The deliciously erotic aspects of the text of the Song of Solomon inspired a great many composers during the 17th century, although it remains curious that even the strictest Lutheran composers could not resist setting it to music. The majority of Hammerschmidt's pieces on this text are written for soprano or tenor voices; these obviously represent the two protagonists, the beloved and the lover. This programme is built around these works, creating an entertainment - a small sacred opera -in which evocations of love or sensual dialogues are framed by dances and instrumental pieces. Works by Andreas Hammerschmidt, Johann Vierdanck, Dieterich Buxtehude, Thomas Strutz and others.

Recorded in Perugia between 2023 and 2025, a major new set of Schumann's song output for mixed voices - vocal duets, trios and quartets - by a fine team of Italian singers, and led by the pianist Filippo Farinelli. In recording previous, adventurous surveys of the songs and chamber music by Ravel, Berg, Dallapiccola, Hindemith and others, the pianist Filippo Farinelli has demonstrated his deep knowledge of and affinity for a wide range of chamber music. As he does here, he has gathered together a carefully selected cast of singers in order to present both rarities and established masterpieces within the catalogues of these composers, shedding new light on their evolution as creative thinkers and musicians. The solo song output of Robert Schumann is well established among the peaks of the rich heritage of German Lieder. But alongside cycles such as Dichterliebe and Frauen-liebe und -leben, Schumann often returned to the combination of mixed voices, and these cycles are much less familiar to most listeners. Many of them catch the composer at his most genial and Biedermeier in tone, such as the female Duets Op.43 and the Madchenlieder Op.103. The Spanisches Liederspiel Op.74 and the Spanische Liebeslieder Op.138 are strikingly under-rated precursor to Hugo Wolf's Spanisches Liederbuch, in which a group of singers take turns their individual turns (in solo or duet) to outline 'sketches of Spain' from a German perspective (and from one who had never been there), full of charm and grace. The Op.79 Liederalbum fur die Jugend likewise reminds us of Schumann's genius for song-melody at it's most artless, a vocal counterpart to piano cycles such as Kinderszenen. The poet Emanuel Geibel had adapted many of the 'Spanish' texts, and Schumann's Op.29 trio of songs based on texts by Geibel catch the authentic spirit of the German wanderer. Here and elsewhere throughout the set we find Schumann's affinity for the world of fantasy and fairy tale. Lieder collectors will find this new set an essential acquisition, but anyone new to Schumann's song writing will find much to delight them. - Robert Schumann (1810-1856) devoted himself to composing Lieder at different periods of his life, especially in the 1840s, the so-called Liederjahr, and in his later years, starting in 1849. Alongside Lieder for solo voice and piano, he composed numerous duets and some Lieder for three and four voices, either in homogeneous collections, or by including a few songs for several voices in collections of solo Lieder. - This highly valuable 4-CD set of new recordings contains the complete songs for multiple voice and piano, on poems by Geibel, Heine and Ruckert, but also a substantial part of folk songs, drawn from the rich German culture of folk literature and poetry. - Sung by Elisabetta Lombardi (mezzo-soprano), Elisabetta Pallucchi (contralto), Valentina Valente, (Mark Milhofer tenor) and Mauro Borgioni, accompanied on the piano by Filippo Farinelli, the indefatigable champion of important song projects of lesser known repertoire.

Night Surrendering to Dawn features an engaging and eclectic program of works for flute and piano by 21st century composers Valerie Coleman, Christian Ellenwood, Amanda Harberg, and Samuel Zyman. As we move through unprecedented and challenging times, we hope that the pieces on this program serve to remind us that light and hope will return after the dark.

