Australian organist Simon Nieminski showcases the restored 1877 Hill & Son Grand Organ, located in the Barossa Regional Gallery in Tanunda, South Australia, with a program that is autobiographical for the artist.

John W. Duarte was not only one of the most prolific composers for the solo classic guitar in the 20th century; he was also concerned with the instrument in an ensemble context. He made a lasting contribution to the concept and musical chemistry of the guitar quartet, a muchneglected feature until his innovations. This area of his creative work proved something of a goldmine for both professional quartets and educational settings where the guitar was taught as a serious instrument, worthy of deep study, and indeed for Summer Schools worldwide. In this the composer offered arrangements and original works of taste and delicacy, a hitherto unprecedented development in the expanding repertoire of the guitar. This fourth instalment in Brilliant Classics' series dedicated to the vast and precious guitar oeuvre of John W. Duarte provides a complete survey of the composer's music for four guitars. This sub-set of his guitar music is in itself greatly varied in style but of consistently superb quality. Disc one contains music he originally composed for this ensemble, and disc two features his arrangements (many of them of his own compositions) for guitar quartet. Duarte explained that his own stylistic eclecticism derived from improvisation, with composition being a slower form of improvisation benefitting from time to reconsider and to refine the product: 'What one hears becomes translatable into "playback" action and/or, given a knowledge of musical theory, comprehensible. It can provide a direct route to eclecticism - one may adopt what one chooses into one's own bloodstream and bypass what one feels foreign to one's own nature. For this reason I have never had one immediately identifiable style and have happily lived with a wide variety of idioms.'

Jonathan Dove (b. 1959) and Dame Judith Weir (b. 1954) may diverge in musical style, yet their organ compositions converge through evocative storytelling. On this album, their works for organ intertwine, revealing a shared fascination with the organ's pictorial prowess, particularly in the depiction of watery motifs. From Weir's turbulent Scottish river in Ettrick Banks, and her rugged yet ghostly depiction of traditional Eastern European folk instruments in The Wild Reeds, to Dove's jubilant celebrations of organ pipes in The Dancing Pipes, and the almost over-whelming force of his Niagara, each piece unfolds like a rich tapestry of sound. Organist Thomas Corns breathes life into these compositions, where theological reflections mingle with vibrant sonic imagery, and the organ becomes a palette for storytelling.

This is an album featuring seven works for string orchestra by Philadelphia-Area composers; all are new commissions. These would be major composers, wherever they were based. This is absolutely first-rate new music for string orchestra.

The Kaiju Project is a Japanese inspired jazz group formed by the half Japanese-Austrian pianist Aseo Friesacher. Their initial idea was to bring old folk songs into a new modern context, but in addition to their compositions, this group has found their very own musical direction: a perfect blend of traditional Japanese music and meditative-creative jazz.

Praised for it's versatility and keen interest in new music, the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir and it's chief conductor Fredrik Malmberg present a programme devoted to a cappella works in a modern yet accessible style by American or American-born composers. The album opens with a triptych based of adaptations of ancient Gaelic poems, Reincarnations by Samuel Barber, known for his opulent, post-romantic language as expressed in his famous Adagio for Strings. Jeff Beal, one of Hollywood's most prolific and respected composers, wrote The Salvage Men, based on texts by Oscar Wilde and contemporary Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Kay Ryan. This cycle, according to Beal, offers 'a wholly fresh, contemporary view on the themes of transformation and our chosen response to pain'. Daniel Nelson's The New Colossus, based on a text by the 19th-century writer Emma Lazarus inspired by the Statue of Liberty, aims to convey musically the majesty and beauty inherent in the idea of inclusion. Finally, two works by Eric Whitacre, a composer whose works have become popular with vocal ensembles across America: A Boy and a Girl, a delicate piece based on a poem by Octavio Paz, and Three Songs of Faith, on texts by E.E. Cummings, a cycle that presents Whitacre's personal faith and his reflections on the spiritual and the unknowable.

Falk and Schleiermacher once again prove to be the ideal interpreters of this multi-faceted music: from the smoky nightclub of the "Rue Chagrin" to the synagogue; past the children's playground to the cotton fields of America with hints of the blues - great art in a small form!

