Celebrated clarinettist Julian Bliss is joined by conductor Taavi Oramo and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra to perform concertos by Magnus Lindberg and Kalevi Aho. "In my opinion, the Lindberg and Aho clarinet concertos are two of the greatest of the 21st century. These works demand everything from the performer-one moment navigating passages of extreme virtuosity and precision, the next exploring the most beautiful and breath-taking writing. They require total commitment; there's no holding back, making them both thrilling to perform. Recording these concertos with the incredible BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the brilliant Taavi Oramo was an absolute privilege" - Julian Bliss

With her new album Mozartiana, award-winning violinist Clarissa Bevilacqua presents a fascinating musical tribute and, at the same time, opens up new perspectives on a timeless genius. Clarissa Bevilacqua, who studied at the renowned Mozarteum Salzburg and won both first prize and the audience prize at the Mozart International Competition 2020, combines past and present in a captivating musical dialogue on Mozartiana. In addition to masterpieces such as F. X. Mozart's Sonata for Violin and Piano, Beethoven's 12 Variations on "Le nozze di Figaro", and Schnittke's Moz-Art for ensemble, the album features contemporary compositions written especially for this album by Felix Willeitner, Sophia Jani, Jorge Bosso, and Giovanni Sollima-all of which are world premiere recordings. As founder and artistic director of DYNAMIKfest Salzburg, Bevilacqua once again demonstrates her passionate commitment to combining classical and modern music. Mozartiana is not only a tribute to Mozart-it is a living commitment to artistic curiosity, diversity, and musical dialogue across the centuries.

Franziska Fleischanderl calls her new CD solo un salterio - just a salterio. This title is not just an understatement, because Franziska Fleischanderl is quite simply THE salterio specialist worldwide. She has devoted herself entirely to her instrument, written a doctoral thesis on the salterio, discovered many works for the instrument in archives, and researched historical playing techniques. The title also refers to the instrumentation: while the salterio is known today only as an accompanying or continuo instrument, Franziska Fleischanderl shows that the instrument was widely used and played in aristocratic and clerical circles in the 17th century. Here, for the first time, she presents an entire CD programme of works for solo salterio, allowing her instrument to shine in many colours. She plucks it with her fingers, with special plectrums, and strikes it with various small hammers - a compendium of playing techniques that she has brought back to life through her research. For the listener, this creates a sensual, multi-coloured world of sound with enchanting melodies full of lightness.

From the 1830s onward, Liszt's compositions increasingly acknowledged poetic, literary and philosophical impulses, often signaled through titles, epigraphs or extra-musical associations. This stimulus would later crystallise in his codification of the symphonic poem, but it was equally present in his keyboard music, where narrative, rhetoric and symbolism frequently replace abstract formal logic. A central expression of this aesthetic is Liszt's lifelong engagement with transcription and transformation. For him, the piano was not simply a self-contained instrument but a medium capable of absorbing the sonorities, gestures and emotional weight of voices and orchestras alike. His transcriptions were acts of interpretation rather than replication - creative reimaginings that sought the core meaning of a work and translated it into a pianistic language of heightened intensity. Choral music posed a particularly compelling challenge: the task of condensing collective utterance into the hands of a single performer allowed Liszt to explore the boundary between shared musical identity and individual contemplation. The works recorded here trace Liszt's artistic evolution from the assertive rhetoric of his early maturity to the compressed, exploratory language of his final years. Michael Kaykov's selection of repertoire brings together pieces that illuminate Liszt's habit of revisiting and reworking material across decades. Heard in this context, these works emerge not as peripheral by-products of Liszt's workshop, but as self-contained musical statements - compact, vivid, and eloquent - whose significance lies in their interconnections as much as in their distinctive voices.

