Award-winning and much decorated composer Claude Baker here entwines his evocative soundworld with the powerful imagery of two great poets. Recorded in its premiere performance with Marc-Andre Hamelin as soloist, the Piano Concerto ‘From Noon to Starry Night’ draws on and amplifies the structures and meanings of five poems by Walt Whitman, expressing the heroism and darkness of war, exuberant celebrations of nature and a wistful ‘remembrance of things past.’ Aus Schwanengesang is a memorial piece that expands and ‘re-composes’ the poignant Heine Lieder from Schubert’s song cycle with oblique and multi-layered references.

There are such defining moments in life. On the path towards one's own calling, there is an encounter with one of the greats, and everything is suddenly different. For the young Robert Kahn, the moment came on one day in 1886 when he met Johannes Brahms. The maestro from Northern Germany was apparently able to put many sympathetic strings in motion upon meeting the young composer from Mannheim. This resulted in an oeuvre in which his chamber music from duo to quintet often strikes a tone that we recognise from his role model. Without ever copying his mentor, Kahn thrives on his full-bodied and opulent voice leading, which gives the three piano quartets in particular a symphonic dimension. Next to these is the spirited transparency of the Serenade for string trio from 1933, when the music world congratulated Johannes Brahms on his 100th birthday. Robert Kahn is not afraid to occasionally take the master at his word

Hyung-Ki Joo is a pianist, composer, and musical entertainer. Born in England in 1973 to South Korean parents, he is a remarkable musician whose artistry spans piano performance, composition, and whimsical stagecraft. A graduate of the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Manhattan School of Music, Joo has studied under notable mentors and cultivated a deep versatility in both solo and chamber music forms. Collaborative ventures lie at the heart of Joo's approach. As one half of the celebrated musical comedy duo Igudesman & Joo-alongside violinist Aleksey Igudesman-he fuses top-tier classical performance with sharp humor and theatrical flair. But Joo is more than a performer-he's a champion for music's accessibility. His compositions have been commissioned and performed by world-class orchestras and soloists, and his music is published by reputable houses like Universal Edition and Modern Works. This new album contains original piano works by Hyung-Ki Joo: Childhood (an album of 10 pieces), Chandeliers, and Funk Yeah, for piano 4-hands. This recording also contain the Joo's arrangements of Billy Joel's Fantasies and Delusions, as well as Soliloquy Op.1. Played by Sun-Hee You. Born in South-Korea, she moved to Italy, graduating with honors from the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome. She continued her studies with the legendary Lazar Berman and Valentina Berman, and refined her artistry under the guidance of Bruno Canino, Oxana Yablonskaya, Boris Petrushansky, and Paul Badura-Skoda. She recorded for Piano Classics piano works by Kapustin.

Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensemble: Hedos Ensemble. Conductor: Bernhard Böhm.

The heyday of English consort music coincides with the exciting change in style from musical Renaissance to early Baroque between 1580 and 1630. William Byrd and his successors played a decisive role in shaping it with sacred and secular songs, fantasies and dances. This production on the 400th anniversary of William Byrd's death shows how diverse and colourful the repertoire of consort music is. On the one hand, the English composers impress with sophisticated compositional art, on the other hand, they take up popular music of their time. The result is musical atmospheres that reflect the deep melancholy, pious confidence and plump joie de vivre of Shakespeare's time.

While he left an extensive and significant output of stage-works, the contribution of Kurt Weill to orchestral and instrumental genres was largely restricted to his formative years.

Remember Soyeon Kate Lee’s 2008 Zankel Hall recital, where she appeared in a concert gown constructed from 6000 recycled grape juice containers? Not surprisingly her outfit got more press than her actual music making, but the fact is that Lee is a splendid pianist who doesn’t need gimmicks. Her first appearance in Naxos’ complete Liszt piano music cycle attests to this.

