George Lloyd approached the piano concerto form with imagination and individuality. His idiomatic solo writing avoids shallow virtuosity and empty rhetoric and there are no mighty tussles between piano and orchestral forces encountered in archetypal large scale concertante scores. Instead, the composer offers a series of deeply personal attempts to reconcile time-honoured elements of display with symphonic preoccupations of long-range tonality, rhythmic energy and melodic growth. In sum, Lloyd's four piano concertos constitute a compelling and distinctive branch of his creative legacy. Paul Conway

Winner of a 2019 Independence Foundation Grant, the 2018 Virgil Thomson Award in Vocal Music, as well as an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Anna Weesner has also received Guggenheim and Pew Fellowships. Ms. Weesner studied at Yale and Cornell, and is Professor of Music at the University of Pennsylvania.

Especially the Romantic Suite belongs to Reger's most beloved orchestral works. Here to be heard in a live recording.

George Lloyd approached the piano concerto form with imagination and individuality. His idiomatic solo writing avoids shallow virtuosity and empty rhetoric and there are no mighty tussles between piano and orchestral forces encountered in archetypal large scale concertante scores. Instead, the composer offers a series of deeply personal attempts to reconcile time-honoured elements of display with symphonic preoccupations of long-range tonality, rhythmic energy and melodic growth. In sum, Lloyd's four piano concertos constitute a compelling and distinctive branch of his creative legacy. Paul Conway

Olivier Messiaen composed his eight-movement Quartet for the End of Time in 1940 while imprisoned in Germany. He drew his inspiration from the Apocalypse written by Saint John the Evangelist, one of the few works he was allowed to keep in the camp. Het Collectif explores this work, never forgetting that it was at the heart of this harsh winter of war, in a context of misfortune, confinement and deprivation, that Messiaen had an angel speak, promising paradise and the end of time... Stalag VIIIa, composed by Tristan Murail, whose title refers to Olivier Messiaen's place of detention in Görlitz in 1940, completes this programme.

The definitive collection of Bonporti’s chamber music, including many first-ever recordings.

Labirinti Armonici is an Italian-based early-music ensemble with a string of Brilliant Classics albums to its credit, focusing on the neglected music of the north-Italian composer Francesco Antonio Bonporti (1672–1749). A priest like his contemporary Vivaldi, he focused his creative energies on music for the church and for chamber ensemble, and it is this impressive catalogue of work that Labirinti Armonici has documented.

Bonporti has by and large been heard only in excerpted, fragmentary form on collections of Italian-Baroque composers, but Labirinti Armonici reveal the true breadth of his creative personality. There are four surviving collections of stylish sonatas for two violins and continuo, published as Opp. 1, 2, 4, and 6. Labirinti Armonici take an imaginative approach to the continuo part, enriching the skeletal figured-bass line with cello, harpsichord, and organ in various combinations according to the mood and character of each specific sonata.

When separately issued, these collections won glowing praise from international reviewers, and this reissue makes an invaluable contribution to the field of Baroque chamber music available at a more accessible price than ever. ‘The overall effect is of a highly professional group at home with the repertoire. So little of Bonporti’s works have been recorded to the highest standards; let us hope this is a start of a revival!’ (Early Music Review)

This ninth volume in the Next Generation Mozart Soloists series brings together four young soloists under conductor Howard Griffiths and reveals the sheer breadth of Mozart's creativity. Mozart most probably heard a sinfonia concertante - a work in which a group of solo instruments embarks on a dialogue with orchestra - for the first time in Paris in 1778. He composed such a work for violin, viola, and orchestra the following year: the Sinfonia concertante KV 364. It is recorded here by Johan Dalene and Eivind Ringstad, who are full of praise for how Mozart gave the viola equal footing with the violin. Mozart composed no fewer than four horn concertos in Vienna; the first that he composed is performed here by Alexandre Zanetta, who admits to being fascinated by it's finesse, it's complexity and it's humour. The pianist Ariel Lanyi describes the two rondos for piano and orchestra KV 382 and KV 386 recorded here as perfect examples of simplicity and variety, as well as of passages that are truly operatic in style.

