Gramophone considered Oleg Marshev's first album of Prokofiev on Danacord (DACOCD391) as featuring 'one of the most authoritative and impassioned performances [of the First Sonata] on disc so far'. His interpretation of the 'War' Sonata trilogy was awarded a 'Classic CD Choice' and compared with pillars of the gramophone such as Richter, Berman and Ashkenazy. Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, Oleg Marshev trained with Valentina Aristova at the Gnessin State Musical College and with Mikhail Voskresensky at the Moscow Conservatoire. He is numbered among the fifth generation of Russian pianism since Liszt, through he lineage of Alexander Siloti, Konstantin Igumnov and Voskresensky's teacher, Lev Oborin. Resident in Italy since 1991, Marshev received awards in several international piano competitions in Canada, Italy, Portugal, Spain, USA, including four first prizes. He is now widely acknowledged as one of the most talented Russian pianists of his generation.

Jeremie Rhorer and Le Cercle de l'Harmonie launch a new collaboration with Alpha Classics, with several projects planned, following the Mozart operas released on the label in 2016 and 2017. Here they tackle a monument of the sacred repertoire that is fascinating for it's rich, complex, even 'mysterious' conception. Rhorer tells us that his interpretation pays close attention to the question of tempi, which have often become progressively slower and heavier since the post-Romantic period: the tempi have 'a direct bearing on the vocal comfort of the singers, since breath control is one of the great difficulties of this work', he says. For this recording, he has called in a quartet of top-flight soloists along with the Audi Jugendchorakademie, a remarkable German youth choir founded in 2007. In conjunction with his period-instrument orchestra, soon to celebrate it's twentieth anniversary, they offer a passionate vision of Beethoven's masterpiece.

This collection by Hugh Shrapnel brings together works written between 2005 and 2022 for wind and piano. The varied influences give rise to music that ranges from pensive and slow, to rhythmically taut and harmonically astringent, all showing Hugh's characteristically expressive style.

Graham Ross and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge celebrate the 500th anniversary of Palestrina's birth in style, recording for the very first time an album of outstanding works by the Roman master that are still little-known. To add resonance to their program, they pair settings of the same texts by three of Palestrina's English contemporaries: William Byrd, Robert White, and William Mundy.

Volume 4 in Louis Karchin's ongoing Bridge series includes both instrumental and vocal music. Karchin is a prominent figure in American music, having composed more than 100 works, and served as conductor of ensembles, including the Harvard Group for New Music, the Chamber Players of the League-ISCM, and the Orchestra of the League of Composers. Karchin's music has been praised for it's "fearless eloquence" (The New Yorker), "bare-nerve intensity" (NY Times) and "coruscating beauty" (San Francisco Chronicle).

Despite achieving great success in the operatic scene, Pablo Sorozabal (1897-1988), born in Donostia and passing away in Madrid, maintained a profound connection with choral music throughout his extensive career. In fact, it was within the ranks of the vibrant choral movement of his native Basque Country where his artistic personality began to take shape, including his fascination with voice and theatre. It's no surprise, then, that he devoted some of his most intimate pages to these choirs, connecting them to his family heritage. In fact, his father, a stonecutter by trade, was also a talented bertsolari who shared his songs in the taverns of San Sebastian. From him, Sorozabal inherited a language, Basque, "that sounded like music" on his lips, and a deep love for folk music. According to a tradition passed down through generations, as recounted by the writer Bernardo Atxaga from his great-grandfather, Sorozabal's ancestors, who hailed from the Portale farmhouse in the village of Larraul, near Asteasu, "whistled better than the birds" ("txoriek baino hobeto egiten diate txistu").

Although Wagner didn't compose organ music himself, it is not difficult to imagine his colorful orchestrations transcribed for the organ. To enrich an overly ecclesiastic organ repertoire, 19th-century composers such as the legendary organist Edwin Lemare, Sigfrid Karg-Elert, and Franz Liszt created organ transcriptions of beloved Wagner operas like Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, Tristan und Isolde, and Tannhauser. With their intricate layering and dramatic counterpoints, these operas proved a perfect match for the splendor of the Romantic organ.

The new album Face2Face is an extraordinary experience that juxtaposes the iconic String Quartets of Beethoven with the avant-garde compositions of modern masters. This first volume in an ongoing series showcases how Beethoven's innovative spirit laid the groundwork for generations of composers to come. Featuring iconic classical pieces from Beethoven's and Bartok's repertoire, this album is a must-have for both classical enthusiasts and adventurous listeners alike. Performed by the award-winning Amaryllis Quartett, whose accolades include the prestigious 1st prize at the 6th International Chamber Music Competition in Melbourne (2011), this release promises to illuminate the brilliance of Beethoven's work while exploring the bold expressions of contemporary composition.

