Playing Franz Schubert's music on the unusual instrument known as the "arpeggione" in an ensemble with the combination of Schrammel harmonica and contraguitar known as the "Wiener Packl" (Viennese posse) in traditional Viennese music - as far-fetched as this combination may seem at first glance, on closer inspection it is not so outlandish, given that the inventor of the arpeggione, Johann Georg Stauffer, also made the first attempts to develop the contraguitar. And the Schrammel harmonica was also invented around the same time, also in Vienna! On this album by the title "Arpeggione.200," Peter Hudler, Andreas Teufel and Daniel Fuchsberger perform Schubert's popular Sonata for Arpeggione and Piano in addition to different L�ndler and their own arrangements of songs like "Trockne Blumen," "Du bist die Ruh" or "Sei mir gegr��t," opening a gateway to a very special, distinctly poetic, lyrical sound world which also highlights the close relation of Schubert's works to traditional Alpine folk music.

The album Bohemian Legacy by Trio 258 is a heartfelt tribute to three generations of Czech composers - Bedrich Smetana, Antonin Dvorak, and Josef Suk - whose music embodies the soul of Bohemian culture. The program begins with Smetana's Piano Trio in G minor, a deeply personal and tragic work written in the wake of his daughter's death, where raw grief intertwines with Bohemian folk melodies and a sense of resilience. Dvorak's Piano Trio No. 3 in F minor follows, showcasing his synthesis of Bohemian lyricism and Germanic symphonic structure, combining folk-inspired dance rhythms with Brahmsian complexity. The album concludes with Suk's Elegy in D-flat Major, dedicated to poet Julius Zeyer and inspired by his poem Vysehrad, a reflective and nostalgic ode to Prague's cultural and spiritual heritage. Together, these works form a tapestry of national identity, friendship, and artistic lineage - an exploration of emotion, beauty, and belonging through music. In their liner notes, Trio 258 (Lestari Scholtes, Eduardo Paredes Crespo, and Leonard Besseling) emphasize the importance of language, nature, and folk tradition in shaping Czech music. They describe their interpretive process as an "immensely valuable journey," seeking to find their own voice while honoring the composers' intentions. Through this album, the trio not only presents technically accomplished performances but also reflects on the Bohemian spirit - one that fuses melancholy and vitality, individuality and tradition. Their recording is both a musical homage and a personal exploration of how the language of music can bridge generations, resonating with the timeless ideals of freedom, emotion, and national identity

Myron Silberstein, Brooklyn-born (in 1974) and a long-term resident of Chicago, belongs to that centuries-old tradition of the composer-pianist. But here the distant roots are not so much in Mozart and Beethoven as in Copland and Barber. Silberstein's language echoes the tradition of earlier American composers like Creston, Mennin, and Persichetti, and his tonal harmony may remind some listeners of mid-twentieth-century jazz, especially in it's sense of improvisatory freedom. Like much of American culture more generally, it is open, outgoing, and often positive in spirit.

A longtime Delos partner, composer Mark Abel releases his seventh album on the label. Matter-of-factly titled 4.4.2, it features the world premiere recording of four works for two musicians. A combination of vocal and chamber music, the album offers an enticing glimpse into Abel's wide-ranging soundworld, showcasing one of America's most original compositional voices alongside an impressive roster of internationally accomplished artists. The five-star cast includes rising mezzo-soprano Simone McIntosh, flutist Alice K. Dade, violinist Jennifer Choi, cellist Jonah Kim and pianists Michael McMahon, Ieva Jokubaviciute and Keisuke Nakagoshi, and the composer himself on the organ. 4.4.2 is sure to continue to solidify Mark Abel as "a compositional master of intriguing contemporary music."

American Tapestry by the Calidore String Quartet weaves together a panoramic portrait of American musical expression across the 20th and 21st centuries. The programme spans Samuel Barber's lyrical String Quartet No. 1, featuring the iconic Adagio; Wynton Marsalis's jazz-inflected At the Octoroon Balls; and John Williams's With Malice Toward None-here in it's world premiere string quartet version. The album concludes with Erich Korngold's radiant String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, written in postwar Los Angeles. Together, these works reveal a vibrant continuum of American artistry-a sound world both richly diverse and deeply unified in spirit.

