Saxophonist Pat Posey goes to extremes for his solo debut album, they/beast. Introducing the tubax – a German-invented, modified version of the contrabass saxophone – Pat plays deep, dark renditions of J.S. Bach’s Cello Suite No. 3, Melodies for Saxophone by Philip Glass, Bach-inspired Mo’ingus by Brooklyn-based composer-saxophonist Shelley Washington, and Pat’s own Hymn.

REVIEWS:

Pat Posey’s solo album they/beast displays the Tubax›s incredible sound with a wide variety of materials, from Bach cello suites to Philip Glass› Melodies for Saxophone. If listening to Paul Desmond’s alto sax is like sipping a fine white wine, Posey’s Tubax is like drinking a delicious porter. Its lows are glorious and Posey dexterously wrestles it through some very complex material. they/beast is a unique and sonically adventurous treat.

-- The Whole Note

The growling, guttural timbre and harmonic timbre and harmonic overtones are perfectly showcased…Posey displays colossal lung power and technique…fiendishly virtuosic…a dazzling, unsettling spectacle by a musician pushing the creative envelope.

-- BBC Music Magazine

The tubax has an amazing low register, and in the hands of a player like Pat Posey, it can be nimble and produce astonishing multiphonics … Posey’s own Hymn (2022), a real tour-de-force of inspiration, beauty, quirkiness, and earblowing sounds. Fantastic album.

-- American Record Guide

Does Florian Noack’s take on transcription smack of forbidden delights? From Bach to the Sherman Brothers, the pianist denies himself nothing, especially not the pleasure of liberally sprinkling his good humour and insolent virtuosity over these pieces of every hue. Here is a delightful album in which repertory masterpieces and unexpected musical universes come together in perfect harmony under his fingers and gain new light and life, joyful, playful, airy and poetic, thanks to the magic of his inspiration. With exquisite taste, Florian Noack's transcriptions and paraphrases take us into a world of freedom and refinement, where novel sounds and subtleties of language are delicacies to be savoured… guilt-free!

Ferruccio Busoni's most significant musical role models include Bach, Mozart, and Liszt. These three muses informed his mature compositional style, which melded Bachian counterpoint, Mozartian clarity, and Lisztian virtuosity alongside Busoni's penchant for experimentation. The music on Jiayan Sun's new album reveals the diverse ways Busoni responded to these muses, ranging from transcription and arrangement to original composition. Pianist Jiayan Sun, was praised by the New York Times for his "revelatory" performances, and by the Toronto Star for his "technically flawless, poetically inspired and immensely assured playing".

American-Australian harpist Emily Granger made an indelible impression with her solo debut recording, In Transit. She follows up with Something Like This, a beautiful collaboration with flautist Sally Walker, featuring original music for flute and harp alongside adaptations and arrangements for the instrumental combination. Woven among classics by J.S. Bach and Mozart are works by living composers including Australians Elena Kats-Chernin, Sally Greenaway, Lachlan Skipworth and Jessica Wells, and indigenous composer Christopher Sainsbury. 20th century works by Jacques Ibert and Witold Lutoslawski are juxtaposed with Erik Satie’s timeless Gymnopédies.

REVIEWS:

Something Like This is a beautifully programmed collection of well-known works performed in sumptuous style and ensemble by Walker and harpist Emily Granger.

In a superbly executed Bach Sonata in G Minor, Granger shines with sprightly and impeccable technique. As well, the slow movement from Mozart’s Concerto for flute and harp does not disappoint as one of the loveliest sounds you’ll hear. That’s until two Gymnopedies by Erik Satie, their simplicity and floaty-ness able to transport us to another realm entirely. 

[In] the fervently dramatic Three Fragments by Witold Lutoslawski. Walker’s tone is rich and indulgent, almost weeping in its expressiveness with Granger’s style full of colorful nuance, just as the music requires—its original intent was to accompany a play. Similarly, Jessica Well’s delightful Sati—Sanskrit for mindfulness—offers the duo room to experiment with shadings of hue, phrasing and musical line, sometimes at peace, other times menacing. Beginning mindfully serene, the piece explodes to an ecstatic reverie of sonorities. 

