On 13 November 2026, Metier is proud to present Distant Horizons from pianist David Palmer, featuring works by Robert Saxton, Thomas Metcalf, and David Palmer himself. David Palmer and Thomas Metcalf met through Robert Saxton when they were both his students at Worcester College, Oxford, and have worked on projects together continuously over the past decade. The album is an exciting multi-layered collaboration exploring and visualising themes of fragmentation and the intangible through the language of music, and reflects the close collaborative friendships between the three composers. As students, Thomas Metcalf and David Palmer were inspired by Robert Saxton's music, the rigour of his process, and his respect for and commitment to the craft of composition. This album stands as a reflection of those values while displaying the evolution and development of their own compositional voices. Saxton's work 'Distant Horizons' was commissioned by and dedicated to David Palmer: it's seven movements each address an aspect of the title, exploring distance in music, whether that be in registers, intervals, harmony, or melody, and the idea of moving towards something ungraspable. 'Distant Horizons' is a radiant, intricate, and engrossing work, demonstrating all the aspects of Saxton's imaginative and technically masterful music. Saxton's music provides a gateway to the pieces by Thomas Metcalf and David Palmer, which are more fragmented and modernist, but also illuminating and colourful. Metcalf's two pieces 'Arrays' and 'Involuntary' are separated by five years and display his fascinating compositional journey of aesthetic and technical exploration. 'Arrays' considers how a varyingly pixelated text can be used to create musical structure and material, a playful interpretation of what 'word-setting' really entails. The work was highly commended by the jury of the Royal Musical Association's Tippett Medal (2023). 'Involuntary' contemplates involuntary musical imagery (INMI): the phenomenon known colloquially as 'earworm', aiming to translate Metcalf's experience of it as an annoying transient memory into a single work for piano. David Palmer's own innovative piece demonstrates his ever-searching mind both as a performer and as a composer. 'Twine' takes it's name from the method of it's construction: multiple independent lines intertwined to form a single tightly bound strand which then gradually frays. After early advice and support from Benjamin Britten, Robert Saxton studied with Elisabeth Lutyens, Robin Holloway, Robert Sherlaw Johnson and Luciano Berio. He was awarded first prize at the 1975 Gaudeamus Competition in Holland and, from 1985-86 was the Fulbright Arts Award Fellow at Princeton University, USA. His output includes orchestral, chamber, and solo music, and opera, through which he has collaborated with many major artists and ensembles. He is Emeritus Professor at Oxford University. Thomas Metcalf is a musicologist and composer specialising in music, visual art, and intermediality, and is currently the Christopher Cox Junior Research Fellow at New College, Oxford. David Palmer is a London-based composer and pianist specialising in 20th- and 21st-century repertoire. He is a College Lecturer in Music at Keble College, Oxford, and at the Royal College of Music Junior Department.

Metier presents the world premiere recording of Sinan C. Savaskan's captivating Concerto Eleven Conditions of Responsibility, written for and performed by the Octandre Ensemble, under conductor Jonathan Hargreaves. Savaskan has had a long association with the ensemble, having served as their inaugural Composer-in-Residence. Conceived as part of the composer's ongoing epic cycle Many Stares through Semi-Nocturnal Zeiss-Blink, Eleven Conditions of Responsibility embodies Savaskan's radical approach to composition. His constructivist methodology means that all the parameters of his music are dependent on the formal architecture, itself based on the behaviour and properties of sound and it's circular, logarithmic characteristics, giving rise to intricate, evocative works. During the COVID period when everyday life was so different, Savaskan read works by Henri Bergson and emile Durkheim, scholars from the turn of the 19th century, altering the way he thought about the fourth dimension - 'duration' (rather than time), space, and our attitude to commitments, therefore responsibilities. Savaskan came up with eleven of his own responsibilities, and became aware of how we conceptualise and adopt them. This became the basis for eleven thematic segments spread across the 3 main sections of the Concerto, 'little icons, as it were, to meditate upon', which each have their own fundamental pitch and related pulse. Circular Functions, the particular harmonic/structural method he has developed over the past 45 years, dictates how these segments are integrated into the three larger harmonic arcs. The three sections of 'Eleven Conditions of Responsibility' are modules 141, 148, and 11 of the cycle Many Stares through Semi-Nocturnal Zeiss-Blink, projected eventually to contain 360 pieces, reflecting the contemplation of a particular static object from different angles, covering 360 degrees. The pieces are assigned numbers which refer in some way to important dates in their conception. In December 2015, Savaskan's Many Stares through semi-nocturnal Zeiss-blink (Module 30), an Octandre commission, won a BASCA British Composer Award. Sinan C. Savaskan is based in London, as a composer, lecturer, and teacher of composition, and was Head of Academic Music at Westminster School for thirty-seven years. His music has been commissioned, performed, and broadcast in over thirty countries by some of the foremost performers, ensembles, and orchestras. In 2000, Savaskan was selected as the recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts' prestigious Grants to Artists Award - the first British composer to receive this award. He has also written much ballet and incidental music, as well as music for film. In 2025, Metier Records released Sinan Savaskan's album of music for solo flute and electronics, The Sleep of Reason, with celebrated flautist Noemi Gyori, an arresting collection of works exploring the full expressive range of the flute. The Octandre Ensemble was formed in 2011 by composer Christian Mason and conductor Jon Hargreaves, their core repertoire being music written after 1945, with an emphasis on timbre and ritual. ?

September 2026, Metier Records presents Cliff Edge from Irish-born composer David Wallace: a striking new album of six works that illuminate his distinctive approach to material-led composition. Scored for forces ranging from solo bass clarinet to mixed chamber ensemble, the album presents a world where musical ideas behave like living organisms - shifting, resisting, and revealing themselves through pressure and transformation. The performers include Heather Roche, Chenyin LI, Jean Kelly (harp), James Widden (violin/viola), Heather Holford, and other leading UK and international soloists and chamber musicians. Wallace's compositional style blends classical elegance with modern innovation, often including elements of traditional Irish music, at times also featuring extended techniques or electronics. His music takes shape organically, instinctively allowing the music to go where it wants emotionally, balancing tradition with a fresh, contemporary perspective to create a unique voice. The pieces on Cliff Edge were written between 2006 and 2025 for different performers and circumstances, yet they share a common thread: each begins with a musical material that finds it's own path throughout the piece. These materials can be as simple as a grain of an instrument, the weight of a harmony, the friction between two lines, or the memory of a place. Some are intimate gifts; others are studies in instability or quiet acts of devotion. What unites them is a belief that music has it's own agency - that if you listen closely, the material will show you how it wants to unfold. At the heart of the album is the title work, Cliff Edge, a turbulent and finely etched piano piece that explores instability as a structural force. Surrounding it are five contrasting but deeply connected works: the fragile, breath-driven L'Oiseau mis en cage for bass clarinet; the ritualised, keening energy of Banshee for harp and voice; and H.B.J.W., a theme and five variations for violin and cello, written as a 50th birthday gift. The album also features Five Vignettes from the River Avon, a set of distilled landscape impressions for clarinet and basset horn, and Canticles, a luminous triptych for harp, flute, clarinet, and string quartet that closes the disc with a sense of quiet devotion. 'These works are not stories,' Wallace writes. 'They are environments. Each one begins with a material that behaves in a particular way, and the piece grows from listening to that behaviour.' David Wallace studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with Richard Baker and in Ireland with Rhona Clarke, and his music has received international recognition, including awards from Boston Metro Opera and the Tracey Chadwell Memorial Prize. Residencies at the Guildhall School, the Cork School of Music, and Clapham Chamber Concerts have shaped his distinctive voice, and his works are performed widely in the UK and abroad. He is Head of Junior Music Courses at the Guildhall School.

In September 2026, Metier Records presents an outstanding contemporary release - the complete acknowledged output for solo piano by Romanian composer Horatiu Radulescu, performed by premier Metier artist Ian Pace, a world-renowned interpreter of new music. Pace knew and worked closely with Radulescu for two decades and gave the world premiere of the Piano Sonata No. 6, specially written for him. The 2-CD set includes authoritative recordings of all six piano sonatas plus Omaggio a Domenico Scarlatti (1967) and The Origin p (1999), and an excellent, extensive article on these works by Ian Pace in the booklet notes. Horatiu Radulescu was the leading figure in the field of Romanian spectral music, which derives massive, overwhelming sound masses from the very basics of harmonic spectra. In the second half of his career, he combined this with Romanian folk music and Byzantine chant, often in startling contrapuntal combinations employing techniques developed during the European Renaissance. The first Piano Sonata 'Wiege an den Abgrunden/Cradle to Abysses' (1968) from his early student days in Bucharest alludes to Liszt's final Symphonic Poem and features dramatic and austere music evoking a multitude of 'Abysses'. The remaining five are all closely linked and collectively known as the Lao Tzu Sonatas, inspired by the Taoist philosopher. Their chant-like or folk-derived materials are continually juxtaposed with more abstract spectral harmonies, derived in part from Radulescu's earlier idiom. They retain traces of song, ritual, and dance, but they are also transformed into something larger: continuous bodies of resonance, rhythm, and colour. The Second Sonata, 'being and non-being create each other' (1991), composed 23 years after the first, is viewed as ushering in Radulescu's 'second period'. The Third Sonata, 'you will endure forever' (1992, rev. 1999), the largest of the six, is the first of Radulescu's piano works to draw explicitly upon pre-existing musical materials, specifically Byzantine chant. In the Fourth Sonata, 'like a well older than God' (1993), Radulescu makes prominent use of three different Romanian Christmas carols, all originally collected and set by Bartok. The Fifth Sonata, 'settle your dust, this is the primal identity' (2003) employs a wide range of Romanian folk melodies. The Sixth Sonata, 'return to the source of light' (2007), was Radulescu's last completed work, and premiered by Ian Pace. Omaggio a Domenico Scarlatti (1967) from the composer's student days in Bucharest displays many aspects of post-war modernism and connects to the scale and performing features of Scarlatti's keyboard music. The piano piece The Origin p (1999) is Radulescu at his most uncompromising with what he calls 'spectral resonance' created by metal bars holding down all black notes and most white ones. Radulescu was born in Bucharest and studied violin with Enescu pupil Nina Alexandrescu at the Bucharest Academy. During this period, a shift came about from the dominant neo-classical style towards a greater engagement with European modernism. Radulescu graduated in 1969 and went to Paris, taking French citizenship in 1974. After this, like other emigre Romanian composers, his music was barely played at all during the remainder of the communist era.

