The composer Dominick Argento wrote that he would "like for the listener to be reminded of their own humanity. I want an emotional reaction, anywhere from joy to despair... something that reminds us that we're human." The sets of songs and cycles included in this brilliant recording all speak to this artistic goal and include settings of Olga and Anton Chekhov, Petrarch, Walt Whitman, Walter de la Mare, Alun Lewis, and Argento himself. Mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala, baritone Jesse Blumberg and pianists Martin Katz and JJ Pena join forces to present this tribute to a great American composer.

Chopin is said to have played in time (the metronome was always on the instrument), his left hand relentlessly keeping the tempo. Students also reported that he never played a piece in the same way, and that each performance produced a different result. And yet the composer's rubato playing was by no means as free as it is today. There are no reports of Chopin's playing of Bach in particular, but his admiration for the composer is certain. We therefore put the legend that he himself—according to his own statement—played only Bach for fourteen days before a concert into perspective and simply imagine that he worked intensively on "Bach" before his already rare performances. We can assume that the preludes and fugues of the "Well-Tempered Clavier," some of which are also heard in this project, were the focus of his interest.

A closer look at Chopin’s works, especially those of a smaller dimension, repeatedly catches the eye of modules that we think we already know from Bach. Individual bars of the Préludes op. 28 (1836-1839) and Études (op. 10 no. 4) (1833/1837) could be retransformed into a nucleus in Bach’s character with just a few “hand movements.” Chopin’s veneration of Bach preserved these highly condensed musical tools of the Baroque composer well into the Romantic century. He still used them in his late works, such as his last Nocturne in E major, which in a sense takes stock of “Bach.”

This recording, which feels entirely experimental, aims to create a unique musical experience through the direct connection of tonal, for example key, variations. The sound of some structurally related works clearly shows how much Chopin was influenced by Bach's work, whose formal stability with its geometric structures often prevented him from sowing too much "tinsel, trinkets, and pearls," something Robert Schumann once had the courage to accuse his rival of. The aim of this project tempted us to play "Chopin like Bach" here and there and to achieve the greatest possible transparency with extremely economical use of the pedal. Above all, to breathe Chopin's breath into Bach's melodic beauties with a "romantic" touch. The approximately 40-year-old Steinway B grand piano was chosen because of its slim bass section.

Boxberg worked as an organist in Grossenhain from 1692 to 1702. From here he worked simultaneously as a singer, opera director, opera composer and also as a librettist, in Leipzig and at the courts of Wolfenbuttel, Ansbach and Kassel, and later as an organist in Gorlitz. The cantatas he composed do not follow the model common at the time in terms of form and instrumentation, with choirs, solo arias, recitatives and chorales, with an orchestra consisting of strings, wind instruments and continuo. A large part of the works are chamber music with a singing voice and two melody instruments, plus bassoon and organ. Formally, many of the solo cantatas consist of a dictum (Bible text appropriate to the Sunday of the church year) and an aria, usually four verses long. The name of these works is "Conncert con Aria". Another cantata form uses psalms and chorales in it's content. In formal terms, these cantatas can be assigned to the earlier, motet-like style.

Emeline Bayart, comedienne chanteuse et metteuse en scene, interprete Fragson, Guilbert, Brassens, Vincent Scotto, Anne Sylvestre ou Juliette. Elle donne vie a ce patrimoine musical essentiel qu'elle explore avec un panache fou et une justesse sans pareil. D'Elle a Lui raconte les frasques de la vie amoureuse avec gouaille, dr�lerie et emotion. Emeline Bayart a un talent inestimable pour mettre en lumiere l'art poetique du parle chante. Feminin, libre et fievreux. Irresistible. Augustin BONDOUX / Patrick FReMEAUX. Emeline Bayart excelle a donner des couleurs delicates aux melodies les plus tendres, a pimenter les histoires salees, a donner du punch aux ritournelles languissantes. Il n'y a rien de plus beau qu'un recital de grandes chansons francaises interprete avec esprit. Elle a puise la matiere de ce cabaret irresistible dans un large vivier. Elle est epatante et son partenaire de pianiste aussi. Armelle HeLIOT - Le Figaroscope. Actress, singer and stage director Emeline Bayart sings Fragson, Guilbert, Brassens, Vincent Scotto, Anne Sylvestre and Juliette. And here she gives new life to this essential music heritage with an exploration of songs where she adds her amazing panache to an unrivalled perspective. "D'Elle a Lui" sings of life's amorous escapades, with Emeline giving these songs a quirky humour that pairs laughter with the emotions. And she shows a priceless talent for illuminating the poetic art we call "spoken-song": feminine, free and excited. Irresistible.

