This recording takes the listener deep into the heart of late-seventeenth-century Naples, where brothers Rocco and Gaetano Greco were central figures in the city's thriving musical life. Their works, grounded in the practice of partimento - an improvisational method built around a given bass line - showcase the cello's emancipation from a purely accompanying role into a fully expressive solo voice. Through vivid dialogues between lower string instruments and harpsichord, I Mastricelli revives a forgotten musical language in which virtuosity, counterpoint, and improvisation converge. The result is a rare glimpse into the creative processes that shaped the Neapolitan cello school and it's lasting influence across Europe. The second part of the programme focuses on Gaetano Greco's pedagogical legacy, presenting short dances, toccatas, and improvisations drawn from early-eighteenth-century student notebooks, alongside music by Francesco Mancini. I Mastricelli highlights the diversity of Neapolitan musical culture - from the earthy energy of the tarantella to the refined contrapuntal art of the keyboard. The ensemble's instrumentation - including cellos, bass viols, bass violins, theorbo, lute, guitar, and harpsichord - evokes the rich timbral world of Baroque Naples. Combining scholarly research with living performance, this debut album offers both an artistic rediscovery and a celebration of the improvisatory freedom at the core of the partimento tradition.

A Gramophone Editor's Choice

The Doric String Quartet is firmly established as one of the leading quartets of its generation, receiving enthusiastic responses from audiences and critics around the globe. Following their acclaimed recordings of Mendelssohn’s string quartets, here they are joined by leading violist Timothy Ridout for this album of his two string quintets. Mendelssohn's two String Quintets were written at the beginning and end of his short but remarkable compositional life. No 1 was written in 1826, shortly before the Overture to 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', when Mendelssohn was just seventeen. No.2 was written in 1845, when he was thirty-six, a year before the premier of Elijah and just two years before his death.

REVIEWS:

This recording shows these quintets are one of [Mendelssohn’s] finest achievements, full of lyricism and power…with almost Beethovenian profundity. The energy of the players' account of Op. 87 is pretty irresistible.

-- The Guardian (UK)

Minutely attentive to Mendelssohn’s detailed dynamic and phrase markings, they yield to none in polish and precision. True to form, they characterize with gusto.

-- Gramophone (Editor's Choice, 4/2022)

Following her acclaimed debut Diaries, pianist Tiffany Poon returns with Nature, an album that explores the evocative power of French music in capturing the beauty of the natural world from the delicate shimmer of water to the quiet mysteries of the forest and the animals found within. Nature, which Tiffany recorded at legendary Provence recording studio Miraval Studios (Pink Floyd, Sade, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) with producer Damien Quintard, brings together works by French composers across centuries, united by an instinctual admiration for the world around them. Guided by intuition and deep personal connection, Tiffany's curated selection featuring pieces by Ravel, Debussy, Rameau and Daquin, moves beyond the structured rigor of Germanic tradition into the fluid, sensuous soundscapes of the French repertoire. Inspired by Rameau's belief that music is rooted in nature itself, she curates a program reflecting her love of animals, woods, and water - translating them into vivid musical expressions. Nature is a testament to music's ability to mirror the natural world, inviting listeners to embrace it's beauty with instinct and abandon.

The latest innovative release from The Orchestra Now and their founder-conductor Leon Botstein evokes the age-old practice of transcribing music from one set of instruments or voices to another. Transcription as Translation brings together two symphonic transcriptions by two major 20th-century conductors who were eager to perform from the podium some of their favourite non-orchestral works and present them to a wider audience. Turn of the 20th century Austrian composer and conductor Felix Weingartner had an illustrious international career that included the directorship of the Vienna Philharmonic and regular guest conducting of the Boston Symphony. He was at the vanguard of the era of acoustic recording and was the first conductor to make commercial recordings of all nine Beethoven symphonies. Weingartner's Beethoven credentials informed his orchestral transcription of Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" Piano Sonata. The name of Hungarian-born conductor George Szell remains synonymous with the Cleveland Orchestra, where he was Music Director from 1946 - 1970, to this day. He had previously worked for many years in Prague where he developed a special affinity for Czech music which is attested to his orchestration of Smetana's String Quartet No. 1 ("From My Life").

