Blind from the age of two, a prodigiously gifted student, Jean Langlais (1907-91) produced an immense quantity of music. His organ works alone exceed in number those of of Bach. Many have hardly ever been performed. Perhaps not more than half a dozen works are regularly played or recorded today, which is what makes this new complete survey of his organ music – the first ever attempted on record – both unique and invaluable, as the authoritative document of a high point in the distinguished lineage of the French organ heritage.

The first volume of this projected complete survey ranges from his early set of 24 pieces written in the late 1930s and composed in all the major and minor keys, to the sublime economy of his Suite in Simplicitate from 1991. This major project has been undertaken jointly by the Italian organists Giorgio Benati and Fausto Caporali. Benati is a former student of Langlais, and Caporali has a string of successful French organ recordings to his credit. They have made these new recordings on Italian instruments, lending Langlais an ‘Italian accent’ while faithfully observing his expressive and registration markings in his scores. Booklet notes for each piece have been written by Giorgio Benati.

REVIEW:

Benati and Caporati offer an extensive survey of Langlais's sacred and secular output, including several liturgical collections that were published posthumously by his second wife, Marie-Louise Jacquet. The playing is energetic and committed. An excellent introduction to this neglected music, the best of which should be heard more often.

-- American Record Guide

In 1986, the legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz, who left his homeland 61 years ago, announced that he would return to the Soviet Union for the first time since 1925 to give recitals in Moscow and Leningrad. This sensational historic recital from Moscow includes works by Sergei Rachmaninoff and Alexander Scriabin, whom Horowitz knew both, Domenico Scarlatti, W.A. Mozart, Franz Liszt, Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann and Moritz Moszkowski. The disc too contains additional documentary footage with Horowitz. “Horowitz, playing with a clarity and dynamic range that friends said he had not matched in many years“ (New York Times) made an outstanding performance of musical, as well as political, significance.

The developmental stages of the clarinet are marked by repeated interest in improving the instrument at crucial stages in its history, definitively accomplished in an ‘accelerated’ manner during the course of the 19th century thanks to daring projects that led to an extraordinary evolution. Consequently, interest in writing aimed at probing the peculiarities of the instrument was accentuated, with French composers' attention directed towards exploring the thousands of new expressive and technical possibilities, creating a catalogue of great interest demostrating both the instrumentalists’ mastery as well as musical effects to dazzle listeners. The pieces selected for this album clearly echo that production, originating in the shadow of the Parisian conservatoire and intended to test the potential of young performers while probing the musical languages of the time, whose aesthetics were as varied as eve. Coquard's Melodie et Scherzetto, from 1904, sprang from the pen as an examination piece, a score in which technical and expressive aspects converge with a highly captivating melodic writing. In Claude Debussy's Petite pièce, the varied dynamics, combined with the near ‘improvisational’ flow of the rhythmic-melodic material, make the piece fascinating and pleasant to listen to. As is Rabaud's Solo de Concours Op.10, with its surprising texture entrusted to the clarinet right from the start in the form of a solo of considerable complexity. Messager's own Solo de Concours is rich in captivating chromaticism riven by diatonic segments. Paul Pierné's score, on the other hand, is an exercise in style, blending ‘rhetorical’ images and ‘French-style’ speculations. His cousin Gabriel’s Canzonetta of 1888 brings forth a sampler of melodies, giving rise to a path of great lyricism. The use of such sonorous imagery is in common with that of Paul Jeanjean, whose Arabesques is imbued with seductive designs aimed at enhancing the potential of the instrument, on which he was an acclaimed virtuoso. Cahuzac belongs to this category, as well, and with his Cantilène he dwells in the soundscapes of his southern France, irradiating it with a Mediterranean luminosity. Cultural belonging is a peculiar characteristic of composers living in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, as Semler-Collery demonstrates when he pilots his Rêverie et scherzo through the turbulence of early-20th-century French style. Honegger's choice for his Sonatine has a completely different origin. With its mysterious beginning founded on skillful chromaticism with vague oriental echoes, the subsequent Lent et soutenu reveals a greater rigour in that same sound path, entrusted to the woodwind, austere and mysterious. It is with the Vif et rythmique that the “restlessness” is laid to rest in order to rely on “improvisational” sonorities that wink at agile and impertinent jazz gestures.

This acclaimed edition covering the early 20th century’s fashionable wave of hot dance music from America into Europe now takes us to Switzerland. 20th Century Foxtrots - 5 presents more evocative piano rarities from this decadent era, performed with panache and grace by Gottlieb Wallisch, and features numerous world premiere recordings and a plethora of rarely heard pieces. Volunes 1–4 can be heard on GP813, 814, 854 and 855.

