The Welshman John Thomas (1826-1913), harpist to Queen Victoria, wrote prolifically for his own instrument, both for solo harp and for duos of two harps or harp and piano - a combination where the different sounds of the two instruments enhance the clarity of the texture. Thomas' original works use the elegant Romantic style of his own day, but he often drew on Welsh folksong for his inspiration and left a generous legacy of transcriptions, especially of operatic favourites. Although some of his music was intended for the Victorian drawing room, other pieces require a virtuoso technique - and all of it has a thoroughly engaging melodic appeal. This fifth album of his duets for harp and piano ends a series that has seen the revival of music unheard for over a century and a half.

Da Viadana: Solo Tenore Motets; Canale: Keyboard Canzonas

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. A compilation of singles released from 1953 and 1958, I'm Jimmy Reed is his debut full-length album. Initially released in 1958 on Vee-Jay Records, this album features "Ain't That Lovin' You Baby," which hit #8 on the Billboard R&B chart. Record Collector Magazine hails the album as "Arguably the first great blues album" and "testament to the thrilling talent of one of the form's most influential figures." Bluesville Acoustic Sounds Series is remastered from the original tapes.

The recordings of Prokofiev's Sonatas No. 9, 8 and 4 are derived from radio broadcasts in Germany (1964), Switzerland (1971) and Turkey (1973) and that of the Toccata from a Soviet Union radio broadcast of Biret's first Moscow recital during her sixteen concert tour of the USSR in 1960 at the age of nineteen. The recording of Piano Sonata No. 2, the second recording of Sonata No. 7, both made direct-to-disc in 1977 at the RCA Studio in New York, and the Swiss, German, Turkish and Soviet radio recordings are all unedited single takes.

Pianist Klaus Simon's advocacy for Erich J. Wolff and his Lieder continues with this third volume. Wolf is arguably one of the 20th century's most neglected composers, and his virtually unknown songs are overdue for rediscovery. Simon is joined by baritone Hans Christoph Begemann.

Deutsche Oper Berlin's production of Massenet's four-act version of Herodiade features an outstanding cast, including the Australian soprano Nicole Car and Canadian baritone Etienne Dupuis. This live recording from June 2023 is conducted by Deutsche Oper Berlin's principal guest conductor, Enrique Mazzola.

Harlem Street Singer is Reverend Gary Davis' 1960 album, originally released on Prestige Records' Bluesville imprint. The album features a combination of Davis-penned tracks, including "Death Don't Have No Mercy," and standards such as "Samson and Delilah." All Music declared that the album is "essential listening for fans of country blues or gospel." Bluesville Acoustic Sounds Series is remastered from the original tapes.

A forbidding and gothic new score by Christopher Young (Hellraiser, Species, Urban Legend, The Grudge, The Exorcism of Emily Rose) for the F.W. Murnau classic 1922 silent-movie 'Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror', one of the most influential films of all time and one that continues to cast it's long shadow across the horror movie genre even still. The perfect match of composer and movie. The recording of this new score was made with Frank Strobel, conductor, Saya Hashino, organ and Tonhalle-Orchester Z�rich.

Keiko Matsui is an icon of contemporary jazz. With over 3 million units sold and sold-out appearances at concert halls across the globe, she is one of the most recognized artists in the genre. Her elegant piano melodies and gentle jazz grooves have enormous appeal and never disappoint the loyal fan base which she has cultivated with over a dozen albums and hundreds of stunning live shows! Euphoria, Keiko's most inspired release yet, elevates the artist to new heights. Featuring a full string orchestra and horn ensemble, performances that transcend musical genres and stellar, Grammy-winning special guests, Euphoria transcends musical genres while still maintaining Keiko's classic listener-friendly sound!! Featuring these contemporary jazz hit singles: the spirited "Steps On the Globe," the deeply moving "New Passage,"and Keiko's passionate collaboration with R&B icon Lalah Hathaway "Love and Nothing Less!! musical genres while still maintaining Keiko's classic listener-friendly sound!!

