Capriciosi Affetti takes us on a journey around the instrumental sonata in early 17th-century Venice through two and three-part compositions with continuo by Biagio Marini, Giovanni Battista Fontana, Dario Castello, Giovanni Picchi, Giovanni Legrenzi, and Marco Uccellini. Ranging from the tradition of the Canzon da Sonar and the Musica a Ballo, our journey certifies the wealth of experimentation within the sonata concertante, with its kaleidoscopic variety of contrasts. Along with the outcomes of vocal music, musing around the affetti played a pivotal part in the development of instrumental writing that was as idiomatic as it was advanced from a technical, timbral, and sound point of view. Composers called affetti those peculiar technical and execution modalities of expression through which instrumental music, lacking a written text, wished to give an abstract representation of the variety of accents and everchanging inflections within human passions and frames of mind.

One of the most significant Serbian composers of the final decade of the 20th century, Vlastimir Trajkovic (1947-2017), came from a prominent musical family. Among it's members were Miloje Milojevic, the composer's grandfather and a pioneer of the Serbian Modernist movement in music, as well as his mother, Gordana Milojevic - Trajkovic, a pianist and composer. He completed his composition studies in the class of Vasilije Mokranjac at the Music Academy in Belgrade in 1971 and obtained his MA degree in 1977. He further refined his skills by studying abroad, with Witold Lutoslawski in Groznjan and with Olivier Messiaen in Paris. In addition to his career as a composer, Trajkovic also worked as a music writer, critic, and editor. Over nearly four decades, from 1975 to 2012, Trajkovic worked as a professor of composition at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, where he also served as the head of the Composition Department for several years. In addition to a series of accolades he received for his outstanding work, Trajkovic became a member of the Serbian Academy of Science and Art in 2000. At the outset of his creative journey, Trajkovic, a polyglot with extensive erudition, distinguished himself as a composer who embraced an intellectual and critical approach to music and it's heritage. His distinctive style is firmly rooted in the amalgamation of impulses and influences he gleaned from a wide array of musical epochs. Trajkovic's opus, imbued with a postmodern sensibility, reflects both his receptivity to various stylis-tic idioms and his unwavering commitment to flexible, contemporary compositional solutions. Exhibiting a penchant for the sublime fusion of divergent musical elements, Trajkovic traversed through diverse genres, establishing creative dialogues with the legacy of baroque, avantgarde, minimalism, neoclassicism, jazz, and, most notably, impressionism. The sonic universe of impressionism reverberates throughout Trajkovic's entire body of work. His exploration of the musical legacy of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel in terms of references and outcomes led to a creative evolution in Trajkovic's compositions, resulting in exquisitely refined and cultivated aesthetic expressions that align stylistically with neo-impressionism.

Two historic recordings with famous conductor Karl Bohm and the Swiss/Hungarian pianist Geza Anda. The Mozart concerto dates from 1974 and marks the artist's last appearance with orchestra in Salzburg.

The TriOlogie String Trio presents an extremely interesting compilation of music for string trio on it's debut album "A Tres Voces". Reger's first string trio is juxtaposed with three works composed by women. Among other things, it becomes clear that the less popular trio formation is in no way inferior to the string quartet in terms of artistry and timbre.

SYMPHONY NO. 3 from composer Michael Kurek is a tribute to the history and natural beauty of England. The work is fundamentally Romantic, but is also influenced by Edwardian music and English folk melodies. The composer draws inspiration from personal memories, nature, poetry, and art; "Upon a Walk in the English Countryside," recalls the lush, pastoral beauty of the English countryside, while "The Lady of Shalott" nods to Waterhouse's colorful, pre-Raphaelite depiction of Tennyson's famous poem. The symphony's conclusion, "The Major Oak of Sherwood Forest," celebrates the roughly 1000-year-old tree in Nottinghamshire and is perhaps the most climactic of Kurek's works.

This fifth instalment of the recent symphonic output of Fridrich Bruk (born in Ukraine in 1937 but a Finnish resident since 1974) brings two large canvases inspired by painters: Symphony No. 13 by the revolutionary Soviet artist Kazimir Malevich, and No. 14 by Edvard Munch’s famous painting The Scream. Bruk may seem to write in a kind of stream of consciousness, but his works are subtly bound together through a network of motifs and details of scoring. Even so, the orchestral writing in both pieces is wildly inventive, a kaleidoscope of colour and counterpoint, sitting somewhere between Villa-Lobos and Pettersson in its profligate abundance, with hints here and there of Prokofiev and Szymanowski.

Armenian pianist Tsovinar Suflyan plays classical piano music from her homeland Armenia.

