'hush' is Chad Lawson's most intimate and understated work to date - a deeply restorative collection of music born from a singular moment of silence at London's legendary Angel Studios. After the final note of the orchestral recording faded, no one in the room moved or spoke, and in that shared stillness Chad discovered both the spirit of the album and it's name. Rather than offering another solution, ritual, or self-improvement tool, hush creates a place to simply be. A refuge at the end of a day that has taken more than it has given. Embracing restraint and honesty, Chad pares each composition down to only what it needs, allowing space, breath, and silence to become part of the music itself. The result is Chad's quietest recording yet. A beautifully immersive listening experience that leaves listeners feeling lighter, renewed, and gently reminded that even the longest nights eventually give way to morning.

55 years after the release of their first recording, Katia & Marielle Labeque celebrate an extraordinary artistic journey with "55," a landmark set that brings together new recordings and curated archive treasures spanning more than half a century. Released in 1970, the Labeque sisters' debut album marked the beginning of one of the most singular careers in contemporary music. The collection offers an intimate portrait of two artists who have consistently crossed boundaries between classical, contemporary, jazz, minimalism and popular traditions. "55" has a particular focus on women composers, to which Katia & Marielle say, "Their apparent silence was only a veil imposed by history. Their stories, extraordinary journeys and courageous destinies, resonate today with striking force." Featuring 22 tracks on 2LPs. Limited Edition.

Ludovico Einaudi returns with 'The Summer Portraits: Live.' Recorded live in London at the Royal Albert Hall in 2025, this new collection includes favorites from The Summer Portraits as well as much-loved classics such as "I Giorni," "Nuvole Bianche" and "Experience." Pressed on transparent blue & transparent pink color vinyl, 2LP.

Sir Stephen Hough's new solo piano album, Stephen Hough's Piano Postcards, explores the world from the perspective of the itinerant pianist sending home musical messages from his voyages. Music from Asia includes "Spring breeze prelude" by Taiwanese composer Deng Yu-Hsien and a piano version of "Aka tombo," a children's song so beloved in Japan that it features in citywide "5-o'clock chimes" across the country. Folk and popular traditions appear in "Cielito lindo" and "Nature boy," while the final group of pieces turns to nature, with works by MacDowell, Schumann and Sinding. Alongside these musical travel diaries, he intersperses new transcriptions of songs from popular films, including arrangements he created for Lang Lang's 'Disney Book' album. This is the first chance Sir Stephen has had to include piano arrangements of songs from Frozen, Coco and Mary Poppins.

Combining the vigorous forces of the Insula Orchestra and Insula camerata, Laurence Equilbey revives a historic tradition: that of the double orchestra. Beethoven, who was familiar with this principle, composed with the great festivals in mind at which orchestras could muster large numbers, often exceeding a hundred players. A unique musical experience.

The soprano (and ukulele player) Agathe Peyrat and the accordionist (and singer) Pierre Cussac form a unique duo, free-spirited and open to blending genres. In this programme, they embrace a classical repertoire, while putting their own spin on it "by turning the pieces into songs, with night and day as the theme." We discover an astonishing version of Mozart's Queen of the Night, melodies and opera arias by Debussy, Bizet, Saint-Saens, Puccini, Delibes and Wagner, as well as songs by Maurice Yvain, Charles Trenet, Andre Minvielle and Brigitte Fontaine, all arranged by the two artists, who play with every nuance between black and white, darkness and light: 'On this recording, light represents the great joy we feel when we play together - a joy we love to share."

Following the 2025 release of Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 and Intermezzi Op. 117 - an album that received rave reviews worldwide - Francesco Piemontesi, conductor Manfred Honeck, and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig continue their Brahms journey with a compelling new recording of the composer's Piano Concerto No. 1. A work of striking emotional force and symphonic grandeur, it was born from a profound personal and artistic crisis. Composed in the aftermath of Robert Schumann's tragic collapse, the concerto reflects Brahms' struggle for artistic identity, as well as his confrontation with grief, responsibility, and expectation. From it's monumental opening - once likened to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony - to the deeply introspective slow movement, often understood as a portrait of Clara Schumann, this interpretation reveals the work's extraordinary psychological depth. Complementing the concerto are Brahms' Six Piano Pieces, Op. 118, works of introspection, farewell, and concentrated expression. Composed more than three decades after the concerto, these miniatures distil a lifetime of experience into music of remarkable intimacy and emotional restraint. From the consoling warmth of the Intermezzo in A Major to the desolate introspection of the Intermezzo in E-flat minor - often regarded among Brahms' darkest utterances - these pieces form a poignant counterpoint to the youthful turbulence of the concerto. Together, they trace a path from struggle to reflection, offering a profound insight into Brahms' artistic evolution and inner world. Francesco Piemontesi, one of today's most-cherished pianists, presents the sixth release in his exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE, following the widely praised Schubert - Last Piano Sonatas (2019), Bach Nostalghia (2021), Schoenberg, Messiaen & Ravel (2022), Liszt Transcendental Etudes & Piano Sonata (2023), and Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 & Three Intermezzi Op. 117 (2025).

