'Little Wanderer', from William Blake's dream world, seemed the perfect title for an album in which we are surrounded by myriad landscapes in songs by Benjamin Britten, Imogen Holst and Daniel Kidane. Since meeting on our first day at the Royal College of Music, we have long enjoyed programming Britten's masterful folk song reimaginings, and we adore the texts and music in his powerful Hardy cycle, Winter Words. It has been a joy to discover songs by Imogen Holst, Britten's close friend and assistant, and we are proud to be able to make the first recording of Dan's Songs of Illumination, commissioned for us by Leeds Lieder in 2018. For over a decade, song in English has played a major part in our musical lives and performing relationship, and we are delighted to present this programme together.

Philatelically interested friends of music might be tempted to title this rarity the "Mauritius" of early music, for of the First Part of Sacred Concertos that Hamburg's municipal musician and Kapellmeister Johann Schop published in 1644, only a single complete copy survives in Germany, while the three others traceable worldwide are preserved only fragmentarily. For the value of an artwork, however, different criteria apply than mere rarity, and precisely these Schop's church music fulfills entirely: supplemented by some of the instrumental pieces that the composer and violin virtuoso once played for noble dance entertainments, the filigree, directly appealing song-settings rise in their wondrous weightlessness, full of hope, above the devastating times-here reigns the peace that in reality would wait another four years to arrive.

Head Space: Candlelight is the first EP in The King's Singers' Head Space series, aiming to connect choral music with calmness and reflection. Inspired by compline, the Catholic night service, it features plainchant, including "In manus tuas Domine" and "Salva nos Domine vigilantes," emphasizing breath-led pacing. The album also includes wordless Orlando Gibbons "Songs," contemporary pieces by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Judith Bingham, and Arvo Part, and the experimental "4'33" by John Cage, concluding with Robert Parsons' "Ave Maria" and Edvard Grieg's "Ave Maris Stella," all designed to create a contemplative atmosphere.

Just in time for the 200th birthday of Johann Strauss II on 25 October 2025, cpo is releasing the complete recording of a comedy that will itself celebrate it's 130th anniversary on 4 December. In Waldmeister, the undisputed king of the waltz once again pulls out all the stops and delivers a delightful comedy whose scandalous mix-ups ultimately dissolve in a high-proof punch. It's distinctive taste features a hero with a botanical title (Galium odoratum) and a series of evergreens - above all, the leitmotif and proverbial "Trau schau wem" ("Trust, but check"), which is enthusiastically taken up by friend and foe alike. This live recording was made during the Staatstheater am G�rtnerplatz's guest performance in Vienna and whose new production contributed to this year's Austrian Strauss celebrations.

