After Passion (ALPHA747), Veronique Gens reunites with Louis-Noel Bestion de Camboulas' ensemble Les Surprises to celebrate a type of role intrinsically linked to 17th- and 18th-century French baroque opera: queens! "Operatic queens are powerful women, often torn between duty and passion, with a fundamentally complex psychology. They display a range of emotions to match the theatre's dramatic and scenic effects; they also demand above all music that is by turns intense and sophisticated." writes Beno�t Dratwicki of the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles, a partner in this project. With Veronique Gens, one could not dream of a better embodiment of these women's destinies set to music by the most famous composers of the time (Rameau, Rebel, Dauvergne, Royer, Desmarest, Salomon, Stuck, Destouches, Francoeur...), many of whom have been unjustly forgotten.

Dvorak: Violin Concerto & String Serenade

Three years after their album of works by J.S. Bach (FUG 792), flautist Toshiyuki Shibata and keyboard player Anthony Romaniuk now record works not only by Bach but also by his sons Carl Philipp Emanuel and Wilhelm Friedemann, "the most original and innovative" of the lineage, according to Shibata. Both musicians were trained in historically informed interpretation in Belgium and admit their fascination for Art Nouveau, stating that it harmoniously combines tradition and innovation; they have also been influenced by other musical traditions, including jazz and contemporary music: "Preludes and improvisation were essential elements of music-making in the 18th century - for us it's natural to add preludes and postludes to our performances," says Shibata, who plays three traversos, copies of instruments by after Buffardin, Eigentopf and Quantz; Romaniuk plays a Flemish harpsichord and a Silbermann fortepiano. Their programme includes improvised preludes, a bold ending to BWV 1032/I and an original extra movement - a Gigue from BWV 997 with influences from several genres woven into it's bass line, honouring both tradition and invention.

Paavo J�rvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester Z�rich continue their complete cycle of Mahler symphonies with the Seventh, considered one of his most complex and challenging symphonies: "The Mahler we encounter in Symphony No. 7 is more complex, darker, and more philosophical than the Mahler we know from his previous works," says Paavo J�rvi. Mahler, who was extremely busy in his role as director of the Vienna Opera, composed this symphony on the shores of Lake W�rthersee in Austria during the summers of 1904 and 1905. Also known as Song of the Night, this symphony is characterized by rich instrumentation (including a guitar and mandolin in the fourth movement) and spectacular orchestral effects: "Here, nature roars," Mahler said of the tenor horn solo at the beginning of the work.

When Deutschlandfunk and Musikfest Bremen first approached me to produce a CD with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, I faced the unique challenge of choosing a programme that resonated strongly with me and had a significant historical connection. Although I am half German and half Italian, I was quickly drawn to the personal ties I have with French music. I wanted to present works by young composers that had a strong impact on the history of music and pieces that offer the audience a rich, diverse soundscape. Therefore, I chose two French composers who are personally significant to me for various reasons.

Violinist Sylvia Huang has drawn inspiration from nature since her childhood, marvelling at it's beauty, it's cycles and it's subtle harmony. Her Ode to Mother Nature project is designed to raise awareness of the fragility of all living things. Pianist Boris Kusnezow partners Sylvia on this musical journey, which celebrates the cycle of the seasons with works by Gabriel Dupont, Lili Boulanger, Dora Pejacevic, Edvard Grieg, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Camille Pepin and Eugene Ysaye. Each piece highlights an aspect of one of the seasons, as well as the deep connection between music and nature. Through this music Sylvia invites us to appreciate the deep bond that unites humanity to it's environment, and the urgent need to protect it.

Sebastian Berner is one of the most prominent trumpet players of his generation: in 2022, he won first prize at the Maurice Andr� International Competition in Paris and is principal trumpet of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. While Henri Tomasi's trumpet concerto, composed in 1948, is fairly well known, the Concertino for Trumpet and Orchestra, composed in 1913 by the Belgian Joseph Jongen, is much rarer, and the concerto by his pupil L�on Stekke, dated July 1937, is being recorded for the first time. Another world premiere is Charles Koechlin's Chants de Kerv�l�an, transcribed in 2008 for trumpet and orchestra by Robert Orlidge. Finally, Florent Schmitt's Suite in Three Parts was premiered in it's orchestral version in 1956 by Maurice Andr�.

Alena Baeva and Vadym Kholodenko are starting their recording of Beethoven's complete sonatas for violin and piano. Alena is recognised as a versatile violinist with a magnetic presence and now performs with the greatest orchestras and conductors, while Vadym has been one of the most impressive pianists of his generation since winning the gold medal at the 2013 Van Cliburn Competition. For more than ten years, they have formed a close-knit and highly sought-after duo (both on and off stage). The three sonatas featured on this recording (Op. 12 No. 3, Op. 24 "Spring," and Op. 47 "Kreutzer") were composed between 1797 and 1803, a period that brought Beethoven both his first recognition on the European stage and the first signs of his deafness. Baeva and Kholodenko used the 2020 edition by B�renreiter and carried out in-depth research into their interpretative choices: phrasing, ornamentation, and tempi are the result of this research and of sources from the period.

