Sixth volume of the commendable series devoted by Dionysos Now! To the figure of Adrian Willaert. The centerpiece of this recording is the Missa Laudate Deum, a so-called parody mass based on Johannes Mouton's motet. This remarkable mass showcases Willaert's masterful command of polyphony and serves as an homage to his mentor. In addition to the mass, the album features a selection of Willaert's madrigals and motets. These dramatic madrigals highlight Willaert's sensitivity to text interpretation and his contribution to new musical forms.

A story about reslience of the human spirit & transcendent power of love

Advena: liturgies for a broken world, featuring world premieres of choral music from composer Mark Buller performed by GRAMMY� Award-winning choir Conspirare and Artistic Director Craig Hella Johnson. Releasing digitally on August 29, 2025 and on CD on September 5, 2025 on Divine Art Records. Born of personal reckonings with inherited faith and culture, Mass in Exile and Requiem for the Light are liturgies in forms reimagined through the lens of our present moment. Composed by Mark Buller with librettist Leah Lax, these works reimagine ancient forms through the lens of our present moment. Buller's vibrant musical language combines with mystical choral textures to create an emotional intensity that feels both intimate and urgent. These works are presented between two companion works - Introit: Fruit of Your Heart and Communion: A Questioning - with texts by British poet and librettist Euan Tait which offer chant-like settings that extend the project's core themes, anchoring the whole in a wider human arc. Artistic Director and conductor Craig Hella Johnson is passionate about the power of Buller's music in this moment, saying: "We find ourselves in a pivotal cultural moment-one that calls for expressions of beauty and truth, offered both for inspiration but also as acts of resistance. This collaborative art-Mark Buller's music and the words of Leah Lax and Euan Tait-creates a space of welcome where we are reminded of our shared humanity, our urgent need for bold truth-telling, and our capacity to heal and grow." Conspirare is at their finest in this music and singers Simon Barrad, Emily Yocum Black, and Michael Hawes can be heard in solo roles. Conspirare is joined by dynamic instrumental collaborators Patrice Calixte, Mariama Alc�ntara, Bruce Williams, Douglas Harvey, Jessica Valls, Marc Garvin, and Thomas Burritt.

This album features three superb contemporary trios for horn, violin, and piano. The Advenio Trio, consisting of Bruce Atwell, horn, Yuliya Smead, violin, and Eli Kalman, piano, is one of the finest horn, violin and piano trios performing today. Bruce Atwell is currently Professor of Horn at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. He is Principal Horn with the Fox Valley Symphony and a member of the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra. Prior to his work in Wisconsin, Dr. Atwell held positions with the Florida Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Ballet Orchestra, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. Dr. Atwell has also performed with the Milwaukee Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, and as acting Fourth Horn with the Philadelphia Orchestra. His recording Baroque Music for Horn and Strings with the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic is also available on the Centaur Label.

The sublime Choir of St. John’s College, Cambridge return with the third volume in their Advent series celebrating the advent season from within the Christian tradition; a season celebrated since at least the sixth century.

A Staple of the British choral world, the Advent service from St John's College, Cambridge is broadcast on BBC Radio 3 every year, and features a variety of new commissions alongside much-loved favorites from the festive season. This album of live recordings features performances by the choir from their four most recent services from 2014-17. The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge (link is external) is one of the finest collegiate choirs in the world – known and loved by millions from its broadcasts, concert tours and over 90 recordings. Founded in the 1670s, the Choir is known for its rich, warm and distinctive sound, its expressive interpretations and its ability to sing in a variety of styles. Alongside this discipline, the Choir is particularly proud of its happy, relaxed and mutually supportive atmosphere. The Choir is directed by Andrew Nethsingha following in a long line of eminent Directors of Music, recently Dr George Guest, Dr Christopher Robinson and Dr David Hill.

