This disc couples the last Violin Concerto (1769) by Joseph Haydn with the Double Concerto for Viola and Harpsichord (1762) by his brother Michael: two rarely recorded early Classical gems. This is the debut recording of Pearls in Baroque Chamber Orchestra, composed by some of the best Baroque music players in the Netherlands. The artistic and performance direction is entrusted to two experienced musicians like Ryo Terakado and Noriko Amano.

Max Richter's The Recomposed Four Seasons has become an iconic piece. Richter discarded about three quarters of Vivaldi's original and substituted his own music. The new version sounds a little hipper, lighter on its feet in places, darker and more cinematic in others. Artfully, but faithfully, Richter rearranges the notes on the page, revealing anew the radiant melodies and lush timbres of the music. This new recording enjoys the flamboyant fantasy and the technical prowess of Daniel Rowland as solo violin.

Duarte: Homages, Works for Guitar Solo

Together with pianist Michael McHale, Michael Collins continues his exploration of the chamber repertoire for clarinet. After exploring French music (BIS-2497) and the Brahms Sonatas (BIS-2557), he now turns to British music with this recital covering a hundred years of music for clarinet and piano which reflects the special relationship between English composers and this instrument. The earliest works on this recording are the Three Intermezzi and the Sonata by Charles Villiers Stanford, who made no secret of his debt to Brahms. As with his Viennese counterpart, Stanford's music is poised yet seductive and, in this case, beautifully conceived for both instruments. Known for the strength of his vocal music, Gerald Finzi also makes the clarinet sing in his Five Bagatelles composed during the Second World War. Light and touching, they appear as a personal reinterpretation of the baroque dances found in Bach's instrumental suites. Not surprisingly, Marcolm Arnold's Sonatina has always been popular with clarinettists, with it's energy and it's nods to jazz and dance music. Last but not least, Joseph Horovitz, the last composer in chronological order, is represented by his Two Majorcan Pieces and his Sonatina. Once again, the music is playful and makes an excellent showcase for the clarinet.

Orlando Gibbons was a genius. We can probably all agree that this term is massively anachronistic. However, justified, I think, in order to establish his music on the same elevated niveau as Purcell or Beethoven or Schubert. While it is difficult to make such analogies when his music is still relatively rarely performed by comparison with these more illustrious names, but Gibbons' fecundity of imagination, his masterly handling of his material, his emotional depth and maturity, the exquisite turns of phrase, his harmonic assurance, his contrapuntal ease and mastery - all this puts him in the first rank of composers - Richard Boothby. "My Days is a ritualised memory piece about Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) written for two ensembles whose recordings informed so much of my musical development. I feel like I spend half of my life trying to trick string players to play like Fretwork, and vocalists to sing like the Hilliard Ensemble, so it was with enormous pleasure that I composed this piece." - Nico Muhly

Son of the better-known Georg Muffat, Gottlieb was also hawked around the courts of Europe by his father as a boy wonder of music, anticipating the course of Mozart's early years under the self-interested care of Leopold. However, when at home, Gottlieb Muffat grew up in Vienna under the careful tutelage of Johann Joseph Fux, master of music at the Hofkapelle, a relationship which deepened once Georg died in 1704, when Gottlieb was just 14 years old. In due course Fux pulled strings to get his talented pupil an official post, and this album of keyboard partitas offers ample proof that his faith in Gottlieb Muffat was justified. Their date is uncertain: during his lifetime, only two collections of his music were published, and after 1739 he seems to have broken off composition, focusing his energies on performing and teaching at the Hofkapelle. Listeners familiar with the keyboard partitas by JS Bach will find a certain degree of common ground in the elegant sequence of French-style dances which are headed by a more exploratory Prelude. Muffat's counterpoint may not be so rigorous, but his ear for a well-turned melody offers satisfying reward in it's own right. The use of French, English and even Spanish titles to individual movements underlines the imaginative and fanciful qualities of the collection: see for example Postillon in the Suite in F major; Coquette in the Suite in A major; a Hornpipe in the Suite in D minor and the Intrada to the Suite in F. As well as enthusiastically received albums of Pasquini, Gabrieli, Vivaldi and above all Frescobaldi, Roberto Loreggian has previously recorded the 1739 collection of Componimenti Musicali to which this new recording forms a sequel. Of his collection of Partitas by Telemann, Fanfare commented: 'Without seeming driven, his playing is lively and well-articulated, and he is always sensitive to Telemann's stylistic variety, whether it is tending, at any given moment, to the courtly or to the common.'

The distinguished Japanese composer, Toshio Hosokawa, has been honoured with numerous awards as well as a steady stream of commissions and acclaimed performances. As with many of Hosokawa's concertos, Ceremony sees the flute soloist as a 'person' and the orchestra as the 'universe and nature' - the flautist's breath echoing like the winds of nature and becoming a song that awakens the spirits. A complimentary work to Hosokawa's The Raven (Naxos 8.573724), Futari Shizuka - The Maiden from the Sea is a single-act opera, the ancient tragic tale of which resonates with the fate of refugees around the world today.