On 7 August 2026, Metier Records is excited to present Sinner, Don't Let This Harvest Pass from rising pianist Joseph Havlat, featuring music by Michael Finnissy, Cassandra Miller, and Robert Schumann. This ground-breaking album includes Schumann's Geistervariationen (Ghost Variations), Finnissy's response, or allusions to, this work in his RS Geistervariationen, and Miller's Philip the Wanderer as well as the title work, Sinner, Don't Let This Harvest Pass, a rare co-composition between Finnissy and Miller, based on the well-known Afro-American spiritual. The compositions and working styles of Finnissy and Miller are a natural fit for this collaboration, the result of their long-standing friendship and correspondence. Transcription is another thread tying the works on this programme together, each composer having a unique approach. Finnissy's RS Geistervariationen (2021) contains large transcription sections of Brahms' piano duet Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op.23 and is heard alongside Schumann's original Geistervariationen. For Michael Finnissy, this process is in itself composition - he's working with the material as if it were his own, like portraiture seen through multiple lenses. As Joseph Havlat observes: 'These passages of transcribed Brahmsare melded and fused with Finnissy's own voice, creating ghostly echoes of bygone music, just as the variations themselves are ghosts of the original theme, and Schumann's theme a ghost of something else heard as well.' In between the variations are heard a series of Tropes in Finnissy's own compositional approach, acting as a musical commentary. Cassandra Miller started to write Philip the Wanderer (2012) in Canada but continued in the UK during a period of mentorship under Finnissy. Viewed by the composer as more of a 'translation' or 'adaptation' than a transcription, it draws it's source material from Mandowa II, a recording by Mozambican musician Zhukake Masingi, of which Miller generated a rhythmically hyper-rigorous computer-generated MIDI transcription. The three-movement piece reflects the rhythmic pushing-and-pulling found in the recording, with it's danceable and ultimately joyous irregularity. For their collaborative work, Sinner, Don't Let This Harvest Pass, inspired by the spiritual sung by the great Marian Anderson, Finnissy and Miller wanted to capture something of the 'inflections' and the 'mood' of her performance and not just the tune itself. They wrote alternating sections, Cassandra Miller going first and Michael Finnissy following her tonal theme, not imitating each other but more like a slow-moving conversation, mirroring their own dialogue as they created the piece. Michael Finnissy is widely regarded as one of Britain's most important living composers and teachers, his prolific output including solo instrumental, chamber, and choral works as well as songs and works for stage. To mark his 80th birthday earlier this year, Metier released a 10-volume digital box set, Michael Finnissy: The Complete Metier Collection from 1998-2026. The composition methods of Canadian-British composer Cassandra Miller incorporate unique meditation-based practices, and her works have been performed by ensembles and orchestras across the UK, Europe, and the US. 'Music this uncalculatedly beautiful leaves you almost desperate with gratitude' -Alex Ross, The New Yorker. Australian pianist and composer Joseph Havlat is based in London. A leading interpreter of modern and contemporary music, he performs as a soloist and chamber musician in major concert venues around the UK, Europe, America, Japan, and Australia. He currently teaches piano and composition at the Royal Academy of Music. His previous recording of Michael Finnissy's vocal music, Alternative Readings with Lotte Betts-Dean and the Marsyas Trio, was released on Metier.

July 2026, Metier presents David Hackbridge-Johnson's A Pocketful of Tunes, a collection of fascinating works for solo violin and viola written for and performed by internationally acclaimed violinist Peter Sheppard Skaerved, resulting from their friendship and hugely creative collaborations. All the works are inspired by, written for and recorded on great historic instruments, bringing the past vividly alive. There are joyful dances and elegant suites evoking dance movements of the Baroque and Roccoco eras alongside works responding to modern life, a showcase of David Hackbridge-Johnson's wide range of techniques. Hackbridge-Johnson started attending Peter Sheppard Skaerved's London Church Concerts in 2019 and the two soon formed a friendship around shared passions of literature, history, and railways. Many pieces emerged from these concerts which stem from Peter's deep interest in violin composers, their lives and instruments and the buildings they played in. There are three works for solo viola, all recorded on the oldest known English viola, the extraordinary Rayman 1641: the sonic commentary on abandoned railways Three Disused Stations, the dance based Seven Versets and Three Preludes. All of these showcase the instrument's glorious dark woody tone. The Rayman was made in Southwark in 1641 at the time the 'south bank' became London's entertainment hub. Peter felt that "this instrument is a direct link, a portal even, to London's greatest theatrical age, to the thunderous musicks of Shakespeare, Webster, and even... Marlowe.." Six Preludes for Charles II were inspired by a London violin, the Charles II '1664', after hearing Peter play it at St Margaret Lothbury, the medieval church rebuilt by Wren after the fire of London. The 'Six Preludes' balances these various pasts and the present, forming a suite that could have been written by a composer of that time. On this recording the Preludes are played on a 1629 Girolamo Amati violin, as are all the works for violin on the album. Inspired by Peter sharing a comic story of 18th century violinist Will Rosin, who like Peter resided in Wapping, David wrote the Will Rosin of Wapping suite, with extracts from the Tatler Volume 1709 story read by David in between each movement. Some works were written in the span of less than 24 hours, including Alleyway, Pastoral, River Falls. On a visit to Wisconsin Peter shared a photo with David in the morning to which David spontaneously responded with a new work that Peter performed that night in a concert! Divisions on Mr Simons' Prelude was inspired by hearing the exquisitely melancholy F minor Prelude (1700) by the mysterious 'Mr Simons' at one of Peter's City Church concerts in 2021, after emerging from 18 months of lockdown. David felt "That beautiful F minor thread reaches out to us over the centuries" and he used the prelude as the basis for a set of variations. Playing for dancing was always a key function of the violin and was driven by developments in the ballroom, country-dance and hop. A Pocket Full of Tunes was inspired by a French dancing-master's piccolo violin, played here on a 'full-size' Amati. Violinist Peter Sheppard Skaerved is acclaimed internationally for performances and recordings of a vast range of solo repertoire from the late 16th century to hundreds of works written for him by major composers to the many young composers with whom he collaborates worldwide. David Hackbridge-Johnson is a multi-instrumentalist, conductor, recitalist and writer as well as composer. Among his 600 or so compositions are eighteen symphonies, over a dozen tone-poems and concertos, and hundreds of songs and chamber pieces. His most recent commissions have been operatic including Blaze of Glory!, written for the 75th anniversary of Welsh National Opera.

In July 2026 Metier is delighted to present Lieder Zyklen (Song Cycles) by contemporary Swiss composer Thomas Fortmann. Featuring settings for voice and piano trio of poetry and text by writers including Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Christian Haller, Prolitheus Pfenninger and Fortmann himself, these works demonstrate the composer's eclectic and unusual style that combines postmodern music, serial techniques, rock and jazz. The Swiss tenor Tino Bru¨tsch and Swiss soprano Nuria Richner perform alongside the Trio Accademia Amiata and a Trio of soloists Malwina Sosnowski, Donitille Jordan and Talvi Hunt. The album also includes Fortmann's Hommage to Schubert's Winterreise and his arrangement of this iconic song cycle for baritone and string quartet is given a powerful performance by Florian Prey, son of the great German baritone Hermann Prey alongside the Amar Quartet. Fortmann's setting of the intriguing poem Am Ende des Flurs (At the end of the hallway, 4th floor) by his close friend, Swiss Literary Prize Winner Christian Haller, is followed by The Hofmannsthal Verses. Composed in his early twenties as striking rock songs to poetry by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, who became the librettist to Richard Strauss, the lyrics are a collage of Hofmannsthal poems Fortmann found moving for their linguistic power and their social and political statements. Geschichten (Histories) are concise, short songs that intertwine the timeline of a love relationship with that of human history and dimensions of the cosmos. The Prolitheus Songs are based on e-mails from the extraordinary visual artist Prolitheus Pfenninger, complex and often laden with double meanings and wordplays. Schubert was the favourite composer of Fortmann's mother, a well-known soprano - she often sang his songs to him and his sisters, and the music's sensitive emotions resonate deeply. The Hommage an Schubert's Winterreise, Der Su¨sse Ton (the Sweet Tone) is Fortmann's setting of a text collage from Joachim Ringelnatz who often referred to Schubert in his poetry, passages of text from Eduard von Bauernfeld on Schubert's funeral and excerpts from poetry of Schubert himself. The Homage opens with a typical rock riff, reminiscent of how Schubert drew on popular rhythms of his time, and the work refers to the songs of Winterreise in various ways, some of them hidden in contrapuntal forms. Despite the different compositional techniques throughout Fortmann shows his musical-emotional kinship with Schubert. Recreating Winterreise for voice and string quartet was a delicate task of reassembling the work while trying to stay as faithful as possible to the original. Fortmann sought to recapture the mood of the songs, their simplicity and touching directness, and to achieve this with a string quartet some modifications were necessary including extra notes that do not appear in Schubert's original. In the 1970s Thomas Fortmann had a very successful career as a writer of rock music - and also as an international golfing star! At age 26 he abandoned this career to study formal composition which laid the foundation for an extensive body of work that includes chamber music, operas and musical theatre, orchestral, choral, and organ works, as well as several song cycles. Fortmann's distinctly personal style often unites different - and sometimes opposing - impulses of modern music. Lieder Zyklen marks the sixth release of his music on the Metier label.

