Max Reger (1873-1916) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor whose music bridged the late Romantic and early modern eras. Deeply influenced by J.S. Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, Reger was known for his contrapuntal mastery and harmonic richness. Though his reputation has often rested on his organ and chamber music, his output for piano four-hands offers a revealing glimpse into his compositional personality - both his intellectual rigor and his warmth of expression. Reger's four-hand works display his more lyrical and accessible side. These miniatures reveal his gift for melody and his subtle harmonic colorings, offering a contrast to the density often associated with his larger compositions. Across his four-hand output, Reger uses the medium not only as a vehicle for technical exploration but also as a form of musical conversation - a dialogue between two pianists that mirrors his complex yet humanistic musical voice. The works included are: Walzercapricen Op, 9, Deutsche Tanze Op.10, 6 Walzer Op.22, Cinq pieces pittoresques Op.34, Sechs Burlesken Op.58 and 6 Stucke Op.94. Of the Sechs Burlesken Reger himself wrote: "In order to give my 'harmonic' mood the freedom it deserves, I will [...] soon write Scenes burlesques pour piano à quatre mains, but I am already 'warning' all academies etc. About them; it will be a crazy thing, harmonically exuberant! Oh, there are still many, many 'north and south poles in harmonics'!". Played by Davide and Daniele Trivella, twins brothers, internationally known as one of the most interesting piano duos and winners in Miami of the most important competition for piano duo "Murray Dranoff". Their extraordinary performances have impressed juries of the most important national and international piano duet competitions.

Commemorating the 270th anniversary of Mozart's birth in 2026, the "MOZART COLORS 100" collection by Deutsche Grammophon and Decca is a masterful fusion of high-fidelity audio and innovative visual curation. By organizing 94 essential recordings and six genre-specific masterpieces into a spectrum of 12 thematic colors, the series transforms the act of listening into a mood-based experience, allowing the "jacket color" to guide the listener through Mozart's immense versatility-from his precocious childhood works to his universally beloved classics. The technical presentation is equally impressive, featuring the SHM-CD format for superior sound resolution housed in elegant, color-coordinated cardboard sleeves that appeal to tactile collectors. With insightful new commentary by Mai Takano and approachable branding by Toshiyuki Hirata, this 100-title series successfully modernizes a historical legacy, making the 2026 anniversary both a luxury for audiophiles and a welcoming entry point for new fans of the "Wunderkind."

An illuminating juxtaposition of keyboard giants bookending the Romantic age, by a pianist with a growing international reputation. The Latvian pianist Georgijs Osokins made these recordings for Piano Classics between 2016 and 2018, and they attracted an enthusiastic critical response on their first issue. In Gramophone, Jeremy Nicholas welcomed a 'powerful and cleanly articulated reading' of Rachmaninoff's Variations on a Theme of Chopin, while the paired transcriptions 'provide further evidence of Osokins's stylistic identification with Rachmaninoff's idiom.' The Chopin album was made shortly after Osokins placed himself among the medal winners at the 2015 Chopin competition in Warsaw, where he divided opinion with interpretations which many found radical. Yet the coherence of his thinking is powerfully evident from the sequence which charts the 'late' thinking and keyboard writing of Chopin, as it ventures into poetic territories hitherto unexplored even by him, from the Third Piano Sonata through to the visionary Polonaise-Fantaisie. These are works that will perennially challenge and reward the most adventurous minds and musicians in any generation, and with this album Osokins placed himself among their number. In the following decade, Osokins has gone on to win first prize at the 2018 Manhattan International Music Competition in New York, and make an acclaimed debut at the Salzburg Festival, as well as several other recordings. He has also become the youngest-ever recipient of the Latvian Grand Music Award, the highest honour in the Latvian music industry. Such awards are recognition of the artistry which illuminates this album: a piercing musicianship which places itself at the service of the composer.

