The HMS Trinidad March was composed for the ship on which George Lloyd served during the Second World War and became, in his words, "the official ship's march". When HMS Trinidad was commissioned on 14 October 1941, bandmaster Harold A Davis asked George to write the ship's official march. Unbeknown to Harold, a friend of the ship's captain, the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, had also been invited to write a march. The captain agreed to listen to both men's marches and decide which was to be used. Vaughan Williams' march was not popular with the bandsmen and when both pieces were premiered in the ship's aircraft hangar, the captain announced that George's music would be adopted as the HMS Trinidad's official march. George's rousing march echoes the role of the Fantasia on British Sea Songs traditionally played at the Last Night of the Proms, with it's links to the Navy and it's catchy tunes and up tempo rhythms, which encourage audience participation.

This new release from Mathis Rochat and Erdem Mısırlıoğlu is a collection of works by Sergei Rachmaninoff, imagined for solo viola or viola with piano. All of the works have been arranged by Mathis Rochat. Inspired by Yuri Bashmet's saying "Nobody knows how viola should sound!", Mathis Rochat enjoys the freedom that his instrument gives him in terms of sound coloring and likes to explore all kind of repertoire, new and old, originals or transcriptions. He has appeared as a soloist with the Walton Viola Concerto, Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante and the Hoffmeister Viola Concerto with orchestras such as the Norddeutsche Philharmonie and the Da Capo Ensemble.

The present recording features music by the composers Edvard Grieg, born on June 15, 1843 in Bergen, Norway, where he died on on September 4, 1907, and George Enescu (born on August 19, 1881 in Liveni, Romania, died on May 4, 1955 in Paris). Despite all the contrasts in their origins and their biographical data, both composers have one thing in common: their affinity with the music of their homeland. Acclaimed by the international music press as a “virtuoso of astonishing brilliance” and a “thoroughly poetic artist” (Dr. Joachim Kaiser, Süddeutsche Zeitung), Luiza Borac has established herself as one of the most charismatic artists of her generation.

George Lloyd who died in 1998 is mostly remembered for his 12 Symphonies, but his compositions include Opera, Choral, Concerto, Piano and Chamber Music. LNA approached GLS earlier in 2023 with a proposal that will see all of the music scores digitized and the entire record archive represented in new compilations, in both Physical Only formats. Going beyond the act of preservation the Trustees of LNA believe that George Lloyd's music is ripe for rediscovery by concert management and music lovers. George Lloyd's music, particularly his operas, won him great praise and popularity before WW2. But as broadcasting and concert life changed direction in the 1960s, his style, which is dramatic, large-scale, richly orchestrated unafraid of a big tune, fell out of favour. We believe that George Lloyd's time has come again and will use the combined resources of the Lyrita Nimbus Arts charity, and Lyrita label, together with the manufacturing, printing publishing and distribution arm of Nimbus Records to support this venture.

Echoes of birds, water, and wind: on her refreshingly unconventional debut album with GENUIN, the young musician Sophia Schambeck presents flute compositions spanning nine centuries. New works stand alongside ancient ones, solo pieces are interwoven with ensemble music, Irish melodies contrast with Japanese ones, and original works are placed beside arrangements. Listeners are drawn into fascinating sonic worlds ranging from Hildegard von Bingen to the present day - performed on no fewer than thirteen different recorders. This acoustic universe, shaped by a musician devoted to connecting styles and cultures, fills us with wonder and deep emotion.

Wolf-Ferrari is famous for his operatic works in which he invented a new idiom by transplanting 18th-century Venetian culture into the 20th century. But almost all of the composer’s orchestral music dates from his final years and occupies a different expressive realm. The Suite veneziana resonates with melancholy, and the Triptychon is a contemplative, passionate masterpiece of orchestration. Subtle use of counterpoint transforms the Divertimento into a playful exploration of themes, while Arabesken pays tribute to an old friend, the Venetian painter Ettore Tito (1859–1941). His own elegantly simple melody, known as ‘Tito’s theme’, is turned by Wolf-Ferrari into a sequence of sumptuous orchestral variations culminating in a powerful fugue.

