The inspiration for Hugo Distler’s gem of a Christmas narrative can be found in the German-language protestant sacred music of the early baroque era, especially the music of Heinrich Schütz. Drawing on Schütz’s example, Distler composed his Christmas story exclusively for vocalists – soloists and a 4-8-voiced ensemble – in what is, in Distler’s own words, described as an “Oratorium mit kammermusikalishem Charakter." We also hear parts of the beautiful choral Es ist ein Ros entsprungen, which appears seven times during the course of the narrative. – every time in a new harmonic colour. The story of Hugo Distler’s life is a tragic one. Born in Nuremburg in 1908, he would go on to teach at the School for Church Music in Spandau before being appointed professor of church music in Stuttgart in 1940. Distler, who was a deeply religious man, has been recognized as a forerunner of the New German Church Music, an important musical movement which developed in the 1930s. The Nazis stigmatized Distler’s compositions as “degenerate art”, and when he received his conscription papers, he took his life. Sadly, Distler’s music is seldom performed outside of Germany even to this day. Hailed by Gramophone as “a choir worth listening to for their beautiful singing, which can deliver performances of pure, natural eloquence,” the 16 voices of the award-winning vocal ensemble Concert Clemens, founded by conductor Carsten Seyer-Hansen in 1997, has established itself as one of the leading vocal ensembles in Scandinavia. Their stylistic versatility has been seen in numerous collaborations exploring the connections between jazz and classical music as well as note-perfect interpretations of standard repertoire. The evangelist, tenor Adam Riis, is one of Denmark’s leading voices. Recorded in the DXD format by the Danish “Wizard of Sound”, Preben Iwan, in the resonant sonics of Skt. Markus Kirken, Århus.

Saxophonist and playwright Archie Shepp (b. May 24, 1937 in Fort Lauderdale. FL) then 26 years old visited Copenhagen in the fall of 1963 as a member of the famed New York Contemporary Five. Though Shepp at that time was the passionate practitioner of Free jazz, this recording in which he shared the bandstand with Sweden’s legendary baritone saxophonist Lars Gullin is something quite different from what one normally expects from Shepp in the 60s. It is Shepp playing straight jazz with audible enjoyment showing off his broad range of expression. “The topnotch rhythm section is composed of the late Catalonian pianist Tete Montoliu and a pair of “young lions,” Swedish (Danish ed) drummer Alex Riel and Danish bassist Niels–Henning Ørsted Pedersen, seventeen years old when the recording was made. Montoliu’s swinging, straight–on solos are a breath of fresh air.” (Jack Bowers – AAJ) 180g Audiophile Vinyl

Modern American music has long been characterised by kaleidoscopic variety, reflecting the vigour and optimism of American culture more generally. John Corigliano's early Violin Sonata is a work of the mid-twentieth century. But his own assessment of the piece - 'It's eclecticism, it's rhythmic energy, and it's bright character give the Sonata a very American quality' - could be applied with equal merit to the three 21st-century scores that accompany it here, all four switching easily between gentle introspection and spirited exuberance.

