SOMM Recordings is proud to present an album devoted to works by David Matthews, hailed as one of the leading symphonists of our time. His diverse output is superbly represented here by a Symphonic Diptych from his opera, Anna; his Symphony No. 11; and his Flute Concerto. The release features Dutch conductor Jac van Steen and the Ulster Orchestra, of which he is Honorary Principal Guest Conductor. Both are frequent SOMM collaborators, most recently on Manuel de Falla: The Three-Cornered Hat, Nights in the Gardens of Spain & Seven Spanish Folk Songs, SOMMCD 0694, about which Gramophone magazine wrote, "when van Steen unleashes the full orchestra... The tone is big and generous." They are joined by flautist Emma Halnan, winner of the BBC Young Musician Competition in 2010 in the woodwind category. She was also elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) in the Academy's 2024 Honours, recognizing alumni of the Academy who have distinguished themselves in the music profession. Emma enjoys commissioning new works, and composers who have written for her include Sir Karl Jenkins, James Francis Brown, and, as here, David Matthews. David Matthews' first opera Anna had it's concert premiere at The Grange Hampshire in July 2023, conducted by Jac van Steen. Shortly afterwards, Jac suggested that David should make an orchestral reduction, as Strauss had done for his Intermezzo and Die Frau ohne Schatten. So, in this Symphonic Diptych, David has compressed the opera into two movements, one for each act-I. Anna in Love and II. Lament for Anna-which tell the story in purely orchestral terms about a brother (Peter) and sister (Anna) and their different reactions to the revolution that has just taken place in their country. In transferring all the vocal parts to instruments, David has slightly increased the opera's orchestra. In 2022, at the Presteigne Festival, David Matthews heard some striking trumpet playing at an orchestral concert. The next day, he wrote a few bars of quiet trumpet solo over a string chord. At first, he did not know what to do with this idea, until he thought it might be the beginning of a symphony, and so his single-movement Symphony No. 11 was conceived. He decided to preface it with an allegro D major/d minor theme, beginning on violas and moving to first violins, and these two ideas form the basis for a set of free variations. Considering the flute to be, essentially, a melodic instrument, David Matthews composed his Flute Concerto as alternating song and dance. The first movement combines a gentle allegretto with a fast waltz. The slow middle movement evokes a dance celebrating Pan, while the finale begins with a little tune that he wrote for his wife, Jenifer, at Christmas 2019, which has something of an Irish flavour. Siegfried Wagner was named for the young hero in Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle and immortalized in the Siegfried Idyll, included on this release. He was born to Richard Wagner and his future wife, Cosima (nee Liszt), on 6 June 1869. Although Siegfried considered following a profession outside music (and, as a youth, studied architecture in Berlin and in Karlsruhe), it was inevitable that he would follow a career in music given the lineage of both his parents and his grandfather, Franz Liszt. In addition to receiving instruction in music from Liszt, the thirteen-year-old Siegfried began his advanced musical studies in Frankfurt with Engelbert Humperdinck, a true disciple of Richard Wagner. Siegfried became an assistant at Bayreuth in 1892, immersing himself in his father's music under the strong influence of Cosima Wagner and the conductor Hans Richter. In 1895, he made his debut at Bayreuth conducting a complete Ring cycle. The debut was a considerable artistic success, and Siegfried's future as the true guardian of the Wagner inheritance was assured, as he took a greater share in the direction of the Bayreuth Festival. With Cosima's full endorsement, Siegfried assumed the general directorship from his mother in 1908. Siegfried's busy professional life was devoted in the main to Bayreuth in the 1920s, but it was also during this time that he began a recording career devoted almost exclusively to his father's and his own works. Apart from his evident qualities as a conductor of his father's music-heard here in the recorded legacy he left of his performances at Bayreuth and in Berlin and London-he was equally keen to establish himself as a composer. The first of his twelve completed operas, Der Barenhauter (Bearskin) inspired by the German fairytale, met with public and critical acclaim when it was produced in 1899. The acoustic recording of the overture is heard here. Among the Richard Wagner works conducted by Siegfried Wagner on this historic release are well-known selections from Das Rheingold and Die Walkure from the Ring Cycle. Also included are a suite from Parsifal and selections from Tannhauser, Lohengrin, and Tristan und Isolde.

