Brilliant Classics Sale 2026

Brilliant Classics Sale 2026

Big works. Big collections. Brilliant savings.

For the next two weeks, save 25% on over 300 Brilliant Classics titles, including an incredible selection of iconic box sets perfect for building—or expanding—your classical collection.

Explore music from some of the world’s most celebrated composers, including Handel, Mozart, Haydn, Bach, and many more, all at a price worth making room on the shelf for.

Shop now before the sale ends Wednesday, October 7th, 2026 at 9:00AM!

    Hotel Teminus
    Brilliant Classics

    Hotel Teminus

    Vinyl · 1 disc

    $26.99 $34.99 Save 22%
    Composer
    Bosgraaf, Honing, Vanoli, Haanstra, Lijbaart, Van Es
    Artist
    Erik Bosgraaf, Yuri Honing
    Released
    Jan 09, 2026
    Seven pieces inspired by Bach's Brandenburg Concertos. A high-grade bio-vinyl LP transfer for a quirky album scored for a modern-jazz ensemble but crossing genre boundaries in a stylish fusion of Baroque, lounge, jazz and minimalism. Adler, Ibis, Western, Sheraton, Hyatt, Umai, Terminus. The titles of these instrumental songs evoke the restless nowhere space of the international hotel chain, where guests may feel at once at home, in a space of comforting familiarity, and yet curiously suspended from the world around and outside. Through the high-rise windows of a hotel, we see but are isolated from the surrounding cityscape, Tokyo or London or Los Angeles. The passage of time becomes redefined in these spaces, moving faster through the impermanence of one's stay and yet stretching out along their endless corridors, their smooth lifts and impersonal restaurants. All these sensations and impressions are evoked by Erik Bosgraaf and his colleagues. Passing impressions and sketches of particular places embed themselves within riffs and ostinatos. What is improvised, and what is composed? Such distinctions melt away. Meanwhile fragments of Baroque rhetoric - specifically, motifs and ideas drawn from the Brandenburg Concertos of Bach - surface from time to time, but on instruments and in contexts entirely foreign to Bach himself. In one sense, then, there is a kinship with the 'lift music' which accompanies listeners and guests on their frictionless passage to the 45th floor. In another, Bach is the grit in the oyster, reminding us that music is not another industrial process but the work of living genius. In Sheraton, the sublime melody from the slow movement of the First Brandenburg becomes stuck on a loop, while other instruments enter and leave. The album is a rich sonic metaphor for contemporary life but also a dream sequence as ideal in it's way for late-night consumption as the particular pleasure of a lonely brandy and soda, sipped in a penthouse bar while the world beyond flows ever onwards through it's diurnal cycle.
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  • Hotel Teminus
    Sale

    Hotel Teminus

    Brilliant Classics Jan 2026
    1 disc
    Vinyl
    $34.99 $26.99Save 22%
    Brilliant Classics

    Krebs: Complete Harpsichord Music / Benuzzi

    CD · 6 discs

    $25.99 $33.99 Save 23%
    Composer
    KREBS, JOHANN LUDWIG
    Artist
    Michele Benuzzi
    Released
    Sep 24, 2021

    The son of a Weimar-based organist, Johann Krebs (1713-1780) entered the Thomasschule in Leipzig under the tutelage of Capellmeister Bach at the age of 12 in 1726. There he remained for the best part of a decade, and a glowing testimonial from Bach commended his talents on the clavier, violin and lute, as well as in composition. Krebs never attained the Leipzig post which his instrumental talents deserved, but he served as an organist in several churches south of Leipzig through the course of a long and distinguished professional life which reached fruition as organist at the court of Prince Friedrich of Gotha-Altenburg from 1755 onwards. The inveterate traveler and commentator Charles Burney reported that ‘M. Krebs of Altenburg, scholar of Sebastian Bach, has been much admired for his full and masterly manner of playing the organ.’ The style of Krebs’s own music reflects the transitional period in which he lived. The hand of the master lightly guides the cosmopolitan elegance of the three partitas on album 1 of this collection. Krebs compiled a Clavier-Übung (Keyboard Practice) of his own in 1744, from which Michele Benuzzi performs a C major suite and, six lively Italianate sonatas. A volume of six suites from 1746 shows the influence of the galant style which was coming into fashion at the time, embodied by the output of Bach’s most accomplished son, Carl Philipp Emanuel. Several more suites here are sophisticated examples of Krebs’s mastery in the ‘French and Italian taste’ as well as demonstrating the fluency of his keyboard writing and the craftsmanship of his counterpoint.

    This important collection joins several other albums of little-known keyboard music from the period, recorded for Brilliant Classics by Michele Benuzzi. A student of Ottavio Dantone, he has performed the complete sonatas of Scarlatti and given recitals at major festivals in Europe and Asia.

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  • Krebs: Complete Harpsichord Music / Benuzzi
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    Krebs: Complete Harpsichord Music / Benuzzi

    Brilliant Classics Sep 2021
    6 discs
    CD
    $33.99 $25.99Save 23%
    Brilliant Classics

    Gurdjieff, De Hartmann: Complete Music for the Piano / Veen

    CD · 6 discs

    $25.99 $33.99 Save 23%
    Composer
    GURDJIEFF DE HARTMANN
    Artist
    Jeroen Van Veen
    Released
    Oct 22, 2021

    The Ukrainian composer Thomas De Hartmann (1885-1956) had undertaken a classic musical training with Anton Arensky and then Nikolai Taneyev before the death of his mother in 1912 prompted him to begin searching for a spiritual teacher. Four years later he made the encounter that would change his life, with the Armenian philosopher and mystic George Gurdjieff (1877-1949). Gurdjieff had his own musical training, as well as a sharp ear and retentive memory for the folk melodies which he heard on his long travels through central Asia and the middle East. De Hartmann and his wife joined Gurdjieff’s circle of followers, and the two men began to write music to accompany their spiritual exercises. This body of music eventually amounted to around 300 short pieces, of which the indefatigable Jeroen van Veen has recorded the entire published corpus of 170 divided into four volumes.

    During lockdown, Jeroen van Veen found himself with the time to immerse himself in this music, which ranges across Asian, Arabic and European systems of rhythm, harmony and tuning, so that he could capture its perfumed mysticism and improvisational character. There are solemn hymns of an Orthodox nobility, atmospheric tone poems such as the ‘Night Procession’, freely pianistic transcriptions of melodies from early-Christian sects such as the Essenes, modal-pentatonic melodies to accompany a ‘Sacred Reading from the Koran’ and to aid an awakening of consciousness in an elevated state of awareness, and then pieces simply titled after their date of composition. While overall meditative in mood, there is a tremendous variety to the Gurdjieff/De Hartmann collection, and Jeroen van Veen’s new recording is an ideally comprehensive way to dive into its riches.

    REVIEW:

    One can approach these pieces as being parallel to the Magyar folk music that Bartók and Kodály collected in the early 20th century and used as a basis for their own music, except that for the most part Gurdjieff and de Hartmann tried to keep the tunes intact as they stood and didn’t try to develop them in a standard Western classical manner.

    Taken a few pieces at a time, the music isn’t bad to listen to, but prolonged exposure to the whole six CDs can bore the more imaginative listener. Despite the intriguing Eastern harmonies, the music is repetitive and tiresome. This is not van Veen’s fault; he is a splendid pianist who plays the slow pieces with great atmosphere and the quicker ones with a lively rhythm; he does his best to engage your interest, and there are certainly some very cute and interesting pieces in this collection, but the lack of any development and the unvarying rhythm of each piece eventually take their toll on the listener. If there is such a thing as high quality background music, this is it. I would also recommend this music in the main as an aid to meditation so long as you realize that every so often there are upbeat numbers in the set and this may spoil your getting deeper into yourself (CD 2 has the most uptempo music).

    Of course, the real value of this set is to give a pianist, professional or amateur, who may wish to play some of these pieces the chance to hear them performed. There are other recordings out there of some of this repertoire, but having it all in one place is clearly helpful. A second pianist, Daff by Van Veen, plays with Jeroen on nine numbers if Series II of the Asian Songs and Rhythms, five pieces in Music of the Sayyids and Dervishes First Series, and a few other pieces thereafter.