A bestselling recording since it's first release in 2008, Amandine Beyer and Gli Incogniti's memorable performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons has been reissued by Alpha Classics for a second time. Using both the Le Cene edition and the Manchester manuscript, Beyer's broad understanding of the composer's markings meant that she was able to fully respect the score whilst remaining curious and experimental. This approach prompted BBC Radio 3 to state: "I would stick my neck out and say I have never heard one that satisfied me better". Beyer describes the four concertos as "an infinite source of delights" and credits musicologist Olivier Foures for the addition of three rarely recorded, or previously unpublished, concertos to the programme. These superb pieces, which throw an intriguing light on Vivaldi's different modes of composition, are a fine addition to this performance of the famous Four Seasons, which established Gli Incogniti among the top reference ensembles for historically informed performance.

George Lloyd approached the piano concerto form with imagination and individuality. His idiomatic solo writing avoids shallow virtuosity and empty rhetoric and there are no mighty tussles between piano and orchestral forces encountered in archetypal large scale concertante scores. Instead, the composer offers a series of deeply personal attempts to reconcile time-honoured elements of display with symphonic preoccupations of long-range tonality, rhythmic energy and melodic growth. In sum, Lloyd's four piano concertos constitute a compelling and distinctive branch of his creative legacy. Paul Conway

Because George Lloyd's personal attention is a dominating influence on the scores and recordings - which he mostly conducted himself - we have decided to headline this representation the 'Signature Collection'. Scores will be cleaned, and new orchestral parts created, recordings will be reorganised into affordable sets with new notes commissioned from Paul Conway. All digital platforms will have access to a unified and comprehensive offering from a single source.

Anna Vinnitskaya celebrates dance, or rather the dances of composers from very different periods and styles: Ravel, Shostakovich and Widmann. ‘In all these works, you can feel in some way transported to the world of childhood. Because I believe the childhoods of each of these three composers are reflected there’, says the pianist. In his Valses nobles et sentimentales, Ravel paid tribute to Schubert. A few years later, he transcribed for solo piano his ballet score La Valse, in which ‘billowing clouds part from time to time, allowing us to glimpse waltzing couples’. Shostakovich’s Dances of the Dolls make me think of the Soviet cartoons of my childhood’, says Anna Vinnitskaya. ‘They also remind me of Mozart: they are as bright as diamonds, sincere and beautiful.’ The Zirkustänze (Circus Dances) composed by Jörg Widmann in 2012, a brilliant kaleidoscope of emotions and parodies, round off the programme.

Young and foolish is the title Café Zimmermann has chosen for this program, which features music from the 1770s and 1780s by Mozart and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, starting with Mozart’s famous and sparkling Divertimento KV 138. For this fascinating W.A.-C.P.E. face-off, Café Zimmermann has invited an exceptional musician: the fortepianist Alexander Melnikov. They perform the Concerto no.17 in G major KV 453, of which Mozart said in a letter to his father that (like his concertos KV 450 and KV 451) ‘they make you sweat’! Melnikov is joined by harpsichordist Céline Frisch, co-founder of the ensemble, in Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Concerto for fortepiano, harpsichord, and orchestra, the only one of its kind ever composed, a work full of energy and mischief.

REVIEW:

This album hosts works by two of the greatest composers of the Classical Era, C.P.E. Bach and Mozart. The performances, featuring the outstanding solo artistry of pianist Alexander Melnikov and harpsichordist Céline Frisch, supported by the ensemble Café Zimmermann, are captivating, and the recording boasts a clear and intimate soundscape.

