On Darknesse Visible, Inon Barnatan brings together French and British composers with works by Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy Thomas Ades and Ronald Stevenson. The album title is derived from Ades's piece of the same name and conveys some of the aspects that Barnatan finds most fascinating about the music on this album: all the pieces are inspired by stories or poems, and in all of them dark and light are intertwined. Ades and Stevenson both take their inspiration from existing pieces, by Dowland and Britten respectively. Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit and La Valse showcase the evocative power and colour of his music, while Debussy's Suite Bergamasque contains the world-famous Clair de lune.

Daniel-Franc�ois-Esprit Auber represents the essence of Romantic opera-comique with vivacious and elegant works that enjoyed huge popularity for decades. He collaborated with a fellow luminary, Ferdinand Herold, for Vend�me en Espagne, a work rich in Spanish dances and colour. With a vivid display of Auber's gift for melody and orchestration, the overture to La Fiancee proved so successful and popular that Liszt arranged it as a fantasia three times. L'Enfant prodigue contains his longest overture, a powerful statement reflecting the tragic aspects of this Biblical parable.

Volume 66 in the Liszt Complete Piano Music series focuses on transcriptions from operas by Mozart and Donizetti. The Reminiscences on Mozart's Don Giovanni, with it's technical demands and innovations, stands at the pinnacle of Liszt's transcription procedure.

Per il Luigi is the 17th volume of the complete Haydn 2032 collection and presents a number of Haydn's earliest symphonies; these had been composed to display the talent of the musicians who had joined the Esterhazy court orchestra during the same period as Haydn himself. The centre of the programme is the Symphony No. 13 in D major from 1763, whose orchestration includes four horns and whose final movement features a prefiguration of the famous theme of Mozart's 'Jupiter' symphony, to be composed twenty-five years later. The violin concerto in C major is marked fatto per il Luigi in Haydn's catalogue of works and was dedicated to Luigi Tomasini (1741-1808), a violin virtuoso born in Pesaro and a friend of Haydn. Two centuries later, the young Baroque violin virtuoso Dmitri Smirnov now brilliantly champions this repertoire with the Kammerorchester Basel under Giovanni Antonini.

This album presents a stunning collection of recent cantatas by acclaimed composer Cecilia McDowall, performed by the Choir of Royal Holloway, Orchestra Nova, and conductor George Vass. Known for her 'spicy rhythms and colours' (Gramophone), McDowall's music weaves vibrant textures and emotional depth, drawing listeners into a compelling journey. The featured works explore diverse themes, from the haunting beauty of ice in The Ice is Listening, to the celestial wonders of Music of the Stars. Also included is the chamber orchestra version of A Winter's Night, a joyful Christmas cantata. McDowall's distinct choral voice shines through, blending introspective reflection with exuberant energy, making this an essential addition to the choral repertoire.

Re-Release of an important item of the back catalogue. The present recording shows the highly acclaimed premiere from 2009 of the original version of Shostakovitch's opera. It represents also the debut of conductor Ingo Metzmacher at the Vienna State Opera. The opera was premiered in 1934 in Leningrad. After Stalin visited a performance in 1936 and then published a scathing review about it, colleagues and critics, who had previously approved of the opera, turned against Shostakovich. It was only about 30 years later that the piece was performed again in the Soviet Union, however, in a toned-down version under the name "Katerina Ismailova". This version was also performed internationally. The original version came to Western Europe only in 1980. The Vienna State Opera performed the original version of Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk for the first time in 2009 - that premiere is to be heard on the present album.

With mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena and pianist Mitsuko Uchida, two world stars join hands on L'extase, a collection of songs by Claude Debussy and Olivier Messiaen. Debussy was Messiaen's life-long idol, and their songs are equally colourful, sumptuous, sensual, and occasionally exotic. The album derives it's name from the sultry song 'C'est l'extase langoureuse' from Debussy's Ariettes oubliees, and this song cycle is combined with his Chansons de Bilitis and Cinq poemes des Baudelaires, while Messiaen is represented by the second book of his Poemes pour Mi, a declaration of love for his first wife Claire Delbos. This recording demonstrates the profound affinity of both performers with French music, as well as their congeniality as musical partners. With L'extase, star mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena presents the seventh album of her exclusive collaboration with Pentatone, after having presented Il giardino dei sospiri, Soiree (both 2019), Nostalgia (2021), Folk Songs (2023), the title role in Handel's Alcina and Czech Songs (both 2024). One of the most revered artists of our time, Mitsuko Uchida is known as a peerless interpreter of the works of Mozart, Schubert, Schumann and Beethoven, as well for being a devotee of the piano music of Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Gyorgy Kurtag. She makes her PENTATONE debut.