For just sheer beauty of line and tone, the three short Poems by Sally Greenway are astonishing miniatures. You dare not breathe in order not to miss a thing. The inspiration comes from the poem Roses du Soir by Pierre Louÿs which describes lovers finding a secret spot in the forest where a magical rose bush grows. Walker and Granger create a sound as if one instrument with delicate passion. This sensibility appears again in Christopher Sainsbury’s Djagamara, a work written to honor the life of a young indigenous friend.

-- The Harp Column

In this programme, 'Solomon's Knot' is dedicated to the popular hunting cantata BWV 208. Solomon's horn players are also given plenty to do in the 1st Brandenburg Concerto and the F major Mass - the bridge from the sacred to the secular is easily bridged.

Few pipe organs in history have received as much attention as the iconic “Hazel.” David Ball’s performance takes full advantage of this “King of Instruments’” potential. “It is always an honor to sit in front of Hazel’s console and play,” said David Ball, Cathedral Organist and Head of Music Ministry. “I am continuously in awe of the sheer power and breadth of this amazing instrument.” Juilliard-trained organist David L. Ball serves as Cathedral Organist and Head of Music Ministry at Christ Cathedral in the Diocese of Orange, California (formerly Crystal Cathedral).

David is a recognized and well-lauded performer—The New York Times declared his appearance in Juilliard’s FOCUS! Festival “a rousing performance.” David completed both the Bachelor and Master of Music at The Juilliard School in New York City, studying under Mr. Paul Jacobs. As Christ Cathedral Organist, David’s musical contributions underpin the Cathedral’s vast array of weekly services and events, accompanying the Diocesan, Cathedral, and Children’s Choirs and supporting the parish’s diverse congregation.

Recording the St. Matthew Passion with boys’ and young men’s voices is an exceptionally intensive experience. Singing from memory and seeing Jesus’ suffering from the trusting perspective of children leads you to a different conclusion than it would with adult singers. The voices of children and adolescents sound more linear with a lower vibrato amplitude; they are rich in overtones and usually use a shorter phrase length. But children breathe very quickly, and their voices can be applied with virtuosity. Chords sound calm and clean.

The choir and soloists of the Wilten Boys’ Choir and the Academia Jacobus Stainer Orchestra recorded the St. Matthew Passion in the middle of a lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic, and were therefore tested daily and stood at a distance from each other in the Saal Tirol of the Congress Center in Innsbruck. The choir and the second orchestra were both further away from the conductor, just as was probably the case with Bach in the former St. Thomas Church with its swallow’s nest organ on a gallery above the triumphal arch. In any case, the St. Matthew Passion was performed in 1736 “mit beyden orgeln” (with both organs) in St. Thomas Church. We studied every recitative, every aria and every chorale as written in Bach’s wonderful handwriting and were amazed, especially in the secco recitatives, by some changes that became apparent for us after reading the meticulously written autograph that was later revised by Bach.

The CD spans an arc from Italy to Central Germany and includes concerti by Vivaldi and Johann Ernst von Sachsen-Weimar, which Bach arranged for organ. The arrangements are thus an encounter between different composers, who here converse with each other and exchange ideas. Johannes Krahl presents them on the historic Silbermann organ of the Katholische Hofkirche Dresden.

A vocation for experimentation was unquestionably an essential component of Bach's mindset. It was a desire to surpass, in every possible respect, whatever had been achieved up until then in a given genre or musical form, while extending to the utmost the resources and technical capabilities of individual instruments and the human voice (and thus also of individual performers). All of this was to be accomplished in the search for a perfection that is both aesthetic and spiritual. This ceaseless aspiration-cultivated from the beginning to the very end of his life-to go beyond the limits shapes the works selected for the second solo album by harpsichordist Cristiano Gaudio, whose debut recording was awarded a Diapason d'Or and Classica's Choc de l'Ann�e. From the dazzling virtuosity of the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue to the contrapuntal complexity of the Ricercare a 6 from The Musical Offering; from the art of transcription, magnified in the arrangement of the Violin Sonata no. 2, to the "twelve-tone" last fugue of The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I, whose subject exceptionally includes all the notes of the chromatic scale-all these works embody that bold erosion of limits that Bach's music pursued as it's true mission. They give both performers and listeners, for over three centuries, the thrill of an intellectual adventure-indeed even a physical experience-that is constantly on the edge.