With this recording, volume 42 of the complete music for solo keyboard by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Miklos Spanyi continues his exploration of transcriptions of concertos originally written for keyboard and orchestra, to which he adds some movements from early versions of sonatas (the standard versions of which appear on earlier volumes in this series). Four of the six concertos from the Wq 43 collection are featured here (the remaining two appear on the previous volume, BIS-2397). When Bach published this set of six concertos for keyboard and orchestra in 1772, he also prepared a version for solo keyboard intended for moderately advanced amateurs who could then play them at home, without orchestra, thus opening up a much larger market. A smart move by the shrewd businessman that Bach was. About his decision to record these works on a clavichord rather than a tangent piano as previously, Spanyi says that it allows 'nearly infinite possibilities for fine dynamic shadings' and that 'the required dynamic contrasts can be emphasized even better than on other keyboard instruments of the period'. Spanyi adds that this release is a tribute to the clavichord, and especially to his own instrument, built by Joris Potvlieghe.

This disc features solo keyboard arrangements of works by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach originally scored for other instruments. In the second half of the eighteenth century the demand for keyboard music increased rapidly, as musical skills became a social requisite for young ladies of the upper classes. Providing compositions for these new keyboard players was financially profitable, but Bach also had another reason for welcoming arrangements: keyboard instruments were his favourite medium. The seven short pieces on this well-filled disc all exist in versions for various small groups of instruments or, in some cases, for mechanical instruments. In his comments, Spanyi suggests that they could in fact be the original versions, perhaps written down in keyboard notation as drafts for further versions, and later arranged by Bach on for various ensembles. Miklos Spanyi has grouped these short pieces around four larger-scale works, of which two are arrangements of symphonies, probably not arranged by or for the composer himself. The solo keyboard arrangements of the two concertos, made by Bach himself and easier to play than the original concertos, were intended for amateurs. On this disc, Spanyi uses an extremely versatile and colourful tangent piano, a very popular instrument in the second half of the 18th century. This particular instrument was built in 1998, after a model from 1799.

Ukrainian American folklorist and singer Nadia Tarnawsky leads the women of Cappella Romana with special guest folklorists from Ukraine, Inna Kovtun and Hanna Tishchenko, to perform this unique offering of Ukrainian wedding songs. The songs sung in preparation for the wedding employ the vocal techniques of village singers, while the chants and choral works sung during the wedding ceremony itself reflect the sublime style more prevalent in church singing. From the engagement through the crowning of the young couple, the rituals of a traditional Ukrainian wedding are accompanied by songs. Traditionally performed by the women belonging to the families of the young couple, these songs help bring forth good health, prosperity, and many children. These songs were collected by Nadia Tarnawsky in Ukrainian villages, often from women over 80 years old, before the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The instrumentalist, composer, and publisher Tielman Susato (c. 1510/15 – after 1570) was one of the most illustrious figures in the musical life of Renaissance Antwerp. He founded the first music publishing house to use movable type in the Low Countries in 1543. Music printing had mainly been based in Italy, France, and Germany until Susato set up his press in Antwerp. He was one of the first to publish works by Orlando di Lasso, the most renowned composer of the late Renaissance. Susato was also an accomplished composer who wrote and published several books of masses and motets in the typical imitative polyphonic style of the time. He was well connected in the highest circles of the city and the country, often dedicating his publications to prominent citizens or rulers. The Utopia Ensemble here presents a florilegium of works composed and/or published by this dazzling figure of Renaissance vocal music.

The Eastern Orthodox understanding of repentance doesn’t dwell on morose sorrow for past transgressions. Instead it focuses on deliverance and optimism: repentance, from the Greek metánoia, is a change of mind, a fundamentally positive redirection. This recording presents Arvo Pärt’s Orthodox choral works for the first time as a service (or office) of supplication (Greek paráklesis, Slavonic molében). The office is built around the singing of a Byzantine poem called a kanon, on this occasion three odes from Pärt’s monumental Kanon Pokajanen (Kanon of Repentance).

Compositions by Pärt likewise comprise the other elements of this office: a Gospel reading marks the center of the service (The Woman with the Alabaster Box) completed by psalmody, Orthodox hymns, and fervent prayers. Pärt’s transcendent “Prayer after the Kanon” eventually gives way to silence, to the prayer of the heart. Cappella Romana transforms hearts and minds through encounters with the sacred musical inheritance of the Christian East and West, bringing to life these ancient and diverse traditions, especially of Byzantium, and their interactions with other cultures. Cappella Romana is devoted to the stewardship of this precious jewel of world culture. Arvo Pärt: Odes of Repentance is Cappella Romana’s 31st release.

REVIEWS:

In this album, the stars, the galaxies, all the wonders of a distant universe seem to touch us through the medium of sound. Whether or not one is knowledgeable about Eastern sacred music, this is an album of supreme artistry to cherish, heed, and enjoy.