Antonio Duni and his better-known younger brother, Egidio, were sons of Francesco Duni, kapellmeister of the Matera Cathedral from the early 18th century. Antonio studied music in Naples as was the established practice at the time and as a composer and violinist himself became a kapellmeister. An extraordinary talent and restless genius, he left Naples in search of fortune, moving to Barcelona, then Vienna, then Madrid where in 1726 he became Master of the Royal Chapel; he then moved on to Paris, Trier and again Madrid, where in 1736 he befriended the famous singer and composer Carlo Broschi Farinelli, becoming director and choirmaster to the Duke of Osuna. By 1757 Antonio Duni could be found in Moscow, where he was commissioned by the rector of Moscow University to found the Moscow University Choir, a task that was to occupy him for more than eight years. This was followed by a short stay in Riga on the Baltic Sea and possibly a trip to China. From 1765 he moved with his wife and four children permanently to Schwerin in Germany, where in severe financial straits he died around 1766. The recent discovery of the 6 Sonatas is thanks to Thomas Suarez, a descendant of the Duni family on his mother's side, who, upon discovering a microfilm of the only printed edition in the Moscow State Library in 2019 produced the modern edition from which this recording was performed. The Sonatas were printed in Paris at the M. lle Vendome Publishing House (most active between the years 1737-1762), and the fact that the printed manuscript was found in Moscow suggests that Antonio Duni brought it with him on beginning his stay in the Russian capital (1757-65), suggesting the composition of the sonatas predates 1757. The six sonatas each feature four movements in the Corellian pattern, Lento-Veloce-Lento-Veloce. The melodic line presents cantabile themes that are never banal or "mannered", characterised by a strikingly original creativity on harmonic, phraseological and formal levels. The extremely precise articulation indications and passages modulating to keys not often frequented in the Baroque period make for challenging and interesting interpretative work. Taking up the subtitle's given option for flute in place of violin, this recording divides the sonatas between the two solo instruments. - Recorded May 2023 in Sammichele di Bari and Matera, Italy - Booklet in English contains liner notes on the works Thomas Suarez and on the composer by Claudia Di Lorenzo and Natalia Bonello along with a profile of the ensemble - The Italian liner notes & biography are available at www. Brilliantclassics. com - Born in Matera in 1709, Egidio Duni was taught by his father, the composer Francesco Duni. At the age of 9 he entered the Conservatorio in Naples, where his teachers were Pergolesi and Paisiello. His opera debut was in 1735 in Rome with Nerone, a resounding success. Like many of his generation he went to London where his opera Demafoonte (with the last appearance of the great castrato Farinelli!) was a sensation. A serious illness brought him to The Netherlands where he consulted the famous doctor Boerhaave, who cured him. He spent several years in Holland, composing instrumental chamber music for the amusement of the wealthy bourgeoisie. The last years of his life were spent in France, where he was one of the founders of the Opera Comique. - This new recording presents 6 sonatas written for either the violin or the flute, according to choice. On this recording three sonatas are played on the flute, and three on the violin. The music is charming, galant and highly melodious, entertainment at the highest level. - Played by the DuniEnsemble: Natalia Bonello (baroque flute), Vincenzo Bianco (baroque violin), Leonardo Massa (baroque cello), Claudia Di Lorenzo (harpsichord).

The Potsdam-based brothers Sebastian and Daniel Selke have, throughout their career, been employing themes surrounding their Communistera, East German heritage. From modern classical to jazz to electronic music, CEEYS invites 10 contemporary composers to share their musical impressions by reworking tracks of HAUSMUSIK on MUSIKHAUS. To name a few: Neue Meister colleague, Marina Baranova gave her own major melody to CEEYS' harmonies making her interpretation of the piece Circa one half-CEEYS' evocative mood and one halfBaranova twist with the pianist's unique touch. Singer-songwriter Mara Simpson adds her haunting voice and poignant lyrics, 'We keep the pieces to build better, to build hope brick by brick' to the soft, repetitive backdrop of 'Yes, brick by brick' embracing the meaning of the original composition. Erased Tape's electronic-music composer, Ben Lukas Boysen builds around Fallen's repetitive and tense motif, adding an ascending energy and instrumentation to the composition which stretches it to new planes of emotion.

Barsanti: 6 Sonatas, Op. 2

As soon as you leave your homeland, says composer Hilda Paredes, who comes from Mexico and has been living in London for a long time, "you become a citizen of the world." Her work not only establishes continuity between the past and the present, but also denies any separation between the musical cultures of the northern and southern hemispheres or the Old World and the New, repeatedly building bridges between the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica and European-American modernity. The complexity of her sound world is rooted in this dual cultural identity and reflects diverse influences from both worlds. But Paredes does not look only to the past. She takes a keen and compassionate interest in the social conditions in her country, using her works to address themes of migration and the search for a better life. In addition to tradition and the current reality of life in her homeland, Hilda Paredes's work is rich in references to literary and visual works by her contemporaries and to Mexican cultural history. The first work on this album, the monodrama "Altazor" for baritone, eight soloists, and electronics, can also be seen in this context. It is based on an epic poem published in Madrid in 1931 by Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro, the founder of the literary movement "creationismo", a variant of surrealism. The musical language depicts this disintegration of consciousness and language of the poem fragments with a broad spectrum of instrumental and vocal techniques that are subjected to live-electronic processes. Two further aspects of Hilda Paredes's creative output can be seen in the two ensemble works on this album: "Epitafio" was written in response to a death in the composer's family, and "Siphonophorae", whose compositional idea and formal structure are borrowed from a fascinating phenomenon in the world of marine life, was inspired by a work of visual art.

