Swedish vocalist Anna Pauline Andersson celebrates over two decades in jazz with her new album, Lucky To Be Me, on Storyville Records. The album is a culmination of years of artistic exploration, mentorship, and collaborative discovery. It features standout performances, including a trumpet solo by jazz legend Randy Brecker on Pauline's original composition Just One Song and a duet with Janis Siegel of the Manhattan Transfer on the title track. This 8-track recording includes one original composition and seven interpretations of jazz standards, cinematic favorites, and musical theatre classics. The repertoire reflects Pauline's deep engagement with the Great American Songbook, the narrative richness of musical theatre, and the improvisational possibilities of jazz. Each track captures a moment of musical conversation and spontaneous discovery, anchored by Pauline's luminous voice and emotional depth. The project gained momentum in 2023, when Pauline met Siegel in Sweden through pianist Mattias Nilsson. Their first duet sparked a musical understanding that quickly evolved into mentorship and collaboration. Siegel later introduced Pauline to pianist, arranger, and producer John Di Martino, whose arrangements and artistic direction shape the album's sound. Di Martino assembled a group of top New York jazz musicians and crafted each arrangement to showcase both Pauline's voice and the ensemble's improvisational interplay. The sessions were recorded in New York with a strong emphasis on live interaction, allowing the music to unfold naturally. For Pauline, Lucky To Be Me realizes a long-held dream while marking a personal and musical turning point. Recording in New York, the birthplace of much of the music that inspired her, was both symbolic and deeply meaningful. Working closely with Di Martino, Pauline blended her Nordic sensibility with the rhythmic vitality and storytelling of American jazz. This creative dialogue has produced arrangements that honor the original material while highlighting her distinctive interpretive voice. This collaborative approach shapes the album's repertoire, which combines an original composition with reinterpretations of classics from jazz, film, and musical theatre. Tracks like Leonard Bernstein's Lucky To Be Me and Michel Legrand's Les Parapluies de Cherbourg showcase Pauline's capacity to inhabit each song fully, while Rodgers & Hammerstein's The Sound of Music highlight her subtle phrasing and improvisational creativity. Collaborators including saxophonist Aaron Heick, trumpeter Freddie Hendrix, and percussionists Khalil Kwame Bell and Vince Cherico bring drive and textural richness to each performance. Recorded at Trading 8s Recording Studio in New Jersey, with duets tracked in Sweden, and mixed and mastered by Dave Darlington at Bass Hit Studio in New York City, the album unites two musical worlds: a Nordic jazz voice in dialogue with American tradition, enriched by mentorship and musical lineage. Lucky To Be Me is a celebration of connection, creativity, and the joy of jazz storytelling, bringing together musicians, traditions, and generations in a shared musical journey.

Elevation explores the search for new sonic possibilities. At it's core is the conviction that the diatonic harmonica possesses far more expressive capabilities than are often attributed to it. It is precisely it's direct connection to the player that makes it an instrument capable of navigating a wide variety of musical worlds. A formative companion on this journey of discovery was Howard Levy. Working with him opened up classical music as a new field for the diatonic harmonica. His Concerto for Diatonic Harmonica and Orchestra remains one of the few significant concert works for this instrument and became an important source of inspiration. The long-standing collaboration between Benyamin Nuss and Konstantin Reinfeld arose from the same curiosity. Over many years, the two musicians developed a shared musical language that bridges classical, jazz, improvisation, and crossover. This deepened musical rapport gave rise to the desire to expand the sound of their duo with the colors of an orchestra. With Elevation, this idea became a reality. The new works by Wolf Kerschek and Benyamin Nuss take up the duo's characteristic sound and transport it into a larger orchestral space. In this way, the album combines the familiar with the new and opens up new perspectives for the harmonica. Elevation was recorded in February 2023 with the Detmold Chamber Orchestra at the Kulturstiftung Marienmünster. The title represents a path on which curiosity, openness, and artistic development give rise to new musical horizons.

Grammy-nominated pianist/composer Michael Eckroth makes his long-awaited SteepleChase debut as a leader with Contrafacto, joined by veteran bassist Ron McClure and dynamic drummer Steve Johns. Long recognized on the label as a versatile sideman, Eckroth steps forward with a program that highlights his refined touch, modern harmonic sense, and deep grounding in the jazz tradition. The trio explores originals and reimagined forms with clarity, swing, and understated fire, allowing Eckroth's melodic imagination to unfold in conversation with McClure's seasoned authority and Johns's responsive drive. Contrafacto introduces a mature, distinctive pianist whose writing and improvising balance structural elegance with spontaneity, marking a compelling new chapter in the SteepleChase piano trio lineage.

