Delos is thrilled to embark on a new journey with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and it's Music Director Stephane Deneve. What better statement of intent for their first album on the label than releasing the world premiere recording of three works by native St. Louisan and Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy�-winning composer Kevin Puts? Dedicated to the SLSO and Stephane, Concerto for Orchestra was written in response to the horrific school shooting that occurred in Uvalde in 2022. Silent Night Elegy is drawn from Kevin's acclaimed opera, which adapts Joyeux Noel, the award-winning film that tells the story of the spontaneous ceasefires along the Western Front on the first Christmas Eve of World War I. Inspired by Guillaume de Machaut, Virelai was commissioned for the opening concert of Stephane's tenure as Music Director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. This album celebrates the SLSO's dynamic partnership with Stephane and demonstrates the orchestra's commitment to artistic excellence and inclusive musical experiences.

Nelson Goerner has always dreamed of recording these two masterpieces of the concerto repertoire. With Kazuki Yamada, he has found the ideal partner to approach Ravel's two piano concertos with the sensitivity and poetry for which he is universally renowned. The two works, composed at the same time and both performed for the first time in 1932, are nevertheless very different: premiered in Vienna, the Concerto for the Left Hand was commissioned by the pianist Paul Wittgenstein who had lost his right arm in 1914; premiered in Paris, the Concerto in G is renowned for it's verve and it's famous pianistic interpolations. Ravel had composed the Pavane pour une infante defunte, a famous miniature of exquisite nostalgia, some 33 years earlier. The programme is completed by the Valses nobles et sentimentales; Marguerite Long, who gave the first performance of the Concerto in G, saw these eight linked pieces as a "stylistic panorama of the waltz".

Passing Fancy: Beauty in a Moment of Chaos, the AVIE debut by leading New York City early music ensemble Sonnambula, traverses music by several Renaissance composers who were forced to conceal their identities for social, religious or ethnic reasons. Yet their music transcended the disorder surrounding them, flourishing in the intersection of beliefs and styles. Disruption and displacement wasn't uncommon in 16th-and 17th-centuries Europe. During the Reformation, creative individuals, including composers, were often forced to conceal their identities - for reasons social, religious, ethnic, racial or otherwise. Yet despite - or perhaps due to - the disorder, musical styles and forms flourished, earning the era it's Renaissance designation and thus creating "Beauty in a Moment of Chaos". Sonnambula, an ensemble of New York City-based early music luminaries, bestow beauty on their AVIE debut, traversing an aural intersection of beliefs with northern and southern European styles. Here is the beauty of William Byrd and Richard Dering, two Catholics composing in Protestant England; of Leonora Duarte, a Portuguese-Jewish woman forced to live as a converso ("New Christian"), in Antwerp, and Parisian Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, whose lost works have re-emerged with a vengeance in our own time; of the Bolognese Alfonso Ferrabosco the elder who emigrated to England, and Salomone Rossi who unusually set Hebrew texts to Western-style polyphony from his relatively tolerant position in the court of Mantua. The release of Passing Fancy: Beauty in a Moment of Chaos coincides with Sonnambula's taking up residency at New York City's newly-renovated premiere museum, The Frick Collection.

France was on the brink of revolution and Haydn was at the height of his international fame. These flamboyant quartets were written especially for the lucrative Parisian market, where quatuor brillant was becoming increasingly popular. The style is dazzlingly virtuosic and Stefan Arzberger shines with Haydn's most brilliant, high-flying, concerto-like passages, leading this remarkable ensemble's captivating interpretation with admirable aplomb.

On February 1, 2025, Ivan Repusic, chief conductor of the Munich Radio Orchestra, directed Boris Papandopulo's 1942 Croatian Mass for soloists and a cappella choir in Munich's Prinzregententheater with the Bavarian Radio Chorus. BR-KLASSIK is now presenting this outstanding interpretation of the impressive sacred composition on CD as a live recording. The Croatian composer and conductor Boris Papandopulo (1906-1991) worked as a choirmaster, conductor and opera director in Split, Rijeka, Zagreb and Sarajevo. He created more than 400 compositions, spanning almost every genre. Although of Greek origin, Papandopulo was deeply rooted in the Croatian musical tradition, and his broad stylistic spectrum extended to neo-classicism, jazz, pop and folk music. His works combine elements of Croatian folk music with twelve-tone music and demand a high level of virtuosity. Papandopulo completed his training in Zagreb and at the New Conservatory in Vienna, spending the majority of his life in Croatia. The Croatian Mass is a sacred work in the spirit and style of centuries-old Croatian vocal music as well as being a practical choral composition. It is composed without orchestral or organ accompaniment, as Croatian choral music is almost exclusively sung a cappella. Papandopulo composed the mass for the First Croatian Choral Society Kolo, which he directed from 1928 to 1934 and again from 1938 to 1946. He completed his Croatian Mass in 1938, and it premiered in Zagreb on April 1, 1942, performed by the Croatian Choral Society Kolo under the composer's direction. Although the Croatian translation of the Roman Catholic liturgy gives the work a certain national flavour, the piece is primarily influenced by the tradition of old Dalmatian church hymns. Composed in a polyphonic style, it's syllabic and diatonic text settings are generally characteristic of Croatian vocal music.

