Pascal Rog� has over several decades, become the greatest interpreter of the French piano repertoire. His recordings of Satie and Debussy are benchmark performances, still unrivalled in the catalog. On this album he turns to Poulenc and is joined by cellist Lidy Blijdorp in the cello sonata, and pianist Elena Font in the sonatas for two pianos, and for four hands. Font plays the solo works included in this charming album of superbly crafted, elegant and sometimes witty music by this 20th century French master.

The sublime reflection of a human being faced with his own finitude and what comes afterwards, Mozart's Requiem reaches beyond the realm of music to attain universal resonance. Rapha�l Pichon's interpretation of this testamentary work, nurtured by a seminal experience with stage director Romeo Castellucci and punctuated by earlier sacred pieces of Mozart, is overwhelmingly moving.

Trio Barclay present Beyond The Pacific, an album of contemporary works for piano trio that sits at the intersection of chamber music excellence and a 21st-century American musical experience. The album opens with a cathartic journey: the Piano Trio No. 1 of Sheridan Seyfried. Energetic and heartfelt in equal measure, the range of tones and color on display throughout the album is immediately apparent. Elsewhere, "Orcas Island: The Rose of the San Juan Islands" by John Wineglass heightens the imagery, depicting a stunning portrait of the seascapes of the Pacific Northwest. Further down the Western coastline, Michael Fine's "California" delights in the fascinating multiculturalism of the Golden State, the third of three works showcased fittingly by three of California's foremost chamber musicians. Trio Barclay present these thought-provoking works with their usual flair and vigour. Having fostered a reputation as an ensemble of big musical personalities who create dynamic and exciting musical experiences across North America and beyond, this album is a moving and nostalgic return home, underscored by three gems of contemporary music.

At the heart of this new album from renowned British pianist Charles Owen stand two towering masterpieces: Liszt's Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen and Franck's Pr�lude, Choral et Fugue - works that chart spiritual journeys through grief, doubt and despair toward radiant, redemptive hope. Each embodies the essence of de Profundis - a rising from the depths, a cry of the soul yearning for transcendence. Liszt and Franck, so different in temperament yet united by deep mutual admiration and shared faith, drew profound inspiration from their Catholic spirituality. Where Liszt's unbridled Romanticism blazes with drama and color, Franck's introspection glows with quiet devotion; both speak to the indomitable human spirit. Balancing such intensity are Liszt's visions of nature in the Deux L�gendes and Les jeux d'eaux � la Villa d'Este: birdsong, flowing water, and the shimmer of divine light. His piano writing moves from the lightest suspension of sound to thunderous resonance, creating musical landscapes of awe and serenity. Charles Owen brings this immensely personal recording to life with luminous clarity and poetic insight, revealing music of both earthly struggle and eternal hope.

AD ASTRA is Il Volo's new album, marking a significant milestone in their 15-year career as one of the leading names in classical crossover pop. This album is the trio's first to feature 11 previously unreleased tracks, bringing together a unique fusion of pop, classical symphonic music, and traditional opera. This international edition of AD ASTRA offers 16 tracks in total, including five new tracks. - Highlights include the golden tones of Now We Are Free, the iconic theme from Ridley Scott's Gladiator, composed by Hans Zimmer, as well as timeless American classics like The Sound of Silence and Hallelujah, reimagined with original arrangements by M. Tenisci and S. Marletta. Also featured is a special collaboration with renowned soprano Pretty Yende on Amazing Grace and an English version of their hit single Capolavoro. - This album, much like a finely tailored suit, is a perfect reflection of the distinct yet harmonious personalities of Piero Barone, Ignazio Boschetto, and Gianluca Ginoble, highlighting the rich vocal dynamics that have defined Il Volo's global success.

"We all envied her, because all that we had to struggle so hard to achieve seemed so natural and self-evident to her because she knew how to sing from the heart" said Elisabeth Schwarzkopf of her colleague Irmgard Seefried. Collected here are Seefried's complete recital recordings for Deutsche Grammophon as well as highlights from her recordings of opera and sacred music for the label and includes material both unpublished and new to CD.

Irmgard Seefried was a revered artist among lovers of natural singing, wrote the critic Alan Blyth. 'The emotions, grave or gay, are expressed directly, unfussily, genuinely, in that peculiarly outgoing manner that was this artist's supreme gift.' This gift illuminates song repertoire from Bach to Bartók and beyond in a newly compiled and remastered set of her recital albums recorded by Deutsche Grammophon in the 1950s and 60s. 'If I were condemned to hear only one voice for the remainder of my life I think it might well be hers,' wrote Blyth on another occasion (a reissue of the 1953 'Liederabend' anthology of concert performances). 'If I wanted to be charmed, to laugh or to cry I would find her the perfect companion.'

