The emerging quartet Gaman Ensemble shows in this album the evolution and cross-influences of that strong Spanish presence in the French capital over the last century. It's four members (Jesus Reneses -soprano saxophone-, Carlos Zaragoza -alto saxophone-, Daniel Sanchez-Manjavacas -tenor saxophone- and Luis Maria Gonzalez -baritone saxophone-) have studied in Paris, allowing themselves to be nourished musically and intellectually by the cultural life of the city. So did the five composers who make up the disc: Joaquin Nin, Jesus Guridi, Enrique Granados, Eduard Toldrà and Felix Ibarrondo. Gaman Ensemble records for the first time their own versions for saxophone quartet of the pieces by Nin and Guridi, originals for piano or string quartet, as well as the arrangement of the dance by Granados and the work commissioned by themselves to Ibarrondo. From these five scores, the versatile and rigorous Gaman Ensemble aims to illustrate the fruitful and long-lived sound encounter between Spain and France without losing sight of the musical regionalisms that were forged in the final stages of Romanticism. Basque, Andalusian and Catalan popular references emerge more or less explicitly in the languages of the five composers. On the other hand, as well as showing it's commitment to contemporary creation through Ibarrondo's work, Gaman Ensemble wants to contribute to the revaluation of the production and legacy of composers not yet sufficiently recognised, such as Nin or Guridi. And all this, through the original and suggestive formation of the saxophone quartet, a mirror of contemporaneity.

Anton Bruckner 200 (1824-2024)

The sincerity and, at the same time, emotionality of Anton Bruckner's musical thoughts create an inimitable magnetism that makes one 'forget' time in the very best sense of the word. Anyone who wants to approach Bruckner only analytically will find their mind boggled, especially at the first encounter. His great power is a certain 'transcendental charm' that is common to all his symphonies.

In 2024, the music world celebrates the 200th anniversary of Anton Bruckner's birth on September 4, 1824. On this occasion, the Bamberg Symphony - an orchestra well-versed in the interpretation of Bruckner's symphonic cosmos - and their music director Jakub Hruša present a new recording of the composer's last and unfinished symphony, his Ninth.

On 30 November 1894, Bruckner completed the third movement of his Ninth symphony, which, like all of its predecessors, was laid out in four movements. Work on the finale began on 24 May 1895, around 16 months before his death. He composed the first 172 bars of the movement in full, after which the score is at least partially orchestrated for a further 200 bars. Although a playable version of the finale of Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 is now available, in practical life the three-movement torso has become the norm. It seems as if the non-completion paradoxically claims its place. The Austrian critic and musicologist Walter Weidringer wrote that the Ninth 'may be taken as one of those examples from music history that prove that even fragments can display a degree of completion which no longer seems capable of improvement.'

A production of Accentus Music in co-production with BR-KLASSIK.

This third volume of music by Eduard Strauss I features many new discoveries including the Electric Lights waltz and the polka, Leaps of Pegasus, displaying Eduard’s gift for melody and orchestration. All but one of the tracks on this album are premiere recordings of the original full orchestrations. Volumes 1 and 2 can be heard on 8.225369 and 5371.

Prof. Erich Beurmann donated 70 instruments to the Hamburg Museum of Arts and Crafts. Among them are a large number of harpsichords, clavichords, and fortepianos: from an Italian harpsichord dating from 1540 to a Steinway concert grand piano from 1871. A significant portion of these instruments are kept playable so that the music of various eras can be reproduced on the instruments of the time. Susanne Von Laun regularly plays instruments from this collection in concerts and on guided tours. The artist, who was awarded the Muzio Clementi Award in 2005, selected five instruments for this CD (a square piano from 1777, three fortepianos from 1795 to 1820, and a Broadwood grand piano from 1841), which can now be heard on CD for the first time.

