Master Mozartian Gottlieb Wallisch explores the rich concerti repertoire of his fellow Austrian in "Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 12, 13 & 14, " the third in his acclaimed series of recordings. Bright young string ensemble, the Piatti Quartet, joins Wallisch to perform Mozart's own rarely-heard chamber orchestrations.

Kellen Gray has reunited with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra for a second instalment of African American Voices. Though representing differing schools of thought regarding African American classical music, the composers here are united by their roots in black history, culture and its rich musical heritage. Drawing upon jazz and spirituals – ‘I Want Jesus to Walk with Me’ serving as the source material – Margaret Bonds’ Montgomery Variations engages with African American history, namely the Montgomery bus boycott and the 1963 Birmingham church bombing. In this work, re-discovered in 2017, Bonds tackles the themes of strength, resistance, determination and faith. Bonds’ contemporary, the prolific composer Ulysses Kay cultivated a neoclassical voice, as his Concerto for Orchestra exemplifies, very much in line with William Grant Still and his teacher Paul Hindemith. A versatile musician, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson comes a generation later. In his Worship: A Concert Overture, we can hear a blend of Baroque counterpoint, elements of the blues, spirituals and black folk music.

REVIEW:

Margaret Bond (1913–1972) wrote her 1964 Montgomery Variations as a seven-movement theme-and-variations on the spiritual “I Want Jesus to Walk with Me.” Bond’s impassioned cri de coeur bypasses the constraints of academic cd’s and don’ts as it chronicles in boldly theatrical music the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement, from the Montgomery bus boycott through the tragic 1963 Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing. Bond dedicated the piece to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., though sadly never heard it performed during her brief lifetime.

Ulysses Kay (1917–1995) reflects in his 1948 Concerto for Orchestra the influence of several of his mentors – including Paul Hindemith – as a thoroughly tonal work conceived in mid-20th century, in a moment in which the music of the followers of the Second Viennese School reigned supreme in the classical music worlds of both Europe and America. Kay’s classically structured, richly orchestrated, harmonically dense, and contrapuntally complex composition remains at its core a consonantly melodic, post-Romantic work.

In his 2001 Worship: A Concert Overture Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932–2004) successfully amalgamates sacred and secular music, incorporating blues in his nobly elegant treatment of Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow.

-- All About The Arts (Rafael de Acha)

This eagerly-awaited new release sees Simon Trpceski reunite with conductor Cristian Măcelaru to record Brahms Piano Concertos. Their unrivalled chemistry, paramount in Brahms’s chamber-like concertos, is on full display in these new performances which puts the two artists’ musical affinity in the spotlight. These two contrasting concertos, one beginning in darkness, the other in light, mark Brahms’s major contribution to the genre. With Trpceski’s flawless technique and sensitive playing, pianophiles are in for a treat. Macelaru’s orchestra, WDR Sinfonieorchester, joins the pair to complete the line-up; a perfect companion to their previous album, Shostakovich Piano Concertos, which garnered numerous accolades (BBC Music Magazine Concerto Choice, Le Choix de France Musique, among others).

Since 1822 the Royal Academy of Music has inspired generations of musicians to connect; collaborate and create. This recording of Bach Partitas continues this mission; reuniting renowned harpsichordist and conductor Trevor Pinnock with students from the Royal Academy of Music and The Glenn Gould School of The Royal Conservatory in Toronto. Following the success of Goldberg Variations (arr. for small orchestra by Józef Koffler); the Principal of the Academy; Jonathan Freeman-Attwood commissioned ‘re-imaginings’ of three of Bach’s most celebrated keyboard Partitas for the same scoring; by alumnus composer Thomas Oehler. The creative challenge – to bring a fresh perspective to some of Bach’s most elegant resourceful and refined keyboard writing – pays off in the hands of wonderfully talented musicians; and reveals how Oehler’s faithful response to Bach’s score allows the music to glow as brightly as ever.

Following an album dedicated to the forgotten Renaissance master Vicente Lusitano (Gramophone Editor’s Choice, Der Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik Quarterly Critic’s Choice), The Marian Consort makes an enthralling leap forward to the present day. True to its core mission of expanding the vocal repertoire, A Winged Woman showcases the ensemble’s commissions from a crop of the UK’s finest composers – including seven world premiere recordings – with music by Dani Howard, James MacMillan, Electra Perivolaris, Howard Skempton, Chloe Knibbs and others. The works challenge traditions and tropes in imaginative and refreshing ways, bringing together a rich array of musical styles and textual approaches. As Perivolaris’s titular work makes clear, this album puts centre stage the compelling work of some of today’s most exciting women composers.