Estonian composer Tõnu Kõrvits (b. 1969) belongs to his country’s most prominent composers. His works are rich with delicate atmosphere possessing a particularly Northern feel combined with a romantic and Impressionistic touch. This new album by the award-winning Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and conductor Risto Joost is the final volume in a trilogy of works for choir and orchestra. Moorland Elegies (ODE 1306-2), You Are Light and Morning (ODE 1363-2) and The Sound of Wings form a kind of a trilogy, albeit this was never a purpose in itself. All three works were performed first by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Risto Joost. The first two cycles are linked to the elements of earth and water. In this final part of the trilogy everything is carried by the element of air, and those existential themes which Tõnu Kõrvits has dealt with for decades in his works – nature, life, death, suffering, love – find a liberating and soaring solution. The composer has said that it is “the brightest work in the trilogy (...), which emanates the most light. It is a song of flying, of dreaming, of courage and unconditional love.”

One of the sources of inspiration for The Sound of Wings was Amelia Mary Earhart’s attempt to be the first woman in aviation history to fly around the globe together with navigator Fred Noonan, which was cut short whilst crossing the Pacific Ocean. On her specially adapted red Lockheed Model 10-E Electra, Earhart was supposed to make a last land stop on Howland Island, but due to a fault in the navigation system she was unable to find it. Neither Earhart or the remains of her plane have ever been found. Earhart’s last radio transmission – inspiring due to the steadiness and matter-of-factness of the pilot’s voice – gave the titles to the two instrumental parts of the work. The element of air, the wind, the emptiness, flight and liberation in the music are embodied by the solo viola. The flageolet passages of the solo viola, the trills, the motifs which sway up and down pass through the entire piece, introducing as well as completing it. Wind images painted through sound can also be found in the orchestra and choir parts. Kõrvits’ instrumentation is sensitive and imaginative, just like his extraordinary talent of using the choir in the most varied but always singing way.

REVIEW:

Tonu Korvits (b 1969) is possibly the most prominent Estonian composer of his generation, known particularly for his choral music. His music is lyrical and firmly tonal, though smooth, bluesy chromatic tones give it an elusive, hypnotic quality. He writes with genuine beauty, finding a kind of magic in tonality that is all too rare these days.

The Sound of Wings (2022) concerns Amelia Earhart. The text doesn’t so much follow a narrative but rather a succession of abstract meditations on emotions, aspirations, and sensations she might have felt while in the air. A solo viola evokes the ephemeral but liberating qualities of air with harmonics; it reaches its apex in a full-blooded solo in the last movement. The choral writing is consistently tender and lyrical, with attentive, natural text-setting. It is slow and often reserved, but always interesting and often quite moving. We also get the short but achingly beautiful ‘Sunday Wish’ (2020/22).

Wonderful performances from the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Risto Joost. The choir is particularly exceptional, singing with a consistently gorgeous tone. Notes and text in Estonian and English.

-- American Record Guide

The Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra were linked by a long and intensive artistic collaboration, brought to an abrupt end by his death in October 2021. BR-KLASSIK now presents outstanding and as yet unreleased live recordings of concerts from the past years. This recording of Mahler's Seventh Symphony documents concerts from February 2011 in Munich.

As an interpreter of the symphonic repertoire, and especially that of the German-Austrian late Romantic period, Haitink was held in high esteem worldwide. With him, the symphonies of Gustav Mahler were always in the best of hands. His driving principle was to take the sound architecture of a musical composition with its many-layered interweavings and render it transparently audible; extreme sensitivity of sound was paired with a clearly structured interpretation of the score.

A valid recording of Mahler's Seventh Symphony places the highest demands on the skills of the conductor as well as on the virtuosity of each individual orchestral musician. Only under such circumstances can the highly complex individual voices merge to form a magnificent whole – an undertaking that achieves breathtaking effects time and again. A conductor is required here who unites the ensemble of individual, soloist-level musicians with an overarching musical concept. With its two grotesque "night musics", its sounds of nature, naïve folk motifs and intoxicating orchestral tutti, the Seventh Symphony is highly typical of Mahler's unique sound world.

