In the late 1960s, the composer Michael Nyman coined the term "minimalism" to describe a new musical aesthetic characterized by a certain simplicity and economy of means. One of the composers associated with this movement, La Monte Young, embraced the term with enthusiasm, while others like Steve Reich and Philip Glass nuanced it with terms such as "music without intention" or "music with a repetitive structure". The term "hypnotic music" might also be appropriate for some works by Simeon ten Holt or Arvo Part, provided we are attuned to the monotonous hum of rain, have a fondness for grey-the languid greys of overcast days-or appreciate a certain suspension of the world. Considered to be the most gifted and promising pianist of his generation in Poland, Szymon Nehring is the only Pole to have won first prize at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv (2017). He was also a finalist at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw with only 19 years of age. Szymon Nehring performes with orchestras such as Sinfonia Varsovia, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic, Israel Symphony Orchestra, Bamberger Symphoniker, Hamburger Symphoniker, Orchester philharmonique de Marseille and Orchestre Paseloup in France and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, collaborating with conductors such as John Axelrod, Lukas Borowicz, Sylvain Cambreling, Karina Canellakis, Pablo Heras-Casado, Marzena Diakun, Lawrence Foster, Giancarlo Guerrero, Jacek Kaspszyk, Grzegorz Nowak, Pawel Przytocki, George Tchitchinadze, David Zinman and Omer Meir Wellber. He also performed and recorded with the late Krzysztof Penderecki, among other works Mr. Penderecki�s piano concerto.

Unquestionably Manuel Maria Ponce stands as one of the composers for the classical guitar of all time. Rare would be the virtuoso who does not acknowledge his brilliance. However, to reach such heights, history had to gift us a providential encounter with the greatest ambassador of the guitar in the 20th century: Andres Segovia. Their profound relationship of friendship, respect, and admiration, evidenced through a fraternal correspondence and declarations, began in 1923. At that time, Ponce was a professor of Harmony at the National Conservatory of Mexico and a music critic. Manuel Ponce composed the Sonatas between 1923 and 1929, all commissioned and dedicated to Andres Segovia. They constitute the first collection of Sonatas written in the 20th century by a non-guitarist composer, forming a fundamental and unique corpus in the concert guitar repertoire. Each Sonata possesses stylistic and formal characteristics that Segovia himself detailed.

From ancient times, cosmogonies talk about chaos as the origin: it is not the previous disorder but the abyss where things finds their place to be. A distance that reminds the creation power, repeated as an echo in a creative momentum. Thus Joan Guinjoan understands the artistic creation, where the com- poser always finds an abyss under his feet. An abyss that both fascinates and challenges, facing it means boldness and the necessary craft to find one's own voice in the concert voices. Therefore, he defined compo- sition as the challenge to face one's self. But also, the horizon of his work was to find his roots inside himself after a long journey of more than half a century. However, we stand in front a sort of music that it is not born from abstract speculation but from craft- manship; it means, from de sud- den meeting with musical stuff. Pre- cisely, Guinjoan's piano, which is provided of a sharp consciousness of musical stuff, is productive in our analysis and speculative games. In front of them, the Maestro always expresses his reservations, aware of the dangers of some creative adventures during the Post Avant- Gardes. In this work, Alfonso Calderon de Castro sets himself up as an interpre- ter in the Greco-Latin sense of the term: one destined to reveal what re- mains hidden. It does so by reveal- ing hidden aspects of Guinjoan's piano literature, allowing us to take these early works as microcosms of his entire catalogue. His piano navigates with personality and aesthetic intelligence, embodying the composer's motto, that is the instrumental humanisation from the subtle exploration of all parameters, without forgetting the communications among composer, performer and listener. In short, the pianist gives us in this work an an- thology destined to the timelessness of what it is classical, capable of withstanding the passage of time with the elegance of a caryatid.

Despite achieving great success in the operatic scene, Pablo Sorozabal (1897-1988), born in Donostia and passing away in Madrid, maintained a profound connection with choral music throughout his extensive career. In fact, it was within the ranks of the vibrant choral movement of his native Basque Country where his artistic personality began to take shape, including his fascination with voice and theatre. It's no surprise, then, that he devoted some of his most intimate pages to these choirs, connecting them to his family heritage. In fact, his father, a stonecutter by trade, was also a talented bertsolari who shared his songs in the taverns of San Sebastian. From him, Sorozabal inherited a language, Basque, "that sounded like music" on his lips, and a deep love for folk music. According to a tradition passed down through generations, as recounted by the writer Bernardo Atxaga from his great-grandfather, Sorozabal's ancestors, who hailed from the Portale farmhouse in the village of Larraul, near Asteasu, "whistled better than the birds" ("txoriek baino hobeto egiten diate txistu").