Barbara Hannigan, a Grammy award-winning artist at the forefront of creation, leads an ensemble of outstanding young musicians from the Royal Academy of Music and The Juilliard School. Since 2002, the Academy and The Juilliard School, both international leaders in their field, have enjoyed a special and fruitful friendship based on 20 years of performances, exchanges and recordings. In this latest collaboration, Hannigan directs students from both institutions in an all-Stravinsky programme, including the Octet, Dumbarton Oaks, Ragtime and Three Japanese Lyrics. Recently appointed the Reinbert de Leeuw Professor of Music at the Academy, Hannigan conducts this transatlantic group in a wonderfully intelligent and engaging programme of Stravinsky's most iconic ensemble repertoire.

Following a highly anticipated televised performance at the 2023 BBC Proms, Dunedin Consort and its director John Butt now release Mozart’s ‘Great’ Mass in C minor and Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach’s Heilig ist Gott on Linn. Devised to celebrate his marriage to Constanze, but left unfinished at the composer’s death, Mozart’s Mass can clearly be traced back to the choral writing of Johann Sebastian Bach and his son, Carl Phillip Emmanuel. This musical genealogy is displayed here in a lavish double-chorus, double-orchestra feast where both works echo each other. No stranger to Mozart – the ensemble’s recording of the Requiem was a Gramophone Award Winner and Grammy-nominated – Dunedin Consort puts its stamp on these most spectacular contributions to church music.

With this album, fittingly entitled Traum der Jugend, the young musicians of Kebyart see a longstanding dream come true. Drawn by its eagerness to reveal new soundworlds, the saxophone quartet has interwoven works from different epochs and given them a new, unconventional guise through its own arrangements. Taking Jörg Widmann’s 7 Capricci as a starting point – a work specially written for the quartet which sparked the idea of this recording – Kebyart draws a myriad of musical connections that journey from Felix Mendelssohn, one of Widmann’s favourite composers, to Johann Sebastian Bach, himself a source of inspiration to Mendelssohn. The programme culminates with a tribute to Fanny Mendelssohn, whose skilful compositions played a key role in developing the musical personality of her brother Felix.

Linn is absolutely thrilled to launch a new recording partnership with the Consone Quartet. The first period instrument quartet to be selected as BBC New Generation Artists, the ensemble will embark on a complete Felix Mendelssohn string quartets cycle. Playing on gut strings, thus creating a warm, grainy soundworld akin to analogue photography (as violinist Agata Daraškaite puts it), the four musicians have drawn inspiration from editions of the time, including Ferdinand David’s own scrupulously marked-up parts, to present fresh accounts of the E flat major quartet ‘1823’ and Op. 44 No. 3. These two works paired together – the former is an early work, the latter is the composer’s penultimate achievement in the genre – allow for some revealing comparisons between styles at different points in Mendelssohn’s life.

One of the UK’s leading collegiate choirs, The Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, and its Precentor Matthew Martin make their debut on Linn. This new recording offers a fresh insight into the lives and works of two expatriate English Catholic composers exiled to Flanders at the time of the Reformation. Peter Philips and Richard Dering both travelled widely in Europe and their music displays a variety of religious and musical influences picked up along the way. The texts speak with a directness and intensity, deeply affected by this period of religious and artistic turbulence. As a celebrated choral composer in his own right, Matthew demonstrates a masterful grasp of these works, many of which receive their first recording here. The unique combination of instruments from the period instrument ensemble In Echo also serve to add intensity and colour to this most sophisticated music of the Late Renaissance.

Following their first album for Linn (Dvorák: Legends Op. 59, Czech Suite Op. 39), the WDR Sinfonieorchester and Cristian Măcelaru pursue the same folk vein with two orchestral works by Béla Bartók. Based on a rather childish tale (prince, princess, fairies, and of course a happy ending!), the music of the ballet The Wooden Prince – recorded in full here – has all the ingredients of a masterpiece: masterful scoring for large forces, use of musical themes, an effortless amalgam of folk and late-Romantic elements.