July 2026, Divine Art presents Set Two for Piano from visionary composer Eric Craven, the latest in a series of releases showcasing his 'non-prescriptive' method of composition. This unique method features different levels of notation allowing the performer varying degrees of freedom to manipulate choices around a set core. The composer states that his hope is "to reward any pianist with even modest ability with immediate success" (Pieces for Pianists Vol 1 & 2) in creating something beautiful and expressive while also providing a challenge to more accomplished pianists to explore new territory. Irish pianist Mary Dullea is Eric Craven's collaborator on all these recordings and in Set Two for Piano she brings her long experience of realising Eric's music to her wonderfully instinctive performance. This new collection offers 12 hugely enjoyable pieces that are more expansive than the previous SET, each plainly numbered without named titles. They reference a range of different styles, from toccata-like study to jaunty waltz, often with a backbone of jazz, and all varying from low-, middle- to high order notation, the levels of non-prescription with which Craven presents the score. Low-order refers to music that appears with pitch and rhythm plus bar-lines; high-order is only pitches; and middle-order somewhere in between. There are no other details given such as tempo, time-signatures, dynamics, articulation, character, or duration. "... there is a day when the recording must be made with that version of the piece committed to a presence in the world for others to hear! Essentially I am pushed to make decisions about the performances at every moment; one might say that this is part of the spontaneity of the act of performance anyway but what is particular to this is that, apart from pitches and rhythms... I aways have the choice to do something else. So, the journey from first receiving a score to defining one interpretation is a combination of experimentation and control." American Record Guide has previously said of the collaboration between Eric Craven and Mary Dullea: "the result of this artistic input from these two musicians is of true artistic alchemy". "Much of Set for Piano is abrasively wantonly tonal - abrasive in the sense that Craven's tonality is literal and daringly untreated; triads shocking in their nakedness... He cuts across stylistic allegiances, those same old same old allegiances that box so many composers in." Philip Clark, Gramophone. Manchester-born Eric Craven has left little musical footprint. He has composed since his teenage years but has rarely sought to introduce his music to a wider audience through performance or publication. The original SET was the first of his 'non-prescriptive' compositions to be recorded after Craven was persuaded by leading and eminent pianists to make his work available. This was followed by Entangled States, a set of forty-eight short pieces and two volumes of Pieces for Pianists - a collection intended to present more immediately accessible scores to a wider audience of pianists. Also released on Divine Art were his highly acclaimed Piano Sonatas 7,8 and 9, also with Mary Dullea. Mary Dullea enjoys a very busy career as a soloist and chamber musician and regularly performs and broadcasts internationally. Her exceptional discography demonstrates her support and championing of new music, and her pianism, musicality and remarkable virtuosity make her an ideal interpreter. She is currently Director of Performance at Royal Holloway, University of London, where she is also a Professor in Music. She has collaborated with Eric Craven for many years, with a number of releases on Divine Art and Metier.

In June 2026, Metier Records is proud to present "Infrastructure: The Songs of David Sisco" from the award-winning US composer, featuring over 25 years of his output of art song, performed by pianist David Fung, singers Laura Strickling, Elizabeth Mondragon, Michael Kelly, and David Sisco himself. The album mixes beautiful and thought-provoking settings of both contemporary and historic poetry with entertaining and often touching song cycles based on online posts and reviews, unusual inspirations for art song. David Sisco believes one way the genre can continue to thrive and engage with today's audiences is through the use of contemporary texts, whether by living poets such as the three he has collaborated with here, or from the myriad virtual town halls one encounters on a daily basis. Song cycle Italianate captures the wit and tenderness of his friend Linda Dini Jenkins' poetry about her travels in Italy, and is performed by the "mesmerizing" baritone Michael Kelly, who premiered the cycle in 2014 at Carnegie Hall. Infrastructure by Barbara Worton is performed by the composer himself and was set as a gift for a birthday celebration, perfectly encapsulating a typical New Yorker's skepticism and even a touch of neuroticism. Also performed by David Sisco is Where Memories Go to Die, the final piece in Sisco's song cycle 'Six Dennis Rhodes Poems', and like the poet himself, is a delightful, vulnerable, and joy-filled piece. Turning to writings of past centuries, mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Mondragon gives a powerful performance of the stunning setting of Amy Lowell's epic poem Patterns about a woman's loss during the First World War. Michael Kelly returns in My Best Beloved. Sisco was struck by the raw passion of the work of metaphysical poet Francis Quarles and has brought it forward in this gorgeous and sensuous art song. Missed Connections was written for Sisco's longtime muse, Elizabeth Mondragon, and won the 2010 NATS Composition Award. Set to anonymous posts from classified ad website craigslist. Com, these musical vignettes reflect the human desire to find (or avoid) one another and are surprisingly affecting. The Wrong Kind of Fountain Enthusiast is a song cycle set to colourful online reviews across the United States, often savage and hilarious, and, as with Missed Connections, uses a variety of musical idioms. Dear God, a cycle of children's prayers, tenderly captures the delicious mix of simplicity and complexity in these miniature compositions. Both feature the "powerful and expressive voice" (Classical Scene) of soprano Laura Strickling. Throughout the album, the superb voices are supported by the "poetic" (Washington Post) performances of pianist David Fung. David Sisco is an award-winning composer whose vocal and theatrical works have been performed at major venues such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. He has received commissions from choirs and ensembles across the US. An alumnus of the esteemed BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop and the New Dramatists Composer-Librettist Studio, he currently serves on the adjunct voice faculty at NYU Steinhardt and maintains an international presence as a voice teacher and pedagogue. David Sisco Editorial Review Quotes "David's songs run the gamut from profound to silly, from bittersweet to tragic, from aphorisms to epics. His name belongs alongside the many substantial and important American songwriters working today, including Tom Cipullo, Jake Heggie, and Ricky Ian Gordon. A composer couldn't ask for better interpreters of his work than those on his album. " Michael Brofman-Artistic Director, Brooklyn Art Song Society Infrastructure, The Songs of David Sisco, is a compendium of 43 songs composed by David Sisco over the last 25 years. Whether short (20 seconds) or long (13 minutes), each song reveals a composer extraordinaire. Setting a wide variety of texts, David consistently reveals an unerring instinct for creating a perfect setting - with wonderful pacing, imaginative responses to the texts, a gorgeous melodic sound world, and a superb understanding of how to write for the human voice and for the piano. The performers - baritones Michael Kelly and David Sisco, mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Mondragon, soprano Laura Strickling and pianist David Fung, are all brilliant and bring David's music to life with verve and understanding. This is one of the best CDs of vocal music I have ever heard and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Lori Laitman-Composer Infrastructure is refreshing, inspirational, and filled with such profound emotional breadth! As a performer of contemporary music and a teacher who regularly assigns repertoire in my studio, I can confidently say this body of literature has something for everyone. The sheer artistry alone makes it a must-have for your library-it is bound to spark deep discussion and heartfelt emotion. David Sisco is masterful in so many ways, and I am continually fascinated by his ability to weave everyday life into the fabric of our larger existence. The mundane becomes immediately relatable, but his true genius lies in connecting us through the broader meaning behind it. I'd be hard-pressed to choose a single favorite, but a few go-to tracks worth diving into right away: "Patterns" is stunning and mesmerizing; "My Best Beloved" will leave you in awe and immediately trying to program it into an upcoming gig; "Jeff" asks a question of God that makes complete, resonant sense; and "Cistio" offers true solace in the face of the frightening things we cannot change. You won't be sorry! Noélia Archambeault de Hernández-Assoc. Professor of Voice, University of Maryland "David Sisco's album is exquisite. Both the compositions themselves as well as the performances reveal a deep love of poetry as well as more unconventional text sources. His songs are succinct in the extreme, often achingly lyrical, and sometimes utterly hilarious. With "Infrastructure" one has the privilege of taking a deep dive into this vital compositional voice. " Daniel Schlosberg-Collaborative Pianist "This collection, Infrastructure, is a beautiful survey of David's creative output. The musical language is accessible yet sophisticated, drawing on David's expertise in a wide variety of genres. Even in his most concise songs, David manages to craft a vivid, self-contained world that instantly transports the listener. His work, like the composer himself, resonates with charm, empathy and a keen understanding of the human condition. " Jonathan Michie-Baritone David Sisco is one of America's greatest composers of vocal music, and his recent album of songs is an embarrassment of riches. Lyrical, smart, deeply-felt, and constantly surprising, the 43 songs presented are a treasure trove for those who love the marriage of text and music. And the performances by Michael Kelly, Elizabeth Mondragon, Laura Strickling, David Fung, and David Sisco himself are extraordinarily beautiful and committed. This album is not to be missed! Tom Cipullo-Composer