Under the direction of Alexander Lingas, Cappella Romana’s Odes of Repentance is a selection of Arvo Pärt’s Orthodox works woven into a service of public and private prayers of supplication and renewal. While Pärt is widely identified with works having an Eastern spiritual flavor, his pedagogical background derives from Western classical music and the musical traditions of the Roman Catholic church. However, since his conversion to Orthodoxy some 50 years ago, the public has come to associate Pärt with music as inspired by Eastern Christianity.

Odes consists of 12 spellbinding tracks which give voice to the human yearning to be cleansed of past mistakes and to make positive changes in one’s future life. As the excellent booklet notes in Church Slavonic and English tell us, these prayers are less an expression of sorrow than they are an affirmation of rebirth. This renascence is expressed eloquently through Pärt’s music in an imaginative flow of melodies, modal harmonies, unexpected twists and turns, and the composer’s unique tintinnabuli technique.

What I found most absorbing in this recording was the variety of musical utterances, the splendid multiplicity of sounds, rhythms and tremors. Something new is lurking around the corner of every measure, sometimes as puzzling as our own contemplated destinies.

The album begins with an Ode from the Triodion and two Slavic Psalms (Psalm 131, “Lord, my heart is not haughty” King James Version [KJV] and the Doxology Psalm 116). The Ode is the first of three in this recording from the Triodion, a liturgical book used in the Eastern Church during Lent. Seven selections from the Kanon of Repentance shine at the heart of the album.

These tracks could not be more different. Slow staccato notes tiptoe under a silvery upper register in the third track while an almost Western sensibility shapes the sound of the fourth (did I hear a touch of Mahler?). The swinging rhythms and unexpected pauses of Kanon Ode 9 remind us that “we aren’t in Kansas anymore”, but, rather, in a world that sometimes stretches far beyond the Western orientation of many listeners.

The album also includes a sung “reading” from the Gospel of Matthew, “The Woman with the Alabaster Box” (“There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat.” KJV). Pärt’s music floats effortlessly from the ensemble and melts into the next selection, scattered with little discords.

This is Cappella Romana’s 31st album. While the group specializes in the sacred music of the Christian East and West, it is known largely for its stewardship of the music of Byzantium and the works of Arvo Pärt. Those of us raised in Western cultural traditions have missed much if we have ignored or been deprived of the legacy of Eastern sacred music, old or new. There is a core of authenticity in Pärt’s work that has endeared it, even in his lifetime, to millions around the world.

-- ConcertoNet

Dandrieu’s Premier Livre de Pièces d’Orgue was printed a year after the composer died in 1738. It contains six suites of pieces in differing church tones; each followed by six versets suitable for performance under the canticle Magnificat. While the Magnificat verses have a logical sequence; the other movements in the suites are somewhat haphazardly planned. Even setting aside the Pascal hymn in the Premier Suite; the remaining pieces have no apparent order; perhaps reflecting a desire to make the publication as generally useful as possible. The first suite’s two fugues are the only cantus firmus pieces in the collection and are based on the hymn Ave Maris Stella and the Pascal proclamation Exultet coelum laudibus (CD 1: 3 and 4). Like the remaining fugues; which are independent; the style is serious: each is marked Majestueusement [sic] and follows the prescriptions of several composers’ prefaces from the late 17th and early 18th centuries. While no fugues from this epoch are as carefully crafted as those of the Rouennais organist Jehan Titelouze (Paris; 1623 and 1626); their placing within organised organ masses and hymns; often as the second verset of a Kyrie; Gloria or hymn; demonstrates an underlying association between genre and rhetoric. We see similar associations with the opening movements of each Magnificat set; but they work on two levels. They are austere and reserved solely for a plein jeu combination of stops: foundation stops from 16 feet to both mixtures but without reeds. According to André Raison they are to be played solemnly with absolute finger legato. A second rhetorical association is the link between registration and text. It has been mentioned that fugues were often used as the second verse of hymns and in mass sections; and a similar association between a plein jeu and the first Kyrie; Gloria or Sanctus; or the first verse of a psalm or canticle exists in nearly every organ composer’s publication until late into the 18th century. This is not by accident since associating sounds and text would help guide congregants – many of whom were neither literate nor conversant with Latin – through the complexities of the ceremony. Indeed; such an association is well within the ceremonials’ inclusive philosophies. Several commentators associate plein jeu pieces with Titelouze; and while the registration provides a link with the north European school of organ playing; particularly of such composers from Flanders and the Spanish Netherlands as Jan Pieterzoon Sweelinck; other genres are decidedly more French. Thus; we have bourrées (e.g.; Duo; Magnificat V; CD2: 15); menuets (e.g.; Basse de Cromorne; Magnificat III; CD1: 33); gavottes (e.g.; Trio; Magnificat V; CD2: 16); gigues (Magnificat IV; CD2: 5); Italianate gigas (Duo; Magnificat III; CD1: 26) and; as mentioned previously; rustic dances in the guise of musettes. It is not only dance forms that permeate French organ music; since we also see the influence of the air de cour in the tender récits (e.g.; Magnificat III; CD1: 33); concerted viol music in the two Tierce en Taille pieces (Suites IV and V) and even Lullyan ouvertures; which form the basis of the offertoires. These are exclusively reserved for grands jeux combinations that juxtapose concertante and ripieno sections using combinations of reeds; cornets and foundation stops that mimic the grand orchestral writing popular with Parisian apparatchiks of the opera.