Over a century of captivating French music for the flute, from Mélanie Bonis (1858-1937) to Élise Bertrand (b.2000), including a premiere on disc. From the shepherds-pipe dances of Lully to the pan-flute of Debussy’s faun and beyond, French music has always had a special affinity with the flute. Anna Wierer explores some lesser-known byways of this rich repertoire with her new album, which promises ‘Révélations’ galore. She begins with Lili Boulanger’s evocation of a spring morning, as full of new life as a field of young lambs. Among her contemporaries was Pierre Camus, a student of Fauré: his Chanson et Badinerie presents a pair of contrasting miniatures characteristic of late French Romanticism; the first melancholic and songful, the second lively and of sweeping lightness. The most extended work here is the four-movement Sonata by Mélanie Bonis, known in her time as the androgynous Mel so that her music would not be judged as inferior to a man’s: and indeed the sumptuous modal-oriental harmonies and idiomatic writing for both instruments place it in the front rank of French flute sonatas. A century on, Bonis’s music has belatedly won a place in the modern repertoire – by contrast, Élise Bertrand is at the beginning of a promising career. She composed her Impressions Liturgiques Op.2 at the age of 15, inspired by Maurice Duruflé's Requiem. Dating from 1946, Pierre Sancan’s Sonatine floats in on the breeze as a piece of postwar escapism, as light and sensuous as the creation of a master patissier. Finally, Anna Wierer and Alina Pronina turn to the more complex world of André Jolivet, whose Chant de Linos (1944) shares a theme of antiquity with Debussy’s Prelude but explores a darker, more troubled landscape over the course of its ten eventful minutes. This is the second Brilliant Classics album from the well-established duo of Anna Wierer and Alina Pronina, following on the success of their debut release in 2021, of flute music by the Ukrainian composer Dmitri Tchesnokov. Anna Wierer is the director of the BellClassic Music Academy and the Klangfabrik Music School in Berlin; Kyiv-born Alina Pronina likewise has settled in Berlin, but the duo has given concerts together across Germany and farther afield.

Among the best-selling composers of our time, Ludovico Einaudi has won a following of millions through his distinctively calm, smoothly unfolding works, which spin unbroken songs from the simplest material and cast a spell of relaxed enchantment over their audience. Jeroen van Veen is the Dutch pianist who has likewise won an international following for his many albums of Minimalist piano music on Brilliant Classics, including a previous collection of Einaudi’s music, ‘Waves’ (9452). ‘Clouds’ is another 7CD collection, which ranges across 30 years of Einaudi’s oeuvre, from the Stanze (‘Verses’) of 1992 to the Underwater collection from 2022. In fact, as a relatively early work, Stanze contains intriguing and uncharacteristic elements: as the composer himself explained, ‘I had one goal: to remove, and leave space. The title refers to the poetic stanzas but also to invisible spaces to be inhabited with the mind.’

In 2012, Einaudi produced a project called Elements as a tribute to the memory of his mentor and teacher Luciano Berio. Each instrumental song of Elements evolves from a small gesture or motif, evoking a journey through fragmented thoughts and feelings. In a similar way, but on a much grander scale, the Seven Days Walking project of 2019 developed from a walking tour of the Alps, where Einaudi had the idea of observing and evoking the times of day and moods across the cycle of an entire week. This cycle finds the composer at his most bewitchingly minimalist, drawing in the listener to a space of private reflection. The Underwater collection thrives on the interplay of pure, sparkling and warm, melancholic sounds and invites you to forget the hustle and bustle of everyday life. The tempo is restful and the pulse flowing even in a seascape such as ‘Swordfish’.

Finally, Jeroen van Veen has selected an album’s worth of Einaudi’s prolific work in the world of film, in which his songs often present a mirror to troubled souls and an oasis of calm amid violence.

Soprano Mary Bevan writes: In 1975, the original Bevan Family Choir released their debut album on vinyl, featuring an eclectic programme of sacred choral works, Welsh folk songs, and piano music. The Choir consisted of 11 of the 14 Bevan siblings and was conducted by their father, Roger. Later on the Choir was taken over by the second eldest son, David, who was to go on to become Assistant Director of Music at Westminster Cathedral. The musical tradition continued to flourish within the family until, in 2013, some of the second generation of cousins decided to create their own version of the family choir, naming themselves the Bevan Family Consort so as to distinguish them from their parents’ generation. The Consort has since ranged in size from 15-22 of the 53 first cousins. To honour David and the influence he had over us all as musicians, this disc consists of music that was introduced to us by him during his years at the Holy Redeemer Church and that have since become beloved by us as a choir.

