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.

This recording explores the emotional depth, colour and inventiveness of Finnish concertante works for violin and orchestra. The pieces range across the transitional landscape of the country's national music during the 20th century, where mysticism, modernism, folklore and experimentation co-exist. Major figures such as Selim Palmgren and Aarre Merikanto are represented, as is charming film music by Einar Englund, writing under a pseudonym. Distinctive works by Vaino Haapalainen, Vaino Raitio and Nils-Eric Fougstedt complete the programme.

Henrique Alves de Mesquita was a prolific composer who defied Brazilian society's systemic exclusion of Black people to achieve prominence as one of the leading figures in the local musical scene of the 19th century. He was highly regarded for his sacred music and operas, which are rarely heard today. After study years in Paris, Mesquita turned his versatility and sophistication towards fashionable music theatre styles such as polkas, tangos and waltzes, conveying emotions ranging from contagious joy to gentle melancholy. It is these lighter pieces that are now considered by many scholars to be one of the main origins of modern Brazilian popular music.

Georges Onslow's reputation as the 'French Beethoven' was earned in the field of chamber music. His 34 string quintets build on a form perfected by Mozart, and are enhanced through Onslow's suggested use of a double bass instead of a second cello, as heard in this recording. The String Quintet No. 14 in F major has an attractively genial quality, with distinctive themes contrasting with warmly emotive lyricism; String Quintet No. 24 in D major shows the influence of Beethoven in it's theatrically dramatic moods.

Ottorino Respighi's Maria Egiziaca, described by the composer as a 'mystery in three episodes', narrates the life of Saint Mary of Egypt in a profoundly moving and deeply sensuous musical representation of Christian faith as seen through it's various characters. This work, depicting Maria's journey from prostitution to sainthood through sin, conversion and atonement, started out as a concert triptych and sits somewhere between an oratorio and an opera. The intensely dramatic and at times symphonic qualities of Maria Egiziaca are imbued with ancient Italian musical traditions, with two beautiful symphonic interludes separating the three episodes.

Leo Weiner's legacy as an educator influenced generations of Hungarian musicians for a half century. His early work as a composer was internationally acclaimed for it's new engaging sound, resulting from a unique synthesis of German and French Romanticism allied to a Hungarian musical language. These chamber works with piano are some of the best of his early opuses, from the 'classical nobility and deep poetic substance' of the Ballade, to the dramatic and stunningly beautiful Violin Sonata No. 2 - two pieces that were popular and widely performed in their day.

Il Bajazet was commissioned in 1735 to open Verona's carnival season. Vivaldi chose a libretto by Agostino Piovene drawn from the well-known story of the defeated Ottoman sultan, King Bajazet, captured by Tamerlane who duly falls in love with Bajazet's proud daughter, Asteria. Vivaldi was in his late maturity when he completed the opera, modifying his music to suit contemporary taste, and using the pasticcio form, incorporating some arias written by other, mostly Neapolitan, composers. Repurposing of this kind was wholly acceptable at the time and such works enjoyed great popularity. The conductor and Vivaldi specialist, Federico Maria Sardelli, has integrated lost arias, clarified the use of historically appropriate orchestration, and brought the opera to rich theatrical life.

Acclaimed guitarist Christophe Dejour brings together four works that were premiered many years after they were composed, due to unpredictable and, in some cases, fateful circumstances. Both oscar Espla's ground-breaking Tempo di Sonata and Ignace Strasfogel's monumental Prelude, Elegie and Rondo were written for Andres Segovia but remained hidden for decades, while Alois Haba's neglected Guitar Sonata is a fantastic work of the highest musical quality. Antonio Jose's music was banned under the Franco regime in Spain, yet his extraordinary Guitar Sonata, composed in 1933 and only rediscovered in the late 1980s, is revealed as a true masterpiece.

English composer William Shield was famous for his operas and pantomimes. He was admired by Haydn who was to prove a lasting influence, and rose to become Master of the King's Music despite coming from a relatively poor background. His String Trios from 1791 were written in Rome and mark a striking new level of compositional attainment in the English chamber music repertory of the time. Shield's scores are studded with an enlightened cosmopolitanism, encoding Spanish, Russian, Slavonic and Haydnesque elements, cast in his ingenious and lyrically attractive blend of styles.

The two cello concertos in this volume (Cello Concerto No. 1 is on 8.579142) reveal both the lighter and darker sides of Alexey Shor's musical imagination. Concerto No. 2 was composed during a Covid-19 lockdown, and for all it's lushness and soaring melodies, displays a profoundly melancholic element rare in Shor's oeuvre. The Cello Concerto No. 3 is a captivating, lyrical and harmonically rich addition to the repertoire. The charming Humoresque is an early work bridging Classical tradition with contemporary sensibility.

Dusan Bogdanovic, an award-winning guitarist who gave his highly acclaimed debut recital at Carnegie Hall in 1977, has been described by Guitar Review Magazine as 'a composer of masterful craft with a genuine clarity and purity of vision'. Bogdanovic sees this recording as a 'multidimensional diary' of his works from 1977 to 2024, from the Balkan folk influences of the early Sonata No. 1 via the jazz and world music of his middle period, to the emotional and spiritual reconciliation of joy and sorrow in Lux et umbra, a work dedicated to guitarist Daniela Rossi.

Josef Bohuslav Foerster was a pivotal figure in Czech musical history and a lifelong friend of fellow German-speaking Bohemian, Gustav Mahler. Foerster's Symphony No. 2, dedicated to the memory of his sister, Marie, achieves a satisfying unity, with it's sombre qualities eloquently transformed into a fervent apotheosis. Cyrano de Bergerac was Foerster's most successful orchestral piece and is a perfect example of his late-Romantic finesse. Conceived as an autonomous work not intended as incidental music, it's 'five symphonic images' each relates to a specific place in the drama.