George Lloyd who died in 1998 is mostly remembered for his 12 Symphonies, but his compositions include Opera, Choral, Concerto, Piano and Chamber Music. LNA approached GLS earlier in 2023 with a proposal that will see all of the music scores digitized and the entire record archive represented in new compilations, in both Physical Only formats. Going beyond the act of preservation the Trustees of LNA believe that George Lloyd's music is ripe for rediscovery by concert management and music lovers. George Lloyd's music, particularly his operas, won him great praise and popularity before WW2. But as broadcasting and concert life changed direction in the 1960s, his style, which is dramatic, large-scale, richly orchestrated unafraid of a big tune, fell out of favour. We believe that George Lloyd's time has come again and will use the combined resources of the Lyrita Nimbus Arts charity, and Lyrita label, together with the manufacturing, printing publishing and distribution arm of Nimbus Records to support this venture.

The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and its Music Director Rafael Payare make their Pentatone debut with Mahler’s 5th Symphony. The album is also the first recording under Payare’s tenure, and the beginning of a longer recording relationship with the label. For Payare, the Fifth is the last symphony that shows Mahler still looking forward to what the future might bring, unlike his subsequent, much darker and existential works. Despite that optimism, there is enough tragedy and struggle along the way, resonating with Mahler’s life at the time of creation. Payare’s proficiency in late-Romantic repertoire coupled with the matured, distinctive sound of the Montréal players make this a collaboration to look out for.

REVIEWS:

Throughout, Payare applies subtle but meaningful touches of rubato, creating a consistent feeling of tension and release. Everything holds together as one unit; every passage connected to what came before and what comes next. Expressively, what impressed me most is that the music does not come off as sectionalized. Orchestral execution is at a very high level as well.

-- Fanfare

This was, first and last, a superlative Mahler performance with the type of energy and spirit that caresses and screams with the same commitment, and moves easily between the two qualities. Beyond that, this was playing at the edge of control, something Mahler often demands and no more so than in this work.

Beyond Payare’s in-the-moment direction, his preparation came through in the excellent pace, dynamics, and balances within and through the orchestra. There are so many opportunities to pick and choose details to highlight, and the playing shone a spotlight on the wonderful wind colors in this orchestra, especially the unusually nasal double-reeds and a dark trumpet sound. The articulation of details in the strings, things like quick 16th-note rests toward the end of phrases and moments of portamento, were superb.

The tempest in the “Stúrmisch” second section melted away into a rich, dark interpretation of the cello line, no solace but only devastation. The extremes of light and dark with and across the forms were heightened. The first two sections alternately emotionally wrenching and fulfilling.

In the Scherzo, Payare had horn soloist Catherine Turner stand, and her playing was brilliant and unerring, and even more impressive was the perfect blend as she passed off her sustained, decaying notes to her seated stand-mate. The Adagietto was slow in the contemporary manner, almost nine minutes, but the internal pace and tempo modulations made it flow forward, leading directly into the finale.

-- New York Classical Review (Reviewing the 3/8/23 Carnegie Hall performance)

George Lloyd who died in 1998 is mostly remembered for his 12 Symphonies, but his compositions include Opera, Choral, Concerto, Piano and Chamber Music. LNA approached GLS earlier in 2023 with a proposal that will see all of the music scores digitized and the entire record archive represented in new compilations, in both Physical Only formats. Going beyond the act of preservation the Trustees of LNA believe that George Lloyd's music is ripe for rediscovery by concert management and music lovers. George Lloyd's music, particularly his operas, won him great praise and popularity before WW2. But as broadcasting and concert life changed direction in the 1960s, his style, which is dramatic, large-scale, richly orchestrated unafraid of a big tune, fell out of favour. We believe that George Lloyd's time has come again and will use the combined resources of the Lyrita Nimbus Arts charity, and Lyrita label, together with the manufacturing, printing publishing and distribution arm of Nimbus Records to support this venture.

