This is Volume 1 in Imogen Cooper’s new series on Chandos Records, dedicated to the complete works for piano by Robert Schumann. Recognised worldwide as a pianist of virtuosity and poetic poise, Imogen Cooper has established a reputation as one of the finest interpreters of the classical and romantic repertoire. She has dazzled audiences and orchestras throughout her distinguished career, bringing to the concert platform a unique musical understanding and lyrical quality.

Barry Douglas’ critically acclaimed series of Schubert piano works reaches it fourth instalment. For this recording, Douglas has chosen to present three piano sonatas from the middle of Schubert’s short life: no.5 (D.537) and no.11 (D.575) both composed in 1817, interspersed with the 15th sonata (D.664) composed just 2 years later. The three Sonatas all spring from a period where Schubert was experimenting with tonality, both in the sense of less usual keys (D.575 is in B major) and in terms of the relative keys of the movements, and sections within movements. Irrespective of this experimentation, Schubert’s incredible talent for melody and lyricism shines through each of these works, and is masterfully demonstrated in Douglas’ interpretations. As with the previous three volumes in the series, the recording was made on a Steinway Model D in the Curtis Auditorium at the CIT Cork School of Music.

Edward Gardner leads the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in Schubert’s Symphonies Nos. 2 and 6 in this second volume in the acclaimed series. Chief Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra since October 2015, Edward Gardner has led the musicians on multiple international tours, which have included performances in Berlin, Munich, and Amsterdam, and at the BBC Proms and Edinburgh International Festival. He was recently appointed Principal Conductor Designate of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, his tenure commencing in September 2021. In demand as a guest conductor, during the previous two seasons he made his debut with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, and Wiener Symphoniker, as well as at The Royal Opera, Covent Garden in a new production of Káťa Kabanová, praised by The Guardianas a ‘magnificent interpretation’. He returned to the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Philharmonia Orchestra, and Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano. In April 2019, he conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Lincoln Center in New York.

The electrifying and long-standing collaborative partnership of Tasmin Little and Piers Lane returns to Chandos for this double-album featuring Schubert’s complete works for violin and piano, combined with the ‘Arpeggione’ Sonata and the Adagio in E flat for piano trio, all highly emotive masterpieces.They are joined by cellist Tim Hugh, ‘a musician with compelling insight into the creative urge behind the notes’ (The Times). Gramophone praised this duo’s album (CHAN 10749) for the artists’ ‘complete understanding and spontaneity’ and ‘moments of true musical virtuosity’.

This new release is the second volume in Federico Colli’s series of piano sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti. Federico first came to prominence after winning the Salzburg Mozart Competition in 2011 and the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2012. Since then, he has been performing with orchestras including the Mariinsky Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, RAI National Symphony, Royal Scottish National, RTÉ National Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Wiener Kammerorchester, Philharmonia Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic; at venues such as the Vienna Musikverein and Konzerthaus, Royal Albert Hall, Berlin Konzerthaus, Munich Herkulessaal, Tokyo’s Bunka Kaikan, Hamburg Laeiszhalle, Beethovenhalle in Bonn, Elbphilharmonie, Barbican Hall, Kumho Art Centre in Seoul, Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, Dublin National Concert Hall, Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, Royal Festival Hall and the Mariinsky Concert Hall in St Petersburg.

On this new release, the Schubert Ensemble returns with a program that has been in its repertoire for many years, the piano quartets by Saint-Saëns and Chausson. From Saint-Saëns' witty and elegant Quartet in B-Flat Major to Chausson's relatively unknown, rhapsodic, and full-blooded Quartet in A major, the thrity-year old Schubert Ensemble reveals two extremes of the French romantic repertoire and here offers a rare, attractive and diverse program.