The two most important concertos for two pianos and orchestra in the entire repertoire. Performed by the famous Duo del Valle, winners of the ARD Prize in Munich. DUO DEL VALLE: Since they won Top Prize and Special Audience Prize in the 54th ARD International Music Competition (Munich, 2005), Victor and Luis del Valle (Velez-Malaga, Spain) have soon been acclaimed as one of Europe's most distinguished chamber music ensembles. They have also been awarded the Silver Medal in the "Primer Palau programme" (Palau de la Musica de Cataluna. Barcelona, 2005). They have been Winners in the "Musiques d"Ensemble 2008" Competition (Paris), "Special Audience Prize" in the XI Dranoff International Two Piano Competition (Miami) and Winners and Special Prize to the best Mozart performance in the IV International Piano Duo Competition of Bialystok (Poland, 2008). In April 2011, they have been awarded the Audience Prize in the XXI Central European Music Festival (Zilina, Slovakia), where most of the winners of outstanding music competitions took part (Queen Elisabeth Competiton, Tchaikovsky Competition, ARD...).

Third volume of Franz Schubert's complete piano sonatas, performed by Japanese fortepianist Yasuyo Yano, professor at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences. Recorder in Swizerland with a Christopher Clarke fortepiano. Yasuyo Yano, was born in Tokyo. Her teachers were Midori Matsubara, then Sergio Perticaroli and Carla Giudici at the Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Yasuyo Yano has also received precious advice from other famous pianists, such as Jacques Rouvier, Dang Thai Son and Paul Badura-Skoda. Yasuyo Yano now lives in Switzerland where she teaches the piano, Fortepiano and chamber music at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. She gives solo recitals and is also a chamber music performer, both on the Fortepiano and the modern piano. Yasuyo Yano tells of her encounter with the Fortepiano: "In Venice, in 2001, I played the complete Mozart sonatas for violin and piano together with the violinist Giuliano Carmignola. Andrea Marcon, another eminent Italian musician, told me after one of these concerts that I should consider playing Fortepiano. I took his advice and I am today still thankful for it, because working with the Fortepiano has opened up entirely new dimensions for me. On the one hand, the Fortepiano enables me to imagine and hear how the music must have sounded back in those days, and on the other hand, the Fortepiano is quite different to modern pianos, offering a large spectrum for creative leeway with a rich palette of sound colors, a wide range of dynamics and the delicate response of the keyboard to touch. I had not expected all of this! But it was quite a long journey to master the instrument so that I was able to reveal these characteristics - a journey with a wonderful reward as it has lead me to Schubert."

The Spanish Suites is inspired by a different palo of flamenco, which the composer transforms in unique ways. Some movements incorporate elements such as bitonality or atonal diatonicism-techniques used to create contrast or convey a particular effect-without becoming the predominant compositional resource. Gines Martinez Vera, is a distinguished educator and an expert in orchestral arrangement, Martinez Vera presents here new compositions that are not only impeccably crafted but also deeply rewarding in performance, rich in analysis, and thoroughly enjoyable to the ear. These are works unafraid to delight-modern in their folkloric inspiration, brimming with rhythmic vitality and orchestral colour, evoking the celebrated Huapango of Moncayo. A student of Copland who, in turn, studied under Nadia Boulanger, Moncayo embodies that powerful Franco-American model, brilliantly adapted to a Hispanic symphonic language-one that merges Albeniz-like lyricism with jazz inflections and flamenco flourishes. It is within this lineage that the music of Martinez Vera finds it's voice. His is a bold artistic vision in a world of high art music still dominated by the experimental. But, fortunately, Gines Martinez Vera writes beautiful music. And beauty is not the privilege of the elite-it is a necessary sustenance for all.

This CD illustrates how present-day musicians can arrange Bach's compositions in accordance to his teachings, beyond the narrow limits set by the ideal of fidelity to the score. With good criteria, Il Maniatico Ensemble has arranged the six sonatas BWV 525 to 530, originally intended for organ, adapting them to an ensemble consisting of oboe, keyboard (harpsichord or organ), and cello. Johann Sebastian Bach himself is a good example of this conception of the musical work, far from the conceptual changes introduced by Romantic aesthetics. His arrangements of pieces by others and by himself are well known. He arranged concertos by Vivaldi, Marcello, and Telemann for organ; he turned oboe and violin concertos into harpsichord concertos; he transformed movements of concertos into cantata choruses; he reused and adapted vocal compositions in order to include them in other vocal compositions, etc. The present recording includes one of these arrangements by Bach himself. It is a version of the BWV 1030 sonata in B minor for flute and obbligato harpsichord, a work that is central to the flute players' repertoire canon. An autograph score by Bach himself of the sonata BVW 1030 for flute and harpsichord is preserved, and presumably he wrote it around 1736/37, during Bach's last years as conductor of the Collegium Musicum in Leipzig.