    -- The Art Music Lounge (Lynn René Bayley)

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  • Gurdjieff, De Hartmann: Complete Music for the Piano / Veen
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    Gurdjieff, De Hartmann: Complete Music for the Piano / Veen

    Brilliant Classics Oct 2021
    6 discs
    CD
    $33.99 $25.99Save 23%
    Brilliant Classics

    Martynov Edition

    CD · 7 discs

    $25.48 $50.99 Save 50%
    Composer
    Vladimir Martynov
    Artist
    Academy Of Early Music Ense
    Released
    Oct 28, 2022

    Born in 1946, Vladimir Martynov is one of several composers from the former USSR whose music taps into a vein of perpetual memory and farewell. Literally so in the case of Der Abschied, an eight-movement cycle for small ensemble which stands on the threshold like a guest at a gathering of friends, unable or unwilling to shut the door behind them and venture out alone. One of Martynov’s most distinguished contemporaries was the Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov, who talked of a ‘genetic aural well’ for Russian music which, like Orthodox prayer, cannot be learnt as a text, but which exists beyond any text. Silvestrov explicitly recognized his own output as ‘meta-music’ or even ‘post-music’, and the same could be said of many pieces in Martynov’s output. Tiny motifs and gestures are layered and expanded across a meditative space in a distinctively Russian form of Minimalism that bears certain similarities with the better-known outputs of Pärt and Schnittke but pursues a consciously more austere path: both the Requiem and Stabat mater are imbued with the timeless qualities of chant and ancient melisma. Martynov’s music began to attract a certain cult following in the West during the 1990s with performances and recordings made principally by the violinist Gidon Kremer and his former partner, Tatiana Grindenko. As both a violinist and conductor, Grindenko has continued to keep Martynov’s flame burning, and she leads most of the performances here, which were made mostly in Moscow over the course of several years and in several cases receive here their first international release.

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  • Martynov Edition
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    Martynov Edition

    Brilliant Classics Oct 2022
    7 discs
    CD
    $50.99 $25.48Save 50%
    Brilliant Classics

    Langlais: Organ Music, Vol. 1 / Benati, Caporali

    CD · 5 discs

    $24.99 $32.99 Save 24%
    Composer
    Jean Langlais
    Artist
    Giorgio Benati, Fausto Caporali
    Released
    Jun 23, 2023

    Blind from the age of two, a prodigiously gifted student, Jean Langlais (1907-91) produced an immense quantity of music. His organ works alone exceed in number those of of Bach. Many have hardly ever been performed. Perhaps not more than half a dozen works are regularly played or recorded today, which is what makes this new complete survey of his organ music – the first ever attempted on record – both unique and invaluable, as the authoritative document of a high point in the distinguished lineage of the French organ heritage.

    The first volume of this projected complete survey ranges from his early set of 24 pieces written in the late 1930s and composed in all the major and minor keys, to the sublime economy of his Suite in Simplicitate from 1991. This major project has been undertaken jointly by the Italian organists Giorgio Benati and Fausto Caporali. Benati is a former student of Langlais, and Caporali has a string of successful French organ recordings to his credit. They have made these new recordings on Italian instruments, lending Langlais an ‘Italian accent’ while faithfully observing his expressive and registration markings in his scores. Booklet notes for each piece have been written by Giorgio Benati.

    REVIEW:

    Benati and Caporati offer an extensive survey of Langlais's sacred and secular output, including several liturgical collections that were published posthumously by his second wife, Marie-Louise Jacquet. The playing is energetic and committed. An excellent introduction to this neglected music, the best of which should be heard more often.

    -- American Record Guide

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  • Langlais: Organ Music, Vol. 1 / Benati, Caporali
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    Langlais: Organ Music, Vol. 1 / Benati, Caporali

    Brilliant Classics Jun 2023
    5 discs
    CD
    $32.99 $24.99Save 24%
  • Explorer Set - American Edition
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    Explorer Set - American Edition

    Piano Classics Jun 2025
    10 discs
    CD
    $32.99 $24.99Save 24%
  • Takemitsu: 12 Songs, Transcriptions for Guitar
    Brilliant Classics

    Takemitsu: 12 Songs, Transcriptions for Guitar

    Vinyl · 1 disc

    $24.99 $32.99 Save 24%
    Composer
    Toru Takemitsu
    Artist
    Andrea Dieci
    Released
    Jan 16, 2026
    A high-grade transfer to LP for a 2018 album of popular songs in delightful transcriptions by Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996), and played by an Italian guitarist who has made a speciality of this repertoire. 'My music is like a garden, and I am the gardener. Listening to my music can be compared to walking through a garden and experiencing the changes in light, pattern, and texture.' Widely considered to be the greatest composer in the classical music tradition in modern Japan, Toru Takemitsu merged Japanese and Western instruments and techniques to create a unique sound world. During the post-war years, in his youth, Takemitsu came into contact with Western music through radio broadcasts the American occupying forces - not only jazz, but especially classical music by Debussy and Schoenberg. 'Every afternoon they broadcast three hours, of beautiful classical music - Bruno Walter, Toscanini, or Paul Whiteman from the Hollywood Bowl. I listened to radio every day. My first teacher was the radio.' Takemitsu found a meeting place between pop and classical music in his scores for almost a hundred Japanese films such as Kurosawa's acclaimed Ran. The guitar also took a starring role in several of in concert works, such as the concerto To the Edge of Dream, and solo pieces such as Towards the Sea. But these transcriptions belong to a lighter genre, and make an affectionate homage to songwriters from George and Ira Gershwin to Lennon and McCartney. Londonderry Air, Over the Rainbow and The Internationale will not be found together on very many song albums, but Takemitsu's taste was as broad as his sensibility was refined. Amours perdues is a classic example of the postwar French chanson, by Joseph Kosma, while What a Friend (we have in Jesus) is a revivalist hymn from 1850s America. Andrea Dieci has recorded Takemitsu's 'own' concert music for the guitar more than once, lending his performance of these transcriptions a particular authority.
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  • Takemitsu: 12 Songs, Transcriptions for Guitar
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    Takemitsu: 12 Songs, Transcriptions for Guitar

    Brilliant Classics Jan 2026
    1 disc
    Vinyl
    $32.99 $24.99Save 24%
  • Explorer Set - Spanish Edition
    Piano Classics

    Explorer Set - Spanish Edition

    CD · 10 discs

    $24.99 $32.99 Save 24%
    Composer
    Isaac Albeniz, Manuel Font y de Anta, Manuel Espona, Manuel de Falla, Enrique Granados, Federico Mom
    Artist
    Jean-Francois Dichamp, Esteban Sanchez, Sebastian Stanley, Pedro Piquero, Riccardo Schwartz, Benita
    Released
    Mar 20, 2026
    A super-budget introduction to the riches of the Spanish piano repertoire, including many critically acclaimed recordings. While Domenico Scarlatti was born in Naples, he spent the greater part of his career on the Iberian peninsula, and died in Madrid in 1757 as the composer of 555 keyboard sonatas which would, more than any other single body of work, bring Spanish idioms into the mainstream of European classical music. Many organists and keyboard composers preceded him, but few if any could match his spirit of caprice and restless invention as he fused Hispanic rhythms with the fairly new form of the keyboard sonata. Thus it is fitting that Scarlatti is the earliest composer on this 'Spanish Explorer' box. His music was soon taken up as a model by native composers of subsequent generations, such as Manuel Espona (1714-1779) and Antonio Soler (1729-1783), in writing quirky single-movement sonatas of unpredictably arching melodies and sometimes frenetic developments which evoke the spirit of native dances such as the fandango. While CD1 of this box is an imaginary 'opera for piano', staged by Jean-François Dichamp, the principle could be extended to the box as a whole. Dichamp's opera is arranged around the pillars of the monumental cycle of Goyescas by Enrique Granados (1867-1916). This cycle, along with the Iberia of Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909), then extended the reach of Spanish piano music and defined it's character in a late-Romantic world. While neither Albéniz nor Granados were modernists by temperament, it is tempting to speculate how they and their music would have developed but for their early deaths in the first years of the last century. Instead the creative flame was passed to Manuel de Falla (1876-1946) and Joaquín Turina (1882-1949) and while de Falla's original output for piano is relatively vestigial, it includes the astonishing Fantasia Baetica which invites comparison with contemporary piano masterpieces by Bartók and Prokofiev in it's new pouring of 'national' character into the virtuoso piano tradition. As the most recent composer in this Spanish Explorer box, Federico Mompou (1893-1987) is also the least definably 'Spanish' - not least because he was a Catalan born and bred. The music itself defies close analysis, much like that of his model Erik Satie, and yet it's aura of intense contemplation has proved deeply rewarding for countless pianists and listeners alike.
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  • Explorer Set - Spanish Edition
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    Explorer Set - Spanish Edition