At once sensual and existential, this collection of songs-composed across 125 years-meditates on nature and nostalgia, sex and love, the ephemerality of the human spirit, and the eternal, transformative power of art. These song cycles of Edvard Grieg, Claude Debussy, George Crumb, and Robert Spano coalesce into a testament to the limitless potency and fragility of love-both it's resplendent joys and it's tender sorrows. Despite love's transience and riskiness, the album compels us to ruminate on Rilke's witticism that "for one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks...' Each of the cycles presents us with existential questions of life and death, love and loss, but the album is structured in couplets. Debussy and Spano draw upon Ancient Greece, Grieg and Crumb draw upon enchantments of nature, the temporality of love, life, and memory. Claude Debussy's ethereal Chansons de Bilitis (1899) evokes a lusty, Grecian fever dream where the tumescence of love and desire comes to the fore. Robert Spano's Sonnets to Orpheus (2020) lends voice to Rilke's enigmatic eponymous poetry. Spano's setting of the songs-the intimate conversation between piano and soprano-"draws one voice out of two separate strings." Meanwhile, George Crumb's Three Early Songs (1947) emerge as whispered secrets, darkly-hued odes to impermanent nature-night, a flower, and wind. The songs lead us to ponder the difference between the actual and the seeming. Chansons de Bilitis is a sensual, sultry tease in more ways than one. The poetry penned by Pierre Louÿs is a literary forgery. Louÿs, in an introduction to his original poems, claimed that the verses were found in the tomb of a sixth-century (fictional) poetess named Bilitis. She was made out to be a contemporary of Sappho and the poems were written as pastiches in the style of Sapphic erotism. This deception only fueled the work's popularity. And although Debussy only sets three poems, Louÿs wrote 143 poems separated into three volumes that span scenes of pastoral youth (Book I: Bucoliques en Pamphylie), to burgeoning Lesbian-referring both to same-sex attraction and to acts associated with the isle of Lesbos-sexuality (Book II: elegies à Mytilene), and to life as a courtesan at the employ of Aphrodite (Book III: Epigrammes dans l'île de Chypre). In this way, maturation narratives-bildungsroman-form a motif throughout this album. Louÿs was inspired by sex tourism, to be blunt. At the insistence of friend and fellow writer, Andre Gide, Louÿs traveled to Algeria to indulge in sensual exoticism (and orientalism). A young Arab woman, Meriem, had come highly recommended by Gide who wrote of her and her music as something that "stupefied me like an opiate" as it "drowsily and voluptuously benumbed my thoughts." Meriem would become the muse for Chansons, which Louÿs began to draft in Algeria; the dedication of the collection reads "in memory of Meriem ben Atala." The turn of the twentieth century was rife with literary and musical games-anagrams, witticisms, forgeries, and puns. Louÿs even includes a fake scholar in the introduction to his work named G. Heim, meaning "mysterious" in German. And the title seems to me to be a play on words suggesting the feebleness, the feeblemindedness, debilite (de Bilitis) of love, sex, and the trickery of artistry. Exoticism too was par for the fin de siecle course-just think of the Orientalism of Delibes's Lakme (1883), Ravel's Sheherazade (1898/1902), and Debussy's own "Pagodas" from his piano suite, Estampes (1903). Each piece relies on coded musical identifiers that suggest otherness-nonconventional percussion instruments, incessant and layered rhythms, and sonic chinoiserie. For those sonic elements, Louÿs called upon his dear friend, Debussy, to orchestrate music to underscore his poetry. Debussy complained that the turnaround time was too short. Nevertheless, he was hard up and needed the money.

Gian Francesco Malipiero (1882-1973) approached the piano with a sense of expressive freedom, avoiding the conventions of pure virtuosity and preferring a more intimate and reflective language. His piano pieces range from lyrical miniatures to more complex works, in which influences can be recognized from Italian early music to the modernity of Debussy, Casella, Stravinsky and Scriabin. Alessandro Riccardi has programmed a sequence of pieces written during the 1900s and 1910s. They evoke a creative laboratory, where harmonic experimentation and the search for new expressive forms intertwine with a deep respect for the past. From 1905, the 6 Morceaux represent the first expression of Malipiero's compositional personality, where modal influences intersect with late 19th-century trends. Published in 1910, the Tre danze antiche represent Malipiero the assiduous antiquarian, the reviver and transcriber of his 17th-century forebears such as Monteverdi and Gabrieli. The quartet of Preludi autunnali were composed in Venice in September 1914 and foreshadow a period of 'perpetual tragedy' in the composer's music caused by the outbreak of World War I. As Malipiero wrote in 1952: "Their melancholy is perhaps the effect of the war just begun and not yet felt." Those effects are further amplified in Maschere che passano from 1918, a 10-minute quintet of oblique sketches, presenting high contrasts: mysterious, violent, distant, Malipiero at his most late-Debussyan. In 1920 he then wrote a heartfelt homage to Debussy, followed by 'Three Homages', which undercut the solemnity of their title by being dedicated successively to a parrot, an elephant and 'an idiot'. Throughout the album, marking Alessandro Riccardi's debut on Piano Classics, the piano becomes an instrument for personal introspection and sonic exploration, while maintaining a strong connection to Italian tradition and, at the same time, looking into the future. - Gian Francesco Malipiero was an Italian composer whose piano works reflect his unique approach to musical expression, blending tradition and modernity. Known for rejecting the rigid structures of classical forms, Malipiero sought to evoke pure emotion and a sense of mystery in his music, often drawing on Italian folk traditions and Renaissance polyphony. His piano compositions are characterized by their lyrical qualities, rich textures, and distinctive harmonic language. - Malipiero's piano output includes several collections, each showing his innovative yet deeply Italian aesthetic. Among his notable works are the Preludi autunnali (Autumnal Preludes), a series of poetic and introspective pieces imbued with melancholic beauty. These works often feature modal harmonies and unexpected shifts in tonality, reflecting his quest to free music from the constraints of conventional Romanticism. - Other works on this new recording are the Maschere que passano, Omaggi, Six Morceaux, and 3 Danze Antiche. These pieces are deeply atmospheric, blending delicate, impressionistic passages with moments of stark drama. Malipiero's piano music often eschews virtuosic display in favor of expressive depth, demanding a nuanced and sensitive touch from the performer. - Alessandro Riccardi is one of the most remarkable young pianists of his generation. His CDs with works by Scriabin and Liszt received several 5-star reviews in the international press.

