Following his recording of the first book of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier released last year (BIS-2621), which was praised as 'a pleasurable benchmark for anyone seeking a traversal that honours every detail of the music' (Gramophone), harpsichordist Masato Suzuki now offers us his interpretation of the second book of Bach's masterly cycle of preludes and fugues. No other works from the baroque period have been as cherished, performed and studied as these collections, the objectives of which were musical, theoretical and didactic. Like the first, the second book of The Well-Tempered Clavier features a prelude and fugue in each of the 12 semitones of the chromatic scale, covering all of the 24 major and minor modes. Produced almost twenty years after the first book, this collection is a sort of follow-up. Though less frequently heard than it's predecessor, it nevertheless contains pieces of great beauty covering a wide stylistic range, and demonstrates a mastery of counterpoint that never outweighs emotion, beauty and aesthetics. Occupying a key position in Bach's output, the second book of the Well-Tempered Clavier points ahead to the major cycles of Bach's last years and presents 'sheer masterpieces from beginning to end', to quote Johann Nikolaus Forkel, the composer's first biographer.

In the sixteenth century, the quality of a 'civil conversation' was a topic of great interest, both within learned academies and in the verbal games of convivial banquets. As musical virtuosi learned how to 'speak' through their instruments, it was only natural that they would also begin to 'converse'. After a much-acclaimed release in 2023, Seicento Stravagante give us another example of musical conversation, this time between three musicians. In works by thirteen Italian composers from the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the musicians of Seicento Stravagante, recreate the extravagance of early baroque music, when composers wove many individual 'voices' (whether vocal or instrumental) into a harmonious whole. While the compositions could often be played on instruments of various kinds, it was on the violin and cornetto that they could shine most brightly, and the two instruments developed an increasingly close relationship, to the point that they were virtually interchangeable. This recording allows us to appreciate the subtle blend of colours of these two instruments and the richness of Italian instrumental music of the period.

Recorded in August 2022 at concerts given in Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie by the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg under Kent Nagano, this version of Johannes Brahms's celebrated choral masterpiece will come as a surprise to many. The German Requiem is heard not in it's usual seven-movement version, but rather as it was first performed in Bremen Cathedral on 10th April 1868 (Good Friday) under Brahms's direction, without the fifth movement for soprano and choir that was completed later that year. On the other hand there are numerous interludes, instrumental and vocal, secular and sacred, by Bach, Tartini, Schumann and Handel - including pieces that were then regarded as essential parts of a Good Friday concert. Such a programme might seem unusual today, but these musical additions shed new light on Brahms's work, which in this version manifests itself as what Umberto Eco might have described as an 'open work'. Presenting the work in the form heard at the Bremen premiere is more than just a reconstruction: it enriches our understanding of this unique music.

Praised for it's versatility and keen interest in new music, the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir and it's chief conductor Fredrik Malmberg present a programme devoted to a cappella works in a modern yet accessible style by American or American-born composers. The album opens with a triptych based of adaptations of ancient Gaelic poems, Reincarnations by Samuel Barber, known for his opulent, post-romantic language as expressed in his famous Adagio for Strings. Jeff Beal, one of Hollywood's most prolific and respected composers, wrote The Salvage Men, based on texts by Oscar Wilde and contemporary Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Kay Ryan. This cycle, according to Beal, offers 'a wholly fresh, contemporary view on the themes of transformation and our chosen response to pain'. Daniel Nelson's The New Colossus, based on a text by the 19th-century writer Emma Lazarus inspired by the Statue of Liberty, aims to convey musically the majesty and beauty inherent in the idea of inclusion. Finally, two works by Eric Whitacre, a composer whose works have become popular with vocal ensembles across America: A Boy and a Girl, a delicate piece based on a poem by Octavio Paz, and Three Songs of Faith, on texts by E.E. Cummings, a cycle that presents Whitacre's personal faith and his reflections on the spiritual and the unknowable.

After two albums devoted to Italian music from the 17th and 18th centuries (BIS-2585 and BIS-2645), male soprano Nicolo Balducci now offers us a recital devoted to the greatest representatives of Viennese Classicism - Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven - in the company of the fortepianist Anna Paradiso, whom we recently heard in a recording devoted to the work of Caroline Ridderstolpe together with mezzo-soprano Kristina Hammarstrom (BIS-2675). The vocal compositions gathered here, which include such rarities as two songs in French by Beethoven, are performed by a male soprano - in many cases the first time they have been recorded by this voice type. This original approach by the two performers makes it possible 'to explore unusual nuances, both in the interpretation and in the "soundscape" of this music, and to find new angles of inspiration in our interpretations' (Balducci). The combination of high voice and fortepiano emphasises the link between sound and words, with a dimension closer to chamber music, inspired by the specific timbre of the instruments. 'One of the fascinating aspects of the pieces on this recording is the power of their rhetorical expression', writes Paradiso. Balducci and Paradiso invite us here to be entertained and moved and to discover 'glimpses of intimate connections and shared secrets'.

