With Pianosong, Alexandre Tharaud pays homage to the great French singers and songwriters of the 20th century (Brel, Piaf, Barbara, Gainsbourg, Trenet, Ferr�, Berger) by transposing their songs into a new pianistic and symphonic language. This is not a cover album, nor a tribute in the conventional sense. It is a collection of musical metamorphoses, through improvisation, arrangement, orchestration, and interpretation.

From Irish ballads to stirring film scores (The Last of Mohicans, Titanic), via The Cranberries, U2, Enya, Sting, The Pogues, Secret Garden, The Corrs and more, Camille Berthollet brings us 16 new tracks on her latest album. Accompanied by the talented musician and arranger Johan Daalgard, as well as a host of instrumental collaborators, she celebrates the Celtic world in a refined style on violin and cello. Recorded in an ancient monastery in Brittany, this programme reveals the intimate, emotion-filled dialogue between the artist and her instruments.

Paavo Jarvi and the Estonian Festival Orchestra pay tribute to Arvo Part, who celebrates his 90th birthday in 2025. The Estonian composer has been part of Paavo Jarvi's life since childhood: "Arvo was my sister's and my father's supercool friend. He wore a baseball cap, jeans and a denim jacket". The history of the Jarvi family is intimately linked to Part's work, since it was the now legendary concert in which Neeme Jarvi - Paavo's father - conducted Part's Credo in 1968 that caused the Soviet regime to blacklist the Jarvi family and precipitate their departure from Estonia. Credo is also included in this vast programme that covers 45 years of composing. What lies behind this music's simplicity and depth? One answer possibly lies in a remark that Part made in London during a rehearsal with Paavo: "I have the impression that the orchestra doesn't like this chord enough". The transformation that then occurred was incredible; the same notes, when played "with love", sounded completely different.

Dutch cellist Lidy Blijdorp and pianist Tobias Borsboom, delve into the world of the Soci�t� Nationale de Musique in this programme of late-romantic and early modern French chamber music. C�sar Franck's Sonata for Violin and Piano was transcribed, with the composer's approval, by Jules Delsart, Nadia Boulanger's Trois Pi�ces for cello and piano date from 1914, these lyrical and playfully virtuosic works are proof of the master pedagogue's extraordinary talent for composition. Debussy's Sonata for Cello and Piano conjures up images of nocturnal encounters, in a form and proportions that are almost classical, a performance of this Sonata in Amsterdam in 1918 after Debussy's death, inspired Dutch composer Matthijs Vermeulen to write a cello sonata of his own. Shortly after, Vermeulen moved to France, where he would work as a journalist and keep composing until after the Second World War, with seven symphonies and a wide array of chamber music works to his name, Blijdorp and Borsboom present Vermeulen's Sonate pour violoncelle et piano here.

In a century that saw many illustrious French and German composers write for two flutes, the six sonatas of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach stand out as the most significant, complex and technically demanding of this repertoire. Ever since they were rediscovered and published almost a century ago, they have become a stable part of the flute catalogue, appreciated and performed on both historic and modern instruments. Viewing it as the quintessential work of Friedemann's creative output, the specialist Peter Wollny even sees it as a summa of his entire production, full of quotations and reminiscences of his previous works. After the album devoted to the sonatas of C.P.E. Bach (A 537, Diapason d'or), Manuel Granatiero, accompanied by the Italo-Croatian flautist Eleonora Biscevic, now turns his attention to this masterpiece by Johann Sebastian Bach's eldest son. Arriving some thirty-five years after the first, and only, recorded version on period instruments (by Barthold Kuijken and Marc Hantai), this new recording offers a fresh perspective on music of extraordinary brilliance, passion and virtuosity.