In this concert, the Wiener Philharmoniker, conducted by Andris Nelsons, present a "heavenly" pairing: Alban Berg's "Violin Concerto, To the Memory of an Angel", alongside Mahler's Fourth Symphony, whose final movement sets "Das himmlische Leben" (Heavenly Life) to music. With this performance, young German-American violinist August Hadelich gave his debut at the Salzburg Festival and thrilled the press: "The fabulous Augustin Hadelich filled the difficult solo part with emotion and fragility, his performance was sensitive and yet glowing." (Die Presse). With Mahler's Fourth, Andris Nelsons creates "a Mahler miracle of quiet tones" (Volksblatt), joined by German soprano Christiane Karg as the soloist of the finale. The concert is part of the Wiener Philharmoniker's Mahler cycle with Nelsons. Program: Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 4 Alban Berg: Violin Concerto "To the Memory of an Angel"

Christmas chez Liszt, imagined by one of the UK's most exciting piano virtuosos. Composed and compiled by Liszt between 1873 and 1881, the 'Christmas Tree' suite has more to offer than carol transcriptions and twinkly sketches of festive joy. It begins with one of the composer's typically free transcriptions of a plainsong Christmas hymn harmonised in the 17th century by Michael Praetorius, and takes in the procession of the Magi towards Bethlehem and a lullaby at the cradle, but also cuts away to contemporary times with a sparkling scherzo to depict the lighting of candles on the tree. The last four of the suite's twelve movements bear only tenuous connections to the festive season, yet they bring some of the most memorable inspirations of all: evocations of evening bells, of 'Yesteryear' in the composer's searching late style, and then Hungarian- and Polish-themed themed pieces. As Mark Viner remarks in his detailed booklet introduction to the album, there is nothing quite like Weihnachtsbaum even in Liszt's own prodigiously varied catalogue. It is impossible to categorise, and yet every bar sounds uniquely Lisztian. Perhaps even less familiar to most listeners, on account not least of it's sheer scale, is the vast three-part oratorio which Liszt based on the life of Christ. Liszt made solo-piano transcriptions of two Christmas-themed orchestral movements from the oratorio's first part, picturing in turn the Shepherds at the Manger and, once more, the 'march' of the Magi. In complement, Mark Viner presents the composer's pianistic translation of the ancient carol Christus natus est. Mark Viner's recordings for Piano Classics have attracted international acclaim. 'The melodies in his hands are not simply played, they are sung on the piano!' (Fanfare, reviewing a previous Liszt album, PCL0116). 'If Alkan could play it as Viner does here, no wonder he was the only pianist in front of whom Liszt was hesitant of playing.' (Gramophone, reviewing Viner's latest volume in his Alkan cycle, PCL10275).

In this concert, the Wiener Philharmoniker, conducted by Andris Nelsons, present a "heavenly" pairing: Alban Berg's "Violin Concerto, To the Memory of an Angel", alongside Mahler's Fourth Symphony, whose final movement sets "Das himmlische Leben" (Heavenly Life) to music. With this performance, young German-American violinist August Hadelich gave his debut at the Salzburg Festival and thrilled the press: "The fabulous Augustin Hadelich filled the difficult solo part with emotion and fragility, his performance was sensitive and yet glowing." (Die Presse). With Mahler's Fourth, Andris Nelsons creates "a Mahler miracle of quiet tones" (Volksblatt), joined by German soprano Christiane Karg as the soloist of the finale. The concert is part of the Wiener Philharmoniker's Mahler cycle with Nelsons. Program: Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 4 Alban Berg: Violin Concerto "To the Memory of an Angel"

"A beautiful, rich, exciting brass sound...a fine tribute to one of the UK’s best brass bands." -- BBC Radio 3

When the American composer Jack Stamp was appointed International Composer-in-Association to the Grimethorpe Colliery Band in 2019; he conceived a recording project focused on works specifically written for the GCB; including compositions by himself and Liz Lane; the other GCB Composer-in-Association; alongside other pieces which have played a prominent role in the Band’s recent activities. The kaleidoscopic range of styles to be heard here displays the extraordinary virtuosity of one of the world’s best-known brass bands.

