Tchaikovsky composed the Variations on a Rococo Theme for cellist Wilhelm Fitzenhagen, who re-ordered the variations, infuriating the composer. The cello part for the virtuosic Pezzo capriccioso was also altered by it's dedicatee, Anatoly Brandukov. In the performances heard here, Tchaikovsky's original intentions are restored. To accompany these pieces, Gabriel Schwabe has provided two of his own arrangements - the Canzonetta from the Violin Concerto and Valse sentimentale from the Six Morceaux. The album ends with the second version - never before recorded - of the romantic fantasy overture Romeo and Juliet.

Du�an Bogdanovic's inspiration behind this project came from writing a compilation of world music pieces for his young son, but after hearing the duo of Antigoni Goni and Eleonora Perretta perform, he greatly expanded the idea. The abundant spirit of these folk inspirations is exemplified by their variety - from 17th-century chanson to Irish fiddle jigs; humorous Dalmatian songs to a Sephardic romance; and from the dances of south-eastern Iran to Balinese rice-pounding music. To introduce a popular flavour, he has added arrangements of three beloved Neapolitan songs.

Volume 68 in the Liszt Complete Piano Music series features transcriptions of dance works by illustrious colleagues such as Smetana, Weber and Raff, amongst others. The pianist on this volume, Steinway Artist Wenting Shi, has received numerous prestigious awards and accolades throughout her career.

Alexander Glazunov's seven string quartets extend over the entirety of his composing career and are equal in significance to his symphonies. Fused with nationalist sentiment and Classical discipline the First String Quartet secured the Glinka Prize for the teenage composer in 1884. The advances in expressive range and formal integration in the Second Quartet include a rapturous slow movement considered a highlight of his earlier output, while the Third Quartet has become known as 'The Slavonic' for it's evocative folk-music character.

Giya Kancheli, one of Georgia's most eminent composers, became increasingly famous after the advent of glasnost in the Soviet Union, when his works, not least his seven symphonies, were heard internationally. Around the year 2000 Kancheli shifted away from the opulence of these pieces and moved towards a more restrained, introspective vein, which is exemplified by the three works on this album. Elements of folk and traditional music can be glimpsed in the abstract Ex contrario, while Middelheim is striking for it's overlapping succession of episodes. Tsutisopeli was Kancheli's final score.

In this recital, prize-winning Canadian pianist Jaeden Izik-Dzurko explores the evolving language, dramatic breadth and technical daring of Alexander Scriabin's piano works. The album charts the remarkable evolution of Scriabin's musical language from his earliest pieces, to the sensual, volatile Piano Sonata No. 5, which stands at the summit of Scriabin's creative trajectory. As a resonant counterpart, Izik-Dzurko plays Rachmaninov's brooding Piano Sonata No. 1 in D minor. A digital-only release of four early piano works by Scriabin is also available on 9.70408.

Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, composed over an extended period and in collaboration with it's dedicatee Ferdinand David, was an instant success at it's premiere. The concerto's glorious melodic invention and innovative character have made it one of the most beloved works in the classical canon. Dramatic in mood and troubled in it's history, Robert Schumann's Violin Concerto is regarded by soloist Albrecht Menzel as revealing the composer's inner world, from the deepest anguish to the heights of exhilaration.

Kip Winger is a genre-bridging composer with a long and successful career in rock music. His celebrated ballet score Conversations with Nijinsky led conductor Giancarlo Guerrero to commission the two works on this album. Weaving four floriographical meanings into the musical arc, In the Language of Flowers is a violin concerto that celebrates a love story "no words could adequately express." Symphony of the Returning Light sits in the tradition of autobiographical fantasies stretching back to Berlioz. The symphony incorporates the use of Morse code rhythms and is centered around the theme of atonement.

Jinhyung Park, winner of the 2023 Ja�n Prize International Piano Competition, explores the multifaceted nature of his instrument in this meeting of three 19th-century masters. Brahms' Handel Variations - a birthday gift to Clara Schumann - employs an infinite variety of pianistic and motivic devices, while Granados' Los requiebros is a dazzling interpretation of the Spanish jota folk dance. Dvor�k's formidable Second Piano Quintet is swept along by an enveloping lyricism that distils the very spirit of the composer.