'The repertoire we have chosen for this album consists mainly of pieces that have been with me since my childhood.' With this recital, Johan Dalene, accompanied by Peter Friis Johansson, offers us a selection of popular violin pieces that have accompanied him since his early years. After hearing them in the family car on long journeys, he went on to learn them and then play them in competitions and in concerts. He Johan Dalene now gives us (and himself) a treat and continues the tradition of great violinists such as Heifetz, Perlman and Vengerov, who have all made recordings of favourite encores and recital pieces. Finally to record them himself proved to be an 'extremely inspiring and challenging project', says Dalene. The programme is built around three virtuoso works, Tzigane (Ravel), Introduction and Rondo capriccioso (Saint-Saens) and Carmen Fantasy (Waxman), alongside which more reflective pieces by Massenet, Tchaikovsky, Falla and Kreisler have been included. Also featured is a rarely played miniature by Swedish composer Amanda Maier - a work which, according to Dalene, 'is a gem full of spirit!' A programme that celebrates the multiple sides of the violin, at times virtuoso, at times lyrical, always seductive.

After Alec Frank-Gemmill's critically acclaimed recordings of nineteenth-century works for horn and piano (BIS-2228), chamber music by Brahms (BIS-2478) and pre-Mozart horn concertos (BIS-2315), a version of Mozart's famous horn concertos from him has been eagerly awaited. As on his disc of concertante works, he is accompanied here by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra conducted by an expert in 18th-century style, Nicholas McGegan. Mozart's relationship with the Viennese horn player Joseph Leutgeb was both a friendly and a musical one, and most of the works here were written especially for him. Spanning some ten years, from 1781 to the composer's death, the four standard concertos and other fragments follow Mozart's stylistic development, and are thus contemporary with the operatic trilogy with libretti by Da Ponte, the final symphonies and the last piano concertos. Elegant, refined and suave, the horn concertos take advantage of the unique colours of this instrument and do not shy away from the it's traditional associations with the postal service and hunting. In addition to Mozart's four 'official' concertos, this recording also includes movements left in draft form, completed and restored by the composer and horn-player Stephen Roberts, giving us a further work here named 'Concerto No. 0'.

After his latest recording, devoted to Bach's Sonatas and Partitas in his own arrangement, Franz Halasz returns to Spanish music with this recital devoted to Federico Moreno Torroba. The composer of many of the best-known zarzuelas, Moreno Torroba did not initially seem destined to specialise in guitar music. It was his symphonic poems that caught the attention of the legendary guitarist Andres Segovia, who commissioned Moreno Torroba's first compositions for guitar despite the composer's unfamiliarity with the instrument. The compositions gathered here showcase a composer who, although deeply rooted in the Spanish musical tradition, was attuned to what was being done elsewhere, including the music of Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky, and who created a personal language marked by impressionism that would later influence guitar music throughout the twentieth century, from Heitor Villa-Lobos to Leo Brouwer. The winner of a Latin Grammy, Franz Halasz is a highly acclaimed guitarist who has himself contributed to the repertoire of his instrument by making arrangements of Manuel de Falla and Isaac Albeniz. On a guitar built in 1936 by the legendary luthier Hermann Hauser, Halasz turns the instrument into a multi-faceted prism through which the musician can 'break the light of music' into orchestral sound, in the words of Segovia.

Bach's music has always attracted arrangers and orchestrators - such as Stokowski, Elgar and Busoni, to name just three. Regardless of it's original version, Bach's music has an expressive power, drama and architectural logic that lend themselves well to expanded orchestral sonorities. Bassoonist and conductor Robin O'Neill buried his head in the Goldberg Variations, which he had discovered through Glenn Gould's recordings, during the first months of the Covid lockdown. Soon after that, the idea of making an arrangement for orchestra began to obsess him as he began hearing instrumental and orchestral sonorities in the keyboard work. Since the main challenge was to reclothe the music without damaging the subtle intricacy of the piece, and after much thought and experimentation, O'Neill chose instruments that Bach himself would have recognized for the solo parts. His reinterpretation of the Goldberg Variations offers a mixture of full orchestral variations interspersed with concertante ones involving two, three or four solo instruments, at times close to St Matthew Passion-style writing. Completed during a difficult period, this arrangement was made, in the words of O'Neill, in the hope that it expresses the joy and solace that Bach's music gives both performer and listener.

