Capella de la Torre, one of Europe's most renowned early music ensembles, is starting a new chapter: future projects will be released on the Prospero Classical label. This exciting collaboration kicks off with the anniversary album 20 Years of Capella de la Torre, which will be released in the form of a high-quality digipack. With this recording, the ensemble celebrates two decades of intensive artistic work, numerous award-winning projects, and tireless curiosity about the sound worlds of the Renaissance and early Baroque, licensed by Sony Classical.

With his first recording, Himmelsmusik, the Hieronymus Consort explores Sacred Concerts and Songs by the Hamburg councillor, musician, and organist Johann Schop and his son Albert Schop. Both composers were well connected during their time; Johann traveled to Copenhagen together with Heinrich Sch�tz to play at the wedding celebrations of the Danish Crown Prince. Albert received his organ education from Philipp Scheidemann and worked as organist at the Mecklenburg court in G�strow. The concerts shine through their focus on text and virtuosity, and the songs, with texts from Johann Rist's Heavenly Songs, transport the listener to other worlds.

Pocket-sized drama In essence, the texts by Heine featured in this compilation are taken from his Book of Songs. Behind each title lies a unique personal drama, sometimes in an oriental-style setting (Rubinstein's Der Asra) and occasionally in the finest Rhine Romantic tradition (Clara Schumann's Lorelei). They recount medieval episodes, transporting us into fantastical fairy-tale worlds, providing an escape from everyday life into an imaginary scenario. This is the order of the day, just as it was back then, because, perhaps especially in our often unromantic times, it is not such a bad idea to have someone sing you a song.

The Royal Ballet's perfect pairing of Marianela Nunez and Vadim Muntagirov takes centre stage in this collection of four fairytale favourites. Royal Ballet founding choreographer Frederick Ashton's Cinderella was brought back to Covent Garden in 2023 to celebrate it's 75th Anniversary with a creative team steeped in the magic of theatre, film and dance bringing new atmosphere to Cinderella's ethereal world of fairy godmothers and pumpkin carriages, handsome princes and finding true love. Ninette de Valois' charming and funny Coppelia is a classic of The Royal Ballet repertory - a story of love, mischief and mechanical dolls. The intricate choreography is set to Delibes' delightful score and shows off the technical precision and comedic timing of the whole company. Osbert Lancaster's designs bring a colourful storybook world to life in this entertaining and joyful ballet. Marius Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty holds a special place in The Royal Ballet's repertory, with it's vibrant sets and glittering costumes and featuring such iconic moments as the Rose Adage, the Vision Pas de Deux, the exuberant wedding celebration and the charming fairy-tale guests, all danced to Tchaikovsky's richly layered music - one of the most beloved ballet scores of all time. Swan Lake is perhaps the best-loved of all the classical ballets. This production by Liam Scarlett features additional choreography while remaining faithful to Petipa and Ivanov's classic. John Macfarlane's opulent designs provide an atmospheric, period setting for this enthralling love story, illuminated by Tchaikovsky's sublime score.

New York City-based viola da gambist Caroline Nicolas is one to watch - a captivating performer and "one of the finest gambists working today" (Gotham Early Music Scene). With her star rapidly in the ascendent, Caroline has performed with ensembles including The English Concert, Kammerorchester Basel, and Philharmonia Baroque, and collaborated with the likes of Jordi Savall, William Christie, and Kristian Bezuidenhout. For her solo debut recording, Caroline brings out the big guns of the viola da gamba repertoire from France's defining era of the instrument - the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Pièces de viole were integral to the French instrumental baroque, and Caroline's programme leads with selections by the master of the genre, Marin Marais. For contrast, Caroline juxtaposes the first Suite by the iconoclastic Antoine Forqueray, and in between offers a pair of amuse-bouche: an intricate Chaconne by Marais' tutor, Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe, and a Prelude by the pedagogue Le Sieur de Machy. In keeping with French viol music's nuance and relative restraint, Caroline is accompanied solely by theorbo, it's complementary timbre reflecting the repertoire's aesthetic.

