After coming to prominence as resident organist of the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Iveta Apkalna has most recently been to the Far East, where in 2018 she inaugurated Asia's largest concert organ in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. She has now recorded her new album on the organ at the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying). It is an impressive instrument: Almost 10,000 pipes in over 120 registers, located in a twin organ. On the right-hand half of the stage is the great symphonic organ, which recreates the aesthetic timbre of the French Romantic style. And on the left there is the smaller "echo organ", oriented on the German Baroque repertoire. On this new album, Iveta Apkalna has compiled a programme that unites the two organs by placing the focus on the French Romantic style and making a brief foray to the father of organ music, J.S. Bach.

The first and upcoming album by Levi. Sct aka Levi Schechtmann on the Neue Meister label presents a distinctive fusion of classical piano and modern hip-hop elements?. The album seamlessly blends classical piano compositions with contemporary hip-hop rhythms, showcasing Schechtmann's unique approach to music?. This release marks a significant milestone in Schechtmann's career, reflecting his growth as a composer and pianist who transcends traditional genre boundaries?. Levi. Sct is a piano influencer with more than 1 Mio followers on his social media channels?

Almost two years after the group's first album, What The Moment Brings, the follow-up is here. A few minutes into the first song, it becomes obvious why I fell in love with this music in the first place: the beautiful compositions and this outstanding group of musicians. The two strong and lyrical leaders are complemented by the superb rhythm section of Niklas Fernqvist, with his elegant tone, and Paul Svanberg, with his undeniable swing.

French organ music from the period of Louis XIV to the Revolution has always held fascination for performers and listeners alike. The kaleidoscope of colours, the rich and varied styles, and the sheer exuberance of the music never fail to captivate. Yet, performance practice of this music has never been fully understood. David Ponsford has spent much of his career studying this repertoire, resulting in his book French Organ Music in the Reign of Louis XIV (Cambridge University Press, 2011). The present series of recordings on the most important historical organs in France is therefore the fruit of many years of research by a seasoned performer whose aim is to combine technical brilliance with intellectual understanding, to bring the music alive with authority and meaning.

South African/Dutch clarinettist Maria du Toit and the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Arjan Tien release 'Clarinet Colours' on Channel Classics. Exploring the contemporary clarinet repertoire of South African composers reveals a sound world of striking colour and contrast. Often described as the "Rainbow Nation," South Africa embodies a complex tapestry of cultures, languages, and histories, bound together by resilience and renewal. This album mirrors that spirit, showcasing the clarinet's remarkable versatility while tracing a wide spectrum of expressive colour and energy. The concertos by leading South African composers David Earl, Roelof Temmingh and Conrad Asman were written for, or dedicated to Maria du Toit.

Music as ritual: On their debut GENUIN album, the internationally acclaimed piano duo Pisareva-Tchaidze presents three landmark works of early modernism. Stravinsky's "Le Sacre du Printemps" - a piece that has stood at the heart of their repertoire for fifteen years - is set alongside Debussy's "epigraphes antiques" and Bartok's "Two Pictures". Written within the same turbulent historical moment shortly before the First World War, these compositions reflect a time of profound cultural upheaval. The album explores the interplay between them - their archaic energy, their rhythmic vitality, and their dialogue between past and present. The duo's finely calibrated ensemble playing brings striking rhythmic precision and luminous clarity of sound to these works.

The music of Artur Lemba has been strangely neglected, even in his native Estonia - although during his lifetime (1885-1963) he was held in high regard as pianist and teacher. That oversight is all the more surprising in view of the expansive, passionate lyricism of his writing - listeners who enjoy the music of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov are likely to warm to Lemba's full-blooded Romantic style. This second release in a pioneering series discovering his chamber music reveals three expansive, big-hearted works full of personality.

Ture Rangstrom's The Bridal Crown has proven to be one of the most durable Swedish operas, and has been performed in abundance in many different productions across the country. Located in Dalarna in the latter half of the 19th century, it is a kind of Romeo and Juliet story with two young lovers - Mats and Kersti - from families in enmity with each other. The drama itself cries out for music and there is even some melodies created by playwright August Strindberg himself. But then, it was released as an opera by the composer Rangstrom who created, as it would turn out, an eternally young music drama.