An audiophile LP transfer for an
immersive tribute to a remote island
off the coast of Brittany.
Having become celebrated for his score
to Amélie (2001), the French composer
moved to the island of Ushant
(Ouessant/Eusa), and this album is a
musical tribute to his home, comprising
ten pieces about ten specific places on
the island. In 2016, Tiersen published a
collection of pieces called Eusa, which
Jeroen van Veen has combined with his
2021 collection, Kerber, named after a
chapel on the island, to produce Island.
The album has been a best-seller on CD
for its contemplative mood and beauty.
Among the 10 tracks, some offer the
perfect soundtrack for contemplation on
a long walk or staring out of a window on
a train journey. Others seem predestined
to be background music for study or
relaxation. The pieces sound at times
dreamy and wistful, at times bittersweet,
at other times happily playful. With each
song, your imagination can easily conjure
a scene from a movie: a breakup after a
fight in a cosy café or a nature
documentary showing two baby birds
opening their eyes for the very first
time.
This isn’t a collection about isolation;
it’s more an expression of awareness of
your own environment and your place
within it: a sonic encapsulation of the
hyper-local. Tiersen relates this
approach to a night spent studying the
stars – which he himself does. ‘You can
look at things that are thousands of
light years away and relate your own
existence to this really cosmic element,’
he says. ‘But you get that same feeling
with the things all around you.’

- Gerald Finzi (1901-1956) was an English composer known for his lyrical and contemplative music, often inspired by English literature and landscape. Born in London, he faced numerous hardships and personal losses early in life, which shaped much of his musical output, often reflecting themes of mortality and nostalgia. In World War II he worked to assist German and Austrian musicians fleeing the Nazis. - Finzi's works are characterized by their deep sensitivity to English poetry and their pastoral nature. His love for literature is evident in many of his vocal works, including settings of texts by Thomas Hardy, William Wordsworth, and Christina Rossetti. - The cantata Dies Natalis, composed between 1925 and 1939, is one of Finzi's most celebrated works. It is a setting of texts by the 17th-century poet Thomas Traherne, which explore themes of innocence and the wonder of a newborn experiencing the world for the first time. Scored for solo voice and strings, the work reflects Finzi's delicate and expressive style, with lyrical vocal lines and lush orchestration that evoke a sense of spiritual reflection. - Also presented is Finzi's Clarinet Concerto, a vibrant and melodious work, one of the finest in it's genre. - Performed by Susanna Rigacci, Roberta Gottardi, and the Benedetto Marcello Chamber Orchestra conducted by Flavio Scogna.

A half-speed mastered, new LP transfer of a best-selling album in the acclaimed series of minimalist piano music recorded by Jeroen van Veen for Brilliant Classics.
‘Throughout, the playing’s brilliant, confident, and sonorous’: this album of the piano output of John Adams won glowing reviews when it was first released in 2017. As an indefatigable champion of minimalist music from both sides of the Atlantic, Jeroen van Veen had recorded some of these pieces before, within his compendious ‘Minimal Piano Collection’ which became an essential acquisition for collectors of the most influential classical style in music during the last 60 years.

The 2017 remake of China Gates is even more opulent as a performance, superbly engineered to catch van Veen’s subtleties of touch at the piano, and thus eminently suitable for a high-spec vinyl transfer. ‘There’s something quite nice about encountering interpretations of these perennial Adams favourites that sound so comfortable,’ continued the Arts Fuse review: ‘a pianist enjoying himself, freely exploring the enveloping diatonicism of the music.’

Adams regards Phrygian Gates (1977) as his ‘first mature composition’, and it may seem strange that he has not since written more for solo piano than the four pieces gathered here, but as Jeroen van Veen argues in his sleeve-note essay, these pieces between them say all that needs to be said in terms of the composer’s piano style.
Mostly composed in a West Coast beach hut, the gentle flow, rolling swells and thundering breakers of Phrygian Gates add up to a half-hour, overpowering analogy for melodic waves. From the same year, China Gates distils this energy into a five-minute work of memorably concentrated stillness. Adams left off the piano for another 20 years until writing Hallelujah Junction for two pianos in 1996. Van Veen gave the Dutch premiere, and he remains an outstanding, authoritative advocate of Adams’s music.

"Highways and Byways: A Double Album of Rarities for Recorder"

A seminal contribution to the canon of recorder music, this recording assumes a pivotal role, enriching the repertoire and captivating audiences with its distinct allure and technical prowess. Serving as a valuable resource for connoisseurs of recorder music and an inviting introduction for novices, Highways and Byways features a diverse array of compositions. Through its discerning curation and expert execution, this recording not only commemorates the recorder's storied legacy but also fosters an appreciation for its enduring elegance and adaptability.

