Whether melting away like a singing gondolier on the Grand Canal or tumbling about like a Eulenspiegel, whether clucking melancholically in the depths like a brooding hen or bouncing acrobatically across the high wire: after the clarinet had outgrown it's infant shoes, it was soon "on everyone's lips" thanks to it's rapidly expanding possibilities-praised by enthusiastic advocates like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, technically advanced by new virtuosos, and entrusted with the most varied tasks by experiment-loving composers. In the front ranks of these pioneers stood Carl Stamitz, one of the first second-generation Mannheimers, who wrote nearly a dozen concertante works tailored to the instrument's slender body, thereby leaving the guild of clarinetists a precious little catechism that can now be heard complete on recording for the first time.

Almanack (2017) is a collection of 76 varied pieces suitable for performance on keyboard instruments. Although piano is perhaps the most obvious (and ubiquitous) choice, many are also suitable for organ, harpsichord, clavichord, or other possibilities, even including harp or keyboard percussion. This album is a selection of 37 pieces drawn from the book, performed on the piano. The inspirations and connections behind this volume of keyboard pieces are diverse, ranging from the hymnody of the American Shakers to the experimental mostly European Wandelweiser collective. Other conceptual influences include the largely non-rhetorical, post-Cardew pieces of 1970s English experimental keyboard music, especially the remarkable work of Howard Skempton. Other pieces draw on elements of early keyboard music from the pre-baroque era. All of the pieces in this collection offer a variety of possible interpretations, and many involve flexible performance options. These recorded performances should not be seen in any way as prescriptive or binding for those who have the score and are playing the pieces for themselves.

The fact that Niels Wilhelm Gade became famous as a composer primarily for his symphonic and concertante music is probably one of the reasons why his piano music, despite being widely published in print during his lifetime, has been relegated to the shadows. Marie-Luise Bodendorff presents a selection of Gade's piano works here, which makes it clear that we should revise our image of Gade.

The selection on this CD is a cross-section of the composer's successive creative phases. Haydn composed keyboard music over about four decades (ca. 1755-1796). In his day, the word "Clavier" was used as a generic term for various keyboard instruments that coexisted, namely the harpsichord, the clavichord, and the fortepiano (Hammerflugel).�Although on this recording I have decided to record all works on a modern grand piano, I found it important to take into account which instruments these pieces were intended for when deciding on matters of interpretation and performance. (Schaghajegh Nosrati)

Martin Helmchen embarks on a complete recording of Schubert's piano sonatas, with four double albums to be released between now and 2028, the bicentenary of the composer's death. He has waited until he was in his forties to embark on this adventure because, in his view, an artist needs maturity to meet the challenges posed by the radical contrasts in Schubert's sonatas: "constant virtuosity that is never needlessly complex, set against sober interiority, the exuberant joy of the Landler, and bouts of dramatic madness". Recording a complete body of work also meant studying the scores carefully and tackling the question of the movements left unfinished by the composer, should we stop at the precise point where Schubert stopped composing simply because Schubert either ran out of time or did not have enough money to buy music manuscript paper? Helmchen has chosen to complete these movements, inspired by the recordings and above all the analyses of the eminent pianist Paul Badura-Skoda. This first volume presents sonatas composed between 1815 (Schubert was 18) and 1825. The entire cycle has been recorded on a Bosendorfer piano at the Kronberg Academy.

Following the first three CDs in the Bock reads Bruckner series, which were dedicated to the composer's period in Upper Austria, his existence as a perpetual bachelor on the lookout for a wife, and his veneration of Richard Wagner, this fourth of five readings with music now turns it's focus-again with a cast of readers-to the relationship between Bruckner and the sharp-tongued yet stylistically brilliant critic Eduard Hanslick. Through letters and reviews, it highlights how Hanslick's writings in the second half of the 19th century exerted a dominant influence on the entire Viennese musical world. However, six of his own songs, interwoven into the performance, also reveal him as a composer in his own right. In this fourth instalment of the series, Wolfgang Bock and Thomas Thieme, recitation, Elisabeth Wimmer, soprano, and Daniel Linton-France, piano, transport the audience into the fascinating world of Anton Bruckner in an incomparably authentic manner.

Following the example of his distant 'great uncle' Felix, Arnold Mendelssohn (1853-1933) was a highly regarded composer, particularly in the field of Protestant sacred music, in which his famous relative had already distinguished himself. In contrast, his serious interest in the classical-romantic instrumental genres only began during the First World War, as if the composer wanted to reassure himself of tradition before all of the old structures collapsed. He was already approaching seventy when he wrote his violin concerto and, immediately afterwards, the second of his three symphonies-two witty masquerades whose broad spectrum between expressive meditation and a cheerful finale offers plenty of room for reminiscence, but not imitation. Mendelssohn juggles with symbols of the past but is never at their mercy. He masters them with ease.

Among the few recordings of Don Carlo, this recording stands out with great authority. Despite being a live performance, it is of the highest quality. It's importance lies above all in the participation of two great performers, Franco Corelli and Gundula Janowitz, who have never recorded Don Carlo in the studio.

Rachmaninoff in the hands of Marek Kozak - mastery without ostentation To this day, Rachmaninoff's four concertos remain a touchstone for pianists around the world. His piano transcriptions of music by other composers (and of two of his own songs) do not attract so much attention, but what they tell us about the composer and his life is just as interesting. His arrangements place him alongside Liszt and Busoni, masters of the genre, whose transcriptions are both tributes to the originals and unique creations with a sonic aesthetic of their own. Rachmaninoff wrote most of his transcriptions between 1921 and 1929, when he was busily performing concerts and making recordings. On the concert stage, they allowed him to demonstrate his phenomenal technique. Among the supreme examples of his transcriptions are Mendelssohn's popular Scherzo from the incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream and three movements from Bach's Partita in E major for solo violin, BWV 1006. The 1941 arrangement of Tchaikovsky's Lullaby from the cycle Six Romances brings Rachmaninoff's entire oeuvre to a symbolic conclusion as a remembrance of his revered teacher and of an extraordinary human being. Each transcription bears witness to the humility and profound integrity of the composer's approach to such arrangements. Virtuosity, integrity, and humility are no less characteristic of the performer on this recording. Following his successful debut album featuring neglected Czech piano concertos (Kovarovic, Borkovec, Kapralova - Supraphon 2024), Marek Kozak demonstrates his mastery even in this - only seemingly - unassuming genre.

Yuja Wang/Andris Nelsons/Boston Symphony Orchestra - "Messiaen: Turangalilaa-Symphonie". A sonic masterpiece unfolds as Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra join forces with Yuja Wang for a stunning rendition of Olivier Messiaen's Turangalila-Symphonie. This stunning recording, produced by the BSO's legendary audio team, is now available on CD.