Music Director Thomas Sondergard conducts the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in a programme showcasing three leading composers from twentieth-century Poland. Polish music was flourishing at that time, yet the country was going through unimaginable political turmoil, having to endure the Nazi and Communist occupations. Despite this, composers Szymanowski, Bacewicz and Lutoslawski reshaped Polish musical identity, each with their own language. Moving from her early neo-classical style towards something more complex, bold and colourful, Bacewicz wrote the defiant Overture for Orchestra in occupied Poland in 1943. In the sensual King Roger (1926), performed here in a new arrangement by Ian Farrington, Szymanowski blended late Romanticism with Mediterranean and Polish influences. Lutoslawski pushed Polish music beyond Romanticism, embracing folk traditions and modern techniques. His Symphony No. 3 (1983) became a powerful symbol of freedom in Poland and marked a key moment in his late symphonic style.

Stina ag�stsdottir: vocals Fredrik Olsson: guitar Mats Dimming: bass Jojo Djeridi: drums The jazz group Alfie! Invites you on a musical journey through Burt Bacharach's timeless melodies. With their debut album, The Songs of Burt Bacharach, the band steps from local stages to the record shelf, delivering a loving tribute to one of popular music's most iconic composers. After enchanting audiences in the Stockholm area with their brilliant interpretations of American classics, Alfie! #has now created an entire album dedicated to Burt Bacharach's music. It was the song The Look of Love that sparked the idea, and soon the repertoire grew to consist solely of Bacharach's timeless melodies. Their concerts have garnered significant attention, and it is at the audience's suggestion that they are now releasing their first album. Burt Bacharach is one of our most beloved composers. With his rich melodies and original harmonic twists, he defined an entire era from the 1960s onwards. His music has been interpreted by many, perhaps most notably Dionne Warwick, but also by Frank Sinatra and many others. Alfie! #approaches Bacharach from a jazz perspective, exploring his melodies and Hal David's lyrics with love. We get to hear iconic songs like Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head, Walk on By, Close to You, and many others.

The music of GRAMMY-nominated and Latin GRAMMY-winning composer, Roberto Sierra, is performed worldwide and has long been admired for it's confluence of Caribbean elements and inventive modernist language. The works on this album cover a decade's worth of composition and examine crucial concepts - the idea of time in music; creative new applications of sonata form with regard to mood, tempo and character; and evocations of images seen through Latin American eyes. Continuum, directed by Cheryl Seltzer and Joel Sachs, has enjoyed a 40-year friendship with Sierra, receiving dedications and premiering numerous of his compositions.

The young organist Mona Hartmann (*1994) is currently enjoying a stellar career and has already won numerous national and international competitions. For Chaconne 1927, the musician chose the Walcker organ built in 1927 in St. Antonius in Papenburg. The form of the chaconne runs through the entire album as a leitmotif: It's principle of variation, like that of the passacaglia, allows the Walcker organ with it's 89 stops to be presented in countless, ever-changing sound combinations like no other genre.

The Simply Quartet is among the most sought-after ensembles of the younger generation. It regularly graces the stages of leading concert venues and receives widespread acclaim. On their new GENUIN album, the young musicians devote themselves to two mature works: the final quartets of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Antonin Dvorak. With interpretations marked by great fidelity to the works, they show how they combine youthful energy with sweeping musical lines, resulting in a genuinely electrifying chamber music recording!

Folk-music has been a resource for classical composers since the beginning of the western tradition. The violin has it's own folk heritage, of course, but since you can't lug a piano from village to village, composers for that instrument have had to dig into their own musical roots to generate a folk-based keyboard repertoire, usually with refreshing results. This recital takes the listener on a journey that spans three continents, east to west, marrying the resources of the modern concert grand with the immediacy of the folk originals.

This recording provides the listener with a chronological overview of Julius Rontgen's creative output, from his earliest published composition, written in 1864-when he was just nine years old-to pieces written as a mature composer five decades later. The latter reveals a composer of outstanding skill, diverse influences, and a master of musical forms and compositional techniques. It has been said that "One would look in vain for anything truly original or shocking in Rontgen's output...". However, there are works included on this recording that dispel that assumption. This pianist would argue that three works stand out, which are truly unique and powerfully original. The first is a short Toccata, which is something of a mystery work having never been published and lacking a date of composition. The others are the Sonata in C Minor from 1877 and the Passacaglia and Fugue of 1911. It is the latter that most decidedly distinguishes Rontgen as having a truly original voice. Julius Rontgen composed over 600 works and is especially known for his concertos, symphonies and chamber music. His piano music has remained unjustifiably neglected since he died in 1932.

