Le Secret, Music for Cello & Harp

On the occasion of Maurice Ravel's 150th anniversary in 2025, Un Tombeau pour Ravel presents a musical journey interweaving the styles of Ravel and the French Baroque, especially the works of Francois Couperin. The program of this CD revolves around Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin, composed during World War I as both a tribute to Baroque composers and a memorial for his comrades lost in the war. This recording includes original works and carefully crafted arrangements for harpsichord, tracing influences from 18th-century French music, illustrating Ravel's inspirations at the time of the piano cycle's creation, and exploring the tombeau as an homage genre.

Third volume of Franz Schubert's complete piano sonatas, performed by Japanese fortepianist Yasuyo Yano, professor at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences. Recorder in Swizerland with a Christopher Clarke fortepiano. Yasuyo Yano, was born in Tokyo. Her teachers were Midori Matsubara, then Sergio Perticaroli and Carla Giudici at the Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Yasuyo Yano has also received precious advice from other famous pianists, such as Jacques Rouvier, Dang Thai Son and Paul Badura-Skoda. Yasuyo Yano now lives in Switzerland where she teaches the piano, Fortepiano and chamber music at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. She gives solo recitals and is also a chamber music performer, both on the Fortepiano and the modern piano. Yasuyo Yano tells of her encounter with the Fortepiano: "In Venice, in 2001, I played the complete Mozart sonatas for violin and piano together with the violinist Giuliano Carmignola. Andrea Marcon, another eminent Italian musician, told me after one of these concerts that I should consider playing Fortepiano. I took his advice and I am today still thankful for it, because working with the Fortepiano has opened up entirely new dimensions for me. On the one hand, the Fortepiano enables me to imagine and hear how the music must have sounded back in those days, and on the other hand, the Fortepiano is quite different to modern pianos, offering a large spectrum for creative leeway with a rich palette of sound colors, a wide range of dynamics and the delicate response of the keyboard to touch. I had not expected all of this! But it was quite a long journey to master the instrument so that I was able to reveal these characteristics - a journey with a wonderful reward as it has lead me to Schubert."

Cangiasi: Scherzi forastieri

The recording of Mozart's Piano Concertos No. 20 and 24 is intended as a contrasting twin project to the first recording of No. 15 and 21 released on the Solo Musica label in 2024. The two recordings are like the "yin" and the "yang," the moon and the sun, demonstrating the multifaceted nature of Mozart's creativity. As a pianist, Zhen Chen wants to demonstrate his ability to develop and perform works of different artistic modes. Furthermore, since the pianist and the orchestra remain the same in the two recordings and only the baton has been changed-from the hand of the Austrian conductor Thomas Rosner to the French conductor Paul Meyer-these two recordings are an interesting pair, allowing listeners to savor the difference in the artistic direction of the two conductors. No. 15 and 21 are, in his opinion, the quintessential Mozart piano concertos in major key. They are gleeful, humorous, and uplifting, while No. 20 and 24 are the rare gems of Mozart's multi-movement piano works in minor keys. Out of a total of 27, he composed only two piano concertos in minor keys. They are among the few works by Mozart dominated by an unsettling and gloomy sense.

Duarte: Homages, Works for Guitar Solo

Dacw 'Nghariad (there is my love) is a beautful Welsh folk song that I discovered whilst working on a cantata for the Aldeburgh Festival based on the Welsh myth of Lyn y Fan Fach. The song is about longing; longing for something that is unreachable and distant, for the moment at least. � Gavin Higgins

In his Echoes of Edinburgh, transverse flutist Brian Berryman takes us back to 18th century Scotland: in the Scottish music scene of the time, there was still no clear boundary between 'folk' and 'art' music. With his ensemble Concert des Amis, Berryman dares the balancing act and juxtaposes traditional Scottish folk music with works by classical composers from Edinburgh that make reference to traditional melodies. The guitar and the bodrhan, a Celtic frame drum, provide the special authentic 'drive' to the strings and harpsichord.

