical miniatures, poetic soundscapes, and expressive character pieces to life. Engeli, one of the most distinguished pianists of his generation in Switzerland, impressively demonstrates the musical depth and emotional diversity of the work of these often underrated artists.

Pianist Natalia Ehwald's debut album on Prospero Classical is dedicated entirely to the composer Franz Schubert. In addition to a selection of his (mainly early) landler and waltzes, the artist has chosen the late piano sonatas in A major, D664, and B flat major, D960. Both sonatas are characterised by their profound emotionality and unusual and pioneering harmonies. Particularly noteworthy is the fusion of lyrical melodies with complex structural elements that emphasise Schubert's singular mastery. They also show a remarkable development in form and expression, making them a high point in Schubert's oeuvre.

Maciej Kabza (*1990): Szczescie Happiness: cycle of songs for high voice and piano to words by Julian Tuwim Eight songs by an award-winning composer explore the timeless question: what is happiness? Set to the evocative poetry of Julian Tuwim, the texts approach the theme from unexpected angles, while the music captures a rich and wide-ranging emotional landscape. Contemporary vocal techniques and an intricate, highly expressive interplay between voice and piano create a compelling musical dialogue, giving both performers the opportunity to showcase their artistry, versatility, and technical brilliance.

It is a rather widespread opinion that the genesis of musical compositions intended to positively impress the listener's soul is often connected to an initial illumination that expands within a creative process that is per se rather ordinary. It is that creative spark constituting the generating principle which, as it unfolds, gives form and narrative cohesion to the sound archetype. This is the premise underlying the album by the duo Cardinali-Redorici, the realisation of a project that presents itself as a refined exploration of soundscapes delineated by the poietic encounter between viola and piano, through a dialogue aimed at capturing the most varied emotional nuances. In the panorama of string instruments, the viola is characterised by a highly suggestive timbral eloquence stemming from the range of frequencies within which it moves - an extension that makes it possible to perceive, at opposite extremes, sensations of both a lyrical luminosity typical of the violin and dark tones attributable to the gravitas of the cello. This contributes to making this medium ideal for translating into sound an expressiveness of musical thought drawing it's quintessence from a persistent search for intimacy, oscillating between lightness and depth. In this sense, the listener of InCanto Notturno is projected into an intense and exciting sound journey - ranging from the exploration of affections ascribable to a certain romantic lyricism to the stylistic refinement typical of Impressionism -, also reaching suggestive incursions into less beaten territories of the repertoire with the proposal of rarely performed compositions.

A programme that brings together two compositions very far from each other in time, both entitled Sonata, promises much for the imagination. The two Sonatas, for opposing reasons, were the last sonatas to be published during the lifetime of the two composers. Between them, like a bridge, is a piece permeated by the memory of water: how, then, can one give form to this intertwining? A profound ambiguity, between smiling and melancholy, inhabits the poetic world of the Sonata in G major, Op. 78, D. 894. Schubert had very clear ideas about the formal structure of the piece, thinking of a unified structure in four movements. Schubert had already seen that framework dissolve in the hands of his beloved Beethoven, who, in the two Sonatas of Op. 27, blurred the lines with regard to his scores, constructing complex, sometimes cyclical structures in which all traditional patterns disintegrate, creating a genre that is increasingly difficult to appreciate; on the other hand, with the Sonata in A minor, D. 845, Schubert had already been designated by music critics as the possible successor to such experimentation. Luciano Berio, who dedicated memorable tributes to Schubert such as Rendering (1989/90), also experimented, in the last years of his life, with the form that so obsessed Schubert: Sonata (2001) is a wonderful piece that brings both his career and his piano repertoire to a close. To explain how to approach it, we would like to pass the word to Marco Uvietta, who was able to study it's structure closely, consulting with the composer himself: Berio speaks of the Sonata as a structure made up of different blocks, which are held together by elements that act as continuous transitions. In the words of the composer: just as when traveling by train, the landscapes change, but the pylons continue to pass before our eyes, and we always look out of the same window.

Few musicians shaped the evolution of keyboard writing as profoundly as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His sonatas and concertos aligned technical brilliance with lyrical sensitivity to elevate the piano from largely domestic use to a powerful vehicle for solo and ensemble musicianship. This collection of hidden gems includes pieces spanning early childhood miniatures to complete sonata movements, minuets, a set of variations and a wide variety of incomplete works filled with Mozart's characteristic delicacy, surprise and operatic drama. Vijay Venkatesh's recording of Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 6 can be heard on a digital-only release, 9.70390.