The Athens State Orchestra is the oldest symphony orchestra in Greece. On the occasion of Mikis Theodorakis' 100th birthday, GENUIN evokes the spirits of his homeland and of classical antiquity in three symphonic works by Greece's most famous composer-works that played an important role toward the end of his life: from the early "Sinfonietta" in a new version, through the folk-inspired "Rhapsody for Guitar and Orchestra," to the equally moving nine-part "Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra," Theodorakis's last orchestral work. The young, rising Kornilios Michailidis leads Greece's premier orchestra with verve, while the album's soloists contribute at the highest standard of playing to these remarkable recordings!

This album is all about Tadd Dameron (1917 - 65), one of the most important American jazz composer/musicians. The master baritone saxophonist and perennial pole winner Gary Smulyan conceived the brilliant idea of recording Dameron compositions with lyrics. The vocal part is phenomenally rendered by the young talent Anaïs Reno. Three songs including the lovely This Night Of Stars have hitherto never been recorded. “While Smulyan solos brilliantly throughout, Reno is the real treat here.” (Bill Milkowski – DownBeat on SCCD 31936). “Smulyan here brings to light Dameron’s heretofore unknown Library of Congress trove of standard-quality off-Broadway gems.” (Fred Bouchard – NYCJR on SCCD 31936) 180g Audiophile Vinyl

This is an album of first-rate contemporary American works for violin piano, with superb performances by Pia Liptak, violin, and Yi-Wen Chang, piano. Pia Liptak: Fantasy; Charles Ives: Second Sonata for Violin and Piano; Pia Liptak: Four Haiku; David Liptak: Sonata for Violin and Piano; Baljinder Sekhon: Three Little Lights

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

This is a wonderful program of Latin American piano works, performed by Israeli pianist Gila Goldstein.

Winners of the First Prize at the inaugural Birmingham International Piano Chamber Music Competition, violinist Usha Kapoor and pianist Edward Leung present an album of violin sonatas by American composers Amy Beach and John Corigliano. The album features Beach’s large-scale chamber work of 1896, the Sonata for Violin and Piano Op. 34, and her earlier Romance for Violin and Piano, Op. 23 from 1893, together with Corigliano’s Sonata for Violin and Piano. Completed in 1963, this work was originally called ‘Duo’ and is very much intended for two equal musical partners.

Bittersweet - Sophie Pacini's own collection of encouraging masterpieces that feels like a gentle embrace in the midst of crises and challenges. In a world often dominated by uncertainty and stress, the music on this album offers a powerful solace - a reminder that beauty, pain and hope are mysteriously intertwined. Inspired by an intimate, moving concert in a women's shelter in Munich, the ECHOKlassik Award winner was passionate about giving hope and light to many otherpeople in dark hours with a compilation of her personal heartfelt pieces. It is probably the most personal album project to date by the Munich-born artist, who -unintentionally dubbed a "wunderkind" - had to fight against discrimination, exclusion and resentment from an early age and always drew all her strength from her music. Each piece on "bittersweet" is a little encouragement, a reminder that even in themost bittersweet moments of life, the beauty of music can lead to new strength. Sophie Pacini's interpretation, between virtuosity and sensitivity, opens doors to aworld that provides encouragement in difficult times - and shows that true strengthlies especially in fragility.

Music without remembrance is not possible, affirms pianist Sophie Pacini, and "Rimembranza" is the title she has chosen for her 6th solo album. Here, the music deals with hope and doubt, pain and deliverance, bitter loss and - most of all - memory. At the album's core she has placed two works she finds strongly connected with pain, transience, and death: Mozart's Sonata in A minor K.310 and Schubert's Sonata in A minor D 784. Mozart's mother died in Paris shortly before he wrote his sonata. His twelve variations on the French folk song "Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman!" thus already bear the seed of the Sonata in A minor in themselves. "They are Mozart's rimembranza addressed to himself", she suggests. With their plaintive title harking back to the past, these variations open the curtain on Sophie Pacini's album. Before it falls again, we hear Schubert's two Impromptus Op. 90: sounding like excerpts from his sonatas, they "brush against our memory like two bittersweet rimembranzas from the past", she muses. The last act is introduced by Schubert's "Standchen" on a love poem by Ludwig Rellstab. The subject of love likewise closes the album; from the film "Cinema Paradiso", we hear the love theme composed by the recently departed Ennio Morricone and his son Andrea - a tribute track to Sophie Pacini's second homeland, Italy.

Pianist Mira Gill is of East-Indian descent. Born in Salt Lake City, she is now based in New York City. The piano works of Samuel Barber are a specialty of hers, and it shows in these superb performances.

