William Alwyn composed prolifically in virtually all genres, orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental. Like his contemporary Samuel Barber, Alwyn was an unashamed Romantic who preferred his music to appeal to the heart rather than to the head.

Korean-American Beata Moon creates music unbeholden to any compositional trend, while completely idiomatic and informed by a wide purview of music history. In Piano Sonata, Moon maintains her characteristic buoyancy, making the work a refreshing response.

Formosa Seasons is based on a series of Haiku-like poems, and is dedicated to the celebrated Taiwanese-American violinistCho-Liang Lin.

A contemporary of Toru Takemitsu, Teizo Matsumura combined European influences with Asian musical traditions. His tautly-constructed Symphony No. 1, a work of genuine power and intense sonic splendour, evokes the image of innumerable locusts swarming over the earth. Symphony No. 2, written over 30 years later and inspired by a poster of a pair of sumo-wrestler-like statues standing at the entrance to a famous Buddhist temple in Nara, Japan, is a soulful monologue of alternating sorrow and hope. The richly expressive symphonic poem To the Night of Gethsemane, inspired by Giotto�s fresco The Kiss of Judas, was Matsumura�s last orchestral work.

A pupil of Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky, and a teacher of Rachmaninov and Scriabin, Sergey Taneyev was a monumental figure in Russian music of the second half of the nineteenth century.

A pupil of Beethoven in Vienna, Ferdinand Ries enjoyed a successful career as a performer and as a composer. After a period in England, he finally retired to his native Rhineland where he wrote his Flute Quartets.

One of the great violinists of his generation, Pablo Sarasate not only inspired concertos and other works for solo violin from the leading composers of his time.

MESSINA: Beffa a Don Chisciotte Suite (La) / ROTA: Concerto

One of Schoenberg's leading pupils and disciples, Anton Webern continued to write songs throughout his life.

The development of the piccolo trumpet has made it possible to tackle both original Baroque trumpet repertoire and transcriptions of works originally intended for oboe, with which it has a comparable tube length.

A composition pupil of Stanford and recognized as an outstanding talent by Parry, John Ireland was inspired as a student by the music of Beethoven, Brahms and Elgar, and later by Debussy, Ravel and the early Stravinsky. This recording features the genial.

Foremost among Swedish Baroque composers, Johan Helmich Roman travelled to England then to France, Italy, Austria and Germany, gaining valuable firsthand knowledge of European music. At home in Stockholm he conducted the court orchestra, introduce.

Although Sibelius wrote around a hundred songs over a period of more than thirtyyears ' mainly settings of Swedish texts, with eight in German and only a handful inFinnish.

Leopold Mozart' reputation has suffered more than that of most of his professional contemporaries, due in no small measure to the fame of his peerless son and to much spiteful and ill-informed criticism over the past 200 years.

Muzio Clementi was famous throughout his lifetime as both a composer and a virtuoso performer, appearing at the court of France and competing with Mozart in Vienna.