Lino Liviabella was a well-known pianist and award-winning composer during the early to mid-20th century. He also achieved renown for his pioneering role within the movement that sought to emancipate Italian instrumental music from the influence of 19th-century opera. The spirit of Liviabella's music manifests itself as a creative journey through evocative sounds, fleeting impressions and strong dynamic contrasts. From the rigorous and brilliantly virtuoso Sonata in un Tempo to the passionate Concerto for Violin and Piano and so much more besides, Liviabella's chamber compositions represent the first important works for violin and piano written in Italy in the first half of the 20th century

The Sacconi Quartet join forces again with celebrated composer Jonathan Dove for the latest instalment of their many fruitful collaborations and journeys. The String Quartet no 2 On the Streets and in the sky was written during the recent pandemic and was commissioned for the Sacconi Quartet to celebrate their 20th anniversary. Between Friends, is a world premiere recording, and a memorial to Graeme Mitchison (1944-2018), a multi-disciplined scientist, intrepid adventurer, cyclist, paraglider, mountaineer and a possessor of two pianos on which he and Dove would play together for over forty years. Who Wrote the Book of Love? Is an extended song cycle written for baritone Philippe Sly who performs the work here. Vanishing Gold is a compact five-minute piece written for the 40th anniversary of the Endellion Quartet, who then retired. Dove's previous release with the Sacconi Quartet on Signum "In Damascus" was awarded Gramophone Recording of the Month and Presto's Editor's Choice in 2017. ? The beauty of the piece, for tenor and string quartet, is it's restraint. It doesn't sensationalise, get maudlin, moralise or politicise. The words are direct and the music respects that. The performance does, too: focused playing from the Sacconi Quartet and lucid, unswerving narrative from tenor Mark Padmore - The Guardian

This album features four great orchestral works that are inspired by works of art. The Saint-Saens, Rachmaninoff, and Liszt works are well-known. Also included is a work by contemporary composer William Popp, who is also well-known as an accordionist.

Even the name of the newcomer duo from Leipzig conjures up the legendary times of cabaret, silent film, and the Golden 1920s: lola. Gelb is what Anika Paulick (voice) and Michelle Bernard (piano) call themselves for the release of their debut album with GENUIN. On the program: the journeys of human life across the vast sea as well as into the (un)depths of our emotional worlds. Alongside numerous real places, lola. Gelb takes us to the fantasy island "Youkali", the "Bar zum Krokodil" (The Crocodile Bar), and the reflections of Friedrich Hollaender's "Wenn ich mir was wunschen durfte" (If I Could Wish for Something). With Kurt Weill, they sing about the ship with fifty cannons in "Pirate Jenny" (from the "Threepenny Opera") and summarize with Hildegard Knef's "17 Millimeter fehlten mir zum Gluck" (17 Millimeters Short of Happiness). So, let's pour ourselves a glass of champagne and set off!