Missa Criolla, by Argentine composer Ariel Ramirez (1921-2010) is a Spanish vernacular setting of Roman mass liturgy. Navidad Nuestra, composed in 1964, is subtitled"A folk drama of the nativity based on rhythms and traditions of Hispanic America"

Apres ses debuts remarques dans le jazz, Alexandre Sacha Distel, neveu du celebre chef d'orchestre Ray Ventura, s'oriente vers la chanson. Son charme et sa voix seduisent rapidement le public. en 1958, son tube Scoubidou le propulse au sommet des charts. de 1959 a 1962, Distel enchaine les succes. Il remporte le Grand Prix de l'Academie Charles-Cros en 1959, chante avec Maurice Chevalier, compose pour le grand ecran et devient une ic�ne de la chanson francaise, alliant talent musical et elegance naturelle. Patrick FReMEAUX After a stunning debut as a jazz guitarist, Alexandre "Sacha" Distel, the nephew of famous French bandleader Ray Ventura, turned to the world of songs, where his voice and good looks quickly attracted a large audience. In 1958 he had an enormous hit with the song "Scoubidou" that catapulted him to the top of the charts. In 1959 he won the "Grand Prix de l'Academie Charles-Cros", and for the next three years he enjoyed one hit after another. He would sing with Maurice Chevalier and compose songs for films before becoming an icon in popular music with a unique combination of musical talent and natural elegance. Patrick FReMEAUX CD1 (1957-1959) : Sacha Distel CHANTE : TOUT BAS (SPEAK LOW) - CHEVEUX DANS LE VENT - QUAND J'Y PENSE - LA FIN D'UN ROMAN D'AMOUR - MA CHeRIE SI JOLIE (TAMMY) - MALADIE D'AMOUR - INSENSIBLEMENT - FASCINATION - ROSE D'OR - LE TOUR DU MONDE (AROUND THE WORLD) - QUAND TU VIENS CHEZ MOI... MON COEUR - QUELQUE CHOSE EN TOI - L'eTANG - TIENS ! TIENS ! TIENS ! - UN AMOUR COMME LE N�TRE - QUE RESTE-T-IL DE NOS AMOURS ? - PARLEZ-MOI D'AMOUR - SI PETITE O MON AMOUR - GARDE cA POUR TOI (CATCH A FALLING STAR) - LE MUR - La, PReS DE LA FENeTRE (IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS) - DORS MON AMOUR - BRIGITTE - a JAMAIS - BONJOUR CHeRIE. BANDE ORIGINALE DU FILM GIGI : C'EST LA BARBE (AVEC MAURICE CHEVALIER) - TOUT cA N'EST PAS POUR MOI - CEUX QUI INVENTeRENT LE CHAMPAGNE (AVEC MARIE FRANCE GIGI ET JANE MARKEN) - GIGI. CD2 (1959-1961) : Sacha Distel EN PERSONNE : SCOUBIDOU - POMMES ET POIRES - OH ! QUELLE NUIT (LONESOME ME) - QUAND ON S'EST CONNU - CE SERAIT DOMMAGE... (IMPATIENT LOVER) - OUI, OUI, OUI, OUI (GRAND PRIX DE LA CHANSON R.T.F. 1959) - DIS ! O DIS ! (EVERYBODY LOVES A LOVER) - ET QUE cA DURE - JE N'AVAIS PAS COMPRIS. COQ D'OR DE LA CHANSON 1959 : SOPHIE. Sacha Distel N�2 : MON BEAU CHAPEAU - La, PReS DE LA FENeTRE (IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS) - LES CeLIBATAIRES - OUAH ! OUAH ! OUAH ! OUAH ! - PERSONNALITeS - ELLE A LE... ELLE A LA... ELLE A LES... - DITES a L'ORCHESTRE (LA... LA... LA...) - MONSIEUR L'BARON - TOUT cA DEVAIT ARRIVER (EVERYTHING HAPPENS TO ME) - DR�LE DE ReVE (THE PREACHER) - ALLEZ ! VA ! (MY HEART IS AN OPEN BOOK). Sacha Distel N�3 : 20 MADAM' MADAM' - CALIN CALINETTE - LES CARIOCAS, ELLES SONT SI BELLES LES CARIOCAS - OUI, DEVANT DIEU (LA NOVIA) - LE BOOGIE DU BeBe (BABY SITTIN' BOOGIE) - ON DIT, ON DIT, ON DIT - cA C'EST DU POULET - a CAUSE DE TOI (I DON't KNOW WHY) - BYE BYE BABY (BYE BYE BLACKBIRD) - TROIS FOIS LA FRANCE. CD3 (1961-1962) : OUI ET NON - C'EST TOUT, C'EST TOUT (THAT'S ALL) - CATERINA - C'eTAIT PLUS FORT QUE TOUT (I CAN't STOP LOVING YOU) - J'AI UN RENDEZ-VOUS (I WANNA THANK YOU) - SANS TOI - QUE C'EST BON (WELCOME HOME TO MY HEART) - CHANSON SUR UNE SEULE NOTE (SAMBA DE UMA NOTA SO) - GUITARE ET COPAINS (A STEEL GUITAR AND A GLASS OF WINE) - DIS-MOI BARMAN - LES FILLES... MOI J'AIME cA - BON VENT MA JOLIE - PAILLASSE - RIEN DANS LA NUIT. SACHA BOSSA NOVA : ESO BESO - DESAFINADO - VIENS DANSER LA BOSSA NOVA (TING TOUNG) - LOIN DE TOI (RECADO). EVERYBODY LOVES THE LOVER : LET ME LOVE YOU - WHY DON't WE DO THIS MORE OFTEN - MY HEART STOOD STILL - ONCE IN EVERY LIFETIME - I'm IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE - SPEAK TO ME OF LOVE - THE LOVER - IT'S BEEN A LONG, LONG TIME - EVERYBODY LOVES A LOVER - YOU DO SOMETHING TO ME - I CAN't GIVE YOU ANYTHING BUT LOVE - ALMOST LIKE BEING IN LOVE. DIRECTION ARTISTIQUE : OLIVIER JULIEN