Composed in 1923 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the merging of the towns of Buda and Pest – alongside commissions by Ernö Dohnányi and Zoltán Kodály – the century-old Dance Suite is a six-movement work that has become one of Bartók’s best known compositions. Born in Timișoara, a short distance from Hungary, Măcelaru can boast an unparalleled understanding of Bartók, as evident here.

REVIEW:

For overall quality Măcelaru rivals Mälkki, and comparing the two readings episode by episode, one is as likely as the other to convey a little more mood and color. But neither really has the freshness of discovery and excitement heard in Boulez’s first account on Sony, and neither of the two orchestras, the WDR Symphony and Helsinki Philharmonic, approaches Boulez’s spectacular results with the New York Philharmonic.

Măcelaru is up against it again in the Dance Suite, which has had outstanding recordings from Fricsay, Boulez, Solti, and Iván Fischer, among others. Less raw than Solti, Măcelaru shows himself a master of the score in a reading that crackles with aliveness and presence. He gets animated playing from the Cologne musicians, and you quickly forget that they are not on a par with eminent ensembles in this music.

I was captivated from start to finish, and more importantly, I got a bead on Măcelaru beyond my only other exposure to him, in the Shostakovich piano concertos. There’s no reason not to give this release the same enthusiastic praise that has become the norm for Măcelaru. The recorded sound is full, vivid, and lifelike.

-- Fanfare

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra has long been known for championing British contemporary music and, following two albums entirely dedicated to Thomas Wilson, the orchestra now turns to other leading composers of the contemporary scene. Devised by conductor Rory Macdonald, the programme includes works that share the themes of loss, love and life: Jay Capperauld's�Our Gilded Veins�takes centre-stage, alongside�Within Her Arms, Anna Clyne's 'fragile elegy' (The New Yorker), James MacMillan's legend-based�The Death of Oscarand the commemorative�For Zoe, Martin Suckling's�Meditation (after Donne)�- which features church bells from across Scotland - and Peter Maxwell Davies's�Farewell to Stromness�(in an arrangement for strings by Rosemary Furniss), which arguably features the composer's most recognisable tune.

Linn is thrilled to commence a new collaboration with one of the most renowned orchestras in Germany, Cologne based WDR Sinfonieorchester, with the fast-rising star of the conducting world, Cristian Măcelaru, at the helm. In this first album, the all-Dvořák program includes the composer’s Legends Op. 59 and the Czech Suite in D major, Op. 39. Initially written for piano four-hands – a highly profitable market in those days – the rather contemplative Legends were shortly later orchestrated for relatively small forces by Dvorák. Though not carrying a specific story, the ten Legends have somewhat an epic character as if they fused in one continuous narrative. The dance based Czech Suite epitomizes Dvořák’s unrivaled folk suffused writing. The four-movement work ends with a superb Furiant, which brings the album to a close.

This is the third and final installment of the Well-Tempered Consort series (5 Diapasons, Gramophone Editor’s Choice, BBC Music Magazine Chamber Choice). In this program devised by its director Laurence Dreyfus, the viol consort Phantasm continues to shine new light on the fugues from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier interspersed with some of the composer’s most harmonically adventurous experiments from the Clavierübung III. This polyphonic feast also includes two works from the Inventions and Sinfonias as well as the Fantasia in G major BWV 572, or Pièce d’orgue as it is sometimes called, which boasts an extraordinary closing pedal point. A fitting end to a remarkable journey!

Following its Gramophone Editor’s Choice album Echoes of an Old Hall, Medieval expert Gothic Voices has recorded The Splendour of Florence, a collection of Franco-Flemish music that was found in or associated with Florence. Occupying pride of place, Dufay’s motet Nuper rosarum flores is widely thought to reflect the proportions of the newly completed dome of Florence cathedral, for which it was written at the cathedral’s consecration in 1436. The other works – by Franco-Flemish composers Ockeghem, Busnois, Tinctoris, van Ghizeghem and others – are taken from a couple of Florentine chansonniers, which in turn document the wide dissemination of their music in the thriving Tuscan city. This album thus showcases Florence in all its splendour and lavishness, a city that proved a creative magnet for the highly-skilled and inventive compositional work of the outstanding composers of the Burgundian tradition.

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra teams up with its Assistant Conductor Kellen Gray to record works by three of the twentieth century’s greatest African American voices. Released to coincide with Black History Month, the two symphonies by William Levi Dawson and William Grant Still proved to be fundamental in the utilization of Afro-American idioms within the symphonic form. Each composer focused on one of the two original staples of African American music: folk and jazz.

