Ausias Parejo won the 2022 'Alhambra' International Guitar Competition at the age of 17. In this programme he includes works by Leo Brouwer, Ponce and Guastavino, as well as works by Juan Erena, Lorenzo Palomo (a premiere recording) and Ausias's father Ruben.

International sensation Federico Colli continues his personal exploration of the music of Mozart with this second volume of works for solo piano. Colli opens his programme with the Adagio in B minor, K. 540, from 1788, toward the end of Mozart's short life. The only piece on the album not to involve variation form, this Adagio instead adopts sonata form, and is an extremely rare case in Mozart's output of it's chosen key. The two sets of variations that follow (from the seventeen sets that Mozart composed) use a similar approach in their method of constructing variations on the theme - 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' in the first instance, and Gluck's smash hit 'Les Hommes pieusement' (or 'Unser dummer Pobel meint') in the second. Colli concludes his programme with the rather extraordinary Sonata in A major, K. 311. Instead of the expected sonata form, the first movement is a theme with (six) variations. Following the second movement (a minuet and trio), Mozart finishes with a rondo - arguably one of his most famous pieces, the 'Alla turca'.

Soulima Stravinsky was the third child of Igor and Yekaterina Stravinsky. His career in music encompassed performing as a recitalist and concerto soloist, particularly noted for interpretations of his father's music, musicology, education, and composition. Soulima's performing career was slowly expanded with achievements as a transcriber, editor, author, and composer, although in the later endeavour his work was inevitably overshadowed by his father's towering reputation. Soulima had a particular gift for composing music for children. He made two visits to the Nimbus Studios, in 1975 to record these performances of his father's music, and in 1977 to record his own music for children. This is the first release of these fine performances, fascinating not least for their specific historic significance. © Adrian Farmer

The programme Schonheit und Staatsversagen (Beauty & State Failure) brings together music and text to explore the contrasts of life in Bavaria around 1800 - between city and countryside, wealth and poverty, education and illiteracy. The vivid reports of civil servant Joseph von Hazzi reveal a little-known, often harsh rural reality, full of struggle but also raw, sometimes comical pleasures. In contrast, songs by Munich composers like Josephine Lang, Franz Lachner and Lindpaintner - alongside Schumann, Leopold Mozart and Haydn - paint an idealised, emotional image of alpine life. Though shaped by different worlds, both perspectives reflect timeless human experience. This album opens up new perspectives on the past - touching, surprising, and full of musical individuality. And always, of course, with Alma!

Commissioned by Marc Collet and Ensemble21, Onze Folksongs d'ici et d'ailleurs by Jean-Marie Rens is a complete rearrangement of his Sept chansons traditionnelles flamandes, francaises et wallonnes composed over twenty years ago. This new version calls for a larger instrumental ensemble, since it was rewritten for the lineup of Luciano Berio's famous Folk Songs, to which it offers an original and unprecedented mirror. The challenge here was to preserve the specific character of these Sept chansons while carrying out a massive task of orchestration-arrangement as well as composition.   Luciano Berio is arguably the most prominent figure in contemporary Italian music. He composed the cycle of Folk Songs in 1964 for his wife, the American soprano Cathy Berberian. A remarkable fusion of popular and classical music, they represent a kind of anthology made up of eleven folk songs of various origins that the composer had found on old records, in printed collections or heard directly from friends.   Albane Carrere and the Ensemble21 conducted by Marc Collet approach these two collections with infinite tenderness and a subtle art of evocation. Albane Carrere's mezzo voice weaves the link and travels imperceptibly between these two worlds.