NOW IN TIME

Jazz guitarist Bill Banfield's father just turned 100 years old. At a recent celebration, family and friends gathered virtually and in person to celebrate his life and ask his advice. Bill had been learning his father's lessons for years, but a recent phone conversation led his dad to give him the title for his new Mesa/Bluemoon Recordings album. As Bill tells it, he was speaking with his dad when he suddenly realized that he had something else that he needed to do. His father said, "Bill, I will talk to you, but you must TAKE TIME TO LISTEN." The words hit Bill like a thunderbolt, as his album was designed as encouragement to concentrate on the stories found deep in his music. Born and raised in Detroit, Banfield attended the prestigious arts magnet school, Cass Tech. He was mentored by two of the city's finest jazz guitarists, Kenny Burrell and Earl Klugh. He also learned from the examples of masters George Benson, John Scofield, Emily Remler, Pat Martino, and Jack Wilkins. Banfield calls his approach "solo-voiced guitar," reflecting his belief that imagination and emotion are essential ingredients in all great music, and that his playing comes directly from his heart. Banfield dedicates TAKE TIME TO LISTEN to Burrell and Klugh "to lift up these jazz guitar icons who greatly inspired and coached me as an early teen as I aspired to be like my heroes." Banfield's accomplishments range far beyond the scope of this album. His independent label JazzUrbane issued recordings featuring Chief Adjuah (formerly Christian Scott), Grace Kelly, Greg Osby, and Terri Lyne Carrington. On the classical side, Banfield has composed 12 symphonies, 7 operas and 9 concerti, with performances of these works spanning most of North America's finest orchestras. A renowned educator, he is a Professor Emeritus from the Berklee School of Music and is currently an Artist-in-Residence at Longy School of Music at Bard College. He was the Arts and Culture correspondent for "The Tavis Smiley Show," and was hired by Quincy Jones in 2010 to create a national music curriculum and textbook revolving around American musical culture. Banfield has written several books, including volumes on Ornette Coleman, Kendrick Lamar, and Nikki Minaj.

Commemorating the 270th anniversary of Mozart's birth in 2026, the "MOZART COLORS 100" collection by Deutsche Grammophon and Decca is a masterful fusion of high-fidelity audio and innovative visual curation. By organizing 94 essential recordings and six genre-specific masterpieces into a spectrum of 12 thematic colors, the series transforms the act of listening into a mood-based experience, allowing the "jacket color" to guide the listener through Mozart's immense versatility-from his precocious childhood works to his universally beloved classics. The technical presentation is equally impressive, featuring the SHM-CD format for superior sound resolution housed in elegant, color-coordinated cardboard sleeves that appeal to tactile collectors. With insightful new commentary by Mai Takano and approachable branding by Toshiyuki Hirata, this 100-title series successfully modernizes a historical legacy, making the 2026 anniversary both a luxury for audiophiles and a welcoming entry point for new fans of the "Wunderkind."

Zhu Xiao-Mei is widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of our time and one of the foremost interpreters of J.S. Bach's music. The Goldberg Variations marked the beginning of her international career and remain, for her, the "greatest musical encounter" of her life. She was the first artist ever to perform the iconic cycle at Bach's final resting place in St Thomas Church, Leipzig. This unforgettable concert is captured in a critically acclaimed and award-winning live recording.

For three decades Alexandre Tharaud and Jean-Guihen Queyras have shared their rich and rare musical friendship with harmonia mundi. From Marin Marais to Debussy and Berg via Schuber, this anniversary double-album brings together some of their finest recordings. For the occasion they have also recorded several new pieces, including the Britten Sonata, Faure's Elegie, and Weill's Youkali.

MIKKOU

Commemorating the 270th anniversary of Mozart's birth in 2026, the "MOZART COLORS 100" collection by Deutsche Grammophon and Decca is a masterful fusion of high-fidelity audio and innovative visual curation. By organizing 94 essential recordings and six genre-specific masterpieces into a spectrum of 12 thematic colors, the series transforms the act of listening into a mood-based experience, allowing the "jacket color" to guide the listener through Mozart's immense versatility-from his precocious childhood works to his universally beloved classics. The technical presentation is equally impressive, featuring the SHM-CD format for superior sound resolution housed in elegant, color-coordinated cardboard sleeves that appeal to tactile collectors. With insightful new commentary by Mai Takano and approachable branding by Toshiyuki Hirata, this 100-title series successfully modernizes a historical legacy, making the 2026 anniversary both a luxury for audiophiles and a welcoming entry point for new fans of the "Wunderkind."

