Quatuor Diotima celebrates the bicentennial anniversary of Anton Bruckner with a recording of his String Quartet in C Minor, Rondo in C Minor and Theme with Variations in E-Flat Major, alongside the String Quartet in E-Flat Major from his pupil Friedrich Klose. Bruckner wrote these pieces as composition exercises, yet they adumbrate the originality and power of his later works, as well as pay tribute to the glorious Viennese quartet tradition. Like Bruckner, Klose strongly sympathized with Wagner and the proponents of programme music, and chamber music had not appealed to him very much up until the moment he embarked on his only string quartet composition. Sarcastically, he subtitled it a "tribute paid in four instalments to my stern German schoolmasters", yet he demonstrates a full mastery of the conventions of musical form, paired with an almost unprecedented wealth of musical ideas. This album, recorded at and in close cooperation with the Brucknerhaus Linz, shall be one of the most original contributions to the Bruckner year 2024, highlighting his achievements in the field of chamber music as well as his compositional legacy. Quatuor Diotima is one of the most in-demand chamber ensembles in the world today, and has worked in close collaboration with several of the greatest composers of the late twentieth century. Reflected in the mirror of today's music, the quartet projects a new light onto the masterpieces of the 19th and 20th centuries. The quartet returns to PENTATONE after their acclaimed Metamorphosis Ligeti, released in 2023.

Renowned pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s recording of Olivier Messiaen’s Catalogue d’Oiseaux created a sensation when first released on PENTATONE in 2018, and now returns to the market in an attractively priced stereo reissue./p>

Aimard had intimate ties to the composer himself and his wife, Yvonne Loriod, for whom Messiaen wrote the Catalogue, a grand hymn to nature from a man who never ceased to marvel at the stupefying beauty of landscapes or the magic of birdsong. With his Catalogue, Messiaen tried – in his own words – “to render exactly the typical birdsong of a region, surrounded by its neighbours from the same habitat, as well as the form of song at different hours of the day and night,” suggesting an almost scientific approach to his subjects. The idea of ‘reproduction’ may have been central to Messiaen’s conception of the Catalogue d’Oiseaux, but in the finished work we hear a great composer at work, a master of innovative structures who finds an astonishing range of piano sonorities. Thanks to Aimard’s ability to evoke this colourful opus, his interpretation has turned into an absolute reference recording.>/p>

This first release within Aimard’s exclusive partnership with PENTATONE received many accolades, including a Jahrespreis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Since then, recordings of Beethoven (2021), Bartók (2023, with San Francisco Symphony and Esa-Pekka Salonen), and Schubert (2024) have appeared on PENTATONE, as well as piano four hands albums with Tamara Stefanovich (Visions in 2022 and Nicolaou: Etudes & Frames in 2023).

After the immense success of her Bach-Abel album (ALPHA783), Lucile Boulanger celebrates the French viol through the centuries: 'This transchronological dialogue traces the history of a dynasty of composers in a subjective, even emotional way', from the seventeenth century (Marin Marais, Sainte-Colombe, Nicolas Hotman) to the twenty-first, with contemporary works by Philippe Hersant, Claire-Melanie Sinnhuber and Gerard Pesson, some of which were specifically written for Lucile Boulanger: 'There is no longer any need to prove that my instrument is an integral part of our musical landscape. The viol is alive and well. For several decades now, it has inspired new compositions; it's vocabulary is constantly expanding', concludes the violist.

This album features Christmas music for the piano in a timeless journey through the decades and centuries. These songs have been through a remarkable evolution over the course of several centuries, with the changes they have undergone reflecting the shifting musical styles and cultural influences that prevailed in various times.