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.

In this album, Lorquiana, Ana Maria Valderrama, violin, and David Kadouch, piano, project Lorca's musical personality into the future by compiling different scores linked in one way or another to the Andalusian artist. Poulenc's sonata illustrates the positive welcome of the political and social significance of Lorca's figure in France, where it became a symbol of freedom and resistance. Hahn's work, on the other hand, takes us to those happy and ephemeral Twenties of the last century that Lorca also enjoyed. Alizia Terzian's song shows the powerful influence that the poet has had in the Hispanic American context. The famous La vida breve passage is a nod to the veneration Lorca professed towards Falla. And, of course, we listen to Lorca's own creations in a rich selection of Spanish popular songs, iconic testimonies of his compositional activity that are revisited in an exceptional arrangement by Alberto Martin for violin and piano.

The long journey that has led me to the recording of one of Liszt's longest cycles for piano solo began many years ago, in the early stages of my piano studies. At that time, while casually tuned in to what is now known as "Radio Clasica", I happened to stumble upon one of the Hungarian composer's most important works-the Faust Symphony. Captivated by this music and unaware of the author's identity (not yet having the training necessary to identify him), I not only listened to the entire work but also made a pledge to dedicate my life to this composer, regardless of who it might be. Many of the impulses and interests of our teenage years frequently fade away, but this was not the case with my new-found passion for Liszt, which has steadfastly grown over time, along with my knowledge of his life and works.

The feeling is dispersed in the face of new beginnings. There is nothing in the music of Juan J. Colomer (Alzira, 1966) that does not speak about it: what he enunciates, what he leaves silent, what he does not completely conceal comes to intervene like the first day between those who listen to it. The luminous passages belong to the frank way in which an idea is shaped and its detours, where it appears without veils, as essential as the darkness that, from time to time, inhabits it. Both are openings to what his work is. We look for ways of access to the present and past, to small pieces of the map, to the abandoned territory or memory, to the contradictions it interrogates. Although this time it is titled “genesis,” Colomer modulates a thought without origin or end, within a perpetually restarted discourse. This is how his invention lives outside. Perhaps in its living references, without dates or places exactly assignable, it retains the sense in which it inscribes, deprived of its ancient power, enigmatic connections, metamorphoses of times. For this reason, although it is about genesis, Colomer’s works become strange to the conditions of their creation, they are beyond the finished and the unfinished, they radiate as far as we like to imagine.

Serendipia Ensemble, Rita Rógar, and Moisés Maroto, together with their ensemble of musicians—Darío Tamayo on the harpsichord, Calia Álvarez on the viola da gamba, José Arsenio Rueda on the baroque bassoon, and Jon Wasserman exchanging his plucked string instruments (theorbo and baroque guitar)—have recorded the complete sonatas. Premiering worldwide with the record label IBS Classical.

With this large continuo group, Serendipia Ensemble seeks a unique musical approach to the concept of the triosonata, finding the common ground between the concerto form conceived by Corelli and the sonata form arranged by Schickhardt. We are now able to hear, with layering of different instruments, the triosonatas approach the concerti in sections such as the tutti-soli that we appreciate in the Corellian originals.

Pianist Antonio Oyarzabal continues to show us in this album that a multitude of female composers, who deserve to be known and recognized, still remain forgotten. On this occasion, he offers us a selection of pieces by 18 unique authors, most of them pianists, from different periods and geographical origins. In all cases, their professional development was hindered by their status as women and by the social pressure of the historical period in which they lived. Oyarzabal finds intense and authentic artistic stimulation in the process of researching their career paths and in the enthusiastic interpretation of their music. This second part of “La Muse Oubliée” does not intend to bring any sort of closure. On the contrary, it represents the continuation of a project as large as the number of female composers who have yet to be included…

On the 20th of August 2022, the centenary of the passing of Felipe Pedrell transpired—an occasion marking the solemn remembrance of the esteemed progenitor of Spanish musical nationalism. The catalogue of musical compositions by Pedrell, established in 1977, comprises a total of 231 titles. However, it encompasses more than five hundred works when considering revisions and reinterpretations of certain compositions. In the catalogue of his works, there is a notable emphasis on his interest in art song with accompaniment, serving as the foundation for his musical creations and a key element in his nationalist ideology. His initial compositions for voice and piano date back to 1857, where he endeavours to distance himself from the prevailing trends in Spanish music during his era and align with European musical styles. He achieves this by utilizing texts from Germanic poets associated with the early Romantic period, such as Heine and Uhland, while also drawing influence from the Italian operatic tradition. Expanding his list of authors, he incorporates the works of his contemporaries from France, Catalonia, and the rest of Spain, being the first Spaniard to title his collections of songs and melodies with the German word Lieder, starting from 1871. The Pedrell songs are marked by enormous contrast, and all closely related to the text’s message. The voice and piano accompaniment are superbly treated, and some songs exhibit exotic influences (Arab), at times mysterious and at others romantic. Undoubtedly, a work worthy of being among the most important lyrical repertoire.