This is a wonderful program of works for cello and piano by composers such as Libby Larsen, Samuel Barber, and George Walker.

Stuttgart-born mezzo-soprano Christina Baader has been a much sought-after musician for many years, not only as an opera singer and soloist, but is also an internationally successful visual artist. To mark the 100th anniversary of Gabriel Faure's death, Christina Baader and Gert Hecher, piano, are presenting an album by the title MONDE ET MYSTeRE with a selection of his songs as well as those by Henri Duparc, who also played a significant role in establishing an independent French art of song. The expressive songs are based on poems by famous French poets such as Paul Verlaine, Charles Baudelaire, Armand Silvestre, Theophile Gautier, Rene-Fran�ois Sully-Prudhomme and Jean Lahor. Together with Gert Hecher, a specialist in the restoration of historical keyboard instruments, two grand pianos from 1868 and 1879, respectively, from the famous erard piano manufactory in Paris, which at the time had a similar status to Steinway & Sons today, were chosen to best emphasize the different tonal and stylistic elements of the works of the two composers.

� Je me souviens de l'epoque o� Sacha Distel etait guitariste de jazz. � Georges PEREC, Je me souviens, Hachette, Paris, 1978. Alexandre "Sacha" Distel, neveu du celebre chef d'orchestre Ray Ventura, emerge comme une figure cle du jazz dans les annees 1950. Influence par son oncle et les musiciens qu'il cotoie, il apprend la guitare avec Henri Salvador. Considere comme l'un des meilleurs guitaristes francais des 1956, il collabore avec des geants du jazz tels que Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz et Lionel Hampton avant de connaitre le succes dans la chanson. Alexandre "Sacha" Distel, the nephew of famous French bandleader Ray Ventura, emerged as a key figure on the jazz scene in the early fifties. Under the influence of his uncle and the musicians alongside him, he learned to play the guitar with Henri Salvador and by 1956 he was considered one of the best guitarists in France. Before going on to become a successful singer, Sacha played with such jazz giants as Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz and Lionel Hampton.

Recorded on the same day after the quintet session (SCCD 31046 Duke’s Delight) in a New York studio in 1975 this attractive trio recording “comprises nearly 40 minutes of sheer unpretentious enjoyment.” (Mark Gardner - Jazz Journal UK) Duke Jordan’s long association with SteepleChase started with Jordan’s visit to Copenhagen in 1973. The collaboration yielded impressive hoard of highly acclaimed albums including SCCD 31011 Flight To Denmark). This session with the very best sidemen New York could offer - the veteran bassist Sam Jones and the great drummer Al Foster (who joined Miles Davis shortly after this session - enabled Jordan to display his attractive personal touch featuring Jordan’s own melodious compositions. 180g Audiophile Vinyl