Bridge Records announces the release of Volume 21 the Complete Crumb Edition, a monumental recording project begun in 1982, and completed 42 years later with this final installment. The Grammy award-winning Crumb series documents the late American composer's complete catalog of works, spanning Crumb's seventy-five year compositional career. Project producer David Starobin writes that “the series benefited tremendously from George's participation in the recording and post-production of these documents.” This last volume includes compositions from the beginning, middle, and end of Crumb’s career and features the world premiere recording of the composer's penultimate composition, the percussion quintet Kronos-Kryptos (2020), performed by Ensemble 20/21 of the Curtis Institute of Music. The record also includes Crumb's second acknowledged composition, the Sonata for Solo Violoncello (1955), performed by cellist Timothy Eddy, as well as two performances of Crumb's piano solo, Processional (1983), played by pianists Gilbert Kalish (keyboard version) and Marcantonio Barone (alternate version with extended piano effects).

Immerse yourself in the enchanting world of Tiffany Poon, “classical pianist of the new generation”, who makes her Pentatone debut with her album Diaries: Schumann. Through her vivid interpretation of Robert Schumann’s masterpieces, Tiffany invites us on a journey through her musical diary.

With a selection ranging from the introspective Kinderszenen to the passionate Davidsbündlertänze, she creates a tapestry that reflects the different aspects of her life and her personal growth. With this album Tiffany aims to invite the listeners to connect with the different aspects of ourselves, be vulnerable and imaginative like Schumann’s Eusebius and Florestan. This album encourages daydreaming in open spaces, “feeling all the feels”, without any judgement. Experience the brilliance of this rising star as she shares her innermost thoughts and musical prowess through the captivating melodies of Schumann.

Born in Hong Kong, Tiffany Poon has appeared with orchestras and in recital throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and China since she was first accepted to the Juilliard pre-college program at the age of eight. She makes her Pentatone debut with Diaries.

Pianist Yulianna Avdeeva makes her Pentatone debut with Resilience, presenting music by Szpilman, Shostakovich, Weinberg and Prokofiev, composers who – each in their own way – maintained themselves in times of great instability. The focal point of this album is Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew who survived World War II thanks to the power of his music, and is widely known as the title hero of Roman Polanski’s award-winning film The Pianist. Incited by the unique opportunity to play on Szpilman’s house piano, this recording project helped Avdeeva to cope with the challenges of our current times, and it may offer fortitude and consolation to listeners as well. A pianist of fiery temperament and virtuosity, Yulianna Avdeeva plays with power, conviction, and sensibility, having won over audiences all over the world.

SPIN is the 9th release of the working band RONIN since it's foundation in 2001. Since the last release AWASE (ECM 2018) the band has developed the repertoire continuously further.  SPIN shows the phase in which the band is now: looking back and forward at the same time. The RONIN rhythm culture based on pattern, cycle and groove developments and refined beats is still presented and combined with playfulness and the consciousness for freedom within the clear structures.

Compositional shadow play, philosophical unfolding: the piano etudes by Pascal Dusapin are far more than technical studies for aspiring pianists. Pianist Wataru Hisasue now releases a GENUIN album with works by Dusapin. Hisasue was not only successful at the 2025 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels but also received a special award at the ARD Music Competition for his interpretation of Dusapin's "Did it again", which he now presents here as a world premiere recording. The young pianist devotes himself to the oscillating, almost magical sonic ramifications of the French composer at the highest technical and tonal level. A must-hear!

Pianist Francesco Piemontesi presents Franz Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes and Sonata in B Minor, two of the highest mountains to climb within the piano repertoire. The metaphor of climbing a mountain not only applies to the technical demands placed on the player, but also to the sublime nature of these works: colourful, poetic, lyrical, and bold in their construction. Piemontesi has taken his time before embarking on this epic journey, and the recording documents how his interpretation of these legendary works has matured over time.

Unique to this album are the liner notes, written by Nike Wagner, the great-great-granddaughter of Liszt. Francesco Piemontesi is among the most-cherished pianists of our age, and presents the fourth fruit of his exclusive collaboration with Pentatone, having released the acclaimed Schubert – Last Piano Sonatas (2019), Bach Nostalghia (2021) and Schoenberg, Messiaen & Ravel with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Jonathan Nott (2022).

