Following on from the highly expressive psalm settings, we now present the glorious antiphons of the master from Scharding am Inn: exquisite church music which Emperor Leopold I himself proclaimed as being definitive for the Catholic lands. Originally, the antiphon denoted a Gregorian chant that was sung by two parties opposite each other. Often a single performer was answered by a group of singers. The antiphon would later disengage from the psalm on which it was commenting. The antiphons set by Mayr represent a special form of the genre, so-called Marian antiphons, almost all of which are addressed to the Mother of God. Only In terras descendam is intended for Christmas. The antiphonal practice is still apparent in all antiphons in the alternation between singers and instrumentalists.

In 1799, after having made a name for himself with major compositions, but before finishing his first symphony, Beethoven wrote a work for mixed strings and winds. This piece, the Septet op. 20, would become one of his most popular compositions, with a large number of arrangements, including the one for piano trio on this album. The form is clearly related to the divertimenti by Mozart, with six movements that alternate fast and slow tempos. The appearance of the Triple Concerto on the final disc in this series might surprise some listeners, as it is the only work with orchestra, but this composition has more in common with chamber music than with concertos. It was written in 1805, and it's instrumentation is highly exceptional if not unprecedented altogether. In tone, it is rather a stark contrast from Beethoven's other concertos, which generally contain easily recognizable melodies and strikingly rhythmic material, neither of which are found to a great degree here. Furthermore, the opposition of soloist and orchestra, a central aspect of many solo works with orchestra written up until that point that was the engine behind much of the drama, is also absent, with the orchestra taking a largely subservient role to the three soloists. So, although the work was called a 'Grand Concerto Concertant' when it was published, it really has very little in common with other works with a similar title. The question is whether this piece is a concerto at all, or whether it could be more fruitfully played and judged as a different kind of experimental piece in a more collaborative genre. This disc takes the latter approach, and by contextualizing it in a series of piano trios, it presents this work as Beethoven's most richly instrumented chamber music.

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World premiere recordings of major orchestral works by leading Dutch composer Willem Jeths! Two world-famous conductors - Edo de Waart and Markus Stenz - have been chief advocates of these new pieces. The recording also includes the great virtuoso Erik Bosgraaf playing Jeths' Recorder Concerto, and features the lovely mezzo-soprano Karin Strobos.

Chopin looked back and evoked for us the story of his life in 24 Preludes. Through the medium of these works he revealed his deepest fears and sorrows, but also the beauty and integrity of his heart. The story of these ghosts culminates in tolling bells which are, in Cortot's words, "of blood, of earthly pleasure, of death..." But what follows? A pause: silence, timeless solitude, in the Etude Op. 10, No. 6. Then, suddenly, the soul wakes up and waltzes into space. The album ends with the Scherzo No. 2 "like a charnel house," or the house of the dead, as Chopin apparently described the opening- yet the finale sounds like a celebration of life. And so our ghostly journey ends with fireworks, with smiling and shining, looking far into the future..."

Under the title I vanni occulti, ensemble Al Ayre Espanol, led by maestro Eduardo Lopez Banzo offers us it's personal vision of Handel's Sonatas Op. 2. The phrase comes from the oratorio Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno (The Triumph of Time and Dillusion, 1707). The reference to this aria is not anecdotal, because Sonata No. 1 in this Op. 2 contains references to this music- an aspect that, hardly surprisingly, constitutes a characteristic element of the composition technique of the maestro from Halle. Over the course of his life, Handel composed 20 trio sonatas, 12 of which were published in London in two different collections: six sonatas were published in 1733 as Op. 2 and another seven printed in 1739 as Op. 5. In a disguised allusion to the vanitas allegory and the fleeting passage of time, Al Ayre Espanol presents, just three years after it's recording of Op. 5, an introspective version of Op. 2, which completes and, at the same time, complements the group's first rendition of Handel's trio sonatas. The two recordings form a single project that offers the listener a passionate and impassioned, southern and Mediterranean version of this exquisite chamber music. This version is marked by the emergence, with particular expressive intensity, of the two aesthetic poles present in the chamber music universe of Handel: the most contained lyricism combined with the most explosive fury.

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Sigiswald Kuijken knows the St. Matthew Passion through and through. With La Petite Bande he gave performances of the work all over the world. Twenty years ago La Petite Bande (at that time with conductor Gustav Leonhardt and Kuijken as concertmaster) made their first recording of the Passion. It was a recording with soloists, a chamber choir and an orchestral composition which was adjusted to that. Since then Kuijken's vision on this masterpiece has changed very much. Ground-breaking musicological work of the last decades has brought him to a serious thin-out of his ensemble without the use of a conductor. There is not a real choir anymore, because the soloists perform also the choir parts. The boys' choir that is usually used in most performances of this Passion is replaced here by a single soprano voice. Additionally, by using authentic instruments and the original way of playing them, both in interpretation and sound quality, La Petite Bande strives to revive baroque music as faithfully as possible without lapsing into rigid academics.

Rob van de Laar, 29 years old, is the Principal Horn of the Mozarteum Salzburg. This being his first solo album, he chose the great music of the German Romanticism for horn. Brahms' Trio was composed in 1865, during a peaceful summer at Clara Schumann's house in the Black Forest. The Adagio and Allegro by Schumann was composed in 1849 and is one of a series of miniatures for different solo instruments and piano written by Schumann in Dresden in 1849. Schumann was among the first to explore the expanded possibilities offered by the new valve horn. Schubert wrote his son gAuf dem Strom in 1828, the final year of his short life, to a text by Ludwig Rellstab. It was written for a concert at the Vienna Musikverein, marking the first anniversary of the death of Ludwig van Beethoven on March, 26. Schubert, who was a great admirer of Beethoven, saw his opportunity to compose a special song as an ode to the master. He added a dazzling horn part here. The composer Karl Pilss is perhaps best known among brass players, having written concertos for trumpet, horn and bass trombone, as well as a number of works for brass ensemble. The influence of Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler and his composition teacher Franz Schmidt can be clearly heard in his music.

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Classical Music

Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and yet cannot remain silent, wrote Victor Hugo in 1864. Half a century later, his words had never felt more pertinent. Every composer writing during World War I found a unique way, through their music, to describe and protest against the horrors that were tearing civilization apart. Created in the depth of morbidity, Debussy's parting musical gift is a subtle, dignified, and heroic celebration of youth and joie de vivre. A sense of patriotism in the war years links Debussy with the foremost Moravian composer of the day, Leos Janacek. Ottorino Respighi was only in his thirties when the war broke out. His 1917 Sonata for violin and piano is a work of Romance written in the time of hate, a reminder that the past and the future remain beacons of hope in desperate times. Commissioned for this recital programme to reflect on the centenary of The Great War from our own times, Kenneth Hesketh's Inscrizione, derivate, subtitled 'A lie to the Dying,' is a quasi-meditation on the dying man, his anxious thoughts and the spasms of his failing heart being weaved conspicuously into a narrative of disquieting melancholy. Foyle-Stsura Duo has been praised for "playing of compelling conviction," (The Daily Telegraph) and "astonishing mutual feeling, understanding and responsiveness." (Seen and Heard International)