Joachim Raff moved in circles that included Franz Liszt and Robert Schumann, and he ultimately became one of the best-known German composers of his day. Of Raff's six stage works, Dame Kobold ('The Phantom Lady') was the first of a series of comic operas that anticipated later trends, moving away from Wagnerian pathos and looking back to the levity of Rossini. Admired for it's utterly gorgeous musical setting, the opera is notable for a disarmingly simple yet fast-paced plot, bewitching solos and elegantly flowing melodies, and a deftly responsive marriage of language and music.

A native of Bohemia, Wenzel Thomas Matiegka was a contemporary of Beethoven and a celebrated guitarist. His reputation was established after settling in Vienna, where he became accepted in musical circles that included Schubert. Matiegka's works reflect the influence of Mozart and Haydn while exploring the virtuoso possibilities of the guitar by blending lyrical serenity with refreshing good humour and exhilarating technique.

Nkeiru Okoye's When the Caged Bird Sings is a 'musical celebration' whose compositional voice, though rooted in the African American church, also embraces minimalism and improvisational elements. Delivering a message of adversity turned to triumph, it celebrates the transformative ability of African American women, partly evoking the experiences of the author and activist Maya Angelou. The work functions as a communal ritual that, like oratorio, opera, and theatre, brings together vocal soloists, chorus, and orchestra in an experience that both commemorates and celebrates hope and possibility.

It was Prince Nikolaus of Esterh�zy's increasing infatuation with the baryton that compelled Haydn, the prince's Kapellmeister, to write an unprecedented body of 125 works for baryton trio. The instrument is more like a viola d'amore than a bass viol and has extra strings behind the neck that provide resonance and opportunities for plucking effects. The six works in this album are intimate expressions of great beauty, with a sustained level of invention, all of which reflect the prince's increasing confidence in the instrument. Volumes 1 and 2 are available on 8.574188 and 8.574504.

Celil Refik Kaya is a contemporary guitarist and composer in the great tradition of artists who have created their own unique contribution to the repertoire. Sonata No. 1 is characterised by various stylistic resemblances, which include South and North American composers, jazz chord progressions, French impressionism, and Spanish folk music, whereas the Sonatina expresses more personal emotions. Kaya's Turkish background can be heard in his variations on the folk song Yavuz Geliyor Yavuz, which, like the Sketches, has it's origins in art and music close to the composer's heart.

A native of Germany, Robert Volkmann was virtually unknown as a composer until the 1840s, when he moved to Hungary. It was there that Volkmann achieved wider recognition, due in part to Franz Liszt, Hans von B�low, and Richard Wagner expressing admiration for his Piano Trio, Op. 5. Volkmann's music straddles the radical and conservative camps in the music of his era, with the early Fantasiebilder influenced by Schumann and Mendelssohn, and the scintillating Piano Sonata in C minor retaining the Classical roots of Beethoven and Schubert. From the cimbalom effects in the Ungarische Lieder to the whimsy in Lieder der Gro�mutter, Volkmann's expressive potency is always infused with a compulsive rhythmic verve.

William Shield's early career as a violinist and violist took him to the centre of musical life in London, where he became principal violinist of the Covent Garden theatre orchestra in 1773. The publication of the Violin Duets later that decade marked the launch of Shield's success as a hugely popular composer. Each set of duets is neatly engineered, with many attractive details in the Italianate spirit of Op. 1. The Op. 2 set is more compact, developing arioso vocal styles, clever changes of texture, and folk elements such as hurdy-gurdy-like figurations.

Henrique Oswald was perhaps the most European of Brazilian composers, having spent a large part of his life in Italy; he also absorbed influences from France and Germany. Oswald's music always retains a lyrical character with qualities of elegance and radiance, which can be heard in the Sinfonietta. The expressive Elegia, originally conceived for cello and piano, is dedicated to the memory of a friend. With it's contrasts between darkness and light, coupled with undeniable beauty, the Symphony is regarded as Oswald's finest orchestral achievement and one of the most significant works in the Brazilian orchestral literature.