The sublime Choir of St. John’s College, Cambridge return with the second volume in their Advent series - celebrating the advent season from within the Christian tradition; a season celebrated since at least the sixth century. This splendid live recording, from within the Chapel of St. John’s College itself, features Christmas favorites, including Britten’s Deo Gracias from A Ceremony of Carols as well as gorgeous performances of lesser known works by modern composers including Jonathan Dove, Arvo Pärt and Paul Manz. The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge (link is external) is one of the finest collegiate choirs in the world – known and loved by millions from its broadcasts, concert tours and over 90 recordings. Founded in the 1670s, the Choir is known for its rich, warm and distinctive sound, its expressive interpretations and its ability to sing in a variety of styles. Alongside this discipline, the Choir is particularly proud of its happy, relaxed and mutually supportive atmosphere. The Choir is directed by Andrew Nethsingha following in a long line of eminent Directors of Music, recently Dr George Guest, Dr Christopher Robinson and Dr David Hill.

 

REVIEW:

 

‘Advent Live, Vol 2’ is a real album, the mystery and expectation of Advent coursing through a repertoire that never stoops below this ensemble’s judicious idea of what constitutes high-quality music, whatever the century. There is unhackneyed Telemann, Wolf, Goldschmidt, Britten and some poised works, new to me, by McCabe, Milner and Manz. Cecilia McDowall’s A Prayer to St John the Baptist brilliantly unifies otherwise autonomous organ and choir. Judith Bingham’s introduction to Hark, the glad sound! is like a modernist narthex to an ancient cathedral. The qualities of the choir hardly need repeating. It sounds like a string quartet flexing as much as an organ breathing, with no room for show or antiquated ‘look at us’ habits.

 

– Gramophone

The German vocal sextet Singur Pur releases their musical Advent calendar with a song for each day in December through the 24th. With texts provided to the song, this release provides reflection during this auspicious time of year.

A new face on SteepleChase, guitarist Craig Brann was born in Whitefield, Maine in 1978 and studied music at William Patterson University in New Jersey. He lives in Brooklyn and performs in and around New York City. Craig’s SteepleChase debut “Advent[ure]” is SteepleChase’s first ever “Christmas” album as all the tunes are based on Christmas carols. Those Christmas melodies here are, however, reworked into something fresh and new by the creative hand of Brann who has long been influenced by Lennie Tristano. "Required holiday listening... Craig Brann and friends dig deep into the jazz canon in order to truly reinvent the world of holiday music. Listen up - you'll not only be charmed at hearing these familiar songs in such a new way, but surprised and rewarded at every turn." (Sam Sadigursky – saxophonist, composer and winner of the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award)

"• Composer/percussionist Glenn Kotche’s fourth studio album features the Kronos Quartet and eighth blackbird. • Release timed to coincide with a series of new work premieres and performances, including Carnegie/Zankel Hall in NYC (2/22), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in SF (3/21-22) and French Legation Museum in Austin, TX (4/16). • Extensive three-month marketing, press and social media campaign, with planned video EPK. "

Includes sonata(s) for cello and basso continuo by Antonio Vivaldi. Soloists: Anner Bylsma, Jacques Ogg, Hidemi Suzuki.

Classical Music

ADVENTUROUS MONK

Adzido: Ritual Songs and Dances From Africa

Aequora? aequor aequoris neuter noun? [AEQUUS] a smooth or level surface, expanse, surface; a level stretch of ground, plain; inmensumne noctis aequor confecimus? have we made it across the vast plain of night? the surface of the sea especially as considered as calm and flat, a part of the sea; per aperta volans aequora soaring over open sea; the waters of a river, lake, sea; tibi rident aequari ponti the waters of the sea laugh up at you. Gajic and Carrettin have performed under the moniker "Mystery Sonata" when performing new work and non-classical music styles. AEQUORA is the first album recorded under the name Mystery Sonata and reflects the duo's commitment to performing contemporary music alongside their work with ancient music, historical instruments, improvisation, and electric instrument collaborations with contemporary and aerial dance.