SOMM RECORDINGS�celebrates the powerful and dynamic relationship between soloist and orchestra with three works by Nimrod Borenstein, whom Opus klassiek called "Brilliant... an inspired composer but also an inspiring conductor." Borenstein leads the English Chamber Orchestra in his Concerto for mandolin and orchestra; Shakespeare Songs for soprano and orchestra; and Legende - Concerto for oboe and orchestra. The program features mandolinist Alon Sariel, honored for his "dazzling virtuosity" by The Vancouver Sun; soprano Sarah Fox- Honorary Fellow at the University of London's Royal Holloway College and winner of the Kathleen Ferrier and John Christie awards-praised for her "shining intelligence" by Gramophone; and oboist Sanja Romic, hailed by Zubin Mehta for her "musical depth and lovely tone" and applauded worldwide for her expressive sound and charismatic stage presence. Nimrod Borenstein-whose substantial catalogue currently numbers more than 100 works ranging from orchestral and chamber music to solo instrumental pieces-made his SOMM debut [SOMMCD 281] conducting the first recordings of his Piano Concerto, piano quintet�Light and Darkness, and�Shirim�for solo piano, celebrated by Pizzicato as "feel-good music of exquisite quality." With reference to this present release, Borenstein describes the relationship between soloist and orchestra as having an epic, almost theatrical quality. "It can become a moment of confession, or of confrontation," he says, "a personal voice rising against, or carried by, a collective force." These elements are richly evident in all three works presented here. While the qualities of a mandolin can be delicate, quiet, and soft, Borenstein's choice in composing his Concerto for mandolin and orchestra was to create a work that feels monumental in scope while showcasing the virtuosic capabilities of the instrument. To this end, the composer explored many of the technical ideas and expressive tools pioneered by Paganini for the violin, adapting them to the mandolin's unique sound. This release of Borenstein's Shakespeare Songs reprises his performance in March 2025 at London's Cadogan Hall with Sarah Fox and the English Chamber Orchestra. In choosing and setting these five Shakespeare sonnets, Borenstein has created both variety and a sense of overall structure ranging from the enchantment of pure beauty in "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" to the despair-turned-hope in "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes." The two-movement Legende - Concerto for oboe and orchestra was written for and premiered by Sanja Romic in 2024. The slow, dance-like opening is like a preamble to a tale about to be told; "Let me tell you a story about a legend I once heard." The second and final movement is more fiery, with contrasts leading to a faster tempo return of the opening theme, creating a sense of narrative closure before a brilliant, virtuosic conclusion.

Since it's foundation in 2013, the Berlin Opera Group has made a name for itself with Berlin premieres such as Donizetti's Deux Hommes et une Femme and Betly, and other operatic rarities. This album is a Deutschlandfunk Kultur recording of the 2021 performance of Pietro Mascagni's Zanetto from the Konzerthaus Berlin. Yajie Zhang was also heard in the role of Ugo d'Asti (OC989). The orchestra of the Berlin Opera Group plays under the direction of Felix Krieger.

It was Prince Nikolaus of Esterh�zy's increasing infatuation with the baryton that compelled Haydn, the prince's Kapellmeister, to write an unprecedented body of 125 works for baryton trio. The instrument is more like a viola d'amore than a bass viol and has extra strings behind the neck that provide resonance and opportunities for plucking effects. The six works in this album are intimate expressions of great beauty, with a sustained level of invention, all of which reflect the prince's increasing confidence in the instrument. Volumes 1 and 2 are available on 8.574188 and 8.574504.

Nicola Benedetti -"Violin Caf�" - Violin Caf� brings together music that represents the different musical strands of Nicola's life and career, from virtuosic showpieces to French romance, contemporary favorites and Scottish folk, freshly arranged for a new dynamic group of instruments: violin, guitar, accordion & cello, and smallpipes. This inventive new line-up of instruments delivers a communal, conversational "evening caf� appropriate" sound. A sound with the flexibility to work across genres, cultures and performance environments. The album reunites Nicola with audiences she has known and been supported by for over 22 years. This is a thank you to the people of all ages, from all around the world, who share a deep love of classical music and the violin, whose children Nicola has taught after concerts and whose curiosity of the arts she shares.