Volume 7 of Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s Mozart piano concerto features two of the late concertos – nos. 24 and 25 - coupled with a spirited reading of the Marriage of Figaro overture from Gábor Takács-Nagy and the Manchester Camerata. Concerto no. 24 was written whilst he was busily composing the Marriage of Figaro between October 1785 and the premier in Vienna in May 1786. One of only two of his piano concertos in a minor key, there are many unusual features in this extraordinary work, including the deliberately ambivalent tonality of the opening melody, which uses all 12 tones of the scale (a pre-echo of serialism??!). Concerto no. 25 was probably first performed in Vienna in December 1876, and was certainly a success as there were many repeated performances in the following years (including one by Beethoven in 1795). Recorded in Manchester’s Stoller Hall, Bavouzet plays a Yamaha CFX nine-foot Concert Grand Piano.

REVIEWS:

Bavouzet uses a modern concert grand, with the orchestra avoiding excessive vibrato but otherwise playing in today’s mellow-toned instrumental style. The superlative collective result shows that period performance issues need not be an overriding concern, if the feeling for the idiom itself is so engagingly right.

Curated by pianist Ulrich Eisenloh, this series of Brahms songs has received widespread acclaim. As with Volume 4, this fifth instalment features soprano Alina Wunderlin and tenor Kieran Carrel, in a selection that contains one of Brahms’ best-loved songs, Minnelied.

... Romanticism is not the bloodless intellectual commitment to a program, but the expression of my most profound mind and soul." Sergei Bortkiewicz This deeply personal attitude toward Romanticism encapsulates the artistic philosophy that sustained Ukrainian composer Sergei Bortkiewicz (1877-1952) through the turbulent tides of the early 20th century: the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the unrelenting horrors of the Second World War. Anchored in a deep sense of nostalgia, his works evoke a world imbued with dreams and elegance a stark contrast to the chaos that surrounded him. The composer's life and career reflect the multiethnic, multilingual, and politically complex tapestries of Ukraine during his time. This album is dedicated to the city of Kharkiv the hometown of both the composer and the pianist featured on this recording. Hailed by The New York Times as a pianist of a fiery sensibility and warm touch, Anna Shelest continues her collaboration with the legendary conductor Neeme Jarvi with this release. Their previous recordings featuring the complete works for piano and orchestra by Anton Rubinstein have been praised by Gramophone Magazine for their "... power and agility... effortless effect... nuanced and incisive all around.

An outstanding edition for the 200th birthday César Franck's complete organ works At the center of the perception of César Franck as an organ composer are the twelve large-scale works, which are counted among the most radiant contributions to the organ literature. However, it should not be forgotten that with the collection "L'Organiste" he wrote 63 shorter, but compositionally very elaborate pieces, which due to their vignette-like, compact facture do not reach the complexity of his "large" organ works, but are nevertheless very remarkable: Each one of the pieces has a signature all its own, and is in no way inferior to Franck's extensive organ works in terms of harmonic complexity and focus of expression. It is thanks to our interpreter, i.e. Carsten Wiebusch's knowledgeable and tasteful arrangement of this collection originally composed by Franck for harmonium, that these miniatures can fully unfold their coloristic potential on the organ. And last but not least, there was the fascinating task of selecting the appropriate instruments for a Franck complete recording. What today appears so clearly arranged on 4 albums with three organs is the result of a thought process lasting several years, during which many instruments were considered, tested and discarded again in order to impressively reproduce the versatility of Franck's music.

This thoughtfully conceived, beautifully executed, and boldly multi-idiomatic new album is a state-of-the-art insight into the unique soundworld of the contemporary marimba. It is also a portrait of the imaginative virtuosity of one of the instrument's finest practitioners engaging in the worlds of both contemporary classical music and jazz with equal devotion and insight. Her choices on this project display the creative boldness that has defi ned her entire career.

The age-old spirit of the composer-performer lies at the heart of the 10-year collaboration between cellist-composer Christoph Croise and composer-saxophonist Daniel Schnyder (pronounced SHNEE-der). This resulting album features two of Daniel's concertos, both commissioned by Christoph, alongside numerous world premieres of solo and chamber works. Christoph shines in the Concerto for Cello, Percussion and String Orchestra, whilst the two Swiss compatriots share the limelight in Concerto Populaire for soprano saxophone, cello, percussion and string orchestra, both backed by members of Christoph's hand-picked Beyond Modern Orchestra, an ensemble dedicated to the creation and performance of new music. Christoph brings in other close collaborators, including Alexander Panfilov for Jazz Sonata for Cello & Piano, harpsichordist Peter Gorobets for Cello BLU - another Christoph commission that explores the unique timbral relationship between the two instruments - and an octet of leading European cellists for Cubac - a fusion of Cuban rhythms and Bachian-counterpoint. Throughout, Daniel's compositions seamlessly fuse a melting pot of musical styles, including classical, jazz, Middle Eastern, African and Latin American. Christoph, who himself is rapidly gaining renown as a composer, says, "There is no more fitting way to celebrate contemporary music than by performing it alongside the composer himself."