For many decades the orchestras of the German broadcasting service SWR have worked together with many famous musicians from all over the world, including the outstanding pianists selected for this collection, among them Clara Haskil, Jörg Demus, Paul Badura-Skoda, Alicia de Larrocha, Wilhelm Backhaus, and Géza Anda. Furthermore, Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau (1903–1991) is regarded as one of the supreme keyboard masters of the 20th century and must feature in any comparative survey of performances of the central repertoire from Beethoven to Brahms. Annie Fischer (1914–1995), a pupil of Ernst von Dohnányi later went on to make some legendary recordings with Otto Klemperer. Friedrich Gulda (1930–2000) polarized the music scene by embracing the parallel worlds of classical music and jazz in equal measure. He was not only one of the most brilliant pianists of the 20th century with regard to tone and technique, but also one of the wittiest and most musically competent. For decades Wilhelm Kempff (1895–1991) was seen as the leading interpreter of German music from Beethoven and Schubert through Schumann and Liszt to Brahms.

Grażyna BACEWICZ was born on 5 February 1909 in Łódź. In 1919, she joined the Helena Kijeńska-Dobkiewiczowa Music Conservatory in Łódź, where she took violin and piano lessons. After her family had moved to Warsaw, she continued her education at the local conservatory under the supervision of Kazimierz Sikorski (composition), Józef Jarzębski (violin), and Józef Turczyński (piano). In 1932 – thanks to a scholarship funded by Ignacy Jan Paderewski – she began a two-year study at the École Normale de Musique in Paris under Nadia Boulanger. In 1934, she returned to the French capital, this time to complete her education with respected violinist Carl Flesch. A year later, she was awarded the first honorable mention in the 1st International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition. Since then, for 18 years, she had also been active as a concert violinist.

In 1953, Bacewicz abandoned stage activities, focusing almost exclusively on composing and teaching. In 1966, she took the composition class at the Higher State School of Music in Warsaw. The artist died on 17 January 1969. The present release is a showcase of her music for string orchestra.

George Lloyd who died in 1998 is mostly remembered for his 12 Symphonies, but his compositions include Opera, Choral, Concerto, Piano and Chamber Music. LNA approached GLS earlier in 2023 with a proposal that will see all of the music scores digitized and the entire record archive represented in new compilations, in both Physical Only formats. Going beyond the act of preservation the Trustees of LNA believe that George Lloyd's music is ripe for rediscovery by concert management and music lovers. George Lloyd's music, particularly his operas, won him great praise and popularity before WW2. But as broadcasting and concert life changed direction in the 1960s, his style, which is dramatic, large-scale, richly orchestrated unafraid of a big tune, fell out of favour. We believe that George Lloyd's time has come again and will use the combined resources of the Lyrita Nimbus Arts charity, and Lyrita label, together with the manufacturing, printing publishing and distribution arm of Nimbus Records to support this venture.

Red is the color of love and of roses, but also of blood, anger, and shame. Soprano Eva Resch delves into the multifaceted meanings of this color in her new concept album for GENUIN. Together with her piano partner Eric Schneider, she interprets songs spanning from the Classical era to the present - from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to Wolfgang Rihm. With her versatile voice, she traces the subtlest shades of human emotion and creates expressive character portraits that range from jubilant ecstasy to the depths of sorrow.

Sergey Rachmaninoff's symphonic career had a rocky start with the premiere of his First Symphony, now recognized as one of the Russian symphonic works of the late 19th century. Both the powerful First Symphony and the gloriously melodic Second, with its lush harmonic Adagio second movement, are haunted by the Dies irae chant melody. Rachmaninoff considered his Third Symphony to be one of his finest works, alongside the exquisitely and virtuosic Symphonic Dances. The enduring attraction of these symphonies is enhanced by the 'impressive, highly desirable interpretations' (Gramophone) in this acclaimed edition conducted by Leonard Slatkin.

Past praise for previously released volumes included in this set:

Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 3, Symphonic Dances

The more garish aspects of the Symphonic Dances, with its Dies irae quotation morphing into a Russian Alleluia, and the percussion parts generally, are kept under control, while the symphony’s glorious melodies, the last stand of the Romantic era in 1936, are allowed to flower luxuriantly. A crack Russian or British orchestra might be smoother in places, but there is a confident musicality here that is immensely appealing, and it has everything to do with a group of young players who realize that they are under the gun and have what it takes to succeed, under seasoned leadership. Highly recommended.