Rome 1839, Palazzo Poli: one of Liszt's Roman concerts has gained significance in the history of music. A prominent audience of high ecclesiastical and secular dignitaries listened to Liszt's performances. Strangely enough, it was at this concert that Liszt took the risk of introducing a new type of program, as he decided for the first time to dispense with the participation of other artists and to conduct the evening entirely on his own. This was the first "solo piano recital" or, as Liszt jokingly put it: "The first of my boring musical monologues, which I now want to give everywhere in future. Le Concert c'est moi!" This album by Kateryna Titova presents live recordings as well as recordings made as part of an eponymous exhibition at the museum at Liszt's birthplace Raiding, featuring, among others, the so-called Dante Sonata, Liebestraume Nos. 2 & 3, two Paganini etudes as well as the first Mephisto Waltz.

This recording of pieces by Johannes Martin Doemming is a broad cross-section of his output. Regarding the instrumental concerti, the main focus is on the winds: flutes and oboe or oboe d'amore. Stylistically, we find Doemming's pieces ranging from Buxtehude (cantata) over the high baroque to the time of sensitivity, almost in the style of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

Samuel Lord Kalcheim composes in a variety of styles, old and new, and is dedicated to writing music both emotionally and intellectually satisfying, balancing tender lyricism with tight, complex formal architecture. Building on an expertise in 18th and 19th c. styles and forms, Samuel writes expressive new music for today's sensibilities.

Chinese pipa virtuoso Gao Hong and Indian multi-instrumentalist Baluji Shrivastav OBE unite their rich musical traditions in a cross-cultural collaboration that shines with emotional depth. Alongside Yousef Ali Khan on tabla, Baluji's expressive Indian raags provide a spacious foundation for Gao's intuitive improvisations - at times echoing his motifs, at others soaring freely.

'Only top-flight virtuosos need apply. Emanuele Delucchi is one of them... in a class of his own' (Gramophone). This is Delucchi's fourth album dedicated to the pianistic art of Leopold Godowsky. It's theme is counterpoint, and the possibilities of polyphony at the piano, which Godowsky expanded beyond previously conceived limitations. The album opens with Godowsky's magnificent transcription of the Sonata for Solo Violin BWV1001 by Bach. Counterbalancing the Sonata, the album closes with the serene Andante from the Solo Sonata BWV1003. In 1929, Godowsky composed his own Prelude and Fugue on the Theme B-A-C-H as one of a series of pieces for the left hand: a formidable demonstration of technical and compositional ingenuity. 'Imagine a real fugue in three voices,' he wrote to his friends, 'inversions, contractions, pedal points and all kind of devices on B-A-C-H for one hand!' Yet the Fugue itself is far from austere but rather upbeat in mood, no less a joyful celebration of the piano and it's possibilities than the rest of the works here. Godowsky based the first of his Symphonic Metamorphoses on themes of Johann Strauss on the Kunstlerleben waltz. This piece competes with his contrapuntal paraphrase on Weber's Invitation to the Dance (dedicated to Busoni, no less) as perhaps the most complex pieces ever written for the piano on dance themes. As on his previous Godowsky albums, all of them eliciting an enthusiastic critical reception, Delucchi has chosen to record these works on a piano from Godowsky's own time, lending both warm colours and a period flavour to his playing. He has chosen a Steinway piano from 1879 with a warm and poetic sound, well fitted to evoke the mood of fin-de-siecle Vienna, and to unfold the intricate polyphony of a piano genius. Delucchi also contributes his own, succinct and informed booklet essay on the history and context of these pieces.

Bauer's song cycle Afterimages. A progression for voice and piano takes up Schoeck's cycle Nachhall, op. 70 and transfers it to the present day. Immediately after each song by Othmar Schoeck follows the corresponding progression by Michael Emanuel Bauer. Bauer's adaptation does not stop at the texts by Matthias Claudius and Nikolaus Lenau. In the tradition of Raymond Queneau and the Oulipo group, the texts are deconstructed in a formal-lettristic manner and reassembled.