SOMM Recordings presents an intriguing pairing of chamber works that share the unusual and expressive instrumentation of piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass: Johann Nepomuk Hummel's 'Military' Quintet in C major and Franz Schubert's Piano Quintet in A major, his Trout Quintet. Extraordinarily, this is a first recording of Hummel's 'Military' Quintet.' It is an amazing find by the virtuoso double-bass player Leon Bosch, Artistic Director of the mixed-instrument chamber ensemble I Musicanti, with whom he performs here. They're joined by Peter Donohoe, laureate of the Tchaikovsky Competition and acclaimed as one of the foremost pianists of our time. Johann Nepomuk Hummel's gift as a composer was matched by his excellence as a pianist. A child prodigy, Hummel was taught and housed by Mozart for two years, and he studied further with Clementi, Haydn, Albrechtsberger, and Salieri. Hummel's mastery as a pianist and his compositional personality, admired by Liszt, shine through in his two piano septets featuring winds, brass, and strings, which he also arranged for a combination not uncommon at the time of piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass. It was in October 1829, nearly a year after Schubert's death, that Hummel completed his 'Military' Piano Septet No. 2. For publication in Vienna the following year, he also prepared a piano quintet version, again arranged for that ensemble of piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass. The Septet's scoring-for piano, flute, clarinet, trumpet, violin, cello, and double bass- already included four of the five of those instruments, so in effect the alternate version redistributes the wind and brass parts among four strings with added viola. It is this version that receives it's premiere recording on this release. Franz Schubert's Trout Quintet came about during a walking holiday in the Alps in 1819, when he made the acquaintance of Sylvester Paumgartner, an amateur cellist who promoted chamber concerts in his home. He greatly admired Schubert's lied, Die Forelle ("The Trout"), and he commissioned a set of variations based on the song's melody. At the time, Paumgartner had brought together a group of musicians to perform Hummel's Piano Quintet in E flat minor-the arrangement Hummel made of his first piano septet-and suggested that Schubert write his new variations for that same quintet ensemble of pianist, violinist, violist, cellist, and double bass player. Schubert being Schubert, he not only composed a set of five variations on Die Forelle, but he created a five-movement quintet that featured the variations as the fourth movement of a work that has become one of the most renowned and beloved in the chamber repertoire. It is Schubert's first mature chamber work. He was twenty-two years old.

A rather unique piano trio The repertoire for piano trios is plentiful and varied. Composers such as Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven preferred to write for piano, violin, and cello. The repertoire for the combination of piano and two saxophones is rather limited in comparison. This is mainly to do with the fact that the instrument was first developed around 1840 by Antoine Joseph Sax, who opened a workshop in Paris in 1842 and built saxophones in seven different sizes. His patron, Hector Berlioz, was one of the first to incorporate the instrument into his orchestral compositions, and Jules Massenet used it prominently in his opera Werther in 1892, but the saxophone became more popular in French military music and, of course, in jazz, where it has been used as a solo instrument since around 1920.

Trio Gaspard continues it's acclaimed series of Haydn Trios with this programme of middle and later quartets, designed to be played (and enjoyed) as a standalone programme. As with the previous volumes, the trio include the world premier recording of a piece commissioned to compliment the Haydn's work - in this instance, Trance, by Sally Beamish. The performers note: we should like to highlight just a few examples of the ways in which the inventiveness of his musical materials continues to astound us. The Trio in B flat major for example, opens with a striking combination of opposites: a legato falling scale beginning from what was the highest note on Haydn's piano (F) and a rising arpeggio in short staccato notes climbing up from the bass. After two bars the elements swap places, the staccato arpeggio rising up in the right hand of the piano, while the legato elements continue in the bass. Together, these four bars form a perfectly balanced opening phrase. The character of this beginning feels completely natural and beguilingly elegant, yet it already contains all the main elements out of which Haydn goes on expertly to craft the rest of the movement. In the second movement of this trio, the song-like theme at the beginning is presented with an accompanying bass line. However, Haydn instructs the pianist to play both lines with 'the left hand alone' - a seeming finger-twister which actually lies surprisingly comfortably in the hand. It is an audacious idea and pianistically unique in Haydn's keyboard music.

Francisco Mignone was a leading figure in the Brazilian music scene of the 20th century, with a free-flowing style and gift for melody that instantly communicated with audiences. He was part of the first generation of modernist Brazilian composers that included Villa-Lobos and Guarnieri. Mignone's two early unnumbered sonatas emulate the French influence of Faure and Debussy, but it was not until the 1960s that he returned to the genre. The First and Second Sonatas share a fragmented, experimental character that juxtapose varying forms of tonality and metre, while the Third Sonata features national rhythmic and melodic elements. These sonatas represent some of the most significant works for violin and piano to come from Brazil.

The Puerto Rican pianist JESÚS MARÍA SANROMÁ (1902-1984) came to the USA to study and subsequently built his career there. He had a very wide repertoire and gave the US premieres of many contemporary works, including Ravel's G major Concerto, but was equally at home in the classics or Gershwin. He had a long association with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and their summer festival brand, the 'Pops', resulting in the series of concertos reproduced here. All are conducted by Arthur Fiedler (1894-1979), who led the 'Pops' for an astonishing 50 years from 1930. Their Gershwin Rhapsody was a huge hit, and the MacDowell and Paderewski were first recordings. We have filled out the set with Sanromá's first recording of a selection of dances by Juan Morel Campos, his 19th-century Puerto Rican fellow countryman.