-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)

Rachmaninoff: The Isle of the Dead & Symphony No. 1

This recording of the First Symphony is arguably the finest since Ashkenazy’s with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra for Decca. Slatkin grinds out the opening bars with real menace, and he conceals the first movement’s episodic construction with flowing tempos and smartly managed transitions. The climax of the development section uses the glockenspiel part that seems to come and go in various recordings, but not the rest of the percussion that we find, say, with Litton on Virgin. Through it all the Detroit Symphony plays splendidly.

The crepuscular scherzo has an attractive lilt, while the Larghetto is just that: a small Largo, not one of Rachmaninov’s more hot and heavy statements in the mode of Symphony No. 2. Kudos to Slatkin for catching the movement’s gentle melancholy so well. As for the finale, it begins with plenty of the requisite panache, and culminates with a dark, powerful, and threatening coda that, if not quite as screamingly intense as Ashkenazy’s (the tempo is a bit quicker), comes as close as makes no difference. The trombones really put on a show here.

As for The Isle of the Dead, Slatkin’s performance doesn’t languish as some others do, and it’s all to the good. You really feel the five-in-a-bar rhythm in this performance, the lapping of the waves against the shore. The climaxes have tremendous impact, and the final appearance of the Dies irae sends a shiver down the spine. The work is all the more gripping for having such a strong rhythmic profile, and like the symphony it’s beautifully played (and recorded). Slatkin always has performed Rachmaninov as well as just about anyone alive today, and this cycle, quietly and with little fanfare as it has gradually appeared, sustains his reputation.

-- ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

The new album Face2Face is an extraordinary experience that juxtaposes the iconic String Quartets of Beethoven with the avant-garde compositions of modern masters. This first volume in an ongoing series showcases how Beethoven's innovative spirit laid the groundwork for generations of composers to come. Featuring iconic classical pieces from Beethoven's and Bartok's repertoire, this album is a must-have for both classical enthusiasts and adventurous listeners alike. Performed by the award-winning Amaryllis Quartett, whose accolades include the prestigious 1st prize at the 6th International Chamber Music Competition in Melbourne (2011), this release promises to illuminate the brilliance of Beethoven's work while exploring the bold expressions of contemporary composition.

Julia Kociuban is considered as one of the leading polish pianists of her generation. Her debut solo album “Schumann, Chopin, Bacewicz” was praised by critics as one of the most interesting Polish piano debut of the past years, and album with Bacewicz and Tansman Piano Concertos was nominated for the Polish Music Industry Prize “Fryderyk” in the “Album of the Year – Concerto Music” category.

MESSAGES QUARTET (Małgorzata Wasiucionek-Potera & Oriana Masternak – violin, Maria Shetty – viola, Beata Urbanek-Kalinowska – cello) was founded in 2014 and only a year later won the 2nd prize, Silver Medal, and a special award for the interpretation of Dmitri Shostakovich’s quartet in the 2nd International Chamber Music Competition in Plovdiv (Bulgaria, 2015). The Messages Quartet performs both in Poland and abroad, e.g. in Vienna, London, São Paulo, or Moscow. On a number of occasions, the ensemble has presented a comprehensive and innovative repertoire as part of a series of chamber music concerts at the premises of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice.

Review:

Both Bacewicz and Tansman are well represented on disc but competing versions of works are valuable not merely in offering a choice – a choice of couplings, for example - but also for interpretative decision-making. On their new Dux recording the Messages Quartet and pianist Julia Kociuban have opted to include Tansman’s Musica a cinque, for piano quintet.

Tansman’s piano quintet was written in 1955. It’s cast in five movements and opens with a smoky Praeludium, continues with the syncopated bravura of a Toccata, adds the compelling stillness of a complex Elegia, and a firefly Divertimento, and then unleashes a fugal finale. In every way it’s a more approachable, less intimidating work than Bacewicz’s Second Quintet though whether it’s greater openheartedness is a match for her more questing technique is another matter. It’s certainly finely played here and makes for a fine programmatic contrast. The booklet is attractive and colourful.