Lee’s shapely and sonorous handling of the thick pianistic hurdles throughout Liszt’s transcription of the Sarabande and Chaconne from Handel’s Singspiel Almira holds interest in terms of technique and stamina, although the music is deadly dull. By contrast, Liszt’s paraphrase based on Gounod’s Hymne a Sainte Cecile thoroughly improves upon the original composition, where Lee’s contouring of the multi-thematic textural layers proves more pliable and forward moving than in Leslie Howard’s comparatively square (though no less sensitive) rendition.

So far as Liszt’s transcription from Joachim Raff’s forgotten opera König Alfred, Lee does not differentiate the opening Andante finale’s foreground and background material with Leslie Howard’s variety, yet she’s more animated and energetic in the subsequent Marsch. Lee also plays the Gounod transcriptions from Romeo et Juliette and La reine de Saba with a lovely lyrical sensitivity. The better known Valse from Gounod’s Faust paraphrase features scrupulous and crisply dispatched fingerwork, but the interpretation is a bit cut and dried, falling short of Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s glittery panache or the dynamic and rhythmic heft of Earl Wild and Egon Petri. However, she takes the opening section of Liszt’s transcription of Spohr’s Die Rose Romanze at a faster clip and with more vocally oriented phrasing than in Howard’s slower, more static traversal, heightening the music’s rich harmonic invention in the process. Annotations and engineering are first rate. In all, a strong entry in Naxos’ ongoing Liszt series.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Mauro Giuliani was regarded in his day as "perhaps the greatest guitarist who has ever lived", making his name in Vienna and mixing with the likes of Beethoven. On his return to Italy in 1820, he consorted with Paganini and Rossini which resulted in his arranging four of the latter's overtures for two guitars. These versions abound in lyrical melodic lines, fast arpeggios, subtle colors and technical virtuosity also to be heard in the Gran variazioni concertanti. The Tre Polonesi concertanti are also full of joie de vivre, lively dance rhythms and elegant melodies.

Dimitar Nenov (1901-1953), a pianist-composer of extraordinary depth, Nenov's music remains largely unknown beyond Bulgaria-where he is still rarely programmed-despite his towering influence on 20th-century Eastern European music. His works, blending architectural precision with boundless imagination, are at once intellectually rigorous and emotionally profound. This album, performed by the brilliant Veneta Neynska, offers a rare opportunity to experience Nenov's unique musical language through the artistry of his present-day champion. From the lush harmonies of his Meditation to the virtuosic brilliance of the Toccata, this collection reveals a composer who was not only a master of the piano but also a visionary in sound. We are thrilled to present this album as part of our commitment to bringing hidden gems to light, ensuring Nenov's remarkable legacy is heard, appreciated, and celebrated worldwide. -Emma Pauncefort & Tom Pauncefort, Directors

Domenico�Cimarosa's�operas were remarkably successful, being staged and re-staged in opera houses all over Europe. Success in his�hometown�of Naples led to court appointments and royal commissions, including his best-known work Il�matrimonio�segreto�('The Secret Marriage') composed for Austrian emperor Leopold II. Other hits include�L'impegno�superato�('The Broken Engagement'), an instant success and soon to become one of the most frequently performed of�Cimarosa's�comic works, and Penelope that was produced as far away as London in 1817. The Cantata per Ferdinando IV was, however, written as an act of repentance,�Cimarosa�having made the mistake of backing the failed republican government in 1799.

A highly decorated composer in Soviet Russia, Reinhold Gli�re maintained a low political profile and a conservative but astonishingly inventive melodic style. His interest in national harmonies and folk-music emerges in the Twelve Album Leaves, and his remarkably important contribution to cello repertoire is demonstrated both in his mastery of small forms in the Duets Op 39, and a unique ability to create orchestral sonorities in the Duets Op 53, a rare example of an original cycle for the delightful combination of two cellos.