The 4th volume of the Complete recordings of Dussek's Violin Sonatas, containing the two Sonatas Op.69 and the early Sonata Op.4. Johann Ladislaus Dussek (1760-1812) was born in rural Bohemia. He led a restless life, travelling Europe as a keyboard virtuoso and settling in several European capitals, notably Paris and London, where he became a fashionable pianist and teacher. His close connection to piano manufacturer Broadwood resulted in important innovations, notably the extension of the keyboard to 6 octaves. Dussek's style is rich, harmonically expressive and pianistically challenging, Classicism on the brink of Early Romanticism. This new recording presents the 3 Sonatas Op.1 and the Sonata Op.12 No.1. Carl Friedrich Cramer writes in the "Magazin der Musik" in 1783: "These sonatas are the only ones of their kind. Rich in new thoughts and traces of the author's great musical genius. Very brilliant, and appropriate to the instrument. The accompaniment of the violin is so artificially combined with the piano part that both instruments are kept in constant attention; so that these sonatas require a violin player who is just as skilled as a piano player." Played by Julia Huber, a prizewinner of the Locatelli Competition Amsterdam, and concertmaster of L'Orfeo Baroque Orchestra Linz and La Stagione Frankfurt. Miriam Altmann studied piano, fortepiano and harpsichord, she specializes in the Early Classical repertoire and recorded works by Gyrowetz. Both musicians play period instruments.

The selection on this CD is a cross-section of the composer's successive creative phases. Haydn composed keyboard music over about four decades (ca. 1755-1796). In his day, the word "Clavier" was used as a generic term for various keyboard instruments that coexisted, namely the harpsichord, the clavichord, and the fortepiano (Hammerflugel). Although on this recording I have decided to record all works on a modern grand piano, I found it important to take into account which instruments these pieces were intended for when deciding on matters of interpretation and performance. (Schaghajegh Nosrati)

Alexander Gadjiev's album Legends takes listeners on a journey through the timeless legends and stories hidden within music, revealing it's power to conjure entire worlds. In Debussy's La cathedrale engloutie, ghostly bells rise from a submerged cathedral, bringing a Breton myth to life. Liszt's Funerailles rages with thunderous chords, evoking a battle against mortality, whilst Musorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition unfolds a vivid tapestry of Slavic folklore and European scenes. Prokofiev's Legende tells an enchanted tale of light and shadow, and Scriabin's Sonata No. 9 (Black Mass) immerses us in an eerie, otherworldly soundscape. Franck's Prelude, Fugue et Variation offers a sublime reflection on the soul's journey, while Bach-Siloti's Prelude in B minor resonates like a timeless, universal hymn. The Italian-Slovenian pianist has designed this programme to offer listeners a profound and mythical experience.

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.

Schubert's influence, the spirit of fantasy, and pictures from fairy tales are the common themes in this fifth volume of the Schumann Collection. For this great journey across the Schumannian realm, which starts off with one of his early works, the expansive Quartet for Piano and Strings WoO 32, and concludes with the twilight miniatures of Marchenerzahlungen (Fairytale Narrations), brothers Pierre and Theo Fouchenneret are still at the head of a fine team of chamber musicians bringing together long-time collaborators and great talents of the young generation.