REVIEW:

The Bevan Family Consort are particularly good at strongly textured works such as Croce’s In spirito humilitatis, tinged with Venetian monumentalism, or Holst’s Nunc dimittis with its ecstatic ending. This last piece was not discovered until 1979, some 45 years after Holst’s death. Other rarities include the Dignare me by Fernando de las Infantas, apparently a Spanish nobleman working in Rome – so obscure as to be practically confidential. The works with intricate polyphony are pleasingly performed, though in the Kyrie and Gloria of Victoria’s Missa Vidi speciosam the upper voices are a little sharp and the overall acoustic seems rather distant. Breath control and phrasing is always musical and is apparent even in the plainsongs (Ave Maria). The most beautiful work here is Alonso Lobo’s Versus est in luctum. The voices of the Bevan Consort are slightly too disparately coloured to match the magical poise of this work achieved by the group Tenebrae (also on Signum) which shares an album with Victoria’s Requiem.

-- BBC Music Magazine

Henryk Mikolaj Górecki (1933–2010) achieved an international success in the mid-1990s, with his Symphony No. 3, “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs”. Since then, Górecki’s name has been associated almost exclusively with this piece. However, his music is much more than this one brilliant work. Górecki never looked at musical fashions, but consistently created his own sound universe. In the 1980s Górecki, feeling misunderstood, stepped back from the official concert life in Poland. He reached out to simple folk and church melodies, making their choral arrangements. He treated them with a great devotion and humility. In 1985, the composer drew on traditional church songs collected in the 19th-century Spiewnik koscielny (Church Songbook) by Jan Siedlecki. He first selected five songs from it, which made up the cycle of five Marian Songs, Op. 54, for mixed choir a cappella. A year later, Górecki decided to compile other church songs of various character and associated with different liturgical seasons. This led to a collection of twenty Church Songs for a cappella choir today known as his Op. 84. Apart from two, the songs were not published during composer’s lifetime. This album by the Polish Chamber Choir led by Jan Lukaszewski offers this choral gem for the first time sang in Latin.

REVIEW:

Mostly dating from 1986 but published in 2013, three years after the composer’s death, these 20 pieces range from between one and almost 13 minutes in duration. Recorded in Latin for the first time, they have a consoling lilt and occasionally (as in ‘Sicut parvi amplectamur’) dance along gently; ‘Beati qui eligunt Joseph’ is a rare example of a more striking harmonic treatment. Under its conductor of 40 years’ standing, Jan Łukaszewski, the Gdańsk-based Polish Chamber Choir produces beautifully smooth and glowing tone. The overall effect is sweet, like eating too much sernik (Polish cheesecake) and washing it down with communion wine.

-- BBC Music Magazine

The music of Grazyna Bacewicz (1909–1969) has been enjoying a revival during the past two decades. Bacewicz was an outstanding figure in 20th-century music, a major Polish composer and a versatile musician. This album by the award-winning pianist Peter Jablonski, pianist Elisabeth Brauß, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor Nicholas Collon includes some rarely recorded gems: the composer’s Piano Concerto together with the late Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in its first digital recording. Also included is the composer’s homage to Bartók, Music for Strings, Trumpets and Percussion, as well as the composer’s early exuberant Overture, written during the German occupation of Poland.

This album – The Anonymous Neapolitan is a continuation of Calandra’s journey to Naples of old, that inexhaustible font of timeless stories, melodies and poetry. From its earliest origins the Neapolitan canzona or song has been bound up with the life of the people of Naples and their innate desire to express their deepest feelings through song and poetry. For at least three centuries, the songs were only ever handed down orally and many of them were lost in the city’s alleyways and taverns, disappearing into the very air of Naples. It wasn’t until the mid-19th century that all this material was collected, transcribed and organized for the first time and Neapolitan song became fashionable among all classes of Neapolitans as well as with broad swathes of visiting tourists who also fell in love with them.

For this Neapolitan anthology, Calandra and Celentano have selected 21 pieces, all by anonymous authors, including a brief instrumental insert from the very distant past, namely the Seikilos epitaph, likewise, of course, anonymous. Following the thread of feeling, Calandra and Celentano have gone back in time all the way to Ancient Greece with this musical fragment discovered in Anatolia in 1883, whose dating ranges from the 2nd century BC to the second century AD, making it the oldest complete piece of music that has found a place in their repertoire. This age-old melody has an innate, almost indescribable beauty, solidifying Calandra and Celentano’s decision to feature it as an introduction to the song that’s believed to be the oldest in the Neapolitan tradition, the ‘Ritornello delle Lavandaie del Vomero’ (Song of the Washerwomen of Vomero). To close the CD: an authentic masterpiece of the Neapolitan dialect repertoire from the 18th century, ‘Lo Guarracino’, whose text describes various characters with abundant invention and sophistication. Nonetheless this can only be attributed to the work of an anonymous poet, whose geniality and refinement are all we know about him or her. There is a sense of continuity between this project and Calandra’s previous Naples-related albums for Brilliant Classics: Scarlatti and the Neapolitan Song, Donizetti: Nuits d’été à Pausilippe and Erotica Antiqua: Neapolitan Villanellas. But most of all it represents a sentimental journey across the centuries and through our fresh imaginings of a hugely important musical heritage that must not be lost. With this album The Anonymous Neapolitan Letizia Calandra’s continues her journey into ancient Naples, an inexhaustible source of timeless stories, melodies and poems. From its origins, Neapolitan song has been linked to the life of the Neapolitan people and their innate need to express their feelings through song and poetry.