Whilst working on The Faerie Bride for the Aldeburgh Festival - a cantata based on the Welsh legend of Lyn y Fan Fach - I became fascinated by the rich and elusive world of Welsh folk music. Some of the tunes I discovered found their way into the cantata, but I inadvertently found myself arranging others for solo violin. Many welsh folk tunes and airs are very ancient, stretching back to the time of Henry V, whilst others are more recent, being written in the 17 and 1800's. But no matter when these melodies originated, most Welsh folk songs fall into three main categories: songs of love, songs of nature, and songs of battle. The songs in this arrangement explore a broad range of subjects including unrequited love, loss, friendship, infidelity, and even one about a cat who's lost it's fur! � Gavin Higgins

Acclaimed flautist Lisa Friend writes: It has long been a dream of mine to record an album featuring the works of some of my favourite American composers. Having grown up in New York, I have cherished memories of watching, as a young child, my father, Rodney Friend (concertmaster), perform with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of his close friend Leonard Bernstein. I recall being in rehearsals, where my father and Bernstein would often discuss the scores during breaks - a time I wish I could relive. This album brings together a selection of American works and original arrangements that hold a special place in my heart. Dad always played Heifetz's version of Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair, hence my wanting to record it here. Bernstein's West Side Story, and especially the theme 'Somewhere', has been one of my all-time favourites. I have recorded Ashokan Farewell for my brother Steven, knowing how much he loves this beautiful melody. I dedicate the lovely Poem by Griffes to my wonderful teacher and mentor, Renee Siebert, former flautist of the New York Philharmonic.

As Bath Abbey Boys' Choir marks it's 150th anniversary, we are delighted to present this album. I hope you will enjoy this varied collection, which has been designed to showcase the very best of our boys' choral singing. One of the highlights of this project has been welcoming our alumni to sing again in Bath Abbey as part of the recording. Seeing the joy of our former choristers at being back in the Abbey, some of whom left the choir over 50 years ago, demonstrates the lasting mark that their time as a chorister has made on their lives. We know how important these choirs are for training future musicians. However, I believe we often underestimate the impact that being part of a choir can have on the choristers who pursue other careers; the discipline, teamwork and concentration skills that will support them throughout their lives, helping to build the leaders and team players of the future. This recording has been made to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the introduction of the Boys and Lay Clerks (formally Men's choir) in 1875. At a time when boys' choirs are decreasing due to mixing the treble line with boys and girls, we are lucky that, despite there being no choir school at the Abbey, we can maintain our independent boys' choir. For part of this recording, we have invited our girls and lay clerk alumni to join us for two items as we celebrate the history and tradition that helped many singers to find their voice. � Huw Williams