We find ourselves in a crucial year, 1849. At that time, the Schumanns opted for a rural retreat due to the tension in Dresden, where they resided at that moment—a city that was the center of notable revolutionary episodes during the uprising that occurred there, with its epicenter in May of that year. Precisely in that fruitful year, Robert Schumann tackled several chamber works that seem to be written in a relaxed atmosphere, in a very short time, without excessive formal nor constructive ambition, but with the stamp of his high melodic and harmonic inspiration. There is a certain common denominator among them, which we could call a certain lack of instrumental definition - pieces for oboe and piano, or for horn and piano, or for clarinet and piano - but in which the “melodic” role, as indicated in the score, can be transferred to other instruments with similar “singable” capacity, either to the same woodwind family or even to the string family (violin, cello). In short, it’s about “singing without text”; they are authentic “songs without words.”

The double bass is the instrument through which I express myself in it's purest form. I feel that creating this album is my way of expressing gratitude to it. It is essential for me that everything has meaning. By taking the sonata form as the guiding thread for the album, I have meticulously assembled the pieces, as if they were a puzzle. Each of the works holds great significance for me, representing an important part of my relationship with music. The sonata is the structural form that has been widely used in European classical music since the mid-eighteenth century. Therefore, given that Johannes Brahms, especially his sonatas for violin and piano, has had the most significant impact on my musical life, I wanted to pay him a small tribute.

In this album, Five verses, Carlos Zaragoza shows his commitment to the evolution of the saxophone by expanding its sound possibilities. In addition, with the collaboration of pianist Kishin Nagai, they highlight the music-poetry binomial by bringing together five pieces written in the last hundred years and linked to original texts in four different languages: French, German, English, and Spanish. The lyrical and expressive quality of Zaragoza’s playing, as well as his mastery of technique, make the saxophone interpolate the listener as if they were “singing” the inspirational verses of each text through his distinctive voice.

Carlos Zaragoza is a saxophonist of extraordinary versatility. His musical expressiveness reflects the richness of his artistic personality, revealing a deep understanding of diverse artistic currents. He has performed in prestigious festivals and concert halls such as the Salle Cortot in Paris (France), the Auditorium of Zaragoza (Spain), the Théâtre de l’Alliance Française (Paris, France), the Festival France Musique Occitanie Montpellier, and the Festival de Breuillet. Kishin Nagai studied at the Tokyo University of the Arts (Tokyo Geidai) and at the Paris Conservatoire (CNSMDP) where he completed his bachelor’s degrees in Piano, Chamber Music, and Accompaniment, as well as master’s degrees in Piano, Chamber Music, Vocal Accompaniment and Piano Accompaniment. He has already performed at major concert halls, festivals, and on radio station such as Salle Cortot in Paris, Wigmore Hall in London, La Roque d’Anthéron International Piano Festival and Radio France.

La contemplazione offers a glimpse into “Viennese Classicism” through two authors who, while almost antagonistic, were also complementary and contemporary: Hummel and Schubert. In the late 1820s, European music was at a fascinating crossroads: the musical style that had dominated the old continent since 1780 (commonly known as “Viennese Classicism”) was in crisis and entering its final phase. At a time when tradition and innovation coexisted, emerging expressive needs pushed composers to seek alternatives to classical canons. La contemplazione offers a glimpse into this period through two authors who, while almost antagonistic, were also complementary and contemporary: Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) and Franz Schubert (1797-1828). About the Instrument: Fortepiano Graf 1826/1827 (Edwin Beunk collection)

In an environment of fierce competition among various piano manufacturing houses, Conrad Graf emerged as the reference brand in Vienna, even being named the official constructor of the empire. Graf built the piano used in this recording in 1826 or 1827 with a range of six and a half octaves.

In this recording, you will find a dialogue between two of the most essential funerary musical works of the German Baroque.