The first collaboration between John Cage and Scottish traditional music group The Whistlebinkies occured in Edinburgh in 1984. Cage was fascinated by their instrumentation of Lowland pipes, clarsach, fiddle, wooden flute, concertina, drum and voice. This led on to the commissioning of Scottish Circus for the ensemble in 1990, a way of performing traditional Scottish music as individuals of an ensemble together. The September 1990 premiere in Glasgow, in Cage's presence, also included his newly devised version of 4'33" (which lasted 10 minutes!). These recordings showcase Edinburgh's historic Inverleith House as not only the recording venue, but the acoustic of the house as a performer in it's own right. This DVD presents two first recordings of Scottish Circus, demonstrating how no two performances of the piece are the same. Also included are both outdoor and indoor performances of 4'33". Additional features: - Scottish Circus films presented with 5.1 Surround and Dolby Stereo options - Scottish Circus studio version (PCM 24-bit stereo, no video) - John Cage, Scottish Circus and The Whistlebinkies: McGuire and Eydmann in conversation - John Cage in Conversation, Edinburgh 1984 (mono, no video) Includes a 24-page booklet of photos with essays by Eddie McGuire, James Pritchett, Prof. Bjorn Heile and Brian Brandt. Plus interviews with John Cage by Steve Sweeny-Turner and Stuart Eydmann by Neill Martin.

The effervescent creativity of Franco Margola (already featured on the double CD Tactus TC 901390, Chamber Music · Concertos for Soloist and Orchestra) focuses in this recording on music for guitar, both as a solo instrument and in chamber music settings. Margola's approach to the guitar occurred in 1967. In an interview given to Maestro Domenico Lafasciano for the magazine Accademia della chitarra classica, the composer explained that his interest in this instrument matured thanks to his friend and colleague Renzo Cabassi (1908-1988). Initially, Margola was reluctant to compose for the guitar as he barely knew it's tuning, but eventually, the particularities of this fascinating and intimate instrument inspired him more and more, making it one of his favorites. The de Carli catalogue lists over 450 works for guitar, both solo and chamber ensemble, many of which remain unpublished and unknown. Mauro and Luciano Tortorelli - with the assistance of Ludovica del Bagno on violin - perform this first-ever recording of previously unpublished works by the brilliant composer from Brescia.

Two of the most distinctive voices in Dutch jazz join forces: harmonica virtuoso Hermine Deurloo and guitarist Anton Goudsmit. What begins as a playful exchange between lyricism and groove unfolds into a concert full of unexpected twists, inventive improvisations, and idiosyncratic compositions-plus recognizable covers. Rooted in Amsterdam's jazz scene, they combine melodic power with unpredictable energy. The warm, storytelling sound of Hermine's harmonica is the perfect counterpoint to Anton's unstoppable guitar playing: a creative whirlwind with irresistible groove, humor, and a unique musical signature. Together they take you on a ride filled with stories, rhythm, playfulness, and emotion-sometimes whisper-soft, then exuberant and explosive. Anton Goudsmit (guitar/compositions) enchants with inventiveness, infectious joy, and a groove that immediately draws the audience in. Hermine Deurloo is praised for her warm, lyrical tone and virtuosic, melodic storytelling style. She has performed with a wide range of artists-from Steve Gadd and Mike Bodde to the Metropole Orchestra-and refuses to be boxed into a single genre.

Ilona Timchenko's upcoming album Echoes of a Hidden Legacy is a deeply personal and artistically courageous tribute to the music of Albert Semyonovich Leman, a composer of profound humanism whose voice, shaped by brilliance and adversity, has remained largely unheard beyond Russia Bringing together two major piano cycles written for and dedicated to her (Verhaeren Suite and Schallwellen (Waves of Sound)) both presented here in world premiere recordings. Timchenko restores a living connection to her teacher's artistic vision. Having inherited Leman's final piano, the very instrument on which these works were composed, she creates a rare continuity of sound and spirit, bridging past and present in a performance that is at once intimate, poetic, and architecturally luminous. Inspired by the symbolist poetry of emile Verhaeren, the Verhaeren Suite transforms atmosphere into music of striking psychological depth, while Schallwellen explores resonance and vibration with a contemplative modernity grounded in expressive sincerity. The album is completed by Sofia Gubaidulina's powerful Chaconne, written during her studies with Leman, forming a symbolic arc from teacher to student, from legacy to continuation. In this carefully curated program, Timchenko does more than interpret: she listens, remembers, and reawakens. The result is not merely a recording, but an act of artistic restoration, a testament to resilience, mentorship, and the enduring force of sound itself. With her commanding presence and lifelong commitment to contemporary music, Ilona Timchenko invites us to rediscover a voice that speaks not as an echo of the past, but as a vibrant and necessary presence in today's musical landscape.