REVIEW:

It’s been worth the wait. Each piece reflects absolute clarity of intention, even in the case of the longest and most episodic one, ‘Ricordanza’. Piemontesi has a rare ability to let us hear the individual notes in a rapid fortissimo wash of sound, and his variations of touch give free rein to the poetry. ‘Harmonies du soir’ opens with a silky touch, and builds to a majestic climax before dying back to a faint echo of itself. The lyrical ‘Paysage’, too, opens sotto voce, but as the sound palette becomes richer, one has the feeling of watching a series of receding landscapes, as in a Chinese scroll painting. ‘Wilde Jagd’ hurtles headlong, ‘Feux follets’ is gorgeously shaded and the virtuosity of ‘Allegro agitato molto’ is magnificent.

-- BBC Music Magazine

In the discussion on women and classical music, perhaps no other instrument draws such a strong association with feminine stereotypes as the harp. Once the instrument of choice for respectable young ladies, it was considered suitable for the domestic sphere and the world of private salons. And yet, as the harp made it's way out of the home and into the concert hall, it's publicity was championed by male performers, playing the music of male composers. Often overlooked are the women-performers and composers alike-who revolutionized the instrument and gave it a solo voice. Birds of Paradise celebrates the artistic voices of women as both performers and creators. This album showcases living composers Reena Esmail and Angelica Negron and legendary harpist and composer Henriette Renie. Featured works include Renie's Trio, the first major work written for this combination of instruments, alongside the world premiere recording of Negron's Ave del paraiso and the first recording of Esmail's Saans as arranged for harp, violin, and cello. Listeners are invited to experience this dynamic sound world, full of color and warmth, created and performed by women.

Pianist Tuija Hakkila enjoyed a close friendship with composer Kaija Saariaho (1952-2023) that lasted for over 40 years until the composer's death in 2023. Tuija Hakkila played a pivotal role in Saariaho's creations for the solo piano and harpsichord. Although Kaija Saariaho wrote several compositions featuring the piano, the composer felt that writing music for solo piano was particularly challenging due to the restrictions of the instrument. Although few in number, Saariaho's piano works are 21st century gems continuing the path set by Debussy's late works and Messiaen.

Andras Schiff has been closely associated with Lucerne Festival for 35 years. These live recordings from 1998/99, now released for the first time, present him interpreting two masters of the miniature: Schiff performs the short pieces with a love of risk, a great art of characterisation and a tremendous sense of sound.