SOMM Recordings is thrilled to collaborate once again with the Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman piano duo following their highly praised six-volume recording of the nine symphonies by Beethoven arranged for piano duet by Xaver Scharwenka-about which International Piano says, "These readings afford unmitigated pleasure... The articulation and voicing of the players persuades us into thinking we're in the middle of an unleashed virtuoso orchestra." Now, these award-winning South African-born artists present music for two pianos and piano duet from their adopted country, highlighting works by Gustav Holst and Edward Elgar. In the early 1910s, Holst became interested in astrology, and he conceived the idea of a suite for orchestra based on the solar system's individual planets. Originally, he composed�The Planets on the piano, using the instrument in his newly-built, sound-proofed room in the music wing at St Paul's Girls School as well as the piano at his home in Thaxted. This version for four hands, two pianos was scored by two of his colleagues at St Paul's, Vally Lasker and Nora Day, who acted as amanuenses, because Holst suffered intermittently from painful neuritis in his right hand. Following the resounding success of the orchestrated version of The Planets, the original piano duet score was overlooked, though it was eventually published separately in 1949-51. In 1979, Holst's daughter, Imogen, reissued the complete two-piano arrangement in one volume, and Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman perform this version here. Elgar's renown was such that, at the height of his fame, several established musicians were commissioned by publishers to make piano transcriptions of his orchestral music. This was no mean feat, given that Elgar's scores are scrupulously marked as to how he wanted every phrase-sometimes even every bar or note within that phrase-to be played. It was the composer, arranger, and conductor, Otto Singer II, who made the transcription for piano four-hands of Elgar's 1905 Introduction and Allegro, scored originally for solo string quartet and string orchestra. Singer's insight and skill are evident in techniques like transferring string double-stopping to spread keyboard chords, and his piano four-hands version is admirably true to Elgar's evolving contrapuntal and harmonic ideas. In Victorian England, the marriage of a tradesman's son to the daughter of a Major-General in the British Army, who was eight years his senior, might not have appeared a perfect match. Yet, the marriage of Edward Elgar and Caroline Alice Roberts turned out to be a love-match. In 1888, as a wedding present, Edward presented to Carice, as he called her, Salut d'Amour. This enduring melody has inspired numerous arrangements for widely varying instrumental combinations, including this one for piano duet.

For his tenth Avie release, Daniel-Ben Pienaar advocates for the little-known French composer Gaspard Le Roux, by re-imagining his exquisite "Piece de clavessin" from 1705 (his only publication) for it's first ever recording on the modern piano. By turns pleasing, witty, brilliant and affecting, the complete collection makes for a diverting and balanced recital. For his tenth Avie release, Daniel-Ben Pienaar advocates for the little-known French composer Gaspard Le Roux, by re-imagining his exquisite "Piece de clavessin" from 1705 (his only publication) for it's first ever recording on the modern piano. By turns pleasing, witty, brilliant and affecting, the complete collection makes for a diverting and balanced recital.

A bundled release will have some risks and side effects compared to successive releases of a series of works. Here one can proceed cautiously from album to album, preparing oneself for what is to come and comparing the new material with alternative recordings. In contrast, the 'complete package' demands exclusive listening, which may result in astonishing discoveries and entirely new insights - as Lena Neudauer and Paul Rivinius demonstrate here with their Beethoven violin sonatas. How much Schubert and Schumann are not hidden in these works? Where does the "Rage over a lost penny" come into play? Is swing really a child of the 20th century? Why does a precise, light accent balance out every rough one? After more than four hours of music, the duo has painted a conclusive portrait. Those who wish may make comparisons

The Schumann Quartet and pianist Hinrich Alpers dedicate their upcoming album to three composers and the repertoire of the first half of the 20th century?. The album brings together three composers who could not be more different and who have different life stories - and yet have musical similarities?. It includes the following works: Frank Martin - Piano Quintet; Viktor Ullmann - String Quartet No. 3 (composed in Theresienstadt); Gabriel Faure - Piano Quintet No. 1.

