Violinist Patrick Yim's One documents his activities commissioning, premiering, and recording new solo violin works by some of the contemporary music scene's most active composers, including Juri Seo, John Liberatore, Takuma Itoh, Ilari Kaila, Pall Ragnar Palsson, and Matthew Schreibeis.

A complete, previously unreleased performance in brilliant stereo sound quality by the legendary Bill Evans Trio. Audio transferred from the original stereo tape reels and mastered by Matthew Lutthans at the Mastering Lab. Recently found in the Kongsberg Jazz Festival archives, it was widely believed that this concert had not been recorded, and as such it doesn't appear on any of the Bill Evans discographies! Featuring Eddie Gomez on bass and Marty Morell on drums.

Johannes Moser's acclaimed interpretation of Elgar's profoundly elegiac and lyrical Cello Concerto and of Tchaikovsky's elegant Rococo Variations returns to the market in an affordable stereo edition. The programme also contains Tchaikovsky's Nocturne and Morceau de Concert for Cello and Orchestra, as well as an arrangement of the famous Andante cantabile from his First String Quartet. Performed together with Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under the baton of Andrew Manze, Moser's rendition was praised by Gramophone as "one of the finest we've had in years."

Fanfare, Air and Flourishes is a suite 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.

Benjamin Appl met Hungarian composer Gyorgy Kurtag in 2019 and has worked with him ever since. 'He has shaped me both as a musician and as a human being, perhaps more than anyone else,' says Appl. This album alternates Romantic German lieder by Schubert and Brahms with vocal pieces by Kurtag, five of which are world premiere recordings. Kurtag himself is at the piano for two of the songs by Schubert and Brahms; while the German baritone's old and trusted friends Pierre-Laurent Aimard and James Baillieu join him for the other works in this programme, all under the artistic direction of Kurtag, ending with a fascinating recorded interview with Gyuri bacsi ('Uncle George') by Benjamin Appl, who tells us: 'My aim in this album is to give listeners a glimpse into the infinite universe of Gyorgy Kurtag, a shy procrastinator, stern self-critic, hesitant researcher, introverted questioner, unpretentious intellectual, brilliant composer and an extraordinary human being.'

Alex Norris has been one of the most sought-after elite trumpeters for the past three decades on NY scene. Norris received a Master's degree from the Manhattan School of Music and a Doctor's degree from the Univ. Of Miami Frost School of Music. He has kept busy schedule performing principal post in renowned large and small ensembles all over the world. Despite his impressive achievement Alex Norris' leader albums are scarce. This is his fourth album and the second for SteepleChase. Norris forms a time-tested yet distinctive trumpet trio with some contemporary twists superbly collaborated by Paul Bollenbach on guitar and Paul Gill on bass. ".Norris writes and plays with rare assurance and seldom walks on overly familiar paths.. he's not an aggressive stylist and his penchant for thoughtful dynamics gives him the confidence to leave space and unexpected intervals in his solos." (The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD)

Continuing an old tradition of outdoor music, Mozart raised the serenade genre to an outstanding level of accomplishment. Harmonia mundi's first collaboration with Enrico Onofri and the Münchener Kammerorchester couples Mozart's most famous contributions to the form: Eine kleine Nachtmusik, the "Posthorn" Serenade (with it's picturesque solo for the eponymous instrument) and the majestic "Haffner" Serenade, with Isabelle Faust as guest star.

The liner notes for John Hart's new album authored by C Andrew Hovan touched upon the subject of longevity. Hart's four decades of performing as an A-player on the world elite jazz scene epitomizes the virtue of consistency and continuance. We have here a bit unusual trio of guitar/cornet/bass featuring thrilling interactions between Hart's guitar and Kirk Knuffke's horn. "Hart is a guitar player of refinement and taste. Through a merely flexible and swinging gait". (F. v. d. Linde - Jazz Journal)