On their first album featuring madrigals and canzonettas by Andrea Gabrieli, the WESER RENAISSANCE ensemble led by Manfred Cordes was already in its element. On SWR2 Radio Michael Stegemann commented: “A most highly entertaining and successful album. Perfect balance in the mixture of singers and winds, audio transparency of the polyphonic structures, great textual intelligibility.” And on the ensemble’s second Gabrieli release, now with madrigals, psalms, and organ works by this master delighting so much in experimentation, his intention and wish to offer intelligent entertainment to his fellow human beings are clearly shown. By 1566 at the latest, Andrea Gabrieli was appointed to the coveted post of organist at St. Mark’s Cathedral, and already during his lifetime he was esteemed in particular because of his enormous versatility.

Time, place and mood are explored in this unusual programme that reveals the inventive curiosity of the Arabella Quartet, lauded by the Boston Musical Intelligencer for its "freedom, drive, and risk-taking". The geographical span is wide, from Spain to Russia, and traditional staples by Schubert sit alongside meditative statements on human themes by Puccini, Turina, Webern and Nielsen. Shostakovich's Two Pieces for String Quartet were rediscovered in the 1980s and broaden the expressive range of this fascinating disc.

Classical Music

Olivier Messiaen’s Meditations sur le Mystere de la Sainte Trinite grew out of improvisations that he performed at the inauguration of the rebuilt organ of La Trinite in 1967. It became his largest cycle to date and marks Messiaen’s first use of ‘communicable language,’ in which each letter of the alphabet is assigned a unique pitch and note value, thereby translating text into music. Haunting harmonies, awe-inspiring monumental grandeur and the deepest profundity of expression are contrasted by the innocence of birdsong with the recurrent call of the yellowhammer, a tranquil voice from nature amid kaleidoscopic Biblical themes.

Imitation is the ultimate compliment. To take inspiration from someone else’s work, to borrow and rework it to form another piece…what could be more flattering? This technique, known as ‘parody’, was hugely popular in late 16th-century Europe and Orlande de Lassus was one of its most famous advocates. The Sixteen’s programme showcases the master of parody at work and also features a new commission from the extraordinarily inventive composer Bob Chilcott parodying one of Lassus’ finest secular madrigals.

Also included are two mini masterpieces by Maddalena Casulana - the first female composer to have had a whole book of her music printed and published in the history of western music and whose work was widely admired, not least by Lassus.

Bull's eye, Carl Maria von Weber triumphantly wrote to his librettist Friedrich Kind after the enthusiastically received world premiere of Der Freischutz in 1821 in Berlin. With it's emotional and gripping music, it soon became the epitome of German Romantic opera. As one of the most popular operas in the German-speaking world, Der Freischutz has now been staged on the Seebuhne for the first time under the lead of director and stage designer Philipp Stolzl and conductor-in-residence Enrique Mazzola. The two teamed up again in Bregenz following their phenomenal success with Verdi's Rigoletto. "The staging is overwhelming" (Suddeutsche Zeitung). "A small theatre miracle is taking place in Bregenz" (Der Tagesspiegel). BONUS: A Winter's Tale: Inside 'Der Freischutz' at Bregenzer Festspiele

The organ compositions of Olivier Messiaen firmly established the composer as a figure of 20th century music. This release features his well-known works L’Ascension and Le banquet celeste, along with two pieces which were discovered posthumously in 1997, Offrande au Saint-Sacrement, and Prelude. Organist Tom Winpenny does an outstanding job in these performances, which were recorded at the organ at St. Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Eleanor Alberga is always at pains to tell her listeners that her pieces can be enjoyed as pure music, without narrative and associations. So, the three pieces in this album evoke countless varieties of moods, textures, relationships and energies that will speak uniquely to the ear of each individual listener. But Eleanor's ever-curious, inventive and fertile sensibility means there is almost always an intriguing subtext of her own to everything she writes. And this is always worth exploring. Dancing with the Shadow was written in 1990 and is scored for six solo instrumentalists. Eleanor conceived the piece as an evocation of the individual's attempts to explore their darker side, the "shadow" of the title. She describes the piece as, "consistently dealing with the negative and positive sides of the human psyche and charting the way an individual comes to terms with and even embraces the riches of their shadow." The journey therefore is not one fraught with drama and crisis but is more of a playful dialogue - by turns dreamy, animated, reflective and humorous. Each movement is scored for a different combination of instruments, and each successive movement adds an extra player. Ten years after Dancing with the Shadow, Eleanor created another scintillating work, On a Bat's Back I do Fly, inspired this time by a song from Shakespeare's The Tempest. Perhaps the most striking aspect of the way Eleanor has kindled this mysterious and unusual sonic world is her use of tuned percussion, which draws the listener gently into Ariel's playful miniature kingdom - a backlit world, as Eleanor describes it, that is both, "bright, yet nocturnal and other-worldly." Langvad was composed six years after 'On a Bat's Back I do Fly' for a summer chamber music festival run by Eleanor's husband, the violinist Thomas Bowes. Langvad is made of one movement, within which there are a variety of different moods.