“I am really excited about our upcoming release of Aerial on Sono Luminus this year! The album was originally released in 2014 on Deutsche Grammophon and now the journey of the album continues with Sono Luminus in a remastered version by their very own Daniel Shores. The orchestra piece Aeriality is at the center of the album which also features Into Second Self, Ró, Tactility, Trajectories and Shades of Silence. It was quite a personal journey to record these pieces in Iceland, working with long time collaborators such as the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Caput Ensemble and Nordic Affect. It is such a joy to continue the collaboration with Sono Luminus that we have grown for many years now with releases of, now, all my portrait albums to date! The new release of Aerial will also feature percussion quartet Aura performed by the LA Percussion Quartet.” (Anna Þorvaldsdóttir)

REVIEW:

The Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir has emerged as one of the most talented Nordic composers in recent years. Her voice is quite different from that of other contemporary composers, and thankfully her orchestral music has become widely performed and recorded by the leading orchestras world-wide and acclaimed by reviewers and the musical public alike.

The opening work on this disc - Into-Second Self - is for seven brass instruments and percussion. It opens with rumbling, whistling effects as if we are in a dark threatening tunnel, creating an atmospheric roar of sound with the percussion generating what is like an ancient Celtic chant on the horns and trombones. This is heard in an unearthly harmony by evoking sounds of aircraft and loud thuds on the drums, a shimmering of bells becoming increasingly loud then settles into silence.

Written for flute, bass clarinet, piano, percussion, two violins, viola and cello, Rö, opens with a jangle on percussion and piano chords aided by the bass clarinet and the strings harmony. We hear sudden noises against the wind of the flute and bass clarinet with a hint of an idea on the wind against the loud disharmony on the percussion - all broken by a bagpipe-like noise and a twanging idea, all of which creates a world of mystery, yet is brought to a terrible halt with thuds on the keyboard before a slow descent into quiet.

Under the baton of Ilan Volkov, Aeriality opens with a loud chord from the orchestra offering exciting harmony, and the entry of the piano is heard against strings and woodwind babbling in a dynamic pulse - as if we are hearing the movement of great bodies in space, or on the earth - is this the cosmos? There is a constant flow of sound and dissonance with occasional noises and murmuring on the strings, growing steadily louder with roars from the brass and a shrill woodwind theme emerge together in a great potent idea leading to a low-pitched drone of noise against a twitter of woodwind invoking birds calling out in the wind, yet the sudden crashes on the percussion are like chains breaking against rocks then disappear into silence.

Tactility opens with a mysterious hovering sound on harp and percussion and a dull throbbing sound, yet the harp hints at Japanese music, interrupted by thuds on the drums, and a rustling sound pattering away in the background, then we hear the effect of the wind blowing against the window ending with an inflection on the harp.

Composed for piano and electronics, Trajectories opens with a stirring rise in noise and an enormous build in tension with chimes of momentous chords on the piano, lending the impression of ‘something trying to escape’, all in dreadful harmonies, dissonance and a ripple of piano chords repeated amid the chime of a clock, rippling and tapping on the keyboard and an all-powerful throbbing noise before suddenly dying away.

The composer uses an ensemble of baroque instruments for her Shades of Silence, which opens with high shrill notes on strings, creating an amazing acoustic effect enhanced by the pizzicato strings in rising and falling dissonance, of sharply brutal music on the harpsichord that strangely creates an almost magical effect.

Aura, the final piece here, written for four percussionists, starts with an eerie atmosphere of a strange whispering ringing on the percussion with a chiming xylophone and ringing tubular bells, creating an amazingly catatonic effect, against a rustling, loud throbbing noise ‘like whales in the sea.’ For anyone unaware of this young Icelandic composer, this disc will prove an enlightening experience, and can only whet one’s appetite for her more recent compositions. Thorvaldsdottir herself was responsible for the engineering on four of the seven recordings, adding another credit to her talents; the sound quality is splendidly ambient throughout.

