(summary) "Ellis Island" or the sound odyssey of Julia Hamos, who examines in this very first album her family history, American and Hungarian, while displaying a longing for adventure. A poetic journey that takes us from the Hungary of Bela Bartok and Gyorgy Kurtag to the gates of New York and the recreations of Charles Mingus and Meredith Monk. (complete blurb) "Ellis Island" is an odyssey in sound, the story of a pianist with dual origins, Julia Hamos, who, in this very first album, looks at her family roots, American and Hungarian, and displays a longing for adventure. She looks towards the Hungary of Bartok and Kurtag, engaging in a dialogue with the memory of her ancestors from Transylvania. Originally from the same region as Kurtag, her maternal grandfather knew Ligeti as a child. This journey with it's haunting poetry will lead us also to New York, the pianist's first home, a place of hope and inspiration, which always feeds her creativity. Myself When I Am Real by Charles Mingus bursts forth, a fabulous moment, both poetic and pianistic, the zenith of this unusual and personal journey where the pianist, with a mellow yet clear sound palette, will have brought together in a fluid gesture the waking dreams of Schubert (Ungarische melodie, 1824), the very earthy and despair-tinged folklore of Bartok (Fifteen Hungarian Peasant Songs) and the torrential and enigmatic explosions of early Kurtag (8 Pieces Op. 3). In this eminently personal journey, however, there is no narcissistic temptation. Because if the young musician plays, she above all wants to speak to us, with modesty, but not without determination. Her piano assembles words, choreographs rhythms, and also deploy it's range of pastels colours. This is demonstrated by the subtle selection of Jatekok, where the piano will embody a thousand faces, in turn itself (Capriccioso), percussion (Play with Overtones), harp (Perpetuum mobile) or violin duet with viola (Tears). The two cycles of Bartok, with their characters so ironically sketched (Fifteen Hungarian Peasant Songs) and their sparkling rhythms (6 Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm), are no less alive. From the pianist's supple playing, from her silky legato, final streaks of melancholy will often escape. In all respects, "Ellis Island" is a fascinating experience - that of an artist who has found her voice.

Featuring timeless melodies from Guide me, O thou great redeemer (known to millions as 'Bread of heaven') to Abide with me, this stunning collection of�some of the best-loved hymns of all time�from The Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford, accompanied by the College's magnificent Eule organ, offers a glimpse into the daily musical life of this celebrated choir.

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.

On her first solo recital for BIS, Gramophone Award-winner Helen Charlston performs a selection of songs by the English composer Henry Purcell, some very well-known, others less so, as well as pieces by other composers of the period such as John Blow, John Eccles, Christopher Simpson and Daniel Purcell, Henry's son. Her choice focuses on songs that tell stories exploring the struggle between heart and mind: do we fall in love through reason or because fate destined it to be so? Concerning her special relationship with Purcell, Charlston explains that she finds herself making space for his songs in almost every programme she creates. She adds that his addictive music holds a power over her she cannot and does not want to escape, and this specific programme is a special acknowledgement of the fact that Purcell's music has become an essential part of her identity as a singer. For this release, Helen Charlston is joined by the ensemble Sounds Baroque: Julian Perkins (harpsichord/organ), Jonathan Manson and William Carter (theorbo/baroque guitar), three musicians whose expertise and love for this music, she says, overflow in every note they play.

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.

The music on this recording was written between 1772 and 1782, largely during Mozart's difficult time in Salzburg employed as Konzertmeister under the regime of Prince-Archbishop Colloredo. Transcribed for keyboard from orchestral originals by Mozart himself, these dances were composed as part of his court duties and they reflect both the tastes of the day, and Mozart's facility in refining popular genres into stylish pieces with his typical grace and panache. As an exception, the March No. 1 in C major was mentioned by Mozart's widow Constanze as a piece 'my husband of blessed memory composed for me'.

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.

Ukrainian classical music is not even two centuries old, and for most of that time has had to contend with active attempts at suppression by a bullying neighbour. But Ukrainian composers have stood their ground, not least by taking inspiration from the folk-music that has long thrived in Ukraine's mountains and fields. In this first of a series of Postcards from Ukraine the Ukrainian-Australian violinist Markiyan Melnychenko presents a programme of largely unknown miniatures for violin and piano, all based on, or inspired by, that folk-culture. Alternately sparkling and soulful, these violin showpieces make the case for a more thorough examination of the riches still to be discovered in Ukraine's musical heritage.

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.

