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.

Ilya Shmukler was the winner of the prestigios Geza Anda Competition in Zurich in 2024. On this album he presents a broad variety of composers and musical styles.

These recordings, made between 1960 and 1987 by Jean Malaurie during many missions to the Far North, are intended to use their music to reveal the heart and spirit of the Inuit people, forged in a demanding environment. The Inuit live in one of the world's most vast areas. From Siberia -their homeland- to Greenland, they occupy some of the most desolate icy deserts on the planet. Inuit civilisation has adapted to it's terrible environment in one of the greatest challenges of courage and wisdom in human history. Through songs and drums (warrior choruses, throat singing, poignant melodies), the Inuit bear witness to their myths and legends, their identity, their hidden being and their strength in the midst of desolate spaces that would have driven the weakest characters to despair.

The programme Schonheit und Staatsversagen (Beauty & State Failure) brings together music and text to explore the contrasts of life in Bavaria around 1800 - between city and countryside, wealth and poverty, education and illiteracy. The vivid reports of civil servant Joseph von Hazzi reveal a little-known, often harsh rural reality, full of struggle but also raw, sometimes comical pleasures. In contrast, songs by Munich composers like Josephine Lang, Franz Lachner and Lindpaintner - alongside Schumann, Leopold Mozart and Haydn - paint an idealised, emotional image of alpine life. Though shaped by different worlds, both perspectives reflect timeless human experience. This album opens up new perspectives on the past - touching, surprising, and full of musical individuality. And always, of course, with Alma!

Peter Friis Johansson is one of Sweden's most brilliant pianists right now. He has not least won recognition for his cycles of Franz Schubert's complete piano sonatas for more than a decade. Now that he has finally started recording them under the title 'Beyond Schubert' it is with an unusual approach. Not only does he perform from original manuscripts, and even completes unfinished sonatas - he also combines some of the sonatas with high quality works by Swedish composers that somehow are connected to Schubert's. On this first volume, the charming A Major Sonata, Op. 3, by Sweden's grand old lady, Elfrida Andree (1841-1929), is placed next to Schubert's equally charming sonata in the same key (D 664). This album starts, however, with Schubert's big A Minor Sonata (D 845). 'Beyond Schubert' is both a series of recordings and an artistic research project, centered around Franz Schubert and his piano sonatas. As a body of work, the recordings aim to portray Schubert in new and sometimes experimental ways. The word 'Beyond' is therefore central to the project and carries different meanings across it's various components. The research project primarily focuses on Schubert's piano sonata fragments, completing them using diverse methods and aesthetic approaches. Some of these completions will be released as recordings, while others will be available only as sheet music. An online tool will also be developed, allowing anyone to create their own completions of the unfinished sonata movements. The recordings will eventually encompass all of Schubert's finished and fragmentary piano sonatas. Some, as in this recording, will be juxtaposed with other works that have a clear connection to Schubert's music. In this sense, 'Beyond' refers to how Schubert has influenced other composers, and how his style resonates beyond his own compositions.

Orjan Hulten

This programme showcases the euphonium's warmth, emotive quality and astonishing agility with a vibrant tapestry of contemporary chamber music that amply demonstrates it's unique character. From the jazz-inflected grooves of Simon Parkin's Skunk to meditative reflections such as Einaudi's renowned evocation of sunsets in Due Tramonti, this collection brings together composers from diverse backgrounds whose works reimagine the sonic potential of this versatile instrument. Whether exploring nostalgia or joy, virtuoso fireworks or serene tranquillity, each piece contributes to a compelling narrative of the euphonium's modern journey.

Composer-pianist Bruce Wolosoff describes the essence of his new album, Blue Mantra, as an engagement in multiple dialogues - between music and visual art, between the blues and chamber music, and between various moments in his creative life. The title track was inspired by a painting of the same name by his artist-wife Margaret Garrett. Similarly, Matisse Fantasies arose from seeing a charcoal drawing by the celebrated French impressionist. Blues for the New Millennium, commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution to commemorate the turn of the century, expresses a "before" and "after", and marked a turning point in Bruce's compositional style as he embraced a more directly lyrical, melodic compositional voice. All three works are scored for clarinet, piano and varied strings, and revel in bluesy lyricism alongside Bruce's formidable pianism and the virtuosity of his collaborators: clarinettist Narek Arutyunian, violinists Deborah Buck and Michelle Ross, and cellist Clarice Jensen.