The recording project "Labyrinthoi" (Labyrinths) is the result of the collaboration between saxophonist Isacco Buccoliero and composer Andrea Siano. Driven by a strong desire to explore the timbral and technical possibilities of the saxophone, the two Apulian artists work on arrangements and compositions of original pieces. Their aim is to expand the saxophone repertoire by drawing from tradition while simultaneously creating new musical forms and styles. The entire project is inspired by the imagery evoked by the labyrinth: a timeless archetype that speaks to humanity and it's inner condition within the cosmos. It reflects the perpetual search for a path that is often winding and whose completion presents itself as a daunting challenge, despite the ease with which one may have entered it. The five tracks collected here appear as five labyrinths from which, as in Spacecraft, maybe it is possible to get out only by moving upwards, in other words by overcoming all centrifugal, centripetal and gravitational forces.

Christian Sinding might be thought of as a Grade-B composer. That’s not a dismissal, merely an assessment to adjust the expectations. He’s not the symphonic Grieg we’ve been missing, nor a Nordic Brahms that’s been overlooked. He’s an – essentially German – symphonist of the second rank who wrote very pleasing works that we will sadly not hear in the concert halls, but which can enliven our musical diet on record if we need to take a break from the usual suspects. To unfold their inherent fervour, his compositions are dependent on sensitive and enthusiastic interpretations, but that’s exactly what they get from the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra under Karl Heinz Steffens, for whom Sinding has become a composer close to his heart.

The first recording of another monumental work for piano by the composer of Opus clavicembalisticum and Sequentia cyclica.

Kaikhosru Sorabji tended to discourage performances of his music, feeling that most musicians not only lacked the technical equipment and dedication to conquer his vast scores, but also that they would not satisfactorily grasp their spiritual content. Born in a London suburb of Parsee origin, living for much of his life on a remote Scottish island, Sorabji died in 1988, and only in the last two decades have advances in digital publishing enabled his many unperformed and intimidatingly large pieces to be transferred from manuscript, and then taken on by dedicated performers such as the British pianist Jonathan Powell, whose first recording of the eight-hour Sequentia Cyclica won widespread praise on its release by Piano Classics: Sorabji’s ‘most inclusive and revealing major statement’ according to Gramophone, ‘a wilful yet engrossing challenge that, in Powell, has met its match.’ Composed in the mid-1950s, the Toccata terza had been thought lost until the score turned up in 2019, and Abel Sánchez-Aguilera has produced his own critical edition in order to make this first recording: a monumental labour of love and skill. The Toccata is cast in ten sections, including a 50-minute Passacaglia – one of Sorabji’s favourite forms – and the kind of thorny counterpoint and mountainous climaxes which will be familiar to followers of his music. There are four extant Toccatas: ‘They seem to look back to the examples of Bach and Busoni,’ as Sánchez-Aguilera remarks in his booklet introduction, ‘reinvented in Sorabji’s personal language and expanded to monumental proportions. Notwithstanding their complexity, several features make them particularly effective and accessible to the listener. They make use of familiar procedures – such as the variation and the fugue – and thus establishing clear links with tradition.’

No Sorabji collector will ignore this major new release of his music, and searchers for rarities in the hyper-virtuoso piano repertoire will discover a new treasure.

Last year, Tigran Hamasyan composed his greatest work, inspired by a traditional Armenian tale of the same name: The Bird of a Thousand Voices, is rediscovering this story in a transmedia project, consisting of an innovative livestaged play (world premiere at the Holland Festival on June 8, 2024), two ambitious cinematic fiction music videos, a documentary music video and an online game. The original story of the firebird has been orally transmitted over the centuries and cultures. The folk tale requires a multi-layered, transdisciplinary approach to provide an artistic context for this fascinating story. The mystical bird of a thousand voices is a beautiful metaphor of our times: a world in search of connection and harmony, faced with ecological, psychological and spiritual crises. Any form of recognition and new means of transmitting this beautiful music of the ancient traditions of the Caucasus is therefore important and sets the tone for world curiosity and diversity. "The Bird Of A Thousand Voices" is part of this context. Tigran is one of the most remarkable jazz pianists and composers of his generation. He combines improvisation with the rich traditional music of his native Armenia. Ten years ago, Tigran and award-winning filmmaker Ruben Van Leer met during a collaboration at the Cite de la Musique in Paris, creating "Shadow Theater", a visual musical experience (see ARTE broadcast). They went on to create several music videos together (see Cave of Rebirth & Fides Tua). Armenian culture, geopolitically situated between globalized powers such as Russia, Turkey and Azerbaijan, has been under pressure for centuries. Most recently, in September 2023, Azerbaijan took over Armenian territory. Right after, almost the entire population was expelled from the mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh as part of an "ethnic cleansing", in the words of the European Parliament. Azerbaijan is now expressly ordering the burning of ancient historical manuscripts in Armenian monasteries. Deluxe vinyl 2LP box set with 3 superb illustrated booklets (80 pages in total).