-- MusicWeb International (Gregor Tassie)

For Christy Doran and Stefan Banz, aerosols are an excellent metaphor for their intermedia collaboration between music and painting, in which they have explicitly sought to inspire and influence each other. Thus Banz has responded to five pieces of music composed for solo guitar and electronic devices by Doran with five new paintings in acrylic on cotton, and Doran in turn has responded to five paintings in acrylic on cotton by Banz with five new compositions for solo guitar and electronic devices. This publication contains the complete outcome of this fruitful collaboration, with additional texts by Stefan Banz and a link to a digital video animation of the total of ten music compositions and paintings

ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble) releases a recording documenting its close and longstanding relationship with Brazilian born composer Marcos Balter on its own in-house recording label, TUNDRA. Balter and ICE first began collaborating when Balter was on faculty and ICE was in residence at Chicago's Columbia College, and the fruitful relationship has continued to the present day, chronicling Balter's unique trajectory as a voracious and eclectic artist.

�ternum marks the impressive debut recording of the Tempus Trio, presenting four contemporary works written expressly for the ensemble by leading composers Helena C�novas, Marc Mig�, Miquel Oliu, and Albert Guinovart. The album offers a uniquely coherent yet stylistically diverse journey through today's chamber music, unified by a central exploration of musical time-it's suspension, fragmentation, and expressive expansion. The programme opens with Helena C�novas's tanta llunyania no ha estat un error (2025), a single-movement work built from contrasting sonic "states," where fragile harmonies, atmospheric textures, and sudden transformations create a poetic sense of distance and expectation. Marc Mig�'s GEM(S)TONE (2022) continues the journey with a vivid triptych inspired by three gemstones-Onyx, Ruby, and Diamond-each transformed into symbolic sound worlds that highlight the ensemble's dynamic range and technical finesse. Miquel Oliu's Un simple aleteig... (2023) offers a delicate, introspective reflection inspired by the proverb of the butterfly effect. Through natural harmonics, oscillating tremolos, and transparent textures, Oliu crafts a meditative work that pays subtle tribute to Kaija Saariaho. The album concludes with Albert Guinovart's expansive Trio Celebration (2025), a four-movement composition that draws from the great Romantic trio tradition while incorporating personal gestures and a final homage to Purcell's The Cold Song. Recorded at the Auditorio Manuel de Falla in Granada, �ternum showcases the refined musicianship of Maria Ti� (violin), Ferran Bardolet (cello), and Ricard Rovirosa (piano), establishing the Tempus Trio as a compelling new voice in contemporary chamber music.

The Elizabethan manuscript from which this album is entirely drawn is known by its British Library shelf-mark: Additional Manuscript 31390. Add. MS 31390 contains 135 pieces, which capture a snapshot of musical life in the 1570s. Some of the pieces reflect the “hottest new releases” of 1578 (when the manuscript was copied) while others are “golden oldies” from the first half of the 16th century. During the reign of Elizabeth I, there was no way to record music other than by putting musical notation onto paper. In creating an audio recording of this notational record, we aim, as the portrait painter does, to capture not merely the likeness, but the liveness of our subject: musical manuscript as mix-tape or playlist that gathers together music for later hearing and for posterity. Some of the pieces on this album are standards. Those who have sung in a choir will surely know and love Tallis’s O sacrum convivium. Aficionados of viol consort music will be familiar with a number of the In nomines. We hope putting these gems of the repertory in proximity to unknown and previously unrecorded works recontextualizes them to offer a more complete view of this important and beautiful manuscript.

