Horizon is sublimely beautiful, evocative music written for and recorded by the celebrated Australian Chamber Orchestra. Adams writes:?"There are two horizons. The visible horizon. And the true horizon.... As we scan the horizon we measure not only space, but also time. How long might it take us to traverse that distance, from where we are to as far as we can see? And what lies beyond that edge of the known?." Composer John Luther Adams' music has won a Pulitzer Prize and a Grammy Award (and a number or Grammy nominations) and has been performed by such prominent ensembles as the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, and the JACK?Quartet. "John Luther Adams... one of the most original musical thinkers of the new century." (Alex Ross, The New Yorker) "His music becomes more than a metaphor for natural forces: it is an elemental experience in it's own right." (Tom Service, The Guardian) "His music perfectly echoes the landscape he loves: impersonal, relentless, larger than human scale, yet gorgeous." (Kyle Gann, Chamber Music Magazine) The Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) is a unique, highly lauded string orchestra led by Richard Tognetti. It tours the world, performing works from all periods of Western classical music, and has recordings on ABC Classics, BIS, Hyperion, Chandos, Sony, and other labels.. "ACO... invigorating and highly cultivated-a breath of fresh cultural air" (Gramophone) "This terrific string ensemble... seems to shine at anything it undertakes." (San Francisco Chronicle) "ACO... The finest chamber orchestra on Earth (The Telegraph, UK) "An orchestra that, by any standards, is one of the wonders of the musical world today." (The Guardian)

Sean Shibe's fifth PENTATONE album, Vesper, presents a striking collection of contemporary guitar works by the late Harrison Birtwistle, James Dillon, and Thomas Ades, all composed by musicians who do not play the instrument themselves. Recorded here for the first time, these recent miniatures explore the guitar's expressive range in profoundly different ways: ritualistic and evocative in Birtwistle, elemental in Dillon, and allusive in Ades. Shibe's interpretations reveal the instrument's extraordinary colour, subtlety, and capacity for transformation, bringing each work to life with imagination and nuance. For some of Birtwistle's pieces, Shibe performs on Sylvette (2021), a guitar made by luthier Simon Ambridge in collaboration with French-British artist Lydia Corbett. A muse to Pablo Picasso - who was himself an important influence for several of Birtwistle's works on this album - Corbett also inspired Picasso's celebrated Sylvette series. Modelled on the small, responsive instruments of the Andalusian luthier Antonio de Torres, the guitar features Corbett's artwork on it's body, adding a visual and symbolic layer to the performance. Shibe is a former BBC New Generation Artist, a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship 2012 winner, a Royal Philharmonic Society 2018 Young Artist Award winner, a multi-GRAMMY nominee, and the recipient of the 2022 Leonard Bernstein Award. His recordings have won BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone Awards.

The four symphonies of Arvo Part were composed over a span of forty-five years, and bear little or no relationship with one another - four individual pieces that represent his output at separate parts of his creative journey. The First Symphony was composed in 1963, shortly after Part had graduated from the Tallinn Conservatory. It's two-movement structure looks to the baroque - Canons and a Prelude and Fugue - but the harmonic language is extremely advanced, giving off a distinct whiff of twelve-tone serialism. The Second Symphony, from 1966, in three movements, again employs a combination of serialism and textures hinting at Penderecki and the Polish school. Also in three movements, the Third Symphony (1971) reflects the time Part spent in the late 1960s studying chant and mediaeval music. Symphony No. 4 'Los Angeles' came much later (in 2007 - 08) and now the style is directly inspired by sacred music. Part took as his models two great litanies of the Orthodox Church: the Canon of Repentance, and the Canon to the Holy Guardian Angel. Unusually scored for strings, harp, timpani, and percussion, this final work is also cast in three movements. With her elegant, expressive body language, natural stage presence, and infectious musicality, Eva Ollikainen is one of the leading conductors of our time. This former student of Leif Segerstam and Jorma Panula has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra since 2020.