This recording with AZICA Records marks the first modern-day capture of the music of Julia Lazarevna Weissberg Rimsky-Korsakov (1878-1942). During her lifetime, Weissberg ascended the heights of cultural life in Russia's "Silver Age", only to be relegated to obscurity in the subsequent era of socialist realism. A prominent composer, critic, and public figure, she was particularly celebrated for her art songs, symphonic poems, and children's operas. Her works, known for their harmonic ingenuity, were widely published and performed during her lifetime in both Russia and Germany. Born to a prominent Jewish family in Orenburg, Weissberg was a composition student of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and continued her studies in Berlin with Max Reger and Englebert Humperdink. While in Germany, she saw the premieres of many of her songs for voice and orchestra, which received reviews across Germany, France, England, and Russia. By the time of her return to St. Petersburg in 1912, she was a widely-published composer, publishing under the name Julie Weissberg. She subsequently married musicologist Andrey Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai's son. The couple founded the first Russian music magazine Muzïkal'nïy sovremennik (Contemporary Music) for which Weissberg served on the editorial board and was one of the main reviewers. In her lifetime, Weissberg published more than 75 works, including art songs, symphonic poems, symphonies, chamber works, folk songs, and operas for children. Contemporary Russian composer Mikhail Gnesin referred to her as "the first professional female composer in the history of Russian musical art of the 20th century," and contemporary critic Leonid Sabanayeff claimed that she was "a master in the full sense of the word" for her extraordinary musical and text setting abilities. Many of her art songs feature texts by prominent contemporary women creatives from across the globe, including Indian activist Sarajini Naidu (1879-1949), Polish author and activist Maria Knopnicka (1842-1910), German children's author Paula Dehmel (1862-1918), and her close collaborator Sophia Parnok (1885-1933), later known as the 'Russian Sappho'. Weissberg was a leader in the contemporary music community, championing the creation of new works. She died in 1942 with her son Vsevolod Rimsky-Korsakov in the Nazi siege of Leningrad. Soprano Sarah Moulton Faux, an Opera America and America Prize winner, first saw mention of Julie Weissberg's work while researching the art songs of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Intrigued, Sarah began a two year research project into Weissberg's catalogue with the assistance of musicologist Dr. Olga Panteleeva. Together, they found a treasure trove of Weissberg's published manuscripts in the Russian State Library in Moscow. Panteleeva also discovered a doctoral dissertation by Mazur Marina Moiseeva from the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Composer Julie Weissberg: Personality and Creative Heritage (According to the Materials of the Archives of St. Petersburg), which proved to be an invaluable resource. Fifteen songs for voice and piano handpicked from that treasure trove comprise this album, featuring Sarah Moulton Faux and internationally acclaimed pianist and composer Konstantin Soukhovetski. Seven-time Grammy-winner for Classical Music Producer of the Year Judith Sherman is the lead producer and sound engineer.

This second volume of the Flemish Musical Heritage series focuses on art songs by Gustave Huberti (1843-1910). Songs are performed by two leading Belgian singers (soprano and baritone). Texts are in German, Dutch and French. The result is a pleasant portrait of a gifted composer in his different life periods.

Recorded live at Boston's magnificent Symphony Hall, CORO brings together on one album the Handel and Haydn Society's recordings of Haydn's early Symphonies Nos. 6, 7 & 8. Known as Le matin, Le midi and Le soir, the three works, written shortly after Haydn joined the court of Prince Paul Anton Esterhazy, are amongst the most striking of the composer's early symphonies. Characterised by unusual virtuoso writing across the orchestral ensemble, all three works feature extensive solo passages for the wind, horn and strings, including rare solo writing for the double bass and bassoon, and demonstrate Haydn's emerging skill as a master of symphonic writing.

After Stralsund and Danzig, Magdeburg is the third stop on Manfred Cordes' journey through the cities of the Hanseatic League. This stop not only takes him to a city quite far from the sea but also to the earliest period of Protestant church music. Magdeburg introduced the Reformation already in 1524, just seven years after Luther's decisive act. Immediately, the transformation began of what the former monk from Eisleben cherished as a "gift and blessing from God" and saw as an effective means of preaching the Gospel. A genuine "Magdeburg School" emerged, with it's representatives cultivating and developing the music of the new faith up until the Thirty Years' War. This program follows that tradition, bringing to life the works of cantors from Martin Agricola to Heinrich Grimm, thus allowing compositions spanning approximately 120 years to resound once more.