Barsanti: 6 Sonatas, Op. 2

Sir Arthur Bliss (1891 - 1975) was an excellent conductor of his own music, but he sadly made only a limited number of commercial recordings. SOMM celebrates the 50th anniversary of Bliss's death with a 2-CD set of important archive performances, all but two of which he didn't record commercially, making them of particular interest. These live performances, mostly recorded at the BBC Proms and not previously made available, are skilfully remastered by long-time SOMM collaborator and executive producer, Lani Spahr, whose recent 6-volume "Bruckner from the Archives" received no less than two Editor's Choices from Gramophone magazine. At the invitation of Edward Elgar, Bliss wrote a new work for the Three Choirs Festival in 1920. He was inspired by a book on heraldry to compose a full-scale symphony incorporating symbolic meanings associated with primary colours. Hence, the four movements of A Colour Symphony are Purple, Red, Blue, and Green. The performance issued here is with Bliss conducting his 70th birthday concert at the Proms in 1961. For his 75th birthday concert at the Proms in 1966, Bliss conducted his Piano Concerto, commissioned by the British Council in 1939. Following this birthday concert, Bliss wrote that he felt "indeed positively youthful; perhaps that rejuvenation was accentuated by the exuberantly fine performance that John Ogdon gave of my Piano Concerto." That "exuberantly fine performance," along with Bliss's brief speech of thanks, are included in this set. Bliss and his younger brother served during World War I, and Kennard was killed at the Battle of the Somme. In 1930, haunted by nightmares of the war and grief about his brother, Bliss composed Morning Heroes, dedicating it "to the memory of my brother Francis Kennard Bliss and all other comrades killed in battle." The work is a symphony for orator, chorus, and orchestra, with poetry ranging from The Iliad to Walt Whitman and Wilfred Owen. Lady Bliss considered the pre-eminent orator of this work to be Donald Douglas, featured here with Bliss in 1968-surprisingly, the only performance to date of Morning Heroes at the Proms. The much-revised Concerto for Two Pianos is presented in a version for two pianos and three hands, which Bliss arranged after Cyril Smith suffered a stroke that paralysed his left arm. This performance with Bliss leading Cyril Smith, Phyllis Sellick, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra is from the 1969 Proms. Two shorter works complete this Bliss anniversary tribute. M�lee Fantasque from 1921, influenced by Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, is a precursor to many ballet scores Bliss would produce. The Phoenix, subtitled "Homage to France August 1944," is noted in the score as symbolizing "the imperishable life and the transcendent beauty of France." The extraordinarily vast repertoire of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau over his 45-year career comprised�lieder, operas,�cantatas,�and�oratorios.�He sang these in German, Italian, French, Russian, English, Hebrew, Hungarian, and Latin, from eras that spanned the Baroque to the latter part of the 20th century. Particularly, it was the controlled power and beauty of his voice, and the dramatic intensity and poetry of his interpretations, that led him to excel in the genre of German�lieder.�In this form he exerted a virtually unprecedented stylistic and interpretative influence-not only on the musical world of his day, but also on generations of performers to come. SOMM's centenary tribute opens with four songs by Ferruccio Busoni, all being works that were written late in the composer's career. They come from a programme that Fischer-Dieskau gave with Gerald Moore in 1962.� At the 1971 Helsinki Festival, Fischer-Dieskau presented a recital with Irwin Gage, which was devoted entirely to songs with texts by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The recital, described by a contemporary critic as "a landmark event," featured compositions by contemporaries of Goethe, who lived from 1749 to 1832, such as the Countess Anna Amalia, Kapellmeister Johann Friedrich Reichardt, and Goethe's friend Carl Friedrich Zelter. The more familiar composers represented on this Goethe-inspired recital were active during the first part of the 20th century. They include Richard Strauss, Max Reger, and Ferruccio Busoni. This tribute to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau also includes six songs from a programme of works by Gustav Mahler, which was presented with his long-time collaborator, Karl Engel. Three of the songs are from Des Knaben Wunderhorn,�based on texts of German folk poems, and three are from the collection of five Ruckert-Lieder,�after poems written by�Friedrich Ruckert. The musical component of this collection closes with a concert performance of three songs by Zoltan Kodaly, sung in Hungarian by Fischer-Dieskau. The composer proves himself an outstanding interpreter of his own music in conducting the London Symphony Orchestra. In the two interviews included on the bonus CD, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau discusses his early years, his teachers, the development of his career, and a small but revealing cross-section of his enormous repertoire.

This album presents three large and undoubtedly genuine compositions. In addition, it presents some of Bach's doubtful and spurious works, which were already attributed to him in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. By using an original organ (Mueller, 1734, in the Waalse Kerk, Amsterdam) and a performance asesthetic based on historically informed choices of registration, touch, articulation and ornamentation - all magical details of Bach's music shine through.

Dacw 'Nghariad (there is my love) is a beautful Welsh folk song that I discovered whilst working on a cantata for the Aldeburgh Festival based on the Welsh myth of Lyn y Fan Fach. The song is about longing; longing for something that is unreachable and distant, for the moment at least. � Gavin Higgins