Michael Finnissy's output for the guitar spans almost 60 years of his career and represents an enormous contribution to the repertoire of the instrument from one of Britain's most significant composers. Published a few days before Finnissy's 80th birthday, this bold and ambitious album celebrates this milestone by bringing together all of his works for solo guitar and guitar ensemble for the first time, in performances by Finnissy's collaborators and led by new music virtuoso and tireless guitar explorer Sam Cave.

Twilight's dancing glow Yearning for love: Where is my beloved? I have searched for him, both high and low. Bid him come to me, for without him I cannot live. Longing for an end to suffering: The soul glides across the shimmering waves, the glow of twilight dancing around the boat. Time flows on, until I too shall slip beyond it's reach. Burning desire: You were stolen from me, but in my heart, you linger still: I embrace you, I kiss you! Ensemble Rossignol owes it's name to the title of it's first concert series in 1998: The virtuoso song of the English Nightingale. Indeed, the virtuosity and refined, playful, inspiring, intimate and musical performance of the ensemble immediately call to mind the enchanting song of this remarkable bird. Ensemble Rossignol has since released four CDs: LocLoc Locke and Locatelli larded, London Love, Master composers in the shadow of Handel and Vrouw Women in Baroque and Early Romantic music, from in love to inconsolable.

The new program by French baroque violinist H�l�ne Schmitt moves along a French-American axis and features six violin sonatas by female composers from both sides of the Atlantic. These are small-scale works, full of warmth and sensitivity, ranging from pure Romanticism to the cautious breaking away from tonality. The instruments are played with gut strings, and the Steinway grand piano is a historic model made in New York; pianist Antoine de Grol�e accompanies eloquently and sensitively.

Winter - from First Frost to Carnival Festivity A sparkling musical panorama of winter - harking back to the legendary Great Frost of 1708/09. From the beginning of the season over Christmas to a festive carnival: songs, opera scenes, instrumental as well as traditional pieces from France, Germany, and Great Britain. Music by Jean-Baptiste Lully, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Michael Praetorius, William Byrd, among others.

We do not know precisely the date of birth and death of Gaetano Sborgi, a composer who lived between the second half of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth. We can say with reasonable certainty that Sborgi was born in Florence, as in the frontispiece of his sonatas he states that he is Florentine. Sborgi was chapel master and piano-forte teacher at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. He studied with his brother (or father according to Picchianti) Gasparo and then moved to Naples in the Conservatory of S. Onofrio, where he had Marco Santucci as a companion and where he stayed for seventeen years. Back in Florence "he made himself known... with several of his theatrical pieces of real good taste, and in others of different kinds. He had three works of piano sonatas printed, which show his genius and talent". Six harpsichord sonatas dedicated to Lorenzo Niccolini, ciamberlano of Peter Leopold I and Ferdinand III, can be included in the context of those compositions that show the gradual transition from the traditional harpsichord with plucked strings to the new conception, piano et forte, with struck strings. Jacopo Sibilia uses a copy of a 1783 Stein fortepiano, which can be played with two different types of action, in order to make the performance more expressive and harmonious.

Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) was an Argentine composer and bandoneon virtuoso who revolutionized the traditional tango by infusing it with elements of jazz, classical music, and modern harmonies. His work transformed tango from a dance genre rooted in Buenos Aires' popular culture into a sophisticated art form suitable for the concert hall. Central to this transformation were his bandoneon concertos, which showcased the expressive possibilities of the instrument and blurred the boundaries between popular and classical traditions. The bandoneon, a type of button accordion originally developed in Germany, became the soulful voice of Argentine tango. Piazzolla mastered it's complex mechanics and extended it's expressive range far beyond it's traditional role. Aconcagua: Concerto for Bandoneon and Orchestra (1980) represents the peak of Piazzolla's orchestral writing. Named after the highest mountain in the Andes, it symbolizes artistic ascent and ambition. This concerto highlights the instrument's dual nature-melancholic yet rhythmic, intimate yet dramatic. In this concerto, Piazzolla combines lush textures, driving rhythms, and virtuosic passages to create a dialogue between the bandoneon and orchestra that is both lyrical and dynamic. Also included on this disc are the Tres Tangos for orchestra and the immensely popular Oblivion, known from Marco Bellocchio's film Enrico IV. Played by Klaudiusz Baran, one of the leading bandoneon players of his country, and the Czestochowa Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Adam Klocek.