Swedish soprano Malin Bystrom, hailed as one of today's leading singing actors, presents a captivating journey through her celebrated German repertoire. Renowned for her perfect vocal technique, Bystrom brings to life arias and scenes that have enthralled audiences on stage and in concert, accompanied by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under Thomas Sondergard. The album features excerpts from two 19th-century German operas among her favorites: Beethoven's Fidelio and Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischutz. It also spotlights Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Die Tote Stadt, a lushly orchestrated work that, despite today's relative obscurity, was one of the greatest hits of the 1920s. However, it is Richard Strauss who takes center stage, a composer whose genius for the female voice is unmatched. Bystrom's voice, described by critics as "radiant," "sparkling," and "silvery," soars through the opulence of Die agyptische Helena, the timeless lyricism of Capriccio, and the dramatic intensity of Salome's final scene. This album is a testament to her artistry, showcasing her mastery across the breadth of German operatic tradition.

Kip Winger is a genre-bridging composer with a long and successful career in rock music. His celebrated ballet score Conversations with Nijinsky led conductor Giancarlo Guerrero to commission the two works on this album. Weaving four floriographical meanings into the musical arc, In the Language of Flowers is a violin concerto that celebrates a love story "no words could adequately express." Symphony of the Returning Light sits in the tradition of autobiographical fantasies stretching back to Berlioz. The symphony incorporates the use of Morse code rhythms and is centered around the theme of atonement.

PENTATONE's release of the Czech Philharmonic's complete Mahler Cycle under Bychkov brings together one of Europe's most historically resonant orchestras with a conductor internationally recognised for his structural command and interpretive integrity. The orchestra occupies a distinctive place within Mahler's geographical and cultural landscape - Mahler was born and brought up in Bohemia and completed his First Symphony shortly after spending a year in Prague. Mahler symphonies have been central to Bychkov's programming with the Czech Philharmonic since 2018, when he opened his tenure as Chief Conductor and Music Director with performances of Mahler Symphony No. 2. Symphonies Nos. 1-5, released by PENTATONE beginning in April 2022, have received universal acclaim. The recordings have been selected as Gramophone Editor's Choice and BBC Music Magazine Recording of the Month. As The Sunday Times writes, "This is turning out to be one of the truly great Mahler sets."

After exploring lesser-known works for light lyric tenor from the op�ra-comique repertoire with the multi-award-winning So Romantique ! (ALPHA924), this new recording focuses on a unique genre: French m�lodie with orchestra. "Deeply attuned to the chamber dimension of music, I was naturally drawn to this form, which is rarely programmed today. Attention to tone colour is essential here, particularly in the interpretation of such brief pieces, an exercise at the very heart of my approach as a m�lodiste," says Dubois. Designed by the researchers and editors of the Palazzetto Bru Zane, this programme allows us to rediscover lost treasures of French heritage: refinement, the art of suggestion, delicacy, nobility of expression - everything here is so poetic!

Anne-Sophie Mutter is launching her own series of recordings on Alpha Classics, ASM Forte Forward, devoted to the music of our time: it will exclusively feature contemporary works written for her. In 2026 and 2027, this exceptional artist is celebrating her jubilee: 50 years on stage, driven by curiosity, passion and commitment to the future of music. The first opus in this new series, East Meets West, includes works by four composers from diverse origins. The programme moves from solo violin, through duo and chamber repertoire, to concerto with orchestra. It opens with Likoo for solo violin by Iranian-Dutch composer Aftab Darvishi, followed by Gran Cadenza for two violins by Unsuk Chin, a South Korean composer living in Berlin, J�rg Widmann's String Quartet No. 6, entitled Studie �ber Beethoven; and concludes with Thomas Ad�s' concerto for violin and orchestra, Air-Homage to Sibelius, premiered in 2022 and recorded here with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the British composer himself.

