Franz Joseph Haydn's surviving 52 keyboard sonatas were written during a time of important changes to both keyboard instruments and the structure of sonata form. The harpsichord, for which Haydn wrote his earlier sonatas, was being replaced by the fortepiano with it's more expressive hammer action, which in turn evolved into the robust pianoforte. The sonatas presented here show Haydn exploring the dynamic possibilities of the new instrument.

In their originality, concentration and breadth of expression, the Polonaises of Johann Bach' first-born son, Wilhelm Friedemann, establish him as a composer worthy to be measured against his father. Arguably his most significant compositions.

Handel composed Hercules for his 1744-45 oratorio season as the secular foil to one of his most ambitious sacred dramas, Belshazzar, hoping to repeat the success of the previous season' Samson/Semele pairing.

The music for Christmas presented by Winchester College Chapel Choir and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra starts with unaccompanied works performed by the singers. The first of these offers verses from an English version of the hymn of St Ambrose, Veni, Redemptor gentium (Come, thou Redeemer), sung to the melody Puer nobis nascitur (A boy is born to us) adapted by the Wolfenb�ttel organist and Kapellmeister Michael Praetorius, an important figure in the development of Lutheran church music in the early seventeenth century.

WILLIAMSON: Choral Music

Yannis Papaioannou lived mainly in Athens, but also experienced a crucial period of study in Europe with musicians such as Arthur Honegger, and encountering the richness of post-war Parisian musical life. Papaioannou's stylistic phases reflect a panorama of 20th-century Greek art-music. His creative absorption of Western techniques ranged from the impressionism of the Preludes to the more traditional nationalism of Island Dance, from a post-1950 experimentation with the modernism of Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Webern, to the deeply expressive works of his final years.

Mozart married Constanze Weber in 1782, and it is thanks to her diligent curation of ‘these marvellousrelics’ that we have these rarely heard fragments including fugues which reveal the influence of Bach anddemonstrate Mozart’s agility with sophisticated contrapuntal techniques. The more substantial Rondoshave gained popularity with their memorable themes and musical depth, while forays into Baroque stylecan be heard in the unfinished Suite. These, the improvisational Fantasias and a mocking parody of aFuneral March all highlight neglected facets of Mozart’s oeuvre.

Following it's award-winning Christmas album, Sleep, Holy Babe (Naxos 8.572868), Blossom Street explores a wide-ranging sequence of British folk song settings for choir, with a particular focus on the nautical. The repertoire embraces pioneers in the rediscovery and arrangement of folk songs such as Vaughan Williams, Grainger and Warlock, adds little-known gems by Holst and Bairstow, and also introduces vibrant new additions to the repertoire from contemporary composers, including James MacMillan and Judith Bingham and the conductor herself.

It was natural that the piano sonata occupied so important a place in the compositions of Ferdinand Ries, given Beethoven's friend and pupil was one of the greatest piano virtuosos of the age. He wrote only three sonatas for piano duet but they reflect, as do his solo sonatas, a perfect synthesis of classicism and incipient Romantic influence. In particular the Sonata in A major, Op 160 is a tour de force of rich, almost orchestral writing. Fanfare lauded the previous volume in this series, adding that it was 'a voyage of discovery that guarantees to delight and fascinate'.

Ferruccio Busoni composed the majority of his chamber music during the years 1878-90 at a time when he was fast emerging as a formidable pianist of the younger generation.

Influenced by his early encounters with experimental electronic music, Leonardo Balada (b. 1933) is a pioneer of the blending of ethnic music with avant-garde techniques. In Cumbres (Heights), a ‘Short Symphony for Band’, he dramatically employs an ‘electronic’ effect. The Concerto for Piano, Winds and Percussion pursues cluster-like textures while also paying homage to Chopin, Poulenc and Stravinsky. The Viola Concerto is marked out by conflict and lyricism. The NY Times described the Sonata for Ten Winds as “an exciting instrumental showcase with stunning motoric passages.”

Leopold Godowsky was one of the greatest piano virtuosos of his time, many of whose compositions for the piano have long since taken their place in the repertoire. However, his violin music is almost unknown. Avowal is a charming transcription of his piano work Poem No. 2. The Twelve Impressions were dedicated to Fritz Kreisler and his wife, and are largely derived from Godowsky's original piano pieces but refashioned to allow for Kreisler's fingerings and bowing.

LES PLUS BELLE PAGES - ARCHAMB

The great twentieth-century Russian poet, Mikhail Alexeevich Kuzmin, was for much of his early life also passionately devoted to composition. Masterpieces of the vocal miniature, his Sacred Songs for voice and orchestra are settings of his own words based on studies of ancient Russian music. His incidental music for Masquerade is notable for a heartfelt Romance and a closing chorus which draws upon traditional Russian church music. The Society of Honoured Bell Ringers displays Mahlerian and Mozartian influences whilst greater harmonic complexity can be savored in Kuzmin�s edgier music for Deer deutsche Heinemann.

A disc of exciting wind band transcriptions from the award-winning University of South Carolina Wind Ensemble.