Women were not always allowed to compose - often due to restrictions imposed by their families or for social reasons. Ursula Erhart-Schwertmann, cello, and Elisabeth Aigner-Monarth, piano, illustrate on this album by the title "lost & found" the compositional activity of women in that era, in which composing for women was increasingly recognized. Their lists of works contain mainly short chamber music pieces, less often large-scale orchestral works. This selection of works also takes this into account and offers a compilation of character pieces from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Female composers from France, Great Britain, Denmark and north-eastern Europe like Mel Bonis, Amy Beach, Ethel Barns, Hilda Sehested or Marie Clemence de Grandval, among others, are given a voice and document the musical range of this genre.

Modern guitar music, played by one of the best German guitarists with a particular preference for music of the 20th and 21st centuries

Unquestionably Manuel Maria Ponce stands as one of the composers for the classical guitar of all time. Rare would be the virtuoso who does not acknowledge his brilliance. However, to reach such heights, history had to gift us a providential encounter with the greatest ambassador of the guitar in the 20th century: Andres Segovia. Their profound relationship of friendship, respect, and admiration, evidenced through a fraternal correspondence and declarations, began in 1923. At that time, Ponce was a professor of Harmony at the National Conservatory of Mexico and a music critic. Manuel Ponce composed the Sonatas between 1923 and 1929, all commissioned and dedicated to Andres Segovia. They constitute the first collection of Sonatas written in the 20th century by a non-guitarist composer, forming a fundamental and unique corpus in the concert guitar repertoire. Each Sonata possesses stylistic and formal characteristics that Segovia himself detailed.

During the first year after its publication, selected Slavonic Dances were performed in Prague, New York, Boston, London, Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg, Cologne, Bonn, Nice, Graz, Lucerne, and other cities … Dvořák’s music is deeply engraved in the DNA of the Prague Symphony Orchestra, who have performed it under conductors of such renown as Jirí Belohlávek, Charles Mackerras, Václav Neumann, Tomáš Netopil, etc.

The new recording, made with Tomáš Brauner, the orchestra’s current music director, draws upon an illustrious interpretation tradition, with its rounded and transparent sound capturing the best qualities of the exquisite Art Nouveau Smetana Hall of the Municipal House in Prague. / Slavonic Dances with the Prague Symphony Orchestra – Dvorák in good hands

On the occasion of the 2025 Kreisler anniversary year, the exceptional violinist Benjamin Schmid posed the question: What happens for the violin in Vienna roughly 100 years after Fritz Kreisler? The result is this phenomenal recording with the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna under Lorenz Aichner, featuring orchestrated works by Kreisler and the world premiere recording of the Concerto for Beni for Solo Violin and String Orchestra (2023) by Georg Breinschmid, born in Vienna in 1973. To quote the dedicatee, it is a "magnificent violin concerto that, from my perspective, shares much with the musical understanding of Fritz Kreisler: music with unadulterated joy of playing, which devotes itself immediately and as artfully as possible to the parameters of melody, harmonic experience, and dance-like (or groovy) rhythm. There is always a close relationship to instrumental virtuosity and sonority - something very strongly pronounced in both composers." The album includes Fritz Kreisler's Preludium and Allegro "in the Style of Pugnani" and the Viennese Rhapsodic Fantasietta in arrangements for (string) orchestra. Kreisler's Concerto in One Movement, based on the first movement of Paganini's Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 6, is presented here in an arrangement for wind orchestra, recorded with the Salzburg Wind Philharmonic under Hansjörg Angerer.

It's not far-fetched to consider the extent to which the ideal of a soundtrack encompasses a significant portion of the finest orchestral compositions of the past century-a domain where it's difficult not to spotlight Henry Mancini. If we were to identify the artist who most effectively distilled the perfect synergy between music and cinema, it would be fair to attribute such distinction to the American maestro. The Orquesta Filarmonica de Malaga, led by Maestro Jose Maria Moreno and with Jose Carra as a crucial collaborator in arranging a notable selection of the repertoire, celebrates Mancini's centennial through this recording. It's not just a customary tribute; rather, it's based on the premise that these compositions persist in enriching and extending their impact over time. Though we may not always say the same for the films they were initially intended for. As befits a classic, Henry Mancini's artistry evolves with each passing day.

