Louise Farrenc, a fine early romantic-era composer, led a charmed life as a youngster. Born into a ‘high art’ family, she also had the advantage of coming into contact with dozens of other artistic families at the Sorbonne. With an impeccable cultural background and artistic bloodline, Farrenc was certainly in excellent position to learn piano and music composition. She also was trained by some of the most esteemed musical artists of the time: Antoine Reicha, Johann Hummel and Ignaz Moscheles.

Although Farrenc had to deal with restrictive views concerning acceptable female roles in life, she always considered herself first and foremost a composer of music. Her works were widely performed in Europe during her lifetime, but her current reputation is slim indeed. Her obscurity likely derives from two considerations. First, unlike Clara Schumann or Fanny Hensel, Farrenc was not aligned with a famous relative. Second, Farrenc’s music was of the Germanic tradition, and this style was not popular in 19th century France.

Of the best composers of Farrenc’s era, her music most reminds me of Beethoven’s with a dash of Chopin added into the mix. Her works display an expert sense of construction, ample variety of form and emotional content, and a fine penchant for attractive melodies. However, readers should not think that Farrenc possessed the musical inspiration of a Beethoven or Chopin. Farrenc’s musical magic is more in the range of Hummel and Reicha, which makes her music highly desirable as opposed to essential.

This is not CPO’s first Farrenc recording. The company has already issued a disc of Farrenc symphonies and another of her large-scale chamber works. Those recordings were well received, and I have no doubt that this new solo piano disc will also garner fine reviews. I should also relate that being a pianist, Farrenc’s early compositions consisted primarily of piano music, and that the works on the new disc are from her early career.

Konstanze Eickhorst has the honor of performing Farrenc’s piano music. Ms. Eickhorst is no stranger to Farrenc’s music, performing the piano parts of CPO’s previous chamber music disc mentioned above. Eickhorst currently enjoys a busy concert schedule that started with winning the Clara Haskil Competition in 1981 at the age of twenty. She has also won other piano competitions and performed with many of the most prestigious orchestras and conductors in Europe in addition to chamber music groups such as the Melos Quartet, Carmina Quartet, and the Linos Ensemble. Eickhorst has played a wide range of keyboard music from the Baroque period up to contemporary pieces. Her recordings include Bach’s Goldberg Variations for Bella Musica and Clara Schumann’s piano works on CPO.

Eickhorst programs three types of Farrenc’s piano music: works based on a basic theme with variations, character pieces and Études. Of the two variation works, the Air russe varié is the more contemplative and consists of a Preludio, Theme, eight short variations and a Finale. This expansive structure is expertly crafted by Farrenc and quite distinctive. The Preludio is a serious Moderato of a pleading and compelling nature that is followed by the basic theme that I must admit is rather simple in the manner of the Diabelli theme that Beethoven made into a marvel of variation technique. Although not at Beethoven’s exalted level, Farrenc gives us eight inventive variations. The Finale is rather special, having a first section of Bachian fugue proportion with overlapping voices and a second section of exuberance and triumph.

The other variation work, the Variations brillantes, takes its basic theme from the cavatina "Nel veder la tua costanza" from Gaetano Donizetti’s Opera "Anna Bolena". Although of equal length to the Air russe varié, there are only four variations, which does lead to greater thematic development. Further, the Variations brillantes is very much a work for public display with its virtuosic requirements and exhilarating nature.

The two character pieces on the disc, the Valse brillante and the Nocturne, were both published in the early 1860s but may well have been composed in the early years of Farrenc’s musical career. Neither piece displays the brilliant artistry of Chopin’s character pieces, but both are rewarding in their own right. The Valse brillante is true to its title and consists of a series of contrasting dance themes of a generally upbeat and vivacious nature. The Nocturne is in the style of Chopin’s works in this genre and is quite lovely and poignant.

