Winners of numerous awards, Andr�as Schiff and Dinu Lipatti are world class pianists. Alto is pleased to release famous recordings of the pianists playing Bach, paired together for the first time.

A lot has happened since the 2004 release of Billband’s innova debut album, Blurred. Where that album was called “gritty and funky” by Gramophone, the group’s new album, Towards Daybreak, turns more personal and showcases the broad palette of composer/leader Bill Ryan.

"Let these glorious sounds fill your ears and lift your spirits." GRAMOPHONE "Outstanding...astonishing stylistic and expressive range." BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE "One of the finest choirs of our day." GRAMOPHONE This disc features music from over a dozen composers representing ten countries from Palestrina's Assumpta Est Maria and Monteverdi's Beatus Vir to excerpts from Poulenc's Sept Répons des Ténèbrae and Frank Martin's Mass for Double Choir. This disc provides a superb collection of works from some of Europe's most celebrated composers and, alongside the first disc in this set, Great British Choral Works, is the perfect introduction to The Sixteen's wonderful music

TELEMANN: CANTATAS: NO. 18 A

Ireland’s leading collegiate choral ensemble, The Choral Scholars of University College Dublin bring us their first recording on Signum. The program of this album is a blend of Scottish and Irish music, themed around water and farewell. Conductor Desmond Early says of the album, “It is happy coincidence that the title of this disc, Invisible Stars, and the motto of University College Dublin – Ad Astra (to the stars) - connect in this... This recording is our celebration of creativity, talent, and youthful energy, and at the same time a gesture of remembrance toward the many 'invisible stars' who went before us a century ago."

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REVIEWS:

Blending ‘folk’ voices with choral precision tight harmony isn’t easy but Desmond Earley has a passionate stake in both and doesn’t put a foot wrong here.

– Choir & Organ

For sheer beauty of sound and contemplative luxuriousness, this debut by the mixed-voice Choral Scholars of University College, Dublin is an altogether captivating experience. Lovers of elegantly crafted singing will find much to enjoy here in a survey of Irish and Scottish songs that also reaches across the Atlantic in the Appalachian-accented Black is the Colour of My True Love’s Hair … Vocal solos are pristinely realised, the ensemble sound gilded and glowing.

– Classical Ear

Polymath Sir Stephen Hough has a growing reputation as a composer of chamber, choral and above all solo piano music with four sonatas and a constellation of dazzling arrangements to his name. This album presents the premiere recording of his first piano concerto, recorded by the pianist with The Hall� under Sir Mark Elder. It's subtitle 'The world of yesterday' deliberately places the work in a broader context of the pianist-virtuosi of yesteryear who composed and performed their own piano concertos as they toured the world.

For the second volume in this series devoted to each new stage in Bach's life, Paul Agnew and Les Arts Florissants show us how the composer appropriated the usages of the church cantata to his own ends. Borrowing from the French style and reinterpreting the Italian concerto, he left a lasting mark on the genre and blazed a new trail for it.

In this highly original program, Julien Libeer and his partners bring us the smile and the light of Mozart via an absolutely radiant sonata for solo piano, a sonata for violin and piano in which joy triumphs over anxiety, a flamboyant trio from the time of Le nozze di Figaro, to say nothing of the Piano Quartet K478, a rare combination that allows the composer to play around on the frontiers of the concerto and chamber music. All of this in a surprising dramatic progression.

Classical Music

Based at Saint Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in New York, the world renowned Saint Thomas Choir of Men & Boys - and their acclaimed director John Scott - offer a new recording of Bach's Motets. The choir is considered by major critics to be the outstanding choral ensemble of the Anglican musical tradition in the U.S. today, and one of the finest in the world. Besides offering a full concert series each year, the choir of 16 men and three dozen boys sings at five weekly principal worship services, preparing an astounding 400 pieces of sacred music a year. This album marks the first release in an ongoing relationship with Resonus Classics over the next few years.