Giovanni Sollima is an internationally renowned cellist and one of the most frequently performed Italian composers in the world today. His original BaRock Cello project gave new readings to Rock pieces in the intimate setting of a solo performance, matching these to little-known 17th- and 18th-century Italian composers. These improbable contrasts and surprising connections are now extended further back to their musical roots in Folk & BaRock Cello. In this Sollima takes up the tonal colours and rhythmic grooves of archaic songs from a diversity of countries and blends the common features shared by all music, whether it is globally iconic, nationally popular, or long lost amidst the dusty manuscripts of time.

This in the second Album of the collection dedicated to Balsassare Galuppi Hapsichord Sonatas by Alvise de piero. About the first releases, it has been said: « As for the performance, harpsichordist Alvise de Piero does these works proud. His pace is always appropriate for the music, and his touch on the instrument can vary from decisive to delicate. His registral variations on this two manual instrument work very well for the music and give a nice expression to Galuppi's often lyrical voice ». (Bertil van Boer, Fanfare Magazine)

La chanson doit donner l'impression d'être nee toute seule. Une chanson doit être intelligente sans qu'on s'en apercoive, sans qu'elle hurle : "je suis une chanson intelligente"... Le parolier ideal est pour moi Charles Trenet. Il fait descendre la chanson dans la rue sans qu'elle se casse la figure en se jetant du troisieme etage. Jean COCTEAU L'integrale Fremeaux & Associes de Charles Trenet realisee sous la direction de Daniel Nevers, puis de Vincent Lisita et Pascal Halbeher, reunit la totalite des enregistrements phonographiques originaux disponibles aupres des collectionneurs sensibilises à l'ambition museographique d'un catalogue raisonne de l'oeuvre enregistree du fou chantant. Aux enregistrements choisis et commercialises de l'epoque, le directeur artistique presente les alternates qui proposent d'autres versions des mêmes titres. Cette vocation d'exhaustivite historiographique dediee au patrimoine sonore phonographique s'accompagne (toujours chronologiquement) de documents radiophoniques, de publicites chantees afin d'eclairer la diversite de la production de l'artiste et de reveler retrospectivement les raisons de son appartenance à notre memoire collective. Patrick Fremeaux & Claude Colombini "A song must give you the impression it was born on it's own. A song has to be intelligent without you noticing it, without it having to shout, 'I am an intelligent song'. For me, Charles Trenet is the ideal songwriter. He brings the song down into the street without it falling flat on it's face after throwing itself off the third floor." Jean COCTEAU CD 1 : JULIETTE