Third album of the Akhtamar Quartet with Cypres, Origins combines classical and folk heritage with contemporary creation, inviting everyone to explore shared stories and universal emotions. Since it's creation, the Akhtamar Quartet has enjoyed intertwining classical and folk music and exploring different cultures. This approach is evident on each of it's albums, while promoting a contemporary composer (Eugenie Alecian for Legende armenienne, Cypres - CYP1681, and Judith Adler de Oliveira for Enluminures, Cypres - CYP1684). From Antonin Dvorak to Jelena Dabic, a Serbian composer born in 1982, the music becomes eternal poetry and transports us through the ages. This is an essential recording for chamber music lovers. It celebrates both the romantic heritage, embodied by Dvorak's mature style, and the opening up to a new generation of female composers. With Anzhamanak by Jelena Dabic, this contemporary piece offers a unique sound experience with original timbres and reveals the full expressive power of the Akhtamar Quartet.

On the snow-swept island of Skiathos, a miraculous Christmas Eve unfolds. Weaving together spoken word with song, this recording brings to life To Christ, at the Castle by the Dostoevsky of Greece, Alexandros Papadiamantis. Papa Frangouli and his flock brave treacherous seas and cliffs to reach a neglected sanctuary, where they kindle fires that illuminate ancient frescoes. But as the Divine Liturgy begins, shipwrecked sailors cry for rescue, demanding another act of courage. Composed by Kyriakos Kalaitzidis following the eight modes of Byzantine chant and sung in rhyming, fifteen-syllable Greek verse by author Vasiliki Nevrokopli, Christmas at the Castle tells an epic story: how a broken promise and unexpected adversity lead to redemption and celebrations of unforeseen grandeur on Christmas Eve.

Terra Nova, the second opus in the Poema series, explores themes of the search for meaning and the human experience. Alexander Shelley offers an interpretation of Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra that highlights the fragile balance between light and darkness, knowledge and mystery, inspired by Nietzsche's eponymous book. Canadian composer Ian Cusson's work, 1Q84: Sinfonietta Metamoderna, resonates with Strauss' work by drawing parallels between the world views of the German author and Japanese author Haruki Murakami, writer of the novel 1Q84. The National Arts Centre Orchestra delivers a performance that transcends music to reflect on our humanity.

The Simply Mozart adventure, dedicated to his last three symphonies, comes to an end with this third volume and the 39th symphony. The programme also includes the overture to Cosi fan tutte ("a statement of the opera in miniature", according to Julien Chauvin) and the Sinfonia concertante for violin and viola. Composed one year after Mozart's second trip to Paris, the Sinfonia concertante was directly inspired by the Parisian practice of having several soloists enter into dialogue with the orchestra; this was very much in vogue at the end of the 18th century. "Mozart left his mark on us and on our hearts with it's second movement, one of the most poignant that he was ever to write," says Julien Chauvin; here his violin dialogues happily with the viola of Amihai Grosz, who has already made two recordings for Alpha Classics (ALPHA634 & 1013).

Johann Sebastian Bach, though largely unaffected by the trends of his time, reimagined many older forms with striking originality, shaping the course of Western music. Among his innovations is the sonata for a melodic instrument (such as the viola da gamba) and obbligato harpsichord, where both parts engage in equal dialogue-a model later expanded by his sons and composers like Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Following their acclaimed first album dedicated to Corelli's Sonatas Op. 5, Teodoro Bau and Andrea Buccarella now present their second duo recording: the Sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord by J.S. Bach, each revealing a unique stylistic approach within a unified form.