Even nearly 200 years after Beethoven's death, his music still has much to discover. Pianist Ulrich Roman Murtfeld presents a curated selection of Beethoven's piano works on his new GENUIN album, including both rarities and famous pieces. He juxtaposes the magnificent "Waldstein Sonata" with the early Sonata in E-flat Major, op. 7, and the furious "Rage Over a Lost Penny" with the variation works on a "Swiss Song" and "God Save the King." Murtfeld's refined and precise piano playing brings both new discoveries and great classics to light!

This concert recording from Mozart Week 2024 focuses on Wolfgang Amade Mozart's and Anton Reicha's horn quintets, two major works of a genre that has been very rarely cultivated throughout music history. After the Prague-born composer, music theorist and pedagogue Anton Reicha had already briefly tried his luck in Paris in 1799, he finally settled in the French metropolis in 1808. The Horn Quintet in E major op. 106 is one of his last compositions. It is juxtaposed with Mozart's Rondo and the Horn Quintet. The Baborak Ensemble played at this year's Mozart Week in Salzburg, where this recording was made.

The CD spans an arc from Italy to Central Germany and includes concerti by Vivaldi and Johann Ernst von Sachsen-Weimar, which Bach arranged for organ. The arrangements are thus an encounter between different composers, who here converse with each other and exchange ideas. Johannes Krahl presents them on the historic Silbermann organ of the Katholische Hofkirche Dresden.

The fashionable literary salons of Paris were centres of experimentation in the refined art of conversation that expressed an idealised vision of love as well as a most poetic depiction of aristocratic society. The women who founded these salons, such as the Marquise de Rambouillet and Madeleine de Scudery, exerted a considerable influence on social culture and it's fashion for preciosite, creating a poetic style whose inevitably plaintive accents would swiftly lead lovers who frequented such salons down the winding paths of the pays de Tendre. "The true character of those who love is composed of tenderness and plaintiveness", according to Abbe Charles Cotin - and music was employed as a means of expressing every nuance of amorous feeling that many poets of the style galant took great pains to depict. The musicians who were most in vogue would then take their galant verses and set them to song in the form of airs serieux, a genre which dominated all secular French music for most of the reign of Louis XIV. This album, a world premiere recording, is devoted to the airs serieux of Joseph Chabanceau de La Barre, a scion of one of the most prestigious families of French musicians of the 17th century.

Let's be honest: Even the most magnificent Christmas tree and the tastiest cookies are not enough to conjure up true Christmas spirit! It takes music to really make the eyes of both young and old sparkle. And this music is delivered to us by Duo Giovivo with their third GEN UIN album. Euphonium and alphorn player Fabian Bloch and pianist and multi-instrumentalist Muriel Zeiter have impressively arranged Christmas classics and the world premiere of a commissioned work by Daniel Hall. The repertoire ranges from traditional tunes like "O Tannenbaum" to classics such as the "Petersburger Schlittenfahrt" (Sleighbell Tinkle) to the legendary "Three Wishes for Cinderella." An album full of emotion and groove, full of swing and charm!

Cage and Dowland: the two Johns, four hundred years apart, share a common taste for sober expression, concise forms and intimate realization - and for the pleasure that comes from words as such. Each cultivates this desire in his own way. Cage, like a tightrope walker, approaches the essence of musical thought with humor, lightness, and depth, and Dowland aims for the expression of feelings in their purest form. Cultivating as always a fertile anachronism, the Th�l�me ensemble brings together the complete works for two voices and lute by Dowland, several compositions by Cage, and world-renowned artist Sting offers a reworking of his hit song, "Shape of My Heart", which in this new arrangement becomes a kind of 21st-century lute song, coming full circle on an album where Renaissance and present meet, mingle, and merge to transcend the boundaries of aesthetics and genres.