21st-century piano music by the most distinguished Ukrainian composer of our time, recorded by a Polish pianist who has already won acclaim for his interpretations of Silvestrov's music. With the album 'Melodies of Silence', Tomasz Kamieniak demonstrated his affinity with the music of Valentyn Silvestrov, as international critics have recognised. 'The spectrum of piano literature is referenced,' according to Gramophone, 'thus making Silvestrov's endeavour as inclusive as it is extensive. Kamieniak is an enlightening guide, and one looks forward to future instalments in a project like no other.' This second instalment continues to document the fertile creativity which Silvestrov has found in the last quarter-century, especially in the field of music for the piano and for choirs. Begun seemingly as a distraction from large-scale works, this concentration on the piano has resulted in some 30 hours of music, organised into several dozen cycles of short pieces, most of them hardly more than a couple of minutes in length. Silvestrov then organised these into 'meta-cycles', each of them lasting in excess of an hour, intended to be performed as an unbroken continuity. 'Echoes of Harmony' can thus be viewed as a natural extension of 'Melodies of Silence'. The movements pay tribute to established genres: serenades, pastorals, waltzes and bagatelles. Characteristically for Silvestrov, the music continually seems to evoke a lost, Schubertian past, while also reflecting on the impossibility of recovering it. This approach creates a sense of fleeting time, where the music seems to stretch infinitely, suspended in space. There's no clear endpoint in these miniatures, allowing the music to linger, dissolve, and pause. Silvestrov is himself an accomplished pianist, who draws a deep range of sonority from the piano, and his pieces encourage interpreters to find a centre of stillness both in the music and in themselves, without recourse to the kind of chill-out aesthetic of many contemporary piano composers. Kamieniak enjoys a personal friendship with the composer, and his booklet introduction reflects both on the nature of these pieces and on their shared history. 'Does the composer leave room for interpretational latitude?' he asks 'Will micro-rubatos, micro-accelerations, micro-dynamics resonate with every listener? Questions abound, and among the more pertinent ones is whether a composer as rigorously attuned to his vision as Silvestrov will ever find satisfaction in interpretations by artists other than himself.' At any rate, Kameniak has become one of the composer's most insightful interpreters. - Valentin Silvestrov was born in 1937 in Kiev, Ukraine. He followed composition lessons with Boris Lyatoshynsky. In 2022 he fled from Ukraine following the Russian invasion in February. He lives in Berlin. - Silvestrov's musical style might be labeled Post-Modern. Using traditional tonal and modal techniques, Silvestrov creates dramatic and emotional textures, qualities which he suggests are otherwise sacrificed in much of contemporary music. "I do not write new music. My music is a response to and an echo of what already exists," Silvestrov has said. - The album Echoes of Harmony, featuring a collection of piano miniatures spanning from 2005 to 2021, form a cohesive, large-scale musical narrative. Silvestrov's fondness for bagatelles shines through in these works, representing his favoured genre in recent years. Under the broad umbrella of this genre, one encounters miniatures, including Serenades, Waltzes, Elegies, Pastorals, Tangos, Minuets, Preludes, Postludes, Mazurkas, Lullabies, Musical Moments, Barcaroles, and more. Music of touching simplicity and charm, offering consolation and peace. - This album is the successor of pianist Tomasz Kamieniak's highly successful CD "Melodies of Silence" by Valentin Silvestrov.

This new album by the award-winning Latvian Radio Choir conducted by Sigvards Klava - recently hailed by the New York Times as 'astonishing', 'superlative' by the BBC Music Magazine, and 'perhaps the finest chorus singing today' by NPR - is focused on the sacred choral works by one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era, Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847). This recording of the Psalms also includes the world premiere recording of Ehre sei dem Vater published by Carus Verlag in 1997.

Bernhard Lang's Monadology XXXVI is a radical "meta-composition". It deconstructs Chopin's Op. 10 Études through granular analysis, loops, and virtual remixing-destroying and reassembling the score into new sonic textures. The cycle consists of 12 Etüden. The last three are dedicated to Daan Vandewalle, the internationally acclaimed pianist renowned for his mastery of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire, who now brings them to this album.

The music of Alan Hovhaness, one of America's most prolific composers, enchants with his signature synthesis of East and West. Influenced by his Armenian heritage and a fascination with nature and spirituality Hovhaness sought to create music "for all people, music which is beautiful and healing." This collection of works featuring the violin includes several premiere recordings. Concerto No. 2, one of a series of ten concertos for various instruments, requires the soloist and ensemble to play using distinctive effects including tone clusters, melisma, and playing without strict measure. Evocations of Armenian liturgy contrasted with dizzying Scottish jigs can be heard in the Violin Sonata.

Igor Levit releases a new album as his personal artistic reaction to the October 7 attacks on Israel and the current rise in anti-Semitism worldwide. The album contains his selection of “Songs without Words” by Felix Mendelssohn and concludes with one Prelude by French Romantic composer Charles-Valentin Alkan. Igor Levit and his team have given their time pro-bono and his proceeds will be donated to two German organizations fighting anti-Semitism - OFEK Advice Center for Anti-Semitic Violence and Discrimination and the Kreuzberg Initiative Against Anti-Semitism.

Igor Levit explains, “I made this recording out of a very, very strong inner necessity. I spent the first four or five weeks after the attack on October 7th in a mixture of speechlessness and total paralysis. And at some point, it became clear that I had no other tools than to react as an artist. I have the piano. I have my music. And so, the idea came to me to record these works, the “Songs without Words” and to donate my proceeds from this recording to two wonderful organizations that work in my hometown here in Berlin to help people who experience anti-Semitism and to help young people avoid falling into the clutches of anti-Semitism. It is my artistic reaction, as a person, as a musician, as a Jew, to what I have felt in the last few weeks and months. Or to put it more precisely, it is one of many reactions that came to mind.”