The wild fantasy of the early baroque period reveals itself to us in musical aggregates that are still far away from the formal cohesion of musical material. Ideas and sounds drift on a sea of virtually unlimited possibilities, delighting us with a colourful diversity that is only very gradually bound into clear structures by rational regulative forces. Munich's Johann Christoph Pez lived and worked during this fascinating time of inspired searching and experimentation. Thanks to his talent, he was able to visit the promised land of Italy, inhaled the air of the all-powerful Italian Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Lully - and left behind a twelve-part Duplex Genius, an instrumental compendium whose highly entertaining qualities are all the more enhanced by the unpredictability of events.

Romanian pianist Carmen Stefanescu plays her best loved classical piano music

New York City-based, Puerto Rican-born composer, guitarist, and visual artist Gabriel Vicens releases his fourth studio album Mural, a recording devoted to his chamber works. Vicens continues his musical journey by releasing a record of contemporary classical music including pieces for piano trio, wind quintet, Pierrot ensemble and more; featuring some of today's finest performers of the New York City classical scene. The immersive and mood-inducing music on this record spans a four-year period of creativity and is the first recording to feature concert works by this wonderful artist. Mural explores modern and contemporary trends such as 12-tone serialism, experimentalism, and minimalism and, at the same time, depicts Vicens' individuality as a composer with a distinctive voice that has been constantly expanding throughout the years of his career. "I see the music of this album as both a continuation of all my previous works and something completely different. Though we could classify this repertoire in a different genre and following different traditions, practices, and influences to my previous records, for me it is all connected. My goals are the same when composing any piece of music, which is to create something interesting, beautiful and profound that works as a whole and evokes some kind of emotional, mental, and/or physical response in the listener," says Vicens, a Doctoral graduate from Stony Brook University. Mural is released on the celebrated Milan-based record label, Stradivarius, which specializes in publishing some of today's best recordings of early music and contemporary classical music. The album comprises seven pieces for different types of ensembles recorded at the renowned Bunker Studio in New York City. The first track of the album and title piece, Mural (2021) for clarinet, violin, and piano is performed by clarinetist Raissa Fahlman, violinist Joenne Dumitrascu, and pianist Corinne Penner. Followed by Suenos Ligados (2020) for piano trio, featuring violinist Adrianne Munden-Dixon, cellist Rocio Diaz de Cossio, and pianist Mayumi Tsuchida. The third track of the album, El Matorral (2022) for Pierrot ensemble is performed by Roberta Michel on flute, Raissa Fahlman on clarinet, Joenne Dumitrascu on violin, Wick Simmons on cello, Corinne Penner on piano, John Ling on vibraphone, and conducted by David Bloom. The recording continues with Una Superficie Sin Rostro (2020) for solo piano, featuring Corinne Penner. Adrianne Munden-Dixon returns with Mayumi Tsuchida on the fifth track of the album, Carnal (2019) for violin and piano. The ensemble Nu Quintet appears on the sixth track, Ficcion (2021) for woodwind quintet. The album concludes with La Esfera (2021) for cello and piano performed by cellist Julia Henderson and pianist Mikael Darmanie. Vicens is interested in how his approach to music and painting correlate with each other, in particular, his attentiveness to the two-dimensional flatness of the canvas and how that translates into music. "I create musical compositions with melody, harmony, rhythm, timbre, and register, and every instrument and part of the composition is equally important to me. Everything needs to work together. The same principle applies to my paintings, but with color, form, line, and texture instead of musical elements. I see my paintings as an extension of my music and vice versa. The conceptual processes are incredibly alike," says Vicens. The compositions included in Mural are characterized by their embracement of dissonance, pointillistic textures, large intervallic leaps, gestural complexity, prolonged silences, great dynamic contrasts, and quiet sustained tones. On many occasions it's possible to encounter a ritualistic and mysterious aspect in his music that is distinguished by the way he uses repetition over melodic fragments and harmonic patterns. The influences of Webern and Feldman are perceivable in Vicens' works. Commenting on the evocative repertoire brought together in this album, Tim Rutherford-Johnson remarks in the CD's liner notes, "... although his music is often quite flat in it's surface relations, in it's unfolding over time it admits cracks into that surface, and slow transitions from one color to another." The title of this recording came from Vicens' passion for Roman and Egyptian mural paintings. "I'm fascinated by how Roman and Egyptian frescoes have decayed slowly for centuries and how the cracks and layers of colors have become part of the current stage of the work, creating a complex and atmospheric character. "Music is a reflection of life; it comes from our experiences. We go through cycles and evolve as the years pass. Over time, we get our cracks and layers of colors, just like the frescoes, and from those experiences, we get the energy and the inspiration to write music that communicates something abstractly. Mural is what I have to say at this point of my life; my future cracks and layers will slowly tell what's next." The seven works offered in Mural display Vicens' unique vision and voice as a composer and conveys a pivotal point that stylistically breaks his career free from the confines of a single genre description. The addition of this album to his discography expresses his immense creativity and wide range of skills, displaying how he shapeshifts magnificently across various musical terrains. Finally, the record reveals an idiosyncratic approach that captures his innovative ideas with brilliance and excitement. The album includes a photo-illustrated, 28-page booklet with liner notes by Tim Rutherford-Johnson.