John Turner presents recorder pieces by renowned composers such as Lennox Berkeley, John McCabe, and Thomas Pitfield. Discover rare gems by Igor Stravinsky and Alexander Gretchaninov, alongside a remarkable composition for recorder and two violas by the distinguished American composer William Bergsma.

As a special treat, the album includes two previously unknown pieces by the late Christopher Ball, along with two compositions by John Turner himself, including a homage to Ukraine. It's a veritable feast of rare and captivating music!

Renowned as one of today's leading recorder players, John Turner's illustrious career spans performances with esteemed ensembles like David Munrow’s Early Music Consort of London and recordings with prestigious orchestras worldwide. With over 600 premieres to his credit, including works by Leonard Bernstein and Peter Sculthorpe, Turner's artistry has left an indelible mark on the contemporary recorder repertoire.

Featuring performances by John Turner (recorder), Stephen Bettaney (piano), Laura Robinson (recorder), Catherine Yates (viola), and Alex Mitchell (viola), "Highways and Byways" is a testament to the dedication of these exceptional musicians.

In the Poet's Garden: Choral settings by John Rutter of Shakespeare, Wordsworth, James Weldon Johnson, Charles Causley and others. John is joined by The Cambridge Singers, Melanie Marshall, Roderick Williams, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Taplow Young Voices, Catrin Finch and Matthew Jorysz (solo piano) in this recording of choral works by John Rutter. I'll make me a world; London Town; Dancing Tree; Three Shakespeare Songs; When music sounds. John Rutter writes: Any composer interested in vocal and choral music is both inspired and nourished by poetry. Second only to music, words are my great love, and from my earliest years I have enjoyed seeking out poetry that seems to invite musical setting. This album brings together some of my recent choral music where the words provided the first inspiration and the music followed.

The five-part writing for strings has its period of greatest development in the 16th and 17th centuries, only to fall into a progressive obsolescence. The most commonly used instrumental ensemble included two violins, alto and tenor viola da braccio, cello and basso continuo. Of this quintet, the instrument that undergoes a progressive dismissal is the viola tenore, which in this recording we propose in its original late seventeenth century mounting.

SOMM Recordings is thrilled to announce an exciting new album from the London Chamber Ensemble and violinist and director Madeleine Mitchell of premiere recordings of early 20th century English string music by Herbert Howells and his Royal College of Music teacher Charles Wood, including the recently discovered earlier version of "In Gloucestershire", thought lost, alongside two delightful short pieces, Luchinushka and Chosen Tune, newly arranged by Madeleine Mitchell. Herbert Howells first composed a string quartet entitled "In Gloucestershire" in 1916, though the score was immediately lost. He began re-composing the work a few years later before announcing it's completion in 1920. Following early performances and revisions, this version also disappeared. However, in the 1980s it emerged that a set of parts of the original 1920 version had survived, and it is this version, newly constructed and edited by the author of the booklet notes, Jonathan Clinch, and cellist Joseph Spooner who also features on this disc. Howell's Three Pieces for Violin and Piano, Op. 28 is also from this same period. The title of No. 2, "Chosen Tune", refers to Chosen Hill, Howell's birthplace near Gloucester, which affords beautiful views of the surrounding countryside where he enjoyed walking. Mitchell first performed these three pieces at the St. Petersburg Festival of British Music in 2009. Having played the Three Pieces... in many countries since 2009, Mitchell arranged two of these, "Chosen Tune" and "Luchinushka" for a quartet program to be given at a Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition in London in January of 2022. The Charles Wood Quartet in D major was his last string quartet and most likely composed during the years of the First World War after the premiere of his Quartet in F major on 7 March 1916. This well crafted work incorporates Irish jigs, folk tunes and laments which reflect both his Irish roots and the growing sense of nationalism celebrating British Music during the period. Woods' music, along with many other early 20th century writers of tonal music, fell out of fashion during the decades that followed, but as this recording shows, SOMM considers the music very well worth re-discovering and plans to record Wood's remaining five numbered quartets in future.