In June 2026, Metier proudly presents composer Michael Ellison's ground-breaking set of Three Transcultural Operas: Mevlana (Say I am you), Deniz Kustu (The Sea Crossed Fisherman), and bozlak opera Binbogalar Efsanesi (Legend of a Thousand Bulls), all performed with the Hezarfen Ensemble, the leading Turkish contemporary music ensemble co-founded by Michael Ellison. Ellison spent ten years working in Istanbul and has imbued these operas with an unprecedented level of integration of Turkish culture, music, and traditional instruments, seamlessly blending them with contemporary music in a unique and personal idiom. Ellison's is a music of singing melody, colour, and contrast, evocative atmosphere, and emotional breadth and has been described as "beautifully crafted, robust, and absorbing" by the American Record Guide. A new, 2026 High Resolution edition of Mevlana (originally released in 2014 on Metier) joins the newly recorded performances of Deniz Kustu and Binbogalar Efsanesi to bring together a first complete triptych of operas. Alongside the audio recordings, Metier will release the complete digital video productions of Deniz Kustu and Binbogalar Efsanesi operas recorded at the Istanbul Music Festival. Mevlana (Say I am You) was the first opera to include Turkish instruments and vocal styles, blended here with Western operatic tradition and based on the poetry of Rumi, the historic mystic. This hypnotic work dramatically traces the story of the transformation of Jelaluddin Rumi (Mevlâna) from ordinary scholar to ecstatic mystic at the hands of wandering dervish Shams-i Tabriz and features the dynamic vocal ensemble VocaalLAB Nederland with the Hezarfen Ensemble. Ellison's second and third operas are compelling tales that resonate with the global challenges of today, both adapted from novels by Yasar Kemal and directed for stage by Simon Jones. Powerful and dramatic, Deniz Kustu (The Sea Crossed Fisherman) tells the tragic tale of village-loner Selim and orphaned street-child Zeynel, integrating traditional Turkish instruments, contemporary elements, and Western opera singers. It's shocking events and environmental repercussions reflect our own current concerns. The opera also celebrates Istanbul, it's seas and marine life, contrasting the real and fantastical seascape of the Bosphorus with the dizzying, teeming metropolis of Istanbul and one small fishing village. "The Sea-Crossed Fisherman is an arresting picture of Istanbul, from it's glittering dawns to it's seething underbelly, and Kemal's... lyrical prose is a good fit for the American composer Michael Ellison... " -James Imam, Opera Magazine. Powerful and moving, Binbogalar Efsanesi (Legend of a Thousand Bulls) is based on the masterpiece novel by Yasar Kemal about the decline and disappearance of the last nomads in Turkey, as their millennia-old pastoral way of life is destroyed. The culmination of an 8-year European Research Council project, "Beyond East and West," Binbogalar Efsanesi is a unique work, sung in Turkish and integrates the dramatic, virtuoso style of traditional bozlak Anatolian folk music voices with contemporary language. Hale Tetik, of Andante Magazine, wrote: "The love, sorrow, grief, and rebellion, emanating from the voice of bozlak singer Fatma Aydogan, were engraved in our hearts." Michael Ellison has been commissioned and performed by major orchestras and festivals across Europe and the US, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Variances, Radio France, Grenoble Festival, New York Youth Symphony, Siemens Foundation, amongst many others. He was principal investigator on the European Research Council project Beyond East and West: Developing and Documenting an Evolving Transcultural Musical Practice (2015-2023) and the PI of the AHRC-Istanbul Development Agency supported project Transtraditional Istanbul. He teaches composition at the University of Bristol, England.

In May 2026, Metier Records proudly presents American Ethos from acclaimed pianist Carolyn Enger, a stunning collection of works from a range of American composers, including Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, John Corigliano, Ned Rorem, William Grant Still, Florence Price, and many others. Released in time for the celebration of the 250th anniversary of America's Declaration of Independence, Carolyn Enger poses the question of how to characterise American composition over so many years and throughout times of such sharp division. How can a musical 'Ethos' be encompassed in all it's various styles, sentiments, and beliefs? "I wanted to have a broad feeling of Americana," Enger explains. "Voices that have been overlooked over the years then come to light because they influenced voices that we're very familiar with." Enger has long been a champion of the piano music of Ned Rorem, and American Ethos centers his work, The Wind Remains, alongside three selections from Soundpoints, each a brief moment of distilled emotion. Rorem then stands as a starting point for connecting Enger's vision of American composition threads. Contemporary composer Daron Hagen was Rorem's first student, and we hear his Five Nocturnes, telling of a family setting down for the night. Rorem's roots in American music go deep as well, having studied with composer Margaret Bonds, who was herself a student and friend of composer Florence Price. Enger presents the African-American sacred music traditions behind Florence Price's Adoration. Price influenced many American composers beyond Bonds and Rorem, including William Grant Still. Price's influence on Grant Still is easily heard in his evocation of the divine in Seven Traceries: A Suite for Solo Piano, of which Enger plays four. Perhaps one of the most famous of American voices is Leonard Bernstein, who spoke about the healing power of music as a response to violence, and several works in this collection connect to him. His Thirteen Anniversaries, by turn tender and whimsical, celebrates 13 family members, friends, and colleagues. One of these is composer Craig Urquhart, a former assistant, represented here by The Awakening, Urquhart's birthday offering to Bernstein, and Adieu, which followed the global pandemic and 2020 political upheavals. John Corigliano's An Anniversary for Lenny is an affectionate remembrance for a 2016 Bernstein centennial celebration, and Aaron Copland's 'Our Town' Three Piano Excerpts is similarly dedicated to Bernstein. Completing Enger's vision of a comprehensive, inclusive American ethos is 'The Vastland' from Under the Blue Dome by San Francisco-based composer of Native American descent JJ Hollingsworth, conjuring the Colorado plains, and Margaret Ruthven Lang's Twilight, the first woman to have a work performed by a major American orchestra. New York City-based writer and editor Steve Smith says in his excellent booklet notes: "What emerges in this collection of disparate yet interconnected lives and works is a patchwork quilt of individual voices, perspectives, and aspirations, woven together to form a more perfect union stronger than it's parts. The music they made, informed by shared stories and songs, brings to life the sky, stone, sinew, steel, and sentiment that make up this nation - an American ethos, expressed in sound". Internationally celebrated American pianist Carolyn Enger has gained critical acclaim for her exquisite lyrical playing and her deeply felt interpretations, with many performances across the United States and Europe. Her 2013 recording of Ned Rorem: Piano Album I was on The New York Times Best of Classical list that year, and her recent Metier recording Resonating Earth, an artistic response to the contemporary climate crisis, received glowing praise: "a thoughtful programme. Enthralling" (Nigel Simeone, International Piano). Ms Enger studied at the Manhattan School of Music and is a Steinway Performing and Recording Artist.

In May 2026 Metier Records is proud to present Michael Hersch's monumental chamber work Zwischen Leben und Tod (Between Life and Death) performed by violinist Peter Sheppard Skaerved and pianist Roderick Chadwick, marking the label debut of one of the most gifted composers of his generation. Hersch's music has been described by The New York Times as "viscerally gripping and emotionally transformative music.claustrophobic and exhilarating at once, with moments of sublime beauty nestled inside thickets of dark virtuosity". In January this year he was selected as the inaugural recipient of the John Hopkins University Affiliated Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome. Zwischen Leben und Tod is a startling yet moving 22-movement cycle for violin and piano written in inspiration of paintings by the surrealist German artist, writer and filmmaker Peter Weiss, each movement corresponding to a particular image. It's duration of 100 minutes makes it one of the longest works for violin and piano. Peter Weiss was best known as a playwright of searing and often disturbing stage dramas, including Marat/Sade which features the assassination of French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat in an asylum-set play by the Marquis de Sade. Weiss's little-known paintings and drawings share many of the same characteristics, featuring loneliness, violence and grief (themes of asylums, war, prisons, cannibalism) but also deeply meditative imagery (a string quartet, a garden concert, a boy in the grounds of a country house). Hersch found Weiss's spectrum of colour and motion, of proportion and spacing, particularly musical, and Zwischen Leben und Tod makes a deep and visceral engagement with these same explorations. The result is a complex, rich and multi-layered work featuring extremes of tempi, dynamics and technique making enormous physical demands on the performers, while being hugely rewarding. Much of the music is disturbing and raw, but the overall effect is affecting, offering the listener moments of solace. In David Hackbridge Johnson's fabulous booklet notes he says "The little modal chord figures, the open strings that plaintively grate over them, the wisps of folk song, the lullaby figures - all these are a welcome balm to sooth the sores of an atrocity exhibition. What tenderness amid the haunted landscapes!.. Despite these scenes of peril, after over 90 minutes between living and dying in Hersch and Weiss's world, a curiously cathartic sense is achieved; a procession of bleak images in sound that somehow resist despair."  Violinist Peter Sheppard Skaerved has known and collaborated closely with Michael Hersch for over twenty years, and this is their first recording together. His performance here alongside that of pianist Roderick Chadwick is hugely expressive, displaying extraordinary virtuosity. Michael Hersch is professor of composition at the Peabody Institute and is a composer of "uncompromising brilliance" (The Washington Post). His output includes opera, theatre, chamber, vocal and orchestral works, performed across Europe and the US, including UK premieres at the Aldeburgh Festival and with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He is the recipient of many prizes and awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship in Composition, both the Berlin Prize and Rome Prize, the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, and the President's Frontier Award from the John Hopkins University.