    Piano Classics Mar 2026
    10 discs
    CD
    $32.99 $24.99Save 24%
  • Stravinsky: Piano Music
    Brilliant Classics

    Stravinsky: Piano Music

    Vinyl · 1 disc

    $24.99 $32.99 Save 24%
    Composer
    Igor Stravinsky
    Artist
    Emanuele Delucchi
    Released
    Jul 17, 2026
    A high-grade transfer to LP for Emanuele Delucchi's scintillating survey of Stravinsky's solo piano music, originally released in 2023. Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) became a pivotal figure in musical modernism with the works he wrote for Serge Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, of which Le sacre du Printemps caused a scandal due to it's fierce, brutal, and openly sensual character. The quintessential nature of Le sacre is pianistically conceived - those pounding chords and unpredictable accents that fit under the fingers - and Stravinsky no less than Beethoven is a composer who self-evidently both thinks and writes at the piano. Yet Stravinsky's solo output for the instrument is relatively modest - surveyed here by Emanuele Delucchi within 50 minutes. Even here, Delucchi finds space for a real rarity, an arrangement of a section from the Symphonies for Wind instruments which, in the ineluctable progression of it's heavy and dense chords, once more reveals it's keyboard roots in this transcription. For the rest, the original piano music focuses piece by piece on familiar tropes: neoclassicism in the Sonata and Serenade; popular and vernacular styles in the Piano-Rag Music and Tango. Stravinsky used unconventional harmonies and rhythmic patterns, and often incorporated elements of folk music and jazz into his pieces. The Piano Sonata and Serenade in A can be described as neoclassical, blending traditional forms with a new tonal language. The Piano Rag Music, Tango, and Circus Polka are delightful examples of "light" entertainment music, spiced with syncopated rhythms and "wrong" notes. Emanuele Delucchi is one of the most remarkable pianists of his generation. He has the technique and style to master the most difficult pieces with ease, logic and elegance. He made his name with his Godowsky series for Piano Classics, including the vertiginously difficult Chopin Studies. 'Only top-flight virtuosos need apply,' remarked Jeremy Nicholas in Gramophone: 'Delucchi is one of them.
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  • Stravinsky: Piano Music
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    Stravinsky: Piano Music

    Brilliant Classics Jul 2026
    1 disc
    Vinyl
    $32.99 $24.99Save 24%
    Brilliant Classics

    Rudnev: Music for Guitar / Mamedkuliev, Begutov, Rudnev, Mityakov, Illarionov

    CD · 3 discs

    $23.99 $31.99 Save 25%
    Composer
    Sergei Rudnev
    Artist
    Sergei Rudnov, Aynur Begutov, Rovshan Mamedkuliev, Vladimir Mityakov, Dimitri Illarionov
    Released
    Feb 11, 2022
    Russian guitarist and composer Sergei Ivanovich Rudnev was born in 1955 in Tula. In 1975 he graduated in the accordion and balalaika class of Tula’s “Dargomyzhsky” Conservatory, and while attending this school he studied guitar with A. Slavsky and P. Panin in Moscow. On completion of these studies he was transferred to the Garrison Military Orchestra, where he served as an assistant conductor and learned to play the flute, percussion instruments and harmonica and was trained in arranging for pop orchestras. In the 80s Rudnev worked as musical director of various rock and jazz groups and accompanied various singers. Around the same time, he mastered symphonic arranging and studied composition with O. Feltsman and M. Tariverdiev. By the beginning of the 80s Rudnev had already written more than a hundred compositions for classical guitar and had begin a career as a concert guitarist. In 2015 Sergei Rudnev was named a Russian ‘National Treasure’, and numerous publications on his life and work hail Rudnev as ‘the soul’ of Russian guitar, a legend, a multi-instrumentalist and one-of-a-kind researcher. 2018 saw the publication of Russian Guitar Composers of the 19th Century, in which music written for Russia’s native seven-string guitar was arranged for classical guitar for the first time and thereby made accessible to the guitar community of the entire world. Rudnev’s compositions are played literally all over the world by both Russian and Western musicians, and the success of his music is now comparable to that of classical guitar luminaries such as H. Villa-Lobos, A. Barrios and F. Tárrega. His sincere and boundless love of Russian culture, deep knowledge of the developmental history of both the classical and the seven-string guitar and compositional innovation in a varied range of musical styles (from folk to jazz) have all contributed to Rudnev’s unique place in the guitar pantheon.
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  • Rudnev: Music for Guitar / Mamedkuliev, Begutov, Rudnev, Mityakov, Illarionov
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    Rudnev: Music for Guitar / Mamedkuliev, Begutov, Rudnev, Mityakov, Illarionov

    Brilliant Classics Feb 2022
    3 discs
    CD
    $31.99 $23.99Save 25%
  • Medtner: Complete Songs
    Brilliant Classics

    Medtner: Complete Songs

    CD · 5 discs

    $23.99
    Composer
    Nikolai Medtner
    Artist
    Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters
    Released
    Jan 09, 2026
    One of the most important vocal projects of recent years: the complete songs on 5 CDs by Nikolai Medtner, performed by Ekaterina Levental and Frank Peters. Nikolai Medtner was born in Moscow in 1880. After piano lessons with his mother he entered the Moscow Conservatory where he had lessons from Pavel Pabst and Sergey Taneyev. He won the prestigious Anton Rubinstein Prize at age 20. A younger contemporary of Scriabin and Rachmaninoff he was destined for a brilliant pianistic career but he chose to concentrate on composition. In 1936 he settled in London where he spent the rest of his life teaching and composing till 1951. Medtner's style is rooted in the 19th century, full-blooded romantic, with a highly personal harmonic and melodic language, often complex and dense, but hauntingly beautiful. His vocal works fuse intricate piano accompaniments with expressive melodies and poetic texts, often by Goethe, Pushkin, or Tyutchev. Ekaterina Levental was born in Uzbekistan. She settled in The Netherlands where she studied at the Conservatory of The Hague. She embarked on a successful career as singer, dramatist and theatre producer. Pianist Frank Peters is a highly respected Dutch pianist, both as soloist and chamber music partner. He is an indefatigable champion of the piano works of Medtner. 'Levental's soft high notes are truly exquisite, and she can do things with the voice that most modern singers cannot, such as to drain the voice of vibrato for expressive effect. All things considered, she is a virtuoso vocalist of the old school, and such artists are extremely rare nowadays... "We are very lucky to have a pianist like Peters, who fully understands this dichotomy, as the pianist on this album. " (Artmusiclounge. Com). "Levental has a dark, rich voice, but her pure tone is never burdened by excess vibrato... She couldn't ask for a more responsive partner than Peters, who reveals an astonishingly deft touch and an uncanny ear for detail. " Fanfare (Volume 1, 96056). "The phrasing is so perfect, the sense of line so keen, the rubato so natural sounding, that this seems the only way to sing them... this lucidity is due to the purity of Levental's voice, which she employs with sure intonation and minimum vibrato, as well with an exquisite (but always controlled) play of colour... This is a major release. " Fanfare (Volume 2, 96061).
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  • Medtner: Complete Songs

    Medtner: Complete Songs

    Brilliant Classics Jan 2026
    5 discs
    CD
    $23.99
  • Langlais: Organ Music, Vol. 3
    Brilliant Classics