It took a move from his native Seville to Paris for Joaquin Turina (1882-1949) to discover an authentically Spanish voice for himself, principally encouraged there by his countryman Isaac Albeniz. The Piano Trio in F now numbers among the first works of Turina's maturity, though it was lost for many years and only rediscovered in 1999. The distance of over two decades between this early work and Turina's first numbered Trio is mirrored in stark terms by the contrast in idioms. An essentially outgoing, Romantic temperament has been refined by the passing of time and life into a more angular melodic style, supported by more chromatic and allusive harmony - no less 'Spanish' in it's way, perhaps even more so. This is the piece that for many years was Turina's best-known chamber piece, beyond the Danzas fantasticas which delighted many listeners to Alicia de Larrocha and (in their orchestrated form) Ernest Ansermet. Now the First Piano Trio may be appreciated in a broader context of Turina's writing for a notoriously challenging genre, and we hear how in each work the three instruments gain a greater degree of independence. From 1933, the Trio No.2 continues this process of refinement and distillation, notwithstanding the Brahmsian hemiolas which destabilise it's opening theme. Turina's masterpiece in the piano-trio genre is probably Circulo, a concise three-movement essay which he composed on the eve of the First World War. It charts the passing of a single day, from the slow stirrings of dawn to a dance in the middle of an Andalucian day through to the gradual falling of dusk, which begins in wild exuberance and ends in peace under a starry sky. The Orphelion Ensemble was founded in Vienna by the Spanish violinist Deborah Gonsalves Deborah Gonsalves and the Austro-German cellist Berthold Hamburger. For this new recording of Turina's trios, they are joined by the Spanish pianist An Eva Browning Artist-in-residence Associate Professor of piano at Texas Tech University, Daniel del Pino. Based in Spain, Orphelion gives concerts across the world with a flexible line-up of artists in order to pursue an artistically ambitious programme which sees them work with leading visual artists, writers and actors. - Joaquin Turina was born in Sevilla, Spain, where he received his first music lessons. Later he went to Madrid and subsequently settled in Paris, where he took composition lessons from Vincent d'Indy at his Schola Cantorum de Paris, while studying the piano with Moritz Moszkowski. Inevitably he came into contact with Debussy and Ravel, and his early compositions were clearly influenced by the Impressionists. However he returned to his native Spain and developed his own style in which the rich folklore, folk music and atmosphere of Spain is predominant. Together with Albeniz, Granados and de Falla he established the Spanish Nationalist School. - This new recording presents Turina's complete works for piano trio, clearly showing the development of his compositional style. It is music of great imagination, colouring and instrumental brilliance, in which the sounds and perfumes of Spain are nearly palpable. - Excellent performances by the Orphelion Ensemble, consisting of Daniel del Pino (piano), Deborah Gonsalves (violin) and Berthold Hamburger (cello).

During his time in Italy and later in Leipzig, Charles Gounod was drawn by the balance of sonic beauty and proportion to be found in the music of Palestrina and J.S. Bach. He developed an innate desire for simple directness as can be heard in the excerpt from the Messe solennelle de Sainte Cecile and the Meditation sur le premier Prelude de J.S. Bach, now better known as Ave Maria. Gounod's talents for melody and mood painting are demonstrated in his Romances sans paroles, while his sense of wit can be heard in the famous Marche fune'bre d'une marionnette.

Claude-Benigne Balbastre (1727-1799) published his first book of harpsichord pieces in 1759, nine years after a decisive move from his home city of Dijon to the metropolis of Paris. France had been inundated with Italian music and musicians for more than 50 years, and Balbastre's style is inflected by the latest Italian trends, while remaining unmistakably and deliciously French. The titles of the individual works refer to the surnames of distinguished and influential figures in the Parisian world of the mid- to late18th century. They are not necessarily portraits; the point here is rather the dedication, although this music indubitably represents a wonderful picture of the world surrounding Balbastre. One of the composer's biographers has remarked that 'More than portraits without words supposed to musically evoke a personality, the harpsichord pieces constitute a tribute or a sign of gratitude with regard to said personality. The portrait thus painted is only allusive and mysterious.' For example, one of Balbastre's most famous and spectacular works, the Italian-style gigue La Lugeac (F major), is probably a portrait of Louis XV's close companion, the Marquis Charles-Antoine de Guerin (1720-82), who had been born at the Chateau de Lugeac and was described by his contemporaries as 'Le beau Lugeac'. In his own booklet introduction to Balbastre's life and work, Marek Toporowski extols the First Book as 'a true masterpiece', combining French elegance of Classical style; imagery alluding to the operas of Rameau; virtuosity reminiscent of Scarlatti, Mozart and Rameau; mastery of form and textural richness. Compared to other surviving music by Balbastre, Toporowski finds these pieces 'less simple in the sense of Classical economy of texture, more sophisticated and Baroque.' The Polish harpsichordist, organist, chamber musician, and conductor Marek Toporowski was a pupil of both Bob van Asperen and Daniel Roth, He has made this new recording on a copy of a French harpsichord, completed in 1984 for harpsichordist, pianist and painter Julitta Slendzinska by Zygmunt Kaczmarski. 'It is a fascinating, exceptional instrument,' he says, 'in terms of timbral class, with a full, juicy sound and enchanting dynamic capabilities.' - Claude Balbastre was a prominent French composer, organist, and harpsichordist of the late Baroque and early Classical periods. He studied under Claude Rameau, the brother of Jean-Philippe Rameau, whose influence is evident in his music. - Among his most notable works are his Pieces de clavecin, published in 1759. These pieces exemplify the refined and expressive style of the French harpsichord tradition, combining lyrical melodies with intricate ornamentation and lively rhythms. Like those of Francois Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau, Balbastre's harpsichord works often feature evocative titles, such as La d'Hericourt, La de Caze, and La Lugeac, referring to prominent figures of the time. His Pieces de clavecin display a wide range of textures and moods, from playful and lighthearted dances to deeply expressive movements. He incorporated elements of the galant style, characterized by clarity and grace, alongside more dramatic and virtuosic passages, sometimes even adapting orchestral effects to the harpsichord. - Marek Toporowski is a harpsichordist, organist, pianist and conductor, one of Poland's foremost performers in the Historical Performance movement. He is a scholar and a well-known collector of historical instruments. Also available by Marek Toporowski are the Complete Piano Music by Pinto, keyboard sonatas by Hyacinthe Jadin, and violin sonatas by Ferdinand Ries.