GReCO ET CHARLES TRENET : PReSENTATION DES SPECTACLES DE CHARLES TRENET ET D'eDITH PIAF À PARIS - CHARLES TRENET - ReCITAL 1961 - THeÂTRE DE L'eTOILE - ORCH. DIR. GUY LUYPAERTS, CHOEURS DIR. RAYMOND SAINT-PAUL : POT POURRI : QU'EST DEVENUE LA MADELON ? - RIEN NE PEUT CHANGER MA JOIE - DIS-MOI, QUEL EST TON NOM ? - BONSOIR JOLIE MADAME - LE PIANO DE LA PLAGE - LA FOLLE COMPLAINTE - DANS LES PHARMACIES - BOUM - RIEN NE PEUT CHANGER MA JOIE - ORPHeE - LA JAVA DU DIABLE - LES VOIX DU CIEL - LE JARDIN EXTRAORDINAIRE - QU'EST DEVENUE LA MADELON ? - LA MER - y A D'LA JOIE ! - CLAUDE CHEVALIER ET SON MUSETTE - FLEURS DE MUSETTE : LES TROIS ROSES - CHARLES TRENET - ORCH. DIR. MICHEL LEGRAND : NUIT D'HIVER - CHARLES TRENET - ORCH. DIR. PIERRE SPIERS : LES PETITS REGRETS - LES SOLDATS - DANIELLE DARRIEUX - PRINTEMPS DE PARIS - ORCH. DIR. JO MOUTET : LES VOIX DU CIEL - CHARLES TRENET - ORCH. DIR. ANDRe POPP : KANGOUROU - LA P'TIT' DIDI - AU FIL DU TEMPS PERDU - LE PAUVRE ANTOINE - PIANISTE NON IDENTIFIe : TU REVERRAS L'ÎLE MAURICE (THIS IS YOU) - TOI QUI PASSAIS - RENe GLANEAU - WSPOMNIENIA Z PARYZ?A - ORCH. DIR. RYSZARDA DAMROSZA : LA MER. CD 2 : CHARLES TRENET : LA CHANSON EST UN ART MINEUR - CHARLES TRENET - ACC. PIANO FREDDY LIENHART : MA PHILOSOPHIE - KANGOUROU - CHARLES TRENET - ACC. PIANO FREDDY LIENHART : AU CLAIR DE LA LUNE - DEAN MARTIN - CHA CHA DE AMOR - ORCH. DIR. NELSON RIDDLE : I WISH YOU LOVE - LUCIENNE DELYLE - C'eTAIT LE BON TEMPS - ORCH. DIR. AIMe BARELLI : LA VALSE À TOUT LE MONDE - CHARLES TRENET - ORCH. DIR. CHRISTIAN CHEVALLIER : L'HORRIBLE TANGO (VERSION GOMINA) - JARDIN DU MOIS DE MAI - SI LOIN DE TON AMOUR - LUNDI AU LIT (LES BRUITS DE PARIS) - DUKE ELLINGTON - MIDNIGHT IN PARIS - ORCH. DIR. DUKE ELLINGTON : I WISH YOU LOVE - JANINE WOLF - LES TANGOS TERRIBLES ! - ORCH. DIR. DIDIER BOLAND : L'HORRIBLE TANGO - CHARLES TRENET - ACC. PIANO PAUL DE MARGERIE, PReS. GEORGES ULMER : AU FIL DU TEMPS PERDU - RETOUR À PARIS / HELLO PARIS - QUE RESTE-T-IL DE NOS AMOURS ? / HOW MUCH REMAINS OF ALL OUR LOVES ? - LE PIANO DE LA PLAGE - EN CE TEMPS-LÀ - CHARLES TRENET - ORCH. DIR. PIERRE SPIERS : DIS-MOI, QUEL EST TON NOM ? - CHARLES TRENET - ORCH. DIR. INCONNU : EN SEINE-ET-OISE - CATERINA VALENTE - ORCH. DIR. eTIENNE VERSCHUEREN : VOUS OUBLIEZ VOTRE CHEVAL - CATERINA VALENTE - GREAT CONTINENTAL HITS - ORCH. DIR. STANLEY BLACK : WHY DO YOU PASS ME BY ? - CHARLES TRENET - CHANSONS À LA UNE - ORCH. DIR. CHRISTIAN CHEVALLIER ET LES ANGELS : LE GRAND PARTAGE - JEUNESSE PLUMeE - ADIEU MES BEAUX RIVAGES - ANNIE-ANNA - COLETTE RENARD - ORCH. DIR. RAYMOND LEGRAND : LE GRAND PARTAGE - CHARLES TRENET - ORCH. DIR. INCONNU : SIMPLE ET LeGeRE - MARIE MARIE - L'INQUIET - CHARLES TRENET - ORCH. DIR. PIERRE SPIERS : JEUNESSE PLUMeE - LE GRAND PARTAGE - JE TWISTE. DIRECTION ARTISTIQUE : PASCAL HALBEHER ET VINCENT LISITA

