Duo Gelland was founded in 1994 by the spouses Cecilia Gelland and Martin Gelland, bringing their individual perspectives on contemporary and early repertoire to the ensemble. This recording of their interpretations of four Vivaldi's Sonatas for Two Violins celebrates the Red Priest's physical, virtuosic approach to the instrument. Duo Gelland fills their performances with daring, lithe ornamentation and expressive subtlety and variation not often heard in contemporary readings of these works.

The first Scottish opera. The first ballad opera. A pastoral masterpiece which was ubiquitous on London and Edinburgh stages throughout the eighteenth century. Allan Ramsay's "The Gentle Shepherd" is perhaps the most important work from the British Isles that you've never heard of! Peasants Peggy and Patie plan to wed, but when their liege Sir William Worthy returns from fighting for a noble cause, he upends their lives by revealing Patie's birthright. Will true love prevail? Brilliantly realized by Makaris-specialists in the music of galant-era Scotland-"The Gentle Shepherd" finally receives it's first recording in 2025, on the 300th anniversary of it's initial publication.

The first recording of the complete consort music of little known 17th century composer David Funck. The 1677 publication Strictuae Viola-di Gambicae is the only surviving music by David Funck (1648-1699), of whom very little else is known. Stricturae Viola-di Gambice is a collection of dance suites for four viols. This recording features performances by influential performers in the early music scene, hailing from Oberlin, Julliard, Yale, McGill and Boston University.

Early-music ensembles TENET Vocal Artists and ACRONYM have joined forces to make the first commercial recording of a sumptuous work by composer Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (1623-1680), a sepolcro set in the tomb of Christ. The grieving Virgin-played by TENET artistic director Jolle Greenleaf- encounters two angels, three Apostles (Saints John, James, and Peter), three Marys (Magdalene, Cleopas, and Salome), Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arimathea. Each new group sings solos, duets, or trios telling her a story about Jesus, "dolorous memories" which only add to her torment. Preeminent New York City-based early music ensemble TENET Vocal Artists celebrates it's tenth season in 2018/19. Under Artistic Director Jolle Greenleaf, TENET has won acclaim for it's innovative programming, virtuosic singing, and command of repertoire. ACRONYM (After Crucifixion, a Rare Oratorio Needs Youthful Musickers), an "outstanding young early-music string ensemble" (The New Yorker), is dedicated to giving modern premieres of the wild instrumental music of the seventeenth century. The band has released eight critically acclaimed recordings since 2014.

Fresh interpretation and technical brilliance imbue "Mendelssohn: Sonatas from Childhood, Adolescence, and Adulthood," the first period instrument recording of this repertoire. This debut recording by the New York City based Karr-Yang Duo features three relatively unknown Mendelssohn Piano and Violin Sonatas, including the duo's own version of the unfinished 1838 F major sonata, and the stunning albeit incomplete Fragment in D. As a whole, the works tell the story of Mendelssohn's development as a composer, spanning his artistic life beginning at the age of 11, through the teenage years, and into his mature period. In this recording, the sumptuous tone and refinement of a fully restored Conrad gRaf piano from 1825 converses in equal partnership with the warm, resonant sonority of the violin's gut strings and historical set-up, revealing Mendelssohn's full-blooded, lyrical, and colorful music at its fullest realization. The Karr-Yang duo bridges the divide between musicological research and communicative performance, and presents an album which will appeal to the period instrument aficionado as well as the Mendelssohn lover.

ACRONYM's exploration of the wild music attributed to H.I.F. von Biber includes several pieces recorded here for the first time. Works include programmatic battle music, Latin church music, and dance suites. ACRONYM (Anachronistic Cooperative Realizing Obscure Nuanced Yesteryear’s Masterpieces), an “outstanding young early music string ensemble” (The New Yorker), is dedicated to giving modern premieres of the wild instrumental music of the seventeenth century. Since 2014 the band has released seven critically acclaimed recordings. ACRONYM’s performances have been praised for their “consummate style, grace, and unity of spirit.” (The New York Times)

Violinist Andrew McIntosh and fortepianist Steven Vanhauwaert collaborated on a historically important volume of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint Georges's Op. 1b sonatas on Olde Focus Recordings. Interest in Bologne's music has surged in recent years, exposing contemporary audiences to his refined catalogue. These works were published in 1781 during the height of his career, are in two movements each, and reflect Bologne's grounding in the elegant grave of late 18th century aesthetics.

In the late-classical era, an Edinburgh publisher commissioned the most famous composers in continental Europe to orchestrate traditional Scottish folk songs in their original English. A lush sampling of this music is performed here by Makaris, a new early-music super-group headed by soprano Fiona Gillespie. (Olde Focus)

Encouraged by Camille Saint-Saëns, violist/composer Henri Casadesus founded the Société des Instruments Anciens in 1901. Casadesus played viola d'amore, his brother Marius played quinton, and additional Casadesus family members and friends played viols, keyboards, and plucked strings. Unlike other early period-instrument revivals, the Casadesus ensemble performed not only baroque pastiche, but also new works which they commissioned and composed for their rediscovered instruments. This disc presents the premiere recordings of music written in the first decades of the twentieth century by Henri Casadesus and Ottorino Respighi for a "quartet of viols."