The final volume in the historically important collection of rare recordings with the Danish versatile conductor Launy Grøndahl features the opera The Black Spider, an unknown masterpiece by the Swiss conductor Heinrich Sutermeister. In addition to never-before-released broadcast recordings, this volume collects the very first 78RPM recordings made by Grøndahl with his Olympia Orchestra in 1923. All previous volumes, from Volume 1 to this final release, are available.

Australian organist Simon Nieminski showcases the restored 1877 Hill & Son Grand Organ, located in the Barossa Regional Gallery in Tanunda, South Australia, with a program that is autobiographical for the artist.

Once again, cellist Christian-Pierre La Marca renews artistic perspectives in relation to his instrument. With "Legacy" (V7259) released in early 2023, he questioned the notion of heritage in music, through a mirroring between the concerti by Haydn and the works of his master Porpora, not forgetting to highlight fruitful interactions with Mozart. "Wonderful World", the fruit of a collaboration with Yann Arthus-Bertrand, awakened our consciences to environmental issues (V7362, 2021).

This is an album featuring seven works for string orchestra by Philadelphia-Area composers; all are new commissions. These would be major composers, wherever they were based. This is absolutely first-rate new music for string orchestra.

Serendipia Ensemble, Rita Rógar, and Moisés Maroto, together with their ensemble of musicians—Darío Tamayo on the harpsichord, Calia Álvarez on the viola da gamba, José Arsenio Rueda on the baroque bassoon, and Jon Wasserman exchanging his plucked string instruments (theorbo and baroque guitar)—have recorded the complete sonatas. Premiering worldwide with the record label IBS Classical.

With this large continuo group, Serendipia Ensemble seeks a unique musical approach to the concept of the triosonata, finding the common ground between the concerto form conceived by Corelli and the sonata form arranged by Schickhardt. We are now able to hear, with layering of different instruments, the triosonatas approach the concerti in sections such as the tutti-soli that we appreciate in the Corellian originals.

Praised for it's versatility and keen interest in new music, the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir and it's chief conductor Fredrik Malmberg present a programme devoted to a cappella works in a modern yet accessible style by American or American-born composers. The album opens with a triptych based of adaptations of ancient Gaelic poems, Reincarnations by Samuel Barber, known for his opulent, post-romantic language as expressed in his famous Adagio for Strings. Jeff Beal, one of Hollywood's most prolific and respected composers, wrote The Salvage Men, based on texts by Oscar Wilde and contemporary Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Kay Ryan. This cycle, according to Beal, offers 'a wholly fresh, contemporary view on the themes of transformation and our chosen response to pain'. Daniel Nelson's The New Colossus, based on a text by the 19th-century writer Emma Lazarus inspired by the Statue of Liberty, aims to convey musically the majesty and beauty inherent in the idea of inclusion. Finally, two works by Eric Whitacre, a composer whose works have become popular with vocal ensembles across America: A Boy and a Girl, a delicate piece based on a poem by Octavio Paz, and Three Songs of Faith, on texts by E.E. Cummings, a cycle that presents Whitacre's personal faith and his reflections on the spiritual and the unknowable.

Under the title ODYSSEY, the French-Dutch violinist Cosima Soulez Lariviere and the Austrian pianist Philipp Scheucher lead us through a legendary world, as it were, beginning with Karol Szymanowski's "Myths" op. 30. The three movements "Arethusa", "Narcissus", "Dryads and Pan", which are strongly influenced by Impressionism, refer to motifs from Greek mythology and are considered a milestone in the duo repertoire for violin and piano due to their various innovative playing techniques. The following two-movement Sonata in E-flat major op. 11 No. 1 by Paul Hindemith is also influenced by Impressionism, although Hindemith's very specific, simple and "classical" musical language clearly shines through at all times. The Sonata for Violin and Piano by the American composer John Corigliano from 1962/63 captivates with it's diverse moods, which are underlined by impressively virtuoso as well as lyrical or complex rhythmic elements. The final piece is the breathtaking "Aria" by his compatriot Kevin Puts, described as a "master of polystyle", who has enjoyed great success in recent years with his latest opera "The Hours".