Felix Draeseke's early affiliation with the music of Liszt and Wagner permeated his own compositions of the period, not least his Sonata quasi fantasia in C sharp minor, a work of sumptuous Wagnerian candour as well as balletic lightness. It also marked a significant turning-point from a revolutionary style to something more conservative. As Liszt wrote to him, 'Since Schumann's F sharp minor sonata, I know of no more such significant work of this genre.' The programme also includes a virtuoso Grande Fantaisie, two characterful Fantasiestucke and Chopin-like gestures in the Valse-Nocturne.

Camargo Guarnieri loved writing for the human voice, composing hundreds of vocal works over the course of his long and distinguished career. The works in this programme all use texts by Mario de Andrade - a hugely influential writer who was Guarnieri's friend and long-term collaborator. The comic opera Pedro Malazarte is representative of an attractively unconventional and colourful Brazilian modernism that sets it apart from Romantic traditions. Alongside other powerful settings, A Serra do Rola-Moca is one of Guarnieri's finest dramatic vocal works, narrating the tragic story of two young people who die on their wedding day as they and their horses plunge into a ravine.

Naruhiko Kawaguchi's A Journey with Beethoven presents a thoughtfully curated selection of shorter piano works and arrangements that reveal the composer's diverse character beyond the sonatas. Performed on three historical fortepianos from the Finchcocks Collection, the programme traces a musical and emotional path through bagatelles, rondos, dances, transcriptions and the Fantasy in G minor, alongside a rarely heard 1822 revision of Fur Elise. The recording highlights the evolving sound world of Beethoven's era while showcasing varied expressive styles, from wit and lyricism to introspection. Through historically informed performance, Kawaguchi offers a fresh perspective on familiar and lesser-known repertoire within a cohesive artistic narrative.

Alongside their respective solo careers, H�l�ne Mercier and Louis Lortie regularly meet to perform as a highly sought-after piano duo. Both born and raised in Montreal, they have formed a musical partnership that goes back to the 1980s, developing a musical intimacy present throughout their wide-ranging repertoire. Their complicity has been strengthened over decades of playing concerts and recording together. This, their ninth album for Chandos, continues their exploration of works by Debussy. The programme features transcriptions by Ravel, Dutilleux, Woollett, Durand, Roques, and the composer of some of his best-known orchestral works (Pr�lude � l'apr�s-midi d'un faune, Nocturnes) and solo piano pieces (Clair de lune, La Soir�e dans Grenade, La plus que lente, R�verie). These sit alongside Lindaraja and en blanc et noir, original compositions for two pianos. Mercier and Lortie alternate the first- and second-player responsibilities in this mixture of works for two pianos and piano duet.

Dora Deliyska's programs are frequently dedicated to a specific theme that links the individual pieces together. At first glance, this does not appear to be the case with the present CD. Yet it would not be Dora Deliyska if there were not, in fact, a-perhaps mysterious-connection between the pieces performed. - Christian Kuhn

The production by the Anonima Frottolisti ensemble, which needs no introduction thanks to it's specialisation in the interpretation of medieval and Renaissance music, focuses in this work on the theme of the female figure that has been handed down to us since the fifteenth century. Cecilia represents a life story that is entirely feminine: "The lament and pity, the despair, the condition of women and their redemption," jealousy, the renunciation of nobles and knights for the defense of one's love and dignity, the "Comedy," that is, the theatrical representation of reality. The song has ancient roots in Western music, from the first monodic forms of the 15th century in France, where the protagonist is Pernette, also present in Italy in the Aosta Valley tradition at the end of the 19th century, or in the case of Jeannette, still used in children's stories in French-speaking areas, or in the fifteenth-century example La belle se sied by Guillaume Dufay and the three-voice version by Josquin Desprez, or in the narrative song of the oral tradition of the "three sisters/ladies who come from Lyon," as well as in the sacred sphere, influencing the composition of the Missa la Belle se sied in Ms. 1377 from Trento, or the Missa La Belle se sied composed by Mambriano de Orto and printed by Petrucci in 1505. The disruptive force of this tradition, that is, the traces that branched out from it starting from the European Middle Ages, are still evident and inherent in every musical and literary sphere.