Divine Art is delighted to present the February 2026 release of The Girl from the French Fort, an enchanting narrated orchestral work by Beijing-based composer and conductor Nicholas Michael Smith based on a children's story by acclaimed Chinese author Hong Ying. Gerry Cornelius conducts the New Music Players, with English narration by Timothy Bentinck, best known for voicing the role of David in BBC Radio 4's The Archers. It will be coupled on the album with a version of the recording narrated in Mandarin by Niki Yan, who has starred in many Chinese and international films and TV dramas. Hong Ying was intrigued by the old barracks she encountered on the banks of the Yangtze River when she was a child and turned it into a story for her own daughter, which has now been published with delightful illustrations by Cherry Denman. Set in 1970s Chongqing, The Girl from the French Fort tells the magical tale of a curious boy, Sangsang, who forms an unlikely friendship with a mysterious girl living inside the old French fort high above the Yangtze River. She draws him through ancient doors into a hidden, dreamlike world where time flows differently and everyday realities are charged with wonder and strangeness. What unfolds is a story of childhood, love, loss, and the gentle resourcefulness that helps us endure it all, enjoyable for children and grown-ups alike. Structured in the tradition of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf (a work with which it is often programmed), the piece blends narration with orchestral colour to vivid effect-capturing the story and it's shifting emotional landscape. Nicholas Michael Smith has lived and worked in China for over thirty years, and in 2011 was awarded an OBE in recognition of his services to music and to UK-China relations. Among his achievements has been presenting the Chinese premiere of Handel's Messiah and setting up several choirs and orchestras. He has a distinctive and complex musical language: at times, his melodic lines float freely around a tonal centre, moving in the circularity of the pentatonic scale that is core to much traditional Chinese music; at other points, his music is propelled by the harmonic tensions and chromatic development of Western classical tradition. These elements are woven in dialogue-each seamlessly enriching the other. The Girl from the French Fort is a poignant example of storytelling through music-lyrical, playful, and quietly resonant-a work that belongs to a creative life dedicated to building bridges between cultures. It has been enthusiastically received in China and already performed many times - it was described by Gramophone Magazine after it's UK premiere as "genuinely moving". Gerry Cornelius was born of Irish & Sri Lankan parentage. While his roots are firmly in opera, he has been active in all the main musical and theatrical genres throughout his career. He has had longstanding associations with a broad spectrum of ensembles, arts companies, and education institutions in the UK and abroad, both as a conductor and performer, and has been involved in many world premiere productions. He was Head of Music and Associate Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and is currently Music Director of English Touring Opera.

LI R'vindje di l'�be is a choral and symphonic work inspired by the Walloon poems of Henri Simon (1856-1939), LI Mw�rt di l'�be (1909) and it's sequel LI R'vindje di l'�be (1926). The first poem describes the majesty of an ancient oak tree, king of the landscape and refuge for birds and men, but the tree is felled for it's commercial value, and it's collapse leaves 'a hole in the sky'. The second poem picks up the story where it left off: the woodcutters cut up the wood, which gradually leaves it's homeland. The poem, both serious and caustic, highlights the cyclical nature of life and the inevitability of death, whether for trees or humans. Both texts are composed of 75 unrhymed alexandrines, carried by a subtle internal rhythm. Patrick Leterme's musical setting unfolds these two poems over a period of approximately 90 minutes, featuring a mixed choir of 20 singers and an orchestra, it pays tribute to the Walloon region and it's figures (trees, birds, farmers, craftsmen). The composition incorporates wood sounds (branches, saws, logs) and percussion, which take turns as orchestral sections and stage protagonists through performative "Wood Interludes", the project is accompanied by ethnomusicological and linguistic research on popular heritage, aiming to connect the spirit of the poems with contemporary orchestration. This book and CD set is an elegant edition featuring the original poems, their translations, illustrations, and reflective texts by various authors on the genesis of the project, the Walloon language, and the environmental dimension of Henri Simon's work.

It was on American soil that Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) began the composition of his Cello Concerto. Free of all prejudice, he had taken a keen interest in Amerindian and Afro-American cultures during his long stay in the United States of America. Moving himself between classical, jazz, improvisation, and world music as part of his trio or his duo with accordion, Raphael Jouan could not but be receptive to the open-mindedness of the Czech composer. And when, for his recording debut with orchestra, he decided to measure himself against this emblematic work, it was in order to live a collective adventure, under the sign of sharing, with musicians close to his heart.

The voice of Ti Fr�re rises up, alone in the silence. A voice with an edge and a hiss, grinning and derisive, shouting, rasping and groaning, it threatens and then becomes very sweet and tender, and with it now come all the manifold voices of the Mauritian people: matrons and young girls begin to sway their hips, a magic wave running through their bodies, as their feet beat time and as the fire on the beach is smelt in the warmth of a night thronged with insects and spirits (.). -Jean-Marie Gustave Le Cl�zio. Wherever she came into contact with the outside world, Africa's influence was profound. Slaves left empty-handed with nothing but their memories, voices, bodies, and therefore their songs, rhythms and dances. And these traces grew, despite their new masters' prohibitions, into the unique musical expression of many a people throughout the world. This was how the s�ga, the music of exile, evolved into the traditional song and dance of the people of Mauritius and Rodrigues, and of other Indian Ocean islands too, like the Seychelles and R�union.