Jonathan Woolf

Stéphane Denève, triple winner of the Diapason d’Or of the Year, produced many outstanding recordings as chief conductor of the SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart from 2011 until 2016 when the orchestra merged with its sister orchestra from Baden-Baden and Freiburg to form the SWR Symphony Orchestra. They are now reissued as a five album boxed set including the ballet Daphnis et Chloé, Ravel's longest work, written for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, and the operas L'Heure espagnole and L'Enfant et les sortileges. Although the two operas cannot be strictly considered orchestral works, they are essential to understanding the œuvre of a composer who had a great predilection for fantasy worlds and the exotic. As a student Ravel composed the Ouverture de Shéhérazade and, several years leter, three poems for voice and orchestra on the same topic – both works form part of this set. Throughout his entire career, from Une barque sur l'ocean to Ma mère L'Oye Ravel created magical soundscapes in a highly original manner and with great stylistic freedom. A big inspiration for him was American operetta but also jazz and fairy tales. The formal structure of his works has the clarity of crystal and the elegance of mathematics. The SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart and the cast of young singers selected by Denève give thrilling interpretations.

REVIEWS:

Denève was the final Chief Conductor of this orchestra, from 2011-2016, after which they merged with the South West German Radio Orchestra for budgetary reasons. Their timbre is mellow and warm, akin to that of the Boston Symphony, but their ensemble playing and attack are tight.

The set is a highly worthwhile investment if you want a single collection of Ravel’s orchestral music. The sound is warm, clear, and spacious. Highly recommended.

-- Limelight (Australia)

Denève is very consistent in his meticulously prepared if slightly detached style. The playing and engineering is consistently very good indeed. The price of this box set is attractive. The song cycle and the two operas engaged me the most.

-- MusicWeb International

Béla Bartók’s monumental Mikrokosmos, containing 153 mainly short “progressive” piano pieces composed between 1932 and 1939, is both a very special piano method and a collection of wonderfully original performance pieces (the series actually contains almost the complete piano music by Bartók from the 1930s). Finally, it is also a detailed introduction to different aspects of his compositional style. With Mikro-kosmos, Bartók, who was generally reluctant to teach composition, created a veritable method of composition. A series of short piano pieces for the 1913 Piano Method jointly authored by Bartók and Sándor Reschofsky and published by Rózsa- völgyi in Budapest is the most immediate precursor of Bartók’s magnum opus, the six-volume Mikrokosmos. In 1913, the composer’s basic endeavor was to help produce a true modern piano school, in which all performance pieces and some easy exercises made up Bartók’s contribution. The 48 little pieces by Bartók included five-finger exercises, easy contrapuntal pieces, occasional essays in different styles as well as a range of character pieces.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dmitri Shostakovich's death, the Asasello Quartet completes it's full recording of the most significant string quartet cycle of the twentieth century for GENUIN. The great Russian composer left behind fifteen quartets - works by a complex, despairing, tender, distant, and enigmatic figure whose music continues to move and compel with it's timeless power, even half a century after his passing. This is especially the case in these masterful interpretations by the Asasello Quartet, which are technically flawless and infused with the shared experience of 25 years, as well as with an extraordinarily profound engagement with the composer's life and oeuvre.

Quatuor Diotima makes its Pentatone debut with a recording of Györgi Ligeti’s string quartets. While the second quartet from 1968 is an avant-garde classic, the first from 1953-54, “Metamorphoses nocturnes”, is often nicknamed Bartók’s seventh quartet, pointing out the continuity between these two Hungarian master composers. Despite moments of nostalgia, it already possesses the ferocious, adventurous nature of the later quartet. In-between these two iconoclast works, the Andante and Allegretto from 1950 offers an intimate moment of repose. The members of Diotima long postponed recording Ligeti’s string quartets, intimidated by their significance in music history and the demands they place on the players, but now the time has come to pursue this fascinating project and share it with the world. The quartet is fascinated by the cinematic qualities of Ligeti’s music and its use in films, including Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey. The album cover pays homage to that iconic movie. Quatuor Diotima is one the most in-demand chamber ensembles in the world today, and has worked in close collaboration with several of the greatest composers of the late twentieth century. Reflected in the mirror of today’s music, the quartet projects a new light onto the masterpieces of the 19th and 20th centuries.