John Rutter/Steven Osborne/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - "Reflections". This new recording is the first orchestral album from one of Britain's most beloved composers, Sir John Rutter. Released just ahead of Rutter's 80th birthday in September 2025. Known around the world for his choral music, the album includes the first recording of Rutter's rarely heard piano concerto, Reflections, performed by pianist Steven Osborne and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the composer himself. In addition to the piano concerto, the album includes the orchestral works Celebration Overture, Four Miniatures for Orchestra, Cityscapes, and Elegy. Rutter's music is performed across the globe, and he has received many honors, including a CBE in 2007 and a knighthood in 2024 for services to music. Being knighted by King Charles III, a strong supporter of the arts, was a particularly special moment for Rutter. CD Digisleeve.

Two years after his first solo-piano album, JB Dunckel has reimagined it's delicate melodies for string quintet. On Paranormal Music Chamber, the ten dreamy, moody tracks blossom into a warm palette of colours through minimalist yet sophisticated arrangements and production. First and foremost a "r�veur d'harmonies" ("dreamer of harmonies"), JB has teamed up with composer and pianist Harry Allouche to create these arrangements for a string quintet, specially formed by five musicians from the Orchestre de l'Op�ra national de Paris. Double bass, cello, violins and viola-sometimes joined by flute-significantly broaden the tonal spectrum of the pieces, while preserving or even amplifying their original sensibility, freedom and momentum. Whilst simple and accessible, Paranormal Music Chamber is nonetheless a very sophisticated album, the result of rigorous work at every stage of it's conception. It is no easy feat achieving a work that is at once modern and complex, yet uncomplicated-a showcase of heartfelt and deeply human aspect.

Avi Avital/Between Worlds - "Song of the Birds". Mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital leads a new ensemble that challenges the boundaries between classical and folk music. Each project of the Between Worlds ensemble is dedicated to a different geographical region - the Iberian Peninsula, the south of Italy and the Black Sea - and paints a rich musical portrait of that region in bright colors and detailed nuances. Classical composers from each region are played side by side with traditional music that often inspired their work, performed together with renowned folk vocalists and instrumentalists as guest artists.

Luka (violin) and L�o (cello) Ispir (laureates 2023 of Fondation Gautier Capu�on) are two award-winning musicians, trained at prestigious institutions such as the Conservatoire de Paris and the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel. Fondation Gautier Capu�on is dedicated to supporting emerging young musicians, helping them launch their professional careers with mentorship, visibility, and opportunities to perform: fondationgautiercapucon. Com. This album showcases a diverse program, blending masterpieces by Bach and Mozart with a tribute to Ravel's iconic Sonata for Violin and Cello, in the year of 150th's anniversary of the composer's birth. It also features the world premiere recording of Street of Memories, Op. 115 by Turkish composer and pianist Fazil Say.

Following on the acclaimed 'Where is Home' and 'Hymns of Bantu', two genre-defying albums, 'Four Spirits' is also drawn from Abel's South African roots and seeks to create a communal experience with the audience through cello concerto, percussion, singing & improvisation. His first solo cello concerto and, formally speaking, a concerto cast in four movements - each movement takes an essential aspect of township life: ancestors, children, faith and community. Selaocoe positions himself as chief storyteller, combining cello improvising with lyrics in the Southern Sotho and Zulu languages.

Los Angeles-based composer Noah Meites releases a collection of his chamber music that chronicles his vibrant artistic voice and his role as an active member of that city's fertile contemporary music community. Featuring performances by Brightwork New Music, HOCKET, Linnea Powell, richi valitutto, New Thread Quartet, and Meites' own ensemble LA Signal Lab, COUNTING is a vital snapshot of a prolific artist in one of the United States' most vital new music scenes.

Cheo Hurtado, virtuoso of the cuatro and bandola guayanesa, presents part of the vast traditional Venezuelan repertoire, mainly derived from pre-baroque and baroque Hispanic music: melodic richness and rhythmic vigour. Cheo Hurtado (born Asdr�bal Jos� Hurtado on 2 May 1960 in Ciudad Bol�var, Venezuela) is one of the most celebrated virtuoso performers of the cuatro, a small four-stringed instrument central to Venezuelan folk tradition. The Spanish conquest reached Venezuela fairly early. Christopher Columbus had already landed near the Orinoco delta by his third journey, in 1498. As it was near to Santo Domingo and Cuba, which were the gates to all contact with the homeland, Venezuela was exposed to a good deal of musical input from Baroque Europe. In addition to church and secular art music, Spanish popular music forms were also introduced throughout the continent of South America. These musical forms may have already gained African and American influences while in Spain. In the course of time, they turned into traditional music. Cheo Hurtado learned to play the cuatro with his father, performed at an early age as a soloist, and was awarded several prizes. He has played with various groups, including Guruf�o (one of the most popular bands in Venezuela). He also plays the bandola llanera, mandolina, and the Cuban tres.

