Alice Zawadzki, Fred Thomas & Misha Mullov-Abbado Za Gorami LP / Vocalist and violinist Alice Zawadzki, pianist Fred Thomas and bassist Misha Mullov-Abbado present a rare alchemy on their trio debut, fusing folk idioms from a multitude of sources with free-flowing interplay and fluid structures. Inhabiting their own stylistic realm, the trio encompasses folk song, chamber music, improvisation and acoustic jazz, and on Za G�rami they present the full span of their reach in a mesmerizing whole. The album was recorded at the Auditorio Stelio Molo in Lugano and produced by Manfred Eicher.

What can our ears really perceive when music deviates from a norm whose codes are no longer our own? Geoffroy Jourdain explores the 'strange harmonies' characteristic of the late Renaissance, as in the microtonal pieces of Nicola Vicentino (which divides the octave into 31 notes in a nod to Ancient Greek music). In her new work VicentinoOo, Francesca Verunelli pays tribute to him by following his example.

The programme presented here is particularly interesting from the point of view of Henri Vieuxtemps's Grande sonate concertante op.12, in four movements, a rare work written during the youth of the Verviers composer. Tatiana Samouil won the Grand Prix Vieuxtemps in Verviers in 1998, just after her arrival in Belgium. This prize marked the start of her major international career. She went on to win prizes at the Queen Elisabeth, Sibelius and Tchaikovsky competitions... Henri Vieuxtemps always held a special place in the heart of the violinist, who dreamt of giving the Vieuxtemps sonata a new lease of life in concert halls and on recordings. Her meeting with the brilliant Belgian pianist Johan Schmidt, winner of several major international competitions (Queen Elisabeth, Van Cliburn, Tchaikovsky...) was to make her wish come true! Tatiana Samouil and Johan Schmidt started from the original manuscript to create a new version of the score that is more accessible and readable in terms of interpretation and sound. Louis Vierne's Sonata for violin and piano in G minor Op.23, another rare gem dedicated to Eugene Ysa�e, is considered to be his first major chamber music score and his first unanimously acknowledged masterpiece. It is a masterly work, full of strength, passion and tenderness. A CD between romanticism and modernity that illustrates the stylistic evolution of the French aesthetic with it's characteristics of clarity, balance and elegance.

Canadian-born saxophonist/composer Andrew Rathbun has been holding the position of Professor of Saxophone and Jazz Studies at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo since 2012. Rathbun, however, is not the one who confines himself in the ivory tower but has been active in performing and recording in New York and internationally. He presents here his 10th leader album on SteepleChase. All but two titles were penned by the leader having guitar (played by Nate Radley) as featured instrument creating as always intellectual and at the same time thoroughly emotionally moving music.

Composed between 1865 and 1868, Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem has become a repertoire staple for choirs around the world, amateur and professional alike, possibly because it relies so much more on the choir than it's soloists to convey the texts than other works. Brahms chose not to set the Requiem Mass, but rather a collection of biblical texts of his own selection, taken from the Lutheran Bible (hence the 'deutsches'). Rather than a prayer for the dead, Brahms's concern is much more with offering comfort to the bereaved, still on earth. When challenged about the lack of a single reference to Christ in the entire work, Brahms responded, 'I would gladly omit even the word German and simply put Human'. This adds credence to the view that he saw the work in an entirely humanist way, and that the religious overtones of the title and text selection are much more a result of the avowedly Christian culture of his times than a specific decision to express personal belief. Edward Gardner and his Bergen forces are joined by the soloists Johanna Wallroth and Brian Mulligan in this exciting new recording.