New duo CD with Swedish Grammy winners Hoor Barock! What really happened during those long summer days in Leipzig, when master lutenist Silvius Weiss visited the home of Johan Sebastian Bach? Improvisational duels of excellence, or a more relaxed musical dialogue between friends? Contemporary witnesses recall there being "rare and elegant music played during this time". We also know that it was during this period that Bach added a congenial upper part to music originally composed by Weiss purely for solo lute, namely his sonata in A Major. This augmentation added a new dimension and perspective onto Leopold Weiss' already masterful composition, earning it a place in the catalogue of Bach's works, as BWV 1025. On the CD "Meetings with Bach", we are also presented with Bach's second cello suite in Dohyo Sol's own transcription for lute. Of the encounters with Bach on this colourful recording, we are met with his son, Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach, whose dynamic and frequently eruptive music stands in stark contrast to the more fashionable gallant-style of the time. Lutenist Dohyo Sol, and recorder player Emelie Roos, are both admired virtuosos on their respective instruments, and highly regarded on the Early Music scene- that of the music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Residing in the small village of Hoor in Skane, Emelie and Dohyo are the founding duo and artistic directors of the award winning and internationally acclaimed ensemble Hoor Barock, along with it's affiliated festival of the same name. Among the many accolades bestowed on Hoor Barock over the years, we must mention the Swedish Grammy win for their CD 'Golovinmusiken'. Aside from this recording, Hoor Barock have released three more critically acclaimed cds that have attracted international attention: "Devotion, artistry, esprit and expertise" (Klassik Heute, Germany) "... The performances are so well executed, stylish and sunny" (Gramophone, UK). Despite the fact that Emelie and Dohyo have been performing together for many years, the CD 'Meetings with Bach' is their highly anticipated debut recording as a duo.

Dear to Us, the debut album by violinist sisters Hina & Fiona, captures the rare and radiant bond between two rising stars of the classical music world. Born in New York to French-Vietnamese and Japanese parents, these gifted sisters have already achieved remarkable milestones individually: Hina recently won first prize at the 2023 Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition, while Fiona debuted with the New York Philharmonic at 16, and respectively embark on illustrious solo careers. Together, their playing reveals a profound connection shaped by lifelong collaboration, honest artistic dialogue, and complementary interpretations. Accompanied by the distinguished pianist Rohan de Silva, they present a thoughtfully curated program that balances beloved classics with lesser-known treasures, showcasing works by Halvorsen, Moszkowski, Ysaye, Rozsa, and contemporary composer Anna Clyne. From the fiery virtuosity of Ravel's Tzigane and Sarasate's Navarra to the tender warmth of Ponce's Estrellita, Dear to Us is a compelling journey through technical brilliance and heartfelt expression. The sisters' extraordinary synchronicity, paired with their distinctive voices, creates a musical experience both intimate and exhilarating. In addition to CD, Dear to Us is also available as a 2LP special vinyl release, offering listeners a rich, analog experience of the duo's vibrant artistry-perfect for collectors and audiophiles alike.

Following on from the critically acclaimed Anthems, Hymns and Gloria (8.574130) released in 2020, Nicholas Childs and the Black Dyke Band return to the music of John Rutter with this album of Christmas carols arranged for brass. The Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus is also featured on O Clap Your Hands, Nativity Carol and Te Deum. Includes twelve world premiere recordings.

This debut album, from Germany-based ensemble Conceptus, features music for tenor and ensemble by Butterworth, Warlock, Holst, and Bridge, in addition to Timothy Collins’ Sea Song. Collins has composed and arranged extensively for the ensemble.

Sea Song – Timothy Collins
Originally composed in 2018 and set to the poignant poetry of Katherine Mansfield, this evocative piece delves into themes of aging, sorrow, and loss. Conceptus has brought Collins' musical narrative to life with an accompanying 10-minute music film available on Apple Music and YouTube.

Six Songs from a Shropshire Lad – George Butterworth
Delving into themes of nostalgia and the tragedy of lost youth, this collection, originally composed in 1911, captures the essence of Alfred Edward Housman's timeless poetry. Collins' arrangements embellish the poignant resonance of Butterworth's work, forever etched in the annals of English song.

The Curlew – Peter Warlock
Peter Warlock's masterwork, "The Curlew," meticulously arranged for Conceptus by Timothy Collins. Woven from the poetry of William Butler Yeats, this haunting composition, originally scored for string quartet, cor anglais, and flute, delves into macabre imagery and desolate landscapes.

Hymns from the Rig Veda Opus 24 – Gustav Holst
"Hymns from the Rig Veda" is transfigured by Conceptus with these arrangements from Timothy Collins. Drawing inspiration from ancient Sanskrit texts dating back to 1500 BCE, Holst's choral triumph offers a reverent exploration of Hindu philosophical thought. Experience the profound resonance of Holst's sacred compositions as Conceptus breathes new life into these timeless hymns.

Three Songs by Frank Bridge
From the reflective tones of "Come To Me In My Dreams" to the mythological allure of "Love Went A-Riding," Conceptus navigates the emotional depths of Bridge's compositions with grace and finesse.

Conceptus is an international, multi-faceted, and multi-disciplinary ensemble with membership drawn from Germany, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom, Poland, and Australia. Formed in 2021, the ensemble is dedicated to bringing new life to great works of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and beyond, with a particular emphasis on Late Romantic British vocal music and song cycles.

Conceptus has also commissioned works by award-winning German composer, organist, and conductor Christoph Ritter, whose Requiem is set for a world premiere and recording in 2024. Conceptus Artistic Director, Scott Robert Shaw, released his acclaimed debut “The English Tenor” on Divine Art in 2023.