ILLUMINATION II The second album from the acclaimed international (Italy-Israel) Ensemble Nuria began taking shape during the disorienting lockdowns of Covid-19, and was born into the devastating reality of the Hamas-Israel war. The album 'Illumination II: Italian-Jewish Music of Solace and Hope' is a testament to the resilience and relevance of Hebrew Liturgical Songs and Poems (known as 'Piyyutim'). Casting light on the enduring power of these works to sustain hope and offer comfort to those who encounter them, the work on this project spanned over 3 years, due to the impossibility of maintaining continuous work during the Covid pandemic. The process of preparing this album offered to those involved a way to reconnect with stability, community, creativity, joy and inspiration, despite challenging circumstances of life in Israel under the isolation of lockdown and war. Timeless melodies which were born in the ghettos of Rome, Venice, Mantova and Ferrara, these nearly vanished hidden treasures of haunting beauty are given a renewed voice in this album. Without doubt it is the uniquely poignant nature of the works themselves which allows listeners to experience the unabated power of this ancient music: The power to revive and to give solace and catharsis, to offer celebration, connection and community, just as the poets and musicians who created the words and melodies centuries ago intended. This nearly lost traditional music reveals itself here to be as powerful and communicative in our tumultuous 21st century world as when it was first sung in the Jewish communities of Italy, hundreds of years ago.

Fourteen years after her victory at the XVI International Chopin Piano Competition, Yulianna Avdeeva documents her journey with the music of Frederic Chopin. Voyage focuses on his late works, all composed while surrounded by nature, and Avdeeva has recorded them at the rustic Tippet Rise Art Center in Montana, against the serene backdrop of the Beartooth Mountains. A pianist of fiery temperament and virtuosity, Avdeeva plays with power, conviction, and sensibility, having won over audiences all over the world. She returns to PENTA-TONE after her acclaimed label debut with Resilience (2023).

Although the music of Robert de Visee has transcended the ages, many scholars are still trying to unravel the mysteries surrounding the composer's life. Among them, Thibaut Roussel - accompanied by Perrine Devillers, Mathilde Vialle and Myriam Rignol - delights hearts with his own interpretation of the rich music of the greatest theorbist of the 17th century. Interwoven with pieces by contemporary composers, Robert de Visee's exquisite arias transport the listener to the pomp and splendour of the evenings at the court of Louis XIV.

Rising star violinist Chloe Chua presents a recording combining Chen Gang and He Zhanhao's Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto with Niccolo Paganini's First Violin Concerto, performed together with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Rodolfo Barraez and Mario Venzago. The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto was written in 1959, and inspired by a tale often called the Romeo & Juliet of ancient China. Chen and He deftly combine a Western classical idiom with elements from Chinese opera, such as grace notes and portamento effects, and the work has become one of the most famous and acclaimed pieces of Chinese classical music. This album also features an interpretation of Chen Gang's Sunshine over Tashkurgan, which adds Central-Asian maqam to the stylistic palette. The programme concludes with Paganini's First Violin Concerto, musically inspired by Rossinian bel canto. The three works share a richness of melodic invention and orchestral colours, as well as breathtaking virtuosic demands for the soloist. The solo parts are in excellent hands with Chloe Chua, who admires the steadfast love and perseverance of the Butterfly Lovers, and feels fully at home in these evocative and exhilarating masterpieces.

Francesco Tropea plays the Sonatas BWV 963 - BWV 970 by Johann Sebastian Bach. Recorded on a Steinway B Grand Piano.

Howard Griffiths, who has a strong emotional and professional connection with Turkey, has recorded exemplary works that demonstrate the diverse classical music culture in Turkey.

For their third recording for label Stradivarius, the duo Singer & Fischer have chosen to devote themselves to four Hispanic-flavored works. With little original repertoire despite the opuses that various composers have written for them in recent years, transcriptions, arrangements, and other adaptations are usual in the ensemble’s work. However, not all works are easy to adapt, and the choice of pieces from among the ‘possibilities’ is often a difficult one. The transcriptions on this recording are the result of a process of reflection that goes back to the duo’s genesis. Their first attempts at De Falla or Granados took place in the 90s, a time when the youthfulness of the performers certainly contributed to the enthusiasm essential to any musical interpretation, but when a lack of experience was a brake on any idea of immortalizing their concert attempts.

