In 1805, on the basis of his brilliant yet expressive playing, the 21-year-old Louis Spohr was appointed Konzertmeister at the ducal court in Gotha. By this time he had also begun to make his mark as a composer, and during his years at the court he would add several pieces for the harp to his list of works, inspired by the young harpist Dorette Scheidler. Spohr later recalled his reaction to her playing: ‘I was so deeply moved that I could scarce restrain my tears... I took my leave – but my heart remained behind!’ Only months later, the two were in fact married and Spohr began to compose works which would form the repertoire during future concert tours. Dorette Spohr played a so-called single-action pedal harp of a similar type to the instrument used on this album. Soon to be replaced by the double-action pedal system, the single-action pedal harp was best suited for playing in flat keys. As Spohr preferred writing his violin parts in sharp keys, which allowed the resonance of the open strings, he adopted the method of tuning the harp a semitone lower, which had the added benefit of reducing the tension on the strings. The Sonatas Opp 113-115, in D and G major, therefore have harp parts notated in E flat and A flat major respectively. Because of its delicate construction and stringing, the single-action harp has a distinct silvery bell-like sound and these sonatas are among the last important works specifically written for it. They are also the most demanding, but it is clear that Spohr intended them to display not only the technical skill of the two artists but also their musical expressiveness. The performers here are Masumi Nagasawa and Cecilia Bernardini, who have made a particular study of Spohr's writings on performance practice.

Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983) is a distinctive voice in twentieth-century classical music, and together with the master of the tango, Astor Piazzolla, he is the towering musical figure of Argentina. Born in Buenos Aires of an Italian mother and a Catalonian father, Ginastera is a complex composer and personality, shaped by the traditional folk culture and history of his native country and by impulses from the world at large, during a time of radical upheavals in the realm of Western classical music. The Harp Concerto was commissioned in 1956 by Edna Phillips. The work was not premiered until 1965, and then it was the Spanish harpist Nicanor Zabaleta. When the concerto first appeared, it became a brilliant addition to the harp literature and twentieth-century instrumental concertos. Variaciones concertantes was completed more than ten years earlier and was premiered in Buenos Aires in 1953. The music is an irresistible combination of orchestral timbres and virtuosity communicating directly with the listener, especially as regards the entertainment aspect inherent in virtuosic orchestral sound and a demanding soloist performance.

During his short life Don Banks (1923–80) enjoyed a reputation as the leading modernist among Australian composers. Studies with Mátyás Seiber, Milton Babbitt and, especially, Luigi Dallapiccola helped refine his serial technique, but his music never retreated into academic abstraction, as this recital of chamber and vocal works demonstrates: it retained a keen sense of drama, an ear for atmosphere, a rather angular lyricism and, occasionally, a touch of humor. The works are performed by Ole Bohn, Robert Johnson, Geoffrey Gartner, Rowan Phemister, Daniel Herscovitch, Francesco Celata, Jenny Duck-Chong, Alison Pratt, Daryl Pratt, and Joshua Hill.

The Nordic Chamber Orchestra, led by multiple award-winning conductors JoAnn Falletta and Patrik Ringborg, perform orchestral works by multiple award-winning Swedish composer, Andrea Tarrodi.

Tarrodi needs no further introduction in Sweden, and international audiences have also opened their hearts to her accessible, colorful music. In 2020, she was the first Swedish composer ever to receive a commission for the BBC’s renowned Last Night of the Proms.

Dan Andersson died at the age of 32 in 1920, more than 100 years ago. His poetry is still relevant and beloved. Many can still recite his poems and sing many of the compositions. He is one of Sweden's most important poets, a romantic working-class poet who gave voice to the poor in the country, depicted areas and conditions in Sweden that had hardly been illuminated before. One of the great strengths of his poetry is that it is universal, human and beautiful. Nature, love and the conditions of life play the biggest role.

The works on this recording were written at various periods in Claude Debussy’s life, and reflect different aspects of him: from a young man stylistically unsure of himself to the confident maître, from a jobbing composer struggling to fulfill sometimes incongruous commissions to a man worn down by illness and outer events.

The disc opens with Printemps – a work originally for choir, piano and orchestra written in 1887 during Debussy’s stay in Italy as a winner of the Prix de Rome, but only published 25 years later in an orchestration made by Henri Büsser under the composer’s supervision. Three of the works that follow were commissions – the Rapsodie from a lady saxophonist, the Marche écossaise from an American general of Scottish descent and the Deux Dances from the instrument-maker Pleyel wanting to market a new model for a chromatic harp.

Chronologically the last work on the program, Berceuse héroique is Debussy's contribution to a tribute to the king of Belgium at the beginning of the Great War. Having rejected the idea of writing a heroic march in the safety of his own home he instead opted for a lullaby for piano, which he orchestrated the following year.