Bach: Tenor Arias Johann Sebastian Bach wrote more than 200 cantatas. This recording explores a selection of 12 tenor arias from his cantatas, ranging in instrumentation from rich tutti orchestra to intimate obbligato instruments. Leif Aruhn-Sol�n has been in demand internationally as a tenor in the field of early music for over 20 years. He is an acclaimed Evangelist and tenor soloist in Bach's oratorios and cantatas with both modern symphony orchestras as well as some of the world's foremost baroque orchestras: the Camerata of St. John, Brisbane; the Netherland Bach Society; the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; Concerto Copenhagen; the Oslo Philharmonic; New Trinity Baroque, Atlanta. G�teborg Baroque has established itself as one of the leading Scandinavian baroque ensembles. Founded in 2003 by it's artistic director Magnus Kjellson, who conducts the ensemble from the keyboard of an organ or a harpsichord in a historically informed way, the ensemble regularly performs important and well-known works as well as re-premiering works that have been ignored or forgotten for hundreds of years. The recording was made possible thanks to a generous donation by Alfred Hagen and through the joint generosity of more than 160 individuals in an unprecedented Swedish crowdfunding campaign for a classical music recording.

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.

I have chosen the title Kairos for my debut album of compositions, as this richly meaningful Greek word conveys a sense of a significant moment or season of time. While the word Chronos refers to quantitative, measurable time, Kairos refers to a deeper, qualitative view of time. This music is the fruit of a season in which I turned over a new page as a composer, digging deeper into the forms and vocabulary of the historic classical music tradition, and delving into some of the most vital themes of human existence - time, birth, life, death, and love. - Kyle Werner

Singer Sheila Dhar, a disciple of Ustad Fayyaz Ahmed Khan (a leading figure in Hindustani classical singing), through the ragas Bhairav and Kaushi Kanhra, traces the many facets of the Kirana gharana musical lineage with sobriety, fidelity, and depth. "Raga, the central concept in all Indian music, is a Sanskrit term which means passion, colour, and attachment, something which has the effect of colouring the hearts of people. The music is never 'prepared', but rather a live communication in which the listener contributes to the reality of each moment. The ideal of the singer is to share with the listener all phases of the creative process, much like an idea developed in extemporaneous speech. (.) In raga development the musician envisions a heightened state of being through the portraiture in the lines of the raga. The lines, colours, and feelings offered by the raga create a field of awareness in which the listener can share in the intended evocation. This live chemistry of participation is a vital factor in traditional performances." - Sheila Dhar

Elisabeth Kuyper (1877-1953) was a Dutch composer, pianist, and conductor whose career unfolded during a time when women struggled for recognition in the professional music world. Born in Amsterdam, she studied composition at the Berlin Hochschule f�r Musik under Max Bruch, who became both a mentor and advocate. Kuyper soon established herself as an accomplished composer of chamber music, orchestral works, and songs, and in 1908 she became the first woman to receive the Mendelssohn Prize for composition. Beyond her creative output, she was also a trailblazer in performance: she founded and conducted the Berlin Women's Orchestra, and later the London Women's Orchestra, ensembles that provided essential opportunities for female musicians. Kuyper's chamber works stand out for their lyrical warmth and structural clarity, particularly her Piano Trio in D minor, Op.17. The piano trio, composed around 1911, demonstrates her ability to balance Romantic expressiveness with classical form. It's sweeping themes, rhythmic vitality, and rich interplay between instruments reveal a composer deeply attuned to both instrumental color and ensemble dialogue. The slow movement, marked by a poignant melodic line, highlights Kuyper's gift for shaping long, singing phrases, while the finale captures a sense of momentum and optimism. The Violin Sonata, an earlier work, reflects the influence of her teacher Bruch, yet bears Kuyper's distinctive voice. The sonata combines broad, songful melodies with finely wrought harmonic progressions, offering the violin ample lyrical freedom while keeping the piano as an equal partner. Although long overshadowed, Kuyper's works are now being rediscovered, offering modern audiences insight into a composer who defied convention and left a legacy of eloquent, expressive chamber music. Played with warmth and commitment by Maristella Patuzzi (violin), Alessandra Doninelli (cello) and Mario Patuzzi (piano). Patuzzi successfully recorded for Brilliant Classics works by Ernest Bloch and Othmar Schoeck.