Known primarily as a composer of choral music, Lorenzo Perosi was also a priest and much admired by Puccini. Stellar Italian pianist Matteo Bevilacqua is joined once again by members of the Roma Tre Orchestra in these 20th-century Italian chamber music discoveries. Includes world premiere recordings. Perosi’s piano quartets and String Trio No. 2 are available on Naxos 8.574375.

Federigo Fiorillo (1755-1823) is principally remembered now as a composer, and in particular the author of a set of solo Caprices which formed a method of which formed a method of instruction for every advanced violinist. Until now, however, they have never been recorded on Fiorillo’s ‘second’ instrument of the viola; and indeed complete recordings of the set, even on violin, are very few.

With this new recording, Marco Misciagna demonstrates that these 36 pieces have much more than pedagogic interest to them. While they systematically address technical issues in the bow arm and fingering, testing the player’s technique for playing octaves, multiple stopping, passagework, chromatic scales and so on, Fiorillo was a Italianate melodist who naturally wrote and thought in long, cantabile lines which are as grateful to hear as they are to play.

Born in 1984, Marco Misciagna studied in Bari and Rome and then with Salvatore Accardo; he now lives and works in Spain. Among his previous recordings is a Brilliant Classics album of a similar undertaking, the 41 Capricci for viola by Bartolomeo Campagnoli (1751–1827).

Heinrich August Marschner was a master of German Romantic music, and this third volume in the series presents excerpts from some of his later operas. These include Das Schloss am Aetna with it's dark Faustian themes, and Lukretia in which the composer generates an air of Classical antiquity. Both Sangeskonig Hiarne and Der Babu showcase Marschner's talent with descriptive ballet music, allowing us to discover a completely new side to his musical craft.

Delos partners with Opera Lafayette and OperaCr�ole to present this world premiere recording of the earliest complete opera by a Black American. This recording is not a revival - it is a revelation. More than a century after it's completion, Edmond D�d�'s Morgiane is finally being heard, thanks to the tireless work of Givonna Joseph, founder of OperaCr�ole, conductor Patrick Dupre Quigley, and many others. Born in New Orleans, D�d� fled an apartheid-like existence for free people of color in the southern United States to build his career in France, a move that turned to exert a great influence on his composing style. In that respect, Morgiane is not only beautiful, but it also bridges worlds: American and French, Black and white, powerful and marginalized. It is the work of a composer who labored with conviction and brilliance, even as he feared no one might ever hear his music.

Valentin Silvestrov was forced to leave his native Ukraine after the Russian invasion of 2022. His music has a prescient quality that unerringly seems to express the fate of his homeland. The intimate Violin Concerto and the heartfelt, single-span Eighth Symphony are notable for their economy of expression and emphasis on beauty, depth and harmony. This is music that hovers on the edge of silence in an uplifting homage to love and humanity, hope and renewal.

A longtime Delos partner, composer Mark Abel releases his seventh album on the label. Matter-of-factly titled 4.4.2, it features the world premiere recording of four works for two musicians. A combination of vocal and chamber music, the album offers an enticing glimpse into Abel's wide-ranging soundworld, showcasing one of America's most original compositional voices alongside an impressive roster of internationally accomplished artists. The five-star cast includes rising mezzo-soprano Simone McIntosh, flutist Alice K. Dade, violinist Jennifer Choi, cellist Jonah Kim and pianists Michael McMahon, Ieva Jokubaviciute and Keisuke Nakagoshi, and the composer himself on the organ. 4.4.2 is sure to continue to solidify Mark Abel as "a compositional master of intriguing contemporary music."