The closing work on the disc, however, is Nocturnes, for which Debussy borrowed the title from a series of atmospheric paintings by James Whistler. Made up of three equally atmospheric movements, it is today one of Debussy’s best-loved compositions for orchestra.

Nocturnes also forms the end of a trilogy of Debussy albums from the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Lan Shui. Critical acclaim for the team range from ‘superb’ (BBC Music Magazine, about La mer) and ‘unquestionably world-class’ (Klassik-Heute.de, about the orchestra) to ‘a magnificent disc’ – the French magazine Classica’s verdict on the three ballet scores Jeux, Khamma and La Boîte à joujoux.

The repertoire for harp and piano is modest indeed; only Carlos Salzedo’s Sonata (1922) enjoys any currency on disc. However, the combination of plucked and keyed chromatic instruments is one that affords any number of imaginative possibilities and a broad palette of timbres, especially in the contrasting sustain and decay patterns of each instrument. For her second album on Brilliant Classics, after the critical success of ‘Dionysus and Apollo’ (95925, featuring equally rare Romantic flute and harp repertoire), Anna Pasetti explores the work of four mostly Milanese-based composers. First among them is Francesco Pollini, dedicatee of Bellini’s I Sonnambula and composer of a ‘Grande Sonate’ in a concertante style, exploiting the idiomatic contrast between the instruments to the full. The Capriccio by Benedetto Negri is written in the form of a nocturnal divertimento typical for the time: a cantabile introduction prefacing an elaborate variation set with a brilliantly figured coda. Best known of our quartet is Saverio Mercadante for his operas and florid variation sets on popular operatic themes which cling to the fringes of the instrumental repertoire, especially for flute. His rhapsodic Melodia is a chamber arrangement of a concertante work for harp and small orchestra, with an opportunity for improvised virtuosity in the form of a cadenza which Pasetti has devised for herself. Neapolitan by birth and training as an operatic composer, Lauro Rossi took charge of Milan’s conservatoire before succeeding Mercadante at the head of the Naples conservatoire. His Divertimento is an early work, dedicated to a talented pair of musician sisters, in which the piano takes the lead role, unlike the other works here.

Having worked with the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Deutsche Oper and MusicAeterna, Sissi Makropoulou has established a reputation among the most talented harpists of her generation, as well as a composer working under the name Sissi Radu. On this, her debut solo album, she brings both talents together. As she explains in her engaging booklet notes, she has been familiar with The Seasons since childhood. They count among the composer’s most intimate works, as well as his most popular. ‘I hear tenderness, benevolence and loneliness – the core of romantic love – in each and every note.’ It is the harp that lends a unique color to some of Tchaikovsky’s most memorable passages such as the cadenzas in Swan Lake and The Nutcracker. In some cases – January, for example - Sissi Makropoulou has transposed the pieces to sit more easily on the harp and to exploit its sumptuous palette of enharmonics. And while the Shrovetide Fair of February presents considerable challenges to the harpist in terms of quicksilver articulation and lightning-fast chord changes, the results speak for themselves in terms of a happy marriage between music and instrument. March, for example, could have been written with the harp in mind. As an encore, Sissi Makropoulou plays her own arrangement of the second movement from Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony. The gentle mood of this Andantino ‘in the style of a song’ transfers itself sympathetically to the harp in her hands, and is informed by her experience of playing the composer’s music under one of its most inspirational modern conductors, Teodor Currentzis.

“I literally embraced the harp at the age of eleven after studying piano. I had been nurtured on music since I was born, for in my family music reigned supreme. It was a choice dictated by circumstances but intrinsically natural, as the piano and the harp have certain characteristics in common. This album, therefore, tells my tale as a harpist, beginning with a comparison of the most well-known composers, from whence it’s fair to say I then followed other paths, although remaining very attached to the extraordinary and expressive virtuoso lessons that they embody.” (Simona Marchesi) Simona Marchesi is a passionate and diverse artist who is particularly interested in developing the next generation of harpists. In addition to teaching, she performs both as a soloist and alongside prestigious international ensembles.

Dublin native Aoife Ní Bhriain is one of her generation's most versatile and gifted violinists, a dazzling musician who commands both the classical world and her Irish traditional heritage. From across the Irish Sea and the west coast of Wales, harpist Catrin Finch has also built an impressive classical career and ventured into unchartered musical territory, most notably through her international award-winning collaborations. Double You, their debut album as a duo, features an exquisite collection of new compositions that draw inspiration from various genres, taking listeners on a captivating journey on the wings of the bees across the Irish Sea and inspired by the cultures of their home countries.