Soundscape of the Corpus Christi procession in Valencia (17th-18th centuries) The Feast of Corpus Christi, established in 1264 by Pope Urban IV, became one of Valencia's most important and magnificent celebrations. It's origins are tied to a Eucharistic miracle that occurred in Valencian territory-the Miracle of the Corporals of Llutxent-Daroca around 1239. This connection helped Valencia become one of the first cities in the Iberian Peninsula to organize a general Corpus Christi procession, beginning in 1355. By the 17th century, the celebration had evolved into a grand public spectacle, rich in music, theatre, and ritual. On the eve of the feast, a parade called the Cavalcada del Convit invited the populace to participate, while the afternoon featured traditional religious theatre in Valencian (els Misteris) and choreographed dances commissioned for the procession. The main procession was a stunning display involving the whole of Valencian society-from guilds to the highest civic, royal, and ecclesiastical authorities. A rich musical tapestry accompanied every step: folk instruments like the dolcainaand tabal, dramatic theatre music, ceremonial city bands, plainchant from clergy, and elaborate polyphony performed by the Cathedral's chapel. In 1672, municipal musician Josep Gomar compiled a manuscript preserving the texts and music of these plays and rituals. Today, this music offers a rare glimpse into the soundscape of baroque Valencia. This concert brings those sounds back to life, allowing audiences to relive the awe and splendor of the city's most cherished feast. Imagine yourself on a Valencian street in the late 1600s, watching and hearing the vibrant procession pass by-an unforgettable journey into the soul of a city's tradition.

The key to Buxtehude's trio sonatas, both for performers and for listeners, is an awareness of the stylus fantasticus which German composers of the late 17th and early 18th centuries developed in response to the new freely inventive style of Italian composers such as Claudio Merulo and Girolamo Frescobaldi. 'It is the most free and unrestrained method of composing,' wrote one contemporary theorist. 'It is bound to nothing, neither to any words nor to a melodic subject, instituted to display genius and to teach the hidden design of harmony and the ingenious composition of harmonic phrases and fugues.' The seven sonatas in each of these collections, published in Hamburg in 1696, offer a continuous succession of short movements, up to eight per sonata, which alternate between slow and fast tempi, and improvisatory and contrapuntal textures, dominated by a dazzling array of ostinato variations which embed the melodies in the listener's consciousness. We encounter witty solos, dialogues and conversations, sublime suspensions, jaunty syncopations and occasional excursions into strange and modal harmony. The expressive range is accordingly wide, venturing in Op.1 No.6 into a D minor realm of darkness and desperation. The musicians on this new recording of Buxtehude's trio sonatas are experienced and skilful practitioners of Baroque style, with an impressive catalogue of albums on Brilliant Classics to their credit. Valerio Losito has recorded the violin sonatas of Scarlatti, Telemann and Tessarini, among others, while Simone Stella has made complete surveys of the organ and harpsichord output by Froberger and Pachelbel - 'performed with natural flair, especially with respect to clarifying counterpoint' (Gramophone). Simone Stella introduces these fascinating works, milestones in the history of German-Baroque chamber music, with an extensive booklet essay. This is 'music full of lyrically delicate, sorrowful, and dramatic emotions,' he says, 'as well as melodious, harmonically gratifying, and full of vitality, a world of sound that consecrates him as a unique genius in the Pantheon of Music.' - Dietrich Buxtehude (c. 1637-1707) was a prominent German-Danish composer and organist of the Baroque period, renowned for his influence on later composers such as J.S. Bach and Handel. Best known for his sacred vocal music and virtuosic organ works, Buxtehude also wrote a substantial body of chamber music. - Published in 1694 and 1696 respectively, Buxtehude's Trio Sonatas comprise two sets of seven sonatas each. On this recording they are played with one violin, viola da gamba and harpsichord. These works represent a blend of German counterpoint and Italianate style. The sonatas are notable for their variety of forms, including fugal sections, dance movements, and expressive slow passages, the inventive use of harmony and rhythmic vitality reflecting the lively spirit of the early Baroque. The Op.1 and 2 sonatas are among the earliest significant instrumental works in Northern Germany, and they contributed to the development of the sonata genre. - Played by three foremost representatives of the Italian Historically Informed Performance Practice: Valerio Losito, Bettina Hoffmann (viola da gamba) and Simone Stella. Valerio Losito successfully recorded for Brilliant Classics works by Tessarini, Veracini, Dal Barba, Telemann and Alessandro Scarlatti.