Curiosa is conceived as a personal "cabinet of curiosities" by violinist Jorge Jim�nez, bringing together music that entered his life through years of travel, collaboration, and discovery. The album spans laments, dances, preludes, fugues, and songs from both renowned and anonymous sources, ranging from the Middle Ages to the Baroque and beyond. Each piece is selected for it's emotional depth, strangeness, and expressive power, forming a living repertoire shaped in rehearsals, late-night conversations, concerts, and recording sessions. Central to the project is Jim�nez's fascination with unaccompanied music and historical instruments, particularly the baroque violin and vielle, whose raw and earthy sound transports the listener into earlier sound worlds. Throughout Curiosa, Jim�nez weaves together personal heritage, musical memory, and imaginative storytelling. His own arrangements connect Bach, Dowland, Strozzi, Gaspar Sanz, and traditional tunes with vivid images. Joined by Joy Smith on early harps and Daniel Garay on historical percussion, and performing with his ensemble Tercia Realidad, Jim�nez blends historical insight with spontaneity and improvisation. The result is an album that feels both intimate and expansive-music passed "between hands, ears, and hearts," constantly transforming while remaining deeply rooted in shared curiosity and human connection. Jorge Jim�nez: "These pieces entered my life through the extraordinary musicians and ensembles I've been fortunate to work with across Europe. They form a living repertoire shaped in rehearsal rooms, late-night conversations, recording sessions, and concerts."

With Plucked Bach III, Alon Sariel deepens his acclaimed Bach cycle, shaping a sound world marked by exceptional refinement and inward focus. This final volume enriches the series with new colours: a further relative of the lute family-the Ottoman baglama-and a rare Tuscan-type mandola, whose octave-lower tuning lends Bach's Third Cello Suite a dark, velvety resonance. The archlute, heard at the album's opening and close, frames the programme with quiet elegance, while Sariel's touch reveals Bach's writing to be both architecturally precise and profoundly tactile. The album unfolds as a sequence of finely balanced reflections rather than a single dramatic arc. Bach's works-such as the Prelude from The Well-Tempered Clavier, the Musette from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena, and the Second Violin Partita with it's monumental Chaconne-appear in subtly transformed light, their rhythmic pulse and harmonic gravity brought into sharp relief by the intimacy of the plucked strings. Familiar pieces from the keyboard, violin, and cello repertoire are set alongside rarer works, including those of Westhoff and Matteis, creating a listening experience that glides effortlessly between contemplation, memory, and resonance. Even in it's most expansive moments, the music maintains a sense of poise, allowing space, silence, and timbre to speak with equal eloquence. Plucked Bach III continues Alon Sariel's collaboration with PENTATONE. Beyond the Plucked Bach trilogy, this partnership also includes Vienna Mandolin Stories (2025) and the EP Schubert's Mandolin (2024), affirming Sariel as an exceptional artist whose work consistently reimagines the expressive possibilities of plucked instruments-and particularly of the mandolin-with rare depth and imagination.

Zhu Xiao-Mei is widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of our time and one of the foremost interpreters of J.S. Bach's music. The Goldberg Variations marked the beginning of her international career and remain, for her, the "greatest musical encounter" of her life. She was the first artist ever to perform the iconic cycle at Bach's final resting place in St Thomas Church, Leipzig. This unforgettable concert is captured in a critically acclaimed and award-winning live recording.

A household word when speaking of repertoire, legendary flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal devoted just as much effort to establishing the masterpieces in their rightful place as to unearthing countless works from the baroque, classical and romantic eras. As far as concertos are concerned, cornerstones by Bach, Mozart and Vivaldi thus gained worldwide fame, and it went the same way for Ibert, Jolivet and Nielsen. Unfailing lyric sense, purity of style, magnificent tone, grace of phrasing, fabulous virtuosity, tremendous commitment... Critics, colleagues and the public were all running out of superlatives. Immediately valued as references, his recordings still fascinate and often leave the listener exhilarated. This 12 CD set tries the challenge of surrounding these marvels with some of the most dazzling rediscoveries, offering famous and less famous music, but equally glorious interpretations.