One of the pioneers of the 20th-century resurrection of interest in the harpsichord was the great virtuoso Wanda Landowska who assisted in the development of a harpsichord built by Pleyel of Paris. Performing on a 1930s Pleyel harpsichord, Christopher Lewis has chosen a program of 20th-century works by French or French-based composers. Poulenc's colourful Suite fran�aise is followed by Fran�aix's exciting and previously unrecorded Deux Pi�ces. Martinu's lyricism and intensity of expression can be heard in the Sonata and other pieces while Louis Durey's piquant Dix Inventions is both a homage to Bach's Two-Part Inventions and a work whose compositional technique is firmly rooted in the modern era.

Richard Danielpour is one of the most decorated, frequently performed and recorded composers of his generation. His commissions include works for some of the most celebrated artists of our day. Each of the Twelve Études is dedicated to a particular pianist with its own substantial technical demands, but all are conceived as concert pieces with a self-contained narrative. The variations in the Piano Fantasy are based on the final chorale of Bach’s St Matthew Passion. All of these world premiere recordings were made in close collaboration between the composer and acclaimed pianist Stefano Greco.

REVIEW:

In the 40-minute cycle, Twelve Etudes for Piano, the composer roams through a wide variety of moods, but also presents challenges to the pianist such as playing with the left hand on the keys and plucking strings inside the piano with the right hand. Stefano Greco masters all of this with aplomb.

In addition to two miniatures, the Piano Fantasy subtitled ‘Wenn ich einmal soll scheiden’ from 2008 is also heard. It is based in continuing variations on the final chorale from Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, although the theme does not appear until the end of the work. This piece also shows Greco as an excellent performer.

-- Pizzicato

William Grant Still (1895-1978) from Little Rock was a pioneer in many ways. He was the first African American to successfully depart from the generally acceptable genres of jazz and pop. He lived to see a symphonic work and an opera of his performed, he conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic and directed an important Southern orchestra. The respect that he acquired is reflected in two Guggenheim fellowships and five honorary doctorates, as well as a growing number of top-quality recordings of his works. This album is dedicated to the composer's impressive art songs. Two dozen works, including simple spirituals, expansive, declamatory and captivating scenes, touching miniatures and provocative challenges paint a portrait of a self-assured man asserting his musical authority.

No, it’s not the title of new horror flick. Swanwhite and The Lizard remain two of Sibelius least known incidental scores, here played in their complete original versions. As is often the case with these works, the suite that Sibelius made from his Swanwhite music is far more satisfying then the original score. The augmented orchestration for the suite, especially the important part for harp, adds tremendously to the music’s appeal, especially in a piece where that instrument gets mentioned all over the place but had to be left out of the theatrical version for reasons of economy (the original used only thirteen instruments, but the strings are intelligently padded even here). Still, there are plenty of extended bits as initially conceived and the music itself is really, really lovely.

Sibelius never made a suite out of The Lizard, and for good reason. It would have been nearly impossible. The score consists of two movements: a three-minute Adagio followed by a twenty-two minute Grave, both scored for strings. There’s very little actual music here: it’s all atmosphere and repetition of brief melodic patterns. It is, in short, background music, probably perfect for its intended use, and pretty good at home too if you need something moody that never forces you to pay attention. And as always with Sibelius’ string writing, Segerstam’s performance is gorgeous. It’s not often recalled that Segerstam was himself a violinist of considerable ability in his youth, and he pays a great deal of attention to the orchestral string sections in all of his recordings, to excellent effect.