The piano duo Jonas Hain & Robert Gromotka are joined by cello and violin for added depth and color in this new release. It is a concept album exploring human relationships and the invisible spaces between two people, blending neoclassical clarity with cinematic intensity, creating emotionally resonant soundscapes. Each composition captures moments of closeness, distance, and reflection. For fans of Nils Frahm, Max Richter, and �lafur Arnalds - intimate, poetic, and moving.

The dazzling and spectacular sonority of the "trumpet and organ" duo was etched into contemporary history by the splendid recordings made starting in the 1960s for the label "Erato" by Maurice Andr� and Marie-Claire Alain. Since then, a plethora of performers on both instruments have explored - with varied outcomes - works composed for their ensemble, transcribed and adapted music written for other instruments, and encouraged composers to expand the repertoire. The duo Santi-Arlotti, already established by their concert fame, stands out for their meticulous research and the originality of their musical proposals, which have been appreciated since their first CD, released in 2017 for Tactus (TC850003). This album was entirely dedicated to variations on famous opera themes (Verdi, Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Dall'Argine) composed by Arban, Forestier, Zanichelli, Cacciamani, Rossari, and Spiga. Their repertoire is the fruit of passionate research, as evidenced by the beautiful Concerto by Bortolotti, drawn from a precious Bolognese manuscript and skillfully adapted for the organ by Marco Arlotti, presented in this recording.

SOMM Recordings continues it's long collaboration with pianist Leon McCawley, named "one of today's most impeccably musical pianists" by International Piano. His past recordings for SOMM include much-admired releases of piano music by Chopin; Barber (Critics' Choice in Gramophone); Brahms (Classic FM CD of the Week); Schumann; Rachmaninoff Complete Preludes; Haydn Sonatas and Variations (awarded a Diapason d'Or); Schubert; three further volumes of Haydn Sonatas; and the 2024 release Natural Connection, about which Gramophone wrote: "This scintillatingly varied recital combines sensuous virtuosity, compelling charm and musical probity. Highly recommended." In this recital McCawley presents some of his old favourites by composer-pianists Liszt, Beethoven, Chopin, and Franck. While the recital focuses on 19th century composers, the programme begins and ends with a nod to J.S. Bach. Among Bach's works that Franz Liszt revered were his six organ preludes and fugues. In transcribing them for piano, Liszt became a major influence on later arrangers. Heard here is the first in the set, Prelude and Fugue in A minor. The Piano Sonata in C major, Op. 53, "The Waldstein," by Beethoven-dedicated to his friend and patron, Count Ferdinand von Waldstein-comes from his aptly named "Heroic" period. It was written in 1804, two years after the watershed moment of his Heiligenstadt Testament, when he had contemplated suicide because of his encroaching deafness, but instead made the profound choice to channel his despair into a bold new musical style. The "Waldstein" Sonata is a vivid expression of this newfound path and of Beethoven's ability to transcend personal adversity to create ground-breaking works of deep complexity. One of the renowned "out-takes" of musical history is Beethoven's Andante favori. He originally intended it as the slow movement of his "Waldstein" Sonata, but he substituted it with a shorter adagio labelled "Introduzione." He had formed an attachment to the piece, though, and he published it as a stand-alone work, including it frequently in subsequent recitals. In an engaging piece of programming, Leon McCawley pairs it here with the "Waldstein" Sonata. Two introspective works by Chopin follow. The Berceuse is a series of continuous contemplations on a simple, nocturne-like theme. In the Barcarolle, Chopin's affinity to the bel canto operatic style is strongly apparent, especially in the beautiful, florid figurations in the right hand. Leon McCawley closes his beautifully curated recital with the Pr�lude, Choral et Fugue for solo piano by C�sar Franck. Franck was trained as a pianist, but he served as an organist at Paris's Sainte-Clotilde Church from 1858 until his death in 1890. Inspired by the rich, orchestral sound of the Cavaill�-Coll organ there, he developed a grandiose, improvisatory style of keyboard writing that was harmonically influenced by Bach but thoroughly romantic in expression.