Guy Fishman, principal cellist of the Handel & Haydn Society Orchestra, presents a brilliant and energized period-instrument performance of seven miraculous and seminal concertos by the Red Priest, Antonio Vivaldi. Fishman made his Symphony Hall solo debut in 2005, and is in demand as an early music specialist in the United States and Europe, performing in recital and with Arcadia Players, Querelle des Bouffons, Boston Baroque, Apollo’s Fire, Emmanuel Music, the Boston Museum Trio, Les Violons du Roy, and El Mundo, among others. He has toured with the Mark Morris Dance Group and Natalie Merchant, and has appeared in recital with Dawn Upshaw, Eliot Fisk, Gil Kalish, and Kim Kashakashian. His playing has been praised as “plangent” by the Boston Globe, and “electrifying” by the New York Times. He plays a rare cello made in Rome in 1704 by David Tecchler. Founded in Boston in 1815, the Handel and Haydn Society is internationally acclaimed for its performances and recordings of Baroque and Classical music. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Harry Christophers, H+H’s Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus delight more than 50,000 listeners each year at Symphony Hall and other leading venues in Boston.

Johann Rosenmüller was one of the mos ttalented and prolific young composers in Germany: he was organist at Leipzig's Nikolaikirche and all-but-assured the upcoming Thomakantor position, when in 1655 he was arrested due to a sex scandal. Rosenmüller escaped from prison and fled to Venice, where he spent mos tof the rest of his life, performing at Saint Mark's Cathedral and teaching at the Ospedale della Pieta. This recording presents music from the time of Rosenmüller's exile in Italy, and alternates large-ensemble chamber sonatas published in Venice in 1670 with the first recordings of unpublished bass cantatas - featuring the outstanding young baritone Jesse Blumberg - which ACRONYM has freshly transcribed from a manuscript collection.

LeStrange Viols presents the modern premier recording of nearly all of William Cranford's surviving works for consort, including the complete fantasias for 4, 5, and 6 viols, the substantial and virtuosic 6-part pavans ("Passamezzo" and "Quadran"), and his distinctive 5-part setting of the In nomine and playful variations on the well-known tune "Go from my window." This is also the first major single-composer release by an American viol consort in more than two decades. Little is known about the life of composer William Cranford (fl. 1630s) beyond his remarkable surviving chamber music for viol consort, a Renaissance string ensemble that attracted the best English composers from William Byrd to Henry Purcell. Cranford's music-by turns sonorous, expressive, quirky, and forward looking-represents some of finest surviving writing for the ensemble.

Baroque string ensemble ACRONYM is dedicated to giving modern premieres of the wild instrumental music of the seventeenth century. Playing with “...consummate style, grace, and unity of spirit” (The New York Times), the group formed in 2012 to create the first recording of the Alphabet Sonatas of Johann Pezel. ACRONYM’s following disc, sonatas by Antonio Bertali, was released in 2014 to critical acclaim; Alex Ross selected it as a CD Pick, and Early Music America Magazine wrote “the idiomatic performances and spacious recording by these young musicians are absolutely first rate. This is a disc … belonging in everyone’s collection.” For this album, ACRONYM teams up with Cantor Donald Meineke and his Bach Choir of Holy Trinity (an ensemble known for a half-century of riveting early music performances in New York City) for the first recording of Samuel Capricornus’s monumental Jubilus Bernhardi.

In the early eighteenth century, a number of the most popular traditional Scottish songs were bizarrely attributed to David Rizzio, who more than 150 years earlier had been brutally murdered while serving as secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots. For their second recording on Olde Focus, Celtic HiP ensemble Makaris explores arrangements of the "Rizzio melodies" by galant-era composers including Francesco Geminiani, Johann Christian Bach, and James Oswald. MAKARIS formed in 2018 and the following year released its first album, Wisps in the Dell, to critical international acclaim. (“Absolutely wonderful ... one of the very best releases of 2019” (MusicWeb International); “Marvelous ... Highly recommended” (Fanfare); “Delightful ... a winning combination” (Early Music Review.) The ensemble’s second recording was the EP Tam Lin, a modern fairytale folk opera composed by Fiona Gillespie and Elliot Cole.