The core of the set is formed by several albums of Romantic Lieder by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, and Wolf. As well as an imaginative collection of Goethe settings, there is an album of Heine and Schumann, poetry and song, in which the recited portions are reissued on CD for the first time. The set includes two appendices, both also new to CD: Seefried's contribution to the DG audio documentary series 'Erzähltes Leben', and 'Erik Werba Accompanies You', in which the soprano's regular recital partner plays the piano part for famous Lieder (with the idea that the listener at home will take the sung line for themselves).

Seefried also made several opera recordings as well as sacred music for Deutsche Grammophon. Generous excerpts from these - often including entire scenes, not just arias - are included as newly-compiled anthologies across five CDs.

Seefried's voice was renowned for it's beauty and tonally purity, with minimal vibrato. Her diction was exquisite, as were her phrasing and legato in Schumann's cycle of Mary, Queen of Scots Lieder. Especially in folksong repertoire such as the Liebeslieder-Walzer of Brahms, she contrived to give the impression that her art came easily to her, and that it's expression was an inevitable extension of her personality, devoid of any suggestion of imposing her will upon the music. But this impression was the essence of Seefried's greatness, and it transferred to modern song repertoire, too: not only the opulent romanticism of Respighi's Il tramonto but Werner Egk's German-Mediterranean Quattro canzoni, and a selection of sacred solo motets by Paul Hindemith that surprised and delighted many critics on it's first issue.

All the material in this Original Covers collection has been newly remastered, and the set is richly illustrated and accompanied by a new essay on Seefried's art by Tully Potter as well as an English translation of Ein Selbstporträt by Fer van Campen.

For a monk resident in one of post-Reformation Germany's religious institutions, music would have served as a focus of spiritual discipline as well as a source of joy. Some real discoveries await the listener who joins The Brabant Ensemble on this exploration of the monk's musical life, represented by a variety of composers of greater and lesser familiarity.

VOCES8 - "Nightfall" / VOCES8 presents a collection of reflective and transcendent music inspired by the night. Featuring choral classics alongside contemporary arrangements, including new choral versions of popular works by Ludovico Einaudi, Sigur R�s, Koji Kondo and Max Richter. CD Digipak. Verve Label Group; Decca; Classical Crossover

Though Amanda Maier left her mark on the musical life of her time, the centuries that followed largely forgot her name. With this album, the Trio Ernest opens a door onto her musical world, highly personal, alongside works by Grieg, the Schumanns, and Reinecke. At it's heart lies Maier's beautiful Trio in E-flat major, at the crossroads of German Romanticism and Swedish folk tradition, as well as the Swedish Airs and Dances, whose color and charm are brought to life by �l�onore Billy's nyckelharpa.

A world removed from the grand and awesome visions of the Last Judgement that so often characterize settings of the Mass for the Dead, Brahms conceived a work of 'consolation for those who are suffering'. Having spent more than ten years absorbing this German 'humanist' requiem, this album's performers have meticulously shaped every bar of this compact work, achieving a form of polyphonic transparency that confounds the senses and transcends the universality of it's message.

This recording of the Ninth Symphony marks LPO Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski's fifth Mahler release on the LPO Label, captured live with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall on December 3, 2022. Jurowski has garnered an international reputation for his interpretation of Mahler's music, both on the podium, and through his distinguished recording legacy with the LPO. Mahler's Ninth was the composer's last symphony to be published during his lifetime. Written in the shadow of personal tragedy and his own heart condition, the work has often been heard as a farewell - to life, to Vienna, and to the world he knew. It's premiere was given in Vienna in June 1912 by Bruno Walter, Mahler's prot�g�. Landmark performances with Walter and the LPO in the 1930s and 1940s helped ingrain Mahler's music into the Orchestra's DNA, a legacy that continues to shape the LPO's sound and spirit today.