This album is inspired by the fantastic physicality and variety of dance forms in which composers from Granados to Shostakovich excelled. There are some hidden gems as well as pieces that will be familiar to all - and they have the novelty, as transcriptions, of all having been 'stolen' from the original. These arrangements are creative, fun and often virtuosic. -Includes Shostakovich's 'Three Fantastic Dances' released in the composer's 50th death anniversary year -Includes Ravel 'Piece en forme de habanera' released in the composer's 150th birth anniversary year

The piano duos presented here, all drawn from the mid-20th century, have their inspiration in dance or ballet: but thankfully, that red flag for program music - is it a hopeless prisoner of a storyline or visual narrative? - shows no sign of rising. All three works stand majestically on their own: Rachmaninoff's autumnal self-eulogy, The Symphonic Dances, Barber's Souvenirs, a whimsical collage of the Gilded Era ballroom, and Piazzolla's Tango for Two Pianos (arr. P. Ziegler). And, in the case of Piazzolla, we witness the tango, as it moves from the cafe to the concert hall, shedding the strictures of dance itself.

Three major works for piano and orchestra by English composers, all eschewing the traditional nineteenth- century model of a bravura virtuoso soloist pitted against an orchestra, in distinctive ways. Together with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under George Vass, Clare Hammond presents an original programme that provides a unique perspective on how the piano concerto reflected musical currents in mid-twentieth-century Britain. William Walton's Sinfonia Concertante for Orchestra with Piano Obbligato began as a ballet score. After it was rejected by Sergei Diaghilev, Walton arranged his score into a leaner, more direct and more effective work that reveals the influences of Stravinsky, Poulenc, Rimsky- Korsakov, Borodin and, at times, Elgar. Benjamin Britten's Diversions was commissioned by the left-hand pianist Paul Wittgenstein. Enthusiastic about the challenge of writing for the left hand, Britten devised a work in variation form; he did not seek to conceal the soloist's one-handedness, but revelled in it while still retaining emotion and grandeur. Michael Tippett's Piano Concerto completes the programme. Inspired by a performance of Beethoven's Fourth Concerto, Tippett was convinced that a contemporary concerto could be written, 'in which the piano is used once again for it's poetic capabilities'. In his work, the orchestra does not merely accompany; the principal players shine when they get their opportunity for solos or close dialogue with the soloist.

The fourth and final volume in Gilbert Rowland's acclaimed Froberger series completes the landmark recording project on specialist early music label Athene. This double album is the latest instalment of Rowland's authoritative traversal of the complete Harpsichord Suites by Johann Jakob Froberger - a composer of profound influence whose innovations shaped the very form of the Baroque suite later adopted by Bach and Handel. Praised for it's "glorious sound" and "energy and a good forward drive", the series has garnered widespread critical recognition. Recorded in the sympathetic acoustic of Holy Trinity Church, Weston, in October 2024, the album reunites Rowland with engineer John Taylor, whose audiophile-standard production has underpinned the previous volumes. Rowland's playing combines historical insight with expressive vitality, delivering performances marked by "impeccable clarity, flawless articulation, and period-perfect embellishments". His interpretations illuminate the elegance and inventiveness of Froberger's writing, making this collection an essential reference for enthusiasts and scholars of early keyboard music. This release is a vital addition for fans of Froberger, Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, and historically informed performances, offering both continuity for collectors and a compelling entry point into one of the Baroque's most fascinating keyboard oeuvres.