Stradivarius is pleased to announce the release of a CD by Andrea Rebaudengo, a pianist with an intense concert career and a particular predilection for music written over the last hundred years, featuring a performance of Finale by Paolo Castaldi (1930-2021), an Italian composer and essayist with a highly personal artistic path, ranked among the greatest contemporary Italian composers. Produced in collaboration with the Sentieri selvaggi cultural association, the album offers a live recording of the performance of Finale on December 1, 2008, in the presence of the composer, 35 years after the publication of the score, composed between 1971 and 1973. A monumental score lasting approximately 45 minutes and in four movements, the work marked a break with the spirit of the years in which it was published, revealing a new poetics on which the composer would later build much of his creative journey. The album thus offers a re-listen to an important body of twentieth-century piano composition, to rediscover a composer of fundamental importance for the musical languages of the second half of the twentieth century, then an isolated voice and today finally recognized.

Spike Wilner makes a striking SteepleChase debut as a leader with Bird's Words, an album that distils the essence of Charlie Parker into something both reverent and freshly alive. Recorded in Paris with longtime colleagues Dmitry Baevsky, Yves Brouqui, Paul Gill, and Joe Strasser, the session embraces bebop's original discipline: concise, melodic soloing and a shared commitment to speaking Bird's language without modern embellishment. Wilner-steeped in the lineage of Walter Davis Jr., Jaki Byard, and Barry Harris-brings clarity and deep historical insight to every track. The band's tight interplay, crisp articulation, and unforced authority make Bird's Words a vibrant homage that reclaims the art of the concise, meaningful solo. A joyful celebration of Parker's enduring legacy.

Helge Burggrabe is a versatile composer who writes large oratorios and orchestral works, but also realises large-scale projects involving music, dance, and education. The composer has produced his extremely successful HAGIOS series for Berlin Classics, which is continued here with it's 3rd part. The idea behind HAGIOS is musical meditation and making music together, accompanied by concerts and workshops.

Sandrine Piau and David Kadouch are reuniting for a project that the French soprano conceived as the second part of a diptych begun with Voyage intime (Alpha 911). This time we enter the world of childhood, but even though this album is called Contes, 'these aren't stories for children,' says David Kadouch. Actually, these stories might even present themselves in a way that provokes anxiety-dark and menacing Sandrine Piau continues: 'Folk tales and legends often serve as an initiation, and they also act providentially as pebbles that guide us through the forest of our most secret atavistic fears.' With their well-known and recognised expertise, Piau and Kadouch bring together composers from a variety of linguistic and artistic backgrounds-Hahn, Debussy, Ravel, Wolf, Strauss, Zemlinsky, Poulenc, Shostakovich-and introduce us to fascinating female composers such as Jeanne Bernard (1895-1965), Wally Karnevo (1914-2015), Louise Didier (1872-1955), and Ilse Weber (1903-1944).

The Opus13 Quartet was formed in 2014 and takes it's name from the String Quartet in A minor, Op. 13, by Felix Mendelssohn, a passionate early work and the first piece they ever played together. Comprising two Norwegians (violinists Sonoko Miriam Welde and Edvard Erdal) and two Swedes (Albin Uusijarvi on viola and Daniel Thorell on cello), Opus13 were keen to record Grieg's sublime Quartet No. 1 alongside Mendelssohn for their very first album. For them, it was important to connect with the raw power of this music and the Norwegian identity embodied in Grieg's music. First Prize winners at the Bordeaux International and Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competitions in 2025, Opus13 received the Borletti-Buitoni Prize in 2026 and were selected as BBC New Generation Artists. Marked by pure and fragile emotions, this programme concludes with a transcription of the famous Solveig's Song, taken from the play Peer Gynt, written in 1867 by Henrik Ibsen and set to music by Edvard Grieg.

For her next album, guitarist Carlotta Dalia performs works by Niccolo Paganini together with the Goldmund quartet on historic Stradivari instruments dating back to Paganini's era. This creates an authentic sound world which connects today's artists with Paganini's timbre. It is the first musical and artistical cooperation of Carlotta Dalia and the Goldmund Quartet.