COLOURS OF EUROPE

The dazzling Sardinian guitarist returns to the studios for a breathtaking compendium of variation sets, many of them never recorded before, by many of the most enduring names in guitar composition of the last century. Through the course of his long partnership with Brilliant Classics, Cristiano Porqueddu has attracted superlatives and enthusiasm from all corners of the critical press and listeners everywhere. There's no denying the ability of Cristiano Porqueddu,' wrote David Hurwitz in Classics Today, citing the guitarist's 'rich sound and dexterous handling of his instrument.' His colleague Jed Distler noted that Porqueddu's 'nuanced articulation allows him to sustain and spin out legato lines as if his fingers had bows.' Porqueddu's collection of 20th-century variation sets surveys a kaleidoscopic variety of styles and idioms, demonstrating in the process the guitarist's own breadth of vision as well as his virtuosic technique and insightful musicianship. He begins with a monster of the form: the 45-minute sequence of variations on a theme of Fernando Sor, by the US composer Mark Delpriora. Musician and listener are taken on an astonishing tour de force of invention, as Sor's melancholy tune becomes the raw text for vivid pastiches and parodies in the style of canon composers from Beethoven through to Schoenberg and Busoni. Characteristically, set the challenge to 'follow that', Porqueddu does just that, with a work of his own, which takes it's inspiration from Foucault's Pendulum. On the following discs, the withdrawn, lyrical chromaticism presents a compelling contrast with both the Russian romanticism of Boris Asafiev preceding him, and the implacable shadows of the Raighines by Ermanno Brignolo. This last work was composed for Porqueddu himself, while John Duarte's Variations on a Catalan Folksong were composed in 1956 at the suggestion of John Williams; and it is in this distinguished lineage that Porqueddu belongs. Some of the following works inspire wonder at their intricacy (both executive and compositional), such as the interwoven Variants on Two Themes of Bach by Reginald Smith-Brindle, while others major on charm, such as the first set of Mozartiana composed by Porqueddu's teacher, Angelo Gilardino. There's something for everyone.

Abate Berihun & The Addis Ken Project's Addis Ken (New Day) is a deeply evocative journey where jazz becomes both vessel and invocation. Drawing from Ethiopian Jewish liturgical traditions, pan-African rhythms, and modern improvisational language, they fuse ancient memory with contemporary expression in music that feels timeless and urgent all at once. Berihun's commanding tenor and soprano saxophones are matched by his remarkable vocal presence-earthy, elastic, and prayerful-capable of moving seamlessly from guttural incantation to soaring, skyward cries. Joined by pianist Roy Mor, bassist David Michaeli, and drummer/percussionist Nitzan Birnbaum, the quartet operates with intuitive empathy, shaping grooves and atmospheres that breathe and expand around Berihun's impassioned lead. Moments such as the stirring "Behatitu Kadush Kadush," featuring vocalist Rudi Bainesay, reach directly into sacred terrain, while pieces like "Addis Ken" and "Jerusalem" balance reverence with forward momentum. Rich in texture, spirit, and blues-rooted intensity, Addis Ken is music as lived experience-honoring lineage while speaking vividly in the present tense. "They are a joy to behold." Jerusalem Post. "The quartet of brilliant musicians drew inspiration not only from across the planet but also from the depths of time." - Tom š S. Pol¡vka (Prague)

