In his new GENUIN album, pianist Viktor Soos presents a musical dialogue between three individuals bound together by love, friendship, and artistic mastery. The prizewinner of the 2021 International Robert Schumann Competition performs works by Clara and Robert Schumann, as well as Johannes Brahms - three of the most renowned musicians of the Romantic era. These are key works from their respective oeuvres that move us today just as they did two centuries ago. In his historically grounded interpretation, Soos places particular focus on the hidden dedications found throughout the pieces on this album.

Scott Wollschleger wrote�Lost Anthems�as part of The 20/19 project, violist Leilehua Lanzilotti's commissioning enterprise. The twenty five minute work is divided into fifteen discrete sections, what Wollschleger describes as "a melodic, song-like structure in search of itself." By titling the works "anthems," Wollschleger invokes a music that is inherently communal and symbolic of something larger than itself; by presenting music that is often introspective, he subverts the bombastic underpinnings of many anthems.

Jeji pastorkyna (Her Stepdaughter; commonly known as Jenufa) is an opera in three acts by Leos Janacek to a Czech libretto by the composer, based on the play Jeji pastorkyna by Gabriela Preissova. Jenufa is based on a play by the Czech writer Gabriela Preissova�. Set a Moravian village, it follows the travails of two half-brothers, steva and Laca, and the woman with whom they are both in love, Jenufa. Jenufa loves steva in return, and is secretly pregnant with his child. But, after the jealous Laca slashes her face, steva abandons her, repelled by the disfigurement. Things only get worse for Jenufa in the second act. Laca, who now hopes to marry her instead, finds out about the child and is furious. In a desperate attempt to help, Jenufa's stepmother kills the baby - but tells them both it died naturally. Her plan appears to work and the pair agree to marry, but the child's body is discovered, forcing Jenufa's stepmother to confess. The opera ends with a remarkable reconciliatory duet between Laca and Jenufa. Here Janacek's music gleams, luminous and hopeful after such sustained darkness.

Concertos for bass clarinet are rare enough; this album brings three new ones to swell those limited ranks. It presents the fruit of a series of interlocking international co-operations, between orchestras in Sweden, the UK and USA, with American, British and Swedish composers and, at the heart of the undertaking, the bass clarinettist of the Malmo Symphony Orchestra, Carl-Johan Stjernstrom. All three composers exploit the huge range of colours the bass clarinet can offer, in music that ranges from the fierce and dramatic to the sunny and easy-going. The album also inaugurates a Toccata Next series providing a platform for the musicians of the Malmo Symphony Orchestra.

George Lloyd will mostly remembered for his 12 Symphonies, but his compositions include Opera, Choral, Concerto, Piano and Chamber Music. In 2023 the Trustees of Lyrita Nimbus Arts reached an exclusive agreement with The George Lloyd Society to take over the sale, hire, archiving and preservation of all George Lloyd's scores as well as the commercial exploitation of the collection of recordings made by the Society in the 1990s and conducted by the composer. Because George Lloyd's personal attention is a dominating influence on the scores and recordings, which he mostly conducted himself, we have decided to headline this representation the 'Signature Collection'. Scores will be cleaned, and new orchestral parts created, recordings will be reorganised into collectable sets available on CD, Download and Streaming with new notes commissioned from Paul Conway.

Red is the color of love and of roses, but also of blood, anger, and shame. Soprano Eva Resch delves into the multifaceted meanings of this color in her new concept album for GENUIN. Together with her piano partner Eric Schneider, she interprets songs spanning from the Classical era to the present - from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to Wolfgang Rihm. With her versatile voice, she traces the subtlest shades of human emotion and creates expressive character portraits that range from jubilant ecstasy to the depths of sorrow.

On it's new CD from BR-KLASSIK, the Bavarian Radio Chorus, directed by Howard Arman, presents Christmas music from Italy. With his Lauda per la nativita del Signore, Ottorino Respighi modernised the medieval nativity play of the same name by the religious lyricist Jacopone da Todi. He had already explored art forms of the past in adaptations of early music, re-creations and free works based on Gregorian chants. In this piece, he assigned the medieval verses to three soloists - the angel, the Virgin Mary, and the shepherd - as well as a chamber choir. Accompanied by selected woodwind instruments reminiscent of the music of Italian shepherds, and by four-handed piano and triangle, the miracle of Christmas is brought to life in a simple yet impressive way. Francesco Paolo Frontini is remembered less for his compositions than for his many collections of Sicilian folk songs. From his Canti religiosi del popolo siciliano (Religious Songs of the Sicilian People, published in 1938), a collection of 22 songs for voice and piano underlaid with Sicilian dialect verses and their Italian translations, Howard Arman selected eight songs and arranged them for choir and instruments. Like Frontini, who already included regional variants from Catania, Palermo, and other parts of the Mediterranean island, Arman also arranged different regional versions of two songs. The melody of the Italian Marian carol O sanctissima, which is one of the most popular Christmas carols in the German-speaking countries with it's opening verse O du frohliche, could possibly also have originated from Sicily. The arrangement is once again by Howard Arman.

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."

A new album on GENUIN from the internationally performing pianist Sophia Weidemann! A prizewinner at numerous international competitions, she thrilled both critics and audiences with her album of works by Fanny Hensel. Now she follows up with a recording devoted to Bach: the program features the world-famous Goldberg Variations, which show off the phrasing and tonal artistry of this young pianist from Swabia to brilliant effect. She takes her listeners on an exciting and moving journey through the 30 variations - a work in which, for Bach, an entire world is contained. To quote the composer himself: "A most joyful delight for the soul!"