In this Naples of the time of unknown authors, for at least three centuries the songs were only handed down orally and many of them were lost in the city's alleys, taverns and air. It was only in the mid-19th century that all this material was collected, transcribed and organized for the first time and the Neapolitan song became fashionable among all the Neapolitan classes and the many foreign tourists who adored it. For this album the artists have chosen an anthology of 21 Neapolitan songs, all by anonymous authors. It starts in ancient Greece with The Epitaph of Sicilus, found in Anatolia in 1883. It dates from the 2nd century B.C. to the 2nd century A.D. and can therefore be considered the oldest complete piece of music that has come down to us. This very ancient melody retains an indescribable primal beauty. The oldest song in the Neapolitan repertoire is the Canto delle lavandaie del Vomero, whose origins date back to the 12th or 13th century. On this mysterious song, there is an exceptional testimony: it seems that the song was heard by Giovanni Boccaccio, who spent his entire adolescence in Naples (between 1327 and 1340), and who mentions it in one of his letters, impressed by its beauty. Closing the CD is an authentic masterpiece of 18th-century Neapolitan dialect literature, Lo Guarracino, written by an evidently brilliant and refined local poet, however sadly anonymous.

Letizia Calandra is widely acclaimed for the great versatility of her voice. Classically schooled and specialized in Early Music she uses her beautiful voice in an original way, which suits the popular nature of the music well. She is a foremost interpreter of classical Neapolitan Song, a perfect blend of the high and the low. On this CD she is accompanied by Valerio Celentano on guitar.

Tosca is a melodrama of love, betrayal and death set in the revolutionary unrest of 1800. The story concerns the opera singer Floria Tosca who tries to save her lover, the painter Mario Cavaradossi, from the brutal chief of police, Scarpia. Through-composed and expertly orchestrated it contains some of Puccini’s best-known lyrical arias and remains one of his most performed operas. In this 2022 production, an eminent cast is directed by the acclaimed Australian director Barrie Kosky – ‘the Amsterdam audience was completely swept off its feet by Kosky’s stunning production’ (Opera News).

Santtu conducts Strauss is a 2-volume album featuring four works by Richard Strauss conducted by Principal Conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali, two of which are live recordings of Santtu’s 2021/22 opening concert and first concert as Principal Conductor at Royal Festival Hall. Eine Alpensinfonie and Also sprach Zarathustra are live recordings of Santtu’s opening concert of the 2021/22 season, and his first concert with the Philharmonia as Principal Conductor. The concerts received great reviews. Tim Ashley (The Guardian) said “With the Philharmonia on tremendous form, Rouvali proved a fine Straussian, measured in his approach, and careful in his attention to detail and colour”. Rebecca Franks (The Times) awarded 5-star reviews: “There were “wow” moments aplenty as the Philharmonia laced up its hiking boots and happily hit every waymark in Strauss’s mountain journey: the glorious sunrise, the resplendent summit, the violent storm with wind machine, thunder sheet and organ.”

Founded in 1945, the Philharmonia Orchestra creates thrilling performances for a global audience and has premiered works by Richard Strauss, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Errollyn Wallen, Kaija Saariaho and many others. The Philharmonia has an extraordinary 77-year recording legacy, and has recorded around 150 soundtracks, with film credits stretching back to 1947. In the 2021/22 season the Orchestra performs in Romania, Spain, Finland, Greece and Germany. Santtu-Matias Rouvali is a Finnish conductor and percussionist, and is currently principal conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra. Rouvali continues his relationships with orchestras across Europe, including with the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Munich Phillharmonic and the the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.

REVIEW:

This is an Alpine Symphony where the thrills are just that much more thrilling, the sublime moments more sublime, the lyrical line more lyrical. I’d place this Alpine Symphony beside the Karajan, and it comes in much better sound. I consider every performance here nothing short of a triumph, so the strongest recommendation naturally follows.