Domenico Cimarosa, one of the last great exponents of the Neapolitan School, was also one of the most-performed opera composers before the arrival of Rossini. He composed over 60 such works and was esteemed from Venice to St Petersburg, where he was appointed to the Russian Court. L'Italiana in Londra ('The Italian Girl in London') is a charming and sophisticated intermezzo that displays an incredible understanding of comic situations and characters, satirising different cultural stereotypes that are as identifiable today as they were in the 18th century. Humour and wit abound in this acclaimed production.

Prize-winning composer Gregory Fritze has written over a hundred compositions for a variety of forces, and is also a greatly admired teacher. The four works on this album share programmatic perspectives. The city of London is evoked in a celebratory overture full of vitality, diversity, and pageantry; the two symphonies reflect Fritze's immersion in the warmth, landscape, and festive excitement of the city of Valencia; and the overture Waterplace Park, a popular meeting place in Providence, Rhode Island, is a jovial piece that features five unusual instrumental soloists.

The German pianist and teacher Theodor Kullak, a piano student of Carl Czerny among others, enjoyed a stellar career. His transcriptions, arrangements, and studies have proved enduring, while his lesser-known original works contain an abundance of persuasive pianistic colours. The pensive and dramatic Grande Sonate in F-sharp minor reveals the influence of Mendelssohn and Beethoven, and the Symphonie de Piano displays elements of Schumann as well as Kullak's fondness for Italian models. Virtuoso panache and drawing-room grace are also represented in the smaller works in this selection.

Nikolay Roslavets was one of the great musical innovators of the 1920s, described by Stravinsky as "the most interesting Russian composer of the 20th century," but vilified by the Soviet regime on account of his constant experimentation. His Piano Trio No. 4 is notable for it's romantic and passionate spirit and complex polyphony. Shostakovich's Piano Trio No. 2 is one of the most harrowing and revered of all his chamber works. The Piano Trio No. 1, a remarkable composition for a 16-year-old student, is a work of romantic intensity cast in a musical language recognisably that of Shostakovich.

Castelnuovo-Tedesco's chamber works were composed early and late in his career. He considered the Piano Quintet No. 1 in F major from 1932 to be the best of all his chamber works from that period. It exudes Romantic candour and contrapuntal richness, full of lively themes and with a colourful atmosphere. The beautiful Piano Quintet No. 2, composed in 1951, draws on the composer's memories of a serene and rustic Tuscany. Quartetto Adorno's 'reference-worthy performance' (Classicstoday. Com) of the complete string quartets is on 8. 574580.

Composed at the age of 19, Rachmaninov's earliest published cycle of piano pieces, the Morceaux de Fantaisie, contains the Pr�lude in C-sharp minor, destined to become his signature work, and the M�lodie in E major, much loved by Tchaikovsky. The expressive Morceaux de Salon show Tchaikovsky's influence and some of the grief felt by Rachmaninov after his mentor's death. With the inclusion of the melodically rich Nocturnes and the Four Pieces, the earliest to survive in his hand, this collection shows both the young composer finding his voice and the timeless Rachmaninov we recognise today.

Considered a lesser-known gem of the operatic repertoire, Smetana's Dve vdovy ('The Two Widows') is set in a Bohemian country estate in which the contrasting personalities of recently widowed cousins Karolina and Anezka are tested by the attentions of gentleman-farmer Ladislav. Smetana's expert theatrical craftsmanship seamlessly blends Czech dances and choruses with beautiful cavatina-like solos. With the humane warmth of it's chamber-like comedy and deftly transparent orchestration, Smetana created a style of conversational opera in The Two Widows that was much admired by Richard Strauss.

A native of Frankfurt, Anton Urspruch was a student of Joachim Raff, later becoming one of Liszt's favourite proteges. Urspruch's style was more aligned with Mendelssohn and Beethoven, however, and he proclaimed that 'you can't understand modern music if you don't understand Bach'. The Cavatine und Arabeske are delightful salon pieces, while the Variationen form an extensive canvas that revels in contrasting moods and constructional ingenuity. The short but emotionally packed Cinq Morceaux stand at the apex and final flowering of purely Romantic pianism in Europe.