Although Wagner didn't compose organ music himself, it is not difficult to imagine his colorful orchestrations transcribed for the organ. To enrich an overly ecclesiastic organ repertoire, 19th-century composers such as the legendary organist Edwin Lemare, Sigfrid Karg-Elert, and Franz Liszt created organ transcriptions of beloved Wagner operas like Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, Tristan und Isolde, and Tannhauser. With their intricate layering and dramatic counterpoints, these operas proved a perfect match for the splendor of the Romantic organ.

The new album Face2Face is an extraordinary experience that juxtaposes the iconic String Quartets of Beethoven with the avant-garde compositions of modern masters. This first volume in an ongoing series showcases how Beethoven's innovative spirit laid the groundwork for generations of composers to come. Featuring iconic classical pieces from Beethoven's and Bartok's repertoire, this album is a must-have for both classical enthusiasts and adventurous listeners alike. Performed by the award-winning Amaryllis Quartett, whose accolades include the prestigious 1st prize at the 6th International Chamber Music Competition in Melbourne (2011), this release promises to illuminate the brilliance of Beethoven's work while exploring the bold expressions of contemporary composition.

Countless wealthy people in eighteenth-century Europe developed a passion for botany. This passion went far beyond the simple pleasure of gardens, reflecting rather a growing fascination with the natural world. German composer Georg Philipp Telemann shared this passion and energetically cultivated his collection, often begging friends and correspondents to send him specimens. The creative landscape of Telemann's life was undoubtedly filled with floral and musical colour. Ensemble Hesperi, a period ensemble based in London, presents a programme that celebrates Telemann's botanical passion. His published correspondence shows that he often wrote to his musician friends abroad, asking them to send him plant specimens. Among these friends were George Frideric Handel and Johann Gottlieb Graun, each of whom is represented here by a trio sonata, and there is also music by Telemann himself: one of his difficult 'Paris Quartets', a raucous sonata in G minor and a haunting fantasia for solo recorder. In a letter to a friend, Telemann spoke of his passion for hyacinths, tulips, ranunculi 'and especially for anemones'. The composer of four instrumental collections containing floral musical miniatures, James Oswald had to be part of this programme, and so we are treated to 'The Hyacinth', 'The Anemone' and 'The Tulip' from his 'Airs for the Spring'.

Pianist Olga Pashchenko creates musical narratives with selections from Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words. As children, the two immensely prodigious siblings enjoyed using text to inspire their piano pieces, although which of them was the actual inventor of the genre remains a mystery. It is possible that they either co-created this genre, or even that Fanny could have been the creator of the genre traditionally ascribed exclusively to Felix. This music, although wordless, is bursting with poetry and well-suited to the Conrad Graf piano from 1836 that Pashchenko chose for this recording. The Graf piano, a brand favoured by Felix, has a recitative-like quality that Pashchenko uses to perfectly articulate the poetry inherent in these Lieder ohne Worte or as Fanny called them, Lieder fur das Pianoforte.

Donizetti's L'aio nell'imbarazzo ('The Embarrassed Tutor') is a melodramma giocoso in two acts, premiered to considerable acclaim in 1824. It's subject is the belated attempt by the elderly Marquis Giulio to keep his sons innocent of the ways of world and the comedy of errors that result. Two years later Donizetti drastically revised the opera, which duly appeared under the title Don Gregorio. This production uses the critical edition and restores the work, as far as possible, to Donizetti's original conception - including excised arias, and emphasising the composer's sparkling orchestration.

Albin Fries, who is also a passionate natural scientist, presents highlights of his Lied oeuvre on this CD with soprano Margarita Gritskova, who has been a member of the Vienna State Opera ensemble since 2012. These include songs that refer to nature, such as the "Seasons" cycle, which includes a setting of Uhland's famous poem "Fruhlingsglaube", as well as music on poems by Hermann Hesse, Stefan Zweig and Heinrich Seidel, songs dedicated to love, such as the cycle "Lieder nach Gedichten von Friedrich Ruckert op. 52" and settings of other poems by Adelbert von Chamisso and Clemens Brentano. The "Five Last Songs op. 53" based on poems by Theodor Storm and Edith Haider, which are dedicated to Margarita Gritskova, were composed under the impression of the composer's determination to cease composing, which had become impossible for him due to his advanced hearing loss.

Wunderkinder unter sich: this could be the title of this album, which combines three works by two arch-romantic composers. While one of the two, Ernst von Dohnanyi, still needs a committed plea in practically all areas of his work because he is still overshadowed by his younger, more advanced compatriot Bela Bartok, the other, Richard Strauss, has no need for intercession insofar as he has conquered the world with his symphonic poems and his operas; his chamber music, on the other hand, is still worthy of his eloquent commitment - especially the large-scale violin sonata, in which the 23-year-old already seems to breathe the spicy air of Don Juan and Der Rosenkavalier. It is understandable that violinist Hellen Weiss, violist Wen Xiao Zheng, cellist Gabriel Schwabe and pianist Paul Rivinius enjoy the tasks they have set themselves to the full

Emiliana de Zubeldia's musical legacy includes works for piano, guitar, harp, chamber ensembles; songs for two voices a cappella, voice and piano, voice, piano and woods; works and arrangements for choir for 4 and up to 8 equal and mixed voices; a choral mass, concerts, symphonies, and symphonic poems. Some of her works reflect her passage through practice of the impressionist and avant-garde music of Paris in the 1920s. Her respect for the traditional harmony in some works contrasts with a great freedom in the application of Novaro's system in many others. This recording contains the second and last part of all her compositions for voice and piano known up to now and that had mostly been stored away in the archives of the University of Sonora without being recorded or edited. Four blocks that give faith of Emilianas vast interest in diverse literary gender are presented, the first one approaches eight fables for children, six by Tomas de Iriarte and two by Felix Maria de Samaniego. In these works the author captures the lyricism of the fable.