    Langlais: Organ Music, Vol. 3

    CD · 5 discs

    $23.99
    Composer
    Jean Langlais
    Artist
    Giorgio Benati, Fausto Caporali, Alessandro Perin
    Released
    Jan 09, 2026
    Jean Langlais was born on February 15, 1907, in La Fontenelle, Brittany, France. He became blind from the age of two. Sent to the Paris National Institute for the Blind Youth in 1918, he studied piano, violin, harmony and organ with great blind teachers (among others Albert Mahaut and Andre Marchal). Later on, he entered the Paris National Conservatory of Music in the Marcel Dupre's organ class, obtaining a First Prize in 1930. In 1931, after studying improvisation with Charles Tournemire, he received the "Grand Prix d'Execution et Improvisation des Amis de l'Orgue". He completed his studies obtaining a Composition Prize in Paul Dukas' class at the Paris Conservatory in 1934. In 1945, he became the successor to Cesar Franck and Charles Tournemire at the prestigious organ tribune of Sainte-Clotilde in Paris. He gave countless concerts worldwide, and was a prolific composer. He died on May 8th, 1991 in Paris. Langlais' distinctive style combined traditional harmonies with contemporary techniques. His compositions often feature intricate organ textures and colourful harmonies, influenced by his background as a church musician. Langlais was also known for his use of modes and complex rhythms, which added to the unique character of his music. His works often have a strong emotional intensity and sense of drama, with frequent shifts in mood and dynamics. This is the third volume of the complete organ works includes sonatas, suites, Noels, the Symphony "Alla Webern", and many miscellaneous shorter works. Played by 3 excellent Italian organists: Giorgio Benati, Fausto Caporali and Alessandro Perin. The extensive booklet includes information on the organs used on this album.
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  • Langlais: Organ Music, Vol. 3

    Langlais: Organ Music, Vol. 3

    Brilliant Classics Jan 2026
    5 discs
    CD
    $23.99
    Brilliant Classics

    Ten Holt: Canto Ostinato (2 Piano Version) / Jeroen van Veen, Sandra van Veen

    CD · 3 discs

    $22.99 $29.99 Save 23%
    Composer
    Simeon ten Holt
    Artist
    Jeroen Van Veen, Sandra Van Veen
    Released
    Jan 07, 2022

    Canto Ostinato is the work that defines the legacy of the composer Simeon ten Holt, who died in 2012 at the age of 89. There are 106 sections of repeating five-beat patterns whose patterned, repetitive but gradually evolving repetition produce a mesmerizing effect on the listener – a dance-like sense of even unevenness – akin to masterpieces from the US minimalist school such as Steve Reich’s Music for 16 Musicians and Philip Glass’s Music in 12 Parts. However, the sections need not be repeated literally, and the performers can vary the dynamics, the manner of playing (legato vs. staccato, for example), and the octave in which the material is played.

    Ten Holt completed Canto Ostinato in 1979 for an instrumentation of three pianos and electronic organ, but the cycle has proved itself adaptable to several different combinations of keyboard instruments, and these versions were brought together by Jeroen van Veen on a compendium produced by Brilliant Classics in 2014. ‘Canto Ostinato XL’ (9453) included this two-piano scoring as well as versions for prepared pianos, organ and marimbas, but Jeroen and Sandra van Veen have re-recorded it in 2021; the fourth version they have produced, which brings together all the varieties of arrangement and articulation developed through the course of concert performances given across the world. ‘Tonality after the death of tonality’, Ten Holt described the language of Canto Ostinato, and Jeroen van Veen compares its style to the music of Chopin: tranquil, immersive, melancholic and romantic. He worked closely with the composer over many years and can justly be regarded as the most authoritative living performer of his music.

    REVIEW:

    For listeners coming to this music for the first time, you don’t know what you have been missing. I think a two-piano performance that lasts a little more or less than 120 minutes is a good place to start. (In his introduction to the score, ten Holt actually expressed a preference for four pianos, although the premiere was played by three pianos and an electronic organ.) The two van Veens recorded it together for the first time in 1996, and have recorded it on two pianos at least one other time (in 2008) before this new version from 2021. I think some of their earlier versions (alone or with other musicians) have been more dramatic (with an imaginative performer or performers, ten Holt’s works can be hair-raising, at times), but no one, least of all the composer, said that Canto Ostinato needs to be dramatic. With this new version, one is newly impressed by the music’s ability to maintain its core identity no matter how much the details change, and the details this time make the music sound a little more contemporary and a little less Romantic. Your mileage may vary. As for me, I am glad to add this version to my already not minimal ten Holt collection. 

    -- Fanfare

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  • Ten Holt: Canto Ostinato (2 Piano Version) / Jeroen van Veen, Sandra van Veen
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    Ten Holt: Canto Ostinato (2 Piano Version) / Jeroen van Veen, Sandra van Veen

    Brilliant Classics Jan 2022
    3 discs
    CD
    $29.99 $22.99Save 23%
    Brilliant Classics

    Lhoyer: Complete Guitar Duos / Antonio Rugolo, Angelo Gillo

    CD · 5 discs

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    Composer
    LHOYER, ANTOINE DE
    Artist
    Rugolo, Gillo
    Released
    Apr 23, 2021

    Among the most significant composers of guitar duos in the early 19th century, Antoine De Lhoyer was born in September 1768 in Clermont-Ferrand. His musical talents manifested themselves from early on, and he trained in Paris. His teacher Vidal paid tribute to him as ‘the finest guitarist in Europe’. However, at the age of 20, de Lhoyer embarked on a military career as a member of the King’s Guards, shortly before the French Revolution. Life in France rapidly becoming uncongenial for someone with his loyalties, he left France in a hurry and eventually settled in Hamburg, where his compositions were first published at the turn of the 19th century. De Lhoyer’s travels were by no means over, and over the following decades he took up posts as a professional music teacher and performer in St Petersburg, Paris, Corsica, Aix-en-Provence and Alger, the new capital of the French colony in north Africa. Eventually returning to the French capital, he died there in 1852, at the age of 84. The extant duos on this album were composed between 1814 and 1826, and they comprise a substantial proportion of his total output. One would expect the style of his music to reflect the lively, cosmopolitan nature of his career, and so they do, often cast in three- and four-movement sonata forms with picturesque interpolations such as the ‘hunt’ movement of Op.35 No.2 and the graceful Sicilienne of Op.35 No.5. The eight-movement Fantasie Concertante Op.33 is like a Mozartian serenade, with a superbly flowing Andante con variazioni directly succeeded by a brief but tranquil Adagio.

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    Lhoyer: Complete Guitar Duos / Antonio Rugolo, Angelo Gillo

    Brilliant Classics Apr 2021
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    Brilliant Classics

    Manuel de Falla Collection

    CD · 5 discs

    $21.99 $28.99 Save 24%
    Composer
    FALLA, MANUEL DE
    Artist
    Various
    Released
    Sep 24, 2021

    As the central figure of Spanish music in the first half of the last century, de Falla (1876-1946) came to define the sound of Spain for listeners beyond its borders. Folk music, romanticism, neoclassicism, modernism: all the prevalent styles of his time were assimilated and absorbed within a personal idiom that advanced the work of notable predecessors such as Albeniz and Granados in establishing a distinctively Spanish idiom for art music, making him a worthy contemporary of other composers outside the central European mainstream from Vaughan Williams in England to Bartók in Hungary and Sibelius in Finland. Falla’s cycle of Seven Popular Spanish Songs is a perfect synthesis of artsong and folksong, performed here in Luciano Berio’s orchestration by Marta Senn and the Simon Bolivar Orchestra of Venezuela under the baton of Eduardo Mata, the Mexican conductor renowned for his dynamic interpretations of Hispanic repertoire. The songs return in their instrumental guise as the Suite populaire espagnole, with the cellist Timora Rosler accompanied by Klára Würtz. Rafael Puyana is a uniquely sympathetic soloist in the Harpsichord Concerto which gave the instrument new life beyond its Baroque associations. Benita Meshulam is widely recognized as the inheritor of Alicia de Larrocha’s mantle with her superbly atmospheric recordings of Spanish piano music.

    REVIEW:

    Manuel de Falla Collection is an honest title, since the five CDs present only a selection of his works, including well-known ones such as Nights in Spanish Gardens, El Amor Brujo, and The Three-Cornered Hat. The recordings with the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra from 1981 convey particularly well the intensity of Spanish emotional worlds that Central Europeans like to assume. The round is opened with El Amor Brujo in a striking and lively performance. The interpretation of the Seven popular Spanish Songs, as well as Homenajas let the listener dive into Spanish worlds. The three dances from The Three-Cornered Hat in the version for orchestra will be joined by others in the piano version on a later CD.