Alkan: Early Works & Juvenilia

Last year, Tigran Hamasyan composed his greatest work, inspired by a traditional Armenian tale of the same name: The Bird of a Thousand Voices, is rediscovering this story in a transmedia project, consisting of an innovative livestaged play (world premiere at the Holland Festival on June 8, 2024), two ambitious cinematic fiction music videos, a documentary music video and an online game. The original story of the firebird has been orally transmitted over the centuries and cultures. The folk tale requires a multi-layered, transdisciplinary approach to provide an artistic context for this fascinating story. The mystical bird of a thousand voices is a beautiful metaphor of our times: a world in search of connection and harmony, faced with ecological, psychological and spiritual crises. Any form of recognition and new means of transmitting this beautiful music of the ancient traditions of the Caucasus is therefore important and sets the tone for world curiosity and diversity. "The Bird Of A Thousand Voices" is part of this context. Tigran is one of the most remarkable jazz pianists and composers of his generation. He combines improvisation with the rich traditional music of his native Armenia. Ten years ago, Tigran and award-winning filmmaker Ruben Van Leer met during a collaboration at the Cite de la Musique in Paris, creating "Shadow Theater", a visual musical experience (see ARTE broadcast). They went on to create several music videos together (see Cave of Rebirth & Fides Tua). Armenian culture, geopolitically situated between globalized powers such as Russia, Turkey and Azerbaijan, has been under pressure for centuries. Most recently, in September 2023, Azerbaijan took over Armenian territory. Right after, almost the entire population was expelled from the mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh as part of an "ethnic cleansing", in the words of the European Parliament. Azerbaijan is now expressly ordering the burning of ancient historical manuscripts in Armenian monasteries. Deluxe 2CD box set with 2 superb illustrated booklets (60 pages in total).

Multiple Grammy-winning Third Coast Percussion (TCP), praised by NPR for championing "borderless music" and "blurring musical boundaries, " celebrates it's 20th anniversary in 2025 with Standard Stoppages, an album inspired by pioneering conceptual artist Marcel Duchamp's idea of twisting standardized units, with works that redefine rhythmic structures and sonic possibilities. Reflecting on two decades-or a "score"-of music-making, the anniversary gives TCP the space to reflect on their many milestones, collaborations, and steps along the journey that have shaped their work over the years, inspiring the group to commission new works for the occasion. This diverse set of commissions makes for a colorful sonic palette of percussive ensemble works, ranging from Zakir Hussain's traditional Hindustani influence to Musekiwa Chingodza's Zimbabwean song to Jessie Montgomery's western contemporary approach. This project brings together both new and past collaborators; with commissioned works from Jlin and Zakir Hussain, alongside fresh contributions from Jessie Montgomery and Tigran Hamasyan. The late Zakir Hussain and the rich Hindustani and tabla traditions were strong sources of inspiration for Third Coast Percussion, most notably through the commissioned work Murmurs in Time. His unexpected passing between the album's recording and release moved TCP to dedicate this project to his memory and enduring legacy. Drawing from Duchamp's Three Standard Stoppages, TCP's 7th recording for Cedille Records invites reflection on the varying paths that lead to unique creative expressions, both for themselves and their collaborators. Standard Stoppages was produced and engineered by Judith Sherman, Colin Campbell, and Bill Maylone. Tracks 1-4 and 7-10 were recorded November 4-8, 2024, and tracks 5-6 October 1-2, 2024, at Narwhal Studios, Chicago, IL; Track 11 was recorded November 15, 2024, at Rax Trax, Chicago, IL.