Violinist Mario P�rez presents the first complete recording of Felipe Lib�n's 30 Caprices (1775-1838), released by IBS Classical. This extraordinary project, recorded at the Auditorio Manuel de Falla and produced by Paco Moya, stands as a brilliant example of artistic research through performance-a dialogue between past and present that restores to the repertoire one of Spain's most fascinating yet overlooked violinists. A disciple of Giovanni Battista Viotti, Lib�n was born in C�diz into a French family and became one of the most refined violinists of his generation. Active in the courts of Lisbon, Madrid, and Paris, he was admired for his elegance, precision, and expressive warmth. Performing on a Stradivari violin and pioneering the use of the modern Tourte bow, Lib�n combined the grace of the Classical style with a technical brilliance that anticipated Paganini. With both intellectual rigor and musical sensitivity, Mario P�rez-Associate Principal in the Spanish National Orchestra and member of the Tr�o Musicalis-revives Lib�n's forgotten masterpiece using his Andrea Castagneri (1696-1747) violin, whose rich and luminous tone connects the listener to the sound world of the early nineteenth century. Each of the thirty Caprices focuses on a distinct technical or expressive aspect, forming a complete and vivid compendium of violin technique and artistry.

�caro is a compelling recital for cello and piano that brings together four luminous works rooted in early-20th-century Spanish musical nationalism, enriched by Catalan folk colour and French Impressionist refinement. Cellist Alex Olmedo Duynslaeger and pianist Fiona Mato present a carefully curated programme that combines rediscovery with repertoire favourites, offering strong appeal to both specialists and a broader classical audience. The album opens with Joaqu�n Nin de Castellanos's Spanish Suite for cello and piano, a vivid journey through regional dances and melodies shaped by the Franco-Spanish aesthetic of Paris between the wars. A major highlight is the world-premiere recording of the Sonata in A major by Llu�s Benejam, rescued from the archives of the Barcelona Conservatory: an elegant, finely crafted work that blends Impressionist sonorities, rhythmic vitality, and lyrical depth. Manuel Oltra's mature Sonata for Cello and Piano follows, notable for it's dynamic dialogue, structural clarity, and expressive intensity, before the programme closes with Gaspar Cassad�'s celebrated Requiebros, dedicated to Pau Casals and performed here with remarkable freedom and character. �caro is both an artistic statement and a discovery album: ideal for distributors seeking high-quality repertoire with premiere value, strong interpretative personalities, and a narrative that connects myth, heritage, and modern performance in a highly attractive commercial package.

Spanish pianists Juan Lago and Bel�n Navarro present in this album a repertoire that has featured prominently in their concerts over the past decade: works by non-Spanish composers inspired by Spanish popular music. Thanks to the piano-a truly universal instrument-Debussy, Ravel, Chabrier, and Rimsky-Korsakov not only developed their early compositional voices, but also found a vehicle through which their orchestral masterpieces could be adapted and performed beyond the concert hall. Through their own arrangements or those by trusted collaborators, these works have reached intimate settings and private homes around the world. The keyboard's orchestral richness-especially in four-hand performance-and it's ability to imitate or evoke the timbral variety of an orchestra allow the Lago-Navarro Duo to showcase their artistry and technical command in a beloved and familiar repertoire, deeply ingrained in the collective musical memory of the Spanish people. In this album, Ib�ria, Rapsodie espagnole, Espa�a, and Capriccio espagnol are brought together in a fresh concert format, allowing the musical echoes of Spain to resound with renewed brilliance. Bel�n Navarro & Juan Lago Piano Duo The well-established Lago-Navarro piano duo-formed in 1997 by Spanish pianists Juan Lago and Bel�n Navarro-presents in this album a repertoire that has featured prominently in their concerts over the past decade: works by non-Spanish composers inspired by Spanish popular music.