    For the recordings made in Venezuela, the conductor Eduardo Mata certainly holds the orchestra together and inspires it to effective performances. One could well imagine more sensitivity here, the nocturnal sultriness of the tango instead of the midday heat, so to speak, but there is little more to offer in the way of fire and color. More delicacy without sacrificing the technical quality of the recording is offered by the oldest recording.

    In Nights in Spanish Gardens, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra performs under the judicious direction of Günther Herbig. The singers go along with the emotional South American approach, not without delicately savoring the music.

    The two pianists offer mature quality. Benita Mehuslam, who has also recorded the complete works for piano by De Falla on the label, is featured here with excerpts, Dances from the The-Cornered Hat and Spanish pieces. In the only chamber work, besides the piano music, Klara Würtz accompanies cellist Timora Rosler on the piano in the Suite Populaire Espagnole. The two artists, who have also won awards as a duo, give the top dance of sensitivity and European noblesse, so to speak, with their interpretation that concludes the collection. Harpsichordist Rafael Puyana from Colombia can show all the registers of his skills in the harpsichord concerto. Here and also in El Retablode Maese Pedro as well as in Psyche the Solistas de Mexico play, again conducted by Eduardo Mata. Those who want to experience this composer intensively will find in this compilation a good opportunity to be infected by the joie de vivre of the music.

    -- Pizzicato

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  • Manuel de Falla Collection
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    Manuel de Falla Collection

    Brilliant Classics Sep 2021
    5 discs
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    Brilliant Classics

    Nordic Symphonies

    CD · 10 discs

    $21.48 $42.99 Save 50%
    Composer
    Hugo Alfven, Edvard Hagerup Grieg, Carl Nielsen, Jean Sibelius, Wilhelm Stenhammar, Johan Svendsen
    Artist
    Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester, Royal S
    Released
    Feb 16, 2024

    From the outset of his career, Jean Sibelius was recognized as an outstanding representative of a musical language perceived as typically Finnish. In Finland, the dawn of the 20th century saw a veritable outbreak of nationally inspired artistic activities., It was a time of cultural and national self-discovery for Sibelius, too. He allowed himself be stimulated by the whole of Finland’s folklore tradition, without resorting to specific examples of folksong.

    For many years, Carl Nielsen was viewed outside his native Denmark as the poor cousin of his more famous Scandinavian counterparts, Grieg and Sibelius. Yet his achievements as Denmark’s greatest symphonist of the 20th century were, if anything, even more remarkable than the successes of his geographical neighbors. Nielsen’s symphonic output is some of the most remarkable of its time.

    The Norwegian conductor and composer Johann Svendsen was born in 1840 in Christiania (now Oslo). in 1867, he finished his Symphony No. 1, a work that Grieg later described as showing scintillating genius, superb national feeling and really brilliant handling of an orchestra. In 1872 Svendsen returned to Christiania beginning a fruitful period that saw the creation of his Symphony No. 2 in B flat major Op. 15.

    Hugo Alfven's First Symphony (1897) has a melancholy Sturm und Drang mood that recurs at intervals in his later compositions, but there is also a life affirming side that flourished in his Second Symphony, two years later. Of his Third Symphony, he stated "it depicts neither concrete nor abstract. It is an expression of the joy of living, an expression of the sun-lit happiness that filled my whole being.”

    Wilhelm Stenhammar's Symphony Op. 34  saw the light of day in 1907, dedicating it to “my dear friends, the members of the Goteborg Symphony Orchestra.” He was to remain its chief conductor until 1922. That symphony, which had its first performance under the composer’s direction in 1915, was in fact Stenhammar’s second and is today called Symphony No. 2, even if the composer himself never gave it that number.

    Edvard Grieg’s Symphony in C minor, which the composer withdrew, saw scholar after scholar writing about it disparagingly, with much discussion of the its style, all too often based on the question: what are its unoriginal or unsuccessful features? But it was Grieg himself who began the tradition with his admonition that it “must never be performed”. Now, however, very few feel, on moral grounds, that the work should not be performed.

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    Nordic Symphonies

    Brilliant Classics Feb 2024
    10 discs
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  • Langlais: Organ Music, Vol. 2
    Brilliant Classics

    Langlais: Organ Music, Vol. 2

    CD · 1 disc

    $20.99 $26.99 Save 22%
    Composer
    Jean Langlais
    Artist
    Giorgio Benati, Fausto Caporali, Alessandro Perin
    Released
    Jul 19, 2024
    Blind from the age of two, a prodigiously gifted student, Jean Langlais (1907-91) produced an immense quantity of music. His organ works alone exceed in number those of JS Bach. Many have hardly ever been performed. Perhaps not more than half a dozen works are regularly played or recorded today, which is what makes this new complete survey of his organ music so invaluable, as the authoritative document of a high point in the distinguished lineage of the French organ heritage. The second volume of this complete survey opens with the third and last of his organ symphonies, among the most imposing and yet overlooked of his major works. More familiar are the Gregorian-inspired Suite medievale, the Triptyque, and the Triptyque Grégorien, whose flowing melodies share a spirit of Catholic mysticism with briefer meditations such as the Prière des Mages, the Incantation pour un Jour Saint and the Palm-Sunday voluntary Dominica in Palmis. As a collection of character pieces, Mosaique shows off Langlais's versatility, by turns solemn and joyful, songful and stormy. This sheer variety of form alone makes him stand out among French 20th-century composers for the organ. Throughout his life, Langlais wrote in many different styles and, true to his ideal, still retained the ability to surprise. This major project has been undertaken jointly by the Italian organists Giorgio Benati, Fausto Caporali and Alessandro Perin. Benati is a former student of Langlais, and Caporali has a string of successful French organ recordings to his credit. They have made these new recordings on Italian instruments, lending Langlais an 'Italian accent' while faithfully observing his expressive and registration markings in his scores. Booklet notes for each piece have been written by Giorgio Benati.
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    Langlais: Organ Music, Vol. 2

    Brilliant Classics Jul 2024
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    Brilliant Classics

    Groot: Hommage - Piano Music / Bogaart, Nauta

    CD · 2 discs

    $18.99 $24.99 Save 24%
    Composer
    Cor De Groot
    Artist
    Folke Nauta, Jacob Bogaart
    Released
    Dec 09, 2022

    The name of Cor de Groot (1914-1993) adorned the cover of many LPs of canonic concertos and sonatas throughout the 1950s, when his qualities were summed up in High Fidelity magazine in a review of the first two concertos of Beethoven: ‘De Groot is a solid and sympathetic interpreter in the Central European tradition... His playing impresses with its substance and authority rather than with ostentation and glitter.’ Some of those recordings have received modern reissues on album, but his own compositions have received comparatively little attention. An early Sonatina pokes fun at serial technique, before an Old Holland Suite deftly sketches a sequence of 11 Dutch landscapes and portraits. A sequence of five Homenajes documents his fondness for Spain, played here by its dedicatee Jacob Bogaart.

    Folke Nauta likewise became a friend and colleague of de Groot, making him an ideal pianist to record the repertoire for left-hand piano which the composer wrote once a long term injury to his right hand had derailed his career at the end of the 1950s. Eastern European influences such as Bartók can be found in most of the seven movements of Apparitions, while a trio of later miniatures such as Cloches dans le matin (1979) makes a virtue of simplicity. Between them, Nauta has made an imaginative selection of music written for de Groot, as a left-handed pianist, by friends and colleagues including Willem, Juuriaan and Louis Andriessen, allreceiving their first recordings here. The collection ends on a note of personal homage and affection with EnCor, which Jacob Bogaart wrote in 2013 as a reminiscence of his improvisation and practice sessions with de Groot. Both pianists contribute substantial essays to the booklet, which is further enhanced by a memoir of the pianist by the curator, musicologist and producer Frits Zwart.