Canadian pianist Richard Raymond performs four favorite Beethoven piano sonatas, including the Moonlight, Appassionata, and Pathetique. A prize-winner in multiple competitions, Raymond has performed with the Montreal and Toronto Symphonies, and many others. He has also performed as a soloist in numerous countries, as well as playing chamber music.

From ancient times, cosmogonies talk about chaos as the origin: it is not the previous disorder but the abyss where things finds their place to be. A distance that reminds the creation power, repeated as an echo in a creative momentum. Thus Joan Guinjoan understands the artistic creation, where the com- poser always finds an abyss under his feet. An abyss that both fascinates and challenges, facing it means boldness and the necessary craft to find one's own voice in the concert voices. Therefore, he defined compo- sition as the challenge to face one's self. But also, the horizon of his work was to find his roots inside himself after a long journey of more than half a century. However, we stand in front a sort of music that it is not born from abstract speculation but from craft- manship; it means, from de sud- den meeting with musical stuff. Pre- cisely, Guinjoan's piano, which is provided of a sharp consciousness of musical stuff, is productive in our analysis and speculative games. In front of them, the Maestro always expresses his reservations, aware of the dangers of some creative adventures during the Post Avant- Gardes. In this work, Alfonso Calderon de Castro sets himself up as an interpre- ter in the Greco-Latin sense of the term: one destined to reveal what re- mains hidden. It does so by reveal- ing hidden aspects of Guinjoan's piano literature, allowing us to take these early works as microcosms of his entire catalogue. His piano navigates with personality and aesthetic intelligence, embodying the composer's motto, that is the instrumental humanisation from the subtle exploration of all parameters, without forgetting the communications among composer, performer and listener. In short, the pianist gives us in this work an an- thology destined to the timelessness of what it is classical, capable of withstanding the passage of time with the elegance of a caryatid.

Anna Reichert plays piano music by the Swiss composer Johann Carl Eschmann (1826-1882). Album supported by the Zurcher Zentralbibliothek

Sea's Widows: The project There are sometimes encounters that seem to arise by chance, almost on the sly and then turn out to be discoveries, strong and decisive energies, great beginnings liaisons destined to last and to generate something else and to mark our years. The encounters witnessed by this disc are marked by these certainly very special and rare artistic and human paths, where human harmony, professional rigor, passion and musical "carnality" unite my music with the extraordinary interpretative qualities of Maria Perrotta, Alda Caiello, and the Helios Ensemble. Maria and Alda are the driving forces of this work which was born in fact as an ItalianFrench collaboration. I began my first international affirmations in France at the 1991 Avignon Festival, invited by Luciano Berio to compose an opera: L'Histoire de Saint Julien l'Hospitalier. Maria created the driving force of her life and her career in Paris where she prepared recordings of international caliber for Decca. Alda, who has a long history of acquaintances and affirmations with France, a "historic" voice in Europe for the twentiethcentury and contemporary repertoire, sang in my opera Camera Obscura back in 2001 at the Venice Biennale and since then she has become "the voice" of my music. The project was born after a monographic concert held at the Italian Cultural Institute in Paris in june 2021, at the request of the performers themselves and of the beautiful Parisian welcome to this music. The disc includes eight pieces: six first recordings and an absolute premiere written for Maria. In fact I am composing the third volume dedicated to the piano: Sei studi sulla mente e sul corpo. The album also contains the first study La stupeur des gouttes qui rayent la vitre and the second Les sons dans la t�te dedicated to Maria.

This is an album of first-rate contemporary chamber works, composed over a period of two decades by American composer David Post.

This recording dedicated to Mirentxu by Jesus Guridi is a continuation of the project to publish the dramatic works promoted by the Bilbao Choral Society and initiated with the recordings of Maitena by Charles Colin (2021) and Lide ta Ixidor by Santos Inchausti (2022). The work, whose success and repercussion was outstanding at the time, and after a good number of premieres and performances, lacked a complete recording, which is why the present recording represents a challenge both at the production and artistic level that we should celebrate. The Sociedad Coral de Bilbao together with the BOS - Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa and a carefully selected cast of soloists have been entrusted with this task, recalling the Society's active role in the premiere of the work held at the Teatro Campos Eliseos on 31 May 1910.

The mandora is a lute instrument that gradually disappeared with the advent of the guitar and has been completely forgotten since around 1820 - until today. The lutenist Jakub Mitrik has set himself the goal of reviving this instrument and it's repertoire with this CD. The development of the mandora was a reaction to the baroque lute, which became increasingly complicated to play and had up to 14 courses of strings. It is tuned in a similar way to the later guitar and has six strings, the lower five of which are double-stringed. The mandora was particularly popular in monasteries, especially among the Benedictines. There, the mandora was valued as a solo and chamber music instrument due to it's handiness and versatility. The archives of these monasteries also contain a very varied repertoire specially tailored to the mandora, which Jakub Mitrik and his Biber Consort present here for the first time. This is chamber music in a wide variety of formations, in which the mandora takes on the role of a fully-fledged partner that goes far beyond mere basso continuo accompaniment. With his selection, Mitrik presents a multi-coloured and sensitively performed CD programme that reflects the lightness of the late Baroque and early Classical periods and allows musical life in the monasteries outside the liturgy to shine in an unusual light.