ELEMENTUAK marks the debut album of Expressio Duo, the Basque accordion partnership of Maria Zubimendi and Garazi Navas. Conceived as a journey across three centuries of music, the programme explores the art of transcription as a creative dialogue between past and present, revealing the extraordinary expressive range of the modern accordion. From the refined elegance of the French Baroque to the evocative sound world of early 20th-century Basque nationalism, ELEMENTUAK highlights the instrument's versatility in repertoire originally conceived for orchestra and keyboard. Works by Jean-Baptiste Lully and Jean-Philippe Rameau unfold with clarity, colour and rhythmic vitality, while Jean-Fery Rebel's visionary Le Cahos from Les elemens acquires striking modern intensity through the duo's rich harmonic textures and dynamic control. The programme concludes with music rooted in Basque identity. Aita Donostia's Acuarelas Vascas evoke landscapes and traditional dances with impressionistic delicacy, and excerpts from Jesus Guridi's El Caserio and Amaya celebrate folkloric energy transformed into symphonic brilliance. Recorded at the Manuel de Falla Auditorium in Granada, this release affirms Expressio Duo's artistic depth and positions the accordion as a powerful mediator between tradition and reinvention in today's classical landscape.

Daniel Muller-Schott ranks among the most distinguished cellists of our era, captivating audiences on the world's leading concert stages. In this remarkable recording, Daniel Muller-Schott blends masterful cello artistry with a deeply personal musical journey. Together with Irina Zahharenkova and Anderson Fiorelli, he brings works by Bach, Vivaldi, Geminiani and Boccherini to life - performed on the very harpsichord his mother played, whose sound has accompanied him since childhood. The sonatas unfold with a captivating mix of Baroque elegance, emotional warmth and technical brilliance. Each interpretation reflects intimacy, nostalgia and the timeless power of music. An album that resonates: authentic, poetic, and radiant with Baroque expressiveness.

Since forming in 2011, Gamelan Yowana Sari has been a performing Balinese Art Ensemble in residence at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, NYC. Under the direction of Michael Lipsey and Fred Trumpy, Yowana Sari have toured Bali multiple times, studying and performing under the master composer and musician I Dewa Ketut Alit in Pengosekan, Bali. In 2024, the group commissioned new works from Michael Gordon and Evan Ziporyn, which were performed alongside compositions by Dewa Ketut Alit, Vivian Fung, and Kyle Miller at Bang on a Can's Long Play Festival and MASS MoCA Summer Music Festival. Following these concerts, the ensemble returned to Bali to study and perform with Dewa Alit's Gamelan Salukat, as well as to record this album at the famed Wiswakarma Museum.

Winner of the 2024 York Early Music International Young Artists Competition, the trio Ayres Extemporae make it's recording debut on Linn Records with a programme that explores various colours and textures made available by the group's unusual combination of violin, five-string cello and cello. Erbarme dich! Represents a spiritual journey from torment to redemption built around the instrumental transcriptions of arias and sonatas by J. S. Bach, interwoven with the expressive depth of works by Biber and Locke. It is a profound reflection on these universal themes, tracing the full spectrum of human emotion from anger, guilt or remorse to acceptance and, ultimately, peace. The aria from the cantata BWV 55 lends it's name to this programme: a plea for mercy of touching vulnerability, signalling the beginning of the journey towards absolution.

In 1758 the London publisher John Walsh, sensing a marketing opportunity, issued a collection of harpsichord sonatas under the name of Johann Adolf Hasse. The volume includes genuine compositions by Hasse alongside some works that are in all likelihood not by him. Walsh's editorial decisions reveal a discerning musical judgment, and the pieces gathered in the collection are of consistently high quality. The present recording offers the complete set, performed on an original 1768 harpsichord by the Amsterdam builder Carl Fredrik Laescke.

One of the more defining features of Blues upstarts GA-20's approach to traditional Blues music is their unwavering dedication to playing the songs they love, or as bandleader Matthew Stubbs puts it, "we play the music we would want to hear." Those in the know have been captivated by the visceral energy the band brings to the heavy Blues arena, and the songs they choose to perform. With ORPHANS, the band has assembled a collection of Blues and Blues- adjacent tracks that fit handily within that parameter. The songs found on ORPHANS are just that - singular tunes heard only at live shows, singles released between albums, and simple favorites that the band (Stubbs, Cody Nilsen & Josh Kiggans) have been itching to lay down. And just as Blues is a tradition of borrowing, sharing and transformation, these melodies and words are similarly reinterpreted and reimagined, orphans and strays lovingly adopted and given new breath. The fan demand for a proper full length release of these songs, along with the mandate to showcase Nilsen's vocals and auxiliary guitar mastery, are realized here in physical form.