REVIEWS:

Aside from altruistic reasons, one should buy this disc for Levit’s exceptional pianism and fresh insights.

He addresses Mendelssohn’s E minor Op. 102 No. 1’s agitato directive without the usual tendency to push and pull the composer’s basic Andante tempo. On the other hand, he takes the famous E major Op. 19 No. 1’s con moto on faith, yet keeping the long melodic phrases afloat. The E minor Funeral March stands out for Levit’s impeccably balanced chords, plus a sense of split-second timing that takes both notes and rests into equal account.

Levit’s hypnotic, long-lined legato and subtle dynamic gradations justify his measured pacing of three Venetian Gondola Songs, while his linear independence in the A-flat Duetto is akin to Ignaz Friedman’s, albeit by stricter, more modern-day standards. It may be rather cheeky to end a Mendelssohn Songs Without Words recital with Alkan’s Op. 31 No. 8 Prelude, but the music’s inherent sadness and gripping slow-motion trajectory in the piano’s high register makes a profound effect in Levit’s remarkable hands. Hear for yourself.

-- ClassicsToday (Jed Distler, 10/10)

D O W L N D R A K E merges the worlds of soprano Annelies Van Gramberen and singer-songwriter Sim Van Thienen to create a bold sonic universe. Together, they weave the melancholic songs of the English troubadours John Dowland (1563-1626) and Nick Drake (1948-1974) into a layered tapestry of loops, electronics, and guitars, with Annelies' voice as a shining guide through the shadowy paths of the human soul.

Star pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard presents Ländler, a collection of delightful dances composed by Franz Schubert. Rustic and cheerful, these miniatures display a fascinating side of Schubert’s musical persona. Their simplicity is deceptive, as these dances are frequently shaken up by Schubert’s harmonic wandering soul, yet remaining lyrical, picturesque, and tuneful. For Aimard, there is a kinship between Schubert’s Ländler and Kurtág’s Játékok, pieces that he often performs side by side, sharing a combination of playfulness and Modernism that also calls the great twentieth-century miniaturist Anton Webern to mind. By avoiding almost any repetition, Aimard evokes a sleepwalker’s journey rather than a series of dances.

A renowned champion of twentieth-century music, Pierre-Laurent Aimard has released multiple acclaimed albums in his exclusive contract with Pentatone, including Messiaen’s Catalogue d’Oiseaux (2018) and Visions de l’Amen (2022), along with Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata & Eroica Variations (2021). He also joined Tamara Stefanovich in Etudes and Frames (2023), with music by Vassos Nicolaou, and recorded Bartók's Piano Concertos with the San Francisco Symphony and Esa-Pekka Salonen (2023).

This LP features Christmas music for the piano in a timeless journey through the decades and centuries. These songs have been through a remarkable evolution over the course of several centuries, with the changes they have undergone reflecting the shifting musical styles and cultural influences that prevailed in various times. The development in popularity of the piano as a household instrument in the 19th century contributed to the spread of traditional Christmas carols and tunes. Christmas songs were made more approachable to a wider audience because of the attractive piano arrangements that composers such as Felix Mendelssohn and Franz Liszt devised for them. Then, throughout the 20th century, Christmas songs were composed in a wide variety of musical styles. Jazz, blues, and popular music were all significant influences on composers during this period. Composers such as Irving Berlin created Christmas songs centred around the piano that went on to become instant classics. An example that epitomizes this era is Irving Berlin's 'White Christmas'. The growth of Christmas carols arranged for piano is a monument to the everlasting spirit of the Christmas holiday as well as the development of musical styles throughout the course of history. For this LP, Jeroen van Veen has collected both well-known and lesser-known Christmas songs from all over the world and arranged many of them for his own piano performance. The programme is freely, alternating slow with up-tempo and virtuosic with intimate songs. Some of the tracks are medleys combining two or more songs. Highlights include the 'Christmas Fantasy' by Alexander Rosenblatt, a virtuoso piece that combines several tunes, and the Fred Oldenburg version of 'Silent Night', written in answer to a challenge from some of the jazz teachers at the Enschede conservatory to use the strangest chords to harmonise the well-known song. Dutch pianist, pioneer and champion of Minimalism Jeroen van Veen plays the piano in his inimitable way: focused, serene and hypnotizing. Praise for Jeroen van Veen on Brilliant Classics: 'Van Veen is quite brilliant in the quirky fourth [Philip Glass Etude] and his reading of the exquisite, valedictory 20th is excellent.' Gramophone. 'Jeroen van Veen's recording can stand alongside the best from any source, and this [Arvo Part] set is worthy of high praise in every regard.' MusicWeb International. 'Van Veen is a supremely eloquent performer of his own music. His touch is remarkably varied, carrying none of the hammered urgency of, for example, Michael Nyman's performances of Nyman.' Fanfare.