La contemplazione offers a glimpse into “Viennese Classicism” through two authors who, while almost antagonistic, were also complementary and contemporary: Hummel and Schubert. In the late 1820s, European music was at a fascinating crossroads: the musical style that had dominated the old continent since 1780 (commonly known as “Viennese Classicism”) was in crisis and entering its final phase. At a time when tradition and innovation coexisted, emerging expressive needs pushed composers to seek alternatives to classical canons. La contemplazione offers a glimpse into this period through two authors who, while almost antagonistic, were also complementary and contemporary: Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) and Franz Schubert (1797-1828). About the Instrument: Fortepiano Graf 1826/1827 (Edwin Beunk collection)

In an environment of fierce competition among various piano manufacturing houses, Conrad Graf emerged as the reference brand in Vienna, even being named the official constructor of the empire. Graf built the piano used in this recording in 1826 or 1827 with a range of six and a half octaves.

Hjalmar Borgstrom has been well on the way to being rediscovered since the beginning of the new millennium. Several of his most important works were performed in his native Norway until the Second World War, after which his name long disappeared from public consciousness. Until his death in 1925, he had also played an important role as a critic. With the premiere of his two operas and above all the rediscovery of his extraordinarily picturesque symphonic tone poems, a new page has turned. This contemporary of Richard Strauss who studied with Johan Severin Svendsen and Carl Reinecke among others, proves to be a legitimate descendant of Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner; it is difficult to escape the captivating boldness of his programmatic concepts and their unconventionally beautiful realisation.

The LSQ celebrates Haydn's ideas with wit and charm as well as brilliance in the expansive solo passages which revive the hype of 1790s Vienna and London. This is Haydn at the height of his creative powers and a quartet to the highest performance standards. The natural, unobtrusive recording technique elevates these Classical masterpieces to their rightful pedestal.

The hour-long emotional tour-de-force with cellist Mark Prihodko and pianist Viktoria Korolionok evokes a soul-searching journey that spans a century of romantic repertoire following the music-making traditions of Ysaye, Gershwin, and Rachmaninov. Cerdanyenca takes its title from the eponymous sonata, written by Catalan composer Marc Migo Cortes, who dedicated this masterwork to Prihodko, his great friend. Conceived at the Juilliard School in New York, where Prihodko held the prestigious Kovner Fellowship while completing his Bachelor’s Degree in the studio of Richard Aaron, and Migo Cortes was completing his Ph.D. in the studio of John Corigliano, Sonata Cerdanyenca continues the tradition of the grandiose twentieth-century masterworks for cello and piano. Cultivating the lifetime synergy between composer and cellist, Prihodko and Migo specifically drew inspiration from the artistic collaborations between Rostropovich and Britten, and Piatigorsky and Strauss. The newly commissioned and internationally premiered Sonata has won the prestigious Pau Casals Festival International Award in 2019. In this extremely demanding monumental piece, the composer portrays the legends of his home region of La Cerdanya, from the tales of La dona d’aigua (the seducing water-woman) to the echoing Sardana Dances of Catalonia. His use of folkloric elements contextualizes hundreds of years of storytelling in an engaging acoustical play, expertly guided by Korolionok and Prihodko.

This is a wonderful program of Latin American piano works, performed by Israeli pianist Gila Goldstein.

The brilliant dynamism of Italian Baroque music is at it's most virtuosic and thrilling in works featuring the solo trumpet, whether in original compositions or transcriptions. Albinoni's astonishing ornamentations and the luminous dexterity of Vivaldi's concerto both represent each composer's distinctive character, heard alongside works by Corelli, Zipoli, Baldassare and Torelli. Domenico Sarri's Sinfonia a 5 is heard here in it's world premiere recording. Thomas Reiner is an acknowledged exponent of this repertoire with his performance of German Baroque Trumpet Concertos (Naxos 8.551419) described as 'first rate and spirited... an excellent protagonist' by Fanfare magazine.

