Mussorgsky's searing exploration of a tsar assailed b by fear and paranoia is given special contemporary relevance in this much-admired performance. Stage director Kirill Serebrennikov has incorporated the works of photographer Dmitry Markov, who travelled throughout Russia capturing everyday life in the country, and this presents unavoidable contrasts between authoritarianism and the real Russia. Featuring an outstanding cast, the opera is conducted by Vasily Petrenko in his first appearance with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Opera magazine wrote that 'the premiere made for a dazzling opening to the Holland Festival'.

Tristan Keuris was one of the Netherlands' most distinctive twentieth-century composers, creating music that bridges contemporary expression with lyrical warmth and remarkable accessibility. This recording brings together three of his finest chamber works - the String Quartet No. 1,  Clarinet Quintet and Canzone for solo clarinet - revealing a composer whose music is at once virtuosic, emotionally compelling, and deeply communicative. Rich in colour, dramatic contrasts, and expressive melodies, these works highlight Keuris' unique ability to combine modern musical language with unmistakable humanity.  Performed by the acclaimed Animato Quartet with clarinetist Jelmer de Moed, this album is both a tribute to one of the great voices of Dutch music and a passionate plea for his chamber music to reach a wider audience. From moments of quiet introspection to exhilarating rhythmic energy, these performances capture the emotional depth, brilliance, and timeless appeal of Keuris' musical imagination, inviting listeners to discover a remarkable yet still underappreciated composer.

Leo Weiner created a unique synthesis between German/French Romantic traditions and the Hungarian musical language at the beginning of the 20th century. The Ballade, admired for it's beautiful dreamlike lyricism, was one of his most successful works. Weiner took inspiration from folk music as an escape from the 20th-century rise in modernism - his Suite integrates dance melodies into a work of symphonic scale and structure. The Second Violin Concerto is a defiantly Romantic post-war masterpiece in which darkness and light co-exist as an expression of humanity in an age of violence.

Norwegian composer Christian Sinding benefitted from some of Oslo's finest music teachers, later studying in Leipzig and encountering Ferruccio Busoni. With his rich melodic gifts Sinding became seen as Grieg's successor, though his music avoided Norwegian folk-music influences and looked more towards the high Romanticism of Liszt and Wagner. In keeping with his lyrical gifts, the Sonata in B minor is driven by melodic invention with Brahmsian influences that also emerge in the 15 Caprices. This collection is a fine representation of the sheer melodiousness and energy that made Sinding's music incredibly popular in it's day. Sinding's Rustle of Spring and Am spinett are available for streaming and download on a digital single (9.70394).

SHHH!! Ensemble, the percussion-piano duo of Zac Pulak and Edana Higham, brings together a programme of beautiful and unexpected sounds inspired by the night sky and the vastness of space on their third album, Starry Night. Featuring newly commissioned works by Mari Alice Conrad, Paolo Griffin, Monica Pearce, and Haralabos [Harry] Stafylakis alongside Vincent Ho's contemplative Nostalgia and Jocelyn Morlock's sparkling early composition Quoi?, the album moves between the immense forces of the universe and the intimate inner worlds of sleep, memory, and consciousness, exploring how dreams process emotions and memories and shape our evolving sense of self. Across the programme, Stafylakis, Griffin, and Conrad look outward to astronomical events, gravitational interactions, and the possibilities of peaceful exploration, while Pearce and Ho turn inward to examine emotional and psychological experience. Morlock's Quoi? brings an exuberant and light-hearted energy to the album. Bringing celestial motion to a human scale, Starry Night is dedicated to the memory of Jocelyn Morlock, who was, and continues to be, an inspiration and a brightly shining north star to many. Known for their distinctive 'avant-accessible' blend of the experimental and familiar and praised as 'truly virtuosic and intense' by Confluence Concerts and 'a beautiful discovery' by the Societe de musique?contemporaine?du Quebec, SHHH!! Ensemble has commissioned more than two dozen works and performed at festivals, concert series, and with orchestras across Canada. Their debut album, Meanwhile, was nominated for Classical Recording of the Year at the 2023 East Coast Music Awards, while An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene received two nominations at the 2025 East Coast Music Awards.

