Vice Versa was created out of the need of Belgian pianist Bram de Looze (LABtrio, Joey Baron, Thomas Morgan, Hank Roberts) to collaborate with artists who he feels are natural extensions to his sound. He quickly found kindred spirits in New York master drummer Eric McPherson (Jackie McLean, Andrew Hill, Pharoah Sanders, Fred Hersch) and Berlin bassist Felix Henkelhausen (Jim Black, Nate Wooley, Lotte Anker), two compositional masterminds with a boundless sense of rhythmic inventiveness. The versatile and exploratory trio sets the bar for expressive interpretation and inventive creativity high. They traverse different approaches in which musical rules change without losing momentum. This leads to an interesting musical synthesis where the spirit of traditional jazz language emerges during intuitive musical excursions within free improvisation and contemporary music. Their debut album Vice Versa came out in 2023 on Dox Records to great acclaim. In January of 2025, while Bram de Looze was the Artist in Residence at Brussels Jazz Festival in Flagey, they recorded their second album live on stage, witnessed by a sold-out Studio 1. This album will be released by Challenge Records (NL) in February of 2026.

Following critical acclaim from The New York Times, Gramophone, and BBC Music Magazine for his album Forgotten Sounds, clarinetist Graeme Steele Johnson returns to Delos with Windsync. "A major force in the American chamber music landscape," the wind quintet has performed throughout the United States and abroad, presenting largely self-generated repertoire - commissioned by the group or arranged in-house. On this album, the musicians trace the stylistic diversity of American music back to a single source: not a founding father but a French mademoiselle, Nadia Boulanger. The composer, conductor, music theorist, and legendary composition pedagogue wielded immense influence over American music and musicians. The formidable roster of Boulanger students featured on this album bear witness to this: Philip Glass, Elliott Carter, Quincy Jones, and Marion Bauer, whose Woodwind Quintet has been revived and recorded here for the first time. On Nadia, Windsync hopes to humanize Mademoiselle, as she was known by her pupils, by telling her story through a century's worth of music written by teacher and students - a legacy of dizzyingly varied American music that reverberates to this day.

Ex Nihilo brings together a diverse palette of music into one continuous flow. Ligeti's Musica Ricercata forms the spine of the programme, interwoven with 20th-century works that resonate with it and new interludes by Brecht Valckenaers. Together, they trace a lineage of invention-exploring how composers reimagine their musical language and the piano itself ex nihilo, "from nothing."

Son of the famous Johann Sebastian, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was a renowned keyboard virtuoso in the 18th century. A prolific composer and theorist of keyboard instruments, he forged the aesthetic of Empfindsamkeit, a style in which emotion is conveyed through subtle contrasts and harmonic surprises. From his Berlin sonatas to his flamboyant Fantasies, his work, published with great pomp for connoisseurs and amateurs, remains a pinnacle of musical eloquence. Arnaud de Pasquale, through the virtuosity of his playing, reveals all it's depth and expressive power.

Nico Muhly and The Tallis Scholars present No Resting Place, a collection of world premiere recordings of works that Muhly wrote for The Tallis Scholars over the last 10 years, by invitation of their director Peter Phillips. Phillips says that Muhly "immediately understood our particular sound. A succession of masterpieces followed, each as powerful as the last." The title work, No Resting Place, is a setting of Jeremiah's Lamentations, interspersed with contemporary interviews with people from the Windrush generation. Recordare, Domine also sets texts from Lamentations, while Marrow is a setting of Psalm 63. Rough Notes, using cold textures, austere counterpoint, and unstable harmonies, draws from Captain Scott's diary on his doomed mission to the Antarctic. Prosperitie was written to celebrate Peter Phillips' 70th birthday, and A Glorious Creature praises the glory of the soul. This album marks the start of a new collaboration between The Tallis Scholars and Linn.