Mel (Melanie Helène) Bonis was born in Paris in 1858, and showed a prodigious talent for music from an early age, attending the Paris Conservatoire from the age of sixteen, studying alongside Debussy and Pierne under Cesar Franck. Her passionate relationship with the singer Amedee-Louis Hettich was frowned upon by her parents, who pressured her to marry edouard Domange, a twice-widowed industrialist with five children. Bonis threw herself into her role as wife and stepmother, until a reunion with Hettich in the 1890s reignited her serious interest in composition. She composed more than 300 works, including pieces for solo piano, chamber music, and over forty melodies for voice and piano. As Bonis was too modest for self-promotion, and a victim of gender-bias, her music fell into obscurity after the First World War, and she became bedridden from arthritis. She continued to compose until her death, in 1937. Her orchestral output dates from two decades, between 1891 and 1912, and is well represented on this album.

Rheinberger composed his Cantus Missae in 1878, during his tenure as court chapel master to King Ludwig II. The work bears witness to his successful reconciliation of the conflicting artistic currents of his time, and it is precisely this perfect equilibrium that has rendered it timeless. The Mass captivates with it's melodic, often almost Lied like character; yet, on closer listening, the music reveals a striking modernity for it's era. Nana Forte's Libera me was written almost 150 years after Cantus Missae. It is a spiritual drama in which the composer draws on the traditional techniques of double choir writing: she let's the choirs interlock contrapuntally or overlap in contrasting layers, as in the passage "tremens factus sum ego" ("trembling has overtaken me"). Frank Martin kept the manuscript of his Mass for Double Choir in a drawer for nearly forty years, regarding it as something solely between himself and God. In sound and musical language, the Mass is unmistakably a work of the twentieth century, yet one hears echoes of Gregorian chant and senses that the composer consciously places himself within the centuries old tradition of double choir composition and the symbolic world of Mass settings. Martin's work is shaped by the tension between tradition and modernity, personal confession and doctrinal expectation; but rather than seeking a "golden mean," he approaches these themes as a seeker and questioner. The result is one of the most highly regarded Mass settings of the twentieth century.

As a concept musical, Love Life was a real trailblazer, inspiring musical theatre favourites of the 1960s, 70s and beyond from Cabaret and Chicago (originally subtitled 'A Musical Vaudeville') to Sondheim's Company (told through a series of vignettes). It is "one of Weill's best scores" (conductor Jim Holmes), a masterpiece of putting different musical styles together, "a compendium of American musical idioms, cunningly chosen so that they suit the dramatic material". Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner teamed up in 1947, both riding high on recent successes (Street Scene for Weill, Brigadoon for Lerner) and looking for new projects. When Love Life premiered on Broadway in 1948, Weill called it "an entirely new form of theatre." Stephen Sondheim denoted it as "a useful influence on my own work."

This CD represents pianist Violina Petrychenko's longstanding efforts to promote Ukrainian music in Europe. The program introduces two composers who represent both poles of Ukrainian musical life - Borys Liatoshynsky from central Ukraine and Vasyl Barvinsky from the west of the country. The recording presents two of the most ambitious Ukrainian piano quintets, which open up different perspectives on one of the most important genres of chamber music, each influenced by unique historical and artistic circumstances.

Face2Face compares the Beethoven string quartets with string quartets by avant-garde composers, demonstrating how far ahead of his time Beethoven was. The second album of this series contains Ludwig van Beethoven's String Quartet op. 18/6, Rudolf Kelterborn's String Quartet no. 6 (2001), and Ludwig van Beethoven's "Harfenquartett" op. 74. The Amaryllis Quartett won 1st prize at the 6th International Chamber Music Competition in Melbourne (2011).

The NFM Choir from Wroclaw juxtaposes Penderecki and French composers, creating a dialogue between Polish and French music of the 20th century, between the singers from Wroclaw, where the choir is based, and Frenchman Lionel Sow, it's conductor since 2021. The program opens with Krzysztof Penderecki's Le Chant des chérubins, a piece composed in 1986 based on a text from the Orthodox liturgy. This is followed by a composition by French composer Yves Daniel-Lesur, a twelve-part Cantique des Cantiques composed in 1953. In 1962, Penderecki completed a Stabat Mater of a purely religious nature, a declaration of opposition to the communist system and it's visceral atheism, but also to Western avant-garde circles, which were equally uninterested in the sacred. Fast forward to the 2000s with Nigra sum by composer and mezzo-soprano Caroline Marçot, who is very interested in Renaissance music. If there is one thing that Poulenc's Salve Regina, composed in 1941, and Penderecki's Agnus Dei, written forty years later, have in common, it is simplicity and a form of contemplation that can also be found in Olivier Messiaen's O sacrum convivium, composed in 1937.