A Lonely Ski Trail and The Countess’ Portrait are both poetic recitations for narrator and strings. I truly loathe spoken text over music, but Riho Eklundh has a very pleasant, mellow voice, and I find Swedish fun to listen to because it sounds like it ought to be in English but, obviously, it isn’t and you’re left wondering why what you are hearing makes no sense. For example, the opening line of A Lonely Ski Trail, “Ett ensamt skidspar” (with a little circle thing over the “a” in “skidspar”), sounds just like someone saying in English “And in some cheap sport.” It’s fun. So is this beautifully played and recorded ongoing series more generally.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Leif Segerstam directs all this material with unhurried authority, abundant perception and heaps of character. Likewise, his willing Turku colleagues are with him every step of the way. Admirable production values and useful notes, too. A job well done.

- Gramophone Magazine

MAHLER Das Lied von der Erde • Hans Graf, cond; Jane Henschel (mez); Gregory Kunde (tenor); Houston SO • NAXOS 8.572498 (62:46) Live: Houston 11/19–22/2009


Just as I noted with some dismay the relative dearth of recordings of the original version of Das Lied for full orchestra ( Fanfare 35:4), this new CD arrives from Naxos. It’s also encouraging to see an American orchestra and its music director featured on a major label, since new recordings of orchestras in the U.S. increasingly originate from in-house labels like SFS Media and CSO Resound (though the lack of the former necessitated the latter).


Any performance of Das Lied lives or dies by its soloists, and taste in voices is a particularly individual foible. I’ve found that I have no tolerance for the type of ripe, chocolate-thick mezzo or contralto common to many recordings (and that, alas, includes such greats as Maureen Forrester and Kathleen Ferrier). Given those constraints, I find this performance to be one of the best I’ve heard.


Gregory Kunde is described in the bio included in the notes as a bel canto singer, but he proves more than adequate in the Heldentenor demands of “Der Trinklied” (hard to fake in a live concert recording). His sensitivity to the text, however, may be his strongest quality; the reiterations of “dunkel ist das Leben, ist der Tod” are each sung with a slight diminuendo and a touch of melancholy that are truly heartfelt. His lyrical side is heard to salubrious effect in “Von der Jugend,” while the two styles combine to make “Der Trunkene” a rousing, tipsy delight.


Jane Henschel, the voice of Maria Aegyptiaca for Eliahu Inbal, Simon Rattle, and Bertrand DeBilly in their respective recordings of Mahler’s Eighth, is a fine Mahler interpreter. Her performance of “Der Abschied” will stand up to most of the competition, but I am also taken with her handling of the fast section describing the handsome youths in “Von der Schönheit”: In a manner approaching Sprechstimme , she navigates the treacherous waters with aplomb, then immediately regains the more stately composure of the rest of the narrative. In “Der Einsame” she combines melancholy and resignation with quiet effectiveness.


Hans Graf accompanies with sensitivity and well-gauged tempos that neither drag nor rush; he allows Henschel the breathing room in “Von der Schönheit” while charging “Der Trinklied” with the kind of momentum needed to convey the angst of the narrator. The Houston Symphony plays as to the manner born. I haven’t heard too much Mahler from this source, but on the strength of this recording, I’d like to hear more. The sound production is another sterling effort by Michael Fine, placing the soloists front and center without undue spotlighting, and revealing plenty of inner voice detailing from the orchestra. Altogether, this is a real bargain at reduced price (texts and translation are available on the Naxos website). Highly recommended.


FANFARE: Christopher Abbot


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Time was when Naxos recordings of core repertoire would be considered cheap and cheerful, but hardly designed to compete with the best in the catalogue. That has long since changed, with a growing number of discs that, while still sold at the super-budget price point, are every bit as desirable as established or more expensive performances. Certainly, Antoni Wit’s Mahler Eight must be at or near the top of the list of recommendations for that work, proof that great Mahler recordings don’t all emanate from Vienna, Berlin or Lucerne.
 