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    Groot: Hommage - Piano Music / Bogaart, Nauta

    Brilliant Classics Dec 2022
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  • Novecento Guitar Variations
    Brilliant Classics

    Novecento Guitar Variations

    CD · 3 discs

    $18.99
    Composer
    Boris Vladimirovic Asafiev, Leonardo Balada, Oscar Bellomo, Lennox Berkeley, Ermanno Brignolo, Franc
    Artist
    Cristiano Porqueddu
    Released
    Apr 30, 2026
    The dazzling Sardinian guitarist returns to the studios for a breathtaking compendium of variation sets, many of them never recorded before, by many of the most enduring names in guitar composition of the last century. Through the course of his long partnership with Brilliant Classics, Cristiano Porqueddu has attracted superlatives and enthusiasm from all corners of the critical press and listeners everywhere. There's no denying the ability of Cristiano Porqueddu,' wrote David Hurwitz in Classics Today, citing the guitarist's 'rich sound and dexterous handling of his instrument.' His colleague Jed Distler noted that Porqueddu's 'nuanced articulation allows him to sustain and spin out legato lines as if his fingers had bows.' Porqueddu's collection of 20th-century variation sets surveys a kaleidoscopic variety of styles and idioms, demonstrating in the process the guitarist's own breadth of vision as well as his virtuosic technique and insightful musicianship. He begins with a monster of the form: the 45-minute sequence of variations on a theme of Fernando Sor, by the US composer Mark Delpriora. Musician and listener are taken on an astonishing tour de force of invention, as Sor's melancholy tune becomes the raw text for vivid pastiches and parodies in the style of canon composers from Beethoven through to Schoenberg and Busoni. Characteristically, set the challenge to 'follow that', Porqueddu does just that, with a work of his own, which takes it's inspiration from Foucault's Pendulum. On the following discs, the withdrawn, lyrical chromaticism presents a compelling contrast with both the Russian romanticism of Boris Asafiev preceding him, and the implacable shadows of the Raighines by Ermanno Brignolo. This last work was composed for Porqueddu himself, while John Duarte's Variations on a Catalan Folksong were composed in 1956 at the suggestion of John Williams; and it is in this distinguished lineage that Porqueddu belongs. Some of the following works inspire wonder at their intricacy (both executive and compositional), such as the interwoven Variants on Two Themes of Bach by Reginald Smith-Brindle, while others major on charm, such as the first set of Mozartiana composed by Porqueddu's teacher, Angelo Gilardino. There's something for everyone.
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    Novecento Guitar Variations

    Brilliant Classics Apr 2026
    3 discs
    CD
    $18.99
  • Ihor Shamo: Piano Music
    Brilliant Classics

    Ihor Shamo: Piano Music

    CD · 3 discs

    $18.99
    Composer
    Igor Shamo
    Artist
    Dimitri Tchesnokov
    Released
    Sep 11, 2026
    These first recordings galore on a comprehensive survey of a major 20th-century Ukrainian composer. Born in Kiev in 1925, Igor Shamo studied with the elder statesman of modern Ukrainian art music, Boris Lyatoshinsky. Schumann, Mussorgsky and Rachmaninov were the giants of the past who seized the young Shamo's attention, and traces of their impassioned, lyrically centred idioms may be discerned throughout the early works on CD1 of this new recording such as the Ukrainian Suite, Classical Suite and Shamo's own take on Pictures at an Exhibition in his suite of Pictures by Russian Painters. The second CD is occupied by two more substantial cycles, of 12 Preludes from 1962 and six impressionistic Aquarelles from a decade later - both the appreciation and execution of painting was important to Shamo throughout his life. The final CD gathers up piano pieces throughout Shamo's career, from the Marche fantastique, which so impressed the professors of the Kiev Conservatoire when the composer elected at the last minute to play it for his entrance exam, to three dances composed in 1972 and inspired by the folk culture of nearby Soviet republics, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. A counterpoint to their uncomplicated charms may be found in the three Songs of Friendship from 1954, in which Shamo treats melodies from Poland, Romania and what was then Czechoslovakia. Though jazz and minimalist techniques periodically surface in Shamo's music, it bears the stamp of it's Soviet times in it's generally sunny character and clearly laid-out forms - though the serenity of the Ninth Prelude is answered by the machine-gun-fire Tenth, and Bartok casts a shadow over this music almost as often as Prokofiev. Dmitri Tchesnokov is, like Shamo, a native of Kiev, born in 1982 and long resident in France, where he pursues a career as both composer and pianist, as well as founding a directing a well-established festival of contemporary piano music in Paris. - Igor Shamo (1925-1982) was born in Kiev, Ukraine, where his composition teacher at the national Conservatory was the famous composer Boris Lyatoshinsky. Attached to his home land he declined an invitation to move to Moscow, and he stayed the rest of his life in his native Kiev, where he became a highly respected composer and teacher. - Shamo wrote orchestral works, chamber music, songs and works for film and theatre. His piano works however form the core of his oeuvre. His musical language is tonal and based on classical principles (his favourite composer was J.S. Bach). The melodies have a strong narrative character, the harmonies are based on classical and popular modes, enriched by chromaticism and jazz. All his works are rooted in the rich folklore of his native country Ukraine, the moods alternating between melancholic sadness and gloom and dance-inspired frenzy. - Dimitri Tchesnokov is an excellent pianist and an important composers himself as well. His works are increasingly noted, especially his haunting and mystical choral works. He wrote the extensive liner notes for this set himself, in English and French.
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  • Ihor Shamo: Piano Music

    Ihor Shamo: Piano Music

    Brilliant Classics Sep 2026
    3 discs
    CD
    $18.99
    Brilliant Classics

    Giuliani: Complete Music for Flute & Guitar / Mesirca, Ruggieri

    CD · 4 discs

    $17.99 $23.99 Save 25%
    Composer
    Mauro Giuliani
    Artist
    Daniele Ruggieri, Alberto Mesirca
    Released
    Mar 25, 2022

    Mauro Giuliani (1781-1828) was a contemporary of Schubert and one of the many Italian guitar virtuosos who had to flee his own country to get noticed. He ended up in Vienna frequently playing in the fashionable salons and contributing to the guitar becoming all the rage there. As a composer he mainly wrote for his own use: around 200 pieces in all. Many of his works are still popular today, and belong to the standard guitar repertoire. 'Composer, or rather translator of beauty'. This is how Giuliani described himself in a letter to Anton Diabelli on 24 January 1824, and it contains all the poetry and aesthetics of his music, which is quintessentially beautiful, charming, melodious and witty. This new recording presents the complete works for flute and guitar, a popular combination. Included are sets of variations on popular themes from operas, serenades and divertimenti, potpourri’s, Grand Duo’s and Marches, a veritable treasure trove of instrumental brilliance and joie de vivre.

    Flutist Daniele Ruggieri completed his studies in Venice where he graduated with the highest marks under Guido Novello and subsequently in Geneva where he was awarded the first Prix de Virtuosité in the class of Maxence Larrieu, after which he built an impressive career as a soloist and ensemble player: “...Rarely will you hear the flute flutter around a concert hall in such a beautiful and playful display of virtuosity.” (M. Connolly, The Times, London). Master guitarist Alberto Mesirca is twice winner of the Golden Guitar, for the best recording of the Year. He recorded the complete guitar music by Regondi, Asencio and Sanz, and “Voces de Sefarad”, four centuries of Sephardic Songs.

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  • Giuliani: Complete Music for Flute & Guitar / Mesirca, Ruggieri
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    Giuliani: Complete Music for Flute & Guitar / Mesirca, Ruggieri

    Brilliant Classics Mar 2022
    4 discs
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    L. Couperin: Complete Harpsichord Music / Berghella

    CD · 5 discs

    $17.99 $22.99 Save 21%
    Composer
    Louis Couperin
    Artist
    Massimo Berghella
    Released
    Jul 28, 2023

    Performers and listeners alike have long gravitated to Louis Couperin's music more than to that of any other member of the French keyboard school of the time, probably because of its fascinating and surprising harmonic language. There are 129 pieces catalogued as authentic.

    In making this new recording of all 129 pieces, Massimo Berghella has chosen to take the Preludes as starting points for ‘suites’ – 17 in all – which gather up the remaining dance movements into coherent sequences cast in the same key as the relevant Prelude.

    Among the most distinguished active Italian harpsichordists, Massimo Bergella studied with Kenneth Gilbert at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. He has a 30-year-long career as a teacher himself, as well as a performance diary and discography that has taken him across Europe for recitals, broadcasts and recordings. Of a previous album of d’Anglebert, La Nazione remarked that Berghella ‘grasps the reconstructive necessity of the scores, performing them in all their poetic complexity.’