Surprising as it may seem, there has never been a complete recording of Bizet's songs. The formidable team assembled here fills this gap and offers a chance to discover a little-known side of his vocal music, with numerous rarities, early works, alternative versions, and other unpublished pieces compiled by the leading specialists and accompanied by period instruments. This is a richly deserved this tribute on the 150th anniversary of Bizet's death.

Repackaged Boxed Set

Classical Music

Goethe’s Faust exerted a powerful influence on Romantic composers, offering Robert Schumann a number of unforgettable scenes drawn mainly from the mystical second part of the epic poem which he incorporated into this immensely moving large-scale cantata. Opening with the first love scene between Gretchen and Faust and concluding with the climactic scene of Faust’s redemption, Schumann created a sweeping panorama of dramatic episodes with Mephistopheles’ trickery ultimately overcome as legions of celestial beings bear Faust’s soul to heaven.

Pursuing the 'new practice' introduced by Monteverdi, seventeenth and eighteenth-century composers in the Italian tradition explored a myriad of human emotions, all the more eagerly because lovers generally come in pairs. From Monteverdi to Handel and Vivaldi, Carlo Vistoli and Hugh Cutting vie with each other in virtuosity throughout a program tailor-made for them by William Christie and Les Arts Florissants.

CHORAL MASTERPIECES

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Vocal Recital: Wunderlich, Fritz - SCHUMANN, R. / SCHUBERT,

The marvelously affecting Italian Duets have long remained favorites among Handel's oeuvre distinct markers of the influences of the young Saxon's early trips to Rome and studies of the chamber duet master Agostino Steffani. The grand Hamonices Mundi is joined here by rising stars of Baroque singing Gemma Bertagnolli and Susanne Ryden.

This deluxe 4-CD box set from Sony Music brings together the seminal Columbia recordings of Terry Riley, a visionary composer whose influence on minimalist and electronic music continues to ripple through generations. Thoughtfully presented with archival materials, this collection offers an essential document of Riley's most transformative period when the pulse of innovation met the possibilities of high-fidelity sound. This box set is more than a collection of recordings it is a rare window into a time when the avant-garde found a home in major-label studios and groundbreaking artists like Riley were given space to explore uncharted sonic territory. From his mesmeric electric keyboard and saxophone improvisations to his pioneering use of analog tape delay, every track here pulses with the spirit of experimentation. Starting with the original 1968 recording of In C, captured at Columbia's legendary 30th Street Studio, by revered engineer Fred Plaut, the set includes four seminal works by Riley that helped shape not only the minimalist movement but much of the late 20th century avant-garde landscape.

A superb collection of works for vocal ensemble from Bologna, CA. 1500s performed by the Speculum Ensemble.

Spirit, Strength & Sorrow, the staggering result of the Sixteen's third collaboration with the Genesis Foundation, demonstrates once again their joint commitment to nurturing new artistic talent. This CD features three brand-new settings of the Stabat Mater from emerging composers Alissa Firsova, T�nu K�rvits, and Matthew Martin alongside those by Claudio Casciolini and Domenico Scarlatti.

Global cello sensation Hauser returns with Cinema - a sweeping new album of iconic melodies from the silver screen. Bringing his signature romantic flair and expressive cello playing to the world of film music, Hauser curates a stunning collection of timeless movie themes that span generations. From the nostalgic beauty of the "Tara's Theme" from Gone with the Wind to the haunting tenderness of Billie Eilish's Oscar�-winning "What Was I Made For" from Barbie, Cinema captures the emotional essence of some of film's most iconic moments. With richly orchestrated arrangements, Hauser breathes new life into works by the greatest composers in film history John Williams, Ennio Morricone, Henry Mancini, and John Barry as well as beloved ballads like Sam Smith's "Writing's on the Wall" (Spectre) and "The Music of the Night" from The Phantom of the Opera. The album also features the ultra-romantic theme from An Affair to Remember, a melody rediscovered by a new generation in Sleepless in Seattle. Cinema is more than a tribute it's a reimagining of these classic themes through the voice of the cello, transporting listeners into the heart of each story. With passion, elegance, and cinematic grandeur, Hauser once again redefines the possibilities of his instrument and deepens his connection with audiences around the world.