The Arundel Choirbook is one of the most significant surviving collections of English polyphony from the early 16th century. As well as containing invaluable sources for masses by Robert Fayrfax and Nicholas Ludford, it also contains many works by lesser known and anonymous composers of the period. The Arundel or Lambeth Choirbook is celebrating it's 500th anniversary (Arundel College in Sussex was founded in 1380 and dissolved in 1544), and it is fitting that the Iken Scholars has selected a sequence of pieces by anonymous composers (known as the Lambeth Anonymous) that are receiving their world premiere recordings. The pieces are a selection of Magnificat settings, settings of Salve Regina, Ave dei patris, Ave mundi spes Maria, Vidi aquam egredientem and Gaude flore virginali. The seven Lambeth Anonymous settings are nestled between mass settings by Ludford and Fayrfax in the choirbook. This recording was made in the chapel at Lambeth Palace where the manuscripts have been housed since the early 17th century

William Christie is renowned for his pioneering work in the revival of Baroque music. Born in 1944, he founded the ensemble Les Arts Florissants in 1979, which has become a leading force in historically informed performance. Christie's expertise in French Baroque opera, particularly works by composers like Lully, Rameau and Charpentier, has earned him international acclaim. His dedication to historically informed performance has set new standards in the field and breathed new life into forgotten masterpieces. A dedicated educator, Christie has also influenced a new generation of musicians. His contributions have significantly enriched the appreciation and understanding of early music, cementing his legacy as a pivotal figure in classical music. This 61CD-box brings together all recordings Christie made for Erato and Virgin Classics, from 1994 to 2011.

Eug�ne Ysa�e - "the King of the Violin" - was one of the most influential figures in the history of string playing. A performer of dazzling brilliance and expressive depth, Ysa�e transformed violin technique into a language of pure emotion, inspiring composers from Franck and Saint-Sa�ns to Debussy and Chausson, while his own music captures that same fusion of virtuosity and soul. This new album brings together some of Ysa�e's most evocative and rarely heard works -from the youthful Grande valse de concert and poetic R�ve d'enfant to the passionate Po�me �l�giaque, the tender Amiti�, and the rhapsodic Extase. In the hands of award-winning artists Natalia Lomeiko, Yuri Zhislin, and Iv�n Mart�n, the music reveals Ysa�e's extraordinary ability to merge Romantic lyricism with bold harmonic imagination. A journey through nostalgia, friendship, ecstasy, and reflection, this new album of Ysa�e's works reveals the heart of a composer whose music, like his playing, was devoted to expression over showmanship.

For the second volume of their complete symphonic works by Mendelssohn, Les Ambassadeurs - La Grande �curie bring together two works marked by the composer's trip to the British Isles in 1829 and his visit to Fingal's Cave. The musicians have chosen here the first versions of these pieces - less famous than the later versions - which are being recorded here for the first time on period instruments.

Steeped in elegance and raw emotion, Enamorarse marks a new chapter for Matteo Bocelli as he reimagines his second studio album, Falling In Love, with a collection of romantic Spanish-language versions. Recorded at his home in Tuscany, the project blends his rich classical roots with modern pop influences to create a cinematic and deeply personal tribute to the Latin American community.

Defiance is sound against silence - fragile, eruptive, unbound. Finnish saxophonist-composer Esa Pietil� presents his most personal solo statement to date: eight original works, eight unfolding journeys - spheres of resonance, waves of liberation, fire, mist, and crystalline edges. Drawing on contemporary classical, avant-garde and free-jazz vocabularies, Pietil� creates a cycle of contrasting sound worlds - from the circular resonances of Sphere and the crystalline brilliance of Diamond Jor to the eruptive intensity of Fire and the spacious lyricism of Colours of Liberation. Recorded in the extraordinary and resonant acoustics of the medieval Church of St. Lawrence in Finland, Defiance captures the full breadth of Pietil�'s sound: whispering, calling, resisting, expanding beyond boundaries. It is both a manifesto of freedom and a meditation on breath, silence, and the human voice within one instrument.

Maestro Mikhail Pletnev performing his favourite composer and namesake of his Rachmaninoff International Orchestra: Sergei Rachmaninoff. Compare his playing of the Paganini Rhapsody with the Berlin Philharmonic, and with the Rachmaninoff International Orchestra nearly 30 years later. Edition contains 2 Blu-ray discs and 4 CDs, and features: Rachmaninoff International Orchestra / Berliner Philharmoniker / Mikhail Pletnev / Claudio Abbado /Kent Nagano

Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber is one of the most important violinists of the Baroque period, and his virtuoso violin works are among the gems of this era. His Rosary Sonatas are particularly outstanding: in a cycle of 16 sonatas, Biber sets to music the mysteries of the various Rosary prayers that trace the life of Jesus. As a special feature, Biber uses the so-called scordatura technique, in which the strings of the violin are retuned. Biber requires a new tuning for each sonata, thus creating a new sound for each mystery and a great increase in tension throughout the cycle. Leila Schayegh explores Biber's rosary mysteries with great sensitivity. With her stupendous technique, she plays even the most difficult passages with great purity, portraying Biber's master cycle as a very intimate and atmospheric soundscape.