I have left the best for last: Eickhorst’s selection of nine of the thirty Études of Opus 26. With this body of music, Farrenc shows her expertise in conveying a compendium of the piano techniques used during the first decades of the 19th Century, employing the extended ‘circle of fifths’ as her structural guide. Of course, we are not able to follow the architectural path when only given selections, but Farrenc often programmed just a few of her Opus 26 Études in piano recitals. Each of the pieces is in ABA form and ranges in length from under two minutes to over four minutes.

The Études Nos. 22 and 19 are so propulsive and concentrated that they take on a relentless quality that is compelling. No. 7 is a gorgeous and uplifting Andante, while No. 4 is thoroughly invigorating. Contemplation and melancholy pervade No. 10, and No. 11 has the relentless qualities mentioned for Nos. 22 and 19. My personal favorite is No. 12, another Bachian style fugue that clearly reveals Farrenc’s affinity for baroque form and counterpoint.

In summary, the new CPO disc of Farrenc solo piano music is a highly rewarding effort having both excellent music and performances. The recorded sound is fine, although a little thin compared to current standards of piano richness in recordings. This enjoyable disc represents great entertainment value and should appeal to piano enthusiasts and anyone wanting to travel the byways of the early romantic period.

-- Don Satz, MusicWeb International

FRANCK Violin Sonata. DEBUSSY Cello Sonata. POULENC Cello Sonata • Anne Gastinel (vc); Claire Désert (pn) • NAÏVE V5259 (61: 20)


This is an excellent version of Poulenc’s Cello Sonata. It has a persuasive sense of direction and a well-judged series of tempo decisions. It’s also warmly played, and ensemble between Anne Gastinel and Claire Désert is watertight. If your classic recording of choice is that of Pierre Fournier with Jacques Février—and I suppose that 1971 LP disc looms large in the discography—then you should know that the newcomers have their own views about things, and they ensure a convincing milieu for the work. Maybe the older pair breathed more naturally at certain points in the first movement—one feels their paragraphal phrasing is the more natural—but that doesn’t limit admiration for Gastinel and Désert, who take a more incisive tempo for the slow movement and sustain it well. It’s a passionate point of view, but then it is a passionate movement and one of the most outspoken in all of Poulenc’s music. Witty badinage restores things in the Ballabile third movement, and while Fournier emphasizes some of the more spectral moments in the finale with greater impact and immediacy, the more up-to-date and natural dynamic range of this Naïve recording proves laudable. This then is a compelling and first-class account of the sonata.


The Debussy sonata reprises the virtues of the Poulenc, though it does so in a way that signals the players’ freedom from convention. They don’t play in as arresting a manner as those pioneering French musicians Maurice Maréchal and Robert Casadesus, who, in their 1930 recording, performed with unselfconscious directness. But they do abjure some of the more outré gestures that have accreted to, say, the Sérénade’s pizzicatos, which is well and good in my book. They play with assurance throughout, though my own preferences lie with the classic older statement and also with the more phrasally suggestive playing of Tortelier and Gerald Moore in their 1948 disc, now in a huge Paul Tortelier EMI retrospective box.


The last work is the transcription of the Franck Violin Sonata made by Jules Delsart, with the approval of the composer, in 1888. This has been an increasingly popular option for cellists, and Gastinel and Désert play with a canny appreciation of when to press on and when to fine-down tone. Gastinel’s vibrato speed is well judged, and the pianist, who shoulders most of the truly taxing demands, acquits herself estimably.


This fine recital has been warmly recorded, is well balanced and reflects well on all concerned.