The Finnish guitarist Kalle Kalima met the double bassist Oliver Potratz and the drummer Oliver Steidle in Berlin in the year 2000. The three musicians became companions on a journey that has now lasted for 25 years. They have defined their own sound and consistently push the boundaries of what is musically possible in a trio formation. The musical combination of influences from Finland and Berlin results in an original, wild and creative jazz music. Klima Kalima uses elements from rock, blues and folk to give their modern jazz sound a quirky and unique touch. The album 'Finn Noir' was released in 2013 (Enja Records), followed by the live album 'Live' (Planet Berlin 2022). These, along with their earlier albums 'Loru', 'Chasing Yellow' and 'Helsinki on My Mind', received excellent international reviews. They won the New German Jazz Award in 2008 and have performed concerts across Europe. Their new album 'Voyager Blues' will be released in fall 2025 on TYXart records. This project revolves around the twin spacecraft Voyager 1 and 2, which are located in the boundary zone of the solar system. One by one, the instruments on board are being shut down, in the hope that enough energy remains for the remaining devices to function until 2030. The musical project 'Voyager Blues' centers on these dying probes, with the band Klima Kalima providing the soundtrack to an imaginary film about the increasingly lonely and fading spacecraft. This theme also resonates with the lifestyle of the three musicians, who seem destined to be on the road for life. Over 25 years of hard work - through endless cycles of composing, rehearsing, performing live, and recording - the trio has developed it's own language. The magazine 'Jazzthetik' wrote of their last album: "Monk-ish in a cheerfully stubborn spirit, but not in repertoire, the three developed a richly packed program of distortions, exaggerations, and intensifications." In this project, the group returns to it's musical roots. This freer musical language is essential in 'Voyager Blues' to reflect the endless loneliness of the probes and allows even more space for ideas and dialogue among the musicians. Musically, this time the focus is on a narrative, melodic language. The basic concept is the blues - it's simplicity and clarity echo the solitary nature of dying. Alongside are melodies and polyrhythmic layers, interpreted in rock-inspired, constant dialogues between the musicians.

This album, Throwback to Dance, explores how composers turn to dance forms to carve out new paths: predominantly court dances, folk dances but also the more 'modern' waltz. The album is inspired by the charming meeting between Ravel and Grieg back in 1894, and looks at Grieg's influence on Ravel, seldom documented, as well as that on Pejacevic and Chaminade.

Everything has an end sometime. Similarly, this chapter from the great book of Georg Philipp Telemann, which holds a significant place in our label's repertoire, is also noteworthy. After two decades, we have now recorded all the violin concertos that this artesian spring of music committed to paper with overflowing imagination throughout his lifetime. This presents more than three dozen entertaining works, some in expanded suite (overture) form, others in the standard three-movement structure-but always rich in subtle surprises and demanding solos involving up to four violins. This ninth and final volume is once again devoted to concertante duos and contains, as it were, as a bonus, "the" Viola Concerto in G major, which until our series appeared was widely regarded as Telemann's most "popular" contribution to the genre. Now, however, entirely new perspectives open up

The new album "Asiago" by the creative soloist Julius Berger is a clever application and further development of a very pleasing, strong new trend in musical life: imaginative explorations of new repertoire fields by opening up new music to the vast areas of other cultures. In the case of the violoncello, this development seems almost provoked by it's technical and traditional repertoire boundaries. Julius Berger demonstrates how - even in a landscape such as the Alps, which seems to be closely interwoven with classical music as the homeland of well-known traditional folk music history - a closer look can reveal highly exciting and completely different ethno-potentials. He has developed a well-rounded CD program of newly written music from the precious find of the small ethnic group of the Cimbri, who came from the north and settled in what is now northern Italy, centuries ago, and still live there today with their own language. Most of this music was first performed at the annual Asiago Festival, which has been existing for 25 years now, and in various combinations - solo, in duet, with prepared piano and with cello ensemble and chamber orchestra - he has created a large, suggestive and meditative new repertoire for the low string instrument.