— The Classic Review (Tal Agam)

The original semantic value of re-ligio, therefore considered as a restoration of contacts, as a meeting point of distant but related cultures. Referring to the genesis of the work, the composer herself states: Reading these works has significant inner similarities: contemplation and sophistication. The lines from the work of IV Oganov - "the pain of a flower's test", "... The roar of the singing garden grew", "... The revelation of the rose... ", "... The lotus was set on fire by the music", "... The white garden began to resound again with diamond borders... " - encouraged me to a concrete sound perception of this garden. On the other hand, however, all this ecstatic flowering was expressed naturally in Tanzer's reflections on the world in it's entirety. At the basis of the musical rendering of this piece there is in fact the opposition of the bright and diaphanous timbre of the natural harmonics with the sad coloratura of the intervals of minor second and minor third.

George Lloyd approached the piano concerto form with imagination and individuality. His idiomatic solo writing avoids shallow virtuosity and empty rhetoric and there are no mighty tussles between piano and orchestral forces encountered in archetypal large scale concertante scores. Instead, the composer offers a series of deeply personal attempts to reconcile time-honoured elements of display with symphonic preoccupations of long-range tonality, rhythmic energy and melodic growth. In sum, Lloyd's four piano concertos constitute a compelling and distinctive branch of his creative legacy. Paul Conway

Because George Lloyd's personal attention is a dominating influence on the scores and recordings - which he mostly conducted himself - we have decided to headline this representation the 'Signature Collection'. Scores will be cleaned, and new orchestral parts created, recordings will be reorganised into affordable sets with new notes commissioned from Paul Conway. All digital platforms will have access to a unified and comprehensive offering from a single source.

Arto Koskinen is a Finnish composer, pianist and harpsichordist who has devoted his musical life to establishing a dialogue between the Asian, European and Afro-American traditions. In the 1970s, he developed a passion for jazz, then went on to study Indian vocal music at a music and dance school in New Delhi. He also immersed himself in the study of polyphonic techniques from the Baroque era and sought to make them compatible with the melodic principles of oriental music. The result is this 'Indian fugue', composed between 1987 and 2000, whose main sources are North Indian classical music, traditional western polyphony and Afro-American improvisations. His compatriot Joonas Ahonen, a polymorphous pianist who has already recorded Le Monde selon George Antheil with Patricia Kopatchinskaja (ALPHA797), is a passionate advocate of Koskinen's music. This monograph at last spotlights the music of a composer with a highly original voice.

Magdalena Kozena presents a recital of Czech songs, together with the Czech Philharmonic under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle. The first impression of Czech songs may be atmospheric nature scenes, or stories about pretty peasant girls and village pranks, but the selection on this album demonstrates that the imagination of Czech song composers stretched far wider. For example, Bohuslav Martinu's Nipponari were inspired by Japanese culture, whereas his folksy Songs on One Page obtain a deeper meaning knowing that he wrote them in the US, having fled the Nazi threat. His colleagues and contemporaries Hans Krasa and Gideon Klein did not manage to get away, and both died in concentration camps. Krasa's German-language Four Orchestral Songs show a fascination with nonsense verse typical of avant-garde circles in the early 1920s. Klein's Lullaby can be traced back to Jewish folk songs, yet it's musical realization displays an openness to French musical styles. And no Czech song recital would be complete without good old Antonin Dvorak, whose Evening Songs and Songs, Op. 2 are included. Many of these works are best known with piano accompaniment, but are presented here in orchestrations. The Czech Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle marvellously bring out all the colours, while Kozena once more showcases her mastery in vernacular song.

This album brings the glowing, cinematic Violin and Cello Concertos of Ukrainian com-poser Thomas de Hartmann, an important compositional voice in his own time, back into the limelight. Using an international all-star cast, the recording not only aims to re-establish de Hartmann's oeuvre, but also to bring musicians together in times of war.

The Violin Concerto was recorded in Warsaw with Joshua Bell as soloist and Dalia Stasevska conducting the INSO-Lviv Symphony Orchestra, managing to temporarily leave their besieged country.

The Cello Concerto is presented by Matt Haimovitz and the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Dennis Russell Davies. This album is made possible by the dedication and generous support of the Thomas de Hartmann Project, aimed to reintroduce his colorful and compelling music.