Following Wanderer Without Words (Alpha 984), which demonstrated her talents as a transcriber and pianist - 'we applaud both the skill of the composition and the performance, which alternates between subtle gestures and flashes of passion', wrote Diapason - Juliette Journaux now embarks on 'a declaration of love for German post-Romanticism', born at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, which dares to marry "the sublime and the trivial, beauty and ugliness, ecstasy and anguish, the divine and the carnal." Composers are gradually breaking free from classical structures, the boundaries of tonality are being pushed back, and the system of organising sounds around a stable central pole of attraction is being overturned: "Post-Romanticism muddies the clear waters," continues the French pianist. These tensions are embodied in a particularly striking manner in a work whose shockwaves reverberated throughout the late 19th century: Tristan und Isolde, premiered on 10 June 1865. The 'Wagner case' would captivate the musical world for decades, and young Viennese composers would follow in the master's footsteps: Wolf, Zemlinsky, Schoenberg, Schreker, Braunfels and Korngold feature on the programme of this recital, comprising numerous transcriptions by the pianist, which sheds a captivating light on this historic turning point.

With it's wonderfully poetic and sensual score, 'Rusalka' is Antonin Dvorak's most beloved opera, filled with musical effects that evoke the beauty and magic of a world inhabited by nymphs and water sprites. Jaroslav Kvapil's libretto is based on a famously tragic children's fairy tale, but in this acclaimed reinvention by directors Philipp Stolzl and Philipp M. Krenn Rusalka is depicted as a young woman from the dark fringes of society. She trades her power of speech to live in Hollywood at the side of a handsome movie star but is doomed to remain an outsider and a lost soul.

Dr. Jerzy Kosmala, internationally acclaimed as a concert violist and pedagogue, has concertized throughout Europe, the former Soviet Union, Canada, North and South America, Asia, and South Africa, and has recordings on several record labels. He is a frequent guest artist and performer at the world's foremost Festivals, International Viola Congresses, Universities and Academies, and is a permanent jury member of virtually all of the most prestigious international competitions, including the Lionel Tertis, Geneva, Munich, Markneukirchen, Trapani, Primrose Viola Competition, Brahms Viola Competition, and the Concert Artist Guild International Competition in New York City.

The latest musica viva CD presents three contemporary works for double-bass, performed by the renowned double-bassist Frank Reinecke (born 1960), who was a member of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1984 to 2024 and is in great demand at international festivals as a soloist and chamber musician. Working closely with renowned composers, Reinecke has premiered numerous works, including Flucht ('Flight/Escape') by Nikolaus Brass (2009) and iv 18 by Mark Andre (2021), both of which can be heard here in recent recordings. Born in Paris in 1964, the composer Mark Andre creates existential spaces of experience in his music that are characterised by subtle processes of change. At the heart of his thinking lies the question of disappearance, which relates to all musical parameters. Above all in his chamber music, which is as delicate as it is focused, the devout Protestant proves himself to be a sensitive explorer of sound. His solo work for double-bass iv 18 ('For they were afraid'), commissioned between 2018 and 2021 by musica viva of Bayerischer Rundfunk and the Berliner Festspiele / Musikfest Berlin, was premiered by Frank Reinecke at the Musikfest Berlin in 2021. This recording of the work was made between November 7 and 9, 2023 in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz. Nikolaus Brass regards the three movements he composed for solo double-bass in 2009 under the title Flucht ('Flight/Escape') as studies or etudes for the instrument. The first movement highlights various 'gestures of the line', which in the third movement are narrowed down to a single gesture, that of the glissando. In the central movement, the core of the instrument is brought to the fore. The title Flucht can be interpreted musically in several dimensions. Frank Reinecke gave the work it's world premiere in Hamburg in June 2013. This recording was made on June 20 and 21, 2012 at the Himmelfahrtskirche in Munich-Sendling. Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) composed the first version of In Freundschaft ('In Friendship') in 1977 as a birthday present for the clarinettist Suzanne Stephens, and also wrote a version of it for the flute at the same time. In 1978, he revised the work and, on that occasion, wrote versions for the oboe, trumpet, violin and viola. Further versions followed for the basset horn and almost all other orchestral instruments. A first version for cello, prepared in 1981, can also be played on the double-bass. This live recording of Frank Reinecke's performance was made during a musica viva concert on November 6, 2020 in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz. ? Impressive performances of three original contemporary compositions for solo double-bass by renowned double-bass player Frank Reinecke: Mark Andre (born 1964): iv 18 ('For they were afraid') (2022/23) Nikolaus Brass (born 1949): Flucht (2009) Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007): In Freundschaft (version for double-bass; 1977/2008) ? Andre and Brass wrote their respective compositions for Frank Reinecke (born 1960), who performed the world premieres, and dedicated them to him. In 1998, Stockhausen also dedicated a double-bass version of his work to Reinecke ? Three exciting contemporary pieces for the 'wonderful instrument' (Nikolaus Brass, 2025), performed by a world premiere performer