On 1 March 1620, the festa a ballo Delizie di Posillipo was performed at the Royal Palace of Naples to celebrate the recovery of King Philip III. Promoted by the Viceroy Pedro Gir�n, 3rd Duke of Osuna, the spectacle featured splendid stage designs by Bartolomeo Cartaro and music by some of Naples' finest composers: Pietro Antonio Giramo, Giacomo Spiardo, Andrea Ansalone, and especially Francesco Lambardi and Giovanni Maria Trabaci, maestro di cappella and organist of the viceregal chapel. As in the great court intermedii, the performance combined arias, canzonettas, and dances, with alternating instrumental groups. On stage, Pan and Venus, symbols of the terrestrial and marine realms, compete for Posillipo, but the contest ends with a solemn final dance. La Grande Chapelle faithfully revives this sumptuous ballo, framed by the religious ceremonies and music organised by the Spanish court in Naples, a brilliant reflection of it's power, multicultural identity, and Baroque splendour.

Armande de Polignac was one of an unprecedented number of female composers emerging at the beginning of the 20th century. With training from the likes of Gabriel Faur� and Vincent d'Indy, she was able to devote her life to music at the highest level of professionality. From the introspective early Pr�ludes via the luxuriant, Russian-infused �chapp�es to the remarkable sonic realism of Cloches, these recordings reveal Armande de Polignac as one of the greatest French female composers of her time.

The Camerata Salzburg begins a collaboration with Channel Classics and, with it's leader Giovanni Guzzo, presents it's first recording entitled Muses. The album includes three neoclassical masterpieces for chamber orchestra by Igor Stravinsky. The Concerto in E-flat "Dumbarton Oaks" is a small concerto in the style of the Brandenburg Concertos. Apollon musag�te pays homage to Apollo, and to the Muses of mime, poetry and dance, with beautiful, harmonically pure and melodically perfect music. The Concerto in D employs every conceivable kind of string sound and technique, creating a combination of pure melodic and rhythmic drive and wonderful cantabile passages. In these three works, Camerata Salzburg delves deeply into sound, a quest made possible by each musician's individual commitment to the ensemble, uniting the muses of chamber music, concert and orchestra.

Erik Palmberg - Trumpet Joona Toivanen - Piano Martin Sundstr�m - Bass Paul Svanberg - Drums & Percussion

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.

Flutist and composer Wilfrido Terrazas presents Trilog�a del Dolor (Trilogy of Pain), a collection of works blending music and poetry to explore the complexities of the human experience of pain. Going beyond common idealizations, the trilogy seeks to spark conversations and challenge taboos around pain, featuring poignant texts by Mexican authors Nuria Manzur-Wirth, Ricardo C�zares, Tania Favela, M�nica Morales Rocha, Nadia Mondrag�n, and the composer, in conversation with the unique visual imagination of artist Esther G�mez Rubio. The album features the vocal artistry of soprano Mariana Flores Bucio and tenor Miguel Zazueta, and the fiery talents of clarinetist Madison Greenstone, cellist Roc�o S�nchez, percussionist Camilo Zamudio, and Terrazas on flutes and narration.

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.

GingerBlackGinger, the daring and authentic project centered around Belgian double bass player Yannick Peeters, has entered a new chapter. They are now joined by American avant-garde alto saxophonist Tim Berne. Their new album, titled Smalltalk Code, will be released in February 2026 by Challenge Records (NL). "Tim is a hero of mine, a great example when it comes to music composition. I didn't even dare ask him to join at first. This project is going to be unique; I don't know of many bands with two alto saxophones. I'm excited to see the dynamic form between Tim and Frans Van Isacker. Tim has such a strong personality, he has a great impact on our sound. The fact that Tim and Tom Rainey have played together before means there was an element of trust there from the beginning." - Yannick Peeters GingerBlackGinger is made up of Yannick Peeters (BE) on double bass (Jakob Bro, Frank Vagan�e, Chris Joris, Mark Feldman, Jim Black, Joshua Redman, Hank Roberts); Frederik Leroux (BE) on guitar (Flat Earth Society, Ruben Machtelinckx, Joachim Badenhorst, Lander Gyselinck, Steven Delannoye); Frans Van Isacker (BE) on saxophone and clarinet (Tom Malmendier, Quentin Stokart, Ottla, Chantal Acda & The Atlantic Drifters); Tom Rainey (US) on drums (Fred Hersch, Ingrid Laubrock, Mary Halvorson, Mark Helias, Joey Baron, Jim Black); and now Tim Berne (US) on saxophone (Paul Motian, Bill Frisell, Hank Roberts, John Zorn, Marc Ducret, Michael Formanek, Craig Taborn). These are personalities with a vision: creative, stubborn people who won't settle for mediocrity; restless spirits who keep looking for new sounds, contexts, and like-minded people, and are therefore the ideal partners in crime for Peeters. In January 2024, the band released their debut album GingerBlackGinger. This album combines elaborate soundscapes, brief bursts of energy, and mesmerizing grooves. In May of 2025, Yannick Peeters was given carte blanche by Bozar. She took the opportunity to invite her personal musical hero Tim Berne to join the band for the recording of a new album and a live show. The result of this journey into new musical adventures is the album Smalltalk Code, to be released in February 2026 by Challenge Records (NL).