The Minnesota Orchestra and it's music director Thomas Sondergard delve into the imaginative world of Thomas Ades, a singular voice in contemporary classical music. Featuring two of his most compelling orchestral works, The Exterminating Angel Symphony - a world premiere recording - and the Violin Concerto, this album captures Ades' uncanny ability to merge intellectual rigor with raw emotional immediacy. With orchestral textures both radiant and unsettling, Ades evokes a surreal musical landscape, brought vividly to life by Sondergard's incisive direction and violinist Leila Josefowicz's electrifying performance. Highlighting two distinct sides of Ades' artistry, cinematic drama and virtuosic intimacy, this recording explores the composer's breadth with striking clarity. Josefowicz brings fierce expressivity and precision to the Violin Concerto, while the orchestra navigates the volatile energy of The Exterminating Angel Symphony with gripping intensity. This album also marks the PENTATONE debut of the Minnesota Orchestra, Thomas Sondergard, and Leila Josefowicz.

New York-based early music ensemble Concordian Dawn presents Veni Redemptor Gentium, a joyful and introspective musical celebration of the Christmas season centred around songs spanning the thirteenth through the fifteenth centuries. The album includes beautiful and rarely heard repertoire from the medieval holidays alongside seasonal and traditional jewels, plus two world-premiere recordings of works by Australian-born composer David Yardley, whose music has been described as “transcendent medieval-inspired music for modern times.” The resplendent sound world of Veni Redemptor Gentium offers moments of peace, reflection, and enjoyment throughout the holiday season and beyond.

This recording brings together two late masterworks by Brahms: the Op. 120 Clarinet Sonatas and the Op. 117 Intermezzi for piano, written in the tranquil setting of Bad Ischl. The sonatas, full of tenderness and quiet intensity, were composed for clarinetist Richard Muhlfeld, whose warm, lyrical playing reignited Brahms's desire to compose after a period of silence. This is music of dialogue, not declaration. Nicola Boud and Anthony Romaniuk perform on instruments close to those Brahms and Muhlfeld would have known: a replica of Muhlfeld's 19th-century boxwood clarinet and an 1875 Steinway piano. These choices bring a soft, transparent quality to the sound, inviting a more intimate listening experience. Expressive tools of 19th-century performance: rubato, flexibility, arpeggiation, are used not as effects, but as natural extensions of the music's emotional landscape. Brahms once called the Op. 117 Intermezzi "three lullabies of my grief." These restrained yet luminous pieces distil his late style into elegiac monologues, offering quiet spaces where time feels suspended. Together, these warm, reflective and deeply emotional works offer a glimpse into Brahms' final years.

Giacomo Puccini achieved global renown as an opera composer, but the choral, vocal and orchestral works recorded here reveal little-known aspects of his output, including several rarities. Puccini's early training was in church music, with the Messa di Gloria a clear indication of his great talent. The recently discovered Preludio a orchestra shows his wider ambitions, with the Germanic influences of the Capriccio sinfonico resulting in music destined to reappear in operas such as La Boheme. The elegiac and prescient aria Ad una morta contrasts with the celebratory Inno a Roma, a rousing occasional piece that features plenty of Puccini's characteristic melodic flourishes. A digital EP of the Preludio sinfonico and the Requiem is also available for download and streaming (9.70398)

Claudio Santoro's late works are marked by great concision and considerable emotional density. The music on this album was written in the last months of his life. The Viola Concerto and the Concerto for Chamber Orchestra juxtapose restless energy and expansive - if at times desolate - lyricism. The powerful Symphony No. 13 shows Santoro's mastery of orchestration and form at it's peak, and the compact Symphony No. 14 was to be the last in a cycle widely acclaimed as the most significant of it's kind ever composed in Brazil.

An award-winning English composer of international standing, and one of the leading composers of his generation, whose music has been performed, recorded, and broadcast in many countries, Edward Gregson celebrates his eightieth birthday in 2025. He continues to compose and perform as actively as ever. This album presents three major concertos, interspersed with two shorter works for piano and orchestra. A Song for Bram was written in memory of his great friend and advocate, the conductor Bramwell Tovey. A Song for Sue, re-working the central Nocturne from his Concertante for Piano and Brass Band (1966), is a 2024 tribute to his wife. One of the most performed of all his works, the Tuba Concerto was written for John Fletcher, who gave the first performance in 1977. Gregson's Concerto for Viola and String Orchestra 'Three Goddesses' was given it's first performance in 2023 by Rachel Roberts. The goddesses depicted in the three movements are Morrigan (Celtic warrior queen and earth mother), Aphrodite (Greek goddess of love and beauty), and Diana (Roman goddess of the hunt). First performed by these forces in 2020, the Oboe Concerto 'A Vision in a Dream' is inspired by Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan. In following the narrative, Gregson comes closest in his series of concertos to producing a descriptive symphonic poem.