FANFARE: Jonathan Woolf

Supraphon's properly pitched, 24-bit remasterings of Sviatoslav Richter's 1956 Schumann Fantasiestücke, Waldszenen, and G minor Marsch convey a richness in the bass and boosted midrange presence quite different from the brighter, leaner sonic image characterizing Deutsche Grammophon's Dokumente and Originals series transfers. Richter habitually omitted Grillen and Fabel from Fantasiestücke, yet he played the other six pieces beautifully. The pianist's gorgeous legato touch justifies his unorthodox stretching out of Warum's last section, while his supple and sharply honed fingers make easy work of Aufschwung and Traumes Wirren. Although Richter likened the recording studio to "the torture chamber", he sounds free as a bird throughout his ravishingly tinted, technically dazzling Waldszenen. Lastly, a live November 1959 C major Fantasy stands out for a sense of risk and forward impetus in the first two movements that's largely absent from Richter's 1961 EMI studio effort, despite the cramped sonics. If you've missed these recordings in the past, don't hesitate now.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

DVORAK; SUK; JANACEK; SMETANA; JEZEK; MARTINU; GRIEG; SCHUMANN;RESPIGHI; BRAHMS; SCHUBERT; DEBUSSY; POULENC; FRANCK; MOZART;HONEGGER; KODALY SUK (VIOLIN); HOLECEK, PANENKA, HALA (PIANO), SKAMPA (VIOLA);NAVARRA (CELLO) JOSEF SUK: EARLY RECORDINGS- ROMANTIC PIECES FOR VIOLIN AND PIANOOP. 75; FOUR PIECES FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO, OP. 17; SONATA FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO; SONATINA FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO IN D MAJOR, OP. 137 NO. 1; SONATINA FOR VIOLIN AND CELLO; ETC.

I'm in Haydn heaven. This is the most remarkable set of "Paris" Symphonies since Bernstein's, and without question the new reference by which all others will be judged. I say this fully cognizant of the excellence of some of the competition, from the surprisingly robust Karajan (DG) to the thrillingly exciting Thomas Fey (Hänssler, which contains 4 out of 6 of the symphonies). But none of those previous sets comes as close as this one to realizing perhaps the most singular quality of the music: it's inexhaustible variety and range of emotional expression, both between the various works as well as within them. Recorded back in 2001 and 2002 in glorious, state-of-the-art sonics that give the music the dynamic range and "bigness" of scale that it requires, we can only be thankful that RCA and dhm picked up Harnoncourt's contract when Warner dropped him. The thought of this set not seeing the light of day is too horrible to contemplate.


Few moments in listening to new interpretations of well-loved classics (for me anyway) are more rewarding than hearing something totally different and personal, only to realize that what the conductor has done is simply realize the composer's clear intentions by playing what sits in plain view on the printed page. Let me share with you three examples. In the first movement of Symphony No. 85 ("La Reine"), every performance since the dawn of time that observes the exposition repeat returns to the beginning of the allegro. Harnoncourt goes all the way back to the beginning of the symphony, including the introduction. This so shocked me that I hastened to my score (Landon edition, and so a good scholarly text), and sure enough, there is no repeat sign bracketing the beginning of the allegro. Moreover, in the other two symphonies with introductions (Nos. 84 and 86), you will find those repeat signs in the expected place. So Harnoncourt probably is the first conductor in history, on disc at least, to play what Haydn actually wrote.


Does this matter? Maybe not all that much, but including the introduction emphasizes the movement's hommage to the baroque French overture, and it's entirely in keeping with Haydn's love of formal variety and freedom from routine. It sounds "right". Another example: listen to the forcefulness with which Harnoncourt attacks the sforzandos in the development section of Symphony No. 83's ("La Poule") finale. Once again it's exactly what Haydn wrote, and the effect is electrifying. But Harnoncourt's eye for detail and ear for sonority are not limited exclusively to loud special effects. He can be subtle too, as when he lets us hear the long-held viola note supporting the whimsical second subject in the finale of the Symphony No. 86--a striking jet of color. Anywhere you might care to mention, from the vigorous dotted rhythms that open Symphony No. 85, to the ideal tempos that Harnoncourt finds in the variation slow movements in Symphonies Nos. 82, 84, and 85, to the delicious vignettes that he makes out of the trios in all six (thankfully lively) minuets--try No. 84--you can hear the notes leap off the page with all the freshness of a premiere performance, but with none of the uncertainty.