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    L. Couperin: Complete Harpsichord Music / Berghella

    Brilliant Classics Jul 2023
    5 discs
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    Brilliant Classics

    Merulo: Organ Music il primo libro de ricercari da cantare / Tasini

    CD · 3 discs

    $16.99 $21.99 Save 22%
    Composer
    MERULO, CLAUDIO
    Artist
    Francesco Tasini
    Released
    Sep 24, 2021
    According to fellow organist and composer Costanzo Antegnati (1549–1624), Claudio Merulo (1533–1604) was famous for ‘the sweet way he played’. In the 16th century the term ‘sweetness’ was mainly related to the practice of ‘diminution’, or ornamentation, with skillfully executed passeggiando and a ‘judicious breaking up of the figures’, so that the application of the coloratura might confer a personal and lively chiaroscuro effect. In 1574 Merulo published Il primo libro de ricercari da cantare, a qvattro voci in four separate vocal part-books (soprano, alto, tenor, bass), and for this album Francesco Tasini has aptly scored, intabulated, adapted and diminished the Ricercari for performance on the organ. Out of respect for Merulo’s original, Tasini’s diminution of the 19 Ricercari of the Libro primo always retains each part as it appeared, deliberately abstaining from any temporary suspension of a line which could be brought about in order to give space to the coloratura of another part. The process of diminution is not limited to the ‘filling in’ of long note durations with passages of short notes; it also includes a rhetorical game enacted between the parts through syncopes, delayed entrances, changes of register, slurs and various echo and other effects to achieve an underlying lively discourse, as well as arpeggio effects typical of organ practice which Tasini has modelled on numerous passages found in Merulo’s two books of Toccate. The addition of coloratura highlights and brings out the formal division within each ricercare and, in addition to the cadences, establishes a different application for each new subject, so as to enhance its distinctive features.
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    Merulo: Organ Music il primo libro de ricercari da cantare / Tasini

    Brilliant Classics Sep 2021
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    Brilliant Classics

    Portrait of Sardinia / Porqueddu

    CD · 3 discs

    $16.99 $33.99 Save 50%
    Composer
    VARIOUS
    Artist
    Porqueddu, Luciani, Apeddu
    Released
    Sep 24, 2021
    ‘Cristiano Porqueddu is a master guitarist,’ says the Cuban composer Leo Brouwer, ‘and one of the foremost representatives of the new generation of soloists. He brings sound to life, and then turns it into art.’ Like many of the other composers in this remarkable collection, he has composed more than one piece for Porqueddu and now pays tribute with a piece which draws inspiration from the guitarist’s homeland of Sardinia. Diálogo del Olivo y el Nuraga (‘Dialogue of the Olive Trees and the Nuraghe’) imagines a wordless exchange between two ancient features of the Sardinian landscape, the trees which have provided food and fuel and money for its people for centuries, and the Stone-Age towers which dot the island. Each of the works here tells a vivid story: Porqueddu’s own Sonata III is subtitled ‘The Rite of Fire’ after an ancient Sardinian legend which imagines Saint Anthony and his piglet descending to Hell in order to procure some firelight. Angelo Gilardino draws on his personal memories of sights and sounds experienced when visiting the island in his Sardegna Suite (including another piece evoking the nuraghe). Francesco Morittu is a native-born Sardinian guitarist-composer, whereas Mark Delpriora is an American guitarist who heads the guitar faculty at the Manhattan School of Music; both have contributed intensely atmospheric pieces, which capture the island’s wildness as well as its sense of isolation. Born in 1988 in the Italian province of Velletria, Kevin Swierkosz-Lenart is the youngest composer featured in the collection with a suite inspired by three works of the Sardinian painter Giuseppe Biasi, who also contributes the artwork for the collection’s cover.
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  • Portrait of Sardinia / Porqueddu
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    Portrait of Sardinia / Porqueddu

    Brilliant Classics Sep 2021
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    Vivaldi: Complete Sonatas for 2 Violins and B.C. / L'Archicembalo

    CD · 3 discs

    $16.99 $21.99 Save 22%
    Composer
    VIVALDI, ANTONIO
    Artist
    L'Archicembalo
    Released
    Sep 24, 2021
    Antonín Vivaldi (1678-1741) was 27 years old when his Opus 1 collection of 12 sonatas first appeared in print in 1705. Whether or not they represent his earliest acknowledged compositions, they certainly mark the start of a glittering career, bearing already identifiable Vivaldian fingerprints while also drawing on a heritage of Italianate chamber music exemplified by the trio sonatas of Corelli. The form of these early works resembles a suite rather than the three- and four-movement pieces determined by tempo marking which soon became standard practice for the sonatas and concertos composed by Vivaldi in such profusion. In all but three of the Opus 1 Sonatas, a freely developed prelude introduces a sequence of three dance movements such as sarabandes, gigues and gavottes. Solemnity and lively intimacy sit side by side, in an ingenious synthesis of church and chamber modes of expression. Vivaldi’s Opus 1 reaches a grand climax with a free-standing set of variations on the most popular melody in 18th century Italy, ‘La Folia’. This grave and antique chord-sequence of Spanish origin inspired the 20-something composer to handle the familiar instrumental line-up in a bold new way, liberating the bass line from a supporting role and giving some especially brilliant canonical dialogues to the two violins. The sonata demonstrates the degree to which vocal writing inspired Vivaldi’s slow movements and paved the way for his future ventures in opera. The album is completed by two sonatas from the Opus 5 collection published in 1716, and six more sonatas without an opus number (RV 60, 68, 71, 71, 74 and 77 in the Vivaldi catalogue), all scored for the same combination of instruments.
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  • Vivaldi: Complete Sonatas for 2 Violins and B.C. / L'Archicembalo
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    Vivaldi: Complete Sonatas for 2 Violins and B.C. / L'Archicembalo

    Brilliant Classics Sep 2021
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    Brilliant Classics

    Malipiero: Complete Songs for Soprano and Piano / Vansìsiem Lied Duo

    CD · 3 discs

    $16.99 $21.99 Save 22%
    Composer
    Malipiero, Gian Francesco
    Artist
    Vanisiem Lied Duo
    Released
    Nov 19, 2021

    Belonging to the generation of Respighi but dying several decades later, Gian Francesco Malipiero (1882-1973) is a far more varied composer than listeners to his post-Romantic chamber and orchestral music would guess. This album is both the most comprehensive publication ever issued of his song output on record, and a valuable opportunity to reappraise an often under-rated 20th-century composer. Malipiero wrote songs throughout his career, and in his late 20s found an affinity with the visionary and influential poet Gabriele d’Annunzio. Their artistic partnership began in 1909 with I sonetti delle fate, full of Wagnerian yearning in the spirit of Debussy’s incidental music to d’Annunzio’s St Sebastian play. The composer’s literary leanings and gifted word setting soon produced equally idiomatic settings of French poetry in a set of Cinq mélodies and an elliptical cycle of three poems (titled in English) by Georges Jean-Aubry, Keepsake. With Le stagioni italiche, however, Malipiero shows himself up to date and in sympathy with the latest developments in expressionist song writing from the pens of Mahler, Schoenberg and Webern, and with an ambition to match: a 40-minute cycle of four varied texts ranging from the 15th century to Malipiero’s own day. Like much else here, the cycle has previously been recorded but never in the context of Malipiero’s other songs which help us to understand the composer’s stylistic evolution. Three years later, there followed a through-composed drama based on the ancient legend of Philomel (immortalized by Ovid in the Metamorphoses) from which Malipiero extracted a cycle of three songs. He continued to refresh his style and innovate with Le sette allegrezze d’amore from 1945, but little in his music prepares the listener for the pointilliste precision of the Sette canzonette veneziane from 1960.