David Hackbridge Johnson, born near London in 1963, is an all-round musician - not only a prolific composer but also a conductor, violinist, singer, pianist, jazz drummer and poet. Both works in this album, recorded under the baton of the composer, have extra-musical stimuli. The Piano Concerto evokes the Kafkaesque fantasy world and tragic fate of the Polish-Jewish writer and artist Bruno Schulz, a victim of Nazi oppression - and it also marks the early death of another uniquely gifted individual, since it was written for Jonathan Powell, whose last recording it became. The Symphony, taking it's lead from earlier composers like Bax, Britten and Vaughan Williams, is a response to the English landscape, as seen through the paintings of a number of artists whose work Hackbridge Johnson esteems - it's colours and moods changing as kaleidoscopically as nature itself.

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Transience is one of the major themes of the Baroque period, and Gabriel Garrido has put together an entire programme for this production featuring works from Baroque Rome whose lyrics deal with the transience of the world. The texts are sombre and brimming with charged symbolism of death - in stark contrast, the music of Giacomo Carrismi, the brothers Vigilio and Domenico Mazzocchi, Marco Marazzoli, and Kaspar F�rster is cheerful and magnificent. The grand seigneur of Baroque music, Gabriel Garrido, works with a large ensemble of young musicians and singers on this recording, which was brought together for the first Rencontre Baroque de Montfrin festival. The result is a wonderful example of Baroque splendour in 17th-century Rome, which sweetens the transience of life for the listener with the most beautiful colours and Baroque soundscapes.

The Percussion Collective, under the artistic guidance of Robert van Sice, presents the album Seaborne, an extraordinary journey across the ocean where music and imagery converge to reveal the sea in all it's wonder. From the soaring aerial vistas of Mauritius to the sunlit waters of Hawai'i, composer Garth Neustadter and video artist Kjell van Sice transform the natural world into a living, breathing presence. The work's three movements - Above, At, and Within - explore the ocean from sky, surface, and depths, blending dynamic percussion, piano, marimbas, vibraphones, and haunting vocalises to evoke the sea's beauty, turbulence, and mystery. This immersive collaboration goes beyond mere portraiture, offering a meditation on humanity's relationship with the ocean. As waves rise, swell, and calm, listeners are invited to witness the fragile coexistence between life and water, and to reflect on the profound power of our planet's greatest resource.

GRAMMY-winning flutist Brandon Patrick George and pianist Bryan Wagorn present The Deep Has Always Known Me, an album inspired by the myth of Undine - her emergence from the depths, her experience of love, and her transformation into human form. The title, an original idea by the artists, reflects the mystery and emotional intensity at the core of the programme. Developed since 2022 and rooted in one of the duo's first post-pandemic performances, the project grew from a desire to create something meaningful after a long period of separation, centred on themes of love, loss, and solace. Romantic repertoire forms the album's foundation, with works by Franz Schubert and Carl Reinecke exploring longing and devotion through literary narratives and nature-infused sound worlds. Music by Lili Boulanger, Florence Price, and William Grant Still expands this expressive journey with warmth, intimacy, and richness of color. United by close listening and deep musical trust, George and Wagorn shape a recording that offers reflection, connection, and quiet emotional depth.

Joe Hisaishi - "Joe Hisaishi Conducts The End Of The World; Reich: The Desert Music". Joe Hisaishi's new album blends cinematic sound worlds with the spellbinding power of a live performance experience. Recorded in 2024 at Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Hisaishi's album features the maestro's original piece "The End of the World" and Steve Reich's "Desert Music," performed with the Futures Orchestra Classics and the Philharmonic Chorus of Tokyo. Now in it's seventh volume, the "JOE HISAISHI FUTURE ORCHESTRA CLASSICS" series highlights Joe Hisaishi's signature versatility, precision and passion. CD Digipak.