Brahms's Third Piano Quartet gestated for a long time - the first sketches were made in 1855, whilst the work was not completed until 1875. Numerous commentators tie the work to Brahms's infatuation with Clara Schumann, who certainly heard many of the various iterations of the piece before it's final version. But Brahms did not write programme music, and whatever his motivations may or may not have been, the result is, like the rest of his output, pure music. Louise Heritte-Viardot was a French singer, pianist, conductor, and composer. She was born in Paris, the eldest child of Pauline Viardot-Garcia and Louis Viardot, and sister to the violinist and conductor Paul Viardot. Her singing career was cut short by illness, but with the help of Clara Schumann she found a second career as a singing teacher at the Hoch Conservatory, in Frankfurt. In contrast to Brahms's quartet, Viardot's work is extremely programmatic. Titled I'm Sommer (In Summer), it comprises four movements which also carry evocative titles: 'Morning, in the Woods', 'Flies and Butterflies', 'Sultriness', and 'Evening, under the Oak-tree'.

The newest release from SOMM Recordings is an unusual but exciting pairing of two string quartets by British and French contemporaries Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934) and Gabriel Faure (1845-1924). Also included is a collection of shorter gems transcribed for string quartet by the British composer, arranger, and pianist Iain Farrington. These comprise Elgar's Carissima (originally composed for small orchestra) and selections from Faure's Piano Preludes: Nos. 4, 8, and 9, this last described by Aaron Copland as being "so absolutely simple that we can never hope to understand how it can contain such great emotional power." This recording features the Eusebius Quartet, formed in 2016 out of a passion for the extraordinary music written for this instrumentation, and praised as "excellent" by The Sunday Times. Their debut CD for SOMM of the Korngold Piano Quintet & Quartet (SOMMCD 0642) received critical acclaim: "Wit and clarity abound in the Quartet's Viennese-sounding performances, " The Strad; "The musicians seem to feel the music just as it is, complex on the surface, but direct and straight from the heart, " BBC Music Magazine. Elgar and Faure met once at the time of the London premiere of Elgar's First Symphony in 1908. Although Faure spoke no English and Elgar's French wasn't exactly conversational, it's fascinating to compare the musical language of their two quartets, both in the key of E minor, and written late in the composers' lives. Edward Elgar was a more than competent violinist, and he made several attempts throughout his career to write a string quartet. Finally, ill and depressed by war-time London in 1918, he completed his String Quartet, Op. 83. It is cast in three movements, the outer Allegro movements bookending one marked Piacevole (poco andante). This slow middle movement, which contains a�quotation�from Elgar's�Chanson de Matin, was a favourite of Lady Elgar, who described it as "captured sunshine." It was played at her funeral in 1920. Gabriel Faure composed his only String Quartet, Op. 121 in 1924, shortly before his death at the age of 79. By this time, he had been totally deaf for some years, and the quartet suggests a mind driven within itself in a way that hints at Beethoven's Late String Quartets. This final work of Faure presents an extraordinary duality, which masks the romantic ideas of his earlier music with what the English composer and writer Robert Matthew-Walker calls "a soft steely twilight that at times appears almost menacing." As with Elgar's quartet, the central Andante movement particularly captures the imagination with it's musical colouration suggesting a world of half-lights.

A Western is Michael Gordon's extended musing inspired by the legendary 1950s film High Noon, starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. It's about the Wild West, the way of the gun, classic American TV fantasies, and of course the good guys versus the bad guys. Caroline Shaw's How to fold the wind is a mesmerizing choral work that expands on the vocal acrobatics the composer has explored with her Grammy-winning ensemble Roomful of Teeth. The piece is inspired by Japanese origami, using speech, inhaled notes, wordless melodies and innovative vocal effects to fold individual voices together into a complex whole. Released together as a "split album" on CD, the two works mirror each other in a compelling array of contrasts and similarities. Each was recorded by one of Denmark's premier vocal ensembles -�A Western by Theatre of Voices, How to fold the wind by Ars Nova Copenhagen -�with each performance conducted by Paul Hillier. And although the lyrical forms of each piece couldn't be more strikingly different, somehow they elevate each other into a revelatory listening experience that expands the scope of modern choral music.

