Detriti da canti precari (2017), a cycle of 14 short pieces, is the result of a profound artistic dialog between the composer Filippo Perocco (*1972) and the Ensemble L'Imaginaire. It occupies an important place in the ensemble's repertoire and stands for collaboration driven by a shared passion for sound, friendship and freedom.

Sandrine Piau admits that she has always been fascinated not only by Schubert's music but also by the genre of the string quartet. "The endless quest for the pure gesture in which we lose ourselves in order to become one with each other reminds me of the aquatic ballets in old-fashioned musicals, when female swimmers formed images of perfect flowers". Thanks to the Psophos Quartet, her dream has now been realised; together they present a magnificent programme of transcriptions. "Between the hair of the bows and the texture of the voice, our instruments blend and form an imaginary Schubert quintet".

Chromatics is a word derived from the Greek noun meaning color. During the Renaissance, new music was composed in the Western world, opening up a palette of (timbral) colors for the first time. Before the Renaissance, music (in Gregorian chant) existed only to convey the word, not to make an appearance itself; this changed completely after the 15th century. Music, like painting, exploded into new forms and colors, and the era of the modern age was ushered in. Strange harmonies, mysterious voices - tones of passion and desire, of terror and fear, of the confusion of the sublime or of divine apparition... This is the world of musical colors that opened up in the age of the Chromatic Renaissance, giving rise to a music that is daring, adventurous and timelessly modern.

The ferment of the Enlightenment, the early signs of the Revolution and the intellectual debate on colonialism fuel this French odyssey. During the Age of Exploration, France experienced an unprecedented cultural fervor. Trade routes and distant cultures enriched it's identity. Exotic sounds and rhythms shaped both noble salons and concert halls. In this quest for new sonorities, by the mid-18th century, the cello finally gained prominence in France, replacing the viola da gamba, which had dominated European music for centuries. The emphasis on deep sonorities is the culmination of this recording, featuring compositions by Louis-Francois-Joseph Patouart and Martin Bertin. The latter's story is particularly significant, embodying the spirit of �the recording: he founded the French cello school, despite having started �his career with the viola da gamba

The violin, a bowed instrument with four strings, of such perfection that it has focussed the attention of composers from the Baroque to the present day. Apart from the piano, no other instrument has had so many important concertos written for it, from Locatelli and Vivaldi, to Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms, among many others. It might seem unimaginable that this instrument with it's one bow on four strings be able to perform polyphonic works from the piano, Lied and orchestral repertoire unaccompanied, but that is precisely what the great virtuosos of the early Romantic period right up to the modern era repeatedly saw as a challenge in their compositions. Paganini, Ernst and their successors pushed the technical possibilities of the violin to the limit. With this CD we present the most important of these works, which are otherwise pigeonholed as salon or encore pieces. The result is musical gems ranging from practically complete Lieder such as the Erlkonig, to Isang Yun's masterful arrangement of The Musical Offering by Bach. Her debut CD "1939" on Solo Musica with the Munich Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kevin John Edusei received worldwide acclaim, including reviews in BBC magazine, The Strad Magazine, Gramophone and the American Record Guide. This new release is the first solo album by violinist Fabiola Kim, hailed by the New York Times as "a brilliant soloist" who plays "with extraordinary precision and intensity". She is an energetic performer and enjoys a wide-ranging career as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher.

Ernst Gernot Klussmann (1901-1975) studied in Hamburg with Hermann Behn, the friend and patron of Gustav Mahler, Felix Woyrsch, and later with Joseph Haas in Munich. From 1925 he worked as a repetiteur in Bayreuth and held teaching positions in Cologne. In 1942, he was appointed director of the conservatory in Hamburg with the task of transforming it into a university of music, whose vice president he became at it's foundation in 1950. Klussmann's career invites us to take a differentiated look at the biographies of musicians who were not persecuted or driven into exile during the Nazi era, and who were reproached for being followers after the war. In the late 1920s, Klussman's music was criticized by the right-wing press as degenerate. The premiere of his 1st Symphony in Dresden in 1933 by Bruno Walter did not take place due to Walter's emigration. After the Gleichschaltung, Klussmann was part of the education system, without toeing the party line. In 2025, the Hamburg University of Music and Drama celebrates it's 75th anniversary. Reason enough to commemorate Klussmann with a first monographic CD dedicated to two chamber music works from his early period. They impressively show Klussmann's development from late Romanticism to Expressionism, a process that he was to continue after the war by embracing Schonberg's techniques of serial composition.