Ondine’s third album devoted to the music of Lithuanian-American composer Žibuoklė Martinaitytė (b. 1973) focuses on her music for unaccompanied chorus. On this album, four of her works are performed by the award-winning Latvian Radio Choir, conducted by Sigvards Kļava.

REVIEW:

The four a cappella choral works by Zibuokle Martinaityte on this haunting album unfold in a world beyond language. There are no texts, just free-floating vowels and tremulous ululations. And yet the emotional impact of this bewitchingly beautiful music is direct and at times devastating.

— New York Times

The ongoing Schubert + series, produced by pianist Can Çakmur, has revealed an exceptional Schubertian. Now in it's sixth instalment, the series juxtaposes Schubert's works with those of composers he inspired. This latest program shines a spotlight on Robert Schumann. Schumann held Schubert in the highest esteem and was one of the first to recognise him as one of the most visionary composers to have ever lived, and this alone would have justified this coupling. However, Çakmur delves deeper, using the program as a springboard for a philosophical discussion about naturalism within German Romanticism. The program features Schubert's brilliant Sonata in D major, D. 850, composed in 1825 in the spa town of Bad Gastein. It's composition amidst the Alpine scenery likely sparked his imagination, echoing the themes of millers, hunters, forests, and mountains prevalent in his songs. Robert Schumann's Waldszenen (Forest Scenes) continues this thread of inspiration. In these nine miniatures, Schumann returns to the happy and simple lyricism reminiscent of early works like Kinderszenen. The program concludes with Schumann's Three Phantasiestücke, Op. 111, included, according to Çakmur, for the uncanny similarity between it's second piece and the slow movement of Schubert's Sonata. This program promises a compelling journey into the heart of German Romanticism, guided by Can Çakmur through the works of two of it's most pivotal figures.

This sequel to the Gramophone Award-nominated Americascapes album (ODE 1396-2) by the Basque National Orchestra and Robert Trevino is a thrilling and a deeply personal journey into the music of three American composers. All three composers had very unique aesthetic worlds and with two of the composers conductor Robert Trevino also had direct artistic collaboration. Where my first 'Americascapes' album looked at lesser-known major American works that had influenced European composers (rather than the other way around), for this follow-up, I went back to a more basic thought - "What is America?". Since America is many things to millions of people, I realise that my question had to mean, "What is America to me? (...) Selecting the composers for this American Opus took well over a year. Yet I eventually refined the list to these three composers, with all of whom I feel a close kinship and all of whom are deeply meaningful to me. Two of them I even had a direct artistic relationship with. As a group, they also embody some of the diversity and the radically different aesthetics that thrive in the Americas." (Robert Trevino)

REVIEW:

The hunt for buried treasure is quite an industry these days, but coming up with gold is far from guaranteed. No problem, it appears, for Robert Treviño and the Basque National Orchestra. American Opus is the sequel to 2021’s excellent Americascapes (Ondine ODE 1396-2) and once again the Mexican-American conductor demonstrates a gift for sorting the wheat from the chaff. With the Revueltas set beside the Crumb and the Walker, Americascapes Volume 2 is a complex, thoroughly satisfying national portrait.

