For the past two centuries or so, making music has largely been a public business, with paying audiences listening to professional musicians. But for most of western history, outside of formal and religious occasions and local festivities, music-making was largely a domestic affair, with individuals playing for their own pleasure. Most of the music written for the drawing room has long been lost from sight, and it's composers forgotten, the two heard here - the Austrian Cajetan Wutky and German-English John Henry (n� Justus Heinrich) Griesbach - being cases in point. Their Haydnesque string duos, only recently rescued from obscurity in modern publications, hint at the pleasure their first patrons would have found in performing them.

Organised Delirium is pianist Tamara Stefanovich' personal exploration of the sonata form, centred around Boulez' Piano Sonata No. 2 which she studied in close collaboration with the composer, reigniting her passion as a performer. Boulez' Piano Sonata No. 2 represents a restructuring of music after it's destruction during World War II. Boulez' iconoclast piece is paired with twentieth-century sonatas by Eisler, Bartok and Shostakovich, each questioning the use of the term 'sonata', while the programme closes with a return the sonata's origins by way of Domenico Scarlatti. Appearing in the context of Boulez' centenary, this adventurous album reveals a strong kinship to Stefanovich' PENTATONE debut Influences (2019), and deepens our understanding of the sonata, it's history and it's many shapes. The New York Times lauded Tamara's recent concert performance of Boulez' Piano Sonata No. 2, stating that "Ms. Stefanovich's performance was staggeringly brilliant". Praised by The Guardian as "fearless, dazzling, exceptional", Tamara Stefanovich is one of today's most adventurous and sought-after pianists. After Influences (2019), Visions (2022) and Nicolaou: Etudes & Frames (2023), she now releases her fourth PENTATONE album.

SYMPHONY NO. 3 from composer Michael Kurek is a tribute to the history and natural beauty of England. The work is fundamentally Romantic, but is also influenced by Edwardian music and English folk melodies. The composer draws inspiration from personal memories, nature, poetry, and art; "Upon a Walk in the English Countryside," recalls the lush, pastoral beauty of the English countryside, while "The Lady of Shalott" nods to Waterhouse's colorful, pre-Raphaelite depiction of Tennyson's famous poem. The symphony's conclusion, "The Major Oak of Sherwood Forest," celebrates the roughly 1000-year-old tree in Nottinghamshire and is perhaps the most climactic of Kurek's works.

This volume concludes the complete Sibelius symphonies performed by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra under Santtu-Matias Rouvali. This series has already won numerous awards around the world and reaches it's climax here with three of Sibelius' greatest symphonies: Andrew Mellor writes in his introductory text that "we hear music carried by forms of gravitational energy reminiscent of those that govern the course of a river". Rouvali has also chosen to record eight extracts from Sibelius' incidental music for Shakespeare's The Tempest. First performed in March 1926, it is one of Sibelius's final orchestral works and is certainly his most fascinating composition for the theatre.

Francisco Mignone was a leading figure in the Brazilian music scene of the 20th century, with a free-flowing style and gift for melody that instantly communicated with audiences. He was part of the first generation of modernist Brazilian composers that included Villa-Lobos and Guarnieri. Mignone's two early unnumbered sonatas emulate the French influence of Faure and Debussy, but it was not until the 1960s that he returned to the genre. The First and Second Sonatas share a fragmented, experimental character that juxtapose varying forms of tonality and metre, while the Third Sonata features national rhythmic and melodic elements. These sonatas represent some of the most significant works for violin and piano to come from Brazil.

This second album of early 19th century bassoon concertos by Jaakko Luoma and Tapiola Sinfonietta includes four concertos written for Frans Carl Preumayr (1782-1853), proficient and talented bassoonist who moved to Stockholm in 1802. Most of the works were taken with him on his grand tour as a soloist throughout Europe 1829-1830. Probably the best-known of the works were written by his Finnish father-in-law Bernhard Henrik Crusell and Franz Berwald, Sweden's most famous composer of the Romantic period. However, the impressive bassoon concerto by the Swiss-born edouard Du Puy is a gem that has been very rarely heard. In a similar fashion also the German-born composer Eduard Brendler has been largely forgotten by history. All four works are powerful, interesting, and demanding solo compositions which are also giving light to the music life in one of the Nordic music capitals 200 years ago.