25-year-old rising American violinist Karisa Chiu, noted for her "easy virtuosity... humor, nuance... [and] playful[ness]" (Cleveland Classical), and renowned Chinese-American pianist Zhu Wang ("a thoughtful, sensitive performer" -New York Times) unite for Chiu's debut album, HOME. Influenced by her Chicago upbringing, pandemic discoveries, and Korean and Chinese family roots, the recording reflects on the various interpretations of "home" in Chiu's life, with works by Jean Sibelius, Claude Debussy, Augusta Read Thomas, Cyril Scott, and Gabriel Faure. A finalist in Cedille Records' inaugural Emerging Artist Competition in 2021, Chiu earned her Bachelor's degree from the Curtis Institute of Music and her Master's degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music. She is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma at the Juilliard School under the tutelage of Catherine Cho and Donald Weilerstein. She is the first new solo violinist to record for Cedille in 20 years. Although raised in a Swedish-speaking family, Jean Sibelius chose to root his artistic identity in Finnish culture. Written between 1915 and 1918, his Five Pieces blend Finnish folk influences with the elegance of salon music, reflecting a personal and creative claim of Finland as home. Composed in wartime exile and performed at his final public appearance, Debussy's Violin Sonata (1916-1917) is both a farewell and a return. Intended as part of a larger French sonata cycle, the work reaches toward distant tonalities and Iberian influences, yet remains anchored in a deeply personal language - a reflection on home as something both fragile and enduring. A lyrical, chant-inspired solo for violin, Thomas' Incantation unfolds with patience and quiet intensity. Chiu first encountered the work years before recording it, eventually collaborating with Thomas during her time as composer-in-residence at Curtis. With Thomas's deep ties to Chicago, the piece became a personal emblem of home - bridging Chiu's roots in the Windy City and a new sense of belonging at Curtis. In Kreisler's arrangement of Cyril Scott's dreamy Lotus Land, Chiu's violin floats above Zhu Wang's shimmering textures, rich with whole-tone and pentatonic color. Inspired by Tennyson's The Lotos-Eaters, the piece offers a brief, sensual escape, where lyricism and stillness evoke a world apart. Discovered by Chiu during the pandemic - a strange yet meaningful chapter in her life - the work recalls a fleeting but formative anchor amid uncertainty. Faure's Violin Sonata No. 1 balances classical structure with sweeping emotion and introspective calm - a work of youthful maturity. Chiu performed it during a return trip to Korea with her mother, reconnecting with family and cultural roots. The sonata evokes not only Faure's early voice but also a powerful emotional link to memory and belonging.

From Haydn in the early 1770s to Ligeti in the late 1960s and beyond, the string quartet has been recognised by composers, performers and audiences alike as the bedrock of the chamber music genre. The format had it's origins in private settings for amateur players who revelled in it's intimate, conversational and witty aesthetic. It progressed into a medium of public concerts for Beethoven's essays in expressive profundity and further contemporary approaches have seen it adapted into almost infinite possibilities. These two works by Lawrence Rose take inspiration from some past musical traditions which he has adapted into new and different guises.

Ukrainian and American Music for Piano Duo, performed by Ukrainian artists Anastasiia Larchikova and Mykhailo Diordiiev. These two young pianists perform a splendid program of half Ukrainian/half American compositions, all contemporary and all very accessible. On the American side the album has John Corigliano's "Gazebo Dances", Ricky Ian Gordon's "Ring-A-Ding-Ding", and a world premiere recording of Lowell Liebermann's "Romance, Etude and Chorale, Op. 134". This is the centerpiece of the album, and it is a stunning work that was commissioned by Steinway as a wedding present to Lang Lang. The Ukrainian music features "Carpathian Song" by Zoltan Almashi, composer, cellist and winner of the Lev Revultsky Prize in 2003; "Three Extravagant Dances" by the late Myroslav Skoryk, who was awarded the titles "The People's Artist" and "Hero of Ukraine", and whose music contains stylistic traits from Ukrainian folk music; and lastly "Ru-um-bambar" by Bohdan Sehin, who studied with M. Skoryk and whose music is highly textured, with Eastern European expressiveness. Proceeds from this album will be donated to Ukraine humanitarian aid organizations.

The manuscript Ms XIV 8751 H.1 came to the Library of the Civico Istituto Musicale Gaetano Donizetti in 1916. It consists of 92 pages entirely in the hand of William Babell, who was Handel's principal copyist from c.1711 until his death in 1723. While none of the movements in this volume is attributed to any composer, internal evidence indicates that most, if not all of the music, was composed by or adapted from George Frideric Handel. If so, this volume represents the most important addition to the corpus of Handel's keyboard works since the publication of the Aylesford manuscripts in 1928.