On this recording, the piano quintet led by violinist and conductor Remy Ballot juxtaposes Franz Schubert's famous Trout Quintet with Johann Nepomuk Hummel's much less frequently heard Piano Quintet, composed almost 20 years earlier. What both quintets have in common (apart from the fact that they remained unpublished for several years after completion) is the fact that they were - according to the contemporary convention - still scored for double bass, which would usually become replaced by a second violin in the later course of music history. Yoko Urata-Fog, piano, Remy Ballot, violin, Iris Ballot, viola, Jorgen Fog, cello and Manfred Hecking, double bass, impress with their uncompromising musicality and unpretentious playing, which brings out the diverse layers of sound in a unique, almost analytical way, and prove the point that after many dozens of recordings of "The Trout" (yet far less of the Hummel quintet), there still remains something genuine to be expressed with these "Classics".

Winners of the First Prize at the inaugural Birmingham International Piano Chamber Music Competition, violinist Usha Kapoor and pianist Edward Leung present an album of violin sonatas by American composers Amy Beach and John Corigliano. The album features Beach’s large-scale chamber work of 1896, the Sonata for Violin and Piano Op. 34, and her earlier Romance for Violin and Piano, Op. 23 from 1893, together with Corigliano’s Sonata for Violin and Piano. Completed in 1963, this work was originally called ‘Duo’ and is very much intended for two equal musical partners.

Gluck's Orphee et Euridice is a masterpiece of the operatic canon, inspired by one of the most mysterious and cruel stories in Greek mythology. The gods allow Orpheus to descend into the underworld to revive his beloved wife Eurydice, but on condition that he must not look at her while returning. This production from Florence re-imagines this myth as a story for our times. It explores each character anew, highlighting the music and text as a more sophisticated psychological thriller than previously imagined, creating a moving and transformative narrative with which we can all identify.

Bittersweet - Sophie Pacini's own collection of encouraging masterpieces that feels like a gentle embrace in the midst of crises and challenges. In a world often dominated by uncertainty and stress, the music on this album offers a powerful solace - a reminder that beauty, pain and hope are mysteriously intertwined. Inspired by an intimate, moving concert in a women's shelter in Munich, the ECHOKlassik Award winner was passionate about giving hope and light to many otherpeople in dark hours with a compilation of her personal heartfelt pieces. It is probably the most personal album project to date by the Munich-born artist, who -unintentionally dubbed a "wunderkind" - had to fight against discrimination, exclusion and resentment from an early age and always drew all her strength from her music. Each piece on "bittersweet" is a little encouragement, a reminder that even in themost bittersweet moments of life, the beauty of music can lead to new strength. Sophie Pacini's interpretation, between virtuosity and sensitivity, opens doors to aworld that provides encouragement in difficult times - and shows that true strengthlies especially in fragility.

This is a collection of great choral works from the Renaissance and Baroque periods that deserve to be heard far more often.

Music without remembrance is not possible, affirms pianist Sophie Pacini, and "Rimembranza" is the title she has chosen for her 6th solo album. Here, the music deals with hope and doubt, pain and deliverance, bitter loss and - most of all - memory. At the album's core she has placed two works she finds strongly connected with pain, transience, and death: Mozart's Sonata in A minor K.310 and Schubert's Sonata in A minor D 784. Mozart's mother died in Paris shortly before he wrote his sonata. His twelve variations on the French folk song "Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman!" thus already bear the seed of the Sonata in A minor in themselves. "They are Mozart's rimembranza addressed to himself", she suggests. With their plaintive title harking back to the past, these variations open the curtain on Sophie Pacini's album. Before it falls again, we hear Schubert's two Impromptus Op. 90: sounding like excerpts from his sonatas, they "brush against our memory like two bittersweet rimembranzas from the past", she muses. The last act is introduced by Schubert's "Standchen" on a love poem by Ludwig Rellstab. The subject of love likewise closes the album; from the film "Cinema Paradiso", we hear the love theme composed by the recently departed Ennio Morricone and his son Andrea - a tribute track to Sophie Pacini's second homeland, Italy.

Francois-Xavier Roth and the Gurzenich Orchestra Cologne explore the beginnings of Anton Bruckner's symphonic oeuvre on the way to the complete recording of the symphonies. Between Linz and Vienna, the organist from the modest provinces, "half genius and half fool", as contemporaries described him, found his symphonic language. At the age of over 40, he composed his first "real" symphony.