With Vieni, o Notte, Francesca Aspromonte signs her first recording for Apart� with an all-Scarlatti program. Together with Arsenale Sonoro and Boris Begelman, she explores three cantatas (sometimes described as serenate) in which the composer makes the night the stage for his characters' thwarted loves. He gives them arias and recitatives that are painful, contemplative, or searing, complemented by two sonate a quattro with madrigalian lines, whose quartet performance by Arsenale Sonoro highlights the bold harmonic shifts, the shadows, and the light. The album closes with All'hor che stanco il sole, a world-premiere recording - a musical meditation on love and loss. Here, Aspromonte unfolds a mastery of line and text that reveals the full sensuality of this music.

James Richman is the first musician since Leonard Bernstein to graduate Harvard, Julliard and the Curtis Institute of Music, studying conducting with Herbert Blomstedt, piano with Horszowski, and harpsichord with Kenneth Gilbert. He is considered one of today's leading conductors of Baroque music and opera. James was made a Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 1995 in recognition of his contributions to the field of music. Rameau's Pi�ces de Clavacin was composed over a period of 20 years, the first collection, or book appearing in 1706. These pieces showcase Rameau's lyrical and expressive style, often featuring intricate ornamentation and elegant melodies. The collection is considered a major work in Baroque keyboard repertoire, reflecting Rameau's mastery in both composition and harmony.

Philip Glass's science fiction music drama, 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, premiered in 1988 at the Vienna International Airport (Hangar No.3). This one-act melodrama contains a text by renowned playwright and frequent Glass collaborator, David Henry Hwang, and originally featured set designs and projections by Jerome Sirlin. When Virgin records released the piece in 1989, the very curious decision was made to totally omit the Hwang text. The original score by Glass, was presented without the context of the drama. Following Third Angle New Music's 2023 staged production at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum - directly beneath Howard Hughes' infamous "Spruce Goose" - they endeavored to record this rarely-staged work. As the original recording was largely misunderstood, it is presented here for the first time with both the music and drama as one would hear it in the theater, alongside an additional music-only experience. Volume 1 includes the complete music drama with Hwang's text performed by Ithica Tell as M, and the sound design used in their staged production. Volume 2 presents the entire musical experience including vocals, but without the text and theatrical elements. The beautiful package design by Madeline Sorenson is a play on the formats of old science fiction trade paperbacks.

Life Stories brings together soprano Claire Booth and pianist J�ms Coleman in a vibrant program exploring the borderland between classical song and cabaret. At it's center is Zo� Martlew's Hotel Babylon, a contemporary cycle written for Booth: seven sharply drawn character studies that trace a playful yet unsettling journey through temptation, vice and redemption. Blending cabaret, expressionism, tango and baroque echoes, Martlew's music creates a modern counterpart to Schoenberg's Brettl-Lieder, reimagined for the 21st century. Surrounding this new work is a constellation of composers who also navigate the everyday and the existential through song. Gershwin's The Man I Love and I Got Rhythm offer melodic clarity and bittersweet simplicity; Eisler's Hollywooder Liederbuch excerpts deliver intimate, politically charged reflections from the composer's American exile; and Poulenc's Banalit�s reveals profound emotion beneath it's surface wit and elegance. Earl Wild's piano transcriptions of Gershwin bring Romantic virtuosity into dialogue with the album's lyrical core. The program concludes with Thomas Ad�s' Life Story, a candid, fragmented setting of Tennessee Williams that mirrors the fragile human connections running through the disc. Together, these works form a compelling portrait of storytelling in song-by turns ironic, tender, biting, and deeply humane.

Pierre Gallon's new program portrays a night of music, hovering between fantasies and poetic dreams of the English Renaissance. His keyboards - harpsichords, a virginal and a toy piano - create a mosaic of nocturnal visions, interspersed with the fantastic and unexpected. As a contemporary counterpoint, Bernard Foccroulle's Night (2023) reveals the light of a new dawn.

Founded in 2016, the Sypniewski Trio brings together Magdalena, Anna and Caroline Sypniewski. For "Origines", their first album, the three sisters return both to the birth of the string trio and to the origins of their own ensemble. The programme includes Purcell's fantasias for viols - intimate pieces enriched by the musicians' historically informed performance practice - alongside trios by Sibelius and Beethoven (the third of the Op. 9 set, the most ardent and innovative of his works in the genre), as well as Kaija Saariaho's intense Cloud Trio. These varied musical landscapes offer the Sypniewski sisters the opportunity to play with virtuosity on the paradox of the trio format, where individuality and cohesion serve a single musical narrative, which they shape with precision and poetry in a spirit of total commitment.