Originally from northern California, Tyler Futrell is an eclectic Oslo-based composer. His music attempts to synthesise almost contradictory historical branches yet his goal remains to write coherent music combining intellectual interest and perceptual fascination. His influences include musique concrete instrumentale, sacred minimalism, late romanticism, spectral music, formalism, and contemporary choreography and theatre. Tyler Futrell's Stabat Mater immerses us in the rich history of this religious text. Preserving the melancholic beauty of the Stabat Mater settings composed over the last 600 years, Futrell exposes aspects that have previously been obscured and incorporates the concept of the glorification of suffering more generally, alluding to Samuel Barber's Adagio. A modern take on a sacred text, and music that raises such questions as 'why so beautiful?' and 'can we tolerate this beauty?' Two other works by Futrell are also included. Vuggesang - 'lullaby' in Norwegian - is a meditative piece directly linked to a quotation from Brahms's famous piece in the Stabat Mater. Brittle Fluid is also thematically and causally linked to the Stabat Mater. The title evokes a frozen waterfall, and the composer wanted to represent something both static and dynamic in which death is also present, inspired by Tarjei Vesaas's novel The Ice Palace.

Together with pianist Michael McHale, Michael Collins continues his exploration of the chamber repertoire for clarinet. After exploring French music (BIS-2497) and the Brahms Sonatas (BIS-2557), he now turns to British music with this recital covering a hundred years of music for clarinet and piano which reflects the special relationship between English composers and this instrument. The earliest works on this recording are the Three Intermezzi and the Sonata by Charles Villiers Stanford, who made no secret of his debt to Brahms. As with his Viennese counterpart, Stanford's music is poised yet seductive and, in this case, beautifully conceived for both instruments. Known for the strength of his vocal music, Gerald Finzi also makes the clarinet sing in his Five Bagatelles composed during the Second World War. Light and touching, they appear as a personal reinterpretation of the baroque dances found in Bach's instrumental suites. Not surprisingly, Marcolm Arnold's Sonatina has always been popular with clarinettists, with it's energy and it's nods to jazz and dance music. Last but not least, Joseph Horovitz, the last composer in chronological order, is represented by his Two Majorcan Pieces and his Sonatina. Once again, the music is playful and makes an excellent showcase for the clarinet.

Caroline Ridderstolpe's music remained virtually unknown for almost 200 years, until Anna Paradiso rediscovered it as part of her research into nineteenth-century Swedish salon music. Born in Berlin, Ridderstolpe received an extensive musical education that included singing, instrument-playing and composition. After her marriage to a member of the Swedish aristocracy, she settled in Sweden, participated in the salons held at the royal court and socialised with some of the finest musicians, writers and painters of her time. Ridderstolpe mainly composed songs and pieces for solo piano that belong to the genre of salon music which, far from being mediocre as is sometimes claimed, actually allows greater intimacy with the listeners. Ridderstolpe's songs are often based on poems by Swedish writers and represent a perfect union of text and music. According to Anna Paradiso, Caroline Ridderstolpe's music has a kind of sadness and depth that could be described as 'modern', reminiscent of the lieder of Beethoven, Schubert and the Schumanns. In keeping with the soundscape of Ridderstolpe's era, the music is performed here by Anna Paradiso on an original square piano whose particularity and charm lie not in the evenness of all the notes as one might expect from a modern instrument, but rather in the independent beauty of each string. This instrument is combined with the expressive voice of the eminent mezzo-soprano Kristina Hammarstrom. By giving once more a voice to Caroline Ridderstolpe's music, the performers wish to cast new light on women's power over their own creativity and therefore over their own lives.

This recording presents the entire output to date for guitar of Toshio Hosokawa, one of Japan's most prolific composers for the instrument. His affinity for the guitar stems from his familiarity with popular songs accompanied by the guitar and from his knowledge of the koto, a traditional Japanese instrument from which he has adopted certain playing techniques. Although the works gathered here call for a variety of forces - guitar solo, guitar and voice, guitar and instrumental ensemble - they all present a fundamental aspect of Toshio Hosokawa's output: the music seems to be born like a calligraphic line 'at the limit of time and space'. Here, the guitar is no longer just an instrument familiar to both classical and popular music: in Hosokawa's works it is a medium that transmits the primordial motion of the soul, which has woven poems and songs since ancient times. Familiar with Hosokawa's world, guitarist Jacob Kellermann, together with Christian Karlsen (with whom he has already recorded works by Toru Takemitsu on BIS-2655), the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and soprano Ilse Eerens, presents a soundscape on the edge of dreams, both seductive and subtle, modern and timeless.