Born of a friendship formed at London's Royal College of Music over 10 years ago and boasting a discography of seven recordings, the Busch Trio takes it's name from the legendary Adolf Busch, whose G.B. Guadagnini violin Mathieu van Bellen has the honour of playing. Van Bellen and the Epstein brothers Omri on piano and Ori on cello now launch their ambitious project of recording the complete Beethoven piano trios. The first instalment contains the Op. 1 trios (Nos. 1 and 3), the first compositions by the young Beethoven who had left his native Bonn to study with Haydn in Vienna in 1792. Although Beethoven did not write a concerto for a wind instrument, he did compose a great deal of chamber music for them, including the Trio in B flat for piano, clarinet and cello (1798), although designing it so that the clarinet part could also be performed on the violin. The playful theme of the variations in the finale earned the trio it's nickname, "Gassenhauer"; (street or folk song).

The two composers heard on this album, Giovanni Gabrieli (1553-1612) and Giovanni Bonato (born in 1961) have more in common than their first names: both hail from the Veneto in north-east Italy - there is no documentation of Gabrieli's birth, but he was probably Venetian, and Bonato was born in nearby Schio. Their music, too, is conceived in terms of it's sound in space, with Gabrieli using the cori spezzati that sang from the opposing galleries of St Mark's Basilica in Venice, and Bonato employing cori spazzializati to build a spatial dimension into the music itself. Juxtaposed, their styles offer a striking contrast, with Gabrieli's bold declamations set against Bonato's shifting, timeless suspensions.

A sense of expectancy, along with images of stillness in nature, are recurrent in depictions of the story of Christmas. This collection of contemporary carols, alongside well-known favourites, seeks to draw the listener deeper into the remarkable story of the Christ Child.

Elena Ruehr is one of today's most prolific and acclaimed composer of string quartets whose music has been described as "unspeakably gorgeous" by Gramophone magazine. This latest triptych of works for the genre takes inspiration from much-loved locales in the higher latitudes: the composer's Michigan home, a favourite spot on Cape Cod, and the capital city of Iceland. String Quartet No. 9, "Keweenaw" evokes the small rural town in Michigan's beautiful Upper Peninsula where Elena grew up. This quartet explores various parts of that world, from native berries, early autumn blizzards, ghost towns and the majestic Lake Superior. String Quartet No. 10, "Long Pond" captures moments throughout the days on a beautiful small lake on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where Elena has spent much time and gathered precious memories: a brightly rising sun, a morning dog walk, sailing on the harbour, a "nor'easter" storm, a lovely yet mysterious full moon rising above and reflecting in the water. String Quartet No. 11, "Reykjavik", pays seasonal homage to Iceland's capitol city, with it's long winter nights, the sun peeking through the haze as spring approaches, greeted with celebrations of singing and dancing for the lighter days ahead. Quartet ES is a foursome of diverse and engaging individuals - Anton Miller and Ertan Torgul, violins; Rita Porfiris, viola; and Jennifer Kloetzel, cello - that come together to create cutting-edge programming, visionary projects and dynamic educational initiatives. A capacious catalogue of commissioned works includes these three by Elena Ruehr.