Michael Schoch is equally at home on both the piano and organ - the best prerequisite for this recording of Reger's piano transcriptions of Bach's organ works! Lucid transparency characterises the performance of the celebrated ARD prizewinner, fed by a deep familiarity with both worlds, which Reger would also have appreciated.

In 1915, during World War I, a fire threatened the very existence of the ill-fated Tilda, sending it's score and orchestral parts up in flames, leaving to posterity only the reduction for voice and piano and an orchestral copy of the Ave Maria. Late in life, Cilea expresses a positive opinion of his youthful effort: "except for a few amends of the libretto, the score is organic, rich in melodies and written with a great sense of the theater"; he even plans to revise it but he never concludes his intent. Thanks to the challenging work of Giancosimo Russo, who reconstructed the orchestration from top to bottom, according to musicological assumptions that took into account the author's style, verismo instances and the orchestral habits of the time, it is now once again possible to enjoy a small jewel of the glorious Italian operatic tradition.

Francesco Piemontesi, conductor Manfred Honeck, and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig come together in a new recording of Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2. This concerto transcends the traditional form, blending symphonic grandeur with virtuosic brilliance and moments of intimate chamber-like dialogue between piano and orchestra. Piemontesi's sensitive playing and Honeck's precise, passionate leadership create a richly detailed and moving interpretation of one of Brahms's greatest masterpieces. Alongside the concerto are Brahms' Three Intermezzi, Op. 117 - quiet, reflective pieces that offer a window into the composer's most personal thoughts. Francesco Piemontesi, one of today's most-cherished pianists, presents the fifth release in his exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE, following the widely praised Schubert - Last Piano Sonatas (2019), Bach Nostalghia (2021), Schoenberg, Messiaen & Ravel (2022), and Liszt Transcendental Etudes & Piano Sonata (2023).

The composer, violinist and conductor, Hugo Alfven (1872-1960), is a kind of national composer in Sweden. His tonal language is very much romantic nationalism and his period of glory ranges from the late 1890s until the mid-1920s. He was active in all imaginable genres, such as symphonic works, chamber music, choirs, solo instruments, and his many songs are still widely performed today. Several songs are available in different arrangements, partly for voice and piano, partly with orchestra in different settings. The great majority of the orchestral song versions presented on this album are first recordings, performed by a dream team of singers: Kerstin Avemo and Sabina Bisholt, sopranos; Tobias Westman, tenor; Karl-Magnus Fredriksson, baritone. The Goteborg Opera Orchestra is conducted by one of Sweden's foremost conductors, Patrik Ringborg.

MINIMAL marks the Percussions de Strasbourg's first foray into the world of minimalist music. Faithful to their legendary history, yet open to other sonic horizons, the ensemble asserts a plural identity, nourished by a sensitive dialogue between heritage, aesthetic diversity, and creative freedom. This recording, centered on Steve Reich's famous Mallet Quartet, brings together works such as Avant, pendant, et pourtant by Camille Pepin, where formal rigor and emotion intertwine, and Sunday by Shelley Washington, imbued with a gentle melancholy. Nik Bartsch adds his rhythmic textures and "ritual groove". Conceived by Minh-T�m Nguyen and shaped by the inspired ear of Vincent Peirani, MINIMAL reflects an openness to jazz, pop, and classical influences. It marks a turning point: a record conceived before the stage, envisioned as a living manifesto of contemporary creation.

The deliciously erotic aspects of the text of the Song of Solomon inspired a great many composers during the 17th century, although it remains curious that even the strictest Lutheran composers could not resist setting it to music. The majority of Hammerschmidt's pieces on this text are written for soprano or tenor voices; these obviously represent the two protagonists, the beloved and the lover. This programme is built around these works, creating an entertainment - a small sacred opera -in which evocations of love or sensual dialogues are framed by dances and instrumental pieces. Works by Andreas Hammerschmidt, Johann Vierdanck, Dieterich Buxtehude, Thomas Strutz and others.