In May 2026, Metier Records presents Edward Cowie's Darkness into Light, a stunning collection of works for harp and flute, performed with superb brilliance by Alice Giles and Laura Chislett, two of the world's leading soloists on these instruments. The album features two major works for solo flute and solo harp, a duo for both instruments specially written for Alice and Laura, and the title track, a fantastic three-way improvisation for flautist, harpist, and Edward Cowie himself on piano. Edward Cowie is one of the most notable voices in contemporary music and is considered by many to be the "leading contemporary composer of music that is related to the natural world" (Fanfare). A remarkable polymath, Cowie is renowned as a composer, visual artist, and natural scientist. La Primavera is a series of 'sound portraits' for solo flute, inspired by the nine figures in Botticelli's painting, one of the most beautiful, mysterious, and cryptic of all time. The painting radiates light and movement, and this is reflected in Cowie's music, which epitomises the limpid and hugely flexible sonorities and brilliance of the flute. The series of variants follow the figures in the painting from left to right, 'blown' into the music by Zephyrus, signifying the breath of the flautist. In the painting, most of the characters are either dancing or posed in dance-like actions, linking it to Harlequin Dances for solo harp, one of the 'satellite' works inspired by characters from Cowie's opera Commedia (1977). In Harlequin Dances, Cowie fuses music of the 16th century with some of the gestures and theatrical devices of the Commedia itself. The sorrowful emotions of unrequited love lead to Harlequin's rehearsal of dancing himself to death, but also to something hopeful and luminous. Cowie skilfully uses the resonances and wide range of timbre of the harp, and the closing few minutes are some of the most beautiful and transcendental music he has ever composed. Australian Water Music for flute and harp, is inspired by the ocean and fresh water lakes of Australia, and also Handel's Water Music, this being a recurrent theme for Edward Cowie, both as a composer and a visual artist. The tremendous velocities of flute and harp capture the speed of a stream of water and it's liquid sound, as well as bringing delicious richness and expressive qualities. Each instrument plays alone, but also thematic and motivic materials are resounded and re-worked in a dynamic dialogue between them. Darkness Into Light came from a discussion with Alice and Laura about their shared experience of darkness and light. The resulting work takes the form of a transcendence into some sort of divine light from impenetrable and engulfing darkness (of mind and spirit), all done in one continuous and shared exploration. Edward Cowie said of the experience: "Working with two giants of the musical world in this process was pure and undiluted pleasure".

Divine Art is delighted to present the February 2026 release of two piano quintets from composer Jim Aitchison, both drawing on his unique dual practice as composer and artist, creating music that responds to encounters with powerful works of art by leading visual artists. The collaboration between music, art, and artistry came together as part of a project with the Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, "Hearing Shadows Wordless Light". Both Piano Quintets also grew out of his close collaboration with Peter Sheppard Skærved, Roderick Chadwick, and the Kreutzer Quartet, whose fiercely intelligent commitment and unique experience of working in visual art contexts have underpinned so much of Aitchison's work over the past two decades. Aitchison has always been fascinated with chamber music for piano and strings, inspired by the interplay of texture and timbre, and the huge expressive range of the great masterpieces. His own piano quintets are astonishing and unexpected, recreating yet "busting down the walls" of the Germanic canon. Neither of the quintets attempts to convey, "explain", or illustrate the artworks. "Rather, there is an exploration of territory provoked and revealed in me: I am not responding directly to the artworks themselves but rather to the range of my own reactions emerging from experiencing them." Jim Aitchison studied composition at Nottingham University in the early 1990s. Then in 2000 a move to Cornwall brought a life-changing encounter with the artists of the St Ives School, and a decades-long interest in exploring correspondences between music and art was born. As a composer, he has worked in response to a range of internationally important visual artists including Gerhard Richter, Antony Gormley, Doris Salcedo, Anthony Caro, Peter Randall-Page, Mark Rothko, Richard Serra, Anish Kapoor, Richard Deacon, Terry Frost, Bridget Riley, and John Hoyland, with various galleries such as Tate Modern, Tate St Ives, the RA, and the Henry Moore Institute. This release marks the combined 50th album from Peter Sheppard Skærved and the Kreutzer Quartet on the Divine Art, Métier, and Athene labels.

In March 2026, Métier presents a stunning album of choral music from Northumberland-based composer John Casken, inspired by the region's magnificent landscape and coastline, it's changing colours, history, and poetry. The recording features Joyful Company of Singers under the direction of Peter Broadbent and reflects two years of working alongside the composer. The album features evocative and powerful settings of poems by writers from 7th-century Northumbrian cowherder Caedmon to George Herbert, John Donne, Robert Burns, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Sylvia Townsend Warner, Northumbrian poet Katrina Porteous, and John Casken himself. The album contains many Northumbrian connections, especially in the works written for choirs in Durham and Northumberland, including the Choir of Durham Cathedral and Newcastle Cathedral, Northern Sinfonia Chorus, and the choir John Casken himself started - Coquetdale Chamber Choir. The works are grouped around timeless and deeply resonant themes, the headings drawn from within their texts: Northumberland's seascape and dialect are central to Uncertain Sea, the single work in 'Far from Land'. The focus of 'Sacred Shaper' is Christianity in early times, followed by an Easter sequence Stone and Thorn, and finally music of farewell, Fare thee weel. Stones also play a part, whether rolling on the seabed, in memorials of stone, "the stone rolled away from Christ's tomb," or as an allegory for virtues symbolised in the stone floor of a church. The choir takes up various roles - sometimes as the voice of a community, or as voices coming together to offer reflection, or simply to tell a story through the music. John Casken's painting for the cover of this recording includes the stones of Dunstanburgh Castle bordering the seas; in Katrina Porteous's words, "Black Dunstanburgh withstands / The waves, the years."

Divine Art is delighted to present the February 2026 release of The Girl from the French Fort, an enchanting narrated orchestral work by Beijing-based composer and conductor Nicholas Michael Smith based on a children's story by acclaimed Chinese author Hong Ying. Gerry Cornelius conducts the New Music Players, with English narration by Timothy Bentinck, best known for voicing the role of David in BBC Radio 4's The Archers. It will be coupled on the album with a version of the recording narrated in Mandarin by Niki Yan, who has starred in many Chinese and international films and TV dramas. Hong Ying was intrigued by the old barracks she encountered on the banks of the Yangtze River when she was a child and turned it into a story for her own daughter, which has now been published with delightful illustrations by Cherry Denman. Set in 1970s Chongqing, The Girl from the French Fort tells the magical tale of a curious boy, Sangsang, who forms an unlikely friendship with a mysterious girl living inside the old French fort high above the Yangtze River. She draws him through ancient doors into a hidden, dreamlike world where time flows differently and everyday realities are charged with wonder and strangeness. What unfolds is a story of childhood, love, loss, and the gentle resourcefulness that helps us endure it all, enjoyable for children and grown-ups alike. Structured in the tradition of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf (a work with which it is often programmed), the piece blends narration with orchestral colour to vivid effect-capturing the story and it's shifting emotional landscape. Nicholas Michael Smith has lived and worked in China for over thirty years, and in 2011 was awarded an OBE in recognition of his services to music and to UK-China relations. Among his achievements has been presenting the Chinese premiere of Handel's Messiah and setting up several choirs and orchestras. He has a distinctive and complex musical language: at times, his melodic lines float freely around a tonal centre, moving in the circularity of the pentatonic scale that is core to much traditional Chinese music; at other points, his music is propelled by the harmonic tensions and chromatic development of Western classical tradition. These elements are woven in dialogue-each seamlessly enriching the other. The Girl from the French Fort is a poignant example of storytelling through music-lyrical, playful, and quietly resonant-a work that belongs to a creative life dedicated to building bridges between cultures. It has been enthusiastically received in China and already performed many times - it was described by Gramophone Magazine after it's UK premiere as "genuinely moving". Gerry Cornelius was born of Irish & Sri Lankan parentage. While his roots are firmly in opera, he has been active in all the main musical and theatrical genres throughout his career. He has had longstanding associations with a broad spectrum of ensembles, arts companies, and education institutions in the UK and abroad, both as a conductor and performer, and has been involved in many world premiere productions. He was Head of Music and Associate Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and is currently Music Director of English Touring Opera.