Kaija Saariaho (1952-2023), featured in 2017 at Radio France's Festival Presences of contemporary music, was a central figure in a generation of internationally renowned Finnish composers and performers.

Kaija Saariaho developed computer-assisted composition techniques and mastered working with tape and live electronics, but she also encountered French composers of so-called spectral music, whose techniques are based on computer analysis of the sound spectrum of individual notes on different instruments.
In the profusion of works that Saariaho has produced in recent years, two features have marked her entire career. One is the close collaboration with other artists –writers, directors, musicians, etc.– in the creation of new works. The other is the concern to make her music, not the treatment of an abstract process, but an urgent sharing of ideas, images and emotions from the composer to the listener.

This collection is the recording echo of the Festival Presences (created in 1991) and its commissioning and creation activities, supported by Radio France's musical ensembles.

The present program presents the kind of music that might have been heard at the Feast of the Swan, an annual banquet held by the Confraternity of Our Illustrious Lady in ’s-Hertogenbosch, sometime in the middle of the sixteenth century. The combination of “sacred” and “secular” pieces might come as a surprise. However, the border between what we in the twenty-first century might imagine as two different musical realms was actually quite porous in the sixteenth. 

One of the Confraternity’s regular banquets, held each year on the first Monday after Holy Innocents’ Day (28 December), was the Feast of the Swan. The Swan was the Confraternity’s heraldic beast, a symbol of grace and purity, attributes of the Blessed Virgin. In the medieval imagination, the swan had musical associations. The anonymous bestiary Physiologus states that the Latin name for the swan (cygnus) comes from the verb “to sing” (canere), because it produces such a beautiful song from its long and flexible neck. It was thus fitting that the Feast of the Swan should include a rich musical component. Some of the singers also played instruments at the banquets.

Since 1991, Radio France has been organising the Presences festival of contemporary music: several hundred new scores have been heard (a third of them world premieres), and the festival is also characterised by a series of portraits of composers from the late 20th century.
This CD, along with another volume devoted to Kaija Saariaho, marks a new stage of the Presences festival, which is extending its activities to include discs.
Tonal versus atonal, consonant versus dissonant, neo-classical versus serial, reactionary versus avant-garde, those who mourn a dreamed-of golden age versus those who claim to embody the meaning of history, Landowski versus Boulez, the list goes on and on. These binary and caricatured oppositions have fuelled a debate that has dominated the 20th century, and which is still sometimes in turmoil today.
In this context, we are struck by the emergence of spectral music, of which Tristan Murail is one of the initiators and most brilliant exponents. Spectral music proved that history could emerge from this sterile debate, that new territories of sound and harmony existed, that consonances were possible without being part of a backward-looking approach ¬–in short, that composers could move forward, continuing to invent, without having to resort to historically exhausted systems, such as those of tonal music or serial music.
The advent of spectral music was a major turning point in the great history of music, and its scope is such that its concepts, vocabulary (spectrum, fusion, partials, transients, inharmonics, etc.), writing principles and approach to sound and time have spread throughout the world and over several generations.
Few composers today have not been influenced in one way or another by spectral music. From George Benjamin to Kaija Saariaho, from Jonathan Harvey to Fausto Romitelli, via Philippe Hurel, Marc-Andre Dalbavie and Magnus Lindberg, spectral music and its concepts are everywhere.

Following her acclaimed début recital, Marina Staneva returns with a programme of works by the Spanish-Catalan composer Federico Mompou. The programme opens with Paisajes (Landscapes), written in 1942, 1947, and 1960. The first two pieces are dedicated to the Catalan pianist Carmen Bravo, whom Mompou met after his return from Paris to Barcelona in 1942, and subsequently married. Mompou’s Variations on a Theme of Chopin were started in 1938, but completed in 1957 upon a commission from the Royal Ballet in London for a successor to The House of Birds (a 1955 ballet which used piano pieces by Mompou orchestrated by John Lanchbery). The Chopin ballet was never produced, but the piano variations remain. The twelve Cançons i danses (Songs and Dances) were composed between 1921 and 1962, and the form for each is broadly similar: a slow ‘cançó’ (song) followed by a more animated ‘dansa’ (dance), but the pattern sometimes varies, and these pieces are anything but formulaic. Mompou intended to provide ‘a contrast between lyricism and rhythm, to avoid one collection of songs and another of dances’.

REVIEWS:

The Bulgarian pianist Marina Staneva is taking quite a large risk, but certainly not an unwelcome one, by choosing the music of Federico Mompou for her second Chandos solo recording. The programme is well selected: the poetic Paisajes, showing the most Debussyan side of Mompou’s music, are followed by the Variations sur un thème de Chopin, which manages to transform that composer’s brief A major Prelude into 12 imaginative miniatures. Finally the Cançons i danses, written between 1921 and 1962 (Mompou, born in 1893, died as recently as 1987), bring a chance to delve into a wealth of subtly evoked atmospheres and nuanced states of mind.