This album features the live recording of the concert given by Trio Lirico and pianist Josu de Solaun at the Fundacion Juan March in Madrid on April 23, 2025. It marks the world premiere recording of the two piano quartets composed in 1902 by the Spanish composers Vicente Zurron and Bartolome Perez Casas. The beginning of the 20th century represented a creative breakthrough in Spain, where chamber music had previously been limited to private settings and personal enjoyment. The expansion of chamber music into public concert halls inspired local composers to explore the genre - an impulse reflected in the recovery of these long-overlooked works.

Discovering Wilfred HeatonPremiere recordings of major instrumental works by a remarkable yet overlooked English composer Wilfred Heaton (1918-2000) is a name well-revered in brass band circles, but nearly unknown in the wider world of classical music.�Discovering Wilfred Heaton�seeks to change that with no less than seven premiere recordings from pianists Murray McLachlan and Rose McLachlan, tenor James Gilchrist, clarinetist Linda Merrick, and flutist Alex Jakeman. The album is anchored by the first recording of Heaton's monumental Piano Sonata, which was performed in 2024 to rapturous applause by Murray McLachlan at Manchester's Stoller Hall. The Sonata, composed in the 1950s, is a work of striking ambition and depth. Harmonically daring, emotionally raw, and technically formidable, it stands comparison with the great mid-century sonatas of Bartok and Prokofiev. From the muscular counterpoint of it's opening, through a grief-tinged slow movement and a dazzling finale, Heaton's sonata reveals a powerful, individual voice he was fearless in embracing big themes, bold melodies, and contemporary idioms. Also featured are first recordings of the�Three Pieces for Piano�(1954), and the poignant piano suite�Pilgrim Reflections, adapted from Heaton's mystery play�Pilgrim's Song. A selection of Heaton's rarely-heard�songs written in his youth and again in later life are performed here by the acclaimed tenor�James Gilchrist, accompanied by�Rose McLachlan. Together, these works illuminate Heaton's stylistic evolution: his command of bitonality, rhythmic complexity, and melodic invention, rooted in a deep understanding of Bach and Brahms, and influenced by Walton, Hindemith, Bartok and Stravinsky. Heaton's career was shaped by a lifelong tension between personal conviction and professional ambition. A deeply private Yorkshireman, he turned away from a mainstream musical path after early promise studying with Matyas Seiber and submitting works to the Society for the Promotion of New Music choosing instead a life of teaching, reflection, and selective composition. The result is a body of work of exceptional quality, much of it unpublished or unheard until now. This album is not only a significant act of musical archaeology by Heaton's biographer and editor Paul Hindmarsh� - it is a compelling argument for Heaton's inclusion among Britain's most original post-war composers. Track highlights:-Piano Sonata (premiere recording) - Murray McLachlan, piano-Three Pieces for Piano (1954)-Pilgrim Reflections (suite for solo piano) For fans of:�Bartok, Britten, Prokofiev, William Walton, Elisabeth Lutyens, early Tippett. An essential discovery for collectors, performers, and listeners drawn to British 20th-century repertoire beyond the usual names.

Jose Elizondo is a multifaceted Mexican composer. He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and at Harvard University. In the field of technology, Jose works full-time as an engineer in a company that specializes in speech recognition technology systems. As a composer, Jose writes chamber and orchestral music in a style that is lyrical and expressive, often drawing inspiration from Latin American folk music.

In 2014, the Museum Kleines Klingental in Basel presented the exhibition "Hans Huber and Basel's musical life around 1900". In 2015, the exhibition provided the impetus for the founding of the concert series "Basel composes" at the Museum Kleines Klingental. The idea was to create a platform for chamber music by composers who were born, lived or worked in Basel. Since then, numerous ensembles have performed works by well-known, unknown and forgotten composers from Basel. At the centre of this anniversary recording are compositions by Hans Huber, which were the starting point of the concert series, played by Andrea Wiesli, who has been particularly committed to promoting Basel's musical culture in the Klingental with the Trio Fontane. On the occasion of the exhibition, a concert series was organised as part of the accompanying programme with music by Hans Huber, by composers who influenced his music or were his pupils and friends. To realise this chamber music series, the Museum Kleines Klingental, advised by the pianist Andrea Wiesli, decided to acquire a historical Bluthner grand piano from around 1875. The Museum Kleines Klingental is located in the founding building of the Klingental Dominican convent dating from 1274. In 1929, the Cantonal Monument Preservation Office moved into the former convent. It founded the Museum Kleines Klingental in 1939. The large refectory, the former convent kitchen, the small refectory as well as the "Schaffnei" and the roof truss from the construction period of 1274 are particularly impressive.

Carlo Mazzoli and Silvia Rambaldi, passionate scholars of historical instruments and performance practice of early music, were teachers for many years - respectively of Piano and Harpsichord - at the Conservatorio "G.B. Martini" in Bologna, where they realised numerous teaching and concert projects. They have had a constant point of reference in Maestro Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, with whom they have collaborated assiduously in the activities of the San Colombano Museum in Bologna, which has housed it's collection of historical instruments since 2010; they are both present with some performances, both solo and in duo, in the DVD Il vibrar dell'aria dedicated to the Museum. It was precisely with performances on these ancient instruments that the study of Clementi's works for duo began, leading to this first complete recording.

This 15 CD compilation pays homage to Leif Segerstam (1944-2024), one of the greatest Sibelius conductors of all time. Segerstam left a lasting mark in music history in numerous ways. His Sibelius recordings for Ondine were recorded during his more than a decade long tenure as the chief conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and form an integral part of his more than 30 albums for Ondine between 1994 and 2015. These recordings with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra are a fortuitous combination of the orchestra's tradition of performing Sibelius, going back to collaboration with the composer himself, with Segerstam's experience, sensitive ear and creative energy. Here the stars aligned in a truly remarkable way.