The Chiaroscuro Quartet is now offering us the fourth instalment of their ongoing complete recording of Beethoven's string quartets. This latest release spotlights the first two of the three Opus 59 quartets, known as the 'Razumovsky,' named for their patron, the Russian ambassador in Vienna, Count Andreas Razumovsky, who maintained a house quartet in his palace. Beethoven was particularly proud of these new quartets, despite the initial bewilderment they provoked among audiences, critics, and even performers. Famously, when a violinist complained of their difficulty, Beethoven retorted: "Oh, they are not for you, but for a later age." The first, in F major, was almost certainly the longest string quartet composed up to that point, and it's unprecedented weight and density of argument earn it the moniker the Eroica among Beethoven's quartets. The second, in E minor, is often described as a "close cousin" of the Appassionata Sonata, in that both works-composed at around the same time-are permeated by a profound darkness from start to finish. The Chiaroscuro Quartet's previous instalments in this cycle have already garnered superlative praise from the musical press, hailed as "breathtaking," "bristling with excitement and youthful vitality," and "a very special experience." There is no doubt this latest release is poised to achieve similar critical acclaim

Lei Liang crafts multi-disciplinary works that bridge scientific research, electroacoustic composition, and contemporary improvisation to create a cohesive message of holistic symbiosis. Partnering with musicians from Ensemble Dal Niente, Mivos Quartet, loadbang, [nec]shivaree, and pianist Stephen Drury, Lei Liang's newest release is an ambitious snapshot of his current aesthetic direction.

The song cycle A Screenshot of Now is a new work by guitarist and composer Giacomo Susani on words by the poet, lyricist, author, and physician Chinwe D. John. Receiving it's premiere recording on this album, the collection is a series of 14 poems in which Susani's music-for voice and guitar-aims to act as a conduit of the lyrics' deepest symbolic meanings, in such a way that sounds and words become indivisible. Each poem reflects on various aspects of modern life: the corrupting nature of global politics, family dysfunction, freedom, the beauty and seduction of nature, romance amid chaos, escape from tyranny, and satire of modern 'pirates'. The cycle concludes with a reminder that simple pleasures still hold meaning despite technological change. Three leading voices share the spotlight: Alexander Chance, Tim Mead, and Daniel Norman, with Giacomo Susani accompanying on the guitar.

Recorded March 5-7 2025 at Krematoriet, Stockholm Sweden by Adam Forkelid Mixing & editing by Adam Forkelid Mastering by Klaus Scheuermann/4ohm music Cover & artwork by Jonas Holmberg Photos by Fredrik Gille 2024/2025 Produced by Svante Söderqvist & Adam Forkelid Co-produced by Calle Rasmusson & Tuulikki Bartosik

Joachim Raff moved in circles that included Franz Liszt and Robert Schumann, and he ultimately became one of the best-known German composers of his day. Of Raff's six stage works, Dame Kobold ('The Phantom Lady') was the first of a series of comic operas that anticipated later trends, moving away from Wagnerian pathos and looking back to the levity of Rossini. Admired for it's utterly gorgeous musical setting, the opera is notable for a disarmingly simple yet fast-paced plot, bewitching solos and elegantly flowing melodies, and a deftly responsive marriage of language and music.

Viennese composer, conductor, and pianist Wilhelm Grosz was a musician of remarkable versatility and wide-ranging influences. He attracted critical praise as a composer from an early age with the technically formidable Symphonic Variations on an Original Theme, acclaimed as "a dramatic tone painting expanding to symphonic grandeur - on only one instrument." The Kleine Sonate is marked by great depth and clarity of expression, while the waltz transcriptions tapped into a craze for Johann Strauss II in 1930s London. The highly original Three Pieces was rediscovered just before this recording was made.