At first glance, the choice of composers for this recording seems like an odd match: one cultivated a harsh, expressive musical language, while the other was a proponent of introspective soundscapes. One piece ends in an explosion, while the other offers us meditative contemplation. We also have an apparent clash of nationalities: Prokofiev was Russian, (b. Sontsivka, Ukraine) Silvestrov is Ukrainian, and conductor Dmitry Matvienko is Belarusian. But through art and music, we can always meet in dialogue and mutual understanding. What may first seem like madness has a clear logic. In Dmitry Matvienko's view, there are strong links between the two composers. Quoting Valentin Silvestrov's belief that "only melody makes music eternal," Matvienko explains why he chose Quiet Music for this recording. Despite very different musical languages, both composers were exceptional melodists who regarded melody as the foundation of all music, regardless of genre or 20thcentury avant-garde trends. Matvienko also sees both works as shaped by their historical realities. Prokofiev's symphony reflects the devastation of the post-war era and foreshadows future catastrophe, while Silvestrov's Quiet Music, written in 2002, predates but resonates deeply with later conflicts. Prokofiev could not have imagined the tragedy that would unfold decades after his death, yet history reveals the cyclical nature of evil. His work on Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible exposed a ruler's destructive paranoia - an allusion Stalin recognized. Today, Matvienko argues, history repeats itself in new forms. Against this, Silvestrov's Quiet Music offers consolation: a place of refuge open to anyone, beyond nationality or religion, where sorrow can briefly be set aside. It was very important to Dmitry Matvienko to include this piece in this recording: "Silvestrov said in one of his interviews" - "I am so tired of the noise of this world ",- "I understand that and feel it very deeply. More and more often I walk at night and listen to his music; not in headphones, but inside. And it gives me peace. I want this piece to be therapy and solace for our listeners as well."

This album offers an intimate journey into Schumann's world through three emblematic works. At it's heart stands the original 1841 version of the Fourth Symphony, a rarely performed score whose transparency and almost chamber-like clarity reveal a Schumann of striking immediacy, far from the heavier later revision. The Cello Concerto and the Fantasia for violin, the latter performed here in an idiomatic and expressive transcription for cello, both belong to Schumann's final Dusseldorf years and share an atmosphere of shifting moods and luminous shadows. Throughout the album, Alexander Rudin - appearing both as conductor and as solo cellist - joins Musica Viva in shaping a vivid, deeply human portrait of Schumann's imagination and it's fragile, radiant beauty.

For her first solo album with BIS Records, Alina Ibragimova, together with Cedric Tiberghien, embarks on recording of Beethoven's entire violin sonatas. As one might expect, the first violinist of the Chiaroscuro Quartet presents these chamber music masterpieces on period instruments. While she plays a gut-stringed instrument, Tiberghien plays a fortepiano, a copy of a Viennese instrument from 1794. This new interpretation of Beethoven's violin sonatas brings us as close as possible to the soundscape that listeners present at the première of these works would have heard at the turn of the 19th century. This first volume contains the three violin sonatas Opus 12, the first that Beethoven published in Vienna, where he had already established himself as Mozart's successor. As was customary at the time, they are written 'for harpsichord or fortepiano, with the accompaniment of a violin', but following Mozart's example, they are truly for both instruments in equal measure. The disc concludes with the 'Spring' Sonata, the most popular and probably the most poetic of the violin sonatas. We look forward to continuing this undoubtedly landmark recording series, with a second and third instalment soon to come.