Written for the wedding celebrations in Venice of Louis XV and Marie Leszczynska, Vivaldi's serenade La Gloria e Imeneo offers a wonderful synthesis of his mid-1720 style and shines a light on two captivating voices, those of Teresa Iervolino and Carlo Vistoli. Truly enchanting! The album will be released exactly 300 years after the work was first released. // Resuming it's exploration of a less well-known side of the Red Priest's music, the Vivaldi Edition again explores the territory of the serenades by entrusting the neglected La Gloria e Imeneo to Andrea Buccarella and his Abchordis Ensemble, already champions of the Serenata a tre, issued two years ago (OP7901). And what a revelation it is! Andrea Buccarella nails the work with his thoughtful phrasing, always full of life, fleet of foot, and expressive (for instance in Ognor colmi d'estrema dolcezza), inspiring the two singers to a level of intensity which stays with one. From the start his quicksilver direction of the Concerto for strings in F major (Allegro) is gripping, reaching unique heights in the two protagonist-heroes' short and ebullient duetto Vedro sempre la pace. And impossible to forget Gloria's aria Alle amene, franche arene, transfigured by the amber-shaded mezzo of the charismatic Teresa Iervolino, or again Carlo Vistoli's utterly sensual decorations in Imeneo's aria Care pupille! Like Vivaldi's other Serenades preserved in the body of volume 27 of the Fonds Fo� collection in Turin - the Serenata a 3 (1718) and La Sena festeggiante (1726) - La Gloria e Imeneo (1725) was written for a French patron, specifically Jacques-Vincent Languet, Count of Gergy (1667-1734) and France's ambassador to Venice between 1723 and 1731. With La Gloria e Imeneo, performed during the course of a splendid feast on 12 September 1725 at the French Embassy in Venice, Languet celebrated the wedding of Louis XV and the Polish Princess Marie Leszczynska, which had taken place at Fontainebleau some days earlier. The two allegorical characters, Gloria and Imeneo compete with each other in praising the royal couple. Written by an unknown author, the tightly knit libretto celebrates the political significance of the wedding and it's impact upon the royal dynasty and the descendants to be spawned by the union, as well as the peace and prosperity it will bring to the kingdom. Far from aping the French style, typified by the dotted rhythms of the Lully overture, with La Gloria e Imeneo Vivaldi rather presents a wonderful synthesis of his mid-1720s approach, and his painting of human emotions remains irresistibly charming.

Florence Price had worked for some years as a silent film organist before she won admiration in 1932 for her Symphony No. 1 in E minor. Works for organ form one of the largest parts of her output; the Sonata attests to her virtuosic command, as does the Passacaglia and Fugue which, while clearly indebted to Bach, reveals personal ideas of her own. Price's gift for writing miniatures is also obvious - Adoration has heartfelt melodic beauty, and the dainty Caprice exemplifies light music at it's best. Variations on a Folksong is a tour-de-force and her only organ work to be based on a pre-existing melody, a spiritual. A digital EP featuring four additional miniatures for organ is also available for streaming and download (9.70389).

Pablo de Sarasate was born in Pamplona, Spain, and became an acclaimed virtuoso of the violin by the tender age of twelve. The child prodigy was sent away to study at the Paris Conservatoire, and Sarasate spent the rest of his life in Paris. In demand nationally and internationally as a soloist, he was the dedicatee of a large number of important concertos by composers ranging from Max Bruch to Henryk Wieniawski. Lalo's Symphonie espagnole was composed for Sarasate, who gave the Paris premiere, in 1875. The work is laid out in five movements and bristles with Spanish themes, rhythms, and influences, which were very much the vogue in France at that time. Also composed for Sarasate, Saint-Saens' Third Violin Concerto was composed in 1880. Written in his usual clear, refined, almost classical style, the work has endured as the most played of his three violin concertos. The album is completed with Sarasate's own fantasia on Bizet's Carmen - a virtuosic tour de force for the soloist, brilliantly played here by James Ehnes.

William Shield rose from relatively humble beginnings to become the 'house' composer to Covent Garden, for which he wrote stage works full of panache and tunefulness. He met and befriended Haydn who was to prove a lasting influence. In 1782 Shield published his Six String Quartets, Op. 3, some of the most richly rewarding works of their type in 18th-century England. The transparency of parts, use of imitation, infusion of Sturm und Drang elements as well as the bucolic and folkloric writing, all demonstrate Shield's art, as does the progressive writing of the last of the six, in C minor.