Both these violin concertos have been long-neglected for the same reason: their composers were much better-known for their achievements in musical theatre rather than for their works for the concert-hall. Robert Russell Bennett studied composition in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, and his output includes seven symphonies. He also orchestrated some of the highest-profile musicals in Broadway history, including works by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Rodgers and Hammerstein. (Richard Rodgers modestly claimed that Bennett's skills in instrumentation had made his music 'sound better than it was'). Vladimir Alexandrovich Dukelsky changed his name to Vernon Duke at the suggestion of his friend Jacob Gershovitz - better known as George Gershwin. Duke received a rigorous training in classical music at the Kyiv Conservatory; was friends with Prokofiev and composed ballet scores for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in Paris, as well as three symphonies. He remains better known as the creator of hit shows, such as Cabin in the Sky, and as the composer of numerous songs that became jazz standards, including 'April in Paris'. Chloe Hanslip, Andrew Litton, and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra perform both concertos with aplomb, and Andrew Litton also takes the role of pianist in Bennett's Hexapoda.

It is safe to say that the latter half of Dexter Gordon’s European years (1961-1976) found him most inspired and productive. This album recorded in a Copenhagen studio in September of 1975 precedes to Gordon’s most publicised homecoming to the States. With his favourite rhythm section of Montoliu, NHØP and Billy Higgins Dexter is in his pinnacle. It is also noteworthy to know that this is the only studio recording Dexter Gordon and the formidable Catalonian pianist made together. “... Today, more than 30 years after he made his first dates for Savoy, he is playing better than ever... From the opener, Billie’s Bounce, the record settles into a beautiful groove and the interest never lets up...” (Mike Hennessey, Jazz Journal International) “…Almost all Nils Winther’s Danish SteepleChase label releases have been better than the CBS albums, and this is certainly no exception.” (Michigan State News) 180g Audiophile Vinyl

A Thousand Charms invites listeners into two centuries of English song, from Campion's intimate ayres to Purcell's theatrical masterpieces and Handel's deeply expressive arias. The programme traces how solo song evolved from lute-inspired simplicity to richly ornamented drama, blending poetry with music of striking clarity and depth. Grace Davidson's pure, agile voice and Julian Perkins's sensitive harpsichord accompaniment bring freshness and immediacy to this repertoire, emphasising it's refinement, inventiveness and humanity. For anyone drawn to the beauty of early music, this recording offers an engaging journey through some of it's most timeless works.

The music presented on this album was recorded during the live performances of the December 2021 and 2022 Celebration of Christmas concerts in the de Jong Concert Hall at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA.

Head Space: Candlelight is the first EP in The King's Singers' Head Space series, aiming to connect choral music with calmness and reflection. Inspired by compline, the Catholic night service, it features plainchant, including "In manus tuas Domine" and "Salva nos Domine vigilantes," emphasizing breath-led pacing. The album also includes wordless Orlando Gibbons "Songs," contemporary pieces by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Judith Bingham, and Arvo Part, and the experimental "4'33" by John Cage, concluding with Robert Parsons' "Ave Maria" and Edvard Grieg's "Ave Maris Stella," all designed to create a contemplative atmosphere.

Following the success of last year's release of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, John Wilson and Sinfonia of London turn their attention to Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel. As in the case of the previous release in the series, this world premiere recording of the complete score features every note of music played at the first Broadway performance, here in the full thirty-five-piece orchestration made by Don Walker for the original production. The outstanding cast, led by Nathaniel Hackmann (Billy Bigelow), Mikaela Bennett (Julie Jordan), Sierra Boggess (Carrie Pipperidge), and Julian Ovenden (Enoch Snow), also features Francesca Chiejina (Nettie Fowler) and David Seadon-Young (Jigger Craigin). The extensive chorus material is sung by the 'Carousel' Ensemble - twenty-four young singers all currently working on stage across London's West End. John Wilson comments: 'Carousel is Rodgers & Hammerstein's greatest achievement. In it, Rodgers manages to create a score with operatic aspirations and dimensions. Everything in the score serves a dramatic purpose. Even in it's texture you can hear orchestral effects that are there to underline the drama's emotions, whether that's unease or joy or whatever. The drama is amplified by what's happening in the music.' Recorded in Surround Sound and Dolby Atmos, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel will be available on Hybrid SACD and in spatial audio.