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  • Malipiero: Complete Songs for Soprano and Piano / Vansìsiem Lied Duo
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    Malipiero: Complete Songs for Soprano and Piano / Vansìsiem Lied Duo

    Brilliant Classics Nov 2021
    3 discs
    CD
    $21.99 $16.99Save 22%
    Brilliant Classics

    Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier on Lute-Harpsichord / Rübsam

    CD · 5 discs

    $16.99 $21.99 Save 22%
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Artist
    Wolfgang Rubsam
    Released
    Apr 21, 2023

    At 76, Wolfgang Rübsam is undoubtedly one of the Bachians of our time, and yet until quite recently his long and distinguished discography has included no recording of the single most central collection to Bach’s output as a keyboard musician, the two volumes of The Well-Tempered Clavier. Rübsam’s chosen instrument for this recording is the lute-harpsichord: a unique keyboard instrument with a unique sound that Bach apparently cherished. It is more forceful than the clavichord but less brilliant than the conventional harpsichord, requiring a touch of its own.

    According to Fanfare magazine’s review of the set when originally released, ‘I thought I’d heard it all. I was mistaken, and never, on any instrument, have I encountered a take on these masterpieces that breathes such new life into them.’ This set is now widely available on CD for the first time, and joins Rübsam’s other recordings on the lute-harpsichord for Brilliant Classics, of music by Bach and Weiss, as well as a complete set of the organ works by Louis Vierne.

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  • Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier on Lute-Harpsichord / Rübsam
    Sale

    Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier on Lute-Harpsichord / Rübsam

    Brilliant Classics Apr 2023
    5 discs
    CD
    $21.99 $16.99Save 22%
    Brilliant Classics

    Boellmann, Widor & d'Indy: French Cello Sonatas, Vol. 2 / Tarasova, Sokolov

    CD · 1 disc

    $16.99 $21.99 Save 22%
    Composer
    Leon Boellmann, Vincent D'Indy, Charles Marie Widor
    Artist
    Marina Tarasova, Ivan Sokolov
    Released
    Jul 28, 2023

    Leon Böellmann (1862-1897) was born in the Alsatian town of Ensisheim. He moved to Paris after the Franco-Prussian War after which Alsace became part of Germany. In Paris, he studied organ, piano and composition at the Classical Music School, graduating from it with honors. After graduation, he worked as a teacher at school. His compositions brought him considerable recognition, and he would almost certainly have made a bigger name for himself if he had not died at the young age of 35. Presented on this album is his remarkable Cello Sonata Op. 40, hailing from the late French Romantic period.

    The Cello Sonata Op. 80 in A major of 1907, by Charles-Marie Widor (1844–1937), is a grandiose work consisting of three movements with a magnificent introduction, foreshadowing a sonata full of ideas. When comparing the cello part with other sonatas of the period, a cellist feels that Widor cared little for technical constraints. Due in part to the use of huge intervals, the cello part matches the piano part for virtuosity. The sonata’s premiere was given by Jules Lebeau and the composer on 14 March 1907 at the salon of Madame Max, who also offered Widor’s Violin Sonata Op. 79 in the same program.

    Vincent d’Indy (1851–1931) was a French composer and organist, conductor and teacher, music critic, publicist and meaningful public figure. He lived a long and active live throughout at least three epochs of French history. He is considered the greatest representative of the César Frank School of composition. His Sonata for Cello and Piano Op.84 was written in 1925 when d’Indy was over 70 years old. His style had undergone significant changes in the years following his retirement and move from Paris to the south of France, where he composed a series of works generally in a bright and cheerful mood. Despite its name, this Sonata in fact takes the form of a Baroque suite. The opening movement (Entrée) is elegant and charming. This is followed by a Gavotte in Rondo, in which pizzicato in the cello is used to evoke the lute. The third part (titled "Air") is characterized by a soft and melancholic mood. The finale (Gigue) is a lively updated form of this baroque dance.

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  • Boellmann, Widor & d'Indy: French Cello Sonatas, Vol. 2 / Tarasova, Sokolov
    Sale

    Boellmann, Widor & d'Indy: French Cello Sonatas, Vol. 2 / Tarasova, Sokolov

    Brilliant Classics Jul 2023
    1 disc
    CD
    $21.99 $16.99Save 22%
    Brilliant Classics

    Las Huelgas Codex, Vol. 1

    CD · 2 discs

    $16.99
    Composer
    Anonymous
    Artist
    Armoniosoincanto, Franco Radicchia, Gruppo Vocale Garda Trentino, Enrico Miaroma, Gruppo Vocale Gard
    Released
    Nov 17, 2025

    One of the most important sources to be copied in the 14th century, the Codex of Las Huelgas is an anthology of chants from the 13th century that are prime examples of the Ars Antiqua. It includes many original pieces, as well as some that can be found elsewhere in various Spanish sources, and others that originally came from the Notre-Dame school. Two specialist Italian vocal groups share in the epic project of recording the entire Codex, with these two discs constituting the first instalment.

    The performing styles of Armoniosoincanto and the Gruppo Vocale Garda Trentino are tonally different but share similarities in their approach to interpreting the various pieces. The young voices of the Gruppo Vocale Garda Trentino offer a luminosity and a rhythmic effect that creates a brilliant, precise vocal quality, always expressive and communicative. Armoniosoincanto presents interpretative impulses that are more reflective and controlled – partly in response to the texts, and partly due to the group’s vocal timbre, which is more mature in certain respects. That is not to say that this timbre is any less brilliant where required, nor any less mellow in the psalmodic formulations.

    These performances are based on the transcriptions published by the Codex’s first editor, Higinio Anglès, in El CoÌdex Musical de Las Huelgas (Muìsica a veus dels segles XIII–XIV) (1931) and on Juan Carlos Asensio’s work El Códice Polifonico de Las Huelgas: aspectos codicológicos y notacionales – La Música en el Monasterio de Las Huelgas en tiempos de su Códice Polifònico (Editorial Apuerto, 2001).

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  • Las Huelgas Codex, Vol. 1

    Las Huelgas Codex, Vol. 1

    Brilliant Classics Nov 2025
    2 discs
    CD
    $16.99
  • Renotte: Pieces de Clavecin
    Brilliant Classics

    Renotte: Pieces de Clavecin

    CD · 3 discs

    $16.99
    Composer
    Hubert Renotte
    Artist
    Fernando De Luca
    Released
    Nov 28, 2025
    Another discovery unearthed by Brilliant Classics, and another name to add to the library of French-Baroque masters, from the voraciously inquisitive mind and virtuoso hands of Fernando de Luca. Who was Hubert Renotte (1704-1745)? He was born and died in the Belgian city of Liege, and for the last decade of his life served as the titular organist of the cathedral there. Accordingly he wrote a good deal of church music, which remains as overlooked as his output for keyboard. This in itself encompasses not only organ music but the distinctively Franco-Italian style of the harpsichord pieces presented for the first time on record in the present album. The C major Suite is launched in dazzling style with 'Les Roulades et Harpeggio', living up to it's title with cascades of sequences up and down the keyboard. Renotte must have been quite the technician, as well as a composer of great taste and refinement. Perhaps he had a sense of humour, too, to judge from the third movement of the suite: 'Les Bagatelles Ou Les Folies de Liege & Menuet en Suite Des Bagatelles'. Again, true to the title, Renotte presents a series of sharply etched, fantastical sketches, which we might now hear as proto-Beethovenian in their oblique and disconcerting wit. The Suite concludes with, literally, 'Le Torrent', another sparkling cataract of notes. Whether or not Renotte ever intended them to be played in sequence this way - the music survives in manuscript, and there is no sign that they were published - the other pieces are also gathered up by key signature. There are 17 such pieces in D major, including a 'Pastorella' whose charming character belongs to the association of the key with country manners. On this new recording, Fernando de Luca plays a modern copy by Claudio Capone of a Blanchet harpsichord from 1754. While Jos van Immerseel recorded an LP-length selection of Renotte's works, this is the first time that the composer's surviving keyboard music has been recorded complete. The album represents another feather in the cap for a musician who has done a great deal to revive forgotten names from 18th-century music with complete surveys of their music on Brilliant Classics, among them Dufour, Foucquet, Jollage and Siret. '[De Luca] thinks outside of the box, and he clearly is a man with discerning tastes. These extend to his playing, which is clear-headed and disciplined, but never rigid. "Charm" is such an overused word, but I cannot think of a better one to describe this music and these performances.' (Fanfare on the Jollage album, January 2024)
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  • Renotte: Pieces de Clavecin

    Renotte: Pieces de Clavecin

    Brilliant Classics Nov 2025
    3 discs
    CD
    $16.99