Romanian composer George Enescu was a child prodigy, and in October 1888, aged seven, become the youngest student ever admitted to the Vienna Conservatory (and the first non-Austrian), where he graduated at the age of twelve. In addition to his career as a composer, Enescu was also an acclaimed conductor and violinist. He made his American debut in 1923 conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra, and frequently conducted both the New York Philharmonic and the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris. Enescu made numerous recordings as a violinist, of his own works and those of others: His 1949 recording of the Bach Sonatas and Partitas was very highly regarded, and as a teacher (at Mannes School of Music in New York) his students included Yehudi Menuhin, Christian Ferras, Ivry Gitlis, Arthur Grumiaux and Ida Haendel among many others). Enescu composed his Octet for Strings at the age of nineteen, taking a year and a half to complete, due to the complexity of the piece. The first performance was cancelled when, after 5 rehearsals, impresario edouard Colonne removed it from the programme as 'too risky'. The performers have chosen to complete the album with Enescu's early Piano Quintet, composed some four years before the Octet, during his time at the Paris Conservatoire. The work shows the young Enescu's reverence for his hero Brahms throughout, but also demonstrates his extraordinary command of form and texture at such an early age.

With the present recording Illuminans Tenebras hopes to shed new light on the music of Hildegard von Bingen, one of the most remarkable women of the Middle Ages. The musical approach of the ensemble shows that the monophony in the songs of Hildegard von Bingen bears a striking resemblance with various basic Ottoman makamlar - Kurdî, Mahur, Ussak. Illuminans Tenebras places Hildegard's mystical sounds alongside impassioned Eastern improvisations and links 12th-century Christian mysticism with Sufism of the same period. The recording highlights the musical and spiritual elements that the two traditions have in common: monodic melodies, improvisation, and ecstasy - music as a path to the divine.

The San Diego Symphony Orchestra is one of the United States' leading orchestras. Led by Music and Artistic Director Rafael Payare, the Orchestra has experienced an explosive artistic expansion, transforming it's repertoire and forging a distinctive sound. The recent renovation of Jacobs Music Center - a premier concert hall and architectural landmark - now allows that artistry to be heard in all it's power, color, and nuance. Launching a new collaboration with Delos, the musicians have recorded live at Jacobs Music Center Shostakovich's monumental Symphony No. 7. Known as the 'Leningrad' - the symphony was composed during the notorious and brutal siege of the city - the work is emotionally and historically supercharged. As the first recording captured in the hall's newly renovated acoustics, it sets the tone for an exciting new partnership!

Recipient of the prestigious Brahms Prize of the Schleswig-Holstein Brahms Society in 2024, Kent Nagano and the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, of which he was principal conductor from 2015 until 2025, perform the first two symphonies by the Hamburg-born composer, recorded in concert. Completed in 1876 after more than twenty years of hesitation, Brahms's First Symphony in C minor, Op. 68, bears the full weight of it's long gestation. Rooted in late Beethoven - Hans von Bulow famously called it the 'Tenth' - it traces a compelling per aspera ad astra journey: from the chromatic, drum-led opening's Faustian struggle, through a luminous slow movement and buoyant third, to a finale that breaks triumphantly into radiant C major. Critically admired but not widely loved, it remained music for connoisseurs. Composed swiftly during the summer of 1877 at the Worthersee, Brahms's Second Symphony in D major, Op. 73, stands in luminous contrast to it's brooding predecessor. Freed from the pressure of a symphonic debut, Brahms produced a work of natural ease and lyrical abundance: from the horn-launched opening movement to the enchanting third-movement minuet and the exuberant finale, it extends it's warmth - in Hanslick's words - to 'connoisseurs and laymen alike.'