Harnoncourt honors all suggested repeats, including the second halves of the outer movements--and this also matters, because Haydn writes his endings with the expectation that the repeats will be observed, adding an additional element of surprise and drama. They are anything but perfunctory. In fact, the timing of the second-half repeat is different in every single finale: one and a half 2/4 bars in Symphony No. 82; three quarters of a 12/8 bar in No. 83; one eighth-note in a 2/4 bar in No. 84; half a 2/4 bar in No. 85; three quarters of a 4/4 bar in No. 86; one and a quarter 2/2 bars (plus fermata) in No. 87. Observing the repeats, and understanding what they mean, not only gives the music more substance by allowing listeners to follow the argument in greater detail the second time around, but it further emphasizes Haydn's individuality in each work, making us care about his imaginative approach to form. The result is more than three hours of music--on three discs priced as two--that never feels overlong. Just the opposite.


Finally, the playing of the Concentus Musicus Wien is extraordinary. The woodwinds are particularly gorgeous, whether in the lovely writing for the whole section in select slow movements--try Symphony No. 87, and the variation with pizzicato accompaniment in No. 84--or in solos such as the witty oboe that represents the hen in No. 83 and launches the allegro of No. 85. Harnoncourt even makes something special out of the string articulation in the repeated notes running through the first movement of No. 87 (and he's the first conductor since Bernstein to give the bass lines at the beginning of that symphony their full measure of weight and character). The trumpets and drums in Symphonies Nos. 82 and 86 play vigorously and always cut through the texture with clarity and festive brilliance, while the "dancing bear" finale of No. 82 is both exciting and rustic, the bagpipe imitations milked for all that they're worth, but never at the expense of the music's onrushing energy. You'll love the horns: rich-toned, but with plenty of bite where necessary.

I could go on, but instead let me urge you to buy this set as soon as possible and hear it for yourself. You'll be dazzled, even awed. It sets a new standard in Haydn performance--and trust me, you won't be able to stop listening. [4/28/2005]
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

In 1967 and 1969, en route to becoming the leading soprano of the 1970s, Montserrat Caballé recorded a trio of "rarity" discs for RCA, each concentrating on a single composer--Rossini, Donizetti, and Verdi--and focused on relatively little-known scenes and arias from similarly obscure operas. Thanks in part to Caballé's stage performances and recordings, the bel canto revival has rescued many of those works from the shadows, but they have not been better sung than by the great Spanish soprano, possessor of perhaps the most beautiful soprano voice of the 20th century. She's at her best here, singing with the fire that sometimes seemed to elude her, flaunting her ravishing pianissimos, and never breaking a sweat or taking an untoward breath as she tosses off difficult coloratura passages with ease.


The Rossini set dips into five operas and the "Inflammatus" from his Stabat mater. Donizetti is represented by four operas, but entire scenes are offered, putting the arias in proper context. Seven scenes and/or arias from Verdi's early operas are here, blending touches of those two past masters with harbingers of his own evolving style. Singling out highlights would be folly in a tightly filled double-disc set, but you know from the very first notes of "Tanti affetti" from Rossini's La donna del lago, which begins Disc 1, that you're in for a feast of great singing. Orchestras and conductors are idiomatic. The sonics, once deemed excellent, are only a bit dimmed by time. RCA provides full texts and English translations, a welcome departure from the usual big-label reluctance to accommodate consumers. This is a must for any lover of great singing. [1/28/2005]
--Dan Davis, ClassicsToday.com

BK1 WELL TEMPERED CLAVIER

Endless hours of joy and wonder is how Angela Hewitt sums up the insights and rewards of playing and recording Mozart's piano sonatas, and a similar experience awaits listeners to these remarkable accounts, the first release in a complete cycle.