Mompou has a small but strong cult following among piano fanatics; others who have championed him include such luminaries as Stephen Hough and Arcadi Volodos. Staneva, trained in Sofia and more recently in London, nevertheless holds her own with considerable flair.

She draws a deep, cushioned sound from the piano and seemingly does not see any need to sacrifice thoughtfulness for plain brilliance. She brings out the dance elements that almost always lurk in the background of the Catalonian composer’s writing, whether originating in folk music or jazz, and performs with a sincerity, spaciousness, affection for the music and quiet confidence that make me eager to hear what she will do next. All of this, additionally, makes her a strong advocate for a composer who can sometimes divide his audience with that timeless yet elusive style.

-- BBC Music Magazine (Jessica Duchen)

During the pandemic Marina Staneva was introduced to, and fell in love with, the Variations sur un thème de Chopin and has chosen to record it alongside two other collections; the twelve songs and dances and the three landscapes.

The Variations sur un thème de Chopin...are an extended tribute with jazz influences that Staneva notes in the booklet and delicious harmonies; the first variation with its additional sevenths, ninths and other inner passing notes is very much in the style of his waltz arrangement. Like Godowsky in his arrangements of the études he honours Chopin’s affection for the mazurka and waltz – variations five and nine – and even offers a simple hymn-like version of the central melody of the fantaisie-impromptu as a foil to the intense Evocation, variation ten, which also alludes to his own Cançons i danses no.6.

[In the] Cançons i danses...Staneva captures Mompou’s widely contrasting moods with ease, from the fragility of the third with its Catalan Christmas carol to the vigour of the sixth’s creole dance. If Stephen Hough is a little more rhythmically flexible in the small selection he recorded, there is nonetheless plenty of charm in Staneva’s playing – number seven a case in point with its dance played as a duet between a shy and slightly halting young man and his winsome partner.

I was taken with Staneva’s playing in her début CD Slavic Roots, with piano music by Pancho Vladigerov on Chandos and equally so here. Her tone is rich and even and if her playing is occasionally a just a little forthright she clearly enjoys the subtleties of Mompou’s writing and his sudden harmonic twist and turns; his multi-layered and often quite delicate textures are balanced beautifully.

-- MusicWeb International

Sample the Variations sur une thème de Chopin, whose 12 variations have an unusual structure: the music takes on chromatic accretions and then, in the later ones, resolves to a new tonal clarity independent of the original material (from the Chopin Prelude in A major, Op. 28, No. 7). Staneva holds this dynamic confidently in hand. She is equally effective in the 13 Cançons i Danses pieces in which a tuneful passage is paired with a dance in consistently inventive ways. Staneva catches the faint jazz influences in some of these pieces, and she lets the fundamental simplicity of Mompou's music speak for itself. The album is beautifully and idiomatically recorded at Potton Hall in Suffolk, and it serves notice of a major emerging talent.

-- AllMusic

In this recording, the Wang-Zadra Duo, consisting of saxophone and guitar, explores the versatile tonal possibilities of this special and unusual chamber music instrumentation. All the works on the CD were either composed especially for saxophone and guitar or were carefully arranged for the project. The result is a versatile musical sound experience.

In 2023 Brilliant Classics released a 9CD box of the complete keyboard music by William Byrd, marking the tercentenary of the composer's death. The set was welcomed as a monumental achievement, and a worthy sequel to Davitt Moroney's pioneering achievement on Hyperion: 'Those who enjoyed Belder's forthright and imaginatively ornamented Byrd performances in his complete Fitzwilliam Virginal Book survey will know what to expect,' wrote Jed Distler in Classics Today. 'He favors less agogic manipulation and more conservative rhythmic continuity compared to Hyperion's Davitt Moroney. However, a palpable sense of controlled freedom informs Belder's subtle placement of cadences and phrase endings and his flexibly articulated ornaments.' Extracted from that critically acclaimed set, the present album presents all the pieces recorded bv Pieter-Jan Belder on the at the Albert Kiespenning organ of the Grote Kerk in Wijk bij Duurstede. The degree to which any of these pieces was written 'for organ' may remain open to question, when they could be performed, with allowance for some imaginative liberties, on any keyboard instrument, and indeed many contemporary pianists have revived Byrd's music for a new generation of listeners. Whether experienced on a Steinway or a spinet, Byrd is the first great composer for the keyboard, even when producing instrumental versions of choral anthems. Belder includes several such pieces here, which find a natural home 'in church' rather than the domestic setting of the harpsichord. Two versions of Salvator Mundi are effectively forerunners of chorale preludes; likewise three versions of Clarifica me. Several voluntaries lie no less idiomatically on the organ despite their highly florid writing, while the assorted preludes or fantasias and their companion fugues also deserve to be regarded alongside notable pre-Bachian models by Frescobaldi and Buxtehude. According to Early Music Review: 'As for performance, Belder's strength is in allowing Byrd to speak through the music rather than inflicting an interpretative regime upon the music... It remains wholeheartedly to welcome and recommend this fine discographical achievement.'