Louise Farrenc's contributions to the keyboard repertoire are a cornerstone of her creative identity. The Air russe varie stands out as one of her most enduring masterpieces, acclaimed by Robert Schumann for it's rigorous counterpoint and refined musicality. The brilliant Souvenir des Huguenots draws it's themes directly from Meyerbeer's hit opera, while the Grandes Variations sur un Theme du Comte Gallenberg is a monumental testament to Farrenc's mastery of the variation form. This is the sixth and final volume in Maria Stratigou's acclaimed survey of Farrenc's complete works for piano.

Rachmaninoff's etudes-tableaux, Op. 39 is a masterpiece of late Romanticism, full of extreme contrasts with an overwhelming melancholy. Ravel's Miroirs explores a concise and colourful language, exemplified by sonic experiments, rarefied timbres and a refinement of utterance demanding meticulous technical clarity. Pianist Catalin Serban has long wanted to present these two great piano cycles juxtaposed, exploring the tensions between them and finding an inner arc that spans both cycles.

Mussorgsky's searing exploration of a tsar assailed b by fear and paranoia is given special contemporary relevance in this much-admired performance. Stage director Kirill Serebrennikov has incorporated the works of photographer Dmitry Markov, who travelled throughout Russia capturing everyday life in the country, and this presents unavoidable contrasts between authoritarianism and the real Russia. Featuring an outstanding cast, the opera is conducted by Vasily Petrenko in his first appearance with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Opera magazine wrote that 'the premiere made for a dazzling opening to the Holland Festival'.

Les Itinerantes, the acclaimed female vocal trio, make their PENTATONE debut with HYSTERÆ, an imaginative and deeply personal exploration of the many faces of the Feminine. Mothers, queens, witches, workers, saints, fairies and enchantresses come together in a rich tapestry of stories, archetypes and emotions that have shaped cultures across the world and throughout history. Through melodies from diverse musical traditions, original compositions and rarely heard works by women composers and writers, the album gives voice to figures who have been revered, feared, idealised, silenced and misunderstood. Renowned for their captivating a cappella performances and their unique repertoire spanning fifty languages, Manon Cousin Cipriani, Pauline Langlois de Swarte and elodie Pont create a sound world where borders, eras and genres dissolve. HYSTERÆ is both an intimate journey and a universal celebration, embracing the contradictions that define the human experience: tenderness and rage, fragility and strength, creation and destruction. Blending influences from early music, world traditions, sacred song and contemporary composition, Les Itinerantes invite listeners on a powerful voyage of self-discovery, liberation and imagination.

... Feeling, Taste & Science... : The Viola da Gamba Music of Carl Frederick Abel presents Richard Boothby and Fretwork exploring the work of Carl Friedrich Abel, the German-born composer and viola da gamba player who became a central figure in London's musical life from 1759 until his death in 1787. The programme draws on solo works from the Drexel Manuscript, three sonatas with harpsichord, and a fugue believed to have been composed for Abel's close friend Thomas Gainsborough. Countertenor Iestyn Davies joins for Abel's only known aria. Two of the three sonatas included are recorded here for the first time, having been discovered in a castle in Poland.

Benjamin Frankel is among those 20th-century British composers whose true standing remains to be rediscovered today. This edition offers a comprehensive overview of his oeuvre: it brings together Symphonies Nos. 1-8, major concertos, orchestral works, chamber music, and pivotal film scores, including the complete recording of The Battle of the Bulge. Frankel's music combines structural clarity with expressive power, incisive rhythm, and a distinct sensitivity to tonal colors. Alongside the moving violin concerto In Memory of the Six Million and the five string quartets, his stage and film scores demonstrate the versatility of a composer who developed an unmistakable voice bridging the concert hall and the silver screen. This box set invites listeners to rediscover Benjamin Frankel as a striking voice of musical modernism.