This album is a mastering of the concert performed by the Kuss Quartet at the Fundacion Juan March in Madrid on April 08, 2026. It features the world premiere recording of Quartets No. 11 and 12 by Conrado del Campo (1878-1953), one of the most original and least known Spanish composers of the first half of the twentieth century. This recording is part of the Conrado Project. Launched in 2021, this ambitious initiative aims to present, for the first time, the complete body of his thirteen string quartets and to publish a comprehensive edition of the scores, most of which remain unpublished, along with the recordings released by the MarchVivo label. This initiative supports the recovery of a repertoire that has been unfairly consigned to oblivion.

Sacred choral music played a critical role in Mendelssohn's life. The steady stream of Psalm settings made throughout his career provided a means through which he could make heartfelt responses to the texts of his faith. This first volume in the series reveals Mendelssohn's skill in conveying the emotions behind each text, from the festive jubilation of Psalm 98, Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, to an expansive setting of Psalm 42, Wie der Hirsch schreit, regarded by Robert Schumann as the highest point Mendelssohn reached as a composer for the church.

The full range of Ernest Bloch's music for violin and piano can be heard on this album, which journeys from his fiery early works to one of his last compositions. Both violin sonatas explore personal themes. The First, in it's barbarism, alludes to the First World War, while the Second, subtitled Poeme mystique, was inspired by a dream and is suffused with lyrical episodes from Gregorian chant. The melancholy and ecstasy evoked in Baal Shem derive from Hebrew music, including pre-existing synagogal melodies. The economy of the neo-Baroque Suite No. 1 for Solo Violin reveals a more reserved but no less inventive side of Bloch's violin writing.

With it's wonderfully poetic and sensual score, 'Rusalka' is Antonin Dvorak's most beloved opera, filled with musical effects that evoke the beauty and magic of a world inhabited by nymphs and water sprites. Jaroslav Kvapil's libretto is based on a famously tragic children's fairy tale, but in this acclaimed reinvention by directors Philipp Stolzl and Philipp M. Krenn Rusalka is depicted as a young woman from the dark fringes of society. She trades her power of speech to live in Hollywood at the side of a handsome movie star but is doomed to remain an outsider and a lost soul.

On 14 August 2026, Divine Art is delighted to present The Complete Piano Music of Anthony Hedges (1931-2019) Vol 1, the first of three albums from British pianist Adam Davies presenting the entirety of this prolific composer's concert music for piano. This first volume documents a thirty-year maturation showcasing the full breadth and diversity of Hedges' creative output, starting with the earliest of the published piano pieces, the Five Preludes of 1959, fresh with youthful energy and verve, and ending with the bright and evocative Five Aphorisms of 1990. Between these sit two weighty centrepieces marking important stylistic departures: Four Short Pieces, his gritty foray into serialism, and the bold intensity of the First Sonata. Interspersed with these are delightful miniatures written for budding pianists, reflecting the composer's pianistic skill and facility in writing for younger musicians. This music is colourful, rich in it's allusions, and expertly crafted. Many of these works are being recorded for the first time. Adam Davies first encountered the music of Anthony Hedges in his youth and saw the composer himself in performance, as he grew up in Beverley, East Yorkshire, also by then Hedges' home. He rediscovered the composer during COVID after finding his own long-neglected score of Ten Bagatelles Op.156, gifted from his boyhood singing teacher, and was reminded of the quality and accessibility of the writing. Such was his enjoyment of these pieces, and his surprise at the relative lack of recordings of Hedges' music, that he resolved to record the complete piano music. Anthony Hedges' daughter Fiona provided the scores and private recordings of many of these works by the composer himself: 'Listening to these works proved to be a liberating experience he played like a composer: perhaps not with note-perfect Polish, but with crystal-clear imagination, purpose, character, and expression permeating every note and phrase.I have tried to convey something of his essence in these recordings, which I hope will serve to bring wider attention to this richly deserving repertoire.' The album is financially supported by the Ida Carroll Trust. Composer, pianist, conductor, teacher and critic Anthony Hedges was born in the town of Bicester and educated at Oxford, where his broad musical activity included singing in the Oxford Bach Choir under the batons of such luminaries as Vaughan Williams and Constant Lambert. During his National Service (1955-57), he worked as pianist and arranger for the Royal Signals Band. He taught at the Royal Scottish Conservatoire in Glasgow and later at Hull University, where he became a Reader and earned his Honorary Doctorate, also during that time meeting poet Philip Larkin and setting his words to music. As well as a weekly column for the Glasgow Herald, he contributed reviews and interviews for the Guardian, the Scotsman, and other publications. His expansive output covers all genres, including popular and frequently broadcasted lighter works for brass band and orchestra. Pianist Adam Davies was born in Manchester and raised in Beverley, East Yorkshire, where he had the opportunity to hear Anthony Hedges at the piano several times. Davies was educated at the Royal Northern College of Music, where his teachers were John Gough and Dr. Murray McLachlan. Adam performs throughout the UK as a recital and concerto soloist and teaches at Chetham's School of Music, Manchester. In 2019, he commissioned and gave the world premiere of Tom Harrold's Crux, and he has performed as duo partner with Kathryn Stott.

