• The Brodsky Quartet present the first of two discs featuring Brahms’s complete string quartets. The String Quartet Op. 51 No. 2 is warm, affirmative and relaxed, with few extremes of mood or tempo. The Clarinet Quintet, op. 115 explores an atmosphere of elegy and nostalgia, producing a mood of autumnal resignation. Having often performed this work in concert, the renowned Brodsky Quartet and clarintetist Michael Collins come together once again for this recording.

Schubert's Octet in F Major, D 803 stands as one of the crowning achievements of chamber music - an expansive, symphonic vision distilled into eight voices. For the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin, this masterpiece lies at the very heart of their artistic identity. Founded in 1983 by members of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the ensemble takes it's name from Hans Scharoun, architect of the Berlin Philharmonie, whose Kammermusiksaal has been their musical home since their very first public performance - and the venue of this recording. Shaped by decades of deep familiarity, the Octet reveals Schubert's entire emotional world: joy and exuberance, tenderness and nostalgia, fear and defiance, all unfolding across what violinist Rachel Schmidt calls "one glorious hour of music" that portrays an entire life. This new recording marks a significant moment in the ensemble's history. Having performed the Octet close to 500 times and recorded it once before, the Scharoun Ensemble now returns to it's signature work to document a new generation of players, with founding member and double bass player Peter Riegelbauer. Captured in the Philharmonie's Chamber Music Hall, the performance combines interpretative maturity with renewed freshness, allowing Schubert's extraordinary range of colour and dramatic depth to shine. With it's intimate connection to place, tradition, and living musical continuity, this recording offers a definitive and deeply personal account of one of the most beloved works in the chamber repertoire.

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Spanish and French Guitar Music from Paris is a fascinating program concept evoking the unique atmosphere of Paris at the beginning of the 20th century. Izhar Elias draws captivating sounds and colours from his guitar. Elias won the coveted Dutch Music prize in 2010 and has since made a number of critically acclaimed recordings.

This is the fourth volume of the Diogenes Quartet's acclaimed complete set of Schubert String Quartets. The ongoing project for Brilliant Classics has already been highly acclaimed, with Jerry Dubins of Fanfare writing of Volume 2 (BC94462): "Immaculate execution is complemented by genuine emotional engagement and real feeling for Schubert's unique modes and moods of musical expression." With two more volumes to come, this series is sure to attract Schubert aficionados and string quartet lovers alike. This 4th installment of the complete String Quartets by Schubert presents one of the most famous string quartets ever written: the Quartet in D minor "Der Tod und das Mädchen" (Death and the Maiden), one of Schubert's grimmest and most powerful works, Beethovenian in structure and scope, Schubertian in passion and poetry. The Schubert cycle by the German Quartet Diogenes Quartet is highly regarded, critics praise their superb unity of ensemble and style, their impeccable intonation and their fiery and passionate music making.

Three years after recording Franz Schubert’s Schwanengesang (arranged by Liszt), pianist Can Çakmur launches a new series called Schubert. Describing the Viennese composer as “a con­stant companion” in his life, Çakmur’s aim here is to juxtapose his complete major piano solo compositions with works by other composers that were inspired by his music, thus providing the opportunity to see these works in a new light. While making up a near complete anthology of Schubert’s completed major piano music, each disc is also intended as a self-sufficient recital. In this first instalment, two sonatas by Schubert, respectively D 537 and D 959, are juxtaposed with Arnold Schoenberg’s Three Pieces op. 11. The reason for this combination is that, firstly, the same theme is shared but treated differently in Schubert’s sonatas, and secondly, Schubert and Schoenberg seemingly sharing the same conception where the natural flow and direction of the music appear consciously deconstructed. With different means and a hundred years apart, both Schubert and Schoenberg, the former with his aversion to formal boundaries, the latter with his efforts against the natural tendencies of Western harmony, managed to strengthen the subjective expression of their music.