— Limelight

For the fifth instalment of the critically acclaimed Schubert+ series, Can Cakmur juxtaposes the Viennese composer with his illustrious elder Ludwig van Beethoven, for the first time in this series. After establishing his mastery of the lied genre, Schubert still had to show his full potential in the realm of piano sonatas, a quintessentially Beethovenian form. In his Sonata in A major, D 664, he abandons the traditionally oppositional nature of the sonata in favour of a melody- based narrative in which landscapes appear to change gradually, as if seen from a traveller's perspective, thus offering a conception that is as new as it is personal. Beethoven is represented here by a series of variations, a genre in which he also excelled. The 32 Variations in C minor range from tender yearning to an emotional turmoil reminiscent of the 'Appassionata' Sonata. In the Sonata in C minor, D 958, composed in 1828, the first of his towering final trilogy, Schubert staked his claim to be seen as Beethoven's successor as a writer of piano sonatas. In a work that Can Cakmur sees as a tribute to Beethoven, Schubert achieves a synthesis of the master's influence and the lyricism of his own early sonatas. Just weeks before his death, the younger composer finally sits beside the older master and converses with him on equal terms.

This recording presents the entire output to date for guitar of Toshio Hosokawa, one of Japan's most prolific composers for the instrument. His affinity for the guitar stems from his familiarity with popular songs accompanied by the guitar and from his knowledge of the koto, a traditional Japanese instrument from which he has adopted certain playing techniques. Although the works gathered here call for a variety of forces - guitar solo, guitar and voice, guitar and instrumental ensemble - they all present a fundamental aspect of Toshio Hosokawa's output: the music seems to be born like a calligraphic line 'at the limit of time and space'. Here, the guitar is no longer just an instrument familiar to both classical and popular music: in Hosokawa's works it is a medium that transmits the primordial motion of the soul, which has woven poems and songs since ancient times. Familiar with Hosokawa's world, guitarist Jacob Kellermann, together with Christian Karlsen (with whom he has already recorded works by Toru Takemitsu on BIS-2655), the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and soprano Ilse Eerens, presents a soundscape on the edge of dreams, both seductive and subtle, modern and timeless.

After the success of the complete works for lute by J. S. Bach, crowned by the recognition of international critics (Diapason d'Or, Choc de Classica, Excepcional Scherzo, Record Geijutsu, Eccezionale di Musica, Joker Absolu Crescendo), Evangelina offers a double album dedicated to the music of the greatest lutenist of all time: Sylvius Leopold Weiss. In his work, virtuosity and sumptuousness merge against the elegant and ethereal background of the gallant encounters and court dances of the 18th century. A new recording that restores the lute to it's due and ancient glories.

Christmas Piano with Alexis Ffrench

John Dowland's Lachrimae cycle is among the finest surviving instrumental dance music of the turn of the seventeenth century. This long awaited recording with the Capriccio Stravagante Renaissance Orchestra features new a instrumentation by Skip Sempe: 6 viols, 5 recorders, 2 cornetti, 3 trombones, 2 virginals and harpsichord. Skip Sempe's new performance order of the twenty-one Lachrimae dances revives the tradition of Pavan and Galliard pairs, rather than treating them as isolated movements. The idea of a 'Renaissance Orchestra' in which all the different instrumental consorts are brought together is the overlooked message of these sixteenth and seventeenth century publications. Large ensembles, for large or commemorative occasions, were every bit as much the 'composer's intention' as were smaller, intimate groups. This missing link has been proposed and provided by the concerts and recordings of the Capriccio Stravagante Renaissance Orchestra since the first years of the twenty-first century, and is one of their remarkable achievements in 'cutting through the noise'.

Following his first album of French lute music, Alban Tixier invites us to join him as he explores the byways of European music dating from the 13th to the 15th century.