L'Appel du Cor / The Call of the Horn (Works for Horn and Piano) - Beyond Stereotypes. The stereotype of the French is well known, it is a man with a beret on his head and a baguette under his arm. The stereotypical image of the horn is the hunting horn, the only vision that the general public has of an instrument that they hear nearly every day but that they know so little. So why does horn player Herve Joulain title his new CD "L'Appel du Cor" (The Call of the Horn), why go into the field of cliche? First of all, the hunting horn is part of the history of the horn and it does not deny it. Then composers made this past, these origins, a source of musical inspiration. Whether rustic, thunderous, or poetic, they have made the softened, the 'tayaute', also the 'debuche de la plaine' and the famous 'halali' the material of their musical writing for the modern horn. Some of the pieces performed by Herve Joulain could be wrongly described as minor works, specific to the 'conservatory end-of-year competitions'. Here the horn player's playing shows us that they are far from it and deserve to be played and listened to. Thus, from Busser to Bozza, from Pugno to Planel, Herve Joulain's horn takes us on a journey among dreams and lullabies, legends and whims, right up to the feminine vision that composer Elsa Barraine has for the horn in her brass band. The horn player Herve Joulain and the pianist Fanny Azzuro interpret these works - some of which can be heard as premiere recordings - in a wonderfully musical way. - - - L'Appel du Cor (Werke fur Horn und Klavier) - Jenseits von Stereotypen. Das Klischee uber die Franzosen ist allseits bekannt - ein Mann mit Baskenmutze auf dem Kopf und einem Baguette unter dem Arm. Das stereotype Bild des Horns ist das des Jagdhorns - die einzige Vorstellung, die die breite offentlichkeit von einem Instrument hat welches sie beinahe taglich hort, das sie aber doch so wenig kennt. Warum also betitelt der Hornist Herve Joulain seine neue CD "L'Appel du Cor" (Der Ruf des Horns), warum begibt er sich ins Feld der Klischees? Zunachst einmal ist das Jagdhorn Teil der Geschichte der Horner ansich, und dies soll auch keinsfalls verleugnet werden. Dann gestalteten die Komponisten genau diese Vergangenheit, diese Ursprunge zu einer neuen Quelle musikalischer Inspiration. Ob rustikal, donnernd oder poetisch, sie haben das Weiche, das "Tayaute", auch das "Debuche de la plaine" und das beruhmte "Halali" zum Material ihrer musikalischen Komposition fur das moderne Horn gemacht. Einige der von Herve Joulain aufgefuhrten Stucke konnten falschlicherweise als "kleinere" Werke bezeichnet werden, die spezifisch fur Vorspielabende an Musikschulen zum Jahresende sind. Hier zeigt uns das Spiel des Hornisten, dass diese Musik weit davon entfernt ist und es verdient, gespielt und gehort zu werden. So nimmt uns das Horn mit den Komponisten von Busser bis Bozza, von Pugno bis Planel mit auf eine Reise zwischen Traumen und Schlafliedern, Legenden und Launen, bis hin zu der "weiblichen Vision", die die Komponistin Elsa Barraine fur das Horn in ihrer Blaskapelle hat. Der Hornist Herve Joulain und die Pianistin Fanny Azzuro interpretieren diese - teils als Ersteinspielungen zu horenden Werke - in wunderbar musikalischer Art und Weise.

Finnish jazz guitarist Kalle Kalima and jazz trombonist Conny Bauer met in 2022 at a birthday concert for Nils Wogram, where they were playing at a jam session. They quickly developed new compositions together and worked on new ideas, for example based on a musical system developed by Conny in which certain intervallic movements can take place at certain times. They recorded their current album in Berlin in 2023. The music is strictly collective with the intention of escaping the usual categories.

Heinz Holliger, an exceptional oboist, pianist, and composer, did not compose anything for piano for almost 40 years after his 1961 work "Elis - Three Nocturnes". A whole series of musical tributes and birthday greetings composed since the beginning of the 21st century was then published in 2019 under the Schumannesque title "Albumblatter" (Album Leaves) and has now been recorded in it's entirety for the first time by Kirill Zvegintsov. These are typically Holligerian, highly intricate showpieces with many references, which are expertly explained in the album essay. These works are combined with early and late piano works by the Swiss composer and pianist Jurg Wyttenbach, who died in 2021 and had a close musical relationship with Holliger. In the last years of his life, this expert in New Music took on the daring task of completing Beethoven's sketches for an alternative third movement for his Piano Sonata Op. 109 - an undertaking that only such a skilled pianist and composer could attempt. In the last days of his life, Wyttenbach was able to listen to the premiere of this reconstruction by Zvegintsov. The Ukrainian pianist combines and contrasts this experiment with the original modern works in a very stimulating way.