A student of Einar Englund and Einojuhani Rautavaara, Kjell Flem, born in Ålesund in 1943, has long been considered an international insider tip of the contemporary Scandinavian music scene. His compositions are traditionally non-radical, atmospherically unconstructed, and creates an ambience deeply rooted in the natural landscape of his homeland. His oeuvre is not extensive; rather, he allows himself a long creative period because, in his own words, truly magical moments of inspiration are rare.

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Imperial College Chamber Choir and conductor Patrick Allies present This Place, a beautifully-curated programme of choral works exploring themes of home, belonging, spiritual refuge, love, respite and peace. While the theme relates principally to the repertoire, it also acknowledges the chamber choir's own position within Imperial College London, and the musical home that it's members find in the choir.

Four-time BAFTA winning composer Christopher Gunning, has composed twelve symphonies as well as concertos for the piano, violin, cello, flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, and guitar. Here the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conductor Kenneth Woods, perform his eighth and ninth symphonies, recorded in Hoddinott Hall in March 2024. "Each scored for a moderatelysized orchestra (the 8th has only one trumpet and no lower brass, while the 9th adds a second trumpet, a harp, and a small percussion section) and both [grapple], in Gunning's highly individual way, with the legacy of classical symphonic form" - Richard Bratby. [9th Symphony] "I believe this piece has a strong emotional flavour but if you try and untangle the story you're going to end up with your own story - and to me, that is absolutely perfect." - Christopher Gunning. "Gunning's [...] symphonies, numerous concertos and sundry orchestral pieces are as meticulously wrought as they are powerfully conceived." - Gramophone

The Curious Bards immerse us in the 18th-century popular music of Ireland and Scotland, with reels, jigs, songs and dances that circulated in the oral tradition and in print, from the airs of Turlough O'Carolan to the great collections of the period. Impelled by an irresistible energy and underpinned by historical research, this album restores the vitality of this music that lives for the dance, for the preservation of folk memory, and for sharing with others.

Barry Douglas CBE has established a major international career since winning the Gold Medal at the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, in Moscow. In demand as a soloist and as a recitalist and chamber musician, he has performed with most of the world's leading orchestras. He celebrates his Irish heritage as Artistic Director of Camerata Ireland, the only all-Ireland orchestra, and of the Clandeboye Festival. Celtic Nocturne combines nocturns by John Field, traditional Irish melodies, and three compositions by Barry Douglas, all of which share the lyrical, melodic nature characteristic of Irish music. Born in Dublin in 1782, John Field moved to London in 1793 and continued his studies with Muzio Clementi. Following an extensive European tour with Clementi in 1802, Field finally settled in Russia. His Nocturnes combine classical structure with romantic expressiveness.

This album showcases recent works for two guitars by the Chilean composer and guitarist Javier Contreras. He is joined by fellow Chilean guitarist and pedagogue, Jose Antonio Escobar - a decisive figure in Contreras's musical development - to explore the composer's inventive harmonic and cosmopolitan influences, which range from South American folk music to jazz. The Sonata for Two Guitars evokes the uniquely versatile sirilla dance in a work that marries introspection with vitality and virtuoso flourish. Elsewhere, Patagonian folkloric elements, exotic dances, high-speed dialogues and exquisite colours are conjured up in music of subtlety and energy.

For this second volume of their complete Beethoven piano trios, the Busch Trio illustrates the great variety that the composer was able to draw from an ensemble of just three instruments. The Trio in G Major, begun in 1793, is the second of three published in Vienna as Opus 1. The Trio in E Flat, WoO 38, was written in 1790-1791 in Bonn: it is unusual in that it has three movements in the same key and no slow movement. The charming Allegretto in E Flat was written by a young Beethoven experimenting. The Allegretto in B Flat, WoO 39, takes us back to 1812, the era of the famous 'Archduke Trio'. Finally, the Variations in E Flat Major, Op. 44, are a series of variations on arias from a little-known opera by Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf. 'When practising, rehearsing, and performing Beethoven's works, it is impossible not to be overcome by the joy, courage, the love for life and humanity,' conclude the musicians of the Busch Trio.