Due to an overload of the right hand and the resulting epicondylitis (golfer's elbow), Nicola Stock was initially no longer able to play the guitar normally. Inspired by Lars Wuller's "Left Hand Guitar Challenge" and due to the fact that guitar works for the left hand alone had hardly existed up to that point - unlike in the piano world, where numerous pieces by well-known composers such as Scriabin or Ravel already exist - the idea arose together with Professor Gerhard Reichenbach to commission new pieces from various composers and thus create a repertoire for the left hand alone that combines innovative ideas and old and new playing techniques. Nicola Yasmin Stock (*1998) is a multiple prizewinner in international guitar competitions. As a soloist, she regularly performs at festivals in Asia, Europe and South America and gives master classes. She studied classical guitar with Professor Gerhard Reichenbach at the University of Music and Dance Cologne/Wuppertal and has also taken part in numerous master classes with renowned artists such as Margarita Escarpa, Pavel Steidl, Judicael Perroy and many others. In addition to her current studies in musicology at the Robert Schumann University in Dusseldorf, Nicola Yasmin Stock is the artistic director of the Rotenburg Guitar Week and an instrumental teacher at the Bergische Music School. She is involved in a variety of chamber music formations and orchestras, including as conductor of the Dortmund Guitar and Mandolin Orchestra. Because of her special commitment to the largely unknown guitar repertoire of female composers, she was awarded a scholarship for female guitarists by the Equal Opportunities Commission at the Cologne University of Music and Dance. She is also involved in cross-disciplinary projects, such as the interdisciplinary annual project of the College of Music and Art in Montepulciano/IT.

Idil Biret was introduced very early to the music of Bach. At the age of three she was trying to play from ear the preludes of Bach from the Well Tempered Clavier which her mother played on their upright piano and drawing his picture in her note book. In her memoires, Idil's mother Leman Biret writes: "After listening for a while to orchestral music on the radio Idil would detect the main melody and then play it on the piano with one finger. Afterwards, when she reached the age of four, she would play these on the piano with two hands and with the correct harmony. Bach preludes and fugues from the Well Tempered Clavier, for example, which even the talented musicians took considerable time to study and memorise, were mastered by Idil in only a few days after listening once or twice, after which she would play these without a single wrong note. "Then, at the age of four her teacher Mithat Fenmen played for Idil on an 78rpm record by Edwin Fischer the Prelude and Fugue in F minor from the Well Tempered Clavier Book II. She says that Bach's music has been a part of her life ever since that day. In 1946, at the age of five, she played the D Minor Piano Concerto of Bach with a string quartet at the Ankara Radio, a work that would be a staple of her concert programs from then on. "The remarkable evening began with D Minor Piano Concerto of J.S. Bach. The concerto required, from the very first measure, agile, precise dexterity from the pianist. Idil Biret took the challenge with a ravishing pulse which carried one away. How this artist combines the strict discipline of the score with the capacity to build sovereign forms is exemplary. Energetically, she drove the flanking Allegro movements forward and dwelled on the song like beauties of the Adagio with concentrated abandon." Dietrich Wolf DRESDNER NEUESTE NACHRICHTEN (Germany) 1996

Pianist Luisa Imorde, deeply inspired by Brahms, presents an album of his works, contextualizing his music with pieces that influenced him, like those by Bach and other Baroque composers. Through her sensible and virtuosic playing she engages with musical traditions, creating a dialogue between compositions and earlier works, just like Brahms had done before her.

Pianist Alexander Lonquich, alongside the Muncih Chamber Orchestra, rises to the challenge of performing the entirety of Beethoven’s piano concertos, programmed in chronological order.

David Janeway has long been a stalwart of NY jazz scene. Though under-recorded, Janeway's undisputable talent has been under the radar. He formed a trio with Cameron Brown (b) and Billy Hart (dr) in 2020 and released the album "Distant Voices" on which D. McClenaghan of AAJ noted, "The trio makes the Janeway compositions sound like classics. These three virtuosos sound like one, like a group settled into the comfort zone. They go into the studio and turn out a compelling and polished product."

Jeong Lim Yang has collaborated with several notable musicians and bands in New York City since her arrival in 2011. Here are some key associations: Jason Moran: Yang has performed extensively as a sideman with this acclaimed jazz pianist and composer, contributing to various projects and performances. Zodiac Trio: This group features Yang alongside Argentinean pianist Santiago Leibson and drummer Tom Rainey. They have performed at prominent venues like Jazz at Lincoln Center, showcasing their interpretations of jazz standards and original compositions13. Lim Yang Trio: Another ensemble she leads, which focuses on her compositions and arrangements, further establishing her presence in the jazz scene5. Through these collaborations, Jeong Lim Yang has made significant contributions to the vibrant New York jazz community.