The viola da gamba is not dead, despite a claim to the contrary in the Dictionary of Musicians by German composer, organist and cellist Ernst Ludwig Gerber (1746-1819). From the 16th century to the end of the 18th, the viola da gamba experienced a true apotheosis, becoming the favoured instrument for bourgeois entertainment, particularly in Germany, France, Italy and England, even if the instrument's origins lie in the Spanish Renaissance. Because of these associations with the aristocracy, but also because of advances in musical style that demanded more from the role of the lower member of the string family, the gamba lost ground to the newer cello during the French Revolution. Limited interest in the instrument persisted through the 19th century, until a rebirth occurred thanks to German cellists Christian Dobereiner (1874-1961) and Paul Grummer (1879-1965), and later the Austrian Karl Maria Schwamberger (1905-1967) and Swiss cellist August Wenzinger (1905-1996), a pupil of Grummer's and a founder, in 1925, of one of Germany's first early music ensembles. Wenzinger was appointed cello and viola da gamba teacher at Basle's new Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, where Giacomo Nones (1929-2017) and Jordi Savall (b.1941) would become his pupils. Dobereiner was one of the most important pioneers at the dawn of modern research into historical performance practice, considered to have revived both the viola da gamba and the baryton from obscurity. From his Sarabande, in Handelian style, only the solo part has survived, and the basso continuo has been reconstructed by Matteo Malagoli. Alexander Tcherepnin (1899-1977) was an important Russian pianist and composer. He invented his own harmonic language, combining major and minor hexachords in a pentatonic scale that blended old Russian patterns and Georgian (Caucasian) harmonies. During a stay in France he became friends with Paul Grummer and in 1969 published a lovely Sonata da chiesa for viola da gamba and organ dedicated to Grummer and his daughter Sylvia. Giuseppe Selmi (1912-1987) was a gifted concert cellist, performing both with orchestra and piano. As a composer, he wrote several works for solo cello, with piano and with harp (he played in a duo with his wife Maria Dongellini). Following the gift of a viola da gamba (built by Paolo Leonori in 1952) from his wife in the 1970s, he became a passionate advocate for the instrument, writing works for it with harp or solo. Giacomo Nones (1929-2017) dedicated himself from a young age to classical music and the popular music from his native Trentino, studying violin, organ and viola da gamba, as well as musicology and organology. He has edited transcriptions and publications of Renaissance and Baroque music and has collaborated with various early music ensembles. Passionate about contemporary music, in particular 'computer music', he wrote his 10 small Algorithms for two viols with the use of a computer according to theories by the Russian mathematician Rudolf Zaripov. His only other viola da gamba works are the very different Partitas on the Lutheran chorale Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan for gamba and organ, and the Fantasia for solo viol on the Kyrie of the Gregorian 'Orbis factor' Mass. Riccardo Giavina (1937-2019) was a Piedmontese pianist and composer, later a teacher and headmaster at the 'Bonporti' Conservatory of Trento and Riva del Garda. A friend of Giacomo Nones, in April 1977 he dedicated his three short pieces for three viols (soprano, tenor and bass) to the other composer. Written in late Renaissance style, they are aimed at extending the original literature for viola da gamba into the 20th century. - Recorded April 2022 in Silvelle; July, August & December 2023 in Ponte nelle Alpi; and January 2024 in Trento (Italy) - Booklet in English contains liner notes and a profile of each of the composers - Matteo Malagoli plays a viola da gamba by Marco Salerno (Rome - Barcelona, 2004) - Cristina Centa plays a Salvi harp - Stefano Rattini plays a harpsichord by Fabrizio Acanfora (Naples, 1997) and at the Carlo Vegezzi-Bossi organ (1907; restored Mascioni, 2000) of the Trento Philharmonic Society

'When I'm composing, not only have I to create music, I must also search for the best way of putting it across. It means being on the alert the whole time; writing - then criticizing what I've written - and if it won't do, scrap it and start again - more criticism - and so on until I've done everything within my power to make the music live and flow naturally'. These insights from Grace Williams into her approach to the compositional process show her strong desire to communicate fluently and sincerely with her listeners. Also evident from this quotation is her professionalism, technical integrity and formidable capacity for self-criticism. She held herself and her art to the highest standards, withdrawing and destroying scores which failed to live up to her ideals. It can be inferred from this that she regarded the works which survived elimination as worthy of her musical legacy.

This album is a mastering of the concert performed by the Seikilos Quartet at the Fundacion Juan March on May 28, 2025. It features the world premiere recording of Quartet No. 10 (1945) and the Scherzo for String Quartet (1911) by Conrado del Campo (1878-1953), one of the most original and least known Spanish composers of the first half of the twentieth century. This recording is part of the Conrado Project. Launched in 2021, this ambitious initiative aims to present, for the first time, the complete body of his thirteen string quartets and to publish a comprehensive edition of the scores, most of which remain unpublished, along with the recordings released by the MarchVivo label. This initiative supports the recovery of a repertoire that has been unfairly consigned to oblivion.

From the early days of the twentieth century until the Anschluss forced him into American exile, Richard Stohr (1874-1967) was one of the more prominent personalities in Viennese musical life, as composer, teacher and author. Earlier releases in this series of recordings revealed him to have an individual voice, somewhere between Bruckner, Mahler, Korngold and Strauss. It can be heard in it's full glory in his Chamber Symphony of 1912, a sunlit score modest in it's orchestral demands but expansive in it's ambit and generous in it's ceaseless flow of gorgeous melody.