Following her acclaimed debut Diaries, pianist Tiffany Poon returns with Nature, an album that explores the evocative power of French music in capturing the beauty of the natural world from the delicate shimmer of water to the quiet mysteries of the forest and the animals found within. Nature, which Tiffany recorded at legendary Provence recording studio Miraval Studios (Pink Floyd, Sade, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) with producer Damien Quintard, brings together works by French composers across centuries, united by an instinctual admiration for the world around them. Guided by intuition and deep personal connection, Tiffany's curated selection featuring pieces by Ravel, Debussy, Rameau and Daquin, moves beyond the structured rigor of Germanic tradition into the fluid, sensuous soundscapes of the French repertoire. Inspired by Rameau's belief that music is rooted in nature itself, she curates a program reflecting her love of animals, woods, and water - translating them into vivid musical expressions. Nature is a testament to music's ability to mirror the natural world, inviting listeners to embrace it's beauty with instinct and abandon.

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SCHUBERT: String Quartets Nos. 8-10

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Chopin's four Ballades are among the greatest of his works, as is the Fantasia in F minor also included on this disk. The Ballades were composed between 1835 and 1843 and are generally believed to be based upon works by the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz. This is music in the style of the medieval troubador, with singing lyrical sections alternating with music of wild passions, big chords, chromatic passages, and virtuosic runs. The first and fourth ballades, in G minor and F minor, tend to be more stormy and passionate while the second and third, in F major and A flat major are more reflective and lyrical. Biret gives a beautiful rendition of this music with beautiful, free rhythm, attention to dynamics and phrasing, and a full use of the resources of the piano. She captures magnificently the wild, virtuosic concluding passages in the first and fourth ballades.

Chopin: Preludes

Among forms that Chopin made his own was the Nocturne, at one time synonymous with the Serenade, but with the Irish pianist John Field and Chopin, his successor, a lyrical piano piece offering, nominally at least, a poetic vision of the night. Field wrote eighteen piano pieces with this title between the years 1814 and 1835 and these introduced a new form of piano music that was developed not only in the Nocturne but in other separate movements for piano throughout the century. Two nocturnes were published in 1840 by Eugéne-Thèodore Troupenas, who briefly replaced Schlesinger, whom Chopin now accused of sharp practice in disposing of one of his German copyrights, giving vent, in private correspondence, to his rooted anti-semiotic suspicions. The G minor Nocturne, Opus 37, No. 1, encloses a tranquil chordal E flat major section, and is followed by a G major Nocturne, with a lilting secondary episode. By 1841 disagreement with Schlesinger had been put aside and he published a set of two nocturnes, the first in C minor and the second in F sharp minor, dedicated to Chopin's pupil Laure Duperré. Opus 48, No.1, moves forward to a central C major section of gentler character, increasing in excitement as the opening material returns. The F sharp minor Nocturne that completes the set moves into a relatively sombre D flat major section of some harmonic complexity. Two more nocturnes were published by Schlesinger in 1844, dedicated to Jane Stirling, a middle-aged Scottish pupil of Chopin whose nuptial ambitions outweighed her musical talent. It was through her that Chopin travelled in 1848 to London and to Scotland and to an endless round of tedious social visits that lasted seven months, until he could escape back to Paris again, his health now much worse. In 1844, however, Chopin was still involved with George Sand, although their relationship had it's difficulties as her two children, Maurice and Solange, grew up and used him in their own rivalries and jealousies. The F minor Nocturne, Opus 55, No. 1, allows the opening material to re-appear in more elaborate form in conclusion. It is followed by a second, the Nocturne in E flat, marked by it's use of a second melodic voice, accompanying the first. Chopin wrote his last two nocturnes in 1846 and they were published in the same year by Brandus, who had bought Maurice Schlesinger's business and was later to acquire Troupenas. They were dedicated to another of the composer's piano pupils, Mlle. de Kînneritz. Opus 62, No.1, in B major, is introduced by two chords, the first suggesting another tonality. There is an A flat major central section and an elaborated return of the material of the opening section. The final work, the Nocturne in E major, has a secondary episode with a more energetic accompanying figure. The two nocturnes were written in the autumn of 1846 at Nohant, which Chopin only left in November to return alone to Paris, giving rise to rumors about a quarrel with George Sand, with whom he quarreled definitively the following year, after her daughter's marriage.

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