After exploring lesser-known works for light lyric tenor from the opéra-comique repertoire with the multi-award-winning So Romantique ! (ALPHA924), this new recording focuses on a unique genre: French mélodie with orchestra. "Deeply attuned to the chamber dimension of music, I was naturally drawn to this form, which is rarely programmed today. Attention to tone colour is essential here, particularly in the interpretation of such brief pieces, an exercise at the very heart of my approach as a mélodiste," says Dubois. Designed by the researchers and editors of the Palazzetto Bru Zane, this programme allows us to rediscover lost treasures of French heritage: refinement, the art of suggestion, delicacy, nobility of expression - everything here is so poetic!

There is a very special connection in the collaboration between composer and performer. While this connection most often exists through the veil of life and death, I have been blessed with the joy of working with a living composer. I began exploring the piano music of Gregory Mertl in 2015 when I first learned and performed his Souffle et Contresouffle and subsequently Pears on a Sill. I have always felt a deep emotional connection to the music that I perform, and I was immediately drawn to Greg's musical language. We were introduced by a mutual friend and have happily remained musically connected. It is because of this friendship that Pictures Without an Exhibition came into being, and it is truly one of the greatest gifts I have ever received. The sheer scope and imagination behind it are so far beyond anything I could have dreamed of when I commissioned him to write a piece for me in 2019, and I am hopeful that the musical world will delight in it as deeply as I have.

Celebrating the rich musical heritage of University College, Durham, this album brings together works by Edward Bairstow and Francis Jackson alongside a new commission by Ben Rowarth, and the first complete recording of Amy Beach's Four Canticles. In music of faith, remembrance and renewal, it honours alumnus David Knowles, and reflects the devotion and creativity that continue to shape Durham's choral tradition.

Sara Aldén Sara Aldén vocal, Daniel Andersson Runevad bass, August Björn piano

Modern American music has long been characterised by kaleidoscopic variety, reflecting the vigour and optimism of American culture more generally. John Corigliano's early Violin Sonata is a work of the mid-twentieth century. But his own assessment of the piece - 'It's eclecticism, it's rhythmic energy, and it's bright character give the Sonata a very American quality' - could be applied with equal merit to the three 21st-century scores that accompany it here, all four switching easily between gentle introspection and spirited exuberance.

Quality Time in NYC is a vocal jazz project by Erik Leuthauser, recorded in New York with esteemed collaborators such as Alan Broadbent, Ken Peplowski, Allen Farnham, Steve LaSpina, and Rich DeRosa. The album features 19 tracks, including standards, rare gems, and one bonus track with Erik's original German lyric to Miles Davis's "Little Willie Leaps"

With this "colourful" selection of pieces, we intend to give an impression of the diverse repertoire collected in the Turin Tablature. The motets and liturgical works were most likely intended for performance in church, whereas dances and madrigals were intended more for secular settings: at festivals, celebrations, and for domestic music-making. Toccatas and ricercars could be played in both ecclesiastical and secular settings. [In light of the wide variety of purposes of this repetoire, we utilized a wide variety of instruments.] Thus, in addition to the Marx-Gunzer organ, three other stringed keyboard instruments were used: a clavicytherium in southern German design from the 17th century, a virginal after Michael Praetorius (1619), and a harpsichord of a seventeenthcentury Italian design.

Alena Baeva and Vadym Kholodenko are starting their recording of Beethoven's complete sonatas for violin and piano. Alena is recognised as a versatile violinist with a magnetic presence and now performs with the greatest orchestras and conductors, while Vadym has been one of the most impressive pianists of his generation since winning the gold medal at the 2013 Van Cliburn Competition. For more than ten years, they have formed a close-knit and highly sought-after duo (both on and off stage). The three sonatas featured on this recording (Op. 12 No. 3, Op. 24 "Spring," and Op. 47 "Kreutzer") were composed between 1797 and 1803, a period that brought Beethoven both his first recognition on the European stage and the first signs of his deafness. Baeva and Kholodenko used the 2020 edition by Bärenreiter and carried out in-depth research into their interpretative choices: phrasing, ornamentation, and tempi are the result of this research and of sources from the period.