Romanticism had many faces. Mozart's spirit still floated through musical life, and Beethoven's mighty music set the benchmark for every Romantic composer. Mozart's legacy was carried forward by two great pianists: Hummel, a pupil of Mozart, and Ries, a pupil of Beethoven. They each steered Romanticism in a different direction. Newspapers across Europe wrote of the 'wild Romanticism' of the bohemian Ries, now seen as a forerunner of Schumann. Meanwhile, the virtuoso Hummel enchanted and astonished his audiences. Around 1815, at the time of the Congress of Vienna, he was the most famous pianist in the world, and Liszt was crazy about his music. Schubert, by contrast, was the creator and embodiment of personal expressiveness in the Romantic era. He performed only in private circles and had no interest in empty virtuosity, even though he was a superb pianist whose instrument, according to contemporaries, would sing under his hands. This new recording presents the Piano Quartet in G major by Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837), the Piano Quartet in F minor by Ferdinand Ries (1784-1838), and the Adagio & Rondo Concertante by Franz Schubert (1797-1828).

This recording explores the emotional depth, colour and inventiveness of Finnish concertante works for violin and orchestra. The pieces range across the transitional landscape of the country's national music during the 20th century, where mysticism, modernism, folklore and experimentation co-exist. Major figures such as Selim Palmgren and Aarre Merikanto are represented, as is charming film music by Einar Englund, writing under a pseudonym. Distinctive works by Vaino Haapalainen, Vaino Raitio and Nils-Eric Fougstedt complete the programme.

The Pacifica Quartet presents The Korngold Collection, a landmark recording of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's complete string quartets and rarely heard chamber works tracing the composer's extraordinary evolution from prodigy of post-imperial Vienna to pioneering film composer in Hollywood. Described by The Daily Telegraph as "nothing short of phenomenal," the multiple Grammy Award-winning Pacifica Quartet brings more than three decades of acclaimed artistry to this sweeping portrait of Korngold's chamber music. The three string quartets, written between 1923 and 1945, chart Korngold's artistic journey: the First Quartet pulses with adventurous harmony; the Second, composed just before his emigration from Austria, overflows with lush melody; and the Third, finalized after WWII, draws on themes from his iconic film scores, including The Sea Hawk and Between Two Worlds. Complementing the quartets are two early chamber gems: the radiant Piano Quintet in E major (1920), written in the wake of his operatic triumph, Die tote Stadt and performed with pianist Orion Weiss; and the vibrant String Sextet in D major (1914), a youthful work that helped establish Korngold's early reputation, featuring violist Milena Pájaro-van de Stadt and cellist Eric Kim. Praised for their "remarkable expressive range and tonal beauty" (The New York Times), the Pacifica Quartet has distinguished itself through a deep commitment to complete composer cycles, including The Soviet Experience, their celebrated survey of Shostakovich's 15 string quartets, plus quartets by his contemporaries.

At over 80 years old, the ever agile and energetic HK Gruber has become an integral part of the music scene - not only in Austria. As a composer, chansonnier and music educator with constructive depth and his distinctive, ironical jokes, he reliably amazes, moves, and evokes laughter in his audiences, far removed from the contrived, mathematical, contemporary musical art. His genre-spanning works are audible, vibrant journeys through the incredible diversity of music history, thus shaping his own, entirely unmistakable style. In Frank Dupree and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, he finds his ideal partners, who skillfully realize this distinctive musical language.

David Fray stands out as one of today's most distinctive French pianists, widely acclaimed for his profound interpretations of Bach. Each of his recordings is considered a major event, making this new release all the more anticipated, as it marks his return after several years of silence. This new album features masterpieces from Rameau to Scarlatti, including lesser-known composers like Royer, with a strong focus on Bach. The repertoire includes original keyboard works as well as piano transcriptions by legendary pianists such as Siloti, Kempff, Busoni, and Stradal. Additionally, the album also includes the world premiere recording of Monsaingeon's arrangement for piano of Bach's Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Minor, BWV 1003: Andante.

Dido's famous lament, 'When I am laid in earth' has long featured in Joyce DiDonato's repertoire - and she has triumphed as the tragic Queen of Carthage in Berlioz's Les Troyens - but it was in early 2024 that she first performed Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas in it's entirety. With Il Pomo d'Oro, conductor Maxim Emelyanychev, and a cast including Fatma Said as Dido's companion Belinda, DiDonato toured extensively in Europe. This recording was made in Essen's Philharmonie, where Michael Spyres took the role of Aeneas. The two stars have been through this all before, as Spyres sang Enee to DiDonato's Didon in the prizewinning Erato recording of Les Troyens, conducted in 2017 by the late John Nelson.

