Classical Music

At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the lied increasingly took on orchestral garb. The boundary with opera became almost impalpable. That is what Samuel Hasselhorn and Lukasz Borowicz demonstrate here, in a splendid program mingling smiles and disillusionment, where some of the most characteristic orchestral lieder and operatic arias of this Austro-German 'fin de si�cle' era blend perfectly together.

For their very first recording with harmonia mundi, the duo formed by Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy offers us three closely related works: Schubert's celebrated Fantasy, his Divertissement à la hongroise, full of contrasts between bursts of energy and enigmatic mists, and Leonid Desyatnikov's Trompe-l'œil, written specifically 'to echo' the Fantasy. This porgram is an intriguing hall of mirrors.

An outlier in the French harpsichord world, Gaspard Le Roux composed music of unique inventiveness and richness at the end of the reign of Louis XIV. Juxtaposing his pieces with others by Lully, Marais and Fran�ois Couperin, William Christie and Justin Taylor have found the ideal alchemy to do full justice to the myriad colors of these Suites, as virtuosic as they are rich in new emotions.

The infallible Gesualdo Six trademarks of consummate musicianship and scholarly integrity are much in evidence here. Queen of Hearts addresses and reflects on queens spiritual (the Virgin Mary) and temporal (Mary Tudor and Anne Boleyn, among others) in a program of music largely of the sixteenth century, but spiced with two short works from the twenty-first.

Encountering a palace of riches is how pianist (and Hyperion debutante) Mishka Rushdie Momen describes her experience of playing Tudor keyboard music, a varied selection of which is included here. It's a description which could apply equally to the listener discovering the music in performances as convincingly idiomatic as these.

Although John Ireland is best remembered for his orchestral works, his 91 songs convey a peculiarly English quality of emotion expressed through reserve.

Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia - patron of the arts, collector, woman of letters and composer - was an extraordinary personality. The flautist Jean Br�gnac pays her vibrant homage with a program featuring works by her prot�g�s Carl Philipp Emanuel and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, her mentor Johann Philipp Kirnberger, and the princess herself.

"His command is absolute, the mood calmingly resigned... The underlying melancholy (missed here by many) is fully brought out... [others] Weber's concertino, excellently exploits the clarinet's qualities... Baermann's Adagio has a certain melodic grace of an operatic kind ; and Debussy's Rhapsodie (competition work) has a lot of characteristic things, and never suggests that it was a piece he really had to write... Brymer's playing will be familiar from many recordings: He has a smooth technique, a lovely liquid tone - rich and warm in the clarion register, oily and vibrant in the chalumeau... He phrases Kramář with grace in the outer movements and expression in the Adagio; a skillful, thoroughly musical performance". (Gramophone)

This first release in an exclusive recital collaboration with harmonia mundi presents Julian Prégardien's reading of a cycle that explores quintessentially Schubertian themes: nature, love, solitude, death. Taking full advantage of the unique timbres of a Graf-style fortepiano, the young German tenor and Kristian Bezuidenhout create an expressive palette of exceptional variety, full of striking contrasts.

Get ready to enjoy music from the Indiana Jones films, The Mummy, Angels and Demons, The Adventures of Tintin and Lawrence of Arabia with music by John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Hans Zimmer and many more.

The Nocturnes and Barcarolles are key works in Fauré's output for solo piano that reflect his stylistic evolution. From his early efforts, still close to Chopin and Schumann, to the final pieces with their heady yet elusive harmonies, Aline Piboule invites us to rediscover a whole world of sound on a sublime Gaveau instrument of 1929.

Moving from the style galant to the Age of Revolutions, this album is an invitation to discover half a century of the cello concerto's history. A few years after a sensational first volume devoted to C.P.E. Bach, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Riccardo Minasi and Ensemble Resonanz pay tribute to the hypersensitivity of the cello and honor with panache the transcendental virtuosity of the unjustly overlooked Antonín Kraft.