For her debut solo album of music by J. S. Bach's contemporary Gottlieb Muffat, Gramophone praised pianist and harpsichordist Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya as "an ideal advocate for the music". Now, for her second solo recording for Linn, she turns to Johann Sebastian Bach in Transformations, revealing him as the supreme reinventor who continually refashioned existing material into striking new creations. The recital includes Bach's brilliant reworkings of concertos by Vivaldi and Marcello, expanded with a colour and vitality well beyond the originals. The other works on the programme are extraordinary arrangements of Bach's own music (Adagio in G major and Sonata in D minor), pieces initially written for a different instrument (Prelude, Fugue and Allegro in E-flat major) and a concerto without orchestra (the Italian Concerto).

Sensual - that's undoubtedly the word that best describes the music on this album dedicated to the early works of Josquin des Prez. In his early thirties, the composer was already developing a unique sense of sound and language. He knew how to make rhythms resonate, rendering them sometimes enveloping, sometimes liberating. His melodies are full of life - sometimes gentle, sometimes sinuous - and his duets seem to be made of glances exchanged between voices. Josquin composes with great finesse, playing on the contrasts between the intimate and the radiant. As in the art of his time, even when he addresses religious subjects, his music retains a sensual beauty, full of emotion and humanity.

Vienna was in the grip of serious political unrest that forced many of it's artists into exile when Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) composed his Second String Quartet in 1933, first performed the following year in the Austrian capital. In it he celebrated, before it faded away, the vitality of a musical school of which Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) had been one of the founders more than a century and a half earlier, and which Anton Webern (1883-1945) had helped to usher into modernity. It is this lineage that the musicians of the Quatuor Hermès (the Hermès String Quartet) highlight through a twilight-tinged programme in which each work bears witness to a fascinating narrative power and could be understood as an expression of a farewell.

After Passion (ALPHA747), Veronique Gens reunites with Louis-Noel Bestion de Camboulas' ensemble Les Surprises to celebrate a type of role intrinsically linked to 17th- and 18th-century French baroque opera: queens! "Operatic queens are powerful women, often torn between duty and passion, with a fundamentally complex psychology. They display a range of emotions to match the theatre's dramatic and scenic effects; they also demand above all music that is by turns intense and sophisticated." writes Benoît Dratwicki of the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles, a partner in this project. With Veronique Gens, one could not dream of a better embodiment of these women's destinies set to music by the most famous composers of the time (Rameau, Rebel, Dauvergne, Royer, Desmarest, Salomon, Stuck, Destouches, Francoeur...), many of whom have been unjustly forgotten.

For it's sixth album on the Arcana label, Voces Suaves presents a programme dedicated to one of the most influential composers of the seventeenth century, the great Giacomo Carissimi. The album features Carissimi's most famous work, the masterful oratorio Jephte, alongside two of his rarely performed virtuoso motets. It also includes the astonishingly theatrical Cristo smarrito by Domenico Mazzocchi, Carissimi's contemporary in Rome. The works on the album showcase the expressive power of Carissimi's musical language, as well as the remarkable virtuosity of the singers who originally performed his music. Instrumental interludes by Carissimi-found in the collection of his pupil Marc-Antoine Charpentier-have been interpolated into the score of Jephte, creating a unique version of the oratorio as it may have been performed in Rome during the composer's lifetime.

The development of an original classical repertoire for the accordion began with Mogens Ellegaard in his native Denmark and his student, the Scot Owen Murray, in the UK. In 1976 Ellegaard gave the first broadcast performance of Gordon Jacob's pastoral, elegant concerto, which treats the accordion almost as a chamber organ. A generation and more later, two concertos written for Owen Murray open out the possibilities of the accordion much more adventurously, exploiting it's extraordinary range of colour, it's striking range of expression and it's mercurial ability to weave through orchestral textures.