Commissioned by the Propaganda Department of the Soviet State Music Publishing House to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution, the Symphonic Dedication to October eventually became Shostakovich's Second Symphony, and was first performed, in Leningrad, in 1927. It is a short, through-composed work of around twenty minutes, it's structure involving four sections. It opens with a Largo meant to portray the primordial chaos from which order emerged, and ends with a choral setting of To October, a poem by Alexander Bezymensky, praising Lenin and the October Revolution. The symphony shows a marked departure in style from Shostakovich's first symphony, and is far more modernist and avant-garde. The Second Symphony made little impression, in Russia or the West, and is rarely performed. In contrast, the Fifth Symphony received a standing ovation at it's premi�re, one that lasted for over half an hour, and was acclaimed both by state officials (for delivering everything that they had asked of Shostakovich) and by the public (who heard it as an expression of the suffering to which it had been subjected by Stalin). The Fifth Symphony is one of Shostakovich's best-known and most performed works, and has become standard repertoire for orchestras around the globe.

Sondra Radvanovsky, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Enrique Mazzola present Puccini: Heroines, a live recording of an all-Puccini programme performed in February 2025. Radvanovsky's extraordinary voice brings vivid individuality to each heroine, from the tender lyricism of Anna and Mim� to the dramatic intensity of Tosca and Turandot, including roles not previously in her stage repertoire. With Mazzola and the Lyric Opera Orchestra, she captures Puccini's genius for combining concise, emotionally charged arias with profound character insight. From the grace of Le Villi to the passion of Manon Lescaut, the intimacy of La Boh�me, and the virtuosic drama of Turandot, Radvanovsky's artistry illuminates every phrase. Encores include Musetta (La Boh�me) and Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), highlighting both theatrical flair and heartfelt nuance. Sondra Radvanovsky and Lyric Opera of Chicago previously appeared on PENTATONE with The Three Queens (2022), while Enrique Mazzola conducted the 2019 PENTATONE release of Verdi and Donizetti with Michael Fabiano.

Nkeiru Okoye's When the Caged Bird Sings is a 'musical celebration' whose compositional voice, though rooted in the African American church, also embraces minimalism and improvisational elements. Delivering a message of adversity turned to triumph, it celebrates the transformative ability of African American women, partly evoking the experiences of the author and activist Maya Angelou. The work functions as a communal ritual that, like oratorio, opera, and theatre, brings together vocal soloists, chorus, and orchestra in an experience that both commemorates and celebrates hope and possibility.

Nico Muhly and The Tallis Scholars present No Resting Place, a collection of world premiere recordings of works that Muhly wrote for The Tallis Scholars over the last 10 years, by invitation of their director Peter Phillips. Phillips says that Muhly "immediately understood our particular sound. A succession of masterpieces followed, each as powerful as the last." The title work, No Resting Place, is a setting of Jeremiah's Lamentations, interspersed with contemporary interviews with people from the Windrush generation. Recordare, Domine also sets texts from Lamentations, while Marrow is a setting of Psalm 63. Rough Notes, using cold textures, austere counterpoint, and unstable harmonies, draws from Captain Scott's diary on his doomed mission to the Antarctic. Prosperitie was written to celebrate Peter Phillips' 70th birthday, and A Glorious Creature praises the glory of the soul. This album marks the start of a new collaboration between The Tallis Scholars and Linn.

