An interpreter portrait of one of the most important German organists and composers in the second half of the 20th century

The music of the composer, educator and musicologist Liza Lim, who was born in Perth, Australia in 1966, has a collaborative and transcultural focus. Her recent works have explored beauty, anger and noise, ecological issues, and women's spiritual traditions. Liza Lim has received commissions from leading orchestras and institutions worldwide, and her works continue to be performed at prestigious festivals. In 2024, she was named "Composer of the Year" by OPUS KLASSIK. Liza Lim is Professor of Composition and Australian Music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. As part of a Laureate Fellowship from the Australian Research Council, she will lead a five-year program starting in 2025 to promote the exploration of pressing climate and social issues through music. Her gender equity initiatives through Sydney Con's Composing Women have had a significant impact on commissioning, performance and next-generation leadership in Australian music. A Sutured World for cello and orchestra was commissioned in 2024 by musica viva of the Bayerischer Rundfunk, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Cello Biennale Amsterdam, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Casa da Musica Porto. The world premiere recorded on this CD took place in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz on October 25, 2024, with Nicolas Altstaedt (cello) and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner. The orchestral work Mary - Transcendence after Trauma was commissioned by musica viva of the Bayerischer Rundfunk in 2020/21. The world premiere of the work at musica viva, originally scheduled for January 28, 2022, had to be cancelled due to the Covid pandemic. In the meantime, the triptych was premiered at the Cologne Philharmonie on April 29, 2022 as part of "Musik der Zeit" with the WDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Cristian Macelaru. This CD features the musica viva recording of May 12, 2023 in Munich's Herkulessaal by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Franck Ollu. The Compass for flute, didgeridoo and large orchestra was commissioned by musica viva of the Bayerischer Rundfunk and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 2005/06. The premiere took place at the Sydney Opera House on August 23, 2006 with Rosamund Plummer (flute), William Barton (didgeridoo) and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Briger. This CD features the musica viva recording of the European premiere of the work on January 12, 2007 in Munich's Herkulessaal, with Carin Levine (flute), William Barton (didgeridoo) and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christoph Poppen. ? The main work on the CD is Liza Lim's latest composition: a live recording of the world premiere of the cello concerto "A Sutured World" (2024) as part of the musica viva concert series by the Bayerischer Rundfunk from the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz - with the famous cellist Nicolas Altstaedt ? The CD also features Liza Lim's compositions "Mary - Transcendence after Trauma" (2020/21) and "The Compass" (2005/06) as live recordings from the musica viva concert series ? Performed and conducted by renowned musicians, all of them experts in contemporary music

Manuel Blancafort's music has a concise tonal directness that draws on his fondness for French composers. His Cancons are not simply evocative but embody an increasing use of the Noucentist aesthetic: the Catalan cultural movement of the early 20th century that was a reaction against Modernisme. Blancafort rejected the Romanticism and Wagnerian pathos of the modernist Lied in favour of Classicism and beauty - sentiments he shared with his Catalan contemporaries Toldra, Gerhard and Mompou. Intimate, sensitive and playful, his Catalan songs connect both to his country's past and also to a wider European musical culture.

The two composers featured on this album worked in Russia during a period when it had become part of international musical culture, with many European musicians choosing to make a living there. Famous Czech cellist, Vladislav Aloiz, whose cosmopolitan Piano Trio in F major is an inspirational mix of beauty, passionate virtuosity and wit, moved to St Petersburg where he was awarded a professorship at the Conservatoire. Born in Kharkiv to an Austrian family, Alexander Winkler also found himself at the centre of Russian music at the turn of the century. The laconic themes of his masterfully written Piano Trio in F sharp minor are reminiscent of late Brahms.

Two magnificent masses by the most important German representative of the "Messa concertata" at the beginning of the 17th century

Oscar Lorenzo Fernandez belonged to a key group of Brazilian composers including Villa-Lobos, Mignone and Guarneri, who radically transformed the landscape of Brazilian classical music and shaped future generations of composers. Lorenzo Fernandez was essentially a miniaturist, with many of his piano pieces being both richly inventive and short in duration. From the Iberian sonorities of earlier pieces such as the expansive Noturno, via the nationalist flavours of the Suites Brasileiras, to his final piano work, the technically challenging Sonata Breve, Lorenzo Fernandez's refined sophistication and originality can be heard in every piece.