This production is dedicated to the works of two American composers, of whom Morten Lauridsen is certainly the better known in Germany. His choral work O magnum mysterium (1994) in particular has become one of the hits of contemporary choral literature in recent years. Lauridsen (born 1943) grew up in Portland, Oregon, the son of Danish immigrants. The songs of Jerome Kern, Cole Porter and Richard Rodgers were very present in his home. He initially studied English and history and worked as a fireman. He then turned his attention entirely to music and moved to the University of Southern California, where, after graduating, he taught music theory and later became a professor of composition. As a creator of primarily vocal music he received many awards, including the National Medal of Arts in 2007. From 1994 to 2001, he was composer in residence with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, one of the leading professional choirs in the USA, which also premiered his Lux aeterna. All five movements of this cycle refer to the "Eternal Light". While Lauridsen was setting the underlying liturgical texts to music, his mother was dying - but the words about light as a universal symbol of all-encompassing enlightenment gave him consolation. Jake Runestad is one of the latest additions to the list of great American composers and is in the process of securing his place in US music history. Born in 1986 in Rockford, Illinois, he grew up in a family that sang a lot. There was also a piano, and during his primary school years he began to play little melodies on it - also teaching himself Scott Joplin's The Entertainer. From 2009 to 2011, he studied at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, after which he quickly gained recognition, especially in the field of choral music. However, his catalogue of works also includes operas, orchestral pieces and chamber music. He has received commissions from the Washington National Opera, the vocal ensemble VOCES8 and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, among others. His first album, The Hope of Loving, was immediately nominated for a Grammy Award. A keen mountaineer and camper, Runestad finds nature a great source of inspiration. In his Earth Symphony, Mother Earth herself is given a voice; the five interrelated sections deal with her destruction, her sorrow, her healing, and also her hope for humanity.

The Miro Quartet, celebrating their 30th anniversary this year, presents an album featuring the complete string quartets of Alberto Ginastera, one of the most influential Latin American composers of the 20th century. A master of vivid contrasts and emotional depth, Ginastera infused his music with the spirit of Argentine folk traditions, bold modernist language, and a profound sense of expression. These three quartets span the entirety of his creative development, tracing a fascinating journey across three distinct stylistic periods. The first two quartets are considered undiscovered masterpieces, often performed live to great reception but rarely recorded in their entirety alongside the third. The vibrant rhythmic energy and folkloric colours of the first quartet, the introspective lyricism of the second, and the haunting intensity of the third each reflect Ginastera's unique fusion of influences, drawing from composers like Bartok and Stravinsky to create a sound full of emotional rawness and storytelling. Together, these quartets form a powerful cycle, showcasing Ginastera's ability to create distinct narratives within each piece, while also weaving them into a larger, cohesive musical story. This is the Miro Quartet's third album on PENTATONE, following the recording of Beethoven's Complete String Quartets (2019) and Home (2024).

Secrets of Armenia presents a selection of delightful piano works reflecting the dances and folk songs from everyday Armenian life. Performed by pianist Yulia Ayrapetyan, a specialist in the music of Armenia.

Themes of art song, poetry, and spirituality run throughout Poème Mystique, the second solo album by Korean-American violinist Danbi Um. Following Danbi’s acclaimed solo debut album Much Ado – a showcase for her virtuosity and gilded tone – Poème Mystique explores works of lyrical beauty and profound personal expression. Richard Strauss’ Violin Sonata, written in the year he met his future wife, is imbued with romance and intimacy. Ernest Bloch’s Second Violin Sonata, the title work of the album, is by turns ecstatic, spiritual, and fantasy-like. Inspired by a dream, Bloch incorporates a vast range of spirituality, including motifs from his Jewish-themed works, the Gregorian Credo, Mass Kyrie, and traditional Amen. Danbi weaves two shorter works amongst the sonatas. Gabriel Fauré’s Après un rêve (“After a dream”), originally a French art song, becomes an exquisite song without words in this transcription for violin. The album concludes with Franz Schubert’s Ave Maria, likewise originally for voice and piano, presented here in an arrangement by August Wilhelm. Danbi’s refined collaborator is Finnish pianist Juho Pohjonen. Together they deliver a performance that is at once technically virtuosic and emotionally nuanced.

Described by BBC Music Magazine as ‘Mozart music-making of altogether superior quality’, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s acclaimed Mozart Concertos series reaches Vol. 6. Along with Concerto No. 24, K. 491, the two concertos presented here were composed in Vienna in the winter of 1785 – 86, at a time when Mozart was working on Le nozze di Figaro. He was at the height of his fame as composer, virtuoso pianist, and teacher. These three concertos were all written for his own use in the concerts of that winter, and remained unpublished during his lifetime. Der Schauspieldirektor (The Impresario) was commissioned by Emperor Joseph II for an important state visit and performed at Schönbrunn palace on 7 February 1786. The Overture highlights Mozart’s innate ability as an orchestrator, and serves as a demonstration piece for Gábor Takács-Nagy and the wonderful musicians of Manchester Camerata.