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More than a decade after he devoted his Deutsche Grammophon debut album to Mozart, Jan Lisiecki revisits the composer's oeuvre. "Engaging with the genius of Mozart's music is a true privilege. It is characterized by purity, elegance, emotional depth, intellectual challenge, and profound rewards," says the pianist. He is joined by the Bamberger Symphoniker and Manfred Honeck for this album featuring the Piano Concertos Nos. 9 & 22. "Within the extensive collection of 27 concertos composed for the piano by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, these two concertos, both In the key of E flat major, emerge as singular masterpieces."

Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of Fugue) is the fifth album in the Bach series by Jorg Halubek and his ensemble il Gusto Barocco - the think tank for the music baroque master Johann Sebastian Bach. The new recording is led by Jorg Halubek, who plays the historic German Silbermann Organ from 1737. Together with the Early Music ensemble il Gusto Barocco, they present a unique interpretation of the world famous Bach composition "The Art of Fugue".

The superlative Pygmalion chorus are at the center of this new recording of the St. John Passion. Their striking presence radiates throughout the work, their exemplary articulation and collective energy moulding the drama and carrying it's emotional charge. Rapha�l Pichon's flexible yet precise direction restores it's original dramatic arc, instilling the peerless team of soloists with the same demandingly high standards of musical narrative and truth. This Passion wins out through it's clarity of gesture and compellingly forceful actualization.

Imperial College Chamber Choir and conductor Patrick Allies present This Place, a beautifully-curated programme of choral works exploring themes of home, belonging, spiritual refuge, love, respite and peace. While the theme relates principally to the repertoire, it also acknowledges the chamber choir's own position within Imperial College London, and the musical home that it's members find in the choir.

For her first solo album with BIS Records, Alina Ibragimova, together with Cedric Tiberghien, embarks on recording of Beethoven's entire violin sonatas. As one might expect, the first violinist of the Chiaroscuro Quartet presents these chamber music masterpieces on period instruments. While she plays a gut-stringed instrument, Tiberghien plays a fortepiano, a copy of a Viennese instrument from 1794. This new interpretation of Beethoven's violin sonatas brings us as close as possible to the soundscape that listeners present at the premi�re of these works would have heard at the turn of the 19th century. This first volume contains the three violin sonatas Opus 12, the first that Beethoven published in Vienna, where he had already established himself as Mozart's successor. As was customary at the time, they are written 'for harpsichord or fortepiano, with the accompaniment of a violin', but following Mozart's example, they are truly for both instruments in equal measure. The disc concludes with the 'Spring' Sonata, the most popular and probably the most poetic of the violin sonatas. We look forward to continuing this undoubtedly landmark recording series, with a second and third instalment soon to come.

Danish Dynamite! The Danish Quartet, established in the 1930s, enjoyed fame for over two decades in Denmark and abroad. Many composers wrote music for their nontraditional setting, including Niels Viggo Bentzon, Fini Henriques, Herman D. Koppel, Otto Mortensen, and Knud�ge Riisager. With one exception (Riisager), all pieces on this album are world premiere recordings performed by today's highly ranked and award-winning Swedish-Danish musicians: Janne Thomsen (flute), Cecilia Zilliacus (violin), Andreas Brantelid (cello), and Bengt Forsberg (piano).