-- Fanfare

When more than 500,000 people gathered in New York's Central Park on 26 June 1993, they wanted to hear only one thing: The voice of the greatest tenor of the twentieth century: the voice of Luciano Pavarotti. A year earlier, Pavarotti had thrilled the crowds in London's Hyde Park - here, in New York, he confirmed once again that he is an undisputed world star. He is accompanied by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Leone Magiera, featuring the flutist Andrea Griminelli and The Boys Choir of Harlem, whose voices can be heard on albums of Michael Jackson, Kathleen Battle and many more. The recording of this concert, without doubt one of Pavarotti’s most celebrated performances, includes the famous Puccini arias Nessun dorma and E lucevan le stelle and Neapolitanian songs as 'O sole mio.' This legendary concert is now available for the first time on Blu-ray!

In her third recital album for Signum Records, celebrated soprano Mary Bevan returns with a selection of French songs, featuring works by composers including Britten, Ravel, Debussy and Faure

“Over the years since the release of my debut album Voyages with Joseph Middleton in 2017, my passion for French mélodie has grown and deepened...The texts that composers of mélodie have set to music contain a depth and a mystery that I find fascinating and a source of repeated inspiration... My idea for the album began sim- ply with a desire to record Britten’s Les Illuminations, a work I feel closely connect- ed to, having performed it many times over the years and each time having found something new in it to interest me”

In Eine Winterreise, renowned director Christof Loy has created a memorable evening of music theatre in which Schubert's tragically short life is depicted by and extended through his immortal music and songs from Winterreise, Die sch�ne M�llerin and Schwanengesang. The soul of the composer is brought to life by the internationally celebrated mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter alongside acclaimed pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout. Drawing on nostalgia for Viennese Biedermeier intimacy the narrative explores extremes of human feelings from the joy of life to a longing for death, all portrayed through a cast that includes Schubert's disreputable friend Schober, among other shadows from his past and his imagined future. Track listing: Eine Winterreise (staged version by C. Loy) (Theater Basel, 2022) (Blu-ray, HD)

Charlie Siem returns with a new recording of Violin Sonatas, accompanied by his regular recital partner Itamar Golan – featuring Vaughan Williams' Violin Sonata in A Minor and Grieg's Violin Sonata No. 2 in G Major, Op. 13. Charlie Siem is one of today’s foremost young violinists, with such a wide-ranging diversity of cross-cultural appeal as to have played a large part in defining what it means to be a true artist of the 21st century. Siem has appeared with many of the world’s finest orchestras and chamber ensembles, including the Bergen Philharmonic, Camerata Salzburg, Czech National Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, London Symphony, Moscow Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He has worked with top conductors such as Charles Dutoit, Edward Gardner, Zubin Mehta, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sir Roger Norrington, Libor Pešek and Yuri Simonov. International festival appearances to date include Spoleto, St. Moritz, Gstaad, Bergen, Tine@Munch, Festival Internacional de Santa Lucía, and the Windsor Festival.

François Devienne (1759–1803) was a contemporary of Mozart and one of the few virtuosos who didn’t have to flee his own country to get noticed. Born in Joinville, France, the youngest of the 14 children of a saddle maker, Devienne received his formative musical instruction as a choirboy in his hometown and quickly developed into a flute player of formidable gifts, studying with Felix Rault. He was active in Paris as a flautist, bassoonist and composer and played bassoon at the Paris Opera. He was also a sergeant and member of the Military Band of the French Guard, where he was given the responsibility of teaching his military band colleagues’ children in its Free School of Music. After the Revolutionary period, when the Free School became the National Institute of Music, later chartered as the Paris Conservatory in 1795, Devienne was appointed as flute professor, where he taught from 1795 to 1803. He also wrote the Méthode de Flûte Théorique et Pratique (1793), which was reprinted several times and did much to improve the level of French wind music in the late 18th century.

His output includes opera, extensive educational work, and approximately 300 instrumental works that were mostly written for wind instruments. There are about 20 flute concertos, mainly written for his own use, and many of his works are still popular today in standard flute repertoire. His VII Concerto in E minor, for example, contains all the poetry and aesthetics of his music – it is quintessentially beautiful, charming, melodious and witty. Devienne's compositions for flute, revived by Jean-Pierre Rampal in the 1960s, became well-known among flutists. Unfortunately, Devienne’s fortunes declined suddenly in the new century and he died in 1803, four months after being committed to the Charenton insane asylum.