This recording, made at Noirlac Abbey in January 2025, is dedicated to Denis Raisin Dadre, who passed away suddenly on September 29 of the same year. With Doulce M�moire, the ensemble he founded in 1989 and with which he brought Renaissance music to the world, Denis directed the production of this album from start to finish. In the booklet, he writes: "The Lagrime di San Pietro and Lagrime del peccatore both deal with a subject rarely encountered in musical settings: Peter's denial of Jesus. Furthermore, each is the swan song of it's composer. Munich, 1594. In the last year of his life, Orlando di Lasso composed his masterpiece, the apogee of Renaissance counterpoint and musical eloquence. Ferrara, 1586. Lodovico Agostini published his final work, whose language sought above all to move and overwhelm the listener by using all the already baroque devices of chromaticism and dissonance."

Kent Nagano and Jan Vogler, the American in Germany and the German in the United States, perpetually crossing the Atlantic and calling both continents home, embody and live this once so powerful transatlantic ideal in every respect. For they are bound by much more than a deep artistic friendship and their collaborative work. They share-even more comprehensively-a worldview and understanding of life based on the Western, humanistic canon of values that Europeans once carried across the Atlantic to their new world... "It was precisely this transatlantic idea that drove me when Jan and I developed this project a few years ago," says Kent Nagano. "Hamburg was the link to the New World not just for the people of Hamburg, but for millions of Europeans." This was to be reflected in a musical work capable of carrying this idea into the future. For good reason: for years, the continents have seemingly been drifting apart. The world-renowned conductor does not hide his concern about this development. "It was also important to me to anchor the transatlantic idea in the next generation through children's and youth choirs on both sides of the ocean, who could work together and spend time with each other." The result is the oratorio "An einem klaren Tag - On a Clear Day" for cello, choir, and orchestra. The participants in the project underscore the thematic concern: the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, texts by the well-known German poet Ulla Hahn set to music by the young American composer Sean Shepherd, who made a name for himself in the United States at a very early age, various youth choirs from Germany and New York, along with the German star cellist Jan Vogler and Nagano as the American conductor of the Hamburg State Opera, who grew up where America is farthest from Europe-in a fishing village on the American West Coast between San Francisco and Los Angeles ... (Excerpts from booklet notes by Inge Kloepfer)

This recording brings together two late masterworks by Brahms: the Op. 120 Clarinet Sonatas and the Op. 117 Intermezzi for piano, written in the tranquil setting of Bad Ischl. The sonatas, full of tenderness and quiet intensity, were composed for clarinetist Richard Muhlfeld, whose warm, lyrical playing reignited Brahms's desire to compose after a period of silence. This is music of dialogue, not declaration. Nicola Boud and Anthony Romaniuk perform on instruments close to those Brahms and Muhlfeld would have known: a replica of Muhlfeld's 19th-century boxwood clarinet and an 1875 Steinway piano. These choices bring a soft, transparent quality to the sound, inviting a more intimate listening experience. Expressive tools of 19th-century performance: rubato, flexibility, arpeggiation, are used not as effects, but as natural extensions of the music's emotional landscape. Brahms once called the Op. 117 Intermezzi "three lullabies of my grief." These restrained yet luminous pieces distil his late style into elegiac monologues, offering quiet spaces where time feels suspended. Together, these warm, reflective and deeply emotional works offer a glimpse into Brahms' final years.