Founded in 1841 under the participation of Constanze Mozart, the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg today enjoys the highest reputation worldwide for its lively and style-conscious Mozart interpretations. In numerous ways it connects the Viennese Classical period to the music of the 19th/20th and 21st centuries. The orchestras constant preoccupation with his core repertoire also shapes its approach to the music of later periods. Thus chamber-musical transparency, articulatory clarity and nuanced sonority are a trademark that makes the Mozarteum Orchestra special and recognizable, also when playing the music of other composers. The Mozarteumorchester Salzburg proves once again its unrivaled position as interpreters of the Mozart stylistic and uses the organ sonatas as a departure into other stylistic periods. It Includes two world premiere recordings of Henze‘s "Konzertmusik" and "Three Mozart Organ Sonatas".

The only collected survey of George Benjamin’s
piano music on record, from a Dutch pianist
who specialises in new music and has worked
closely with the composer.
Benjamin was an accomplished pianist as well
as composer from his early years, and it seems
natural in retrospect that his first published
work should be the Piano Sonata he composed
in 1977-8, as a prodigious student of Olivier
Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod. Certain harmonic
touches may mark the sonata out as the work
of ‘a Messiaen pupil’ but the unsettled, leaping
gestural sense of the piece is particular to
Benjamin. So much of Benjamin’s later music is
fascinatingly prefigured here, including a sense
of timing for a gradual accumulation of tension
(‘stormy eruptions’ and ‘savage violence’ in
the composer’s words) that marks out his first
major orchestral score, Ringed by the Flat
Horizon. Underlying that sense of timing is a
feeling for dramatic gesture which has found
its natural expression in a series of operas
written during the last 20 years.
Dedicated to Loriod, Sortilèges (1981) makes
clear its French heritage in the notes as well as
the title, while the three subsequent Studies
for piano, composed over the next four years,
find Benjamin working out intricate rhythmic
problems and their solutions. Even the
Relativity Rag takes a quirky, sideways look at
its superficially familiar material. The next
piano pieces had to wait until 2001, and the
Shadowlines which Benjamin wrote for PierreLaurent Aimard. This set of six canonic preludes
takes Benjamin’s inclination to distill and pare
back to a new level, while the piano writing
itself is richer and more unselfconsciously
informed by the heritage of piano literature.
Finally, there are the Piano Figures of 2004,
written for students of the piano and
accordingly pitched at a technically lower level
than the other pieces, but no less preoccupied
with the rhythmic games and sudden swerves
of thought that are hallmarks of his most
complex music. All these pieces have been
recorded, but never by the same pianist,
making Erik Bertsch’s new collection unique,
and indispensable for any collector of new
music.

Alinde Quintet - a new star in the chamber music heavens At the prestigious ARD Competition in Munich in 2024, the Alinde Quintet emerged as a dazzling new star on the chamber music scene. By that time, they had already earned several notable prizes in London, Copenhagen, and beyond. The players are closely associated with leading Czech and international orchestras, including the Czech Philharmonic, the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. On their debut album, the quintet presents the intimate "inscapes" of four composers. In the works of Haas and Shostakovich, the shadow of war and Nazi ideology casts a profound, even fatal shadow on their inscapes, while Shostakovich and Jan Novak also ran into conflict with Communist dictatorships. Yet all of the compositions reflect distinct personal inscapes, offering glimpses into the lives of their creators. Haas's imaginative quintet bears the unmistakable imprint of his teacher Leos Janacek, who had died just months before the work's completion. Shostakovich's Eighth String Quartet (arranged by Mark A. Popkin) serves as both autobiography and elegy - a dark, haunting inscape tinged with drama. In Peteris Vasks's composition, an ancient Latvian funeral song intertwines with virtuosic passages and aleatoric sections, evoking the heartrending loss of a kindred spirit. Like a contrasting colour on a canvas, the Concertino by Jan Novak brings the album infectious joy, playfulness, and jazzy rhythms, lending radiant colouring to the composer's inscape, which could not be obscured even by the dark clouds of Czechoslovakia's totalitarian regime of the 1950s. Throughout the album, the Alinde Quintet draws on the full spectrum of colours their instruments can offer, vividly painting each composer's inscape.

The Schumann Quartet dedicates its latest studio production "1923" to that year in which new musical paths were sought, found, or questioned, and at the same time, the birth of radio heralded a new age for composers and the dissemination of their works. The CD program combines selected quartet music by Paul Hindemith, Alban Berg, Erwin Schulhoff, and Leoš Janácek.