Their fifth release on Signum Classics, the "engaging" (New Yorker) men's vocal en- semble Cantus present a collection of songs cycles by contemporary and living com- posers, exploring different kinds of journeys through song. "These contrasting song cycles share an embrace of change, growth, acceptance and renewal, and through the collective experience of their journeys - great and small, painful and magical - we gain a clearer picture of life and of ourselves" - Cantus

Florentine, born Francesco Maria Veracini (1690-1786), was considered one of the greatest violin virtuosos of his day. Periods of residence in London, Dusseldorf, Venice, and Dresden brought the eccentric musician international fame. Amongst his extensive output,� his Sonate Accademiche Op. 2 (London/Florence 1744) for violin and basso continuo are the best known today.�The character of the Sonate Accademiche is defined by a peculiar combination of the intellectual, the virtuosic, and the highly expressive.�Despite the technically demanding writing for the violin, Veracini's masterfully idiomatic approach to his own instrument means the virtuosity flows with a natural ease and playfulness.

Memento mori or the "Ars morendi" have always been intended as an aid to a meaningful life. Viewing life as a path, as a journey, encourages a sense of balance and calls for spiritual viaticum.

Prof. Erich Beurmann donated 70 instruments to the Hamburg Museum of Arts and Crafts. Among them are a large number of harpsichords, clavichords, and fortepianos: from an Italian harpsichord dating from 1540 to a Steinway concert grand piano from 1871. A significant portion of these instruments are kept playable so that the music of various eras can be reproduced on the instruments of the time. Susanne Von Laun regularly plays instruments from this collection in concerts and on guided tours. The artist, who was awarded the Muzio Clementi Award in 2005, selected five instruments for this CD (a square piano from 1777, three fortepianos from 1795 to 1820, and a Broadwood grand piano from 1841), which can now be heard on CD for the first time.

Play, Music! Songs from Shakespeare's Plays

Anna Pikulska takes us on an exciting journey into Cabanilles' sound world on the lovingly restored Bartholome Sanchez organ. With it's rich sounds from 50 stops on two divided manuals, this 18th century Aragonese Baroque instrument in Carinena (Aragon) testifies to the high standard of organ building at that time with some 800 Gothic pipes dating back to the year 1482.

Born in Venice around 1652, Marc'Antonio Ziani was an eminent operatic composer who, at the zenith of his career, moved to serve the Habsburgs in Vienna, where he was to die in 1715. Damira placata is the second of his operas and it's plot centres on Damira, a queen in ancient Egypt, and her struggles to win back the love of King Creonte. Conceived for the puppet theatre, the singers and instrumentalists were hidden from sight to heighten the illusion. It is a quintessential Venetian opera - declamation melts into eloquent musical gestures, recitatives are full of pathos, arias have constant rhythm, and the central characters are strongly defined.

Mody is a very good pianist and a joyful musician: he masters the technical problems with esprit, his pedaling is pleasingly lean, but above all he has an extremely colourful sound spectrum and an imaginative, improvisational approach to Scriabin's inner worlds." Klassik-heute "Pervez Mody is an extraordinary musician and a unique artist" Martha Argerich, 2009

ANTON BRUCKNER (1824-1896) - Symphony No. 7 in E major Arrangement for ensemble by Hanns Eisler, Erwin Stein and Karl Rankl During the coronavirus pandemic, when large symphonic performances were almost impossible due to contact restrictions and social distancing rules, the ensemble wanted to enable people to experience the depth and spirituality of Bruckner's music despite the social distancing and isolation restrictions. While there are normally around 80 musicians on stage when Bruckner's 7th Symphony is performed, the Stuttgart-based Ensemble Balance performs the work with just 11 instrumentalists, the result being that this condensed chamber music remains a unique experience, even without the pandemic! And this is because it is precisely in this concentrated, emotionally condensed form that Bruckner's compositional artistry becomes seductively clear and audible! The in-depth exploration into his work during the rehearsals for this recording in August 2020 had the effect of welding the ensemble together in both an artistic and a personal way, and this intimate connection between each and every musician, combined with the spirit of Bruckner's composition, can be clearly felt and heard in this performance by Ensemble Balance.