Ahead of the 80th birthday of one of Britain's most singular compositional voices, this double album presents the complete organ works of Michael Finnissy a body of music as rich in intellectual depth as it is in imagination. Performed with careful nuance by acclaimed American organist Forrest Eimold, these works span over six decades and chart the evolution of a composer constantly challenging himself to think beyond presumed forms. At the heart of the collection are Finnissy's four Organ Symphonies: bold, searching works that pay homage to and wrestle with the legacies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner and Mahler, while also evoking the French organ tradition of Vierne and Widor. "Why even write a Symphony?" Finnissy asks in a personal note for this release. "To explore and learn. To challenge oneself with the abiding presence of awe-inspiring history... to locate a rhetoric which fearlessly approaches the 'higher world of knowledge.'" From the youthful drama of ... ere the set of sun...  (written as incidental music for MacBeth in 1965) to the industrial solemnity of Blackburn (2022), the album presents not just a body of work but a kind of inner autobiography. The Hymn-Tune Preludes - transformations of Sacred Harp and Norwegian folk melodies - offer a striking contrast: intimate, harmonically volatile, and unhitched from convention. Even the earliest works here, like the student piece Xunthaeresis, reveal the seeds of a language already driven by risk and complex expression. Forrest Eimold, a formidable interpreter of 20th and 21st century keyboard music, brings dazzling technique and interpretive depth to this music. His command of registration, colour, and pacing allows each piece - from the vast landscapes of the symphonies to the epigrammatic preludes - to speak with clarity and conviction. Recorded on a range of instruments, including the organ of the UK's Blackburn Cathedral, this is a release release which anchors Finnissy's contribution to the organ repertoire as one of bold imagination and philosophical depth. It also continues Metier's retrospective celebrations for Finnissy's 80th year, with further releases to follow.

Métier presents a landmark 4-disc box set from pianist Ian Pace in commanding performances of music by composer Michael Finnissy (b. 1946). Finnissy is widely regarded as one of Britain's most important living composers. Pace, one of the leading interpreters of Finnissy's work, presents an album focused around Finnissy's epic cycle for piano, The Verdi Transcriptions, alongside the second complete recording (after the composer's own) of the iconic English Country-Tunes, and works inspired by music of the late-18th and 19th centuries. The result is a broad view of Finnissy's extensive output of piano music in relation to Romantic aesthetics. The album is released in anticipation of the Métier label's upcoming celebrations of Michael Finnissy's 80th birthday in 2026. Finnissy's four-book cycle of Verdi Transcriptions reimagines Verdi's operas through a modern lens. As Finnissy states in his liner notes: "Transcribing sound into a written form (notation) involves making significant choices. The choices can color the ongoing exploration of that sound as 'composition.'" The result of those choices is a monumental, late-Romantic epic. Finnissy's English Country-Tunes has long been considered one of his signature and most technically demanding cycles. There is a similar line of composition through transcription as The Verdi Transcriptions, only in these works the source material is English folk music. Written in celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee, the work can also be seen as a commentary on the spirit of British patriotism at the time. Ian Pace's readings reflect decades of study: he first performed English Country-Tunes in the 1990s and has played Finnissy's complete piano oeuvre in cycles (1996 and 2016). The set includes extensive liner notes by both Pace and Finnissy, offering rare insight into the compositional ideas and performance choices behind these demanding works. In Pace's recording of Michael Finnissy's other epic piano cycle, The History of Photography in Sound (MSV 77501), BBC Music raved: "Pace's intimate acquaintance with the totality of History is apparent in his commanding performance... this is a magnificent achievement for both composer and performer," and Gramophone hailed Pace as "Finnissy's David Bailey, each note shaded to perfection, structures translucently and sharply lit, defining sonic images of our time." Incomparable virtuoso, called the Paganini of the harp, Félix Godefroid was also a composer and teacher. This recording, performed by Sophie Hallynck, highlights the composer's studies in high virtuosity. Designed for his own use and that of professionals, they partake of both "absolute music" - as with the deservedly famous Étude in B-Flat Minor, Op. 193 - and the character piece, picturesque or sentimental. These musical miniatures are pieces overflowing with musicality in a refined style, but they express a pedagogical program first and foremost. Godefroid conceived of his études as a true school for harpists. Each technical problem becomes the medium for a musical expression - an approach that gives these études exceptional richness and relevance. Often based on one of those melodies for which Godefroid had such a knack, each one is set apart by a strongly marked expressive character, ranging from laughter to tears, as well as by it's structure, rhythm, novel sonorities, and harmonic surprises not lacking in audacity. Sophie Hallynck has risen to the technical challenges specific to each étude while staying faithful to the spirit of the era, with the aspiration to achieve a subtle balance between virtuosity and expression. Her essential objective has always been to make technique live through music, without ever obscuring that emotion that emanates from it. Shostakovich composed music for film throughout his life, from his teenage years as a pianist accompanying silent films in Leningrad until the early 1970s. New Babylon provoked a political and artistic storm upon it's release in 1929 but remains one of Shostakovich's finest film scores, performed here complete and uncut. Popular favorites The Gadfly and Hamlet are heard in premiere recordings of the complete scores. Also included is the music for Alone, The Girlfriends, Love and Hate, and The Fall of Berlin in premiere recordings that have garnered international critical acclaim. "This composer of the New Complexity movement admires avant-jazz. He also digs 19th-century classics. So, when adapting Verdi, he does it via the spirit of Cecil Taylor. Near the midpoint of Finnissy's "La Traviata" potpourri, you'll find dense fireworks as well as tenderness deriving from a motif Verdi once assigned to Violetta." - Seth Colter Walls, NYT

Edward Cowie is one of the most notable voices in contemporary music and considered by many to be the "leading contemporary composer of music that is related to the natural world" (Fanfare). A remarkable polymath, Cowie is renowned as a composer, visual artist, and natural scientist. Because They Have Songs is the fourth in Cowie's epic series of duo-works featuring cycles of stunning 'sonic portraits' of birds he has encountered on his travels across the world, exploring the relationships between the bird singers, and where and how they sing. It follows three highly acclaimed releases featuring birds of the UK (Bird Portraits MSV 28619), Australia (Where Song Was Born MSV 28620) and the US (Where the Wood Thrush Forever Sings MEX 77104), each highlighting 24 distinct bird species. This latest release, the fifteenth to feature his music on the Metier label, is devoted to 24 avian wonders of Africa. The title of the album is taken from a traditional African text which says, "Why do birds sing? Because they have songs". Edward Cowie went on safari to remote parts of Botswana, across dense bush and open plains where giraffe, wildebeest, zebra and antelope roam, through vast wetlands, majestic rivers and lakes, and shrub-dotted deserts. On his journey he sketched what he saw (included in the album booklet) and transcribed the natural sounds of insects, the noises of animals in movement, and the magnificent and powerful voices of African birds in all their moods and colours. The result is a vibrant and awe-inspiring interweaving of not only the sounds of singing creatures but also the rich environment in which they sing. The album has revelatory performances from Gerard McChrystal, justly hailed as a "magician" on saxophone, partnered with Richard Shaw's superb craftsmanship on piano, a comprehensive coupling of technique and imagination. Cowie's earlier albums in the bird song sonic portrait series received resounding praise worldwide and are poised to become iconic chamber masterpieces on the global stage: "You may well be thinking 'but Messiaen has already done it'. But Cowie's approach is gentler, almost more loving." -MusicWeb "imaginative, captivating and really very moving" -The Strad "Cowie is an endlessly inventive composer and this is a treat" -BBC Music Magazine

This arresting new album presents a major addition to the solo flute repertoire, bringing together the visionary artistry of flautist Noemi Gyori and the intricate, evocative music of composer Sinan Savaskan. Spanning nearly five decades of Savaskan's compositional output, the album explores the full expressive range of the flute it's lyric warmth, it's structural clarity, and it's capacity for sonic transformation-often in dialogue with subtly woven electronic elements. At the heart of the album lies Sonata '... una rilettura indipendente', a five-movement tour de force that is both architectural and deeply intuitive. Conceived as part of the composer's epic cycle Many Stares through Semi-Nocturnal Zeiss-Blink, this work embodies Savaskan's radical approach to form and harmony an evolving narrative shaped by transformation, resonance, and reflection. Written specifically for Noemi Gyori, the Sonata draws upon her exceptional virtuosity and interpretative insight, and represents a rare synthesis of structural rigour and emotional intensity. Alongside the Sonata are three additional works, each revealing a distinct facet of Savaskan's sound-world. The Sleep of Reason, for solo flute, offers a tightly coiled musical meditation, born from a nocturnal journey and haunted by socio-political undercurrents and subconscious recollections. Always at Dusk, No.3, for alto flute and electronics, distills a fleeting emotional memory into an atmosphere of suspended time, echoing the concept of duree rather than chronological sequence. Finally, Pas de Deux for One, originally composed in 1978 and revised in 2023, draws from Savaskan's background in dance and experimental film, resulting in a vivid theatricality that unfolds through extended techniques and shifting gestures. The electronics, composed entirely from transformations of flute sounds, serve not as backdrop but as an active, organic extension of the instrument's breath, resonance, and timbral possibilities. Whether experienced through speakers or headphones, the recording invites deep listening preferably in dim light, as Gyori suggests offering an immersive sonic space where listener, performer, and composer meet. An album for connoisseurs of contemporary music, Sonata '... una rilettura indipendente' is a profound collaboration between two artists whose shared sensitivity reshapes what solo flute music can mean today.