The renowned trumpeter Matthias Hofs performed and then recorded the concertos by Fazil Say and Wolf Kerschek during his artist residency with the Munchner Rundfunkorchester.? Both concertos were originally written for Matthias Hofs?. Fazil Say is one of the most important and successful contemporary pianist and composers whose works continue to reach a wide audience?. Wolf Kerschek is a Hamburg composer, arranger, conductor and jazz musician as well as a professor of jazz theory, composition and film music. His new concerto "The four elements" is a world premiere recording on this album.

Giuseppe was composed by Mayr in 1829 for graduation concerts at the academy of music in Bergamo over which he presided. His inspiration was a Biblical opera that had won great popularity, Méhul's Joseph, which had premiered in Paris in 1807, featuring prayers, hymns, and unassuming arias. Mayr, however, drew on a much wider musical canvas to include grand arias, duets, a cavatina, and a final chorus. He also repeatedly references popular melodies by his contemporaries Donizetti, Rossini, and Bellini, as befits a pasticcio oratorio.

Felix Draeseke's early affiliation with the music of Liszt and Wagner permeated his own compositions of the period, not least his Sonata quasi fantasia in C sharp minor, a work of sumptuous Wagnerian candour as well as balletic lightness. It also marked a significant turning-point from a revolutionary style to something more conservative. As Liszt wrote to him, 'Since Schumann's F sharp minor sonata, I know of no more such significant work of this genre.' The programme also includes a virtuoso Grande Fantaisie, two characterful Fantasiestucke and Chopin-like gestures in the Valse-Nocturne.

This recording brings together recent choral works by British-Swiss composer Jessica Ulusoy-Horsley exploring sound, silence, and the spaces between them, performed by Tenebrae under Nigel Short. The programme includes the work Engelsmusik, inspired by writings on angelic music which draw on texts by Rumi, Greek liturgy, and spiritual philosophy. At it's centre is the large-scale work The 99 Names, setting Arabic and Aramaic texts from Islamic and Christian traditions, and finishing with Cycle of Peace, responding to contemporary conflict. Together, the works examine listening, stillness, and shared spiritual experience across cultures.

Anyone who delves into the musical analysis of these 25 gems-into their incredible thematic structure, into their harmonic cosmos-will fall in love with them. Yet, the purely emotional enjoyment of such simply beautiful folk songs is also readily accessible-and, indeed, likely just as Britten intended, as a folk composer of his time. - Daniel Johannsen

Dora Deliyska's programs are frequently dedicated to a specific theme that links the individual pieces together. At first glance, this does not appear to be the case with the present CD. Yet it would not be Dora Deliyska if there were not, in fact, a-perhaps mysterious-connection between the pieces performed. - Christian Kuhn

Santtu conducts Shostakovich: Moscow Cheryomushki and Symphony No. 1 is the seventh album from Philharmonia Records. Led by Santtu-Matias Rouvali, these performances were recorded live at the Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall, where they are resident. The Philharmonia Orchestra has an extensive legacy of recording the music of Shostakovich, and in this latest release it's Principal Conductor brings his own distinctive energy, precision, and flair to two contrasting masterpieces: the sharp-witted exuberance of Moscow Cheryomushki and the youthful brilliance of the First Symphony.

Spain's Siglo de Oro, the Age of Gold, gave rise to some of the greatest sacred choral music of the Renaissance. Lead, Kindly Light is devoted to the music of two outstanding Spanish composers, exploring majestic works by Cristóbal de Morales, famed throughout Europe and in the New World, and the exquisite polyphony of Sebastián de Vivanco, whose intricately crafted counterpoint adorned services at the cathedrals of Ávila and Salamanca during the late 1500s. Contrasting and complementing these 16th-century masterpieces are spellbinding settings of words by Saint John Henry Newman: Sir James MacMillan's Nothing in Vain for soloists and double choir, and the world premiere of Kerensa Briggs' Lead, kindly light, specially commissioned for this album.

Newly arrived in Paris, where he meets again his ex-pupil Marie-Antoinette, Gluck decides to court the Parisian public by revising one of his great Viennese successes: Orfeo ed Euridice. More than a simple adaptation to the French language and taste, his Orphee et Eurydice proves to be an out-and-out aesthetic revolution. This operatic wind of change has been recaptured for us to rediscover by Paul Agnew, Les Arts Florissants and three exceptional soloists.

Two Trios by Darin Tysdal These works were written because I was playing in the said ensembles. That was a way that I could hear what I had written and go back and revise them. They have never been performed in their entirety live, so these are the first complete performances of both pieces.