Less than a year after the release of his recording of Schubert's Impromptus (BIS-2614), Ronald Brautigam now presents two of Franz Schubert's late masterpieces, the Sonatas D 959 and D 960. They are played here on a fortepiano built by Paul McNulty after an instrument from around 1819 by the Viennese instrument maker Conrad Graf, and presumably similar to the instrument on which Schubert composed.

Although it is tempting to see Schubert's final works as the testament of a doomed artist who feels his end is nearing, the reality is quite different: the composer displayed vitality, optimism, and a prodigious capacity for work. His last two sonatas also show that he had reached a new level, having successfully emancipated himself from the Beethovenian model. These sonatas took a long time to establish themselves, not least because of their length, which was at first disconcerting for music-lovers and pianists alike. They are now considered to be among Schubert's finest works, alongside others dating from the last years of his life, such as the String Quintet in C major and the song cycle Winterreise. All these works seemed to herald considerable promise for future works; Schubert's untimely death buried a rich heritage, but even more beautiful hopes.

REVIEW:

Paul McNulty ‘s 2007 fortepiano based on a Conrad Graf model circa 1819 served Ronald Brautigam’s Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven solo recordings wonderfully well, and does so again in the fortepianist’s powerful, passionate and musically intelligent accounts of Schubert’s last two sonatas. Indeed, these are far and away the best Schubert period instrument piano recordings since those of Andreas Staier and Peter Serkin. Brautigam dives into the A Major Sonata’s opening Allegro with both assertion and flexibility, underlining Schubert’s astonishing harmonic tangents with stinging accents, subtle accelerations and full-bodied fortes that almostd detonate. To compensate for his instrument’s limited sustaining capabilities, Brautigam builds the momentum within the slow movement’s wild central climax by occasionally scaling back the long chromatic phrases so that their loudest peaks convey maximum impact. Having recently played on a similar McNulty Graf model, I can attest that the instrument’s light action makes it easier than usual to negotiate the Scherzo at a true Allegro vivace. However, Brautigam holds the tempo back and conveys more lilt and swing in the process. He also brings a patient, songful and lovingly nuanced spaciousness to the Finale that parallels Maurizio Pollini’s sublime modern instrument recording.

The instrument’s striking timbral distinctions between registers hit home in the B-flat Sonata’s Molto Moderato, especially when the low lying trills appear to emanate from an entirely different keyboard. Likewise, the frequent repeated notes in melodic phrases and ostinato-like accompaniments gain tension. One also should note Brautigam’s shifts of emphasis and timing as he observes the long first movement repeat. He imparts more urgency than what one often hears in the Andante sostenuto, mustering up genuine orchestral impact in the central climax. The Scherzo stands out for Brautigam’s mercurial pedal shifts and curvaceously inflected Trio section. I would have imagined a more headlong Finale in Brautigam’s hands, yet he takes Schubert’s “ma non troppo” caveat to heart by easing his way into the main theme, and allowing the dotted rhythms a welcome degree of grandeur and breathing room. The interpretation suggests an opera without words more than a piano showpiece, and that’s a compliment. Superb sonics, superb annotations, superb musicianship and superb pianism: what more could you want from this most recommendable Schubert release? Don’t miss it.

— ClassicsToday.com (10/10; Jed Distler)

Our knowledge of Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji is based more on his reputation than on his work. A marginal figure in twentieth-century music, he is renowned for the length and complexity of his compositions. After forbidding the performance of his music, he earned a small income through his writings as a critic and essayist of great wit. His best-known works are for solo piano, many of which have been released by BIS. This disc presents first recordings of his music for chamber ensemble and chamber orchestra plus several world premiere recordings of art songs, including a new arrangement and the first completion of a fragment. The American collective Wild Beautiful Orchestra, made up of instrumentalists and singers renowned for their versatility and enthusiasm, and it's founder, conductor Chappell Kingsland, together with flautist Sharon Bezaly in the longest work, present this programme featuring previously unreleased music by the maverick composer. There is no doubt that this extraordinary variety will expand our collective appreciation of Sorabji's genius and that this album will serve as an entry point to his unique musical imagination.