I made my first public appearance as a soloist the same year I graduated and pursued advanced studies in Copenhagen with Emil Telmányi and in Berlin with Willy Hess from 1919 until 1921, and when I returned home, I succeeded in securing a position as a violinist in the Royal Danish Orchestra." But already not long afterwards in 1923 he presented himself as a candidate for the leader of the Berlin Philharmonic, which after the death of Artur Nikisch in the previous year now had Wilhelm Furtwängler as it's chief conductor. He won the position over 14 competitors and relates himself: "That was quite something for an enthusiastic young violinist! From the last desk of the second violinists on Kgs. Nytorv to the highly responsible first desk in Bernburger Strasse, enjoying a close working relationship with such a great figure as Wilhelm Furtwängler.

SOMM Recordings is pleased to release their second recording with the Chamber Ensemble of London, a virtuoso group of hand-picked string players directed by violinist Peter Fisher, whom The Times counts amongst "a handful of the world's finest musicians." Following the ensemble's 2022 SOMM release, Eclogue - British Chamber Music, which Gramophone praised for it's "unfailingly sympathetic music-making throughout," this new release is Quiet Summer Evening - British Concertante Music, drawing on the rich tradition of light classical music. The programme opens with Rhapsody for Clarinet & Strings by Geoffrey Bush. He was initially taught by John Ireland and, on his advice, studied composition and classics at Balliol College, Oxford, emerging with degrees in both subjects in 1946. Bush's hauntingly beautiful rhapsody features the sought-after clarinettist Peter Cigleris, whose growing discography includes three previous releases with SOMM. He is also the soloist in 5 Pieces for Clarinet & String Orchestra by Clive Jenkins, CEOL's associate composer. Jenkins was born in Plymouth, and he shows his roots in many of his compositions-including these pieces, each of which has a name connected with Plymouth. Another work by Jenkins included here is Fantasy for Horn & Strings, featuring Alexei Watkins, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, where he was awarded the Dennis Brain Prize. Watkins is also featured in Orion (Serenade for Horn & Strings) by prize-winning conductor-composer Andy Meyers, as well as Lullaby, an expressive and programmatic piece by composer and BBC Radio 3 producer Luke Whitlock. Bassoonist Sarah Watts is a multi-instrumentalist who has become well known worldwide as a prolific composer of colourful and inspiring music. Here, she performs her composition Everywhere Is Somewhere Else. Additionally, she is the soloist for the contemplative Sunday Afternoon by notable arranger, conductor, and composer Nigel Brooks, excerpted from the broadcast series Stars on Sunday, and also A Little Waltz by the prolific mid-twentieth-century composer, arranger, and master orchestrator Gordon Jacob. Other pieces by composers from former generations include Canto popolare, extracted from Edward Elgar's concert overture In the South; Lennox Berkeley's single-movement Andantino, which he adapted from his Festival Anthem; and one of Frederick Delius's earliest surviving compositions, Romance. The soloist for Berkeley's Andantino and Delius's Romance is cellist Michael Mace, who pursues a wide and varied musical career as performer and teacher. Peter Fisher is the violinist for Elgar's Canto popolare and the appealing Vers le Sud (Towards the South) by Terence Higgins who, notwithstanding his early promise, decided against a full-time professional musical career and-like composers Wilfrid Josephs and Alan Rawsthorne-qualified as a dentist. Fisher also plays the CD's title piece, Quiet Summer Evening, a contemplative piece by composer-pianist Don Shearman, who enjoyed a long and distinguished career in light music.