This arresting new album presents a major addition to the solo flute repertoire, bringing together the visionary artistry of flautist Noemi Gyori and the intricate, evocative music of composer Sinan Savaskan. Spanning nearly five decades of Savaskan's compositional output, the album explores the full expressive range of the flute it's lyric warmth, it's structural clarity, and it's capacity for sonic transformation-often in dialogue with subtly woven electronic elements. At the heart of the album lies Sonata '... una rilettura indipendente', a five-movement tour de force that is both architectural and deeply intuitive. Conceived as part of the composer's epic cycle Many Stares through Semi-Nocturnal Zeiss-Blink, this work embodies Savaskan's radical approach to form and harmony an evolving narrative shaped by transformation, resonance, and reflection. Written specifically for Noemi Gyori, the Sonata draws upon her exceptional virtuosity and interpretative insight, and represents a rare synthesis of structural rigour and emotional intensity. Alongside the Sonata are two additional works, each revealing a distinct facet of Savaskan's sound-world. The Sleep of Reason, for solo flute, offers a tightly coiled musical meditation, born from a nocturnal journey and haunted by socio-political undercurrents and subconscious recollections. Always at Dusk, No.3, for alto flute and electronics, distills a fleeting emotional memory into an atmosphere of suspended time, echoing the concept of duree rather than chronological sequence. The electronics, composed entirely from transformations of flute sounds, serve not as backdrop but as an active, organic extension of the instrument's breath, resonance, and timbral possibilities. Whether experienced through speakers or headphones, the recording invites deep listening preferably in dim light, as Gyori suggests offering an immersive sonic space where listener, performer, and composer meet. An album for connoisseurs of contemporary music, Sonata '... una rilettura indipendente' is a profound collaboration between two artists whose shared sensitivity reshapes what solo flute music can mean today.

Two decades after their pioneering 2004 album New French Song, soprano Alison Smart Fisher and pianist Katharine Durran return with a bold and timely sequel. New French Song II presents ten newly commissioned settings of French texts by women and non-binary composers, expanding the art song repertoire with fresh perspectives and luminous creativity. The original New French Song brought together 20 British composers, each setting a French poem-predominantly Romantic and written by men. This second collection rebalances the picture, offering a rich, contemporary counterpoint. The texts, all by women and non-binary poets, span eight centuries of Francophone literature, from Europe to the Caribbean, and reflect a wide-ranging poetic tradition-from the sensual cadences of Symbolism to the fractured textures of post-Modernism. The themes are universal: love's first stirrings, it's losses and partings, the solace of solitude, and the healing power of nature. Chosen with care to resonate with younger readers as well as seasoned listeners, these texts speak with clarity and nuance, free from gendered conventions, yet charged with emotional depth. The composers-among them Deirdre Gribbin, Shirley J. Thompson, Lesley-Jane Rogers, and Grainne Mulvey-respond with a dazzling range of musical idioms. From lyrical stillness to rhythmic intensity, their settings are at once rooted in the tradition of French melodie and alert to the sonic world of today. The resulting collection is kaleidoscopic in colour and tone, yet unified by a shared commitment to text, voice, and the art of expressive song. Two bonus tracks complete the programme: a new song each by Nicola LeFanu and Daryl Runswick, both closely associated with the performers and longstanding champions of new music. Together, New French Song I & II form a landmark achievement-an ambitious, beautifully realised cycle that now offers a more inclusive and representative vision of what the modern songbook can be. This album is a compelling testament to artistic curiosity, collaboration, and the enduring vitality of song. For listeners drawn to the intersection of poetry and new music, or for those seeking fresh voices in the classical landscape, New French Song II is a significant and rewarding release.

Naji Hakim: A New Voice for the Cello Gwendeline Lumaret explores the fusion of Eastern and Western traditions in Hakim's striking solo and chamber works. This album presents a striking collection of solo and chamber works for cello by Naji Hakim, performed by Gwendeline Lumaret with clarity, virtuosity, and deep expressive insight. Known for his distinctive synthesis of Western classical traditions and Middle Eastern influences, Hakim's writing is both intricate and immediate, drawing on sources as diverse as Gregorian chant, Levantine folk music, and the harmonic innovations of French modernism. The album opens with Arabesque et Variations, a vivid solo work inspired by the Egyptian song Ya Chadi el Alhhan by Sayyed Darwish. The piece moves through four contrasting variations, shifting from playful dance to contemplative lyricism before concluding with an intimate, improvisatory coda. Missa Cum Jubilo, also for solo cello, takes it's themes from the Gregorian Mass IX. Each movement transforms the chant material into distinct sound worlds, from the expressive ornamentation of the Kyrie to the perpetual motion of the Sanctus and the luminous tranquillity of the Agnus Dei. In Prelude et Habanera, Hakim pays homage to both Bach and the Spanish-inflected harmonies of Ravel and Debussy. The Prelude unfolds with the clarity of a Baroque toccata, while the Habanera evokes a sultry, shifting landscape of rhythm and color. Montmartre, written in 2023, is a deeply personal reflection on the history and spiritual resonance of the Parisian district where Hakim served as organist of the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur. The album concludes with Levantine Variations for cello and piano, a work rooted in the popular song Bint El Shalabiya. The melody's modal inflections and asymmetrical rhythms are explored through five transformations, ranging from contrapuntal chorale to martial intensity and a dazzling final movement that merges symphonic variation with sonata form. With world premiere recordings of these works, this album is a significant contribution to the contemporary cello repertoire. Gwendeline Lumaret, a performer of remarkable versatility, brings out the rhythmic and expressive richness of Hakim's writing, illuminating the music's interplay of Eastern and Western traditions with precision and artistry.

Rodney Lister's Choral Works: A Journey Through Text, Harmony, and Expression Rodney Lister's choral compositions represent a remarkable synthesis of literary sensitivity, harmonic sophistication, and an abiding commitment to vocal expressivity. This recording offers a collection of Lister's works composed over several decades for the chorus of Greenwood Music Camp, a summer program with which he has been deeply involved as a composer, pianist, and mentor. The repertoire featured here provides a rare and illuminating perspective on the evolution of his choral writing, spanning from early diatonic and modal explorations to later works of greater harmonic intricacy. Lister's deep engagement with text is evident throughout this collection. Drawing upon poets such as Wallace Stevens, Gertrude Stein, and others, his settings bring out the rhythm, colour, and nuance of the language in ways that feel both natural and revelatory. Early works embrace clarity and directness, allowing the shape and syntax of the poetry to guide musical decisions, while later pieces exhibit a denser harmonic language that reflects his affinity for figures like Virgil Thomson and even the chromatic daring of composers such as Gesualdo. Throughout, his choral textures remain vibrant and varied, capable of both luminous transparency and rich complexity. A defining characteristic of Lister's music is his ability to balance tradition and innovation. He employs familiar harmonic structures yet subtly subverts expectations, allowing triadic formations to shift and realign in ways that create an ever-changing sense of musical space. The result is music that feels both grounded and pleasingly unpredictable, continually engaging the listener in an unfolding dialogue between stability and transformation. His approach to choral writing is informed by his experience as both a composer and pianist, ensuring that every line is singable, every phrase thoughtfully shaped, and every harmonic progression imbued with a keen sense of dramatic pacing. This recording not only highlights Lister's distinctive compositional voice but also captures his deep personal investment in the choral medium. His long-standing association with Greenwood Music Camp and other ensembles has allowed him to refine his craft in a setting that fosters both artistic rigor and communal engagement. The performances here reflect that intimate understanding between composer and ensemble, bringing his works to life with clarity, warmth, and expressive depth. For those interested in contemporary choral music that bridges past and present, intellect and emotion, structure and spontaneity, Lister's choral works offer a rewarding experience.

Reflections in Time brings together three major works by Robert Saxton which push the expressive and structural boundaries of the string quartet and solo violin. Performed by the renowned Kreutzer Quartet and violinist Peter Sheppard Skaerved, this album beautifully illustrates Saxton's ability to fuse intellectual rigor with deeply evocative musical storytelling. String Quartet No. 3 (2009) unfolds in five intricately woven movements, charting a course through cyclical forms and shifting modal landscapes. A work of compelling contrast, it moves from the meditative austerity of Winter Light to the driving energy of Dance, before closing with Continuing Journey, a movement that dissolves into the very resonance of it's own beginning. The Sonata for Solo Violin, Reflections in Time (2023), written for and inspired by Skaerved's artwork, is a profound exploration of symmetry, memory, and transformation. Saxton constructs a sonic world where melodic gestures mirror and refract, capturing the essence of time's fluidity. With a structure reminiscent of the palindromic forms found in Bach and Berg, the work challenges perceptions of musical motion, forging an organic connection between sound and visual art. String Quartet No. 4 (2023) is a meditation on creation and renewal, mapping an ascent through seven movements, each tied to a symbolic pitch cycle. From the opening Wavebreak, evoking the birth of sound and motion, to the final movement, Daybreak, which resonates with echoes of all that preceded it, the quartet embodies a vast temporal and harmonic journey. It's centerpiece, "... The dancing will never be done... ," is an urgent and restless dance, framed by introspective movements that contemplate the passage of time and human experience. Saxton's music is defined by it's meticulous craftsmanship and philosophical depth. In Reflections in Time, his long-standing collaboration with the Kreutzer Quartet and Sheppard Skaerved reaches new heights, producing performances that are as precise as they are impassioned. This recording offers a vital addition to the contemporary string repertoire, appealing to listeners attuned to the intellectual and emotional possibilities of modern chamber music.