The largest amount of organ music that has survived from earlier members of Johann Sebastian Bach's family was penned by Johann Michael Bach (1648-1694), a cousin of J.S. Bach's father and also the father of Maria Barbara, J.S. Bach's first wife. It is a collection of chorale preludes spread out over the liturgical year, although it is not possible to state that the collection is as ambitious and complete as that of Johann Sebastian's own (incomplete) Orgelb�chlein. The majority of these chorales can be found in the Neumeister Collection; this also contains a number of Johann Sebastian's early works that bear clear links to compositions by his first father-in-law.

Dan�el Bjarnason is a hub-like figure in the group of composers who could be said to constitute a First Icelandic School. But he also stands slightly apart from his peers. As the nation's foremost conductor, he has premiered and recorded works by it's central protagonists including J�hann J�hannsson, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Mar�a Huld Markan Sigf�sd�ttir and others (notably on the Sono Luminus series Emergence, Recurrence and Occurrence). But Bjarnason's own music has long sprawled beyond the borders of the school's distinct aesthetic and incorporated non-abstract forms such as opera, dance and film scores. While some Icelandic orchestral music enacts a gradual transformation on a vaporous orchestra, akin to the shifting shape and colour of a North Atlantic cloud, Bjarnason's formative orchestral works often cleave to a solid, defined musical object which might be distorted or obscured before emerging again intact. His music has never shied away from the slow, drone-lagged music of Icelandic archetype but it has also used more varied tempi and more urgent rhythmic profiles. It has also deployed different time scales in parallel - notably in works such as Emergence and From Space I Saw the Earth, in which planes of music operating at different speeds momentarily sync. This brings to his music a sense of what the late Danish composer Per N�rg�rd described as 'the timeless forces of existence - nature in the broadest sense.' Those works had their roots in breakthrough concertos for cello and piano, Bow to String and Processions, both of which thrive on the process of expanding strong, fertile material by zooming deep in or stretching wide out - a more thematic, less spectral approach than that of Icelandic fashion but one that still sees Bjarnason reveling in the properties of sound itself. - Andrew Mellor

Divine Art proudly presents�the first�vinyl edition�of�Fantasies, Burkard Schliessmann's wonderful interpretation of the solo piano works of Robert Schumann. Now issued as a�triple gold audiophile LP, this deluxe pressing follows the album's acclaimed release on�SACD and Dolby Atmos digital, which drew widespread praise for both it's sonic fidelity and interpretative depth. Recorded at Berlin's renowned Teldex Studios with producer Julian Schwenkner and engineer Jupp Wegner, the album uses a 14-microphone setup to capture the full breadth of Schliessmann's artistry - revealing the intricate emotional architecture and expression of Schumann's writing. Schliessmann draws out the music's structural sophistication, making bold connections to Wagner's�Tristan, while with spacious, poetic lyricism. The result is a revelatory journey through Schumann's psyche - one that�Schumann Journal�described as "completely new, surprising and unexpected. a MUST!" (Irmgard Knechtges-Obrecht), while the�American Record Guide�hailed the album's "perfect" sound as "one of the most beautiful-sounding recordings I've heard recently" (Rob Haskins). Pressed on�triple heavyweight gold vinyl, this edition delivers analogue warmth and detail that will reward the most discerning listener. A vital collector's release,�Fantasies�continues Burkard Schliessmann's legacy of uncompromising interpretations and outstanding recorded sound.