The third volume Ciro Longobardi's Messiaen, after the universal critical success of Volumes 1 & 2, focusing on the composer's best-loved piano cycle. With his Piano Classics collection of the Preludes, Quatre etudes de rythme, La fauvette des jardins and other shorter works, Ciro Longobardi announced himself as a Messiaen pianist of remarkable imagination and accomplishment. The critics duly took note: 'Longobardi showcases tremendous technical skill and an exceptional attentiveness. This album is a lush, intricate success-meaningful for Messiaen enthusiasts and enjoyable for those new to his work. I highly recommend it.' (Fanfare). The Catalogue d'oiseaux continued to attract superlatives: 'Hs performance makes you listen, through it's diverse use of dynamics and the expert use of silences. His playing is concise and bright and is best listened to with the accompanying booklet, in which his notes on the music expertly set the scene.' (MusicWeb International). Now the Italian pianist turns to the Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jesus in which Messiaen most successfully synthesised a Lisztian tradition of virtuosity and tone-painting on the piano with his own spiritual and musical preoccupations: Catholic devotion, birdsong and Indian rhythmic syntax among them. Messiaen had lately completed what became a 'Tristan' trilogy of works including the Turangalila Symphony when, in 1948, he was commissioned by French radio to write pieces to accompany a broadcast of Christmas-themed poetry. The commission quickly outgrew it's original purpose, and Messiaen instead created a thematically unified cycle of pieces taking in contemplations of monumental reverence, jazz-inflected improvisations, fabulously intricate toccatas and more. At the heart of Vingt Regards lies the ineffable tenderness of the kiss bestowed on the sleeping infant by his mother in the most famous piece of the cycle, Le baiser de l'enfant Jesus. As a generous pairing, Ciro Longobardi also includes the 1985 cycle of piano miniatures, Petites Esquisses d'Oiseaux, which distil his lifelong love of birdsong into six exquisite portraits. These, like the Vingt Regards, are dedicated to his wife, the pianist Yvonne Loriod, who inspired his piano writing throughout his mature career, bringing a cyclical unity of it's own to the album.

What if Michelangelo Rossi's keyboard Toccatas had been played by harpists in Rome 400 years ago? Of all the 17th-century Italian keyboard repertoire I have attempted to play over the last thirty years, I find the Toccatas by Rossi to be by far the most organic, idiomatic and intuitive music to play on the arpa doppia, the chromatic triple-row Baroque harp of seventeenth-century Europe. At least ten harpists are known to have been active in Rome during this time, and archives are full of documents and correspondence that detail performances, commissions for instruments, purchases of strings, harp covers and cases, and other fascinating information, which together create an idea of the wealth of music and culture before and during the reign of Pope Urban VIII.

Their names were Laura, Livia, and Anna. Together, they were known in the late 1500's as the Tre Donne di Ferrara - the three ladies of Ferrara. Their ensemble was praised by contemporary poets and won highest renown throughout Italy and Germany. However, women were not supposed to become famous for their professional achievements. And so, one of them was murdered by her husband - a count - who went unpunished. Thus, this is a tale of revolutionary women ahead of their time, living in an era when women had no protections. In this album, it has been my pleasure to collaborate with three extraordinary ladies of today - named Amanda, Amanda, and Amanda. The Amandas and I are proud to offer this homage to the unstoppable Italian women who broke the glass ceiling in 1580. We hope that their brilliance and boldness resound through this recording.

In the Upper Austrian Schlagl Abbey there are numerous instrumental instrumental concertos, mostly for solo violin, but often also for harpsichord.�The demands on the violin soloist are enormous. There must have been a very talented violinist on site. Ars Antiqua Austria has brought some of the concertos back to life. An exciting journey into the still unknown past.

Countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen's star is rapidly in the ascendent, his voice "astonishingly beautiful" and "golden-toned" (The Guardian). He has been acclaimed as a "complete artist" by The New York Times and as "extravagantly gifted... Nussbaum Cohen is poised to re-define what's possible for singers of this distinctive voice type" (San Francisco Chronicle). Uncharted is Aryeh's solo debut album, and ventures outside typical countertenor territory into 19th and 20th century lieder never before recorded by his soaring voice type. Austro-Germanic lieder was Aryeh's first musical love and on Uncharted, he indulges in music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Clara and Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms - music that resonates profoundly with his family's German and Jewish heritage. The moving programme is heightened by the deeply sensitive playing of leading collaborative pianist John Churchwell, Head of Music for San Francisco Opera. The release of Uncharted coincides with a North American tour that takes Aryeh to Houston and St. Paul, with debuts at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and New York's Carnegie Hall.