In 2022, we celebrated Heinrich Schütz, a central figure of the album, on the 350th anniversary of his death. As a culmination of a series of projects around his person and work, this recording wants to serve as a tribute to an extraordinary musical legacy that found in Johann Sebastian Bach, its greatest supporter. The manifest bond between both composers here is seen in the way in which death is shaken and beaten for later, collected from within our soul, be restored and sublimated by two artistic personalities capable of transcending a rich amalgamation of religious, cultural, and musical aspects around the ars moriendi of his time. Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien and Bach’s Actus Tragicus stem from a creative attitude toward death that is very close to home one from the other. Thus, it is not by chance that with their listening, both works fill us with peace and the deep sense of rest with which they do it.

The hour-long emotional tour-de-force with cellist Mark Prihodko and pianist Viktoria Korolionok evokes a soul-searching journey that spans a century of romantic repertoire following the music-making traditions of Ysaye, Gershwin, and Rachmaninov. Cerdanyenca takes its title from the eponymous sonata, written by Catalan composer Marc Migo Cortes, who dedicated this masterwork to Prihodko, his great friend. Conceived at the Juilliard School in New York, where Prihodko held the prestigious Kovner Fellowship while completing his Bachelor’s Degree in the studio of Richard Aaron, and Migo Cortes was completing his Ph.D. in the studio of John Corigliano, Sonata Cerdanyenca continues the tradition of the grandiose twentieth-century masterworks for cello and piano. Cultivating the lifetime synergy between composer and cellist, Prihodko and Migo specifically drew inspiration from the artistic collaborations between Rostropovich and Britten, and Piatigorsky and Strauss. The newly commissioned and internationally premiered Sonata has won the prestigious Pau Casals Festival International Award in 2019. In this extremely demanding monumental piece, the composer portrays the legends of his home region of La Cerdanya, from the tales of La dona d’aigua (the seducing water-woman) to the echoing Sardana Dances of Catalonia. His use of folkloric elements contextualizes hundreds of years of storytelling in an engaging acoustical play, expertly guided by Korolionok and Prihodko.

The Resonare Fibris project arises from the need to confront times, that is, to put them in dialogue and submit them to a game of mirrors. Superposition and mixture, contraposition, dissolution, decontextualization, deconstruction… ways of proposing an approach to music that goes beyond proposing a merely contemplative listening to become a challenge: that of achieving an active listening. The meeting and dialogue with the pianist Mario Prisuelos, the poet Pilar Martín Gila and myself, gave shape to a proposal where music and poetry share a common point: the reinterpretation of a past time, that of the Spanish Renaissance. This dialogue between the ancient and the present stems from essential voices: among others, Tomás Luis de Victoria, Francisco Guerrero, Cristóbal de Morales or Sebastián de Vivanco. The work is written for piano and electronics, where the latter is conceived as a spatial extension of the instrument.

The Brahms vocal compositions (for their quality and abundance – over 400 of them) made Brahms a “worthy heir to Beethoven” in Germany, throughout Europe, and finally in France, where Ravel was the first and one of the few to admire “the beauty in his melodic ideas, their quality of expression and above all the brilliance of his orchestral language”. Schoenberg also later praised the innovation of his musical language in his Style and Idea. The excellence of Brahms’ work was summed up by Joseph Joachim, the celebrated Hungarian violinist, composer and conductor who worked with Brahms, and who described his music as “pure as a diamond, soft as the snow”. Schumann also praised the serenity and optimism of the tone with which Brahms ended his most sombre and tormented pieces: “Over choppy waves finally a rainbow shimmers, as the nightingale’s song accompanies the capricious flight of the butterfly”. This album compiles some of the most important vocal & orchestral works that best define the German composer.

Spanish percussionist Noè Rodrigo is one of the most talented musicians of his generation. Having performed all over Europe and the US at most major concert halls and festivals, he has premiered more than 50 pieces by composers of over 20 nationalities. His interpretations of the percussion “classics” have been described by critics and audiences as highly virtuosic, technically impeccable and musically complex while featuring a large palette of colours. With PARAULES, (Words) Rodrigo brings to life seven works by essential composers of the XXth Century: Xenakis, Sciarrino, Mantovani, Denisov, Spanish music never before recorded (Torres and Vallejo) alongside more recent pieces (Borzelli). Seventy minutes where the young artist is able to show a stunning versatility, embracing every aesthetic with intelligence and accuracy, aiming for unique interpretations. If in the beginning music was a verb, like singing, shortly after it became percussion: initially, doubling the prosody of the voice; later, introducing a growing range of rhythms and colours that have made it the most heterogeneous, surprising and multicultural of all the instrumental families. In Sciarrino’s words (PARAULES): 'a wooden percussion instrument can hardly sing, but at the same time I wonder if it cannot speak, shout, moan or murmur’.