Alfred Schnittke's film music encapsulates almost everything that characterises the Russian composer's compositional style. A self-described polystylist, he began writing for film in the 1960s, penning 66 film scores between 1962 and 1984 for Soviet film companies. His method of drawing on the past was rejected by the avant-garde but embraced by filmgoers and concertgoers too. Volume six in this CD Edition of Schnittke's film music presents music from the film series "Little Tragedies" (1979) based on popular novels by Alexander Pushkin. After longtime research conductor Vladimir Jurowski also recorded all parts of the score which have been cancelled at the end for the final Film Version.

Carl Orff Carmina Burana Orfeon Pamplones Escolania de Nuestra Senora de los Desamparados Orquesta de Valencia Alexander Liebreich Sara Blanch, soprano Joaquin Asiain, tenor Andre Baleiro, baritone They are one of the most famous and frequently performed works of classical music: Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana". The Latin title refers to a collection of songs from Benediktbeuren dating from the 11th and 12th centuries with texts written in Middle Latin, Old French and Middle High German. Orff chose 24 of these songs, their topics ranging widely from the volatility of happiness and prosperity to the fleeting nature of life, from the joy of the return of spring to the pleasures and dangers of drunkenness, gluttony, gambling, and lust. In June 2024, at the Palau de la Música in Valencia, the Orquestra de Valencia, one of the great Spanish symphony orchestras, together with the leading local boys' choir as well as one of Spain's oldest choirs, Orfeon Pamplones, performed this epic work under the musical direction of Alexander Liebreich. They were joined by soloists Sara Blanch, Joaquin Asiain, and Andre Baleiro. The live recording of this lively and captivating concert evening is now available. Recorded live at the Palau de la Música, Valencia June 2024

The virtuosic Supraphon debut of Jan Schulmeister So far, the career of the Czech pianist Jan Schulmeister has been distinguished by victories at dozens of international competitions (including the 2019 Cesar Franck Piano Competition in Belgium, the 2021 North International Music Competition in Sweden, and the 2022 Manhattan International Competition in the USA), to which he added Third Prize at the prestigious Cliburn Junior Competition (Dallas, USA) in 2023 at 17 years of age. For his Supraphon debut, he has chosen works of the late 19th century by Russian composers, music that is firmly grounded in the national tradition but that often seeks out and remains open to stimuli from the surrounding world. The oldest of them, Mussorgsky, was a loner without any depth of academic training, but he greatly advanced the boundaries of musical expression. In Pictures at an Exhibition, he accompanies listeners at an imaginary exhibition of paintings by his late friend, the painter and architect Viktor Hartmann. Rachmaninoff wrote his lovely cycle of piano pieces Moments musicaux under time pressure while facing a profound existential and creative crisis. His classmate Scriabin, no less brilliant a pianist, chose the path of a visionary and an experimenter as a composer, as we can hear from an early opus he wrote for piano (at age 16), the Etude in C sharp minor, Op. 2, No. 1. His later Five Preludes, Op. 16 (1895) reflect the omnipresent Impressionism of Paris at the end of the century. In this repertoire, Jan Schulmeister can demonstrate all of his qualities - virtuosic technique and depth of musical feeling.

Special concerts reserved for subscribers. Due to the exceptional quality of the concerts and the limited offer, the average waiting time for subscribers is more than 10 years. With this series, these very special concerts are made available for the first time audiovisually to a wider audience worldwide. For this subscription concert, the Wiener Philharmoniker asked a long-time artistic companion to take the podium: more than 140 concerts and a multitude of celebrated recordings connect Christian Thielemann with the traditional Viennese orchestra. The live recording of his debut on the podium at the Vienna Musikverein almost 23 years ago promptly became a reference recording. On the programme then as now: Richard Strauss' monumental Eine Alpensinfonie (An Alpine Symphony). This work, often regarded as the final and climax of the "symphonic poem" genre, is juxtaposed with Arnold Schönberg's probably most famous tonal composition, the orchestral version of the string sextet Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night). Composed in 1899, this highly expressive work by the 25-year-old Schönberg reads, in retrospect, like a swan song to the 19th century. "Schönberg and Strauss rarely sound so grandiose." Kurier "A truly persuasive performance." The New York Times "The 'Alpine Symphony' under Thielemann has long been a Viennese legend." Die Presse Program: Arnold Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), op. 4 Richard Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie (An Alpine Symphony), op. 64