RUSSIAN STRING QUARTETS • Leipzig Str Qrt • MDG 307 1758-2 (76:56)


AFANASIEV String Quartet, “Volga.” RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Chorale and Variations. Fugue, “In the Monastery.” RACHMANINOFF Romanze and Scherzo. BORODIN String Quartet No. 2


This release couples three little-known works with one of the most familiar (and best) chamber works to emerge from 19th century Russia. In one case, the composer also is very obscure, although he enjoyed a long career and had some success during his lifetime. Nikolai Iakovlevich Afanasiev (1821-1898) received musical training from his violinist father but had no formal training in composition, none being available in Russia at the time. He performed as a violinist and conductor, including a stint as concert master of the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra. He is said to have written 12 string quartets, as well as symphonies, concertos, and several operas, including one based on the same Gogol story set by Tchaikovsky in Cherevichki and Rimsky-Korsakov in Christmas Eve , but much of his music remains unpublished. His “Volga” String Quartet was one of his most successful works, receiving a prize from the Russian Musical Society in 1860. Its use of Russian folk material guarantees a substantial level of melodic interest, but the attempts at thematic development seem tentative. The most pleasing of its four movements is unfortunately the shortest, the Allegretto second movement, where engaging melody combines with lively, dance-like rhythm and the simple tripartite form doesn’t tax the composer’s technical abilities. In that movement there is a motif that is curiously similar to the one associated with the witch Ježibaba in Dvo?ák’s Rusalka , written 40 years later. Another melody strongly suggestive of Dvo?ák occurs in the final movement.


As I noted in my review of his 1897 Piano Trio (35:6), Rimsky-Korsakov didn’t think much of himself as a composer of chamber music, having concluded, after leaving that work unfinished, that “chamber music is not my area.” The two pieces on this disc date from an earlier period but suggest a similar discomfort with the chamber-music medium. Rimsky composed his String Quartet, No. 2, “On Russian Themes,” in 1878-79 but was dissatisfied with it and withheld it from publication. He subsequently reworked the first three movements into his Sinfonietta on Russian Themes, op. 31, leaving the fugal final movement, In the Monastery , as a stand-alone piece in its original form. The notes for this recording claim that he also reused the material from this movement in Sadko , but I don’t hear anything that I recognize as being in that opera. I don’t know what the tempo marking is for this piece, but it sounds to me like it would benefit from a quicker pace than that employed by the Leipzig players. The other Rimsky piece, Chorale and Variations, dates from 1885 and lasts less than five minutes. It is another neobaroque exercise that may have been part of Rimsky’s self-instruction in compositional technique.


Unlike Rimsky, Borodin and Rachmaninoff had a genuine affinity for chamber music, as is evidenced in Rachmaninoff’s case especially by his ravishing Cello Sonata. The two quartet movements offered here date from 1889, during the composer’s student years at the Moscow Conservatory. Even as a student, Rachmaninoff was capable of writing music of lasting value, for instance, his one-act opera Aleko . The quartet movements, however, strike me as being more at the apprentice level. The sweetly lyrical, rather Tchaikovskian Romanze is pleasing if a bit repetitious. The Scherzo seems somewhat thin in terms of invention and development. The Leipzig performances are straightforward and matter-of-fact, perhaps too much so. More expressivity and shaping might make a better case for these pieces.


I am quite taken, however, with the Leipzig players’ reading of Borodin’s familiar quartet, the one truly accomplished work on the disc. Here the balance among the instruments is finely judged, textures are clear, detail is firmly etched, and continuity of line is consistently maintained. Tempos are well integrated and for the most part firmly sustained, but with subtle application of rubato. The Leipzig players take a broader approach in the outer movements than the Borodin or Pražák Quartets (Chandos and Praga, respectively). After an unusually pensive, lyrical, and serene first movement, the Scherzo is quick but graceful. The famous Notturno flows appealingly at a tempo that seems ideal, and an expansive finale concludes the work in a manner consistent with the overall conception.