William Levi Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony takes its inspiration from West African folk idioms, American Negro spirituals and early African American folk rhythms and songs from Gullah culture. William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 1 draws its influence from elements popular in jazz and pre-jazz popular genres. Although the latter is the more well-known figure in American music, Dawson was every bit as significant in the timeline of African American music, and his only published symphony is astonishingly mature for a composer’s earliest efforts at symphonic writing. This program also celebrates the centenary of George Walker’s birth with the inclusion of his Lyric for Strings.

Born out of a great orchestral tradition, the Streichquartett der Staatskapelle Berlin began its life in 2017, on the judicious advice of Daniel Barenboim. Since then the four string section leaders of the famed Staatskapelle Berlin have been performing on many of the world’s most famous stages. Building on its familiarity with the world of opera, the quartet’s first album highlights three operatic heavyweights. Verdi’s string quartet, his only surviving chamber music work, was composed in 1873 while the composer was at the height of his creative powers. Although written in a matter of weeks, it is a piece replete with beautiful melodies and idiomatic writing. Composed two years earlier, Tchaikovsky’s first string quartet harks back to Schubert and Beethoven and embraces their ideals of beauty and perfect form. Taking its inspiration from the chrysanthemum flowers associated with Italian funeral ceremonies, Puccini’s Crisantemi, dedicated to the memory of Amadeo I of Spain, completes the trio of works.

The ultimate song cycle performed by two of today’s foremost lieder interpreters; this release is destined to become the reference recording for anyone interested in the great German song tradition. Baritone Florian Boesch’s eagerly-awaited second album on Linn presents Robert Schumann’s best-loved song cycle, Dichterliebe, Op. 48: sixteen poetic gems by Heinrich Heine which reflect on a poet’s idea of love and loss. Treated on equal terms, the piano plays a decisive role, adding extra layers whilst emphasizing and enhancing the text. The lesser-known Zwölf Gedichte von Justinus Kerner complete the programme. This recording reunites the exceptional partnership of Florian Boesch and leading song pianist Malcolm Martineau, whose previous Linn recording, Schumann & Mahler: Lieder, won the 2019 BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award. Surely the lieder recording highlight of the year!

Violinist Michael Barenboim makes his second appearance on Linn, this time with pianist and partner Natalia Pegarkova-Barenboim. Together they have recorded some of Mendelssohn’s beloved Songs without Words. Beginning their life as a musical game between Mendelssohn and his older sister Fanny Hensel, these songs were arranged into piano pieces to pass the time during their childhood. The album showcases a selection arranged for violin by violinist and composer Ferdinand David. Hardly known today, David was to become a close friend of Felix and the dedicatee of his famous Violin Concerto Op. 64. These arrangements always remain true to Mendelssohn’s musical aesthetic, and their intimate character calls for a closely shared musicianship, undoubtedly a distinctive quality which the duo has aplenty.

Following its digital debut on Linn presenting a triptych of works by Josquin des Prez, Vicente Lusitano and Roderick Williams, The Marian Consort now focuses its attention on the central figure of this trio, Vicente 'the Portuguese’. In his own time an important music theorist, Lusitano’s reputation and music have both been neglected in ours. As so often with musical figures of the Renaissance, many of the details of his life remain unknown. We can, however, be reasonably confident that he was the first published composer of African heritage. Referred to as ‘pardo’ in one eighteenth-century source, his only surviving printed book of compositions, the Liber primus epigramatum, was issued in Rome in 1551. True to its pioneer spirit as ‘brilliant discoverers, and exponents, of rare repertoire’ (The Observer), The Marian Consort has recorded a carefully chosen program of these striking, impressive and unjustly forgotten works.

Malcolm Martineau is the brilliant initiator of this new one-of-a-kind series on Linn. The Brahms Songbook has set the unprecedented goal to record Brahms’s lieder by complete opus number. For its first instalment, Martineau has teamed up with famed Dutch baritone Thomas Oliemans in the expansive Romanzen aus Magelone, Op. 33. Composed between 1861 and 1869, the youthful, inevitably romantic fifteen-song cycle tells the story of a noble warrior, a Neapolitan princess and a sultan’s daughter. The operatic-like cycle goes through the emotions of each character as the tale unfolds. Oliemans’s busy stage career and ‘communicative singing style’ (The New York Times) make him the perfect fit. The album concludes with the virtually unknown ‘Regenlied’ cycle: four songs that were later included in Acht Lieder und Gesänge, Op. 59. Volume 2 will see Dame Sarah Connolly and Hanno Müller-Brachmann share the bill.