The Six duos Op.2 were written in 1786 for the captain of the guard of the Artois Count. They are a collection of six duos for two flutes, each of them divided into two movements. The general atmosphere exuded throughout the set is playful, fresh and bright, possibly because of the absence of the slow and thoughtful second movement that traditionally would have been placed between the first and last allegros. There is no shortage of singable and lyrical melodies, though: the Gracioso con Variatione, the second movement of the third duet, is a prime example. The movement markings chosen by Devienne are primarily Allegro, Rondeau, Gracioso and Menuetto. Every tempo mark is set between a moderate and a fast, lively tempo, in order to develop either the lyrical themes or display the shimmering virtuosity of the flutes. In fact, it seems that the composer’s aim was to make the listener feel like there is only one flute playing instead of two: the sound, the articulation and the phrasing of each must be as similar to one another as possible. Needless to say, these are the greatest difficulties to deal with for the musicians. Furthermore, the pieces were written to accompany the lives of the aristocracy, for example celebrations and tea parties, which is why this kind of music is also called ‘salon music’. The two flutists made their recording using the first edition sheet music published by Sieber in Paris, c.1786.

A unique recital on record, for a hauntingly beautiful instrumental combination, featuring several first recordings. The duo of trumpet and organ is a wellestablished one, having attracted composers from the early Baroque period onwards. The combination of flute and organ, while requiring careful balancing so that the organ does not overwhelm the flute, is no less attractive in its way, and has drawn from composers a more varied palette of expression. This new album is made by a duo of Piedmontese musicians who have explored the riches of the flute-and-organ repertoire to come up with a balanced selection of pieces written by 20th- and 21st-century composers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Duo Les Brumes begin with an undoubted masterpiece: the Sonata da Chiesa which the Swiss composer Frank Martin originally composed in 1939 for viola d'amore and organ. Because his Dutch wife Maria Boeke was an excellent flautist, he also produced a version for flute and organ in 1941. The sonata’s three sections enclose a sequence of gentle, neoclassical dance movements between two reflective slow movements. The album’s other substantial work is Ain Karim, a fantasia composed in 1995 by the Swiss
organist-composer Daniel Roth. Aïn Karim is the name of the place near Jerusalem where Mary, mother of Jesus, is thought to have visited her cousin Elisabeth and spoken the words of the ‘Magnificat’. Daniel Roth has taken part of this text ('He puts down the mighty from their seat and exalts the humble and meek') to emphasise the contrast between the ‘small’ flute and the ‘monumental’ organ. In between, Duo Les Brumes present a gallery of vividly coloured miniatures: a suite of Four Pieces composed in 1962 by the Austrian composer Augustin Franz Kropfreiter (1936-2003), within the same kind of ‘modern neoclassical’ vein as Martin’s Sonata da Chiesa; then Five Pieces by Jean Langlais, more extrovert in character. Two Canadian composers are also represented with the radiant, soaring Melodia by Denis Bédard and the Elegy by Michael Conway Baker.

Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760-1812) was a cosmopolitan piano virtuoso who studied with C.P.E. Bach, lived and performed in one European capital after another in a tumultuous progress across the continent, and wrote huge quantities of eclectic music which has largely been forgotten. Dussek’s music for his own instrument may now be much better known than half a century ago – not least thanks to the first period-instrument edition of his piano sonatas, produced by Brilliant Classics – but he wrote almost 80 violin sonatas which also deserve revival as the product of a fluent and always inventive mind working on the cusp of eras we now identify as Classicism and Romanticism.

The three sonatas gathered here as Dussek’s Opus 1 were published around 1780. Each of them is cast in two movements: a lively Allegro in sonata form, followed by a Rondo or (in No.1) a set of variations, gentle and even meditative in character, in which Dussek’s originality shines through the occasional, recitative-like episodes. The six sonatas of Op.28 belong to the genre of ‘accompanied piano sonatas’ in which the musical substance is conceived principally for the keyboard instrument, with an obbligato melody instrument (such as the violin or flute) adding or doubling a top line if convenient. By the time he wrote them in 1795, Dussek had been a celebrity of London musical life for six years, having fled revolutionary Paris in a hurry. The dedication to ‘Miss Shaw’ refers to one of the daughters of the composer Thomas Shaw, and one may imagine the father on the violin accompanying and encouraging his daughter on the piano in Dussek’s vivid evocations of rural life and the lively march of a tin-soldier regiment.

Dussek’s sonatas are played here in new recordings by the German duo of Julia Huber and Miriam Altmann in polished and historically informed performances, using an authentic 1780 fortepiano. Huber has worked with German period-instrument ensembles such as L'Orfeo Baroque Orchestra, La Stagione Frankfurt and the Collegium Cartusianum in Cologne.