Francesco Almasio (Milan, 21 April 1802 - Milan, 14 November 1871) was one of the protagonists of the musical life of Milan during the nineteenth century, and is considered the father of the reformation of sacred music in Italy. He was Kapellmeister and organist in several Milanese churches, and the very first teacher in the organ course at the Conservatory of Milan: the few surviving manuscripts of sacred music compositions of his, and the printed corpus of his organ pieces, reveal the everyday life of his liturgical and teaching activities. Francesco Almasio was born in Milan to Pietro Almasio (1780-1846), from Legnano, who also was a Kapellmeister and organist, and Maria Porri; his father made him study the piano, the organ and composition. Organist Fabio Nava uses the historic Bossi-Urbani organ from 1886 in the Prepositurale Church of Leffe (Bergamo) to best render this recording of Francesco Almasio's organ works. In addition to the original compositions, the organ transcriptions by the Milanese composer are particularly interesting. In addition to famous pieces such as Eja Mater from Rossini's Stabat Mater and the symphony from Giuseppe Verdi's La Forza del Destino, true musts of the era, he surprisingly adapts two movements from Beethoven's Septet for organ, enriching the sacred and liturgical repertoire of his time with chamber music genre.

While the three composers featured on this recording are not, in the public perception and sometimes even in that of the performers, among the most significant exponents of Viennese music in the first half of the twentieth century, their remarkably expressive and virtuoso writing is deeply rooted in fin-de-si�cle Vienna. They were banned by the dictatorships of the 1930s and then blacklisted in the aftermath of the Second World War by the young European avant-garde, and it is only in recent years that the beauty and opulence of their works have been rediscovered. Vienna-born conductor Sascha Goetzel writes about the works performed here with the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire: 'With Korngold, Schreker and Krenek, we're not just hearing music - we're entering a dialogue between past and present, tradition and rebellion, myth and modernity [...] Korngold embodies the emotional sincerity and creative ambition of the late Romantic tradition. Schreker immerses us in the subconscious - mythical, unstable, and rich in feeling. Krenek breaks through the facade, injecting irony, jazz and fragmentation into the orchestral form [...] In their own ways, each composer pushes back against inherited conventions to discover new languages of sound.'

Dan�el Bjarnason is a hub-like figure in the group of composers who could be said to constitute a First Icelandic School. But he also stands slightly apart from his peers. As the nation's foremost conductor, he has premiered and recorded works by it's central protagonists including J�hann J�hannsson, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Mar�a Huld Markan Sigf�sd�ttir and others (notably on the Sono Luminus series Emergence, Recurrence and Occurrence). But Bjarnason's own music has long sprawled beyond the borders of the school's distinct aesthetic and incorporated non-abstract forms such as opera, dance and film scores. While some Icelandic orchestral music enacts a gradual transformation on a vaporous orchestra, akin to the shifting shape and colour of a North Atlantic cloud, Bjarnason's formative orchestral works often cleave to a solid, defined musical object which might be distorted or obscured before emerging again intact. His music has never shied away from the slow, drone-lagged music of Icelandic archetype but it has also used more varied tempi and more urgent rhythmic profiles. It has also deployed different time scales in parallel - notably in works such as Emergence and From Space I Saw the Earth, in which planes of music operating at different speeds momentarily sync. This brings to his music a sense of what the late Danish composer Per N�rg�rd described as 'the timeless forces of existence - nature in the broadest sense.' Those works had their roots in breakthrough concertos for cello and piano, Bow to String and Processions, both of which thrive on the process of expanding strong, fertile material by zooming deep in or stretching wide out - a more thematic, less spectral approach than that of Icelandic fashion but one that still sees Bjarnason reveling in the properties of sound itself. - Andrew Mellor

Anna Pikulska takes us on an exciting journey into Cabanilles' sound world on the lovingly restored Bartholome Sanchez organ. With it's rich sounds from 50 stops on two divided manuals, this 18th century Aragonese Baroque instrument in Carinena (Aragon) testifies to the high standard of organ building at that time with some 800 Gothic pipes dating back to the year 1482.