Maria Callas : The Studio Recitals Box set, Import, Original recording remastered - This outstanding collection of studio recitals provides fascinating insights into Maria Calla's career and her unique artistry and musicalitiy. Encompassing the core operatic repertoire for which she was most revered, as well as roles that she never sang on stage, these recitals demonstrate Callas's exceptional versatility - from bel canto to verismo, dramatic mad scenes to impeccably sung coloratura - and form an integral part of her recorded legacy. The great value of these recitals is magnified by the new transfers made at Abbey Road studios in 2014, using 24-bit 96kHz remastering. 14 discs

An unusual instrumental combination with a fascinating sound: sonatas for two oboes, bassoon, and basso continuo are rarely found in the repertoire. Yet this combination brings together three wind instruments whose tone colours complement one another in particularly appealing ways. Ramón Ortega Quero and Ángel Luis Sánchez Moreno (oboes) have recorded a collection of masterful sonatas by Jan Dismas Zelenka for this instrumentation, joined by Marc Trénel (bassoon), Wies de Boevé (double bass), and Alfonso Sebastián Alegre (harpsichord) for GENUIN. These works are particularly demanding and virtuosic. These are magnificent, surprise-filled works by a long-neglected Baroque composer. The five outstanding musicians, all recipients of international prizes, bring these masterpieces of European contrapuntal art vividly back to life.

Three works, three worlds-yet united by a shared pursuit: the search for that moment when music transcends itself. César Franck's youthful Trio in F-sharp minor bursts with creative energy, filled with melodies of immediate emotional force and a sense of freedom that opens the space wide. Edvard Grieg's single movement for piano trio unfolds as a circle of light and motion: tentative, glowing, shimmering-a serious game that constantly reinvents itself. And the enigmatic A-major Trio, long attributed to Brahms, speaks in a warm, expansive voice that feels familiar yet stems from an unknown hand. Together, these works form a panorama of chamber music: bold and youthful, poetic and searching, deeply rooted and full of open questions. For the E.T.A. Trio, they become a reflection of the ensemble's own musical identity: three musicians who meet in alertness, curiosity, and a shared devotion to sound-always seeking the moment when their voices merge into a living, breathing dialogue. "SWR Kultur New Talent" is a support program dedicated to outstanding young classical musicians. Over the course of three years, exceptional artistic personalities are promoted through concerts, studio productions, and extensive media presence. Following Janina Ruh, Robert Neumann, and Lionel Martin, the E.T.A. Trio now presents it's debut CD within this series.

Roman was Kapellmeister at the court in Stockholm and certainly the most important Swedish composer of the 18th century. He was trained by Handel and Pepusch, among others, and was familiar with all musical developments in Europe thanks to two extensive educational journeys. The works recorded here likely represent all of Roman's compositions in which the oboe, whether single or double, plays a solo role. In many other works, we find oboes as orchestral instruments, though they almost always double the strings and only rarely appear as soloists in individual sections.

Folklore takes the listener on a musical journey throughout 19th- and 20th-century France, Georgia, Hungary, and Spain. Through different styles and soundscapes, the compositions are united by the spirit of folk traditions and national character, as well as personal memories of the performers-Swiss-French cellist Christoph Croisé and Georgian pianist Ana Bakradze. Works originally conceived for their instrumental combination sit alongside transcriptions that fit their sound world like a glove, a testament to the popularity of all the music on this album. Siete Canciones Populares Españolas, a set of seven traditional Spanish songs by Manuel de Falla, is his most-arranged composition and among his most popular. Béla Bartók's Six Romanian Folk Dances, originally composed for solo piano, were drawn from melodies the composer recorded of folk musicians singing in the countryside of his Hungarian homeland. Hungarian influences infuse Pablo de Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs), originally scored for violin and orchestra. Sulkhan Tsintsadze's Five Pieces on Georgian Folk Themes evoke childhood memories for pianist Ana, especially the fourth, a lullaby that her mother used to sing to her. The most substantial work on the album, Robert Schumann's Fünf Stücke i'm Volkston (Five Pieces in Folk Style), conjures the harmonies and rhythms of folk music. French national character imbues Nadia Boulanger's Trois pièces (Three Pieces) and works by her teacher Gabriel Fauré: his elegant Sicilienne-originally penned for orchestra but frequently adapted for cello and piano-and his ever-popular miniature "Après un rêve" (After a Dream) from his Trois Mélodies (Three Melodies). When asked about their own connections to this music and what they wish for the listener, Christoph and Ana agree: "Above all, joy! We share a love for the roots in these pieces and the inspiration they provided to the composers. For this album, we've selected our favourite miniatures. Some are well known, others are more personal, but they all connect to the spirit of folk traditions in some way. It's about the lasting pleasure of connecting through music we love."