The opulent Second Symphony of Sergei Rachmaninoff in the compelling guise of a piano concerto: the only available recording, now available as a single CD. Rachmaninoff achieved a breakthrough, both for himself and in the genre of the Russian symphony, with the completion of the Second in 1908. This is music of a positively Brucknerian scale and paragraphing which needs space and breadth to unfold and climax. However, the symphony gained popularity through heavily cut performances and recordings, and it was only in 1973, with the recordings conducted by Ormandy and Previn, that the strength of the original, uncut Second revealed itself to new audiences. Rachmaninoff himself was hardly averse to making radical cuts and alterations both to his own music and the scores of his predecessors. Thus Alexander Warenberg followed suit in a long and distinguished Romantic tradition, when he transformed the symphony into a piano concerto. As completed in 2007, and recorded shortly afterwards by these musicians, this concerto can be compared to a cinematic adaptation of a great novel, as Ates Orga remarks in his booklet essay, 'with the main personalities, scenes and action retained, but subsidiary figures, incidents and detail omitted.' Thus the symphony's four movements are ingeniously condensed into the concerto's conventional three, with the central slow movement enclosing both the Symphony's Adagio, with it's unforgettably lugubrious opening clarinet melody, and the scherzo, as an interlude. With the symphonic argument shared between soloist and orchestra, Warenberg achieves a remarkably smooth idiomatic transition between the genres. The performance itself is driven and passionate in the best Rachmaninoff tradition, as the work of musicians entirely at home in the composer's world. Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy has made many fine recordings for Piano Classics, attracting lavish critical praise. 'Schmitt-Leonardy's collection of the three Chopin piano sonatas is the best single-disc version I have ever heard' (Fanfare). On his album of Schumann, the Etudes symphoniques 'have a formal integrity and sense of connectedness often missing in the hands of lesser artists' (Fanfare).

This set is the second instalment of an ambitious project: the recording of the complete codex of Las Huelgas, one of the most important sources of music of the High Middle Ages, an anthology of songs from the 13th century representative of the Ars Antiqua. The manuscript was written in the Cistercian monastery of Santa Maria la Real de Las Huelgas in Burgos, with the authorisation of Alfonso VIII King of Castile. The manuscript contains 45 monophonic pieces (20 sequences, 5 conductus, 10 Benedicamus tropes) and 141 polyphonic compositions. Most of the music dates from the late 13th century, with some music from the first half of the 13th century (Notre Dame repertory), and a few later additions from the first quarter of the 14th century. Many of the pieces are not found in any other manuscripts. This second volume contains two CDs with performances by the Gruppo Vocale Armoniosoincanto and the Gruppo Vocale Garda Trentino. We find two tonally different types of performance: the young voices of Garda Trentino offer a luminosity and rhythmic precision, always expressive and communicative. Armoniosoincanto presents a more reflective and controlled interpretation, strongly linked to the texts. The instrumental ensemble includes medieval harp and portative organ.

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.

