The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge has selected some of the best-known choral works of Samuel Sebastian Wesley for inclusion on this disc, interspersing them with one of his organ works as well as a psalm chant by his father, Samuel Wesley

This is Volume 1 in Imogen Cooper’s new series on Chandos Records, dedicated to the complete works for piano by Robert Schumann. Recognised worldwide as a pianist of virtuosity and poetic poise, Imogen Cooper has established a reputation as one of the finest interpreters of the classical and romantic repertoire. She has dazzled audiences and orchestras throughout her distinguished career, bringing to the concert platform a unique musical understanding and lyrical quality.

Nearly all of Daniel Purcell’s surviving solo harpsichord music consists of arrangements, the only clear exception being the short Toccata, a brief essay in the style of the preludes from Henry Purcell’s harpsichord suites. The Suite is a simple but effective arrangement of movements from the composer’s own suite

"Bavouzet’s Haydn is unmatched in its zest and its wit. But it is also substantial, informed and deeply rewarding."

--The New York Times on Bavouzet's Haydn Sonatas cycle, 2022

This is Volume 4 in Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s project to record the complete piano sonatas of Haydn. The last volume in the series was a Critic’s Choice in Gramophone, an Instrumental Choice in BBC Music, Editor’s Choice in Classic FM, and Recording of the Month in MusicWeb International.

In the words of Bavouzet himself: ‘Each volume of this ambitious, extended project will arrive over the years like a postcard, dispatched during my travels with scant respect for chronological considerations, but undertaken with the greatest passion for trying to convey as vividly as possible to twenty-first-century ears the boundless treasures of this sublime music.’

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet received a BBC Music Award in 2012 and a Gramophone Award in 2011 for his recording of works by Debussy and Ravel (with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Yan Pascal Tortelier). His recording of Bartók’s Concertos (with Gianandrea Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic) was short-listed for a Gramophone Award, and he has won multiple awards for his recording of the complete works for solo piano by Debussy.

REVIEWS

Bavouzet doesn’t disappoint. He leans towards passion...but melancholy also surfaces through rubato, embellished repeats, control of line, pace and dynamics. This is a performance of stature with not a trace of the slick superficiality that mars matters elsewhere.

--Gramophone

These are marvelous works: every one of them has something inspired to capture your attention. In Sonata No. 38, that would have to be the central Adagio, one of those touchstone classical melodies that seem to sum up all that was most beautiful in 18th century music. Sonata No. 40 has only two movements, an intricate opening Moderato and a charming concluding Minuet.

Like No. 38, Sonata No. 30 is a substantial work in three movements[.] Bavouzet’s aptly spiky articulation of the main theme reminds us that Haydn’s early sonatas were likely composed with the harpsichord in mind, but they lose nothing (and gain much) from being played on a modern piano. This program also includes the moody Variations in F minor. Bavouzet’s interpretation is aptly pre-romantic...Haydn’s original, shorter cadenza/coda, without that astonishing tragic eruption that vaults the music forward into the 19th century...Haydn lovers are in keyboard heaven.

--ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

This year, we celebrate the thirty-year conducting career of Neeme Järvi with Chandos records, as well as the conductor’s own seventy-fifth birthday. Chandos marks the occasion with this two-disc set of highlights, featuring a varied selection of concert hall rarities and core classics, along with some popular showpieces and examples of Järvi’s championing of Estonian and American music. Gramophone said of his recently concluded Halvorsen series, “Järvis finds in the music a drama and pathos that might come as a revelation even to the composer.”