From the mid-seventeenth century to the first two decades of the eighteenth century, Rome experienced one of the most brilliant musical periods in it's history. In this recording, the Ensemble Jacques Moderne performs works composed for a Vespers service, one of the principal moments of the Liturgy of the Hours, which consisted of a sequence of psalms and antiphons concluding with a Magnificat.

This album reveals the multiple facets of love according to Liszt - carnal, spiritual and divine all at once - from the prophetic masterpieces of his youth to the vast canvases of maturity. B�n�diction de Dieu dans la solitude and the Sonata in B minor mark his crowning achievement, anticipating the piano music of the modern era. Tanguy de Williencourt displays all the ardour and faith these remarkable works call for.

Four years after the superb 'Membra Jesu Nostri', the Ricercar Consort once again turns to Buxtehude. The majority of the cantatas in this recording are centred on Christ's Passion and Resurrection. With the both dramatic and comforting sounds of his cantatas, Buxtehude succeeded in shifting the focus from human suffering to divine help, thus giving people a foretaste of heavenly harmony and perfection.

Between 1876 and 1878, two masterpieces were created in the midst of a wave of nationalism sweeping Europe. Distressed by tragic events, Grieg and Smetana turned to the string quartet, a form hitherto rare in their output, as a means of expressing their turbulent emotions. Through the communion of sixteen strings, the composers retrace the story of their lives, producing two quartets with an infinitely personal dimension and unprecedented emotional power.

Inspired by the great Romantic works of the piano trio repertoire, Trio Nebelmeer - named after the emblematic painting by Caspar David Friedrich - embark on a joint exploration of a turmoiled romanticism. Composed ten years apart by two composers with a 20 year age difference, the trios for piano, violin and cello featuring in this album epitomize the quintessence of French Romantic music of the late 19th century.

Three years after a superb 'Dumky' acclaimed by the critics, the Trio Kar�nine revisits Dvor�k. His epic Trio No.3, combining Brahmsian inspiration with strains of Mitteleuropa, is heard here alongside two 'little' works by Suk: the early Trio Op.2, polished under the guidance of Dvor�k himself, and a poignant elegy in memory of the great Czech man of letters Zeyer. This is the very heart of Bohemia.

How is viola da gamba literature hidden in keyboard music during the reign of Louis XIV in France? R�cit, Salom� Gasselin's first album, explores this forgotten practice at a time when the viola da gamba was just becoming a solo instrument in France.

During his travels, Mozart often needed new pieces. In Mannheim, for example, he composed the Sonata in C major for the thirteen-year-old Rosa Cannabich, and later, in Linz, the Sonata in B flat, presumably as a concert piece for himself. These two brilliant sonatas are played here by J�r�me Hanta� on an original fortepiano of the late eighteenth century, similar to those by Stein that Mozart loved so much, and accompanied by the three wonderful rondos for piano of 1786/87. "Clarity, tranquillity, grace: the hallmark of the works of art of Antiquity is also that of the Mozartian school", wrote Schumann.

A sound alchemist, Maurice Ravel recreated his own works for piano in orchestral versions that soon brought them universal acclaim. Jean-Fran�ois Heisser, a disciple of Vlado Perlemuter, is now part of a Ravelian genealogy imbued with elegance and emotion. Conducted from the piano, in collusion with the musicians of the Orchestre de Chambre Nouvelle-Aquitaine (OCNA), the Piano Concerto in G major revives the Mozartean tradition so dear to the composer.

As a young chorister, the fourteen-year-old Franz Schubert penned his first string quartets, a genre that he would continue to explore until the last years of his life. Fifteen quartets, of remarkable originality and bewitching lyricism, entered into history, bearing at once the legacy of the Classical Era and a vision of the future. These works are marked by the tides of life - disillusion, illness, but also the flourishing of a magisterial mind. "The communion with a confidential soul, the discovery of indescribable colors, the admiration of a remarkable message whose ideas never cease to evolve and inspire... This is part of a distinctive journey that will leave an everlasting mark upon us. The recording of the Octet two years ago was just the initial building block of a project dear to us, one that we now see fulfilled through this immersion dedicated to Schubert."

The Quatuor Ellipsos tells us a family story through four iconic works firmly ingrained in the collective unconscious: Carmen, Casse-Noisette, West Side Story and Rhapsody in Blue. Like a small-scale symphonic orchestra, in a spirit bordering on that of chamber music, they invite three great pianists, Marie-Jos�phe Jude, Charles Heisser and Jean-Fr�d�ric Neuburger. With the coruscating arrangements we are immersed into the innumerable timbres of their saxophones in association with the piano.