The Houston Symphony Orchestra and their Linz-born music director Hans Graf are both unfamiliar to me, as are the soloists, but as I’ve already hinted that’s hardly an issue where this label is concerned. Indeed, listening to a number of more illustrious recordings in preparation for this review I was reminded of just how difficult it is to alight on an ideal – or near ideal – version of this elusive score. Either the mezzo isn’t up to the sustained demands of that long goodbye or the tenor is overstretched by Mahler’s taxing tessitura; and even if the soloists are up to snuff, the articulation and pacing of the music itself may be problematic. And then there’s the recording quality which, while not the key issue, plays an important part in one’s perception of – and response to - this multi-hued score.
 
Of my selected comparisons two – Raymond Leppard on BBC Radio Classics 9120 and Bernard Haitink on Philips 468 182-2 – feature the limpid tones of Dame Janet Baker. The clarity and directness of her vocal style is always pleasing, and while I don’t share Tony Duggan’s out-and-out enthusiasm for Baker/Leppard and the Alfreda Hodgson/Jascha Horenstein version on BBC Legends 4042-2, I like them rather more than my colleague Marc Bridle does. In particular, Baker’s Der Abschied with Leppard – recorded at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall in 1977 – has a high goose-bump count, and while she sings with characteristic commitment for Haitink she lacks the intensity of feeling that makes the Leppard disc so memorable.
 
Kathleen Ferrier for Bruno Walter (Decca 466 576-2) and Christa Ludwig for Otto Klemperer (EMI 5 66892 2) are her main rivals, although Ferrier’s artless, somewhat old-fashioned, delivery doesn’t appeal to me. Heresy, I know, but I’ve often wondered whether Walter’s link to Mahler and Ferrier’s early death have given this recording a lustre it doesn’t always deserve. And among more recent recordings Cornelia Kallisch sounds warm but all-too-often uninvolved on Michael Gielen’s otherwise admirable version (Hänssler 93.269). Of the men, John Mitchinson – for Horenstein and Leppard – struggles with Mahler’s near-falsetto writing, while Haitink’s James King – placed quite far back - is rather more secure, if a little too generalised for my tastes. Walter’s tenor, Julius Patzak, is full-bodied but a trifle staid, heldentenor Siegfried Jerusalem and the agile Fritz Wunderlich – for Gielen and Klemperer respectively – both fresh and virile.
 
How does the Houston recording fare in this mixed company? In Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde Gregory Kunde sounds pleasing enough, although his voice is less appealing under pressure; at first I felt the orchestra was rather backwardly balanced, but it suits the intimate scale of this performance. The real revelation, though, is Graf, whose reading of the score is very impressive indeed, becoming more insightful as the piece unfolds. He can’t quite match Klemperer for sheer amplitude and nuance, but he does find an astonishing lucidity that works especially well in the trembling loveliness of ‘Der Einsame im Herbst’.
 
In that song mezzo Jane Henschel sings most hauntingly of the loneliness and the transience of life, her delivery discreet but always subtly inflected. In many ways she is the antithesis of Baker, who sometimes strives a little too hard for effect, notably in her recording for Haitink. And while Henschel doesn’t efface memories of Ludwig here, I was captivated by her glowing, unforced response to Bethge’s texts, notably Von der Schönheit. I particularly liked her honeyed lower registers, but again it’s Graf’s lightness of touch and natural rhythms that beguile the mind and ear.
 
Kunde may be overstretched as the drunkard but his delivery has a youthful charm that’s entirely apt; that said, Jerusalem and Wunderlich negotiate those treacherous vocal lines with aplomb, their innig moments more finely calibrated. In terms of sonics the Naxos disc may not be as weighty or tactile as Gielen’s, or as atmospheric as Leppard’s, but at least it isn’t as rough and ready as Horenstein’s. As for the much-lauded Philips sound for Haitink, it isn’t nearly as refulgent as I remember it. The EMI recording for Klemperer is big and bold and, in its GROC version at least, hardly shows its age at all.
 