Violinist Midori, Festival Strings Lucerne under the direction of Daniel Dodds, and pianist �zg�r Aydin present an album of Schumann: Violin Concerto & Works for Violin and Piano by Clara and Robert Schumann, highlighting two deeply connected artistic voices. At the centre is Robert Schumann's Violin Concerto in D Minor, composed in 1853 but withheld from publication for more than eighty years after Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim questioned it's place within his legacy. Long clouded by it's troubled history and a problematic 1937 premiere, the concerto has only recently gained recognition as a powerful and distinctive late work, valued today for it's emotional depth and expressive candour. The programme also includes Robert Schumann's 5 Pieces in Folk Style, Op. 102, and 3 Romances, Op. 94 - lyrical miniatures from his remarkably productive year of 1849, alongside Clara Schumann's 5 Romances, Op. 22, dedicated to Joachim and now fully restored to the repertoire after decades of neglect. Together, these works reveal an artistic world shaped by intimacy, sincerity, and clarity of expression, echoing Robert Schumann's belief that the artist's task is "to send light into the darkness of men's hearts." This recording marks the PENTATONE debut of Midori and �zg�r Aydin. Midori, an internationally celebrated violinist with numerous awards and performances on the world's leading stages, brings her expressive depth and technical mastery, complemented by Aydin's sensitive virtuosity at the piano. Festival Strings Lucerne and their artistic director, Daniel Dodds, have been collaborating successfully since 2012, bringing this orchestra international acclaim, and establishing themselves as one of the world's leading chamber orchestras, both on the concert platform and in the recording studio. The album showcases the interplay of Clara's tender lyricism with Robert's late works, offering a vivid, emotionally resonant, and technically brilliant portrait of the Schumanns' late musical world.

She was Igor Stravinsky's piano teacher and studied herself with Anton Rubinstein. But to this day, her compositions have remained in the shadow of the great male masters-a fate that many women of this era share with her. Although her oeuvre is nowhere near as comprehensive as that of her composing colleagues, these few works still demonstrate incredible talent, mature skill, and a deeply romantic Russian sound language that is so typical of this time.

Catrin Finch releases Notes to Self, her first solo album in a decade, featuring personal tracks dedicated to her 13-year-old self. Accompanied by letters, the album reflects on her 40-year career, exploring vulnerability, transformation, and life under public scrutiny. As a gay woman, cancer survivor, and mother, Finch channels her struggles and triumphs into music, marking a bold, introspective evolution in her artistry.

Winner of the 2024 La Maestra competition in Paris and recipient of five additional prizes, conductor Bar Avni is pursuing a very promising career. Born in Israel, she first studied percussion before turning to conducting. She counts Yoav Talmi, Barbara Hannigan and Ayelet Geva as mentors and has assisted conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Klaus M�kel� and Myung-Whun Chung. Avni is known for her desire to seek out programmes that are off the beaten track. This is evident in her first recording with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, which combines the music of Charlotte Sohy, Darius Milhaud, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Igor Stravinsky. The programme opens with Sohy's symphony Grande Guerre, which was composed in 1914 but only premiered in 2019. Milhaud composed his first of six Petites Symphonies in 1917 while he was secretary to Paul Claudel, French ambassador to Brazil. C. P. E. Bach's sparkling symphony, composed in 1775, precedes the final work by Stravinsky, his first major work composed after he moved to America around 1940, a Symphony in Three Movements. Three movements: the common thread running through the works on this symphonic journey.

Pianist Christian Blackshaw presents A Moment in Time, an intimate exploration of Franz Schubert's late masterworks. The album features the Four Impromptus, D. 899, written in 1827, in which Schubert transforms the simple impromptu into "a harmonically connected cycle of unparalleled beauty." From the dramatic intensity of the first to the serene beauty of the third and the triumph over darkness in the fourth, Blackshaw reveals the depth, subtlety, and emotional brilliance of Schubert's music. The album also presents the Sonata No. 21 in B-flat Major, D. 960, one of Schubert's last major works for solo piano, composed during spring and autumn of 1828. It's movements traverse hope, despair, and luminous introspection, culminating in a finale of quiet triumph. For Blackshaw, these performances are a personal reflection - a snapshot in time of both Schubert's genius and his own lifelong engagement with these works.