This was something I'd had in mind for a long time..." says pianist Alexandre Tharaud, "to put together an album for the sheer pleasure of it, in collaboration with dear friends and paying tribute to the wonders of the piano duet repertoire." The aptly named 4 Hands offers 18 tracks, each just a few minutes in length, each featuring Tharaud sharing a piano keyboard with a different partner. The repertoire ranges wide - from Bach to Glass by way of such composers as Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Fauré, Satie, Debussy, Ravel, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, and Piazzolla. 15 of Tharaud's fellow performers are celebrated pianists - among them the late Nicholas Angelich, Mariam Batsashvili, Bertrand Chamayou, David Fray, Víkingur Ólafsson, and Beatrice Rana. The other three, all stars in their musical fields, are shown in a new, pianistic light: cellist Gautier Capuçon, countertenor Philippe Jaroussky and singer-songwriter Juliette. "The piano duet is one of life's miracles," continues Tharaud. "First and foremost, it is the most intimate way of playing chamber music... It was a joy to record this album... If hearing these pieces prompts people to buy some sheet music and enjoy playing duets together - just as we did in the recording studio - then I will have achieved my aim.

A musician as loved as he was admired, the pianist Nicholas Angelich died in Paris in April 2022 at the age of 51. Angelich was a modest, thoughtful man who brought tremendous integrity, depth and insight to the most demanding repertoire. His association with Warner Classics lasted some 20 years, and the label pays tribute to him with this 7CD collection of previously unreleased recordings of solo, chamber and concerto repertoire. Made either in the concert hall or for radio broadcast between 1999 and 2016, they range wide, including works by Bach, Bart�k, Beethoven Berg, Brahms, Franck, Haydn, Liszt, Mussorgsky, Ravel, Rachmaninov and Zemlinsky. Appearing with Angelich are Martha Argerich, Quatuor Eb�ne, Myung-Whun Chung and the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, and Tugan Sokhiev and the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse.

The Catalan cellist Pablo Casals (1876-1973) was first to bring to wider notice the works that open this set, J.S. Bach's solo cello suites. Thereafter we hear his celebrated partnership with Horszowski in Beethoven and the groundbreaking piano trio formed with Thibaud and Cortot in Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn. From the symphonic repertoire come the concertos by Dvořák (with George Szell) and Elgar (Adrian Boult). Finally, an enchanting disc of encores and - with Casals's own street-band or cobla - seven examples of the sardana, the national dance of the great artist's beloved homeland.

This box set comprises all the operas and sacred works Otto Klemperer conducted for EMI Columbia and HMV. Oratorios by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Handel are accompanied by operas of Beethoven, Mozart and Wagner. There are also rehearsals and listening playback sessions for the recording of Mozart's Don Giovanni and a Bonus CD with recollections from artists who sang in Klemperer's opera performances. Otto Klemperer deeply loved both the theatricality of opera and the spirituality of oratorios, and these performances from his great Indian Summer represent the fruits of his lifetime of thought and experience in this repertoire.

His exceptional touch and sense of phrasing, his deep and personal understanding of the most varied repertoires, or even the legendary trio he formed together with Jacques Thibaud and Pablo Casals, made Alfred Cortot the greatest pianist of his time. Master of many disciples, notably the brilliant Dinu Lipatti, Samson François and Clara Haskil, Cortot also had a lasting influence on the Russian piano school through Samuil Feinberg and Heinrich Neuhaus, the latter himself being the revered teacher of Sviatoslav Richter.

All of the recordings in this set had undergone careful sound restoration in 2012, in order to respect as closely as possible the original sound. The remastering was carried out under the expert control of Mr. Guthrie Luke, a former disciple of Alfred Cortot who attended many recording sessions by Cortot. These recordings do not represent a "complete" edition: the many rolls engraved by the artist for Duo-Art, Aeolian and Pleyela labels have not been reproduced here, most of them doubling the 78-RPM repertoire. The first recordings are acoustic; and the ones with an electric microphone appeared as early as 1926.

Goldberg Variations

Die Kunst der Fuge

Die Kunst der Fuge

Orgelb…hlein