Coming into French and English from the Greek elegos ('lament'), an elegy (elegie) is a poetic or musical composition expressing sorrow or lamentation, typically mourning the loss of a loved one or reflecting on themes of grief and melancholy. Massenet's famous 'Clair de lune', presented here in an arrangement by the composer himself, envelops us in a dreamlike atmosphere, with the piano painting a delicate lunar landscape permeated by a subtle melancholy. The original is one of the most touching scenes in the opera Werther, when the protagonist feels his love for Charlotte rising within him. Contrary to popular belief, Ravel's Pavane pour une infante defunte is not dedicated to a departed soul. Rather, it is a nostalgic evocation of an imaginary childhood, rich in charm and mystery. Joseph Jemain's orchestration adds, if possible, further depth and suggestiveness to Ravel's music by introducing the piano into the ensemble, the protagonist of Ravel's original version. The violin and piano engage in a dialogue of deep contemplation in Saint-Saens's elegie in D, Op.143. The poignant melody and refined harmony express feelings of loss and consolation. This very intense and moving piece has secured an important place in the violin repertoire. The cello assumes the role of narrator in Faure's elegie, Op.24 recounting a story of pain and hope with great expressive intensity. A highly lyrical and touching piece, it is distinguished by it's expressive writing and singable melody. Debussy's Suite bergamasque transports us to a world of dreams and suggestions. Through four evocative dances with a Renaissance and Baroque flavour, the orchestra leads us on a musical journey rich in charm and delicacy. Wilhelm Renz's orchestration makes Debussy's picturesque music even more vivid. Renz is also the arranger of the Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals featured here. His orchestral version adds brilliance and colour to the composer's music while maintaining it's original spirit of fun and irony, streamlining the orchestration in some places and adding elements for a richer, more layered sound in others. Other information: - Recorded August 2023 in Anzio (Italy) - Booklet in English contains liner notes by Valerio Vicari and profiles of the orchestra and conductor - A beautiful program featuring French music from the turn of the 19/20th century, evoking a late-romantic and mildly impressionistic atmosphere in elegiac mood. - The works presented are Elegies by Saint-Saens (1835-1921), Faure (1845-1924), Vieuxtemps (1820-1881) and Massenet (1842-1912), the Suite Bergamasque by Debussy (1862-1918), Pavane by Ravel (1875-1937) and, to conclude in a more spirited mood, the Carnaval des Animaux by Saint-Saens. Several of the works are transcribed for an instrumental ensemble featuring flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello & double bass. - Sensuous and evocative performances by the Roma Tre Orchestra, conducted by Sieva Borzak.

A monumental collection of German-Baroque keyboard literature, presented complete for the first time on record, and coupled with dance suites by an unfamiliar name of the late German Baroque. The modern-day reputation of Christian Petzold (1677-1733) is almost wholly based on a single, modest minuet. Known to generations of young pianists as 'the Minuet in G', it was included by Bach in one of the notebooks of pieces he gave to his wife, Anna Magdalena, for her instruction. In turn this led to the minuet itself being mistakenly attributed to Bach himself. Yet much more of Petzold's output has survived, and only now is it coming to light. Having recorded complete sets of many unsung heroes of the German Baroque, Fernando de Luca now turns to the collection of no fewer than 25 'Concertos' for solo harpsichord by Petzold. Published in 1729 as 'Receuil des XXV', the collection first appeared in Dresden, where Petzold was organist to the royal court. The form of these concertos is Italianate, and their heavily ornate soundworld is recognisable from the better-known example of Vivaldi and Corelli. There are dance movements here and there - including minuets - but the predominant genres are determined by tempo: Allegro, Larghetto, Presto and so on. They make such an immediately attractive effect that it is surprising they are not better known, and this release will attract the attention of all adventurous listeners to Baroque rarities. Fernando de Luca pairs the 25 concertos of Petzold with a collection of three 'Parthias' - partitas by another name - from an even more obscure figure, Isfrid Kayser. Known as 'Concors digitorum discordia', this collection was published in Augsburg in 1746 and conforms to the conventions of a Baroque suite with it's graceful sequences of dances, prefaced by a grand overture and concluding with a dashing Presto movement. As so often, Fernando de Luca demonstrates his abilities to revive this music with lucid phrasing, lively registration and an unfailing sense of Baroque style. Scholarly background on both composers is provided in the booklet with an essay by Francesca Scotti. Christian Petzold (1677-1733) was a German organist and composer, holding court positions in Dresden. From 1703, he was organist at the Sophienkirche in Dresden and from 1709 also chamber composer at the Saxon court there. Extensive concert tours took him to Paris in 1714 and Venice in 1716.