Featuring 13 premiere recordings, With Eys Lift Up is a new collection of works written by American composer Nico Muhly for - and the majority commissioned by - the Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford. Comprising settings of the mass and canticles alongside anthems for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascensiontide, Trinity Sunday and Remembrance, the collection sets a number of little-known texts, casting new light on familiar seasons of the church year.

In May 2026, Metier Records presents Edward Cowie's Darkness into Light, a stunning collection of works for harp and flute, performed with superb brilliance by Alice Giles and Laura Chislett, two of the world's leading soloists on these instruments. The album features two major works for solo flute and solo harp, a duo for both instruments specially written for Alice and Laura, and the title track, a fantastic three-way improvisation for flautist, harpist, and Edward Cowie himself on piano. Edward Cowie is one of the most notable voices in contemporary music and is considered by many to be the "leading contemporary composer of music that is related to the natural world" (Fanfare). A remarkable polymath, Cowie is renowned as a composer, visual artist, and natural scientist. La Primavera is a series of 'sound portraits' for solo flute, inspired by the nine figures in Botticelli's painting, one of the most beautiful, mysterious, and cryptic of all time. The painting radiates light and movement, and this is reflected in Cowie's music, which epitomises the limpid and hugely flexible sonorities and brilliance of the flute. The series of variants follow the figures in the painting from left to right, 'blown' into the music by Zephyrus, signifying the breath of the flautist. In the painting, most of the characters are either dancing or posed in dance-like actions, linking it to Harlequin Dances for solo harp, one of the 'satellite' works inspired by characters from Cowie's opera Commedia (1977). In Harlequin Dances, Cowie fuses music of the 16th century with some of the gestures and theatrical devices of the Commedia itself. The sorrowful emotions of unrequited love lead to Harlequin's rehearsal of dancing himself to death, but also to something hopeful and luminous. Cowie skilfully uses the resonances and wide range of timbre of the harp, and the closing few minutes are some of the most beautiful and transcendental music he has ever composed. Australian Water Music for flute and harp, is inspired by the ocean and fresh water lakes of Australia, and also Handel's Water Music, this being a recurrent theme for Edward Cowie, both as a composer and a visual artist. The tremendous velocities of flute and harp capture the speed of a stream of water and it's liquid sound, as well as bringing delicious richness and expressive qualities. Each instrument plays alone, but also thematic and motivic materials are resounded and re-worked in a dynamic dialogue between them. Darkness Into Light came from a discussion with Alice and Laura about their shared experience of darkness and light. The resulting work takes the form of a transcendence into some sort of divine light from impenetrable and engulfing darkness (of mind and spirit), all done in one continuous and shared exploration. Edward Cowie said of the experience: "Working with two giants of the musical world in this process was pure and undiluted pleasure".

My God! What a child! No one has understood me as this boy does... this is not imitation, it is the same feeling, an instinct that makes him play without reasoning, as if he could not be otherwise. He plays almost all of my compositions without having heard them performed, without my having shown him the slightest thing - not exactly like me (having his own personality), but just as well. Chopin on Filtsch (The Humorist, 1843)

The Flemish Music Heritage series is a journey of discovery, reviving remarkable pieces of musical heritage. Forgotten scores are brought to light, and familiar compositions are given a fresh perspective. In close collaboration with the Study Centre for Flemish Music, the recordings are founded on intensive research in libraries and archives and meticulously prepared score editions. The works, expertly selected by connoisseurs, are performed by valued musicians and ensembles who passionately restore neglected and forgotten composers to the recognition they deserve. With these vibrant composer monographs, Antarctica Records aims to broaden horizons and enrich the repertoire with rediscovered treasures from the past. This FMH album focuses on the third and final volume of works for piano solo by Joseph Ryelandt (1870-1965). Performed by Jozef de Beenhouwer, who has championed Ryelandt's music for decades, the album sheds light on a versatile and refined voice in Belgian musical history.