This edition marks the first publication of Rontgen's Toccata. This work was discovered while digging through countless manuscripts of solo piano music in the Rontgen Archives at the Netherlands Music Institute in The Hague in 2019 (catalogue No.107/087). The work is undated and has never been published. It is titled Toccata and has no dedication or other information regarding it's creation (date or location). Given the relative neatness of the manuscript, it is presumed that the composer intended it's publication. It's style suggests being composed during Rontgen's mature period, certainly after the first decade of the 20th Century. It is the only known stand-alone Toccata in Rontgen's output. In the present edition, editorial markings are in brackets, and fingering is by the editor. All pedal indications are by the composer unless otherwise indicated. � Mark Anderson

KALI Trio's new album, The Playful Abstract, could be a soundtrack to the air we breathe. Repeated listens to this tranquil, ever-shifting and sometimes transcendent record also invoke an association with the Japanese term, Ukiyo, meaning the "floating world".�Nowadays ukiyo is seen as a state of mind emphasising living in the moment, detached from the difficulties of life.

Since it's foundation in 1989, the "Richard Strauss Days" in Garmisch-Partenkirchen have changed in many ways. What has remained unchanged, however, is the special atmosphere of Strauss' adopted home in Southern Bavaria, where the composer not only spent around 40 years of his life, but also created a large portion of his works. Creating an authentic artistic atmosphere with a "workshop character", enabling the audience to enjoy Strauss' works at the place of his inspiration - surrounded by the natural Alpine landscape - is not only the aim of this festival, but also a unique feature of it. To mark the 75th anniversary of Richard Strauss' death, the "Richard Strauss Days" have started a new edition in cooperation with Gramola to document the festival in live recordings. Remy Ballot, Conductor in Residence since 2023, presented the tone poems "Don Juan" and "Ein Heldenleben" with the Pilsen Philharmonic Orchestra in 2024 as a brilliant first chapter of this edition.

KALI Trio's new album, The Playful Abstract, could be a soundtrack to the air we breathe. Repeated listens to this tranquil, ever-shifting and sometimes transcendent record also invoke an association with the Japanese term, Ukiyo, meaning the "floating world".�Nowadays ukiyo is seen as a state of mind emphasising living in the moment, detached from the difficulties of life.

Fanfare, Air and Flourishes is a suite originally for solo horn made from three pieces written during the COVID-19 pandemic for different purposes. The first, 'Fanfare', was written to a commission from the Royal Academy of Music, who invited two hundred composers to write pieces for all of the instruments taught at the Academy in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the institution. 'Fanfare' leans into one particular aspect of the horn's personality: it's assertive, loud and urgent. The expression mark at the start is 'bold and brassy'. 'Air' celebrates the horn's mellow tone; semplice espressivo is the instruction at the start of the piece and the horn plays a melody as expressive as anything you'd hear as a solo in a brass band. 'Flourish', the third piece, was a commission from BBC Radio 3 during lockdown. Rising melodies - or flourishes - run up and down the horn, returning even more elaborately after a simpler middle section. Flourish was written at the same time as Gavin was writing The Faerie Bride, and these flourishes appear in the oratorio to mark the turn of the seasons.

BASta! Is the solo project of double bass player and composer Joris Vanvinckenroye, in which he explores and pushes the limits of the double bass. In this project, using looping and effect pedals, Joris creates an almost orchestral sound, using the full range of his instrument-from the deepest basses to the highest notes. These layered compositions weave complex rhythms and melodies into a rich and compelling soundscape.

This is recording of Ballades and Scherzos by Fryderyk Chopin. Performed and recorded by outstanding Czech pianist Martin Kasik in Dvorak Hall, Rudolfinum Prague, Czech Republic.

A ride through the tunes with music from the Baroque to the Modern Era