The tradition of bringing out New Year publications on January 2, “Berchtold’s Day”, goes back as far as the 17th century. Societies andguilds provided printed books, illustrations or music to the young people of the city in return for a financial contribution, which went towards the heating of the society rooms. A 2005 CD of piano music by the Winterthur composer Johann Carl Eschmann, whose documents are held in the Zentralbibliothek Zürich, marked the revival of the old tradition in a new guise.
The New Year release CD 2024 brings together works by six composers, male and female, all of whom except one were born and trained in French-speaking countries. Even Paul Juon had Romanic roots, since his grandfather had emigrated around 1830 from the Swiss canton of Grisons to Russia. Short pieces have been grouped around César Franck’s Sonata in A major: composed between 1880 and 1924, all – except Ernest Bloch’s three lieder movements From Jewish Life (1924), whose Judaistic timbre became Bloch’s trademark – conform to our present-day perception of a rhapsodic fin-de-siècle sound.
The cellist Isabel Gehweiler is a prizewinner of the European Bursary for Young Artists, the Art Prize of the Art Foundation of Baden-Württemberg, the Art Prize of the Markgräfler region; she is also a recipient of grants from the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), the Juilliard School of Music, the Rotary Foundation, the arteMusica Foundation, the Cultural Foundation of the Saarland region, the Richard Wagner Association, the Covid-19 Grant of the City of Zurich, the Notenstein La Roche Privatbank and the Vontobel Bank. As a composer, Isabel Gehweiler has produced a body of work encompassing chamber music and orchestral compositions, which are regularly performed at international festivals.

Claude-Benigne Balbastre (1727-1799) published his first book of harpsichord pieces in 1759, nine years after a decisive move from his home city of Dijon to the metropolis of Paris. France had been inundated with Italian music and musicians for more than 50 years, and Balbastre's style is inflected by the latest Italian trends, while remaining unmistakably and deliciously French. The titles of the individual works refer to the surnames of distinguished and influential figures in the Parisian world of the mid- to late18th century. They are not necessarily portraits; the point here is rather the dedication, although this music indubitably represents a wonderful picture of the world surrounding Balbastre. One of the composer's biographers has remarked that 'More than portraits without words supposed to musically evoke a personality, the harpsichord pieces constitute a tribute or a sign of gratitude with regard to said personality. The portrait thus painted is only allusive and mysterious.' For example, one of Balbastre's most famous and spectacular works, the Italian-style gigue La Lugeac (F major), is probably a portrait of Louis XV's close companion, the Marquis Charles-Antoine de Guerin (1720-82), who had been born at the Chateau de Lugeac and was described by his contemporaries as 'Le beau Lugeac'. In his own booklet introduction to Balbastre's life and work, Marek Toporowski extols the First Book as 'a true masterpiece', combining French elegance of Classical style; imagery alluding to the operas of Rameau; virtuosity reminiscent of Scarlatti, Mozart and Rameau; mastery of form and textural richness. Compared to other surviving music by Balbastre, Toporowski finds these pieces 'less simple in the sense of Classical economy of texture, more sophisticated and Baroque.' The Polish harpsichordist, organist, chamber musician, and conductor Marek Toporowski was a pupil of both Bob van Asperen and Daniel Roth, He has made this new recording on a copy of a French harpsichord, completed in 1984 for harpsichordist, pianist and painter Julitta Slendzinska by Zygmunt Kaczmarski. 'It is a fascinating, exceptional instrument,' he says, 'in terms of timbral class, with a full, juicy sound and enchanting dynamic capabilities.' - Claude Balbastre was a prominent French composer, organist, and harpsichordist of the late Baroque and early Classical periods. He studied under Claude Rameau, the brother of Jean-Philippe Rameau, whose influence is evident in his music. - Among his most notable works are his Pieces de clavecin, published in 1759. These pieces exemplify the refined and expressive style of the French harpsichord tradition, combining lyrical melodies with intricate ornamentation and lively rhythms. Like those of Francois Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau, Balbastre's harpsichord works often feature evocative titles, such as La d'Hericourt, La de Caze, and La Lugeac, referring to prominent figures of the time. His Pieces de clavecin display a wide range of textures and moods, from playful and lighthearted dances to deeply expressive movements. He incorporated elements of the galant style, characterized by clarity and grace, alongside more dramatic and virtuosic passages, sometimes even adapting orchestral effects to the harpsichord. - Marek Toporowski is a harpsichordist, organist, pianist and conductor, one of Poland's foremost performers in the Historical Performance movement. He is a scholar and a well-known collector of historical instruments. Also available by Marek Toporowski are the Complete Piano Music by Pinto, keyboard sonatas by Hyacinthe Jadin, and violin sonatas by Ferdinand Ries.