This programme forms a continuity with the album Brahms Berg Zemlinsky (released by Cypres - CYP8610), one that was distinguished notably by a Gramophone Choice. It continues the same reflection on the Vienna of the late nineteenth century and the passage towards modernity by exploring the ties uniting Johannes Brahms, Carl Frühling and Franz Schreker. These three works - the Trio with horn of Brahms, the Trio op. 40 of Frühling and the Quintet Der Wind of Schreker - form a fascinating journey through Austro-German music, illustrating with force the evolution of a mature romanticism into Viennese modernity. The first great axis of convergence lies in their unique, deliberately 'hybrid' instrumentations. Each composer rejects the standard formations, such as the string quartet or the classical wind quintet, in order expressly to create an aural texture that combines the strings, the piano and the wind instruments. We are witnesses to a subtle transmission of the tone-colours: Brahms's horn first brings a wooded, dark dimension that Frühling then replaces with the clarinet in velvety fusion with the cello. Lastly, Schreker brings together clarinet, horn, strings and piano within the same piece, achieving an unexpected synthesis of these acoustic worlds. Founded in 2006, the Ensemble Kheops has progressively asserted itself as one of the most outstanding chamber music groups in Belgium. With it's variable formation, it has forged an artistic identity that is based on curiosity, high standards and a dialogue between repertories, epochs and disciplines. This first instalment of a triptych celebrating it's twentieth anniversary marks an important stage on this route, the result of two decades of musical exploration undertaken with the same high standards regarding both the choice of the performers and the conception of each of it's projects.

This album, Tchaikovsky: Manfred Symphony, Op. 58 presents the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León under music director Thierry Fischer in one of the composer's most ambitious works. Recorded at the Jesús López Cobos Symphonic Hall, Valladolid, in July 2025, Fischer's approach treats the four-movement symphony as a single dramatic arc, shaped by the persistent return of the Manfred motif through scenes ranging from Alpine wandering to the subterranean palace of Arimanes. Neither a numbered symphony nor a symphonic poem but a hybrid of both, the Manfred Symphony is the largest symphonic work Tchaikovsky ever completed, in both duration and the scale of it's orchestral forces.

Sebastian Klinger and the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie under Marzena Diakun bring together a compelling selection of Romantic works for cello and orchestra: Schumann's deeply expressive Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129, alongside Max Bruch's lyrical pieces Kol Nidrei, Canzone, and Ave Maria. Schumann's concerto, born from a moment of creative exhilaration, unfolds with poetic intensity as it's movements flow seamlessly into one another, illuminated by the cello's warm, human voice. Bruch's works, by contrast, shine with heartfelt melody and emotional immediacy - music that speaks directly to the soul. Sebastian Klinger, one of the outstanding cellists of his generation, combines technical brilliance with a uniquely rich tonal palette. Together with the DRP, he brings Romanticism to life in it's most compelling form: intimate, passionate, timeless.

In the years immediately leading up to the First World War the Royal College of Music in London welcomed three of the most brilliant young musicians of their generation as students: Eugene Goossens, Arthur Bliss, and Herbert Howells. Close friends as they became, their musical personalities nevertheless evolved over the following years as notably distinct from one another. This disc brings something of their individual characteristics to the fore through a selection of their rarely performed solo songs, including four first recordings and three unpublished works. The songs are performed by tenor James Geer and pianist Ronald Woodley in this continuation of their long-standing partnership.

Trumpeter Sam Jones releases an ambitious collection of works for his instrument, focusing on modernists who have integrated it into their respective aesthetics. Works by Elliott Carter, Morton Feldman, Liza Lim, Charles Wuorinen, Louis Karchin, Luciano Berio, Olga Neuwirth, Wolfgang Rihm, and others display an impressive range of expressive and instrumental territory.