REVIEW:

There is a remarkable line-up of artists for this album with the violin and cello concertos by Ukrainian composer Thomas de Hartmann (1884-1956), who was highly regarded during his lifetime and had a successful career in France. After his death (in the USA), his music fell into oblivion and has only recently been revived. Apart from private releases on LP by the composer’s wife, these are the first recordings of the two concertos.

It is incredible that such a magnificent work has not been played for decades. It is a masterpiece, incredibly original and gripping from the first to the last note. It may be that a number of hitherto little-known works that are recorded today do not necessarily belong in the standard repertoire, but this one is of such quality that it should stand on an equal footing with many other important concertos of the 20th century.

— Pizzicato

The once highly esteemed composer, conductor and teacher Friedrich Gernsheim can certainly be described as a 'missing link', because he managed the feat of forming friendly ties with both Johannes Brahms and his antipode Max Bruch without falling between two stools as a two-bit plagiarist. Whenever his music seems to lean towards the classicist from Hamburg or towards the more rhapsodic composer from the Rhineland, it is actually expressing it's own distinctive character. The eloquent piano concerto's mode of expression with it's wonderfully voluptuous dialogues is similar to that of the internationally celebrated concerto that Bruch completed in exactly the same year, 1868; the austere, concise cello concerto of 1903 and the tone poem Zu einem Drama from around the same period evoke moods that one only reaches after a very personal journey. Impressive!

George Lloyd's opera The Serf was well received in 1938 but then fell into neglect. Despairing of a revival, the composer fashioned two orchestral suites, The Norman March from Act II and Prelude Act II which alongside the Overture for The Serf he published for independent performances in the 1980s. As you would expect from this great English composer, all three works are well-crafted, wonderful to perform and tuneful. George Lloyd who died in 1998 is mostly remembered for his 12 Symphonies, but his compositions include Opera, Choral, Concerto, Piano and Chamber Music. LNA approached GLS earlier in 2023 with a proposal that will see all of the music scores digitized and the entire record archive represented in new compilations, in both physical and digital formats. Going beyond the act of preservation the Trustees of LNA believe that George Lloyd's music is ripe for rediscovery by concert management and music lovers. George Lloyd's music, particularly his operas, won him great praise and popularity before WW2. But as broadcasting and concert life changed direction in the 1960s, his style, which is dramatic, large-scale, richly orchestrated unafraid of a big tune, fell out of favour. We believe that George Lloyd's time has come again and will use the combined resources of the Lyrita Nimbus Arts charity, and Lyrita label, together with the manufacturing, printing publishing and distribution arm of Nimbus Records to support this venture.

George Lloyd's opera The Serf was well received in 1938 but then fell into neglect. Despairing of a revival, the composer fashioned two orchestral suites, The Norman March from Act II and Prelude Act II which alongside the Overture for The Serf he published for independent performances in the 1980s. As you would expect from this great English composer, all three works are well-crafted, wonderful to perform and tuneful. George Lloyd who died in 1998 is mostly remembered for his 12 Symphonies, but his compositions include Opera, Choral, Concerto, Piano and Chamber Music. LNA approached GLS earlier in 2023 with a proposal that will see all of the music scores digitized and the entire record archive represented in new compilations, in both physical and digital formats. Going beyond the act of preservation the Trustees of LNA believe that George Lloyd's music is ripe for rediscovery by concert management and music lovers. George Lloyd's music, particularly his operas, won him great praise and popularity before WW2. But as broadcasting and concert life changed direction in the 1960s, his style, which is dramatic, large-scale, richly orchestrated unafraid of a big tune, fell out of favour. We believe that George Lloyd's time has come again and will use the combined resources of the Lyrita Nimbus Arts charity, and Lyrita label, together with the manufacturing, printing publishing and distribution arm of Nimbus Records to support this venture.

Because George Lloyd's personal attention is a dominating influence on the scores and recordings - which he mostly conducted himself - we have decided to headline this representation the 'Signature Collection'. Scores will be cleaned, and new orchestral parts created, recordings will be reorganised into affordable sets with new notes commissioned from Paul Conway. All digital platforms will have access to a unified and comprehensive offering from a single source.