Stradivarius is pleased to announce the release of the new album by Mirco de Stefani (b. 1959), a composer whose catalog features more than eighty works for solo instrument, full orchestra, chamber orchestra, vocal and instrumental chamber ensembles, and choir, as well as the opera Le Baccanti and several essays on musical aesthetics. The fruit of continuous experimentation, research, and design, the new album Canzoni del giardino incantato. Passeggiata musicale nell'Orto Botanico di Padova (Songs of the Enchanted Garden. A Musical Stroll through the Botanical Garden of Padua), featuring soprano Barbara Zanichelli and pianist Aldo Orvieto, stems from a personal itinerary where past and present, the physical and the metaphysical engage in dialogue, and where music and poetry confront history and microhistory. The foundation of the project is a fascination with the Botanical Garden of Padua-a jewel of shapes and colors, a Theater of wisdom and harmony masterfully preserved over time, which became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. The CD brings together 6 Canzoni (Songs), each representing a step on a journey where music intertwines with the historical, human, and artistic adventure of an author (with texts by Ludovico Ariosto, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Emily Dickinson, Fernando Pessoa, and Federico Garcia Lorca). This allows listeners to relive four centuries of the Botanical Garden's history through music and song. Walking, listening, and observing become the three elements that accompany the birth and development of the Canzoni del giardino incantato. This album was born from the weaving together of different fields of knowledge, seeking a dialogue between music, poetry, and the historical, physical, and human landscape, centering on a specific geographical location and the surprising, fascinating uniqueness of it's history.

I never truly believed in inspiration through natural beauty; in the Roman ruins I was taught otherwise, there the ideas just come flying in.' With these words Richard Strauss describes his work on his Symphonic Poem 'Aus Italien' (From Italy), which besides these Roman places also depicts scenes 'At the Beach at Sorrento' as well as 'Neapolitan Folk Life', setting these impressions to colorful music. In addition to this work with the Munchner Rundfunkorchester under the baton of conductor in residence of the Richard Strausstage festival in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Remy Ballot, selected songs for orchestra and soprano were performed by German soprano Joo-Anne Bitter, who made a name for herself internationally with her acclaimed Richard Wagner interpretations.

A very special grand wind ensemble piece, composed by Mr. Mozart' has been performed for this recording by wind players (and a double bass) of the orchestra of the Wiener Symphoniker under the baton of Milan Turkovic. The work being mentioned is Mozarts Wind Serenade No. 10 in B-flat major, K. 361, widely known as the 'Gran Partita'. The 'very special'-ness of this piece was not only awed-inspiring to contemporary audiences; until today the listener is filled with awe-stricken silence by the uncomparable stylistic variety, the grand musical arc spanning over seven movements and the extraordinary Mozartian melodic riches like with hardly any other work of musical history. Contributing to the impression of the work itself is the performer's unmatched expertise with interpreting Mozart and their Viennese playing wit which is audible with every single note.

I wanted to put together a little bouquet, and this is what we've put together from 21 songs.' In addition to 'floral' songs like the one just mentioned and 'Madchenblumen, Op. 22,' the young Austrian soprano Miriam Kutrowatz and the Munich-born pianist, Lied accompanyist and cabaret artist Andreas Froschl draw from the vast repertoire of Richard Strauss's numerous song compositions. Here, on the one hand, there are more youthful, carefree, and lighthearted emotions, as in 'Rosenband,' 'Amor,' or 'Sausle, liebe Myrthe'; on the other hand, there are also heavy, expressionistic songs that express pain, confusion, despair, or even anger, such as the title track 'Three Songs of Ophelia, Op. 67.' Miriam Kutrowatz who is a regular guest on Europe's principal concert and opera venues presents these and other songs, such as 'Allerseelen,' 'Standchen,' and 'Nichts,' on her debut CD.

Folias y Glosas', the new recording project of the ensemble Concerto Scirocco, is a musical journey into the Spain of the late 16th/early 17th century, taking in a repertoire rich in colours, rhythm and influences that weaves together folk memory and sophisticated artistry. The title alludes to two key elements of early performance practice: the folias, an ostinato of folk origin with a cyclic structure, and the glosas, a term synonymous with ornament and embellishment. Alongside the names of great Iberian composers such as Antonio de Cabezon and Diego Ortiz and pieces from the Cancionero de Palacio, the programme also investigates the ramifications of Spanish influence in Europe, with music by Michael Praetorius, Bartolome de Selma y Salaverde, Andrea Falconieri and Johannes Ghiselin. The cultural links between Spain, Italy and the northern countries, which testify to the circulation of styles and ideas between the courts and cities of Baroque Europe, are here revealed in a refined, yet spirited, musical overview. With Folias y Glosas, Concerto Scirocco brings to listeners the richness of expression and variety of timbre of a repertoire that still sounds surprisingly modern.