REVIEW:

These two works, the 2nd following 15 years on from the 1st, are not so far apart as a casual listen might indicate, and the edgy performances of the Quatuor Diotima emphasize the continuity. The String Quartet No. 1 consists of a dozen short movements that, in their economy, suggest that something other than semi-traditional melodic material is happening here, and the Quatuor Diotima gives sharp, clipped performances that bring out the modernity of the work. The Second Quartet requires hair-trigger concentration from the players and the ability to make extremely quiet sounds at the top of the instruments’ registers. The Quatuor Diotima’s performance in the various insect-like sounds in the work is nonpareil. A truly excellent Ligeti recording that penetrates deeply into the composer’s essence.

-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)

Viktoria Kaunzner writes of her new release: “The release of this album was preceded by 15 years of study, analysis and performance of Medtner’s works for violin. Concerts, whether in Prague, as part of a Medtner lecture evening at the University of the Arts in Berlin, the inaugural gala of the Medtner Society in Seoul and more concerts in Paris. It was here that his music came before me for the first time in a magical moment with my guest family during my Erasmus studies: I shall never forget all the subtropical plants, the enormous library, paintings being created and films we saw together and how amidst all this I suddenly heard songs by Medtner. From that day on, a golden thread of sound wove its way into my memory and would not let me go. My fourth album entitled “EurAsian Gold”, which highlights the music of Medtner, was prepared in exclusive techno-acoustic conditions.“

Sergey Prokofiev's spectacular music for Ivan the Terrible is arguably one of his finest film scores. This classic recording of the oratorio arranged by Abram Stasevich conducted by Leonard Slatkin is filled with Prokofiev's irrepressible energy and eloquent melodic power. Ivan, the first 'Tsar of all the Russias' is portrayed in the film not as the bloodthirsty tyrant his nickname suggests, but as a sorrowful and lonely man, betrayed by his friends, deprived of love, and determined at all costs to preserve a unified Russia under constant attack from abroad and treasonous intrigues at home.

- Series of award-winning recordings by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor Nicholas Collon continue with a new album of orchestral works by Richard Strauss (1864-1949). This release includes Strauss' longest and final major orchestral work, the Alpine Symphony together with Four Songs, Op. 27 sung by soprano Louise Alder, one of the most in demand singers today.

No wonder the stellar team of pianists Eric Zuber and Boris Slutsky found Rachmaninoff's works for two pianos irresistible. The two had a shared history: Mr. Slutsky was Mr. Zuber's piano teacher beginning when the latter was a mere 11. Here, instructor and student have now become equal partners with a shared aesthetic. "Like many pianists (and listeners), I've always felt deeply connected to Rachmaninoff's music," says Eric Zuber. "Precisely identifying what makes it resonate so profoundly with so many people is challenging, but for me, it's his sincerity of expression, emotional honesty, and exceptional craftsmanship in writing for the piano. Through his distinctive musical language, Rachmaninoff captures the complexities of human emotion-our joys, loves, and sorrows-in ways words alone cannot fully express.

The poems of the Sephardic poet Moses Ibn-Ezra, written a thousand years ago, were set to music by the great Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. In this recording, Anne Haasch and Natalie Perez present his remarkable song cycle "The Divan of Moses Ibn-Ezra", released by GENUIN and paired with outstanding solo guitar works by the composer. Castelnuovo-Tedesco, one of the most influential guitar composers of the 20th century, created a masterpiece in the tradition of the great wanderer cycles of Schubert and Vaughan Williams. Anne Haasch and Natalie Perez vividly showcase the expressive depth of this evocative yet meticulously crafted music - a poignant memorial against displacement and a heartfelt homage to Jewish identity and the guitar.

A must for brass fans.

The National Brass Ensemble (NBE) and conductor Eun Sun Kim present Deified, an album containing music by Wagner and Strauss, as well as world premiere recordings of pieces by Jonathan Bingham and Arturo Sandoval. Bingham won the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and San Francisco Symphony's Emerging Black Composers Project competition with his cinematic composition Deified, while composer/trumpet player Sandoval is a legend in the brass world. The longest piece on this album is Timothy Higgins’s The Ring, a virtuosic recomposition of Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen scored for brass ensemble. Together, these pieces showcase the exceptional coloristic and expressive range of brass music. Consisting of some of the best players from leading U.S. orchestras, the National Brass Ensemble is one of the greatest brass groups of our times. Eun Sun Kim is Caroline H. Hume Music Director of the San Francisco Opera, and frequents the most important opera houses and concert halls of the world. The NBE and Kim both make their Pentatone debut.