The album you hold in your hands charts a journey that is, in more than one sense, the cartography of a life. Not only does it span both the first and one of the last piano works of Johannes Brahms, but beneath it's design lies a deeper meditation on the nature of time. The young Italian pianist Elia Cecino does not merely confront the pianistic and expressive challenges of these works; he assumes the role of a narrator, shaping, through the poetry of sound, a tale of fullness and nostalgia, of youth and age, of promises and memories dissolving into the ether. The Sonata No. 1, written in the ardor of youth, still resounds with echoes of Beethoven-it opens with a direct citation from the Hammerklavier-revealing a Brahms who raises his voice with impassioned fervor, boldly claiming the great classical legacy with the audacity of one who knows he has something to say. At the heart of the program, the Variations on a Theme by Schumann dwell in a space of reverence and sorrow, where a more mature Brahms converses with his friend and mentor in a gesture of tribute and love, of confidences and affinities, of encounters and brotherhood. Finally, the Pieces, Op. 119 transport us to a realm where the urgency of performance and virtuosity has given way to the most intimate contemplation, a kind of personal, confessional journal, in which every note is almost a whisper, a thought suspended in time. Through these three great works, Elia traces the arc of a life and, in doing so, invites us to share in the experience of an entire existence in each listening-to traverse, in little more than an hour, the distance that separates youth from twilight, certainty from doubt, fullness from farewell.

As Janacek can be considered the most important Czech operatic composers of his time, Febel represents without doubt one of the most influential contemporary opera composers in the German-speaking countries. The fil rouge of this CD reveals itself in the mere choice of the pieces: all of them are compositions for piano and ensemble which try to construct the literal Hyperklavier Febel mentions in his title, a sound conglomerate that extends the semantic possibilities of a solo piano through the employment of different instruments. Many more, however, are the common points that bind the contemporary Febel to the historic Janacek. A further, more interesting parallelism, however, has to do with stylistic coordinates: as Janacek can be considered the most important Czech operatic composers of his time (we will just remember the titles Jenufa, Kata Kabanova and Vec Makropulos), Febel represents without doubt one of the most influential contemporary opera composers in the German-speaking countries. With performances at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Oper Bonn, Landestheater Linz (among others), he has confronted himself with the most various themes and figures, so for example Euridice, Frida (Kahlo) and Benjamin Button. This interest in opera could be a subterrain reason for their similar rethinking of piano solo with instrumental ensemble: by avoiding the classical, dualistic "question-answer" rhetoric, they are able to carve an all-round figure - in other words a character - out of the piano. Through a particular employment of the ensemble, the keyboard gathers a new three-dimensional plasticity, like a singer immersed in a scenography and illuminated by multicoloured reflectors.

This recording presents a selection of arias and instrumental pieces taken from Handel's operas, from the early Agrippina (1709) to the late Imeneo (1740), including also an example from the mythological oratorio Hercules (1745). L'Apotheose: From the classrooms of a conservatory to winning a dozen of high profile international prizes and becoming artists in residence of the biggest classical music institution in Spain. That is the unique story of L'Apotheose. The Spanish baroque ensemble has become the newest reference in historicist interpretation in the European music scene. L'Apotheose proudly counts with honours that includes the First Prize, EUBO Development Trust prize and the Friends of York Early Music Festival Prize at the 2019 York Early Music International Young Artists Competition (United Kingdom), Second Prize at the prestigious Internationaal Van Wassenaer Competition 2018 within the Oude Muziek festival in Utrecht (Netherlands), First Prize at the Gottingen Handel Competition 2017 (Germany), and the Second Prize at the Concours International de Musique Ancienne de Val de Loire 2017 (France) chaired by William Christie. Lucia Caihuela, mezzosoprano Born in Madrid, Lucia grew up surrounded by music, singing at home with her mother and grandmother, covering everything from The Sound of Music and El Barberillo de Lavapies to the Beatles and West Side Story. At 19, she decided to pursue a career in singing, completing her first degree at the Arturo Soria Conservatory in Madrid. She then moved to the Netherlands, where she graduated cum laude in historical singing from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam under the guidance of Xenia Meijer. Lucia frequently collaborates with ensembles such as The Netherlands Bach Society, Collegium 1704, L'Apotheose, Al Ayre Espanol, El Afecto Ilustrado, and La Guirlande, among others.

This album, Galdosiana, not only compiles three of the most significant orchestral works by Gran Canarian composer Laura Vega, but it also highlights female interpretation with the esteemed conductor Lucia Marin from Jaen leading the Navarra Symphony Orchestra, alongside the prestigious Spanish soloists Maria Esther Guzman on guitar and Marta Zabaleta on piano. Four women spearheading the recording of three musical creations can be classified as a "trilogy" characterised by programmatic and interdisciplinary elements: the bright dawn of Caelum in terra, the mature and reflective sophistication of Galdosiana, and the mystical elevation found in Luz, Amor y extasis. Born in Gran Canaria, Laura Vega studied under composers such as Daniel Roca, Xavier Zoghbi, Jose Luis de Delas, and Jose Maria Sanchez Verdu. From 2008 to 2011, she served as President of the Las Palmas Association of Composers, Promuscan. Between 2003 and 2021, she was a professor in the Composition Department at the Canary Islands Higher Conservatory of Music, and in 2016, she earned her doctorate in Art History and Philosophy from the University of La Laguna. Since 2011, she has been a full member of the Royal Canarian Academy of Fine Arts, and in 2023, she began teaching at the Professional Conservatory of Music of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

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 Toldr� 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.

Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev open two different paths toward the summit of pianism: one, a spiritual, profound, and tragic journey; the other, a macabre dance between irony and despair. Both, in their own way, are Everests that only a few manage to reach, but whose summit, once attained, transforms the one who plays. Playing the Third Concerto is, without a doubt, an epic journey, not only for it's technical difficulty but for the emotional depth it demands. Every time I perform it, I feel that I am drawing closer to that unfathomable mystery that is Rachmaninoff's music, a music that seems to contain within it all the pain and all the beauty of the world. Playing the Second Concerto is not only a challenge but an immersion into the perception of what music can or should be. Prokofiev mocks expectations, leads us to the edge of chaos, and then leaves us hanging, without a clear answer, as if telling us that in life, in the end, all that remains is the empty echo of applause. Josu de Solaun, praised by critics such as Nikolaus Frey of Fuldaer Zeitung for his "poetic sense of sound, bold artistic vision, and virtuosity," has won the International Classical Music Awards twice-2021 for chamber music and 2023 as Best Soloist. The ICMA jury recognized him as "one of the most impressive discoveries of the past decade," noting his boundless interpretive imagination and technical mastery.

This recording dedicated to Mirentxu by Jesus Guridi is a continuation of the project to publish the dramatic works promoted by the Bilbao Choral Society and initiated with the recordings of Maitena by Charles Colin (2021) and Lide ta Ixidor by Santos Inchausti (2022). The work, whose success and repercussion was outstanding at the time, and after a good number of premieres and performances, lacked a complete recording, which is why the present recording represents a challenge both at the production and artistic level that we should celebrate. The Sociedad Coral de Bilbao together with the BOS - Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa and a carefully selected cast of soloists have been entrusted with this task, recalling the Society's active role in the premiere of the work held at the Teatro Campos Eliseos on 31 May 1910.

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.

What is lost in terms of orchestral colors is gained in clarity of texture, chamber-music like dialogue and perhaps more importantly an occasion to showcase aspects of string playing (articulation, portamento) as described by the likes of Louis Spohr, who closely worked with Beethoven. It is also the perfect medium to accompany the wonderful instruments generously put at our disposal by Robert A. Brown. Often discussed and a subject of many controversies when tackling the Baroque repertoire, the debate regarding temperament is often cut short in Classical and Early Romantic performance. We do know of Beethoven's preference for Kirnberger III, which we have used for the Fourth Concerto, whilst Young proved a better fit for the tonal discrepancies in the Third Concerto.

The relationship between composers and performers has been a key element in musical creation. This is the case of the Spanish composer Joaqu�n Rodrigo (Sagunto, Valencia, 1901 - Madrid, 1999), who was acquainted with many prominent guitarists of his time (e.g. Emilio Pujol, Andr�s Segovia, Narciso Yepes, Regino Sainz de la Maza, Pepe Romero, to name but a few). As a result of these interactions, one of the most internationally known solo guitar repertoires was created, thus making the guitar thoroughly accepted as a solo instrument with orchestra, with his C oncierto de Aranjuez (1939), Fantas�a para un gentilhombre (1954), and Concierto madrigal (1966) being some of the best known. These works for guitar and orchestra are the most well-known of his catalogue and Joaqu�n Rodrigo owes his fame to them. However, in this album, the protagonists are other works, which, despite being less well-known, are no less relevant and have equally exalted the Spanish guitar repertoire.

The tango is known to have originated in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, a casserole of local and foreign influences, full of brothels, knives, scoundrels and a few broken-hearted heroes. Lesser known is the facet it developed later on and out of this context when the tango reached not only the high European saloons but also the ears and minds of some of the twentieth century�s most important composers. Seduced perhaps by it's apparent sensuality and articulated rhythmic pulsations, some of these composers were inspired enough to write their own tangos. With varied instrumentations, be it piano solo, a chamber ensemble or a symphony orchestra, they brought their own visions of tango and traduced them into their own musical language, one that was immersed in the idiom of the 20th century. Some of these works have been able to stay in the standard repertoire of musicians and ensembles, like the tangos of Albeniz or Stravinsky. However, others (Schnittke, Satie, Milhaud...) have been harder to introduce and remain quite unknown. But, what would happen if we would insert the most representative instrument of tango music into these works: the bandoneon? The result is here in your hands: an album that brings classical music of the 20th century together with progressive and revolutionary tango music of the same era, in the unusual chamber format of bandoneon and piano.