GRAMMY-nominated drummer Nate Smith, known for his deep groove and genre-blending style, has worked with legends like Pat Metheny and Jose James, and wowed millions with his viral drum videos. Following acclaimed projects like KINFOLK: Postcards from Everywhere and Pocket Change, Smith returns with a new album, out August 29, continuing his journey through jazz, R&B, and beyond. Some of the most renowned names in the jazz scene have joined him on the project, including Lalah Hathaway, Michael League, Lionel Loueke, and more.

Niklas Jahn, winner of the 9th International Organ Competition Musashino-Tokyo in 2023, was appointed organist at the Frauenkirche in Dresden in December 2024, the site of an acclaimed concert by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1736. This album features two works by Bach, including the monumental Toccata and Fugue in F major, as well as Toshio Hosokawa's celestial Cloudscape, and the ultravirtuosic Feuertaufe by Zsigmond Szathmary. French repertoire by Messiaen and Vierne can also be heard alongside Brahms whose Chorale Preludes are among the last pieces he composed.

Dame Sarah Connolly and Joseph Middleton present a richly rewarding programme of art songs from a variety of composers. The recital opens with Chausson's Po�me de l'amour et de la mer, which took almost a decade to compose and shows Wagner's influence on the younger composer. Composed in 1935 on a study trip to Rome, Barber's Three Songs set poems by James Joyce and portray three love affairs. Debussy's Trois Chansons de Bilitis set the erotic poems of Pierre Lou�s, which were all the rage in Paris at the turn of the century. Aaron Copland completed his Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson in 1950, but declared that they should not be seen as a set but as twelve individual works. Connolly here includes 'I've heard an organ talk sometimes' and 'The world feels dusty', the latter giving the album it's title. The programme concludes with the premi�re recording of Errollyn Wallen's Night Thoughts: a cycle of four songs commissioned by Leeds Lieder, and first performed by Dame Sarah and Joseph, the cycle's dedicatees. Setting two of her own poems alongside one by Emily Dickinson and lines from Shakespeare's MacBeth, the cycle took it's inspiration from Howard Hodgkin's painting Night Thoughts.

Among the large number of passions that Telemann wrote, the St. Luke Passion of 1744 occupies an important place due to it's special interpretation of the text.

The music of the composer, educator and musicologist Liza Lim, who was born in Perth, Australia in 1966, has a collaborative and transcultural focus. Her recent works have explored beauty, anger and noise, ecological issues, and women's spiritual traditions. Liza Lim has received commissions from leading orchestras and institutions worldwide, and her works continue to be performed at prestigious festivals. In 2024, she was named "Composer of the Year" by OPUS KLASSIK. Liza Lim is Professor of Composition and Australian Music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. As part of a Laureate Fellowship from the Australian Research Council, she will lead a five-year program starting in 2025 to promote the exploration of pressing climate and social issues through music. Her gender equity initiatives through Sydney Con's Composing Women have had a significant impact on commissioning, performance and next-generation leadership in Australian music. A Sutured World for cello and orchestra was commissioned in 2024 by musica viva of the Bayerischer Rundfunk, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Cello Biennale Amsterdam, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Casa da Musica Porto. The world premiere recorded on this CD took place in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz on October 25, 2024, with Nicolas Altstaedt (cello) and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner. The orchestral work Mary - Transcendence after Trauma was commissioned by musica viva of the Bayerischer Rundfunk in 2020/21. The world premiere of the work at musica viva, originally scheduled for January 28, 2022, had to be cancelled due to the Covid pandemic. In the meantime, the triptych was premiered at the Cologne Philharmonie on April 29, 2022 as part of "Musik der Zeit" with the WDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Cristian Macelaru. This CD features the musica viva recording of May 12, 2023 in Munich's Herkulessaal by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Franck Ollu. The Compass for flute, didgeridoo and large orchestra was commissioned by musica viva of the Bayerischer Rundfunk and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 2005/06. The premiere took place at the Sydney Opera House on August 23, 2006 with Rosamund Plummer (flute), William Barton (didgeridoo) and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Briger. This CD features the musica viva recording of the European premiere of the work on January 12, 2007 in Munich's Herkulessaal, with Carin Levine (flute), William Barton (didgeridoo) and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christoph Poppen. ? The main work on the CD is Liza Lim's latest composition: a live recording of the world premiere of the cello concerto "A Sutured World" (2024) as part of the musica viva concert series by the Bayerischer Rundfunk from the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz - with the famous cellist Nicolas Altstaedt ? The CD also features Liza Lim's compositions "Mary - Transcendence after Trauma" (2020/21) and "The Compass" (2005/06) as live recordings from the musica viva concert series ? Performed and conducted by renowned musicians, all of them experts in contemporary music