Regarded as one of the finest interpreters of classical and romantic repertoire, Imogen Cooper is internationally renowned for her virtuosity and lyricism. Dame Imogen writes: 'It has taken many years for me to perceive the last three sonatas by Beethoven as the evolving journey I now feel them to be. A combination of wariness of Op. 109 and overawe of Op. 111 kept me solely concentrated on Op. 110, which I can hardly regret. Nor do I regret thereby coming late in life to Opp. 109 and 111. Having come to see the shortcomings of my perception as surmountable, I found that the joys and riches of these wonderful works presented themselves with much more vivid colours than had I tussled with them whilst I was tussling with myself. The case was, incidentally, similar with the "Diabelli" Variations, Op. 120, which I finally approached and embraced in my sixties, with crystal clarity of intention and unadulterated joy. Now it would be hard for me to play any of the last three sonatas alone, so potent is the journey from first to last. And how privileged my hands feel, having wondered and wandered in the heavenly heights of the last pages of Op. 111, to travel down the keyboard and bring this astonishing last sonata, and indeed the whole body of thirty-two sonatas, to a close, with a quiet chord of C major - no long note value, no fermata. Just silence.'

American Tapestry by the Calidore String Quartet weaves together a panoramic portrait of American musical expression across the 20th and 21st centuries. The programme spans Samuel Barber's lyrical String Quartet No. 1, featuring the iconic Adagio; Wynton Marsalis's jazz-inflected At the Octoroon Balls; and John Williams's With Malice Toward None-here in it's world premiere string quartet version. The album concludes with Erich Korngold's radiant String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, written in postwar Los Angeles. Together, these works reveal a vibrant continuum of American artistry-a sound world both richly diverse and deeply unified in spirit.

Composed at the age of 19, Rachmaninov's earliest published cycle of piano pieces, the Morceaux de Fantaisie, contains the Pr�lude in C-sharp minor, destined to become his signature work, and the M�lodie in E major, much loved by Tchaikovsky. The expressive Morceaux de Salon show Tchaikovsky's influence and some of the grief felt by Rachmaninov after his mentor's death. With the inclusion of the melodically rich Nocturnes and the Four Pieces, the earliest to survive in his hand, this collection shows both the young composer finding his voice and the timeless Rachmaninov we recognise today.

Hailed by the magazine BBC Music for it's 'generous and warm-hearted, utterly beguiling playing', the GRAMMY�-nominated Neave Trio has emerged as one of the finest young ensembles of it's generation. For this, their eighth album, they have once again selected a programme of works by female composers. Written in 1846, the Piano Trio of Clara Schumann was considered a great success by her friends and supporters (notably by Brahms) but her lack of self-confidence clouded her own view of the piece. Intellectually curious and a voracious reader from an early age, Dora Pejacevic was largely self-taught as a composer. She composed her first piano trio (in D major) in 1905 (when she was twenty) and the second followed in 1910, by which time Pejacevic's musical language had already evolved into it's distinctive late-romantic style. Chaminade's Piano Trio No. 2 in A minor was published 1887, with a dedication to the great French cellist Jules Delsart. The successful premiere had been given at the Salle �rard on 4 February 1886. Chaminade went on to play the A minor Trio regularly during the 1890s, to substantial critical acclaim.