Continuing their investigation into the wealth of forgotten Baroque music from Ireland, the Irish Baroque Orchestra and its Music Director Peter Whelan now explore music by Cousser and Purcell. Johann Sigismund Kusser or Cousser was a Hungarian composer who travelled to Dublin, via Germany, France and London. One of the most knowledgeable and respected operatic directors in Europe, he spent the last twenty years of his life in Dublin where he was ‘Chappel-Master of Trinity-Colledge’ and ‘Master of the Irish State Musick’ at Dublin Castle. His Serenata ‘The Universal Applause of Mount Parnassus’, given its premiere recording here, is an enormously colourful work composed for the birthday celebrations for Queen Anne in 1711. It is also the earliest extant example of operatic music composed in Dublin for Irish audiences. Purcell wrote his Ode ‘Great parent, hail!’ for the centenary of Trinity College Dublin in 1694 with a libretto by his collaborator and Trinity alum, Nahum Tate. This fascinating, little-known work contains some stunning music by Purcell. Its cautious tone delicately navigates the brittle political atmosphere in Dublin following the Glorious Revolution – the College having recently fallen for a time to the Jacobites. This recording will offer another huge surprise for those who know little of Ireland’s forgotten heritage in the art music.

Formed in 2016, the Spanish Baroque ensemble L’Apothéose has quickly established itself as a key player on the historically informed music scene. The multi awarded group (winner of the York Early Music International Young Artists Competition in 2019, Second Prize at the Internationaal Van Wassenaer Competition in 2018, First Prize at the Göttingen Händel Competition in 2017, Second Prize at the Concours International de Musique Ancienne du Val de Loire in 2017) makes its debut for Linn with a program of music by Carl Philipp Stamitz (1745–1801). The eldest son of the celebrated Mannheim school founder Johann Stamitz, Carl Philipp was a well-traveled virtuoso and a composer in his own right. Published around 1780 during his stay in London, the rarely recorded Six Trios à une flute ou deux violons et violoncello obligé, Op. 14, showcases the expertise of L’Apothéose’s musicians.

Following his ‘glorious’ Shostakovich concertos recording which was named a BBC Music Magazine Concerto Choice, Simon Trpčeski releases his first solo piano album for Linn. Hailed for his powerful virtuosity, deeply expressive approach and charismatic stage presence, the pianist has recorded five sets of variations by Mozart, Brahms, and Beethoven. In addition to Mozart’s simple, elegant Variations on Salve tu Domine, and his practically unknown Variations on Come un agnello, the recital includes Brahms’s multi-layered, highly romantic Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op. 9, plus Beethoven’s Variations on the Russian Dance, whose classical style belies the composer’s quintessential fierceness. Beethoven’s substantial Variations on an Original Theme in C minor, whose eight-measure theme based on a descending chromatic bass sets off a whirlwind of uninterrupted variations, draws the recital to a close. The wide range of emotions expressed in these variations showcase Trpčeski’s own extraordinary range.

Returning to his beloved bassoon Peter Whelan takes a fresh look at the two surviving works by Mozart for the instrument: Concerto K. 191 and Sonata K. 292. These attractive early works were most likely composed during the composer’s time in Salzburg. The concerto is the earliest of his woodwind concertos, and has become a staple work for every bassoon player: it showcases the tremendous capabilities of the pre-nineteenth-century instrument, its agility, extraordinary range and tone color. Whelan and his virtuoso Ensemble Marsyas are playing from the original printed parts since the autograph score has not survived. While the sonata’s original medium is uncertain – for two bass instruments or bassoon and keyboard – Whelan makes it his own with Kristian Bezuidenhout performing the continuo line. Ensemble Marsyas rounds off the program with Mozart’s most dramatic work for winds, the Serenade in C minor. Composed in Vienna for the Harmonie (the bassoon’s natural home), it served as a musical laboratory where Mozart could experiment with the virtuoso and lyrical possibilities of his Viennese wind soloists who later animated his greatest operas.