Writing the liner notes to this album necessarily compels me to begin with a preamble which fully complieswith the music and renditions it contains: listening to a discographical work is an active act of creation, the moment when we choose to shift our point of observation towards an imaginative reality that, once experienced, appears more authentic and faithful than everyday's ordinariness. This record is intimately aimed at a cultural elite, aware and solid, not necessarily to be identified in guitar confraternities , capable of seizing and elaborating the connections and the sentimental, substantial correspondences between the sound of the guitar and the cultural facts the author decided to express through it. The title �Luminaria� recalls the feeling of a Van Gogh's Night, where lights do not seem to belong to the city anymore, but rather to nature. The author himself says about these works for guitar: �the landscape is nocturnal, we're moving within gilardinian poetics, the pieces are no pianistic milestones, nor are they orchestral solos; they're feeble village lights at the procession for a saint, which do not illuminate the night, and yet make it exist.� These are works complying with the poetics of �places� and of �memory�, both converging in a third one represented by �distance�. This music deals with an �elsewhere�, referring to �here and now� rather than to a spacial acception, there's no irony, magic or enchanted realism, but a vision forged in architectures dense with a thought that fiercely invokes this very �hic et nunc�, recalling the powerful verse by Montale to burn now , no other is my meaning. Kevin SwierkoszLenart entrusts these pieces to a young guitarist who has all the qualities to receive and elaborate the author's intimate perceptions; Giovanni Martinelli, dedicatory of these oevres, has one gift distinguishing him from most of his generation's performers: the precocious ability to observe the many facets of things and of the world from above, whose vision he renders deeply and very clearly through the guitar. Thus, both special and rare seems the artistic alliance between author and performer, as if they showed the way one another, and the composer's ideas are embraced by the guitarist with such natural predisposition.

The album consists of five triptychs written for solo guitar in the 20th century by composers representing various areas of musical culture. The album opens with a work by Tansman, which references the compositions of Fr�d�ric Chopin. Rodrigo's composition strictly follows his characteristic musical language, based on stylizations of dances and motifs drawn from Spanish tradition. Torroba's suite is a tribute to the music of the Castilian region, an emotional, virtuosic work with playful elements. The miniatures by Henz, with their dreamlike, meditative character, bear the mark of the versatile German composer's personal style, whose musical language combines elements of expressionism, twelve-tone technique, neoclassicism, and tonality. The final work on the album is by Barrios Mangor�, the Paraguayan guitarist and most prominent composer of his country, whose piece borders between the sacred and the profane, containing elements of Baroque virtuosity. Andrzej Grygier is one of the most outstanding classical guitarists of his generation, a laureate of prestigious guitar competitions worldwide, and this album confirms his virtuosic skill and musical sensitivity.

Ilya Shmukler was the winner of the prestigios Geza Anda Competition in Zurich in 2024. On this album he presents a broad variety of composers and musical styles.

Two metaphors intertwine in the Roseti del mare (Rose gardens of the sea). The rose garden is the shared place, the multifaceted, multicoloured, thorny and delicate project that well embodies the evolutionary drive of the young performers of Polimnia. The enigmatic vastness of the sea provides the setting in the consolidated repertoire of many great composers. It's presence is manifest in Robert Schumann's Romanzen fur Frauenstimmen (Meerfey, Der Wassermann, In Meeres Mitten), and it recurs in the choices of numerous French composers (for example, in C. Debussy's La Mer), a trait that clearly re-sonates in the fluid and elegant writing of Gabriel Faure featured here. Across it's surface, the sea incarnates the spontaneity, luminosity, and immediacy of Faure's invention, while in it's depths resides the Schumannian style, introspective and severe, directing it's gaze towards Reflection and the layering of Thought. With the Polimnia vocal ensemble, I chose to work on a challenging project, far removed from easy transcriptions or more straightforward choral adaptations. For all of us, it was like going out into the open sea, with no footholds or furrows of well-trodden routes. A treacherous journey, devoid of certainties yet full of opportunities for a totally shared research into the meanings and sounds expressed by the young performers already rich in their own time, ranging from 17 to 25 years of age. The fact that young is not an adjective to be equated with superficial is the conviction I have matured in my long experience as director of the children's choir from which the Polimnia Ensemble almost entirely originates. The result we have achieved is the impetus that moves us towards new challenges, new future projects. Claudio Fenoglio

Vienna in the second half of the 17th century, under the rule of Emperor Leopold I, was a significant center of musical life-a place where various styles and influences intersected, distinguished by it's own traditions and performance practices. The same was true for harpsichord music: composers working under the auspices of the imperial court supported and inspired each other, which resulted in a large number of surviving works preserved in libraries such as those in Leipzig, Berlin, and New York. The album includes both single-movement and multi-movement compositions that share a virtuosic character, highlighting the exceptional talent of the renowned harpsichordists of the era. Special attention should be given to the artist's own transcription of an unpublished and previously unrecorded suite by Biber, which is the result of Agata Meissner's own research work. The artist is affiliated with the Mozarteum University in Salzburg and divides her attention between performing early music and caring for historical instruments. Three of these instruments were used on this album, specifically chosen to emphasize the characteristics unique to the works of each composer. The album transports listeners to an era of fervent rhetoric and emotions, contained within the bounds of courtly elegance.

In this programme, 'Solomon's Knot' is dedicated to the popular hunting cantata BWV 208. Solomon's horn players are also given plenty to do in the 1st Brandenburg Concerto and the F major Mass - the bridge from the sacred to the secular is easily bridged.