There was magnificent cultural vitality recorded in Bologna in the early seventeenth century, and it is always fascinating to grasp the links between academic undertakings and daily life, between the regular occurrences of festive occasions and the civic institutions. From this rich workshop of ideas, two centuries of splendour and eminent talents were to unfold, active in all fields of knowledge and the arts. The performance of the tragicomedy Filarmindo by Ridolfo Campeggi, which took place in 1605 to celebrate the wedding of Marquis Ferdinando Riario and Countess Laura Pepoli, was 'stuffed' - following a well-established theatrical practice - with the four intermezzi of Aurora Ingannata. The task of composing the music for these intermezzi was given to Girolamo Giacobbi, at the time the chapel master of the Basilica of San Petronio and highly respected professional. This memorable performance, preserved in the chronicles of the time, is masterfully revived by the ensemble Dramatodia (already featured in Il Festino del Gioved� Grasso by Adriano Banchieri, tc 550008), paying homage to the gem from which the ensemble takes it's name.

This album presents a selection of early piano works by six of China's most internationally lauded composers. The pieces explore elements of Chinese and Western traditions though most are rooted in a traditional national style derived from Chinese opera or folk music. They evoke characteristic Chinese instrumental sonorities, especially percussion - gongs, drums, chimes and bells - from a variety of source material including Beijing Opera and ballads. Pianist Kiu Tung Poon has performed internationally and is admired for her 'lively and authoritative' playing (American Record Guide) and for her 'lyrical and emotionally nuanced' interpretations (Woodstock Times).

The sound of the accordion is an underexploited resource in classical music; it is heard even less frequently in combination with other instruments. This recital of music by Irish composers for cello and accordion - from the nimble folk idiom of Turlough Carolan to the passionate Romanticism of more recent men and women - demonstrates just how effectively these colours blend together. And it is not just the medium which is unusual: much of this music is as good as unknown.

The Choir of Girton College, Cambridge, continues it's pioneering exploration of the music of the Italian Renaissance master Marc'Antonio Ingegneri (c. 1535/36-92) with a journey through the liturgical year, as mirrored in Ingegneri's motets. A 'concept album' of Renaissance polyphony may be an unusual undertaking, but this one illustrates how Ingegneri took his lead from the emotions implicit in each major celebration of the church - from sorrow and awe to joy and jubilation - expressed in music of extraordinary beauty, belying the internal complexity that gives it it's emotional power.

Acknowledged as a definitive model of Italian Romantic melodrama, Lucia di Lammermoor was one of Donizetti's greatest triumphs, and it's popularity led him to produce a French version for Parisian audiences. Lucie de Lammermoor became the 'other Lucia', with the opera's tragic tale of feuding families and doomed romance modified in a way that deepens the characters and makes it an even more brutal and emotional theatrical experience than the original. This new Lucie de Lammermoor made it's debut in 1839 with enormous success, becoming a cornerstone of French culture.

The recording is characterised by an uncompromising fidelity to the work, which makes it possible to experience Richard Strauss' masterpiece in all it's facets. All of the passages that are usually cancelled, which are essential for understanding the work and it's power, have been opened up. Richard Strauss himself emphasised in his memoirs how important words and singing were to him in the opera. He reported that the conductor Ernst von Schuch unleashed the orchestra at the dress rehearsal to such an extent that Strauss had to muffle him in order to maintain a balance with the voices. This admonition accompanied Julien Salemkour and Barbara Krieger as they rehearsed Elektra - a process for which they made intensive use of the covid period. The production was an extraordinary endeavour and an impressive example of creative solutions in difficult times. When it was hardly possible to realise larger music projects, the team decided on an unusual approach: The orchestra was to be recorded first, and the soloists would sing their parts later to the existing orchestral recording - and so a number of international artists came together under the most difficult corona conditions at different times in different places for the recordings. Barbara Krieger took on the title role - an artist who has recently been celebrated in particular as Elektra, Fidelio-Leonore and Isolde. Other renowned Strauss interpreters such as Astrid Weber, Sanja Anastasia and Jochen Kupfer complete the ensemble. Tenor Sotiris Charalampous makes his impressive debut as Aegisth. The internationally acclaimed conductor Julien Salemkour gives the singers unprecedented space to sing and breathe, while at the same time unfolding a tonal opulence that does justice to the origins of this score in all it's facets. Experience an Elektra that impresses with it's unleashed orchestral sound as well as it's extraordinary text comprehensibility - a combination that rarely succeeds.

Sixth volume of the commendable series devoted by Dionysos Now! To the figure of Adrian Willaert. The centerpiece of this recording is the Missa Laudate Deum, a so-called parody mass based on Johannes Mouton's motet. This remarkable mass showcases Willaert's masterful command of polyphony and serves as an homage to his mentor. In addition to the mass, the album features a selection of Willaert's madrigals and motets. These dramatic madrigals highlight Willaert's sensitivity to text interpretation and his contribution to new musical forms.

The first album from the Choir of St John's with their new music director - Christopher Gray. Leaning into the college's well-established tradition of championing new music, at the heart of the programme are two triptychs: James MacMillan's Cantos Sagrados, composed 35 years ago, and Joanna Marsh's Echoes in Time, commissioned by the College in recent months. There is also a new choral work by Helena Paish and a new organ work by Martin Baker alongside existing works by Roxanna Panufnik and Dobrinka Tabakova. The commissioned works were conceived with the distinctive environment of St Johns' Victorian chapel (designed by George Gilbert Scott and consecrated in May 1869), it's organ and it's fine, world-famous choir which has done service since it's post-Restoration establishment in the 1670s.

