Pierre Dumoussaud conducts a 'dream orchestra' comprised of chamber music players, regulars at Deauville's Easter Festival (Festival de Paques) in an unusual two-part work by Schonberg: the two "chamber symphonies," scores which are as teeming with detail as they are moving, attesting to the composer's soul-searching and experiences at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. In a string orchestra version, Langsamer Satz by Anton Webern, a student of Schonberg, adds all it's romantic fervour as a counterpoint.

Joseph Swensen offers an intimate and cosmic symphonic fresco in the form of the Saga Trilogy, captured on this b-records disc. Composed in the wake of the pandemic, this trilogy explores the composer's inner world like an ancestral legend waiting to be discovered. Performed by the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, the music draws on reminiscences of Messiaen and the poetic spirit of Hafiz. From the cosmic pulsation of Primordial Cosmos to the mythological clamour of the SAGA concerto and the spiritual light of Song of Infinity, allow yourself to be swept away by this vibrant and deeply rooted work, which exists on the border between the visible and the invisible.

With this vinyl edition, the Xenakis Trio refocuses on two major pillars of it's repertoire: Iannis Xenakis and Steve Reich. Two distinct visions of contemporary percussion, brought together in a dialogue of materials, rhythms and resonances. Taken from their first album Alliages, these works take on a new dimension here: the warmth of vinyl restores all the density of the instrumental gesture, the grain of the timbre, the raw pulsation of the percussive sound. This edition is a field of resonance - a space where the tectonic forces of twentieth-century music combine with the artistic demands of a trio in search of the limits of sound.

Schubert's influence, the spirit of fantasy, and pictures from fairy tales are the common themes in this fifth volume of the Schumann Collection. For this great journey across the Schumannian realm, which starts off with one of his early works, the expansive Quartet for Piano and Strings WoO 32, and concludes with the twilight miniatures of Marchenerzahlungen (Fairytale Narrations), brothers Pierre and Theo Fouchenneret are still at the head of a fine team of chamber musicians bringing together long-time collaborators and great talents of the young generation.

Victor Julien-laferriere and his Consuelo Orchestra continue their complete works of Beethoven's symphonies with a second volume devoted to the famous diptych premiered on 22 December 1808: the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, so contrasting and yet so close. They have added the Eighth, premiered five years later and sometimes considered the little sister of the 'Pastoral', whose key is F major.

Suffering in an unhappy marriage, Woman yearns for a world beyond the boundaries of flesh and an existence outside of the conventions of human society. A secret young Lover's desire instigates an explosive metamorphosis, and Woman finds perfect release as a tree. Sivan Eldar composes with Like Flesh her first opera on a libretto by Cordelia Lynn, a poetic saga inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses. A new eco-feminist myth about our broken relationship with an environment in crisis, interpreted by Maxime Pascal and Le Balcon, and recorded by b records at Opera de Lille.

The Katok Ensemble was formed in 2019 by Paul Serri. For their first album "Le Temps suspendu" (Suspended Time), they have taken up the challenge of bringing together on a double CD Beethoven's String Quartet No 15 and Schubert's Quintet for Two Cellos. These two works complement each other in so many respects and heralded the Romantic Era which would follow. The recording made at the Katok Festival in Ardeche enables us to hear them from a fresh perspective.

Les Frivolites Parisiennes return to b-records with a revival of Le Dieu Bleu, a ballet by Michel Fokine which premiered in 1912, and whose music by Reynaldo Hahn had not been heard in France since then. This was an exceptional project performed with a full symphonic orchestra of more than seventy musicians. The live recording is a measure of their great attention to detail.

Leo Warynski and Les Metaboles present two little-known works on this new b-records disc that resonate across the centuries that separate them: the minimalist expressivity of Philip Glass's Another Look at Harmony - Part IV is matched by the cyclical perfection of an unpublished canon by Andrea Basily. The result of a residency at the Cite de la Voix as an associate ensemble, this program offers a resolutely modern and timeless approach to choral music.

Under the aegis of Veronique Gens and Susan Manoff, patrons of the 2024 edition of the Academie Orsay-Royaumont, four duos of young singers and pianists have put together a program whose history is woven by the interaction of pictorial and musical forms, from the Abbey to the museum. The masters of Lied and melody - Franz Schubert, Claude Debussy, Henri Duparc... - rub shoulders with lesser-known names such as Rebecca Clarke, Ivor Gurney and Isang Yun. This new b�records disc presents the fruits of their labor.

For the Fourth Volume of their Schumann Collection, Pierre and Theo Fouchenneret, along with their fellow musicians in Quatuor Strada, take us through the year 1842. It was a prolific period for the composer being the year of the three String Quartets, Opus 41, and the Quintet for Piano and Strings, Opus 44.

After the first recording of Saint-Saens' opera Ascanio, Guillaume Tourniaire returns to b�records' Geneva collection to resurrect a new score... and a wonderful composer: La Sorciere by Camille Erlanger! Written on a libretto by Andre Sardou based on the eponymous play by Victorien Sardou, and created at the Opera-Comique in 1912 in Paris, La Sorciere impresses with it's theatricality and musical richness, mixing with originality the lyricism of French post-romantic school, impressionist transparencies and the aesthetic influences of naturalism. It's terrifying portrait of religious and xenophobic intolerance, as well as the fate reserved for women under the yoke of the Spanish Inquisition in the 16th century, is strikingly relevant today, more than a hundred years after it's creation. An unforgettable live performance conducted by Guillaume Tourniaire at the Victoria Hall in Geneva with the Choir and Orchestra of the Haute ecole de Musique de Geneve, and an exceptional cast.

On the war cruiser Le Montesquieu, the unexpected arrival of a high commissioner accompanied by his daughter suddenly rocks the balance of the ship and the hearts of the sailors... What will happen to all this fine crew? You'll find out when you listen to Coups de roulis, a classic French musical exhumed by Les Frivolites Parisiennes with their characteristic blend of enthusiasm and high standards.

For it's first album, the Trio Xenakis offers a vast panorama of it's favourite repertoire. From Steve Reich to Philippe Hurel, this atlas of percussion is the result of years of experimentation with timbre and resonance.

After her first b records album, the result of her residency at the Royaumont Foundation, Claudia Chan, ambassador of the contemporary pianistic repertoire, presents her new record dedicated to the Italian school. From the masters Salvatore Sciarrino and Sylvano Bussotti to the new generation led by Francesco Filidei, Simone Cardini and Giulia Lorusso, the performer reveals the richness of a national heritage marked by a free spirit and the sensuality of the sounds that resonate under her fingers, sometimes even before they activate the keys. A program with a high potential for discovery!