Luca Quintavalle brings together composers from different generations and aesthetic backgrounds, to reveal e remarkable plurality of musical languages, where historical forms, transcriptions and new works intersect. Throught these works, past and present meet in a continuous process of musical metamorphosis, and the harpsichord emerges as a living medium of invention.

Kronborg is Denmark's most famous castle - the 'Elsinore' of Shakespeare - and within it's walls, sweet music. Kings Christian III, Frederik II and Christian IV harvested the bounty of Europe's musical wealth and crowned their lavish courts with song. In this majestic 8-CD set by Bo Holten and Musica Ficta are lute songs by Dowland, motets of Schutz, and world-premiere recordings of works by Palestrina, de Wert and Vecchi. These are no longer only echoes of a prosperous age, but now Denmark's golden musical past, regained anew. During its residency at Kronborg in 2021–2024, Musica Ficta presented this repertoire in a concert series in the castle’s Ballroom; the recordings gathered here were made separately, in dedicated sessions. Musica Ficta focused on works from the castle’s heyday, when there was a prosperous musical life there. This release marks a comprehensive celebration of 100 years of Danish musical life at Kronborg, Copenhagen and beyond, featuring music by: Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672) · John Dowland (1563–1626) · Hans Nielsen (c. 1580–1626) · Truid Aagesen (fl. 1593–1625) · Mogens Pedersøn (c. 1583–1623) · Hans Brachrogge (c. 1590–c. 1638) · Luca Marenzio (1553–1599) · John Bennet (c. 1575–1614) · Thomas Weelkes (1576–1623) · John Wilbye (1574–1638) · Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562–1621) · Johann Grabbe (1585–1655) · Mattheus le Maistre (c. 1505–1577) · Pierre Sandrin (c. 1490–after 1561) · Giaches de Wert (1535–1596) · Josquin Baston (c. 1515–c. 1576) · Jan Tollius (c. 1550–c. 1620) · Gregorius Trehou (c. 1540–1619) · Jacques Arcadelt (1507–1568) · Melchior Borchgrevinck (c. 1570–1632) · Nicolas Gistou (d. 1609) · Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) · Leone Leoni (c. 1560–1627) · Agostino Agresta (fl. 1600–1617) · Girolamo Casati (c. 1590–after 1657) · Simone Molinaro (c. 1570–1636) · Marsilio Santini (fl. c. 1600) · Curtio Valcampi (fl. 1600–1610) · Ruggiero Giovannelli (c. 1560–1625) · Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525–1594) · Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1554–1612) · Antonio Mortaro (c. 1575–c. 1620) · Giovanni Croce (1557–1609) · Orazio Vecchi (1550–1605) · Leonhard Lechner (c. 1553–1606) · Guillaume Costeley (c. 1530–1606) · Vincenzo Ruffo (c. 1508–1587) · Gregor Lange (c. 1540–1587) · Arnold de Fine (c. 1530–1586) · Jørgen Presten (d. 1553) · Severin Tham (fl. c. 1540–1560) · Andreas Meier (fl. 1559)