TENET Vocal Artists, NYC’s pre-eminent early music ensemble, releases an album of the final performance of its Green Mountain Project. For the past ten years, the Green Mountain Project has been made up of some of the best Baroque specialists in the United States for concerts of Claudio Monteverdi’s iconic Vespers of 1610 (Vespro della Beata Vergine). This live recording is a culmination of years of musical collaborations, and a celebration of the artists and supporters who made the past decade of performances possible. The Green Mountain Project began its tenure with the first performance to honor the 400th anniversary of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 publication on Sunday, January 3, 2010. Spearheaded by artistic director Jolle Greenleaf and music director Scott Metcalfe, the concert was offered free to the public, and received a rave review from The New York Times. Ten years later, The New York Times published another article, this time celebrating the decade of performances that followed this initial concert. During the project’s decade history, the Green Mountain Project performed Monteverdi’s works in New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts to glowing reviews, sold-out audiences, and in radio broadcasts. The cast of the Green Mountain Project features America’s best early music vocal and instrumental specialists, including Dark Horse Consort brass ensemble.

"Brilliant and moving" vocal ensemble Les Canards Chantants and "groundbreaking, gutsy" (Early Music America Magazine) Baroque string band ACRONYM present the first recording of Giovanni Valentini's "Secondo libro de madrigali" (Venice, 1616)—the earliest known madrigal collection to call for instruments other than continuo—exactly four hundred years after its publication. Giovanni Valentini was born in 1582 in or around Venice. In 1614 he joined the court of the Archduke Ferdinand at Graz, and upon Ferdinand’s 1619 election Vaneltini moved to Vienna to serve as Imperial organist. From the 1620s through the 1640s, Valentini oversaw much of the musical life of Vienna. He was music tutor to the Imperial family and retained his position of Hofkapellmeister under Ferdinand III, who took the throne in 1637.

TENET Vocal Artists, NYC’s prëeminent early music ensemble, releases a Christmas disc of music spanning medieval to modern day repertoire. TENET’s pristine, one-on-a-part singing lends itself well to both well-known and rarely heard songs and carols featured in this recording. New compositions and fresh arrangements make "Love Enfolds Thee Round" a stand-out among holiday recordings, Each member of the ensemble is well featured, creating an intimate sound-world to celebrate the holiday season. Preëminent New York City-based early music ensemble TENET Vocal Artists has won acclaim for its innovative programming, virtuosic singing and command of repertoire that spans the Middle Ages to the present day. Highlights of recent seasons include performances of J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, Christ-mas Oratorio and motets, Handel’s Messiah, a three-year cycle of Carlo Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responsories, music by, for, and about 17th century Italian women, and programs exploring medieval repertoire. TENET's highly praised Green Mountain Project gave performances of Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 and other Vespers for a decade, culminating in a finale performance in Venice, Italy in January 2020. TENET Vocal Artists performs at Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Caramoor, Columbia University, Yale University, and numerous venues in and around New York. Further afield, TENET Vocal Artists has appeared at the Festival Casals de Puerto Rico, Berkshire Bach Festival, Connecticut Early Music Festival, Costa Rica International Music Festival, Montreal Baroque Festival, and at venues throughout the United States, Latin America and Europe.

Cellist Guy Fishman releases a follow up to his critically acclaimed Vivaldi Concertos on Olde Focus with this recording of the concerti of C.P.E. Bach. Along with his colleagues from the Handel and Haydn Society, Fishman's performance underscores the angularity, unpredictability, and most of all unique creativity of this music by J.S. Bach's unconventional son.

Guy Fishman is the principal cellist of the Handel and Haydn Society, with which he made his Symphony Hall solo debut in 2005. He is in demand as an early music specialist in the United States and in Europe, performing in recital with some of the biggest names on the early music and classical scenes. His playing has been praised as “plangent” by the Boston Globe, “electrifying” by the New York Times, and “beautiful… noble” by the Boston Herald. The Boston Musical Intelligencer related that in a performance of Haydn’s C major concerto “… I heard greater depth in this work than I have in quite some time.” He plays a rare cello made in Rome in 1704 by David Tecchler.

The Elizabethan manuscript from which this album is entirely drawn is known by its British Library shelf-mark: Additional Manuscript 31390. Add. MS 31390 contains 135 pieces, which capture a snapshot of musical life in the 1570s. Some of the pieces reflect the “hottest new releases” of 1578 (when the manuscript was copied) while others are “golden oldies” from the first half of the 16th century. During the reign of Elizabeth I, there was no way to record music other than by putting musical notation onto paper. In creating an audio recording of this notational record, we aim, as the portrait painter does, to capture not merely the likeness, but the liveness of our subject: musical manuscript as mix-tape or playlist that gathers together music for later hearing and for posterity. Some of the pieces on this album are standards. Those who have sung in a choir will surely know and love Tallis’s O sacrum convivium. Aficionados of viol consort music will be familiar with a number of the In nomines. We hope putting these gems of the repertory in proximity to unknown and previously unrecorded works recontextualizes them to offer a more complete view of this important and beautiful manuscript.