It was between the publication of the Quatrieme Livre de Pieces de Violes in 1717 and the Cinquieme in 1725 that Marin Marais offered his public an exceptional collection of works that use both the violin and the viol. These works are very different from the earlier viol pieces, from the instruments used to the works' formal structures: they include a sonata inspired by Italian models marked � la maresienne (in Marais' own style), a piece on a three note basso ostinato that evokes the peals of bells in a Parisian church, and an astonishing monument of a piece - La Gamme - that Marais described as an example of a small opera for instruments.

A monument of piano literature, the grand finale of the "New Testament of the piano": Tomoko Ogasawara performs Ludwig van Beethoven's last three piano sonatas on her new GENUIN album. She captures the transcendent quality of these masterpieces, which transcend boundaries in every respect, with precision and sensitivity. The immense technical difficulties vanish, just as Beethoven must have wished, behind great seriousness and depth of feeling. Musical proclamation par excellence!

Her intensive frequentation of the works of Liszt has nurtured her sense of narrative and her talent as a colourist. Beatrice Berrut knows how to turn her piano into a veritable orchestra, to mould the sound material, to create profoundly poetic atmospheres and transport us into a dreamlike world. For this musician, who grew up surrounded by nature, has kept her childlike soul and developed an imaginary universe populated by fantastical characters straight out of fairytale, though she does not hesitate to shake up it's codes. Deftly handling the arts of transcription and composition, she tells us these stories in her own way, embracing sensuous delight, frissons and chaos. The magic of fairy tales mingles with the stuff of dreams in this programme, by turns flamboyant and poetic, it's colours alternating between glitter and gentleness. While it begins with excerpts from the great ballet repertoire, it ends with well-known themes from the movie classics The Sword in the Stone and Harry Potter.

A Musical America New Artist and BBC Rising Star, Ian Niederhoffer is a fast-rising, young conductor. Here, together with his orchestra Parlando, he explores music as a tool of cultural resilience in the face of censorship, particularly within the Soviet Union. This eclectic program includes Shostakovich's Adagio from Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk, a work infamously censored after Stalin's disapproval, the Concertino for Violin and String Orchestra by Mieczyslaw Weinberg, a composer whose career was shaped by persecution during Stalin's anti-cosmopolitan campaign, and Edvard Mirzoyan's Symphony for String Orchestra and Timpani, which is a powerful testament to Armenian cultural survival despite Soviet Russification. Inspired by Parlando's mission that "every concert tells a story", the album ends with three narrated tracks detailing Soviet censorship.

Flo� og Fjara is Gulli Gudmundsson's new project. The Icelandic bassist has been a cornerstone of the Dutch jazz scene for many years. His new trio has a chamber music-inspired setup. With pianist Jeroen van Vliet and trumpeter Koen Smits, he has found two musicians who share his pursuit of similar sound ideals.

On his new GENUIN album, cellist Christian Erben, a member of the renowned Gewandhaus Orchestra, presents one of the most intriguing oeuvres for his instrument from the 20th century: Max Reger's three suites for solo cello. Baroque grandeur and intellectual depth, late-Romantic harmony, and masterful counterpoint: no one had explored the soloistic possibilities of perhaps the most human of all instruments as comprehensively since Johann Sebastian Bach as Max Reger did. Christian Erben delves into the immense suites down to the finest detail and brings their tonal intricacies to light!

In this unique recording, Lee Jae-Hwa -a geomungo zither virtuoso- performs the suites Geomungo Hoesang and Geomungo Sanjo in the respective styles of the South and North of the Korean peninsula: distinct forms, techniques and rhythms, but with a shared subtlety, sensitivity and emotion. The geomungo, a 6-string zither, features 16 frets over a resonating board made of paulownia wood. It's origins trace back to the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo (37 BCE to 668 CE), which dominated the territory of present-day North Korea and a large part of Manchuria. It's rich history spans some 1600 years. The geomungo makes dramatic sounds, through the friction created by the plectrum striking the strings, or the rustling created by the subtle movements of the left hand over the strings. Due to it's dignified and stately nature, the geomungo was considered "the greatest of all instruments" throughout the Korean peninsula.