REVIEW:

The unusually large brass ensemble format, 31 players in all, allows for an unusually large palette of sounds and textures. This is especially effective in the work that takes up the whole second CD and second part of the program, The Ring, a condensation of Wagner's entire Ring cycle by Timothy Higgins. This hits many of the familiar pieces from those four operas, which of course, contain a great deal of writing for brass in the first place. There are other unfamiliar and intriguing pieces: a rare fanfare by Richard Strauss, the title work by Jonathan Bingham, which is palindromic in several respects, and a pleasing, lightly Latin-accented Brass Fantasy of Arturo Sandoval. Conductor Eun Sun Kim's direction is crisp, and the virtuosity of several of the players is notable although the cohesion of a well-drilled chamber group is impossible. There have been several other instrumental "summaries" of the Ring, but this one is both unusual and engaging. A must for brass fans.

-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)

Conductor Nicholas Collon's second Sibelius album together with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra focuses on works written by Sibelius just before World War I, and culminating in the 5th Symphony, one of the composer's symphonic key works. Two opuses for violin and orchestra, Two Serenades and Two Serious Melodies, one of Sibelius' most religious works, are featuring star violinist Christian Tetzlaff. Sibelius' music for Strindberg's Symbolistic play Swanwhite is a rarely performed gem with interesting thematic connections to other works included on this album, including the 5th Symphony.

Beata Szalwinska and Alexander Anisimov write of their new release: “Romances Rachmaninoff is a combination of the beauty of vocal lyricism, rich piano parts full of virtuosity, and texts of great Russian poets. Love, happiness, longing, passion, suffering, sadness, everything that human life is filled with. The songs by Sergei Rachmaninoff are a synthesis of an equal dialogue between a voice and a piano, where each of the artists has a possibility of showing their sensitivity and artistic personality, inspiring one another. The beauty of this music is, and was, a source of inspiration, owing to which transcriptions of the songs for solo piano have been created. The record is a declaration of our admiration for Sergei Rachmaninoff's music, which gave us the possibility of expressing our deepest feelings and emotions.”

Ex Nihilo brings together a diverse palette of music into one continuous flow. Ligeti's Musica Ricercata forms the spine of the programme, interwoven with 20th-century works that resonate with it and new interludes by Brecht Valckenaers. Together, they trace a lineage of invention-exploring how composers reimagine their musical language and the piano itself ex nihilo, "from nothing."

'A lush, intricate success - meaningful for Messiaen enthusiasts and enjoyable for those new to his work. I highly recommend it.' This review from Fanfare magazine is one of several in the international press to have recognised the achievement of Ciro Longobardi while in the midst of recording the complete piano music of Olivier Messiaen, in a cycle which is now issued complete for the first time, and at budget price. The piano music of Messiaen spans times and idioms ranging from the Debussyan Pr�ludes of 1928-9, written when the composer was barely out of his teens, through to the jewel-like Petites Esquisses d'Oiseaux from 1985-one of his last works before his death in 1992. While every bar of the music is distinctively and instantly 'Messiaen', that idiom evolved a good deal over the years, and came to a kind of peak as well as a crisis in the Catalogue d'Oiseaux from the late 1950s. This 13-movement cycle is the only one of Messiaen's major works to end in darkness and despair, with the lonely song of the warbler piercing a pitch-black Brittany seascape, accompanied only by the mournful boom of a lighthouse and the endless rolling of waves against a stony shore. Messiaen could 'paint' such pictures in sound as vividly as a Debussy or a Richard Strauss before him, but he could also lift his gaze towards a heaven which was as real for him as the earth below. Hence both the all-encompassing power and tender sincerity of the Vingt Regards, composed during the depths of the Second World War, which retains enduring popularity even among musicians and audiences who are challenged either by musical complexity or by direct appeal to the emotions. This set is thus the fruit of years of living with the music, as well as the years spent recording it. Ciro Longobardi has performed Messiaen in recital and at festivals across Europe, throughout a career spanning three decades, which began with his prize-winning appearance at the International Gaudeamus Competition in Rotterdam in 1994.