With this album Soinuzko begiradak - TAKE 2, the members of the Zukan Trio continue to demonstrate that they are much more than three extraordinarily virtuoso musicians who approach contemporary music with rigour, energy and enthusiasm. None of them limit themselves to playing their own instruments, but act as multi-instrumentalists of infinite and interdisciplinary possibilities. This versatility and this common way of understanding sound and artistic career, without historical cushions and guided by an unwavering commitment to current creation, especially Spanish, makes them unique and difficult to imitate. And, for this reason, the Zukan Trio and the new paths they open for us will leave their mark on history.
The project Soinuzko begiradak – TAKE 2 (Sonorous glances) was born at the same time as the Zukan Trio. The very instrumental nature of the group, made up of a txistu (a three-hole flute) (Jon Ansorena), an accordion (Maria Zubimendi) and a percussion (Gorka Catediano), made it necessary to develop an essential activity parallel to performance: the search for composers who would contribute to the development of the ensemble’s repertoire through a network of commissions. When the trio was founded in 2014, there was only one original piece written for txistu, accordion and percussion, Otxate, by David Cantalejo. Today, in 2023, the Soinuzko begiradak - TAKE 2 project has generated more than 40 compositions offering us as many unique visions of this unusual timbral combination.

The third protagonist of the series MUSIC & WORDS by Facundo Agudín and Musique des Lumières, in collaboration with Ibs Classical, is the Russian-American writer of Jewish origin Joseph Brodsky (1940-1996), winner of the 1987 Nobel Prize. Musique des Lumières has commissioned six works from five composers from very different backgrounds who, inspired by Brodsky’s texts, use music to honour this uncompromising intellectual and key figure in world literature.
On The Brodsky Album, Facundo Agudín and Musique des Lumières present six works commissioned and composed between 2020 and 2022 of homogeneous aesthetics. In particular, the vocal delivery seems to reflect the immensity of the Russian’s poetic lyricism. Two of them, Brodsky, Vivaldi and Stravinsky by Pablo Ortiz and Barcarolle oubliée by Joan Magrané fixate on one of the pinnacles of his literature: Watermark. Christmas Ballad by Andreas Pflüger and Nativity by Pablo Ortiz recall Brodsky’s peculiar penchant for writing Christmas texts from his personal identity as a creator. A Song by Hinako Takagi values the polyphony and rhythm of his poetic language and, finally, The Saints and the Aint’s by Paul Suits sets to music relevant physical and temporal spaces present in the work of the poet, essayist, and translator who is considered one of the greatest literary figures of the Soviet era.

The cellist Roger Morelló has intercalated three sarabands from the Suites for Cello Solo by Johann Sebastian Bach. The first is the one included in the Suite No. 1, whose prelude served as primary material for the work by Marc Migó. The second saraband that appears is the one from the Suite No. 2, which is in the key of D minor, and the third is the E flat major saraband. Along with these pieces, we encounter the Suite for Cello Solo by Gaspar Cassadó – a renowned Casals pupil and one of the most legendary violoncellists of the twentieth century as well as a composer. Along with this piece, Morelló has added his cello arrangement of an original work for viola da gamba from Les voix humaines by Marin Marais, which is the piece that lends this album its title. Side by side with these historical references that have become timeless, Roger Morelló includes two contemporary works. One of them is formed by the Variations on the name of Casals by Marc Migó, a work commissioned by Morelló himself, to whom it is also dedicated. The other contemporary composition that Morelló wanted to include on this album is a work that he commissioned from Elisenda Fábregas, who in turn dedicated it to him. It has Catalan dances as its title and consists of four dances.

The Reverón Piano Trio’s main goal is to introduce audiences to underrepresented music from Latin America alongside contemporary and standard repertoire. These artists are active promoters of Latin American music through their work as performing artists, scholars and entrepreneurs, and they have devoted their careers to the discovery, cataloging, performance, editing, and recording of this rich repertoire. In addition, the trio continues to commission new works, and is in the process of creating the Sphinx Catalog of Latin American Piano Trios. The three composers of this album, Villa-Lobos, Turina and Ponce were born within 5 years of each other. Manuel Ponce’s Trio Romántico, Joaquín Turina’s Piano Trio No. 1, and Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Piano Trio No. 1 were composed within fifteen years of one another in the first quarter of the twentieth century, and representing Mexico, Spain, and Brazil but also outside influences.