HORN TRIOS from MOZART to PIAZZOLLA and beyond (Volume 1) is the first installment of a 2-volume compendium of horn trios from the 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st centuries - an amazing "anthology" of original and arranged repertoire for the trio ensemble of horn, violin and piano. This is not the kind of recording project consisting of the obligatory Brahms Trio Op. 40 in the company of two or three other much-recorded works. Presenting a 4-centuries double-disc album with just this First Volume, the artists explore a strikingly-interesting collection of diverse styles and genres, where even the sheer number of different nationalities of the composers (from 12 different countries) brings instant awe. Yes, the Brahms Horn Trio is included, as well as works by Mozart and Piazzolla (as the album's title proclaims), but we also hear trios by composers from the United States, Canada, England, France, Liechtenstein, Estonia, Romania, Bulgaria and Morocco. Presenting no less than 8 world-premiere recordings in just this Volume 1, the album brims with rarities and contrasts, showcasing many works written specifically for these artists. Hornist Howard Wall, whose storied career includes not just his legendary reputation as a long-time member of two of America's most prestigious orchestras - The New York Philharmonic and The Philadelphia Orchestra, but has also produced an impressive discography of chamber and solo discs, brings a symphonic dimension to his own arrangement of Piazzolla's "Oblivion", and an excitingly speedy rendition of the Brahms Trio, as well as breathtaking interpretations of all other works. Violinist Elmira Darvarova is equally "at home" in Mozart (as a former concertmaster of The Metropolitan Opera, where she accompanied the world's greatest singers in a multitude of Mozart operas) and in Piazzolla (having attained a Grammy nomination for one of her many Piazzolla albums), as well as everywhere else, possessing not just an incredibly strong and full tone, but also a magnificent level of sensitivity which fascinates with the limitless range of dynamics and sophisticated phrasing. Pianist Thomas Weaver, whose own horn trio mesmerizes with atmospheric moods (and is narrated by himself, reading Edgar Allan Poe's Stanzas) and whose translucently textured playing has been hailed for his recent album of Hungarian composers recorded together with Elmira Darvarova), shines in each piece with sublime virtuosity and fierce artistic commitment. This is a "not to be missed" album release, anticipating the upcoming Volume 2 which will conclude this terrific project.

George Lloyd's opera The Serf was well received in 1938 but then fell into neglect. Despairing of a revival, the composer fashioned two orchestral suites, The Norman March from Act II and Prelude Act II which alongside the Overture for The Serf he published for independent performances in the 1980s. As you would expect from this great English composer, all three works are well-crafted, wonderful to perform and tuneful. George Lloyd who died in 1998 is mostly remembered for his 12 Symphonies, but his compositions include Opera, Choral, Concerto, Piano and Chamber Music. LNA approached GLS earlier in 2023 with a proposal that will see all of the music scores digitized and the entire record archive represented in new compilations, in both physical and digital formats. Going beyond the act of preservation the Trustees of LNA believe that George Lloyd's music is ripe for rediscovery by concert management and music lovers. George Lloyd's music, particularly his operas, won him great praise and popularity before WW2. But as broadcasting and concert life changed direction in the 1960s, his style, which is dramatic, large-scale, richly orchestrated unafraid of a big tune, fell out of favour. We believe that George Lloyd's time has come again and will use the combined resources of the Lyrita Nimbus Arts charity, and Lyrita label, together with the manufacturing, printing publishing and distribution arm of Nimbus Records to support this venture.

With four superb albums already setting new artistic benchmarks, the Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen continues it's exploration of the complete symphonic oeuvre of Mozart under the baton of celebrated Mozart specialist Johannes Klumpp. Now this fifth stage of the ensemble's sonic journey brings us Symphonies Nos. 8, 22, 23, and-as a brilliant highlight-the grand Symphony No. 39 in E-flat major. International critics praise these recordings for their "exceptional technical mastery" and hail conductor and orchestra alike as "ideal Mozart interpreters." This release is a testament to the radiant diversity and expressive power of Mozart's symphonic writing.