HEALING SONGS

Electrical Field of Love is the brilliant new release from Harriet Tubman - the long-running trio of guitarist Brandon Ross, bassist Melvin Gibbs, and drummer JT Lewis, joined here by the fervent voice and imagination of Grammy-nominee Georgia Anne Muldrow. Described as "black music at it's best" by NPR, Tubman has been a band that creates it's unique sound world through it's exploration of all tributaries of what the Art Ensemble of Chicago called "Great Black Music, Ancient to the Future." Jazz, funk, psychedelia, doom metal, soul, dub, and electronics are just some of what the group amalgamates through their creative process into it's own mystic brew. Into this vortex enters Muldrow, whose shared devotion to exploring black music in all of it's multivariate forms melds seamlessly into the Tubman aesthetic. She moves freely within the music, with her voice by turns incantatory, declarative, and spectral. Moments of raw propulsion resolve to space and rare beauty. Throughout, the emphasis is on listening - musicians responding in real time, shaping form through insight rather than formula, moving with the force of electric Miles, the ooze of the heaviest Funkadelic, and the sharpened edge of the Black Rock aesthetic. Through collective creativity, the convergence of these kindred spirits results in music that feels both deeply grounded and yet, inspiringly exploratory.

Commemorating the 270th anniversary of Mozart's birth in 2026, the "MOZART COLORS 100" collection by Deutsche Grammophon and Decca is a masterful fusion of high-fidelity audio and innovative visual curation. By organizing 94 essential recordings and six genre-specific masterpieces into a spectrum of 12 thematic colors, the series transforms the act of listening into a mood-based experience, allowing the "jacket color" to guide the listener through Mozart's immense versatility-from his precocious childhood works to his universally beloved classics. The technical presentation is equally impressive, featuring the SHM-CD format for superior sound resolution housed in elegant, color-coordinated cardboard sleeves that appeal to tactile collectors. With insightful new commentary by Mai Takano and approachable branding by Toshiyuki Hirata, this 100-title series successfully modernizes a historical legacy, making the 2026 anniversary both a luxury for audiophiles and a welcoming entry point for new fans of the "Wunderkind."

ACAPULCO 22

Commemorating the 270th anniversary of Mozart's birth in 2026, the "MOZART COLORS 100" collection by Deutsche Grammophon and Decca is a masterful fusion of high-fidelity audio and innovative visual curation. By organizing 94 essential recordings and six genre-specific masterpieces into a spectrum of 12 thematic colors, the series transforms the act of listening into a mood-based experience, allowing the "jacket color" to guide the listener through Mozart's immense versatility-from his precocious childhood works to his universally beloved classics. The technical presentation is equally impressive, featuring the SHM-CD format for superior sound resolution housed in elegant, color-coordinated cardboard sleeves that appeal to tactile collectors. With insightful new commentary by Mai Takano and approachable branding by Toshiyuki Hirata, this 100-title series successfully modernizes a historical legacy, making the 2026 anniversary both a luxury for audiophiles and a welcoming entry point for new fans of the "Wunderkind."

With HOMETOWN, trumpeter and composer Jared Hall brings listeners into a musically rich reflection on place, purpose, and artistic growth. Born in Spokane and seasoned by vibrant creative communities from Bloomington to Miami and Seattle, Hall returns to his roots with a lyrical voice shaped by decades of performance and collaboration. Here, he celebrates the grounding power of family, shared history, and the joy of reconnecting with the people and experiences that shaped him. From the clever nods to jazz lineage in "Step by Step" and "Echoes and Origins," to the wistful inspiration behind "Room 111," this recording maps Hall's journey with clarity, heart, and unwavering musical intention. Supported by a stellar quintet - including saxophonist Troy Roberts, pianist Ben Markley, bassist Michael Glynn and drummer Kyle Swan - HOMETOWN unfolds with both rooted tradition and forward-looking spirit. The result is resonant and compelling. "There is truth here, unabashed, direct to the listener." - All About Jazz. "... Hall's expressive, probing trumpet style, offers a masterful, wide ranging sound, and varied emotional landscape." All About Jazz