And despite initial caveats about the Naxos soundstage I have to say the convulsive gong shudder at the start of Der Abschied is just electrifying, ushering in half-an-hour of sublime music and even more sublime singing. For me, Ludwig is sans pareil here, a perfect match for Klemperer’s stoicism, but I can assure you Henschel is just as commanding of mood and line. This is an abendrot like no other, the trembling air suffused with the scents of loveliness and decay. The Houstonians really do capture the evanescence of this music very well indeed; as for Graf, he maintains a sensible and steady pulse throughout, achieving a rare blend of poise and penetration as well. Thankfully the audience is very quiet, and there’s no applause at the end to break this deep, deep spell.
 
Is there an ideal recording of Das Lied von der Erde? Probably not, but as the talents of this newcomer are so prodigious and its faults so minor I’d say this one comes pretty close.
 
-- Dan Morgan, MusicWeb International

Divine Art is delighted to present the 16 January 2026 release of Expectations from organist Alexander Ffinch, a musical journey of the seasons featuring original works and arrangements, recorded on the magnificent organ at Cheltenham College. Expectations takes the listener through a journey of the fall, winter feasts and festivals, and highlights the anticipation of opportunities and renewal in the new year. The various colours and choruses of the organ spark the imagination, making a wonderfully visceral listening experience which challenges the expectations of both the organ enthusiast and those new to the world of organ music. In this way, Expectations is a perfect follow-up and partner album to Ffinch's 2024 release Parallels, which featured original works and arrangements alongside music not usually associated with the organ. Ffinch begins our seasonal journey at Halloween with Saint-Saens' spine-chilling Danse Macabre in a transcription by E. H. Lemare. Alexandre Guilmant's powerful Marche Funebre et Chant Seraphique maintains the dark atmosphere, portraying the arrival of a solemn funeral procession. We then look ahead to the Christmas season in a refreshingly colourful new take on the Advent melody Non Komm der Heiden Heiland by the young composer William Mason, intermixed with the exquisitely crafted Air from Brook Green Suite by Gustav Holst and Derek Bourgeois' lighthearted Serenade, which provide a different kind of anticipation, both written for upcoming occasions. Christmas is in full swing with arrangements of the Overture, Russian Dance (Trepak), and Dance of the Reedpipes (des Mirlitons) from Tchaikovsky's festive ballet The Nutcracker, wrapped up together with the dazzlingly inventive Variations sur un Noel by Marcel Dupre, a towering figure of 20th-century organ music. This brings us finally towards the new year with the captivating Epilogue from Fanny Mendelssohn's Das Jahr, a stark yet optimistic depiction of the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve. Two works by master organist Marcel Lanquetuit complete the album: the centenary of his famous Toccata comes up in 2027, giving the album an ongoing cyclical feel, and we also hear his lesser-known Intermezzo. Just as Ffinch offered an organ 'surprise' along the lines of Coldplay's "Paradise" on Parallels, he also extends the question of expectations with David Bowie's probing song, "Life on Mars?". The release will also mark the 10th anniversary of David Bowie's death and reminds us, 55 years after it's release, that the journey to find ourselves doesn't end with New Year's Resolutions. In "expectation" of the January release, Divine Art will release digital singles of the seasonal works throughout the end of the year. Alexander Ffinch has established himself as a renowned organist with performances spanning the UK, Europe, USA, and Asia. Notable for his role as the College Organist at Cheltenham College since 2004, Alexander oversees daily organ performances in the College Chapel and accompanies choirs while maintaining an active schedule as a recitalist. He has featured previously in the Cheltenham International Music Festival and on BBC Radio 3 live broadcasts. His recordings have also recently featured on Radio 3 programmes. There are forthcoming recitals at Notre Dame and La Madeleine in Paris as well as regular series appearances in Cheltenham and other concerts in both the UK and USA.