One of the more defining features of Blues upstarts GA-20's approach to traditional Blues music is their unwavering dedication to playing the songs they love, or as bandleader Matthew Stubbs puts it, "we play the music we would want to hear." Those in the know have been captivated by the visceral energy the band brings to the heavy Blues arena, and the songs they choose to perform. With ORPHANS, the band has assembled a collection of Blues and Blues- adjacent tracks that fit handily within that parameter. The songs found on ORPHANS are just that - singular tunes heard only at live shows, singles released between albums, and simple favorites that the band (Stubbs, Cody Nilsen & Josh Kiggans) have been itching to lay down. And just as Blues is a tradition of borrowing, sharing and transformation, these melodies and words are similarly reinterpreted and reimagined, orphans and strays lovingly adopted and given new breath. The fan demand for a proper full length release of these songs, along with the mandate to showcase Nilsen's vocals and auxiliary guitar mastery, are realized here in physical form.

JP Soars has spent over two decades building his reputation the way roots music was meant to be built: onstage, night after night, delivering a high-energy, blend of roots music that moves effortlessly through blues, rock & roll, Latin grooves, country, and gypsy jazz-never confined by genre, always guided by feel. That musical vision comes fully into focus on Gypsy Blue Revue, a collaborative project with acclaimed violinist, vocalist, and songwriter Anne Harris (Keb Mo & Taj Mahal, Otis Taylor, Cracker): a blend of songwriting styles and instrumental chops, set to a backdrop of Southern soul, roadhouse blues and rock, and eclectic folk music, recorded "all in one room, playing together. We just wanted it to sound like we do live."

Members... Don't!, the tour-de-force new release by acclaimed drummer and composer Tyshawn Sorey, offers a bold reinterpretation of Max Roach's landmark album Members, Don't Git Weary, connecting it's message of resilience in the face of struggle to the present day. Recorded during the turbulent year of 1968 - after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. And Robert F. Kennedy and amid widespread social unrest - Roach's album served as a call for perseverance in the fight for justice. Sorey approaches this music not as repertory, but as living material: something to reshape and reimagine for our own turbulent time. He expands and reframes the material through a contemporary lens, expanding the music into a sweeping suite that draws inspiration from symphonic works and the extended works of Charles Mingus. Recorded live at the end of a four-night engagement at New York's Jazz Gallery, the group - Adam O'Farrill on trumpet, Mark Shim on tenor saxophone, Lex Korten on piano, and Tyrone Allen on bass - maneuvers through the music's precarious turbulence with virtuosity and inspiration. Over more than ninety minutes, Sorey's ensemble gradually accumulates intensity before arriving at the album's shattering climax, delivered in an ecstatic performance by vocalist Fay Victor; an exhortation that in times of crisis and turmoil, we all must remain resolute and persist "until the work is done."

This album aims to highlight one of the instruments that Barrios loved and played most, his Francisco Simplicio guitar, made in 1927. The selected pieces underline the main musical directions that stand out within the vast repertoire linked to Barrios, also making reference to the works of authors that he used to perform and who therefore had a voice on this instrument, like Chopin, Bach or Tarrega.

As keyboard maestro James Taylor arrives at his 40th year leading his Quartet, he has re-signed with his original label Acid Jazz and is embarking on a series of the most radical projects he has ever worked on. Following his first classical album, Shadows and Dreams earlier this year, he brings the Quartet together for a remarkable new album. Te Deum sets the ancient, 4th-entury Christian text to intense jazz, funk, and Latin grooves. The music sees the James Taylor Quartet working alongside the children of the Benenden Chapel Choir, and a guest horn section and legendary Acid Jazz percussionist Snowboy. Lead track, "Have Mercy On Us," mixes Brazilian samba with Gregorian chants, "The Comforter" sounds like a Donald Byrd with voices Blue Note Records experiment, and last year's radio favorite "Wildflower," mixes bossa nova with sunshine pop harmonies and a positive message.

Juliette Hurel and Isabelle Moretti present an inspired selection of French music for flute and harp, featuring key masterpieces alongside some rare delights. From the intensely vocal melodic line of Faure and Debussy's playful exploration of timbres and resonances to the subtly sculpted writing of Jean Cras, this recital highlights the virtuosity and expressive verve of a duo of great stylistic finesse.

Eternal Child, Avishai Cohen's new album, will be released in May and showcases the full depth of his artistry as a bassist and composer. Years later, he reunites with drummer Jeff Ballard on selected tracks, recalling their strong musical connection forged alongside Chick Corea. Recorded at the renowned Studio de Meudon in Paris, Eternal Child stands as a major new chapter in Cohen's work.