On this recording, the piano quintet led by violinist and conductor Remy Ballot juxtaposes Franz Schubert's famous Trout Quintet with Johann Nepomuk Hummel's much less frequently heard Piano Quintet, composed almost 20 years earlier. What both quintets have in common (apart from the fact that they remained unpublished for several years after completion) is the fact that they were - according to the contemporary convention - still scored for double bass, which would usually become replaced by a second violin in the later course of music history. Yoko Urata-Fog, piano, Remy Ballot, violin, Iris Ballot, viola, Jorgen Fog, cello and Manfred Hecking, double bass, impress with their uncompromising musicality and unpretentious playing, which brings out the diverse layers of sound in a unique, almost analytical way, and prove the point that after many dozens of recordings of "The Trout" (yet far less of the Hummel quintet), there still remains something genuine to be expressed with these "Classics".

A selection of animal sounds was collected and sampled as if they were notes on an orchestral score. This 'animal music' was then reproduced and human instrumentalists played their classical score in dialogue with it. In this way, the animals become musicians and a fusional dialogue is created with the human musicians. The Bat's song used the bats' ultrasounds and slows them down extremely to bring those within the range audible to humans. These 'songs of the inaudible' are then combined to create a real choir, blending with the discreet voice of the cello. Fable Ineffable features the songs of whales, dolphins and wolves, accompanied by a string orchestra. This work explores the spiritual connection between humans and animals. Rest Forest is an ode to our mammal brothers and uses their voices to create a peaceful atmosphere. It includes sounds of bears, jackals, elephants and lynx, among others. The Prey's Prayer is an imaginary aviary made up of sampled songs and incognito flutes. The piece is akin to a bird's meditation on the human condition. Or the other way round

Russian Music for Viola & Piano

On the CD Musica Warmiensis Vol. 4, we can discover further sacred pieces from the second half of the 18th and first half of the 19th centuries, performed by church music ensembles active in the historic region of Warmia. Scores from that period were found in the collections of the Library of the Higher Theological Seminary of the Warmia Metropolis "Hosianum" in Olsztyn by the Reverend Father Tomasz Garwolinski, who is also the originator and main implementing party of the project. These are mostly sacred vocal and instrumental compositions, but also songs and symphonies. The pieces are written for an ensemble known from other religious centres in Poland, including a four-part choir, soloists, a group of string and wind instruments and an organ - a total of from a few to a maximum of seventeen musicians. The album features world premiere recordings of joyful compositions, full of vitality, which - in excellent interpretations of the orchestra and soloists - will certainly again captivate listeners with their radiant tones.

Gli uccellatori ('The Bird Catchers') was first staged in Venice in 1759 and proved so successful that the opera was performed during the next decade throughout Italy, Spain, Poland and Germany before being performed in Vienna in 1768. It's composer was the distinguished Bohemian, Florian Leopold Gassmann, teacher of Salieri and nominated as Gluck's successor in Vienna. The plot, based on a libretto by Carlo Goldoni, concerns amorous intrigues and the buffo antics of three bird catchers and two knowing maids. Gli uccellatori is an opera with a wealth of motifs and a vibrant atmosphere, full of spirited wit and theatrical charm.

Schubert called Winterreise a cycle of "truly terrible songs," not only for it's immersive and dark subject matter but also for the compositional process itself. It is the Mount Everest of Song cycles, a form that Schubert himself perfected. Written on poems by Wilhelm Muller (1794-1827), the songs describe a timeless tale of heartbreak: boy meets girl, girl rejects boy, boy is overcome by existential feelings and sets out on a solitary winter's journey that may result in his demise. But Schubert's genius would not allow him to be content with vapid superficialities: when Schubert set these poems to music, he was confronting his own probable fate, one of agonizing pain and isolation. An unforgettable journey through one of the most powerful musical depictions of desolation Winterreise was originally composed for the tenor voice, but it has been frequently transposed to accommodate the whole gamut of vocal tessituras. Danish bass-baritone and musical scholar Jakob Bloch Jespersen has mastered a range of repertoire from Schutz to Schierbecks and well into the 21st century. His burnished resonance and restrained sensitivity well serve this existential Schubertiade. His partner, fortepianist Sharon Prushansky brings her expertise in music of the Classical and early Romantic eras, utilizing the full panoply of pianistic Affekt available to her on Robert Brown's 2015 instrument after an original by Jakob Bertsche (ca. 1810-1815). Particularly noteworthy to this instrument are it's six pedals, which serve the purpose of changing the quality and colour of the sound, including the infamous "bassoon stop!" A third, silent partner also contributes to this extraordinary production: the haunting, sepia-toned landscapes by the great Danish photographer, Tove Kurtzweil. Together, Jakob Bloch Jespersen and Sharon Prushansky take you on an unforgettable journey through one of the most powerful musical depictions of desolation this side of Mahler!

The instrument used for this recording stands in the focus. It's the Scherer-Bunting-organ in the St Nicolai Church in Molln, northern Germany. Presented with an interesting program of baroque and late baroque music