Ever since playing Hugleiding (Meditation) by composer Karolina Eiriksdottir for the first time back in 2006, this Icelandic solo violin music project has been melting in my veins. In 2013, John Speight wrote his Soliloquy (track 7 and 8) at my request. Two more recent commissions are on the album, both from composers who play the violin: Fragile Stillness by Lilja Maria asmundsdottir and Aria by Maria Huld Markan. Iceland has a long tradition of violin playing and according to folklore every farmer in certain valleys up north was a fiddler. Ea Fantasia (track 4), my own composition, is inspired by the opening track Alia Fantasia by Nicola Matteis Jr. He was the London-born son of the Italian composer Nicola Matteis, who wrote Ayers and Grounds. Nicola Junior was a violinist like his father and lived in Vienna, where he composed numerous ballets for the imperial opera. His bariolage (arpeggios over four strings) remind me of the opening of Fratres by Arvo Part and Bach's Chaconne-key works in the violin repertoire-both of which have been a great inspiration to me. In Fragile Stillness (track 2), Lilja Maria asmundsdottir experiments with textures. Or as she puts it: "The piece is inspired by a weather condition called froststillur. It is characterized by an intense calmness where there is no wind and a crisp, frozen atmosphere. Karolina wrote Meditation (track 3) in 1996 for violinist Hlif Sigurjonsdottir, who premiered the piece in June 1997. Meditation is in one movement, built on ideas which change and develop, and the composer describes it as "variations without a theme. Aria (track 5) by Maria Huld Markan was written for me in 2023. Her solo piece is written under the influence of Maria Callas and her romanticism and lontano as she sings Puccini. Maria is reflecting on the concept of the genius, and motifs are flowing from all the fountains contemplating the romantic violin repertoire. On his Adagio (track 6), composer Tryggvi Baldvinsson writes: "This small Adagio can be seen as a short play in which three distinct characters appear. Each has it's own traits, it's own personality. The encounter between these characters is bound to have a profound and lasting impact on them. As for the actual course of events, I leave that entirely to the listener's imagination. The piece was composed for Rut Ingolfsdottir, who premiered it in 1997. John Speight is an English-Icelandic singer and composer I got to know through working with the Reykjavik Chamber Orchestra, playing and recording his works. He wrote Soliloquy (track 7 and 8) in 2012 and it is the only piece on the album in two movements. The first movement is slow and thoughtful, while the second is crazy and furious. Tranquility (track 10) by Sveinn Ludvik Bjornsson is possibly the shortest piece I have ever played. The story of it is longer than the piece itself-and too good to omit. Sveinn Ludvik, who is visually impaired, was renting a studio in an old banana storage in Brautarholt, Reykjavik. To enter his studio he had to walk through the studio of artist Helgi Valgeirsson. Above the door there was a painting by Helgi which inspired Sveinn Ludvik deeply; he had the sense it was very somber in it's mood-a naked woman with her back turned. Moved by the scene he wrote Tranquility. Later, when discussing the piece with Helgi and admiring the tragic impact of the naked woman in the picture, Sveinn was shocked to discover that the painting, in fact, was of bananas and oranges. Veronique Vaka Jacques, a Canadian-Icelandic composer and trained classical cellist, grounds her work in the geology and topography of Iceland. In Ofdune (track 9), a map of North Iceland serves as groundwork, with the geographical details of a descending river abstractly translated into the work's time progression, using the river's path through hills and valleys as a loose blueprint. This concept of descent is echoed in the title, Ofdune, which is derived from the Old English meaning "downwards" or "off the hill". Jon Nordal's Hvert orstutt spor (Each Tiny Step, track 11) is from the play Silfurtunglid by Icelandic Nobel Prize-winning author Halldor Laxness. This is a famous Icelandic song, here in my gospel music influenced arrangement for solo violin. I tried to stay true to the beautiful and simple melody and the text of the poem filled with nostalgic longing. - Una Sveinbjarnardottir Recorded in Reykholtskirkja West Iceland January 24. - 25. 2025 Una Sveinbjarnardottir, Violin Ragnheidur Jonsdottir, Tonmeister Dan Shores, Recording, Editing, Mixing, & Mastering Engineer Eva Schram, Photography Una Sveinbjarnardottir, Liner Notes

Black Mountain features original compositions by Alexej Gerassimez and Gordon Hamilton, who also conducts this recording with the NDR Radiophilharmonie. The program explores the dynamic interplay between orchestral sound and percussion, with a highlight being the work Leviathan by John Psathas-a powerful composition for percussion and orchestra, written specifically for Alexej Gerassimez.

For more than twenty years, Haruki Murakami's novels have captivated him time and again: for pianist and composer Tim Allhoff, works such as Kafka on the Shore, 1Q84, and Naoko's Smile are more than mere literature-they are inspiration, guidance, and an enigmatic mirror of his own emotional world. With his new solo album Between Here and Nowhere, which will be released on May 15, 2026, by Neue Meister and is now the eleventh album in his discography, Allhoff has created a musical homage to the cult Japanese author, whose books have long since become a soundscape in their own right.

The Queen of Instruments meets one of the international leading organists, Iveta Apkalna. The repertoire of the new album includes Vasks' "Viatore" and "Te Deum" as well as Part's famous "Spiegel i'm Spiegel", "Pari intervallo", "Trivium" and "Annum per annum". Two of the most important contemporary composers are united on one album, celebrating Part's 90th birthday in 2025 and Vasks' 80th birthday in 2026. Also a milestone in music history is captured on this release: it is the first ever solo organ recording made on the organ of the Ventspils Concert Hall "Latvija" - one of the most remarkable concert instruments in Norther Europe.