This album, which Denis Kozhukhin dedicates in memory of his parents, is very special and deeply personal to him. It brings together the innocence of Tchaikovsky's Children's Album, the playful yet technically demanding Music for Children by Prokofiev, and Alexey Shor's emotionally rich Piano Sonata No. 2. Tchaikovsky's pieces evoke childhood wonder and the fragility of life, while Prokofiev's "easy" works cleverly disguise technical challenges with mischievous charm. Shor's Sonata, filled with bold contrasts and introspective melodies, takes the listener on a journey of emotional discovery and resilience. Together, these works transcend their individual stories to offer a profound exploration of human experience - from the simplicity of childhood to the complexities of adulthood - all brought to life with Kozhukhin's masterful artistry. A prize-winner in prestigious competitions, including the Leeds International Piano Competition (2006) and the Queen Elizabeth Competition (2010), Denis Kozhukhin, has established himself as one of the greatest and most acclaimed pianists, with worldwide success. He now presents another chapter to his exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE, enriching the already extensive discography, after albums Grieg and Tchaikovsky's piano concertos (2016) which received a Gramophone Editor's Choice, Brahms' Ballades and Fantasies (2017) which was awarded 5 stars in Diapason, piano concertos by Ravel and Gershwin, Richard Strauss' Burleske (both 2018), Grieg: Lyric Pieces & Mendelssohn: Lieder ohne Worte (2019) which was selected as Gramophone's Recording of the Month, as well as the Cesar Franck's Symphonic Variations for piano and orchestra (2020).

Orlando Gibbons was a genius. We can probably all agree that this term is massively anachronistic. However, justified, I think, in order to establish his music on the same elevated niveau as Purcell or Beethoven or Schubert. While it is difficult to make such analogies when his music is still relatively rarely performed by comparison with these more illustrious names, but Gibbons' fecundity of imagination, his masterly handling of his material, his emotional depth and maturity, the exquisite turns of phrase, his harmonic assurance, his contrapuntal ease and mastery - all this puts him in the first rank of composers - Richard Boothby. "My Days is a ritualised memory piece about Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) written for two ensembles whose recordings informed so much of my musical development. I feel like I spend half of my life trying to trick string players to play like Fretwork, and vocalists to sing like the Hilliard Ensemble, so it was with enormous pleasure that I composed this piece." - Nico Muhly

Florence Price reached her musical maturity in Chicago during the 1930s - the decade in which she made a famous debut with the city's orchestra and produced two substantial concertos. The Piano Concerto in One Movement contains some of her most beautiful music set alongside moments of Romantic bravura. Violin Concerto No. 1 seems never to have been performed during her lifetime but is the most expansive of her concertos and is richly orchestrated. The later Violin Concerto No. 2 is a much more compact work, cast in one expressive movement. Dances in the Canebrakes, originally for piano, evokes 19th-century African American life, heard here in William Grant Still's orchestration.

Daniel Ottensamer presents Brahms' two legendary clarinet sonatas, reworked for clarinet and orchestra by Stephan Koncz, who also conducts the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin on this recording. Koncz' orchestrations bring these masterful pieces out of the limited space of chamber music, presenting them in a new symphonic light. The idea to create this very personal album has accompanied them both since their student days, and now the time to turn this vision into reality has finally come. Brahms' well-known works are accompanied by a hidden gem, Walter Rabl's clarinet quartet, which won first prize in a prestigious competition, of which Brahms himself served as the head of jury. Pianist Christoph Traxler and Berlin Philharmonic's first concertmaster Noah Bendix-Balgley join Ottensamer in this performance, while Koncz exchanges his baton for the cello. Combining Brahms and Rabl gives the listener a fascinating view on the rich musical landscape of late nineteenth-century Vienna. Daniel Ottensamer has been hailed as one of the prominent clarinettists of today and is enjoying a multi-faceted career as soloist, chamber musician and principal clarinettist of the Vienna Philharmonic. Stephan Koncz is a cellist of the Berlin Philharmonic, and divides his time between composing/arranging, conducting, and various chamber music groups, often together with Ottensamer, pianist Traxler, violinist Bendix-Balgley and their Vienna Berlin Music Club - namely "Philharmonix". The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO) emanates into the world from renowned Berliner Philharmonie, while remaining societally relevant at all times, close to people and keeping pace with the times. All performers make their PENTATONE debut.

Sony Masterworks Broadway is pleased to announce the release of Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical (Original Cast Recording). The best reviewed show in West End history, with 56 five-star reviews!, Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical is directed by 2023 Olivier Award nominee Robert Hastie. With book, music and lyrics by David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts, the album is produced by Grammy Award winning and Tony, Emmy, Olivier award nominated Steve Sidwell.