2019 release. Sir Karl Jenkins continues his 75th birthday year celebrations with Miserere: Songs of Mercy and Redemption. The work is dedicated to all who have suffered or perished during the conflicts in the Middle East over the last 70 years. Conducted by Stephen Layton directing the choir Polyphony, Miserere features countertenor Iestyn Davies and South African cellist Abel Selaocoe, a recent recipient of the Sir Karl Jenkins Music Award in association with Classic FM.

Itzhak Perlman, the reigning virtuoso of the violin, celebrates his 70th birthday (August 31) with a new release on UMC/DG - his first new solo album in 16 years. This project brings Perlman together with his longtime friend and collaborator, Emanuel Ax, for performances of sonatas by Gabriel Faur� and Richard Strauss - both works are new to Perlman's discography.

OVERTURES PRELUDES & INTERMEZZI

SYMPHONY NO 9

A previously-unreleased live recording of Claudio Abbado conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in 1971 is out now on DG. Discovered in the archives of Austrian Radio - the ORF, Abbado Rediscovered features Abbado conducting the Vienna Philharmonic shortly after Karajan invited him to conduct the orchestra for the first time in 1965. Featuring Schubert's "Unfinished" and Fifth Symphonies, the recording lay untouched in the corporation's archives until now.

2019 release. Currently in school at the Curtis Institute and studying with Gary Graffman (teacher of Lang Lang and Yuja Wang), pianist Wei Luo gave her orchestral debut at age ten with the Shanghai Philharmonic and went on to claim first prize in the 11th Chopin International Competition for Young Pianists and the 2nd Rachmaninov International Piano Competition for Young Pianists. Recently granted the 2018 Gilmore Young Artist Award and named one of WQXR's "19 for 19" artists to watch, Luo releases her self-titled debut album featuring works by Prokofiev, Shchedrin, and Shostakovich.

JUBILATE: 500 YEARS OF CATHEDRAL MUSIC

The Vanderbilt Wind Symphony is the premiere wind performing ensemble at Vanderbilt University and includes the most outstanding woodwind, brass, and percussion students in the Blair School of Music. Under the direction of Dr. Thomas Verrier, the Vanderbilt Wind Symphony has performed on numerous stages world-wide and has developed a solid reputation as one of the best around. Thomas E. Verrier is Senior Band Conductor and Director of Wind Ensembles at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music. He serves as Conductor of the Vanderbilt Wind Symphony, Artistic Director of the Vanderbilt Music Academy in Berlin, Germany (a joint project with musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic), and was the Founding Director of the Conductors Lab in Aix-en-Provence, France. Dr. Verrier has accepted invitations to conduct throughout the Americas, Asia, and Europe. JOSE SIBAJA is one of the most highly acclaimed Costa Rican trumpet players of his generation with worldwide audiences and broadcast media in the Classical, Latin, Jazz, and Pop musical genres. His career ranges from international appearances as an orchestral soloist to worldwide tours with Ricky Martin. Currently, Jose plays lead trumpet with the world-renowned Boston Brass. Jose Sibaja is indeed one of the world's most unique trumpet soloists.

PIANO CONCERTO NO 1

Following up her critically acclaimed recording of Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber's Rosary Sonatas (CCSSA37315), violinist and musical director Rachel Podger leads Brecon Baroque on Just Biber, an album of Sonatas from Biber's 1681 collection Sonatae Violino Solo and his theatrical Sonata Representivo. These works are extremely virtuosic with extensive multiple stopping and dazzling passages of stylus fantasticus. In Biber's time, harmony was something cosmic, vibrating in a God-given resonance between human, instrumental and celestial bodies. Dedicated to Archbishop Maximilian Gandolf, the sonatas were not only designed to delight, but also potentially to balm and heal; Biber described the sonatas as a kind of prayer for the Archbishop's longevity and good health.

We have wanted to record Bach's violin concertos with Sophie Gent ever since she joined Ensemble Masques in 2003, says Olivier Fortin, harpsichordist and founder of the ensemble that explores Baroque music with such passion. "Sophie is an exceptional musician with an extremely convincing, honest and unpretentious style". Another pillar of the group is Kathleen Kaji, who is the soloist for Telemann's viola concerto. "Telemann is a fantastic storyteller," she says, "who provides a plot, characters, costumes and props - and leaves you to put it all together". Two sinfonie by Albinoni link the concertos and shine a spotlight on each musician in the ensemble.

Que sais-je? is a one-hour composition that explores the life and philosophy of composer Amos Elkana's father, Yehuda Elkana, through music, archival recordings, and visual media. Performed by the Meitar Ensemble, the piece integrates live instrumental performance with multichannel audio and video projections, surrounding the audience with a tapestry of sound and memory.

The piano Duo FourTe - Eva-Maria Weinreich and Tomohito Nakaishi - presents it's debut album with GENUIN, unveiling a fresh perspective on Franz Liszt's symphonic poems, rendered with the monumental resonance of two concert grand pianos. Liszt himself transcribed his groundbreaking orchestral works for piano - both for two pianos and for four hands. Drawing from all three versions, the internationally acclaimed German-Japanese Duo FourTe has crafted a richly textured and colorful arrangement for two pianos, bringing Liszt's orchestral splendor and opulent sound world as close to the original as possible - a symphonic flight across 176 keys!

Following on from his JS Bach Complete Organ Works collection performed on the organ at Trinity College Cambridge, David Goode returns with an album of organ works by WA Mozart. It is well known that Mozart highly esteemed the organ as an instrument (for example, his famous 'King of Instruments' remark) and enjoyed improvising at length. However, this sadly did not translate into writing for the instrument. Organist David Goode explores these works, and those which even may not have been intended for organ, and discusses in his programme notes how best to render them for two hands and feet, and how to register them suitably. Praise for David Goode on Signum Classics: ?�BBC Music Magazine "This series is notable for the flair, clarity and spontaneity that Goode brings to this timeless music"�- Gramophone Magazine

The poetic dimension of the three pieces in this album is certainly the listening experience. The two scores that "compose" the music (two because the first and third pieces use the same one) are nothing more than a framework: a very limited number of directions given to the musicians and the conductor, mostly consisting of short melodic or harmonic fragments positioned in boxes (what is called Rahmen-Notation in German) that extend for the entire duration of a section. To bring a piece to life, each performer must perceive what the others are playing, in a relationship of independence-dependence. This is because the composer expressly requests that each musician performs any melodic fragment, whenever they wish, however they wish, and in whatever order they wish, thus in a context of absolute autonomy. At the same time, this fragment is performed alongside other fragments played by other musicians, and it relates to them, creating an interconnectedness among the parts involved. This is most likely the attitude that Rita Ueda invites us to adopt, directing our attention and perception towards it. A choice of sharing also suggested by the meeting of three different musical cultures, represented in these pieces by the solo instruments, each coming from a different musical tradition, alongside the traditional Western orchestra: the Persian tar, the Chinese guzheng, and the Japanese sho.