Published in 1739, Johann Sebastian Bach's Dritter Teil der Clavierubung (Third Part of the Keyboard Practice) is one of the most profound monuments of organ literature. Conceived as a theological and musical summa, this cycle of chorale preludes framed by a majestic Prelude and Fugue reflects Bach's deep Lutheran faith and his consummate mastery of counterpoint. Intended 'for amateurs and especially for connoisseurs for the recreation of the spirit,' it invites us into a world where intellect and devotion meet in perfect harmony. This collection is not merely a set of organ pieces-it is a spiritual architecture in sound. Every element, from it's opening tri-thematic Prelude to it's closing five-voice Fugue, is imbued with symbolism, theological meaning, and artistic grandeur. For Bach, music was never just ornament; it was a language of faith, capable of expressing the mysteries of doctrine with clarity and beauty. Bach's models for this work were inspired from two great traditions: Italian Liturgical Collections - Above all, Girolamo Frescobaldi's Fiori Musicali (1635), which provided organ music for the Catholic Mass. Frescobaldi's influence is evident in the structural parallels: preludes before the service, organ verses alternating with chant, and pieces for specific liturgical moments. The other influence is the French Baroque Livres d'Orgue - Especially Nicolas de Grigny's Premier Livre d'Orgue (1699), which Bach copied in his youth, and Francois Couperin's organ masses. These works introduced Bach to the elegance of French ornamentation, the grandeur of the plein jeu, and the expressive possibilities of contrasting registrations. Bach absorbed these influences and reimagined them within the Lutheran framework, creating a cycle that parallels the structure of the Mass but substitutes chorales central to Reformed doctrine. In doing so, he forged a synthesis of Italian rhetorical expressiveness, French coloristic refinement, and German contrapuntal rigor. Played with intense devotion and understanding by Sergio Vartolo. Sergio Vartolo is an Italian organist, harpsichordist, and conductor known for his expertise in early music, especially the works of Baroque composers. Born in Bologna in 1944, he studied organ, composition, and musicology, developing a deep interest in historically informed performance. Vartolo has performed widely across Europe and recorded extensively, bringing renewed attention to lesser-known Italian composers. His interpretations combine scholarly research with expressive musicianship, making him an influential figure in the early music movement.

Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787) was a German composer and virtuoso of the viola da gamba, remembered as one of the last great exponents of the instrument. Born in Kothen, he was the son of Christian Ferdinand Abel, a musician in the court orchestra once directed by J.S. Bach. Abel's early exposure to music within this distinguished environment shaped his refined style and command of counterpoint, while his career later flourished in London, where he became a prominent figure in the city's cultural life. Abel is best known for his partnership with Johann Christian Bach in organizing the famous Bach-Abel Concerts (1765-1781), the first subscription concerts in London, which greatly influenced the city's musical culture. These gatherings introduced audiences to both established and contemporary works, laying foundations for the public concert tradition. Abel's music reflects the elegance and clarity of the galant style, bridging the late Baroque and early Classical periods. His compositions emphasize lyrical melody, balanced phrasing, and transparent textures, qualities that made them appealing to both connoisseurs and amateur performers. This 3CD set offers reissues of successful Brilliant Classics recordings with works by Abel: works for flute and orchestra, a symphony, concertos for harpsichord, viola da gamba and orchestra, trio sonatas and sonatas for viola da gamba and B.C. Performers include Nordic Affect (Georgia Brown), La Spagna Baroque Orchestra (Alejandro Marias) and viola da gamba player Marco Casonato and Massimo Marchese (Theorbo). 'Affectionate explorations of seldom performed pieces by mid-18th century composer' (BBC Music Magazine about Nordic Affect).

Joly Braga Santos (1924-88) was one of the most important composers in twentieth-century Portugal. In his early works his fondness for modal harmony, absorbed from the Portuguese masters of the Renaissance, and his busy counterpoint combine to make him sound surprisingly close to such particularly English composers as Vaughan Williams and Moeran. Although his harmonic language became more astringent with time, it retained a burly sense of humour and a powerful charge of energy, often infused with the spirit of Portuguese folk-dance. [Volumes 1-3: TOCC 0207, 0428, 0588]

In this album Bach's famous Goldberg Variations are newly arranged for Saxophone, Cello and Accordion. With Asya Fateyeva and Eckart Runge two renowned Berlin Classics artists get together, joined by accordionist Andreas Borregaard. Asya Fateyeva has brought the saxophone into the spotlight through her excellent recordings, new arrangements and concerts for her instrument as well as impressive media attention (including her own TV documentary on ARTE). Eckart Runge was founding member of the Artemis Quartet; he is also an acclaimed soloist and has already released several solo albums on Berlin Classics.

Luis Berra is a pianist and composer with roots in Nicaragua, Argentina, and Italy, which makes his music bridging cultures. The album A Piano Won't Fix Your Tormented Soul presents a refined mix of neoclassical piano, jazz influences, and cinematic depth, where Berra's compositions embody timeless elegance with improvisational spontaneity.