Special concerts reserved for subscribers. Due to the exceptional quality of the concerts and the limited offer, the average waiting time for subscribers is more than 10 years. With this series, these very special concerts are made available for the first time audiovisually to a wider audience worldwide. For this subscription concert, the Wiener Philharmoniker asked a long-time artistic companion to take the podium: more than 140 concerts and a multitude of celebrated recordings connect Christian Thielemann with the traditional Viennese orchestra. The live recording of his debut on the podium at the Vienna Musikverein almost 23 years ago promptly became a reference recording. On the programme then as now: Richard Strauss' monumental Eine Alpensinfonie (An Alpine Symphony). This work, often regarded as the final and climax of the "symphonic poem" genre, is juxtaposed with Arnold Schönberg's probably most famous tonal composition, the orchestral version of the string sextet Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night). Composed in 1899, this highly expressive work by the 25-year-old Schönberg reads, in retrospect, like a swan song to the 19th century. "Schönberg and Strauss rarely sound so grandiose." Kurier "A truly persuasive performance." The New York Times "The 'Alpine Symphony' under Thielemann has long been a Viennese legend." Die Presse Program: Arnold Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), op. 4 Richard Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie (An Alpine Symphony), op. 64

Krzysztof Penderecki’s works for (string) quartet neatly encapsulate the stylistic breadth and trace the development of Poland’s most important modern composer throughout his six-decade-long career. From the avantgarde rhythmical study that is Quartet No.1, via an ode to Webern, to the neo-romantic elder Penderecki’s Schubertian Clarinet Quartet, this collection covers all his chamber music for three and four strings, even the early neo-baroque outlier of his Three Pieces adapted from his film music for the steamy 1964 movie, The Saragossa Manuscript.

REVIEW:

From wild child of the experimental avant-garde to luscious neo-Romantic, Krzysztof Penderecki had an unusually profound stylistic transformation across his career. When his string quartets neatly encapsulate that trajectory, written as they were between 1960 and 2016, it’s no mean feat to pull off the entire cycle in consistently convincing and compelling fashion. Yet, that is what the Meccore Quartet has done here.

-- The Strad

Ferruccio Busoni (Empoli 1866 – Berlin 1924) died the same year as Puccini and was born when Puccini was a child, yet he was way more than an opera composer. While he lived several years in Trieste and some time in Bologna, he mainly lived abroad and spent the second half of his life in Berlin. Way more than a composer, he was a wide-ranging artist and musician, an acclaimed concert pianist and sought-after piano teacher, a learned reviser of piano music, and the author of many and varied pieces. Busoni was also an aesthete, an intellectual, a music reformer, and author of texts on musical topics. A child prodigy, he wrote the Symphonische Suite for orchestra at the age of 17.
Nicola Bignami and Lucija Majstorovic brilliantly face the arduous task of performing the two monumental and demanding sonatas for violin and piano that the composer wrote at twenty-four (first sonata) and at thirty-two (second sonata), in which the equal and dialogical relationship between the two instruments combines with a wealth of invention with respect for the great tradition.

Mark Viner’s survey of the complete solo piano music of Alkan continues to turn up discoveries and reveal previously little-known or misunderstood sides of a protean figure in late French romanticism. Viner himself regards Alkan as ‘the most enigmatic figure in the history of music as a whole’.

The sixth volume of his survey focuses not on the grand cycles which have won this series such uniformly glowing reviews, but on sketches and miniatures which demonstrate Alkan’s capacity to charm as well as astound and dazzle his listeners. All these pieces are further illuminated, as before, by his own comprehensive booklet notes. Several of them will be unfamiliar to all except the most dedicated of Alkan connoisseurs.

One of the better known pieces included here, the Toccatina Op. 75, can be counted among Alkan’s finest shorter pieces for the piano, demanding phenomenal dexterity and lightness of touch. At the other end of the expressive scale, Désir is a little fantasy, one of Alkan’s most homely-sounding miniatures, yet still colored by his characteristic use of the ninth.

The latest instalment in this popular series focuses on the life and music of Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky. Illustrated with some of Mussorgsky’s finest works the biographical narrative includes excerpts from Songs and Dances of Death; Boris Godunov; Night on Bald Mountain and Pictures at an Exhibition.

Théodore Géricault’s larger-than-life painting The Raft of the Medusa has stimulated a great many artists ever since its creation in 1819. Hans Werner Henze and his Librettist Ernst Schnabel were inspired by Géricault and wrote a political oratorio on the painting’s tragic historical subject in 1967. Notable for its harsh and bright sounds, tender depiction of suffering, scathing irony, and gripping dramaturgy, the agitation at the failed premiere lifted the work into the canon of great classical scandals.