The 19th century salon was a major vehicle for the spread of culture and the transmission of new artistic and literary trends in Europe, as well as being a space overtly dominated by women. Aiming to recreate the musical atmosphere of a 19th-century salon, this recording revolves around two fundamental objectives. The first, to perform music by women who, as composers, performers and hostesses, were absolute cornerstones of these spaces. Second, to perform the songs, originally accompanied by piano, with newly made guitar arrangements.

The arrangements on this album have been made following a scrupulous transcription from the piano parts, retaining the harmonic essence whilst capturing the full polyphonic interplay. Several guitar effects have also been incorporated (tambora, harmonics, strumming, etc.), bringing a fresh twist to the original versions. All this contributes not only to expanding the guitar repertoire, but to the discovery of unfamiliar works.

Pauline Viardot (1821–1910) was born in Paris to a highly musical Spanish family and enjoyed an illustrious career as a singer. Returning to Paris in 1870, she established one of the most important musical salons of the time. Viardot’s songs have palpable Spanish roots, and her later pieces, like ‘Caña española’, were likely influenced by her father’s compositions. María Malibrán (1808–1836), Viardot’s elder sister, is most famous as an illustrious Spanish opera diva. Isabel Colbrán (1784/5–1845) was a Spanish opera singer and the first wife of composer Gioachino Rossini. In the early years of her career, she composed 24 short Italian arias which bear a certain Rossinian stamp. That said, as those arias were written before she met Rossini, it must be queried who influenced whom.

Pauline Duchambge (1778–1858) is perhaps the least known of these composers, and this album showcases a number of her songs that have never previously been recorded. A pianist, singer and guitarist, Duchambge studied composition with Cherubini and Auber, mainly composing romances on idealised romantic or historical themes (for example, ‘Celle qui voudrait m’aimer’).

Fanny Hensel (1805–1847) was the elder sister of Felix Mendelssohn. Although she received a thorough musical education, Fanny’s father barred her from publishing her compositions. Several of her songs were published under Felix’s name, including ‘Die Nonne’, but she later published the set containing ‘Schwanenlied’ under her married name. She hosted the so-called ‘Musical Sundays’, soirées attended by leading artists and intellectuals of the day, including Clara and Robert Schumann, Heine, Paganini, and Gounod.

The life of Clara Wieck (1819–1896) was demanding, given that she had to be the bread-winner for her eight children as a concert pianist, owing to her husband Robert Schumann’s mental illness. The two lieder on this album are from Clara and Robert’s jointly published Zwölf Lieder song cycle.

New recordings of Goethe and Heine settings by a master Russian song-writer, by performers thoroughly versed in the composer’s complex harmony and heritage. While Nikolai Medtner only emigrated from Moscow to Berlin in 1921, eventually settling in London, the Russian composer traced a deep connection to German culture through the ancestry of his mother. He was familiar with the German language and culture from his childhood, and made his first visit to Berlin in the winter of 1904-5, then returned for most of 1907 and the summer of 1909. It can be no coincidence that these original-language settings of two of Germany’s greatest poets date from this period in Medtner’s life. In his mid-20s at this point, Medtner had become internationally known as a pianist of formidable technical and interpretative gifts, but he continued to compose and to teach, taking up a post at the Moscow Conservatoire in 1909. While Medtner’s pianism often lends the quicker songs a scintillating brilliance, such as the Elfenliedchen which is third in the Opus 6 collection of Goethe’s songs, the overall mood of the collection is imbued with the feelings of love and longing which are key-signatures of Romanticism (German or Russian). Medtner was always drawn towards musical contemplation of life’s deeper themes, and he accordingly sets both poets at their most philosophical and visionary, in the Wandrers Nachtlied of Goethe and the Bergstimme of Heine.

On this album, recorded in 2022, Ekaterina Levental and Frank Peters couple the Opp 6, 15 and 18 settings of Goethe with the three Op 12 settings of Heine: a unique but natural pairing on record. The booklet includes both original texts and English translations.

Based, in part, on Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, Falstaff is Verdi’s last work for the stage – and only his second comic opera. And yet the humor in this multilayered masterpiece is distinctly wry, for all the main characters exhibit an array of human weaknesses that are implacably exposed by Verdi and his librettist Arrigo Boito. In this legendary performance from the Salzburg Festival, Herbert von Karajan is not only leading a stunning cast of singers featuring the Wiener Philharmoniker, he too directed the opera, in the amazing set design of Günther Schneider-Siemssen.

When lockdown was imposed in 2020 many artists began streaming performances from their own homes. In response, pianist Francesco Piemontesi and director Jan Schmidt-Garre launched a concert series to showcase artists living in Berlin. This collection of performances is a testament to the resilience and solidarity of these artists during the pandemic. (Naxos)