On this new album, Florence Bolton and Benjamin Perrot revisit the composer who gave their ensemble it's delightful name, La Rêveuse. Drawing on his heritage (Sainte-Colombe), his friendships (Robert de Visée) and his own visionary genius, Marin Marais blazed new trails for his instrument in his second book of viol pieces (1701). Alongside the customary dances and sets of variations, he invented the 'character pieces' that were to become so popular in the eighteenth century.

GOLDBERG VARIATIONS / VARIATIONS

This is the complete video release of Brahms' chamber music with several reference recordings. Moreover, the 16 hours of SD-quality video materials presented here on a single Blu-ray disc are equivalent to about eight standard DVD releases. This edition features great performances by today's most outstanding artists showcasing their thrilling artistry in inimitable performances. A must for any Brahms aficionado!

The challenges and rewards of performing early music are here vividly illustrated by The Binchois Consort, as creative scholarship comes to the aid of two substantial-but fragmentary-works by Jacob Obrecht, and an audacious recorded sound attempts to recreate the experience of the original performers 500 years ago. A novel twenty-first-century motet is also included, emerging from the prevailing Renaissance textures to reflect on themes of mourning and loss.

For Mahan Esfahani, Bach's Inventions and Sinfonias were more than just the tools by which his children and pupils were to acquire a prodigious technique. These 'tiny gems' (as Esfahani call them) reveal expressive depths to rival the major keyboard works and make considerable demands of the performer's musical mettle. The is the sixth instalment in his unmissable complete Bach keyboard survey.

For their first collaboration on harmonia mundi, Pablo Heras-Casado and Anima Eterna explore the world of Bruckner. The first instalment in this series is his tremendous Symphony No.4. An apotheosis of architectural rigour and poetry, this cathedral in sound, thanks to the unique sonorities of the period instruments played by the Bruges orchestra, regains it's lightness and elegance in dazzling orchestral colors!

ROBESON

Campra's famous Requiem emerged from a tradition that is still unjustly neglected. Sébastien Daucé and Ensemble Correspondances offer us an opportunity to discover these maîtres de musique of Notre-Dame who, though now overshadowed by their brilliant colleague, made no less of a contribution to the development of the 'French style' emblematic of the reign of Louis XIV.

With this delightful program of lullabies and a few gentle serenades, Emmanuelle Bertrand and Pascal Amoyel explore the deepest sources of musical emotion: melodies that touch, console, comfort and soothe. These little pieces, brimful of tenderness and love, are at once a marvelous entry point to listening to music for the very young, and a treat for experienced music lovers.

What is Tango? It is joy, sadness, humor, passion or intimacy. Above everything, it is music with a capital M. It is music of the immigrant. Music which has undergone many transformations, beginning with it's roots in Angola, which was later influenced by the Italian canzonetta, the klezmer, the French chanson, and Jazz. In the early 20th century, it seduced Europe after it's arrival in Paris. Tango speaks of the honest, sometimes rough and simple lives of the people. Tango is the soundtrack of their lives. Maria Martinova fell under the spell of Tango whilst a student and has been an advocate of this music for many years. Her album includes music not just by Piazzolla, but a selection of other composers too. This is a personal and passionate album that will seduce the listener in the way only Tango can.

2024 release. Beloved tenor Andrea Bocelli, the most celebrated classical singer in modern history celebrates his 30th anniversary as a global icon with a brand new album 'Duets'.This definitive collection features all the classic duets with Ed Sheeran, C�line Dion, Sarah Brightman, Dua Lipa, Jennifer Lopez, Giorgia & Edith Piaf alongside new collaborations with Shania Twain, Chris Stapleton, Gwen Stefani, Luciano Pavarotti, Marc Anthony, Matteo Bocelli & Hans Zimmer, Karol G, Sofia Carson & Elisa.

After being subjected to public attacks by the Soviet regime in the mid-1930s, Shostakovich sought new avenues of self-expression by turning to chamber music, and the string quartet became for him the perfect medium for private confession. To launch their complete Shostakovich cycle, members of the Cuarteto Casals offer deeply insightful readings of the first five quartets-works that are pivotal in the composer's oeuvre.