REVIEWS:

Gábor Takács-Nagy elicits incisive yet vocally orientated phrasing from The Manchester Camerata, giving the impression that the marvellous string, wind and brass sections are reacting and responding to one another, while the timpani strokes make consistently palpable yet never overwhelming impact. The point and refinement of Bavouzet’s elegant phrasing exemplifies Mozart’s famous description of how certain passages should ‘flow like oil’… The engineering’s spacious yet clear concert-hall realism further factors into my enthusiastic recommendation.

-- Gramophone (Jed Distler)

October 29, 1923 was a date steeped in history. In the middle of a year of political and economic crises, the age of public radio in Germany was ushered in with the first broadcast of the "Berliner Funkstunde" (Berlin Radio Hour) from the attic of an office building on Potsdamer Platz. Radio offered entirely new possibilities for the production and reception of music. The two compositions on this CD not only benefited from these developments but also played an active role in shaping them.

Eduard Künneke's five-movement Concerto grosso "Tänzerische Suite" op. 26 for jazz band and large orchestra corresponded to modern dances: the Overture is a Foxtrot, the Andante a Blues, the Intermezzo a Tango, the valse mélancolique a Boston Waltz, and the Finale a Foxtrot again. The suite was celebrated as a milestone in contemporary radio music and soon became part of the regular concert program.

Hanns Eisler's cantata "Tempo der Zeit" (Tempo of the Times) op. 16 for soloists, narrator, choir, winds, and percussion was written in 1929. The libretto was written by the popular lyricist Robert Gilbert, under the pseudonym of David Weber. With its pure wind ensemble and percussion, "Tempo der Zeit" captures the typical Songspiel sound of the time. The fact that Eisler used the "modern" medium of radio, of all things, to get his fundamental criticism of blind enthusiasm for technology across to the people is an ironical aspect of the work’s composition and reception history. This CD is part of the special programme focus on the topic "The Wild Sound of the Twenties".

Countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen's star is rapidly in the ascendent, his voice "astonishingly beautiful" and "golden-toned" (The Guardian). He has been acclaimed as a "complete artist" by The New York Times and as "extravagantly gifted... Nussbaum Cohen is poised to re-define what's possible for singers of this distinctive voice type" (San Francisco Chronicle). Uncharted is Aryeh's solo debut album, and ventures outside typical countertenor territory into 19th and 20th century lieder never before recorded by his soaring voice type. Austro-Germanic lieder was Aryeh's first musical love and on Uncharted, he indulges in music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Clara and Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms - music that resonates profoundly with his family's German and Jewish heritage. The moving programme is heightened by the deeply sensitive playing of leading collaborative pianist John Churchwell, Head of Music for San Francisco Opera. The release of Uncharted coincides with a North American tour that takes Aryeh to Houston and St. Paul, with debuts at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and New York's Carnegie Hall.

Award-winning Canadian composer Christopher Tyler Nickel scales heights and plumbs depths with his novel new recording of concertos, for piccolo and for four Wagner tubas. Following his recently released Requiem, last year's epic seven-hour Gospel According to Mark, and concertante works for all ranges for his own instrument - oboe, oboe d'amore and bass oboe - Chris' new recording includes a dazzling Concerto for Piccolo featuring principal piccolo player of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Sarah Jackson, paired with an astounding assemblage of four players of the Wagner tuba, a hybrid tuba-French horn instrument commissioned by the namesake composer for his opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. Both Jackson and the four Wagner tuba soloists - Oliver de Clercq, Laurel Spencer, Valerie Whitney, Holly Bryan - are superbly supported by conductor Clyde Mitchell and the Vancouver Contemporary Orchestra.

In the shadows of history, the works of Mieczyslaw Weinberg and Erich Korngold emerge as profound testaments to the resilience of the human spirit. Both composers, deeply affected by the tumultuous tides of the twentieth century, faced the harrowing realities of persecution. Their music, rich in emotion and complexity, serves not only as a reflection of their personal trials but as an enduring legacy of hope and beauty amid despair. Driven by a passion for meaningful projects, cellist Kristina Reiko Cooper gave the New York premiere of Weinberg's Fantasia for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 52 and Korngold's Cello Concerto in C major in 2025. She is rejoined by her concert partner, conductor Constantine Orbelian, and the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra to record these works, together with Weinberg's Concerto for Cello and Orchestra. Three extraordinary works for solo cello and orchestra by two leading composers of the twentieth century.