After 25 years, this Bela Bartok album is seeing the light of day! The Global Music Network originally recorded this album in 2000 but unfortunately went out of business before the recording could be released. I am delighted that First Hand Records now presents these recordings for all Bartok fans... I am convinced that that the revised version of the Bartok Viola Concerto is a more effective and stronger work than the original version of the concerto and no doubt closer to Bartok's intent. The Duos are also delightful to play and hear in these excellent arrangements of Peter Bartok. (Paul Neubauer)

The renowned Genova & Dimitrov Piano Duo celebrates it's 30th anniversary in 2025. The duo has been honoured with numerous international awards and recordings. With the recording of all of Debussy's works in three volumes for piano duo, the Genova & Dimitrov Piano Duo is now appearing on the Oehms label. The programme includes both well-known and lesser-known works, some of which are versions of orchestral works such as the famous Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune. The recording was made in co-operation with WDR Broadcast.

Nineteen years after his first recital devoted to the music of Alexander Scriabin [BIS-1568], Yevgeny Sudbin returns to the works of this eccentric Russian composer with a new recital that brings together pieces composed at various points in his career. Of his special relationship with this composer, Sudbin writes: 'I simply cannot think of any other composer who consistently brings out such a primordially raw and physical reaction in me and, with time, his grip has only intensified on me.' Arthur Rubinstein once said that 'Scriabin's music is like a narcotic. It is so intoxicating that it can become dangerous', to which Sudbin adds by way of precaution, 'enjoy responsibly at your own peril.' Carefully prepared by Sudbin, the programme reveals Scriabin's stylistic evolution, from his beginnings when he was still influenced by Chopin and devoted to small forms, through his middle period where the rich, late-romantic idiom is just beginning to cross into darker, more complex realms, on to his late period in which, in Sudbin's words, 'one sometimes feels too close to the edge of insanity'. In his latter works, Scriabin indeed seems to push music to the expressive limits in order to create a climate of spiritual ecstasy.

The Arcadia Quartet reaches the penultimate release in it's acclaimed complete Weinberg string quartets series with this volume, featuring Quartets Nos 3, 9, and 14. As in previous volumes, the works are taken from contrasting periods of Weinberg's compositional development, and so present a varied programme that works in it's own right. Quartet No. 3, composed in 1944, could be considered as the first 'mature' quartet, and is set in three movements. The Ninth Quartet, composed in 1963, dates from his self-described 'starry decade', when his work was championed by a significant group of enthusiastic performers, including Emil Gilels, Leonid Kogan, Kirill Kondrashin, Rudolf Barshai, and the Borodin Quartet. Quartet No. 14 dates from 1978, three years after the death of Weinberg's great friend and mentor Shostakovich: a time when Weinberg was questioning and renewing his artistic identity. The album also includes the short Improvisation and Romance, from 1950.

To mark the 150th anniversary of Bizet's death and the premiere of his immensely popular Carmen, Alpha Classics and Le Palazzetto Bru Zane now pay tribute to Celestine Galli-Marie, the singer who created the title role. A remarkable actress and singer, she created sixteen roles in fifteen years at the Opera-Comique, including Ambroise Thomas' iconic Mignon and Jacques Offenbach's Fantasio. Eva Zaicik is delighted to take on the roles created by such a colourful artist: 'Celestine embodied a certain idea of artistic and feminine rebellion. Her voice, charisma and unique theatrical approach brought to life characters who were free, complex and often struggled with the norms of their time.' Supported superbly by Pierre Dumoussaud and the Orchestre National de Lille, the French mezzo not only brilliantly embodies characters created by Bizet, Massenet, Offenbach and Thomas but also breathes new life into arias by Paladilhe, Poise, Deffes, Masse, Guiraud, Cohen and Grisar.