This extraordinary album by the artist Agata Maria Raatz combines the best of two musical worlds: Interpretation and composition. The artist is not only a soloist, but also the creator of a new musical work - Reflexe 1766. The album forms a sound bridge between Mozart's time and our present, a musical reflection on past and present experiences. Inspired by a real journey through Switzerland in the summer of 2024 in the historical footsteps of the Mozart family, this album creates a multi-sensory sound journey. The experiences of this route have been deeply incorporated into the composition. A special highlight: the soloist wrote her own cadenzas for both recorded violin concertos. They are artistic statements, personal reflections on Mozart's music. In terms of sound, the recording moves between past and present: historically informed playing meets modern instruments. This subtle balance of tradition, authenticity and innovation creates a touching sound language and an immersive listening experience. Mozart & Modern not only invites you to listen, but also to experience it. The violin becomes a narrator between the times, an echo of Mozart's operatic voice and the voice of a contemporary artist. This album is no ordinary classical music product. The Swiss Mozart Route is artistically anchored in the European cultural heritage, in which QR codes, places and history have just as much a place as water, light, movement and silence. Mozart & Modern is a concept album that needs to be experienced - Agata Maria Raatz takes us on this extraordinary musical journey.

Over the past century or so, composers have tended to see themselves as either traditionalists or modernists. The music of Joel Feigin (born in New York in 1951) bridges both worlds, combining the resources of tonality and atonality with equal relish, naturally extending the styles of the recent past. It's freewheeling energy is often tempered by an elegant restraint, sometimes revealing the warm, humanist impulse behind his sound-world. This first volume of his piano and chamber music follows a lusty piano trio and a moving tribute to a much-missed teacher with four sets of variations, three by Feigin and one an arrangement of Bach, the composer who Feigin says is the root of all his music.

A unique achievement in Jean-Philippe Collard's discography, this piano programme devoted to Busoni's transcriptions of Bach's organ works is the result of a deep desire and represents a great accomplishment. Jean-Philippe Collard has been driven by three objectives : to immerse himself in Bach's organ music, to which he has always been attached; to reconnect this passion back to a youth nourished by the great sacred works of the Cantor; and to pay tribute to his musician father, who instilled this culture in him and continues to inspire him today. There is also the ambition of creating an innovative project, outside of the repertoires that have established his talent, following some sixty recordings, and at the height of an artistic career that calls for a form of synthesis, not of his career, but of a family history with the piano, of which Bach seems to him to be the greatest common denominator. The accomplishment is therefore multifaceted. Firstly, it is a sound that fully satisfies the performer, whose memories of organ works are enhanced by the breadth they acquire on the piano thanks to Busoni. It also embodies the very idea of recording itself, to which this extraordinary pianistic material gives, more than anything else, it's justification, according to Jean-Philippe Collard. For him, it is still a matter of perfecting the pianistic gesture, through an almost physiological notion of harmony between the writing and the music that is etched into the hand. Finally, it is the pianistic skill that this programme displays, serving the pleasure of a sound craftsman who feels that he has come full circle. What more could one ask for, he ponders. Borrowing from organ terminology, the expression 'full organ' here symbolically expresses the notion of plenitude and the magnitude of a total pianistic undertaking.

Nino Rota's iconic score for The Godfather is typical of his neo-Classicism - or 'Classical modernist' language - a cosmopolitan and functional musical style inspired by his teachers Pizzetti and Casella. This second and final volume of Rota's solo piano music ranges from Ippolito gioca, an early piece celebrating Pizzetti's 50th birthday, to a large-scale Variations and Fugue on the name Bach that concludes with a four-part fugue. The psychologically expressive music Rota composed for Federico Fellini's film Il Casanova is also featured, alongside the piece Moliere from his music for the ballet Le Moliere imaginaire.

Finnish jazz guitarist Kalle Kalima and jazz trombonist Conny Bauer met in 2022 at a birthday concert for Nils Wogram, where they were playing at a jam session. They quickly developed new compositions together and worked on new ideas, for example based on a musical system developed by Conny in which certain intervallic movements can take place at certain times. They recorded their current album in Berlin in 2023. The music is strictly collective with the intention of escaping the usual categories.