Countless wealthy people in eighteenth-century Europe developed a passion for botany. This passion went far beyond the simple pleasure of gardens, reflecting rather a growing fascination with the natural world. German composer Georg Philipp Telemann shared this passion and energetically cultivated his collection, often begging friends and correspondents to send him specimens. The creative landscape of Telemann's life was undoubtedly filled with floral and musical colour. Ensemble Hesperi, a period ensemble based in London, presents a programme that celebrates Telemann's botanical passion. His published correspondence shows that he often wrote to his musician friends abroad, asking them to send him plant specimens. Among these friends were George Frideric Handel and Johann Gottlieb Graun, each of whom is represented here by a trio sonata, and there is also music by Telemann himself: one of his difficult 'Paris Quartets', a raucous sonata in G minor and a haunting fantasia for solo recorder. In a letter to a friend, Telemann spoke of his passion for hyacinths, tulips, ranunculi 'and especially for anemones'. The composer of four instrumental collections containing floral musical miniatures, James Oswald had to be part of this programme, and so we are treated to 'The Hyacinth', 'The Anemone' and 'The Tulip' from his 'Airs for the Spring'.

Pianist Olga Pashchenko creates musical narratives with selections from Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words. As children, the two immensely prodigious siblings enjoyed using text to inspire their piano pieces, although which of them was the actual inventor of the genre remains a mystery. It is possible that they either co-created this genre, or even that Fanny could have been the creator of the genre traditionally ascribed exclusively to Felix. This music, although wordless, is bursting with poetry and well-suited to the Conrad Graf piano from 1836 that Pashchenko chose for this recording. The Graf piano, a brand favoured by Felix, has a recitative-like quality that Pashchenko uses to perfectly articulate the poetry inherent in these Lieder ohne Worte or as Fanny called them, Lieder fur das Pianoforte.

Donizetti's L'aio nell'imbarazzo ('The Embarrassed Tutor') is a melodramma giocoso in two acts, premiered to considerable acclaim in 1824. It's subject is the belated attempt by the elderly Marquis Giulio to keep his sons innocent of the ways of world and the comedy of errors that result. Two years later Donizetti drastically revised the opera, which duly appeared under the title Don Gregorio. This production uses the critical edition and restores the work, as far as possible, to Donizetti's original conception - including excised arias, and emphasising the composer's sparkling orchestration.

Albin Fries, who is also a passionate natural scientist, presents highlights of his Lied oeuvre on this CD with soprano Margarita Gritskova, who has been a member of the Vienna State Opera ensemble since 2012. These include songs that refer to nature, such as the "Seasons" cycle, which includes a setting of Uhland's famous poem "Fruhlingsglaube", as well as music on poems by Hermann Hesse, Stefan Zweig and Heinrich Seidel, songs dedicated to love, such as the cycle "Lieder nach Gedichten von Friedrich Ruckert op. 52" and settings of other poems by Adelbert von Chamisso and Clemens Brentano. The "Five Last Songs op. 53" based on poems by Theodor Storm and Edith Haider, which are dedicated to Margarita Gritskova, were composed under the impression of the composer's determination to cease composing, which had become impossible for him due to his advanced hearing loss.

Wunderkinder unter sich: this could be the title of this album, which combines three works by two arch-romantic composers. While one of the two, Ernst von Dohnanyi, still needs a committed plea in practically all areas of his work because he is still overshadowed by his younger, more advanced compatriot Bela Bartok, the other, Richard Strauss, has no need for intercession insofar as he has conquered the world with his symphonic poems and his operas; his chamber music, on the other hand, is still worthy of his eloquent commitment - especially the large-scale violin sonata, in which the 23-year-old already seems to breathe the spicy air of Don Juan and Der Rosenkavalier. It is understandable that violinist Hellen Weiss, violist Wen Xiao Zheng, cellist Gabriel Schwabe and pianist Paul Rivinius enjoy the tasks they have set themselves to the full

Emiliana de Zubeldia's musical legacy includes works for piano, guitar, harp, chamber ensembles; songs for two voices a cappella, voice and piano, voice, piano and woods; works and arrangements for choir for 4 and up to 8 equal and mixed voices; a choral mass, concerts, symphonies, and symphonic poems. Some of her works reflect her passage through practice of the impressionist and avant-garde music of Paris in the 1920s. Her respect for the traditional harmony in some works contrasts with a great freedom in the application of Novaro's system in many others. This recording contains the second and last part of all her compositions for voice and piano known up to now and that had mostly been stored away in the archives of the University of Sonora without being recorded or edited. Four blocks that give faith of Emilianas vast interest in diverse literary gender are presented, the first one approaches eight fables for children, six by Tomas de Iriarte and two by Felix Maria de Samaniego. In these works the author captures the lyricism of the fable.

Canadian pianist Richard Raymond performs four favorite Beethoven piano sonatas, including the Moonlight, Appassionata, and Pathetique. A prize-winner in multiple competitions, Raymond has performed with the Montreal and Toronto Symphonies, and many others. He has also performed as a soloist in numerous countries, as well as playing chamber music.