This recording benefits from open and detailed sound, a realistic image, and an extended frequency range. The cello’s contributions register with gratifying solidity and impact. On my system at least, the sound can also be a touch abrasive at higher dynamic levels.


I can recommend this release for its fine and distinctive performance of the Borodin work. In addition, it will be of interest to those wishing to explore the byways of Russian chamber music, although the other works are not of great significance. Other recordings exist of the Rimsky and Rachmaninoff pieces, but I haven’t heard them. Afanasiev is otherwise unrepresented in the catalog, and from a historical standpoint it is valuable to have him added to it.


FANFARE: Daniel Morrison

Canadian saxophonist Andrew Rathbun makes a powerful statement on this new album as predicted by all-about-jazz’ Budd Kopman: “Rathbun's next album will most likely not sound anything like Shadow Forms, (SCCD 31598) which makes his journey all the more interesting to follow."

Period instruments such as the traverso, the Baroque violin, the viola da gamba and the harpsichord offer an incredibly wide palette of new sound possibilities suited to contemporary ears. From the early 1960s an increasing number of postmodernist composers began looking at these instruments as perfect tools to reconnect with both their audience and the music traditions from the past. Contemporary experimental “effects”, through the use of extended techniques and electronics, are proven able to create a fruitful dialogue with the perennial “affects” that baroque instruments are capable of arousing. Affect is no Crime explores the heterogeneity of this new path, presenting 5 world premiere recordings of 5 works written for these 4 instruments from 5 celebrated living composers, from 5 different countries: from Anspielungen by H.M. Linde, an atonal patchwork enriched with baroque quotations, to the ironic and microtonal Tiet/Lots by J. Tiensuu; from the neo-impressionistic La Fenêtre Ouverte by J. Fontyn to Revenant by J. Morlock, a modal and minimalist homage to Bach, passing through the experimental Sun Bleached with electronics, freshly commissioned from T. Polymeneas Liontiris.

AFFINITIES

Affinity captures a studio session from September 1962 in Chicago, featuring Peterson on piano alongside his long-time trio partners Ray Brown (bass) and Ed Thigpen (drums). The album offers a refined selection of standards delivered with the assured interplay that defined the Peterson/Brown/Thigpen trio. Peterson's first recorded take on the Bill Evans classic "Waltz For Debby" is a lyrical, nuanced performance - and "Gravy Waltz," (co-written by Ray Brown,) showcases the trio's rhythmic drive and subtle groove. As a whole, Affinity is a tasteful, well-crafted example of Peterson's work in the early 1960s - a strong trio recording that reflects his continued commitment to swing, subtlety, and ensemble balance, making it a valuable piece for any serious jazz collection. Verve's Acoustic Sounds Series features transfers from analog tapes and remastered 180-gram vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging.

Affinity Plays Ornette Coleman's Little Symphony and Eight O

2022 release. Norwegian bassist Arild Andersen, an ECM musician for more than fifty years, is a masterful player who has always welcomed a challenge. His first recording with his new quartet - including rising stars Marius Neset and Helge Lien (both bandleaders in their own right) - is almost entirely improvised. The players make the leap of faith together and find and develop forms in the moment, an object lesson in spontaneous group creativity. Affirmation was recorded in 2021 at Oslo's Rainbow Studio.

Classical Music

Music of Kabul with Indian influence and music of Herat by two masters displaying a wonderful cohesiveness: a perfect combination of the deep sound of Ustad Rahim Khushnawaz's rubâb (with its characteristic “skin sound”, with deep resonance from the sympathetic strings) and the brilliance of Gada Mohammad's dutâr, an octave higher. The two lutenists on this album represent two contrasting facets of Afghan musicianship: Rahim Khushnawaz is the “superior” musician in terms of technical expertise, range of expression, breadth of knowledge, and ability to improvise. Gada Mohammad's playing is more intuitive, following and accompanying the rubâb; yet, he can hold his own as a soloist, as these recordings show.

AFHGAN WOMEN