L'integrale Fremeaux & Associes de Charles Trenet realisee sous la direction de Daniel Nevers, puis de Vincent Lisita et Pascal Halbeher, reunit la totalite des enregistrements phonographiques originaux disponibles aupres des collectionneurs sensibilises a l'ambition museographique d'un "catalogue raisonne de l'oeuvre enregistree" du fou chantant. Aux enregistrements choisis et commercialises de l'epoque, le directeur artistique presente les "alternates" qui proposent d'autres versions des memes titres. Cette vocation d'exhaustivite historiographique dediee au patrimoine sonore phonographique s'accompagne (toujours chronologiquement) de documents radiophoniques, de publicites chantees afin d'eclairer la diversite de la production de l'artiste et de reveler retrospectivement les raisons de son appartenance a notre memoire collective.

Until 20 years ago, the figure of Antonio Salieri seemed destined to remain under a cloud of widespread disrepute, in the shadow of his complex relationship with Mozart and unsubstantiated criminal allegations that have come down to us through a thread that runs from Aleksandr Pushkin's poetic drama Mozart and Salieri (1830), later set to music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1897), to Milos Forman's famous film Amadeus (1984). In reality, Salieri, in late 18th-century Vienna, enjoyed a stature that Wolfgang could only dream of: court composer, conductor of the Italian opera and, above all, maestro di cappella of the imperial court - in other words organiser and manager of the Hapsburgs' entire musical life. An esteemed teacher and founder of the Vienna Conservatory, he had among his pupils Beethoven, Hummel, Schubert, Liszt, Meyerbeer and Czerny, and in the course of a long compositional career he created more than 40 works for musical theatre, numerous sacred and vocal compositions, as well as a smaller number of symphonic and chamber works. The best-known section of Salieri's instrumental production consists of the six concertos for one or more soloists, among them the two for keyboard included here; these are works that the composer did not see fit to print, and the manuscripts are preserved in the Austrian National Library. The Concertos in C and B flat were written by the 23-year-old composer in 1773 for solo 'cembalo' and an orchestra consisting of two oboes, two horns, strings and basso continuo. As Danilo Prefumo, author of valuable writings on Salieri's instrumental works, warns, 'for Italian musicians, the term cembalo could at the time indifferently indicate harpsichord and fortepiano'. Listening to and analysing these two works reveals a balance pursued and achieved between a typically Viennese sense of measure and attention to structure, and bursts of whimsy, ornamentality and gallantry akin to the expressivity of the London (Johann Christian) Bach. The solo writing never makes truly virtuosic demands, although it does require agility and a crisp, pronounced timbre. The Sonata in C for harpsichord is the only composition of it's kind, as far as we know, in Salieri's legacy, and it is given here in it's first recording. It is unusually subdivided into six concise movements, all set in the same key and characterized by an elementary harmonic progression. The linearity of the language, the transparency of the melodic line and the ease of execution indicate a score that might have been a keyboard sketch of the embryo of a Serenata or Cassazione, two genres that are often attested in the composer's catalogue. Other information: - Recorded September 2024 in Sacile (Italy) - The Sonata in C appears in it's first-ever recording - Catena plays a Fazioli F278 piano - Booklet in English contains liner notes by Umberto Berti and profiles of the soloist, ensemble and conductor - Italian liner notes available at brilliantclassics. Com - Antonio Salieri (1750-1825) was an Italian composer and conductor, famous in his time for his operas and sacred music, but less known today for his instrumental works. His reputation has been clouded by rumors of rivalry with Mozart, which modern scholarship largely discredits. Salieri was a highly respected court composer in Vienna, and while he was primarily recognized for his vocal music, he also composed several instrumental pieces, including piano concertos. - Salieri's piano concertos, though not as numerous or as widely celebrated as those by contemporaries like Mozart, offer insight into the classical style of the late 18th century. His Piano Concerto in B-flat major, composed in the 1770s, is one of his few surviving works for keyboard and orchestra. It reflects the elegance and balance typical of the Classical era, with clear melodic lines and a restrained yet expressive use of harmony. - Unlike Mozart's more virtuosic concertos, Salieri's piano concertos focus on lyrical expression rather than technical display. His concertos often feature a dialogue between the soloist and orchestra, emphasizing melodic beauty over complexity. - Played by Italian pianist Costantino Catena with the Accademia D'Archi Arrigoni, conducted by Giulio Arnolfi. In Luca Ciammarughi's book on pianists Catena is credited with 'combining virtuoso chiselling with a cantabile of absolute sonorous beauty. "

ChromaDuo (Tracy Anne smith and Rob MacDonald) is one of the world's greatest guitar duos. The works recorded here were all composed within the last 20 years, and four of the five works are dedicated to ChromaDuo. World premiere recordings.

Albert Roussel’s chamber works are relatively unknown, yet he composed a significant body of masterful works. The majestic Violin Sonata No. 1 and the dynamic neo-Classical Violin Sonata No. 2 are coupled with the String Trio, Roussel’s last completed work. Violinist David Bowlin and pianist Tony Cho are both highly regarded soloists and faculty members of Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, where the album was recorded.

REVIEW:

All three chamber music works are characterized by skillful craftsmanship. The First Sonata is the most extensive of all Roussel's chamber music works and is markedly serious. The Second Violin Sonata is only about half as long, but just as determined. The String Trio, his last completed work, is a striking example of his late style.

The musicians offer the works with an extremely positive commitment that immediately engages the listener. Each of the three pieces has its own character that makes it unmistakable and the performers bring this out skillfully. They form lively narratives in tones that breathe life into the largely unknown in a delightful way. In terms of design, they explore the music in all directions and know how to integrate the details into the overall picture, creating a cohesive form from the first to the last note. We can be grateful that they have taken on the works in such a convincing way.

-- Pizzicato