Rashied Ali stood as a magnetic force for the musical environment around him. In his last decades, he sponsored rehearsal opportunities for young musicians, tightened up a neighborhood street-corner drum circles he happened to pass, and for years pulled promising young talents into his orbit. One unique group that Ali led at the 2002 Vision Festival with Frank Lowe he also took into studio-and that moment you hear on Sidewalks in Motion. This set features Ali and Lowe along with young musicians Jumaane Smith, Andrew Bemkey, and Joris Teepe. Ali edited and prepped for release by in the years after Lowe's death-but it was frozen on the runway at the time of Rashied's own untimely passing. The reborn Survival is honored to reanimate these sounds in 2025. Survival Records SR-553 is a single LP in an old-school tip-on jacket featuring photos and recollections from bassist Teepe. From 1972 until his death in 2009, Rashied Ali operated Survival Records as the primary record label for his work as a leader and other projects. Through that time, Ali documented every phase of his career as a musician.� Under the custodianship of the Ali family, Survival Records was revived in 2019 as a platform for improved, definitive reissues of the original LP releases as well as additional, hitherto unreleased performances from Ali's archive.� Survival releases have been optimized through the practices of Grammy-nominated veteran mastering engineer Joe Lizzi, the musical acuity of drummer George Schuller, and historical input from�researcher Ben Young-overseen by the Estate of Rashied Ali.

The fifteen string quartets composed by Dmitri Shostakovich established him as one of the masters of this genre. These works show him at his most concentrated and most intimate. Although each is quite different in form and structure, every bar of them reveals some aspect of the composer's character, from wild humour to black despair, with an all-pervasive nervous tension. Without texts, descriptive titles or any overt public agenda, they can be heard as revelations of the composer's musicianship in it's most essential form. For it's first release on BIS Records, the Jerusalem Quartet presents three of Shostakovich's quartets. Although the Second String Quartet was composed in 1944, it's character is elusive and it makes no direct reference to the war. Yet this is a substantive work, dark, powerful and at times dissonant. The Seventh Quartet, consisting of three short movements played without interruption, is an enigmatic and deeply personal work dedicated to the memory of the composer's wife. For all it's questioning and complex inner references, the Tenth Quartet is among the most immediately appealing of his later works. By this stage in his life, Shostakovich's music tended to speak in a quieter voice and to a more intimate audience.

The title of Sebastian Fagerlund's Octet 'Autumn Equinox' derives from it's links with his opera Autumn Sonata, based on the Ingmar Bergman film. Some of the moods and musical material of the opera appear in the octet, as a kind of reflection. With the instrumentation of Schubert's famous octet in mind, Fagerlund has created an intense, sometimes almost explosive work. For Arcantio, a double bass concerto in variation form composed for and dedicated to Niek de Groot, Fagerlund imagined a musical atmosphere from some distant, archaic time. Throughout the concerto the soloist constantly guides the orchestra in new directions - at times a virtuoso, at times meditative, as if in a trance. Sky II, originally composed for baroque ensemble, consists of a single movement that presents a fast and flowing, almost playful musical idiom. The musical expression combines dance-like rhythms, minimalism and field-like soundscapes that sweep over the listener. The fast flow of the music is interrupted only by a repeated translucent harmony, which also opens and closes the work. No stranger to Fagerlund's work, John Storgards - who has also previously recorded the opera Autumn Sonata for BIS - conducts the Lapland Chamber Orchestra in two works, while the Octet is played by members of the orchestra.

This album represents a trove of new and never-before recorded songs from the Kazuno region in northern Japan world premiere recordings. Many of the works by renowned local Kazuno children's song composers were largely unknown with beautiful melodies, even though the Japanese culture reveres children's songs, taught to children and sung often by both children and adults. The scores for these children's songs were not published for commercial sale and were believed to be inaccessible but were lent to soprano Wakako Kawasaki by two individuals residing in Kazuno who possessed complete children's songs collections of composers Jujin Odajima and Takatomo Kurosawa for this recording project, as these works of these great composers from Kazuno were not even being sung in their hometown. These collections were used as the base works for the album in addition to pieces composed by Sapporo composer Kyoichi Enda, inspired by Japanese author Ryusuke Saito's story of the Kazuno floods. The album also includes a revival performance of "Dainosaka," a song associated with the Kemanai Bon Dance not sung since the early Showa period (1926-1989), arranged with piano accompaniment by Dr. Akiko Hosaki. Today "Dainosaka" is performed only with flute, drum, and dance, but historical records indicate it was accompanied by song as well. "Dojokko Funakko," was discovered on an original song monument at a temple in Kazuno and added to the album. The album is the result of years of research and discussions with Japanese musicologists in order to create a collection which will be historical in the annals of Japanese music