Sir Georg Solti was a frequent guest conductor with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Born in Hungary in 1912, he played a decisive role in rebuilding the Bavarian National Theatre after the war. From the 1960s onwards, he was considered one of the world's leading conductors alongside Leonard Bernstein and Herbert von Karajan. Georg Solti returned to Munich once more for a special concert on February 10, 1984, with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz. Aged 71 and at the height of his career, he conducted excerpts from Sergei Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony. Works by these two Russian composers, as well as Bruckner and Mahler, suited him particularly well, as they sounded musically spirited and exceptionally transparent. Prokofiev's three-act ballet Romeo and Juliet was written in 1935 for the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, but it's premiere did not take place until 1938, in Brno in the Czech Republic. At the special concert in Munich in 1984 with Georg Solti, fifteen numbers from the ballet music were performed in chronological order. Pyotr Tchaikovsky dedicated his Fourth Symphony - composed in 1877/78 at the same time as his opera Eugene Onegin - to his patron Nadezhda von Meck. Despite their lengthy correspondence, they never actually met. In a letter to her dated March 1878, Tchaikovsky outlined the feelings he had experienced while composing his Fourth Symphony, though no specific programme can be discerned from them.

Electrifying debut album from a bold new voice in classical piano. British pianist Ophelia Gordon makes a striking debut with this album of works by Nikolai Kapustin, the Soviet composer whose music fuses the harmonic language and rhythmic drive of jazz with the formal precision of classical composition. Though Kapustin's music sounds improvised, every note is meticulously written - jazz in spirit, but classical in structure. Gordon brings rare authenticity to this repertoire, having tracked down long out-of-print vinyl recordings of Kapustin's own performances in a personal search for the composer's true voice. The programme is carefully curated to offer a compelling listening arc, capturing Kapustin's wit, lyricism, and fire with both intimacy and flair. Recorded on a characterful 1961 Steinway D, the album's sound is warm, immediate, and rich in detail - engineered with a microphone setup designed to balance the immediacy of a jazz trio with the depth and clarity of classical solo piano. This release marks two milestones: the first full Kapustin album by a British female pianist, and the first classical album by a BRIT School alum. With a growing reputation for fearless artistry and cross-genre fluency, Gordon offers a vital new perspective on one of the most original piano voices of the 20th century.

With Hail! Bright Cecilia, Henry Purcell, herald of the British Baroque, pays tribute to the patron saint of music through a score widely regarded as one of his masterpieces. Composed in 1692, this ode reflects both the artistic effervescence of 17th-century England and the central role of music in society at the time. Vincent Dumestre and Le Poeme Harmonique reveal the full expressive richness of Purcell's writing in a performance where jubilant brilliance, lyrical delicacy, and dramatic contrasts unfold with infectious vitality. Alternating between recitatives, solo arias, and sumptuous choruses, the score showcases Purcell's mastery of musical dramaturgy, balancing orchestral refinement with controlled theatricality.

In 1725, Jose de Torres crafts the narrative of the royal funerals of Spain's first Bourbon monarchs. At the heart of this tribute, the Misa de difuntos para Luis I, the first Bourbon born on Iberian soil, blends with exquisite finesse the echoes of Versailles with the exuberant splendour of Spanish Baroque. The offering is here completed by the monumental Dies Irae by Francisco Corselli, a Franco-Italian composer, to the glory of Philip V. Alberto Miguelez Rouco revives these rare works, bringing the music of the Real Capilla de Madrid to life in the Royal Chapel of Versailles!