Blue Hour is Nick Schofield's first foray into ambient jazz music. The album is an ambient ode to Miles Davis' In A Silent Way, and opens up Schofield's sonic palette to introduce his childhood instrument, drums, with his contemporary ambient-electronic practice. Blue Hour features the intuitive, and totally improvised, trumpet playing of Scott Bevins (No Cosmos, Busty and the Bass). Schofield grew up playing drums, but turned to creating experimental-electronic music when studying Electroacoustics at Concordia University. Well-known for his signature ambient aesthetic, Schofield has been called a "dazzling electronic artist" by Aquarium Drunkard and a "synth maven" by Constellation Records. Blue Hour marks the first time that he has merged his percussion practice with his ambient electronic explorations, and it is all in the service of reinterpreting Miles Davis' 1969 watershed recording In a Silent Way. Schofield improvised all of the drumming and main synthesizer parts over the course of a single day, recording in a church in Ottawa. These foundational layers comprise tender Moog pulses and Roland Juno-6 pads, some of which would not be out of place on the back half of Another Green World or Music Has the Right to Children. If this was to be a reflection of In a Silent Way, of course there would need to be trumpet. Schofield invited Bevins to record the missing piece of the album during a one day recording session, where Bevins improvised all his trumpet parts having never heard the songs before. Scott Bevins' contribution gives the music a leading instrumental voice, and his intuitive approach shows a perfect understanding of how to both integrate and elevate the compositions. Blue Hour is itself a profound reference, an ambient adaptation, a dream realized and an uncanny synthesis of sounds, styles, and personal history.

Respected jazz veteran Jaimee Paul returns with a captivating new project: The Richard Rodgers Songbook. The latest collaboration between Green Hill and Burton Avenue, this album highlights Paul's rich artistry and the elegance of timeless classics. After years singing behind music's biggest names, Jaimee steps forward once again with a sound that's all her own.

Uncharted Realms is the bold new release from saxophonist and composer Sean Imboden, showcasing the visionary sound of the Sean Imboden Large Ensemble. Following the acclaimed debut Communal Heart, this second full-length album expands the ensemble's sonic landscape, blending dynamic big band arrangements with modern jazz textures and emotional depth. Featuring sweeping brass, intricate woodwind lines, and inventive solos, Uncharted Realms explores themes of imagination, connection, and optimism. From high-energy openers to introspective moments of calm, each composition reflects Imboden's forward-thinking approach to jazz orchestration. A must-have for fans of contemporary big band and large ensemble jazz.

Commemorating the 270th anniversary of Mozart's birth in 2026, the "MOZART COLORS 100" collection by Deutsche Grammophon and Decca is a masterful fusion of high-fidelity audio and innovative visual curation. By organizing 94 essential recordings and six genre-specific masterpieces into a spectrum of 12 thematic colors, the series transforms the act of listening into a mood-based experience, allowing the "jacket color" to guide the listener through Mozart's immense versatility-from his precocious childhood works to his universally beloved classics. The technical presentation is equally impressive, featuring the SHM-CD format for superior sound resolution housed in elegant, color-coordinated cardboard sleeves that appeal to tactile collectors. With insightful new commentary by Mai Takano and approachable branding by Toshiyuki Hirata, this 100-title series successfully modernizes a historical legacy, making the 2026 anniversary both a luxury for audiophiles and a welcoming entry point for new fans of the "Wunderkind."

First transforming the iconic music of Cedar Walton into stellar big band arrangements, followed by a dive into the idiosyncratic rhythmic mastery of Ari Hoenig, pianist and composer Ben Markley's two big band albums displayed a formidable voice, always searching for challenges while reveling in surprise. With Tuesday Morning Feeling, Markley steps decisively into his own voice, delivering seven originals and several new arrangements of Thelonious Monk and Cedar Walton. He balances authority and openness, pairing strong melodic ideas with flexible frameworks that invite conversation, risk, and momentum. The band itself is a blend of long-standing Front Range collaborators and world-renowned guest artists, including Terell Stafford, Steve Nelson, Steve Davis, Bijon Watson, and David Wong, whose presence adds both fire and depth to the ensemble sound. Solos burn, the ensemble breathes as one, and the rhythmic engine never loses sight of swing. Tuesday Morning Feeling captures a big band in it's stride: grounded, evolving, and driven by the joy of making music. "a depth of melodicism and harmonic sophistication at work amidst rhythmic brilliance" DownBeat"classic big band sounds, an upbeat take on the format, full of adept arrangements and intricate soloing" DownBeat

DAVVI OKTAVUOHTA: POHJOINEN YHTEYS