This repertoire spans almost eighty years of classical composers' excursions into blues, folk, hip-hop, jazz, musical theater, samba, tango, techno and other genres. Each piece goes beyond mere stylistic imitation, cultivating an authentic expressivity within a transcribed musical language rooted in the Americas. ___Alexander Crosett

Philip Cannon's Concertino for piano and strings (1951) dates from his formative years. It was written for the Petersfield Festival, where it was premiered on 27 January 1951 by soloist Joseph Cooper, with the Petersfield Orchestra conducted by Kathleen Merritt. This lively, neo-classical piece has achieved over a thousand performances internationally. Though John Addison's Concertino for piano and orchestra is, for the most part, couched in a light-hearted language, it is the product of a serious, and unfailingly inventive, approach to keyboard and orchestral writing. Speaking of the work to Lesie Ayre of the London Evening News, the composer remarked that, 'it is a real concerto in the full sense of the word I would not be ashamed to show the work to any first-class pianist'. Francis Chagrin maintained an intensely practical and unpretentious attitude towards his own craft, observing that, 'My music is not for first performances - it is just to be played'. His Piano Concerto was first performed by soloist Franz Osborn, with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer, at an SPNM Experimental Rehearsal held at the Royal College of Music on 4 February 1944. Conversation Piece by John Addison was written in 1958 to a commission from the BBC Concert Orchestra for that year's British Light Music Festival. John Addison felt that, by the late-1950s, too great a divide had opened up between serious and light music: 'Concertgoers think contemporary music is so alarmingly serious that when confronted with a mildly witty turn of phrase, they assume something has gone wrong. I remember the astonished sigh of relief when, in the course of introducing one of my chamber works, I told the audience I would not mind if they smiled'. In Conversation Piece, Addison exploits to the full his talent to amuse and divert.

Domenico Scarlatti redefined the possibilities of keyboard music, blending the grandeur of the Baroque with the emerging vitality of the Classical era. He found his artistic sanctuary at the royal court of Portugal in the employ of Queen Maria Barbara, a pivotal role that generated a remarkable synthesis of Italian and Spanish musical traditions. The works included in this collection thoroughly explore the capabilities of both instrument and player, with thrilling inventiveness, dazzling virtuosity and beautiful lyricism, which encapsulate Scarlatti's legacy as a trailblazer in this genre.

Anna Geniushene and Lukas Geniusas both have brilliant careers as soloists: Anna won the silver medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2022 and now records for Fuga Libera, while Lukas' two Rachmaninov recordings, a recital of solo works (ALPHA997) and songs with Asmik Grigorian (ALPHA796), have both won major awards. Partners in life and in art, they form a highly virtuosic and tightly knit duo. This highly varied programme pays tribute to American music with works by Gershwin, Stravinsky, Copland and McPhee, a succession of melting-pots that create fusions of classical music, jazz, Mexican music and Balinese rhythms. The spectacular and rebellious Fourth Ballad from Frederic Rzewski's North American Ballads (1978-79) is also included. This musical odyssey concludes with the vast fresco that is John Adam's magnificent Hallelujah Junction (1996).

With Ukraine's defence of it's sovereign nation against Russia's invasion in the news and in our conscience, SOMM releases a timely recording that pays tribute to a rich heritage of Ukrainian music that was long subsumed by the former USSR. Margaret Fingerhut, described by Gramophone as a pianist of "consummate skill and thrilling conviction," has become increasingly involved in using the power of music to raise money for charitable causes. In 2019, drawing on the stories and music of composers who had to leave their homelands because of war or persecution, she undertook a major recital tour, performing "Far from the Home I Love" at thirty-two venues across the UK to raise money for refugees. In 2022 she collaborated with a young Ukrainian film-maker on a powerful video in support of Ukraine. Margaret Fingerhut was awarded an MBE in the 2024 New Year Honours in recognition of her services to music and charitable fundraising. For SOMM's recording, UKRAINE: A Piano Portrait, she has selected works written between 1877 and 2005 for a deeply personal recital featuring composers from the country of her grandfather's birth. Mykola Lysenko, the earliest Ukrainian composer represented here, published a definitive ethnological�study of the Ukrainian Dumky, and his Dumka-Shumka is from the opening pages of his second piano rhapsody on Ukrainian folk themes. We owe our knowledge of Lysenko's music to his pupil and editor, Lev Revutsky, who fell foul of new Stalinist cultural demands in the 1930s, but later revisited earlier compositions that include Three Preludes and Improvisation. Viktor Kosenko, a contemporary of Revutsky, also pursued his composing career in Ukraine, and his expressive Nocturne comes from a set of etudes for Piano in the Form of Old Dances. The opening and closing pieces in this collection are by Sergei Bortkiewicz, who suffered under both Soviet and Nazi tyrannies. Les Rochers d'Outche-Coche is the first of three Sketches of the Crimea, while Consolation is from a group of eight Lamentations et Consolations. From Vasyl Barvinsky, who shared Bortkiewicz's adoption of late-Romantic Impressionism, we have Two Preludes and Loneliness - the sorrow of love from his piano cycle, Love. Boris Lystoshynsky, whose featured works are the Elegy-Prelude 'Mourning' and Two Preludes on Ukrainian Folk Songs, survived the Zhdanov Decree in the 1940s, which aimed to control Soviet culture and art; while the most contemporary Ukrainian composer on this recital, Valentin Silvestrov, fled to Berlin to re-establish his career following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. His Three Bagatelles are written in a neo-classical, post-modernist musical language. Royalty sales from this recording will go towards British-Ukrainian Aid, which raises money for emergency vehicles and medical supplies for Ukraine.