V?IN? RAITIO: FANTASIA POETICA

BRITTEN WAR REQUIEM

Decca signed an exclusive contract with the Wiener Oktett (Vienna Octet) in the summer of 1948 as a commercially motivated move: a sweetener to the deal that also poached the Philharmonic Orchestra from EMI. The ensemble had been formed only a year or so previously around the Boskovsky brothers, violinist Willi and clarinetist Alfred. Soon enough, audiences at home as well as in concert were enjoying the sound of a quintessentially Viennese ensemble, it's members drawn from the ranks of the Philharmonic, in Classical-era music that could have been written for them, starting with the Septet by Beethoven and the Octet by Schubert. The sweet, silvery tone of the Octet and the easy give-and-go of it's phrasing established the Octet as the latest in a line of distinguished Viennese chamber ensembles, from the Rose Quartet of Mahler's era to the Barylli Quartet documented by the Westminster label. The Vienna Octet enjoyed the advantage of Decca's top-of-the-range engineering, and they continued to set down classic interpretations of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert through the course of the 1950s, for the new LP format and then for stereo. In 1956 their Decca albums began to reflect the diversity of their concert programs, with the Octet written for them by the Belgian composer Marcel Poot. While they continued to enjoy free-spirited partnerships on record with the likes of Clifford Curzon and the Viennese pianist Walter Panhofer in Schubert's 'Trout' Quintet, they also recorded lesser-known Romantics such as Spohr, Kreutzer and Berwald, and modern repertoire by Britten, Hindemith and Egon Wellesz. By the time of the Vienna Octet's final recording in November 1972, only two members of it's original lineup were left, including clarinetist Alfred Boskovsky, but critics and record buyers had continued to recognize that, especially in the central repertoire, an unselfconscious authenticity set the ensemble apart from it's rivals.

Apocalyptic walls of sound cascade around the Gothic vaults of Saint-Eustache in Paris as Stephen Layton and David Briggs unleash, respectively, the full power of a top-notch Trinity Choir and the mighty van den Heuvel organ of 1989.

EDEN ROC

Osmo Tapio Raihala: Zensolence - Various / Zensolence embodies the auditory canvas of Osmo Tapio Raihala, a synaesthetic composer who transforms the visual into the musical. For Raihala, art forms transcend their mediums and speak a universal language through diverse expressions. His experience of colours, shapes and textures in music is reflected in this eclectic album, where the traditional meets the innovative. Raihala draws inspiration from the abstract and translates it into a musical lexicon that is as diverse as it is distinctive. From chamber music with modern instrumentation to pieces that combine vocal narrative with electronic sounds, this album is a testament to artistic freedom and a refusal to be limited.

Chad Lawson - "Where We Are" / With Where We Are, Chad Lawson draws inspiration from the conversations and shared vulnerabilities of countless individuals who have found solace in his music and podcast during their most challenging times. The album represents a journey from solitude to solidarity - from individual experiences to shared realities. These songs form a musical sanctuary, crafted to meet you wherever you are in life and offer a gentle reprieve. Where We Are is more than an album; it's a call to unite, heal, and inspire a sense of community through music.

Daniel Hope's latest album, Irish Roots, embodies his deep connection to Ireland, inherited from his paternal great-grandfather who left Waterford for South Africa in the 1890s. Although never residing in Ireland, Hope's fascination with it's culture led to the creation of the documentary, Celtic Dreams: Daniel Hope's Hidden Irish History. LP

Double vinyl LP pressing.