The coming together of the percussionist and marimbist Vassilena Serafimova and the Quatuor Ardeo,(Ardeo String Quartet) the encounter of two worlds that inspire new repertoires as well as moods and impressions, recreated partly through original arrangements. This is a subtle balance between the marimba coupled with the vibraphone and the strings: the former, pulsating and silky, brings a more pronounced rhythmic dimension and occasionally takes on a concertante role; the latter offers a warm lyricism and a texture at times dense or transparent, but always supple. A delicate balance, too, when it comes to paying homage to the works without diminishing their original artistic strength. As the works and arrangements unfold, the journey takes shape like a voyage journal where age-old traditions meet fresh inspirations. Melodies in a Bottle aims to be less a programme than a passage, one of maritime or urban perspectives, of real or imagined landscapes, of music whose history is rewritten with every note. A meeting space where curiosity becomes an attractive driving force.

Pomponio Nenna was born in Bari in 1556 and studied there under Stefano Felis. He then moved to Naples, where he began his career as a composer in a stimulating spirit of emulation; Nenna and Carlo Gesualdo each influenced the other's madrigal style in their treatment of text, dissonance, and chromatic modulation. Nenna's vocal works are complemented here by a number of organ pieces by local composers such as Giovanni Maria Trabaci and Giovanni di Macque, transcribed here for a consort of viols.

2026 release.

Con silencio vibrante presents a compelling portrait of the Spanish and Latin American musical avant-garde during one of it's most creative and transformative periods. Performed by the acclaimed ensemble Taller Sonoro, the album brings together eight chamber works composed between 1963 and 1976, offering a rare and illuminating perspective on a repertoire that remains insufficiently documented. The recording traces a dense network of aesthetic ideas, personal connections, and transatlantic exchanges that shaped mid-20th-century contemporary music. Serial rigor, controlled chance, graphic notation, literary inspiration, and refined timbral exploration coexist in works by Mario Lavista, Joan Guinjoan, Aurelio de la Vega, Graciela Paraskeva�dis, Gonzalo de Olavide, Enrique Raxach, Jes�s Villa-Rojo, and Luis de Pablo-several of them presented here in world-premiere recordings. From the fragile, poetic resonance of Lavista's Quotations to the architectural clarity of de Pablo's Cesuras, the album reveals a shared search for new expressive territories, while preserving the distinct voices of each composer. Silence, texture, rhythm, and space become structural elements in a music that balances intellectual rigor with striking expressive power. Recorded in Seville and produced by IBS Classical, Con silencio vibrante confirms Taller Sonoro as one of today's leading interpreters of contemporary repertoire and stands as an essential release for listeners interested in the avant-garde heritage of the 20th century.

A vocation for experimentation was unquestionably an essential component of Bach's mindset. It was a desire to surpass, in every possible respect, whatever had been achieved up until then in a given genre or musical form, while extending to the utmost the resources and technical capabilities of individual instruments and the human voice (and thus also of individual performers). All of this was to be accomplished in the search for a perfection that is both aesthetic and spiritual. This ceaseless aspiration-cultivated from the beginning to the very end of his life-to go beyond the limits shapes the works selected for the second solo album by harpsichordist Cristiano Gaudio, whose debut recording was awarded a Diapason d'Or and Classica's Choc de l'Ann�e. From the dazzling virtuosity of the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue to the contrapuntal complexity of the Ricercare a 6 from The Musical Offering; from the art of transcription, magnified in the arrangement of the Violin Sonata no. 2, to the "twelve-tone" last fugue of The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I, whose subject exceptionally includes all the notes of the chromatic scale-all these works embody that bold erosion of limits that Bach's music pursued as it's true mission. They give both performers and listeners, for over three centuries, the thrill of an intellectual adventure-indeed even a physical experience-that is constantly on the edge.

Schubert's late string quartets are important for their unprecedented emotional depth, formal expansion, and daring harmonic language. They transform classical quartet traditions by infusing them with romantic intensity, confronting themes of mortality, inner conflict, and lyric beauty. Through large-scale structures, stark contrasts, and expressive unity, these works reshaped the expressive possibilities of chamber music and influenced the development of the Romantic quartet tradition.