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) was an Italian composer, violinist, and priest, widely regarded as one of the most influential figures of the Baroque era. Born in Venice, Vivaldi was nicknamed "Il Prete Rosso" (The Red Priest) because of his red hair and clerical background. Although he was ordained as a priest, his true vocation was music. He spent much of his life working at the Ospedale della Piet�, a Venetian orphanage for girls, where he composed and directed music, training many talented young musicians. Vivaldi's greatest legacy lies in his instrumental concertos, especially those with the violin. Each concerto displays his remarkable understanding of the instrument's expressive and technical capabilities. His concertos typically follow the three-movement structure (fast-slow-fast) that became standard in later classical music. They are characterized by brilliant virtuosity, rhythmic vitality, and a clear sense of form and contrast between soloist and orchestra. Among his violin concertos, The Four Seasons (Le quattro stagioni) stands out as his most famous and innovative work. Composed around 1723 and published in 1725, this set of four concertos -Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter- is a vivid example of early program music. Each concerto is accompanied by a sonnet that describes natural scenes and human emotions associated with the seasons. Through musical imagery such as bird calls, thunderstorms, harvest dances, and icy winds, Vivaldi masterfully translates the poetry into sound. Included are the concertos Op. 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12. Vivaldi's concertos influenced many later composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach, who transcribed several of them. Although his music fell out of favor after his death, the 20th century brought a revival of interest, restoring Vivaldi's reputation as a master of melody, color, and instrumental brilliance. Today, his concertos remain central to the Baroque repertoire and beloved by performers and audiences worldwide. Played by Italian violinist Federico Guglielmo and his L'Arte dell'arco. The press has been unanimous in it's praise: "a definitive recording, bravo!" (Diapason), "infectious joy, improvisatory flair and instinct, this is music making minted in the moment" (BBC 3), "They know the secret language of Vivaldi.." (Diapason).

Born in Budapest in 1975 and based in Germany, composer M�rton Ill�s studied with Detlev M�ller-Siemens and Wolfgang Rihm. In 2020, he composed the violin concerto Vont-t�r for Patricia Kopatchinskaja, a long-time partner who performs his music with total commitment. "She gives the impression that music can be tactile, truly three-dimensional, to the point that you could almost touch it, that each gesture has it's own colour, temperature, smell, taste," says Ill�s. S�rt-t�r, "space filled with tears," is a cello concerto: "I make it moan, scream or even roar hysterically in order to draw out the vocal qualities capable of communicating human pain." In Nicolas Altstaedt, "I found the ideal performer, who grasps the dark drama of this subject with existential intuition and makes it resonate with primitive force." Rajzok I consists of tuning the strings of 24 instruments to different quarter-tone intervals. A very unusual and fascinating total scordatura. In Three Sketches, electronic music blends with the sound of the violin, multiplying the sensations and sound textures. Fascinated by the human psyche and the processes that take place in the human body, Ill�s develops music that lives, speaks, and breathes.

James McVinnie brings Johann Sebastian Bach's monumental Clavier-ubung III to life in a recording that captures both it's technical brilliance and profound spiritual depth. Bach's 1739 collection, his first published volume of organ music, is a masterful synthesis of compositional technique, theological meditation, and musical expression. With twenty-seven works, including chorale preludes, duets, and the majestic opening Prelude and closing Fugue, the collection is a rich musical exploration of Lutheran faith, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, and the artistry of counterpoint at it's most sublime. From the intricate contrapuntal pairs of the Catechism chorales to the flowing bass lines of Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam, and the transcendent final Fugue in E flat, McVinnie navigates Bach's towering architecture with clarity, precision, and sensitivity. This recording highlights the cosmopolitan textures, theological symbolism, and emotional resonance that make Clavier-ubung III a pinnacle of the organ repertoire. With insight drawn from decades of study and performance, McVinnie offers a journey into Bach's musical universe, where faith, intellect, and artistry converge in works of extraordinary beauty and enduring power. James McVinnie made his PENTATONE debut in January 2025 with the album Dreamcatcher.

Head Space: Candlelight is the first EP in The King's Singers' Head Space series, aiming to connect choral music with calmness and reflection. Inspired by compline, the Catholic night service, it features plainchant, including "In manus tuas Domine" and "Salva nos Domine vigilantes," emphasizing breath-led pacing. The album also includes wordless Orlando Gibbons "Songs," contemporary pieces by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Judith Bingham, and Arvo Part, and the experimental "4'33" by John Cage, concluding with Robert Parsons' "Ave Maria" and Edvard Grieg's "Ave Maris Stella," all designed to create a contemplative atmosphere.