Another discovery unearthed by Brilliant Classics, and another name to add to the library of French-Baroque masters, from the voraciously inquisitive mind and virtuoso hands of Fernando de Luca. Who was Hubert Renotte (1704-1745)? He was born and died in the Belgian city of Liege, and for the last decade of his life served as the titular organist of the cathedral there. Accordingly he wrote a good deal of church music, which remains as overlooked as his output for keyboard. This in itself encompasses not only organ music but the distinctively Franco-Italian style of the harpsichord pieces presented for the first time on record in the present album. The C major Suite is launched in dazzling style with 'Les Roulades et Harpeggio', living up to it's title with cascades of sequences up and down the keyboard. Renotte must have been quite the technician, as well as a composer of great taste and refinement. Perhaps he had a sense of humour, too, to judge from the third movement of the suite: 'Les Bagatelles Ou Les Folies de Liege & Menuet en Suite Des Bagatelles'. Again, true to the title, Renotte presents a series of sharply etched, fantastical sketches, which we might now hear as proto-Beethovenian in their oblique and disconcerting wit. The Suite concludes with, literally, 'Le Torrent', another sparkling cataract of notes. Whether or not Renotte ever intended them to be played in sequence this way - the music survives in manuscript, and there is no sign that they were published - the other pieces are also gathered up by key signature. There are 17 such pieces in D major, including a 'Pastorella' whose charming character belongs to the association of the key with country manners. On this new recording, Fernando de Luca plays a modern copy by Claudio Capone of a Blanchet harpsichord from 1754. While Jos van Immerseel recorded an LP-length selection of Renotte's works, this is the first time that the composer's surviving keyboard music has been recorded complete. The album represents another feather in the cap for a musician who has done a great deal to revive forgotten names from 18th-century music with complete surveys of their music on Brilliant Classics, among them Dufour, Foucquet, Jollage and Siret. '[De Luca] thinks outside of the box, and he clearly is a man with discerning tastes. These extend to his playing, which is clear-headed and disciplined, but never rigid. "Charm" is such an overused word, but I cannot think of a better one to describe this music and these performances.' (Fanfare on the Jollage album, January 2024)

Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979) wrote vocal chamber music over the whole of her career, from Wandrers Nachtlied, her first completed composition, in 1903, through her overhaul of Lethe, in the winter of 1976-77. Taken together, her songs and duets constitute one of the greatest and most distinctive contributions to the vocal repertoire of the twentieth century.

Henriette Bosmans' mother was a pianist and her father played principal cello in Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Orchestra, so it is no wonder that both of these instruments were lasting influences on her musical thinking and sensibilities. Her friendship with cellists Marix Loevensohn and Frieda Belinfante did the rest to guide this Dutch composer's imagination towards the expressive possibilities of the "little violone". In addition to various pieces of chamber music, the somewhat Iberian-spiced Poeme as well as two concertos were written in the early 1920s. Despite their relative proximity in time, Henriette Bosmans succeeded in not repeating herself. The works are marked by imaginative forms, wildly varied tasks demanded of the soloist and a sophisticated treatment of the orchestra. Despite these works' success, they had disappeared into the annals of history for far too long.

SOL is the first solo work by the Luxembourg percussionist, composer and vibraphonist Pascal Schumacher. Already in his childhood, he chose the vibraphone as an exotic and fascinating instrument, as it's shiny plates and step-shaped tubes sound metallic and, at the same time, soft and ethereal when struck with a mallet. A trance-like state is created in the listener, whom Schumacher skillfully abducts from everyday life through filigree played original compositions and covers by Chilly Gonzales, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Jarvis Cocker, and Mike Oldfield. SOL is a unique sound spectacle.

This album features the live recording of the concert given by Trio Lirico and pianist Josu de Solaun at the Fundacion Juan March in Madrid on April 23, 2025. It marks the world premiere recording of the two piano quartets composed in 1902 by the Spanish composers Vicente Zurron and Bartolome Perez Casas. The beginning of the 20th century represented a creative breakthrough in Spain, where chamber music had previously been limited to private settings and personal enjoyment. The expansion of chamber music into public concert halls inspired local composers to explore the genre - an impulse reflected in the recovery of these long-overlooked works.