Marking 400 years since Orlando Gibbons's death, harpsichordist Friederike Chylek presents a programme of English keyboard music from Orlando Gibbons, William Byrd, and John Bull. The recital shows how Byrd's vocal-inspired counterpoint, Bull's virtuosic keyboard style, and Gibbons's synthesis of both contributed to the development of English keyboard music. This recording presents Gibbons not simply as the 'end of an era,' but as a composer who brought together the ideas of his predecessors while exploring new possibilities for the keyboard. An accessible introduction for listeners discovering English keyboard music and a solid overview for those familiar with the repertoire.

First release with Thomas Ades as Principal Guest Conductor of the 'pioneering' Halle Orchestra, featuring two of the composer's own works, coupled with landmark concerti by Tippett and Kurtag. This album marks the beginning of Ades' tenure as Principal Guest Conductor of the Halle Orchestra, a post he assumed in September 2026. It is Ades' first formal conducting title, having previously held positions as an artist and composer with orchestras and festivals in Europe and USA. Ades said of the appointment 'Composing is the most important part of my musical life, but conducting has always played an essential role. Working directly with orchestral musicians and soloists and shaping the interpretation of my music and that of other composers, has been an endless source of joy and inspiration. It feels like the right moment to have a deeper relationship with an orchestra over a number of years. My association with the Halle and The Bridgewater Hall goes back many years and make this pioneering orchestra the obvious choice'.

Igor Stravinsky's fairy-tale ballet "The Firebird" is rarely performed in it's entirety in today's concert halls - usually, only one of the concert suites is played. Simon Rattle performed the narrative ballet (composed in Paris in 1909/10 and premiered in 1910 by the famous Ballets Russes) in it's full magnificence on November 6 and 7, 2025 with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Isarphilharmonie in Munich. BR-KLASSIK is now releasing this recent concert recording on CD - together with an edition of the new format "Discover Music with Simon Rattle". The impresario Sergei Diaghilev organised a series of concerts of Russian music in Paris in 1907. He went on to present Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov in 1908 and, in the following year, alongside Borodin's Prince Igor, offered Parisians a memorable selection of Russian ballet performances. This marked the birth of the Ballets Russes, a legendary company that was to make theatre and music history. In early 1909, at very short notice, Diaghilev commissioned Stravinsky to compose the music for The Firebird. Despite considerable time pressure, Stravinsky managed to complete the score by May 18, 1910. The premiere on June 25, 1910 was an unprecedented success that has lasted to this day. In his interpretation, Simon Rattle allows the modern, colourfully orchestrated expressiveness of Igor Stravinsky's blazing Firebird to shine through in all it's glory. "Discover Music with Simon Rattle" A conductor's mind must be like a six-lane highway. What if you could take a look inside? The new BR-KLASSIK series "Discover Music with Simon Rattle" makes that possible! The conductor guides you - the listeners - through recorded orchestra rehearsals with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and explains what he was thinking at the time. You'll also learn a lot about the works that are particularly important to him. Simon Rattle guides you through the rehearsals in his easy-to-understand English, providing numerous insights into the work of the orchestra as well as some very personal memories. ? Simon Rattle conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich concerts on November 6 and 7, 2025 ? Live recording of the complete "Firebird" ballet by Igor Stravinsky ? Including "Discover Music with Simon Rattle": explanations by the conductor about the work and his own interpretation (in English) ? Thrilling live atmosphere from Munich's Isarphilharmonie concert hall

Andris Nelsons and the Wiener Philharmoniker confront the uncompromising power of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 6, the composer's darkest and most enigmatic symphonic statement. With gripping intensity and architectural control, Nelsons traces the work's inexorable march from martial determination to catastrophic collapse. The famous hammer blows in the finale strike with devastating force, while moments of lyrical repose are shaped with haunting restraint. This performance reveals Mahler's Sixth as a tragic drama of fate and resistance, uncompromising in it's emotional impact. Recorded at the Salzburg Festival, the concert forms part of the Wiener Philharmoniker's Mahler cycle with Andris Nelsons. 'Mahler's ?tragedy' as a catharc experience in Salzburg. Standing ovaons for the Wiener Philharmoniker under Andris Nelsons' (Die Presse) Program: Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 6