Since then, the Singer & Fischer duo have taken the time to mature, and this latest recording is the result of over thirty years of playing together. Whether in terms of sound timbre, phrasing or balance, the ensemble has achieved a musical union made possible by its longevity, proof that despite all the acceleration and frenzy in today’s world, some goals take time.

Carl Teike's Alte Kameraden is one of the most popular marches in the world but surprisingly little is known of it's composer or the circumstances surrounding his compositions. This release is the first volume in a comprehensive edition of Teike's marches, made with The Royal Swedish Navy Band conducted by Alexander Hanson.

Passion, solitude, nostalgia, the pain of the world, flight, death - these are the typical themes of Romanticism. Konstantin Krimmel had already explored the extreme emotions that characterise this era of extreme emotion in Saga, his first recital album (Alpha549); he now plunges even deeper into this cosmos with collaborative pianist Ammiel Bushakevitz. "I simply love telling stories. Even as a child, I loved listening to old legends and tales", says Krimmel, who is indeed a fabulous storyteller-singer. The two artists have chosen here to compare songs by Franz Schubert and Carl Loewe that embody these great themes. The two composers, both masters of the Lied, had very different destinies: Loewe lived to be 72 years old, more than twice as old as Schubert, who had died aged 31.

On the one hand, the despair of humanity facing the irrevocable fading of the seasons, on the other, the sublime eternity of nature's renewal... These are the two worlds developed by Thierry Malandain in Les Saisons, a ballet interweaving The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi and The Four Seasons of the Year by Giovanni Antonio Guido. The Orchestre de l'Opera Royal de Versailles, under the direction of Stefan Plewniak, delivers a nuanced interpretation of these well-known arias, freshly accompanying the dancers of Malandain Ballet Biarritz.

Around Gershwin is star accordionist Richard Galliano's tribute to George Gershwin, in-terweaving his music with works by early twentieth-century composers such as Debus-sy, Rachmaninoff, Satie, Ravel and Faure, as well as new compositions of his own. Seen through the lense of Galliano's masterful musicianship, these pieces create the sensa-tion of a sonic odyssey.

After Piazzolla Reflections, (ALPHA664), Latvian accordionist Ksenija Sidorova devotes this new recording to Bach and compositions influenced by his music - starting with the famous Concerto BWV 1052, which has inspired so many adaptations for piano, violin and even heavy metal guitar, "so I don't think a version for an instrument with two keyboards will surprise anyone!" says Ksenija. The programme also includes Sergey Akhunov, a composer who featured on her previous album, with a work inspired by Bach's Chaconne BWV1004; Beyond Bach by Gabriela Montero, the Venezuelan pianist and composer famous for her improvisations; and Horizons by the Anglo-Bulgarian composer Dobrinka Tabakova. The programme is completed by Bach's Chorale Prelude Ich ruf zu dir, which has accompanied Ksenija since childhood: 'I think this organ piece works particularly well on the accordion. Both instruments use bellows, but the accordion offers a much more flexible dynamic range. You can really let the music breathe.'

Rococo Fantasies is a set of 11 bagatelles. Each moves from one tone centre to another, often via 'chromatic mediant' harmony (a major or minor third above or below the tone centre). Book One contains 6 of them. They endeavour to create a variety of idiosyncratic rhetorical characters by swerving between multiple metrical, thematic, and textural ideas rapidly in the course of a few measures in some of the pieces, but beavering away at just one or two (over rapidly modulating harmonic changes) in others.

Etude-variations: Under Aldebaran is also a Concert Study, based on the poem by Australian poet James McAuley, but is very different from the collection of the 'Transcendental' 12. It's the only atonal piece in this album, and by far the most complicated in it's detail, and was written many years earlier. It consists of an introduction (wherein 8 fragmentary figures are laid out by a handful of notes), followed by 8 variations on each figure in turn (in 3 different tempi), concluding with a 'whispering' coda in the piano's high register.

The Amazon rainforest is almost mythical in it's richness and diversity, and music inspired by it is often the same. On AMAZ�NIA, composer Miguel Kertsman captures the awe-inspiring beauty and fragility of one of the world's natural wonders and pays homage to his homeland of Brazil. Featuring four of his earlier symphonic works, the album peers into the budding composer's early career, already rich with genre experimentation and musical storytelling. Kertsman's juxtaposition of Brazilian folk tradition with orchestral composition bends the rules of classical, creating a worldly sound with universal resonance.