A Sonic Dialogue Across Borders and Disciplines String Quartets brings together three visionary composers-Stephan Thelen, Gebhard Ullmann, and Udo Agnesens-in a compelling exploration of contemporary string quartet writing. Performed with striking intensity and nuance by the Al Pari Quartet, this album spans a landscape of sonic textures, rhythmic complexity, and deeply personal expression. The Composers & Works Stephan Thelen contributes two powerful pieces-"Urgent Call" and "Continuum in 9"-bridging minimalist structure and progressive rock energy. Drawing from his background as a mathematician and founder of the band Sonar, Thelen's music embraces polyrhythmic layering and mathematical precision while retaining an almost visceral emotional charge. "Urgent Call" is a driving invocation of Thelen's sonic ideals, while "Continuum in 9" melds crackling textures with electric urgency, breaking boundaries between concert hall and rock stage. Gebhard Ullmann's String Quartet No. 1 unfolds as a meditative, melodic journey across movements that shimmer with emotional clarity. A prominent jazz saxophonist and clarinetist, Ullmann here turns to composition as a space of reflection. His quartet opens with ethereal sul tasto textures and builds into complex interrelations of melody, memory, and transformation. Inspired by themes from his own creative archives, Ullmann's music resonates with a sense of transience and transcendence. Udo Agnesens, represented by String Quartet No. 23, offers the most introspective contribution. Though a prolific composer with over 30 quartets to his name, Agnesens often writes without seeking performance-his focus lies in creation over dissemination. The 23rd quartet is marked by a solemn pace and emotional depth, demanding immense control from the performers. It draws listeners inward, revealing it's subtle beauty through patience and restraint. "If you don't have the time to really listen to the music," he says, "maybe you should be doing something else". The Al Pari Quartet Founded in 2017 by students of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, the Al Pari Quartet-Dominik Kossakowski, Alicja Miruk-Mirska, Wiktoria Trzebowska, and Elzbieta Rychwalska-Dobrowolska -has become a formidable force in contemporary chamber music. Their work on this recording demonstrates not only technical mastery but deep interpretive insight. They deliver each composition with clarity, warmth, and expressive sensitivity, bridging the complex rhythmic structures and emotional demands of each piece.

Franz Liszt: Complete French Songs for Soprano, Vol. 3 This volume carries the header of a "Cycle imaginaire", based on textes by Victor Hugo who seems to have been the most important poet for Franz Liszt. All Lieder textes in German/French/English here: https://avi-music. De/html/lyrics/cycle_imaginaire. #html "The 3rd volume of our complete recording of Franz Liszt's art songs is exclusively devoted to vocal settings of poems in French. Liszt was one of the few Central European composers of his time who not only mastered the French language in addition to German but was also an avid reader of contemporary French poetry. Multilingualism was relatively uncommon in the mid-1800s; Liszt was a rather exceptional polyglot, just like his pupil Pauline Viardot (1821-1910), who composed art songs in each of the six languages she fluently spoke... Liszt's songs have been handed down to us in several variants and versions. Thus, in this third volume, we once more had to decide whether to select one "definitive" version or offer our listeners the enriching occasion to hear several alternatives. We decided to create an imaginary song cycle of Victor Hugo settings. Admittedly, Liszt never wrote concept-oriented song cycles like those of Schubert or Schumann, but we chose to combine all of his Hugo settings (excepting Gastibelza) in a collage-like succession... In most cases, we have chosen the songs' last versions. "... read more (Excerpt from the booket notes by Daniel Heide) Vol. 1 Liszt, Petrarca Sonettes Nos 47. 104. 123 (Andre Schuen; Daniel Heide) Vol. 2 Liszt, Der Du von dem Himmel bist (Konstantin Krimmel; Daniel Heide)

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."

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.

Miriam Prandi's deeply personal interpretation of Bach's suites for solo cello reveals a musical personality shaped by freedom and reverence for the work; her phrasing recalls not only the elegance of line in Bach's arias and recitatives but also the intricate figuration of his keyboard works. She naturally embraces certain elements of historically informed performance practice, although she refuses to be confined by it's prescriptions. She allows the music to speak in a way that all today can understand: a way that transcends stylistic labels and so-called modernity and speaks with clarity, conviction, and from the heart.

On the path to true faith and it's practice to please God, there have been regular heated debates over the role of music. Reactionaries repeatedly closed the lid on excessive cheer. This was also the case in the Netherlands of the 17th century. The reformist spirit of the Frenchman John Calvin led to an almost complete ban of music during worship services, despite the fact that the psalms of David ("Sing unto the Lord") provide unassailable proof to the contrary. Shortly before 1600, the great Dutch composer Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck discovered how these psalms could be, and were permitted to be, set to new music. The "Orpheus of Amsterdam" succeeded in transforming imposed restrictions into acoustic wonders. Our small selection of psalms, alternating with several organ works, proves once again the victory of the spirit over heavy subject matter

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.

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.

Nicolas Altstaedt's starting point for this recording was the magnificent Second Concerto for Cello and Orchestra by Polish composer Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969): "On reading through the work for the first time, I immediately thought: why is this never played? Astonishing, how with just a few notes she can make a whole world appear." Pianist and conductor Maxim Emelyanychev conducts the Swedish Radio Orchestra and accompanies his friend in a work composed two years earlier: Benjamin Britten's Sonata for Cello and Piano, as well as a work by Morton Feldman from 1960, Durations II... Next comes a sonata by S�ndor Veress, one of Altstaedt's favourite composers, this time for solo cello: composed in 1967, this landmark work in the solo cello repertoire completes this overview of music from the 1960s, which concludes with a live recording of John Lennon and Paul McCartney's famous Blackbird, recorded with Thomas Dunford on lute and vocals, in a church in Portugal as the bells strike midnight.