Leaps & Bounds: The Music of Lance Hulme presents a compelling survey of Dr. Lance Hulme's oeuvre, showcasing his intellectual rigor, inventive compositional techniques, and engagement with diverse cultural and historical contexts. The album features works that exemplify Hulme's mastery of structure and colour. Sirens' Song, a symphonic triptych inspired by Homer's Odyssey, integrates 19th- and early 20th-century orchestral techniques with modern thematic exploration. Wildcat, originally commissioned by the Rascher Saxophone Quartet, reflects a vivid sonic depiction of kinetic energy and joy, drawing on personal and cultural narratives. Hulme's JethroZen juxtaposes the rock-inspired flute idiom of Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) with the meditative timbres of the Japanese Shakuhachi, bridging Eastern and Western musical traditions. Folk idioms and tonal frameworks are reimagined in Appalachian Advent, while Sax Attractor employs mathematical attractor sets as a metaphor for musical cohesion, yielding a meticulously structured saxophone sonata. Setting the Diamond offers an innovative engagement with medieval chant, integrating Hildegard von Bingen's hymnody with electronic and acoustic counterpoint to create a nuanced dialogue between past and present. Hulme's works balance intellectual depth with emotional immediacy. An Eternal Flame, dedicated to the people of Ukraine, demonstrates his ability to embed profound human narratives within intricate compositional frameworks. Slapdash Redux, with it's virtuosic interplay and rhythmic ingenuity, exemplifies his fascination with spontaneous energy and contrapuntal complexity. This album is an essential addition to the repertoire of contemporary classical music, inviting scholars, performers, and listeners to explore the intersections of tradition, innovation, and cultural dialogue in Hulme's work. Leaps & Bounds offers a vivid portrait of a composer who traverses disciplinary boundaries with intellectual acuity and artistic finesse.

A Symphony of the Earth in Three Movements Discover the arresting new album of piano sonatas by Edward Cowie, one of today's foremost composers inspired by the natural world. Performed by the virtuosic Roderick Chadwick, this album marks the 14th release of Cowie's works on the Metier label, further solidifying his legacy as a composer whose music bridges art, science, and nature. This trilogy of sonatas-Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic-draws directly from the geological processes that shape our planet. Each work is both an independent exploration and part of a greater whole, mirroring the classical sonata cycle in an ambitious and deeply evocative form. ·Sonata No. 1: Igneous unleashes fiery, volcanic energy, portraying the birth of rocks through explosive eruptions and flowing magma. It's sonic landscape is alive with tension, turbulence, and ultimately, moments of stillness in the aftermath of volcanic forces. ·Sonata No. 2: Sedimentary explores the layering and transformation of rock through aeons of deposition, folding, and fracturing. Alternating between serenity and upheaval, the work reflects the dynamic balance of nature's processes. ·Sonata No. 3: Metamorphic, the most expansive and virtuosic of the set, culminates the cycle. It's theme and variations evoke the transformative forces of heat and pressure, blending echoes of the previous sonatas into a profound and unified conclusion. Pianist Roderick Chadwick's interpretation captures the elemental power and intricate detail of Cowie's vision, bringing each sonata to life with extraordinary sensitivity and technical mastery. With influences ranging from Beethoven's late sonatas to the intricate patterns of the natural world, Cowie's music transcends genres, offering listeners a unique and transformative experience. This album is not just a collection of sonatas; it is an odyssey through the earth's geological heart, celebrating the interplay of form, motion, and metamorphosis. Rock Music is a testament to Cowie's genius and Chadwick's exceptional artistry. Essential listening for fans of contemporary classical music.

Metier celebrates the music of Justin Connolly (1933-2020) with a landmark double album. Featuring world premiere recordings of his intricately crafted works, this release shines a long-overdue spotlight on a composer once named by Pierre Boulez among the most compelling British voices of his era. Connolly's music, characterized by conceptual rigor, lyrical intensity, and flashes of playful invention, has remained largely absent from the public stage in recent decades. A long compositional hiatus in the late 20th century may have contributed to this neglect, but his unique voice is now rediscovered through this comprehensive recording. Cellist and producer Neil Heyde reflects on Connolly's impact as an inspirational teacher at the Royal Academy of Music and as a curious, collaborative force within the musical community: "His intellectual engagement with music was unparalleled, and his enthusiasm for exploring the unconventional was as legendary as his generosity of spirit. This project seeks to capture the essence of his unique sensibility through these premiere recordings." Heyde leads the project alongside Kreutzer Quartet colleagues Peter Sheppard Skaerved and Mihailo Trandafilovski, with clarinettist Roger Heaton featured on Gymel-B. The album also includes collaborations with Royal Academy of Music students, providing a vibrant intergenerational exchange in Connolly's larger ensemble works. Four pieces receive world premiere performances, making this the most extensive exploration of Connolly's music to date. These works illuminate a fascinating spectrum, from virtuosic solos to ensemble compositions that are as deeply intricate as they are expressively bold. Recorded in spring 2024 in London by the renowned engineer Adaq Khan, and supported by a research grant from the Royal Academy of Music's Research Committee, this project captures the brilliance and nuance of Connolly's artistry with exceptional clarity. This album reintroduces Justin Connolly as a vital figure in British contemporary music, offering an arresting portrait of a composer whose intellectual rigor and lyrical depth remain as relevant today as ever.

Metier, the British new-music label known for it's dedication to contemporary composers, deepens it's ties with Ireland's vibrant musical landscape with a striking new release in early 2025. This album presents premiere recordings of Sean Doherty's captivating works for string quartet, enriched by voice and traditional Irish instruments. Hailed as "unfailingly gripping" (Irish Times) and "wonderfully imaginative, colourful" (Irish Examiner), Doherty's chamber music masterfully fuses Irish traditional and classical traditions, creating vivid and dramatic narratives. His compositions traverse poignant themes of death, mourning, and defining moments in Irish history, including the Great Famine, the Easter Rising, and the Troubles. This recording captures the essence of his music, which has captivated live audiences and now receives it's first studio treatment. The performers on this album represent the pinnacle of Irish traditional and classical music. The Sonoro Quartet, celebrated as European Concert Hall Organisation's 'Rising Stars' for the 2023-24 season, brings their virtuosic artistry to these works. They are joined by soprano Sylvia O'Brien, a leading interpreter of contemporary Irish music, and Mark Redmond, an internationally acclaimed uilleann piper. Additional contributions from traditional musicians Lauren O'Neill, Molly Tobin, Robert Harvey, and Doherty himself add further authenticity and depth to this exceptional recording. Produced by Richard Duckworth, a music technology lecturer at Trinity College Dublin, the album was recorded in Dublin in 2023, ensuring a pristine and evocative soundscape. Sean Doherty's talent has earned numerous accolades, including multiple Feis Ceoil choral composition prizes, the West Cork Chamber Music Festival Bursary, and awards from Choir & Organ Magazine. His music has been performed widely by prestigious orchestras, ensembles, and soloists, and his contributions to Metier's Ghost Songs album (MSV 28599) were praised as "little miracles" by Fanfare. This album stands as a vivid portrait of one of Ireland's most compelling contemporary voices, offering listeners an arresting journey through the intersection of history, tradition, and modernity.

The Gentle Erasure of Time, the arresting and spellbinding debut solo album from Dublin-based American violist Nathan Sherman, is a collection of new commissions for solo viola and electronics. Sherman creates an immersive soundscape that shifts between haunting, mesmerising passages and intense, cinematic moments. Featuring works by distinguished composers Nicole Lizee, Karin Rehnqvist, Jonathan Nangle, Linda Buckley, Benjamin Broening, and Sam Perkin, this album explores themes of memory, movement, and beauty, establishing a vibrant conversation between acoustic and electronic realms. The album opens with Jonathan Nangle's Erasure of Time, in which Sherman's viola plays a central role within an intricate layering of effects and electronic synthesis, moving through sonic landscapes with a sense of almost perilous intensity. Each piece is a distinct sound world, blending the viola's organic resonance with imaginative electronic textures to create an atmosphere that feels both grounded and otherworldly. The delicate interplay of sound elevates the viola's voice in an entirely new setting, inviting listeners to engage with each carefully crafted moment. Linda Buckley's The Thin Veil provides a lyrical and meditative close to the album, capturing a final, ethereal reflection on the album's core ideas. This piece, rich with Buckley's characteristic beauty and introspection, rounds out The Gentle Erasure of Time as a powerful exploration of what electronic elements can bring to contemporary classical music. Sherman's technical skill animates each composition with precision and intensity, revealing his deep connection to this repertoire. Known for his versatile musical interests and collaborations, Sherman has performed across both classical and experimental genres, contributing to ensembles like the Ficino Ensemble, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, and the Irish Baroque Orchestra. This album builds on his innovative career, inviting listeners into a sonic experience that reimagines the potential of viola and electronic music together. The Gentle Erasure of Time is a remarkable achievement from an artist at the height of his creative powers. Audiences are encouraged to turn up the volume and experience the textured depths and spatial richness of a bold new vision for the viola.