Toward the Sea brings together three works for flute and guitar which explore memory, place and transformation. EMI Ferguson and Michael Poll trace a journey from the dance halls of Buenos Aires in Astor Piazzolla's Histoire du Tango, through the luminous stillness of Elizabeth Ogonek's Altair, to the meditative sound world of Toru Takemitsu's Toward the Sea. Recorded at the Stone Church in rural Massachusetts, the program reflects the duo's artistic partnership, which began through online collaborations during the pandemic before developing into live performances across the United States. Their own arrangement of Ogonek's Altair sits naturally between two landmark works, highlighting the continuing vitality of the flute and guitar repertoire. Ferguson, an Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, and Poll, equally active as a guitarist and conductor, approach this repertoire as equal musical partners, allowing the distinctive voices of flute and guitar to emerge across music that ranges from Piazzolla's rhythmic vitality to Takemitsu's suspended, atmospheric sound world.
The Seasons unites two visionary responses to nature across three centuries, pairing Antonio Vivaldi's iconic Le quattro stagioni with Astor Piazzolla's sultry Las cuatro estaciones portenas in Leonid Desyatnikov's electrifying arrangement for violin and strings. Violinist and director Soojin Han leads the English Chamber Orchestra in a vibrant dialogue between Venetian countryside and Buenos Aires nightlife, where birdsong and storms meet smoky tango rhythms and shifting emotional weather. Playful musical quotations blur the boundaries between the two works, with winter appearing in summer and summer in winter, suggesting that the seasons are shaped as much by memory and imagination as by the natural world. Recorded in Studio Two at Abbey Road Studios, this recording reflects the wide-ranging musical perspective Soojin Han has developed through a career spanning solo performance, chamber music and orchestral leadership. It is an approach that allows these familiar masterpieces to unfold with both the freedom of chamber music and the brilliance of a virtuoso performance.
Mozart's piano sonatas reveal an extraordinary range of character, from effortless lyricism to profound emotional intensity. In the third volume of his complete survey, pianist Jae-Hyuck Cho performs three contrasting sonatas which form an arc from light into shadow, before emerging into light once more. Opening with the luminous Sonata in C major, K. 330, the program moves to the dramatic A minor Sonata, K. 310, one of Mozart's most emotionally charged keyboard works, before concluding with the freshness and wit of the G major Sonata, K. 283. Together, these three sonatas reveal Mozart's ability to combine elegance, theatrical instinct and deep humanity. Cho approaches these works with a distinctly vocal perspective, shaping each phrase as though sung and drawing on Mozart's close relationship with opera. The result is a performance of warmth, clarity and expressive freedom that allows each sonata's individual voice to emerge while revealing the broader narrative that connects them. This third instalment continues a thoughtfully conceived cycle that places musical character and storytelling at it's heart.
Anton Bruckner's Eighth Symphony stands among the largest and most ambitious works in the orchestral repertoire. Completed after the success of his Seventh Symphony and extensively revised before it's eventual premiere in 1892, it unfolds on an epic scale, combining monumental architecture with moments of profound introspection. Recorded by the Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Karl-Heinz Steffens, this new album presents the 1890 Nowak edition of the symphony, and continues Steffens' exploration of the Austro-German symphonic tradition with one of Bruckner's most expansive and richly scored works.
Hailed for their "beautifully nuanced performances" (Gramophone Magazine), Camerata Tchaikovsky was founded in 2004 by Yuri Zhislin to bring together soloists and leading chamber musicians, touring worldwide and recording to great critical acclaim. Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante and Strauss's Metamorphosen are both works of remarkable emotional depth, heard here in chamber form revealing an entirely different perspective. The Camerata Tchaikovsky continue their long-term recording partnership with Orchid by exploring these masterpieces through the intimate sound of the string septet. At the center of the album is Yuri Zhislin's new transcription of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante, created from a desire to preserve the grandeur and expressive richness of the original while allowing for the immediacy of chamber music. Alongside it sits Rudolf Leopold's striking septet realisation of Strauss's Metamorphosen, based on the composer's earliest conception of the work and illuminating it's haunting counterpoint and emotional intensity.
Trio Barclay present Beyond The Pacific, an album of contemporary works for piano trio that sits at the intersection of chamber music excellence and a 21st-century American musical experience. The album opens with a cathartic journey: the Piano Trio No. 1 of Sheridan Seyfried. Energetic and heartfelt in equal measure, the range of tones and color on display throughout the album is immediately apparent. Elsewhere, "Orcas Island: The Rose of the San Juan Islands" by John Wineglass heightens the imagery, depicting a stunning portrait of the seascapes of the Pacific Northwest. Further down the Western coastline, Michael Fine's "California" delights in the fascinating multiculturalism of the Golden State, the third of three works showcased fittingly by three of California's foremost chamber musicians. Trio Barclay present these thought-provoking works with their usual flair and vigour. Having fostered a reputation as an ensemble of big musical personalities who create dynamic and exciting musical experiences across North America and beyond, this album is a moving and nostalgic return home, underscored by three gems of contemporary music.
Jean Cocteau was many things: poet, playwright, artist, filmmaker, collaborator, self-inventor - each description fits, but none is sufficient. His work darts and pivots, one mask slipping as another appears. But beneath the surface, the same fixations recur, especially love, death, dependence and abandonment. This album stays close to his restlessness, touching melodrama, popular culture, prayer, aphorism, dance, cabaret and theatre, as styles collide, and the masks occasionally fall. At the centre of the program stands La Voix Humaine, Cocteau's searing study of love, loss and fractured communication, alongside a sequence of songs by Poulenc, Milhaud, Honegger, Auric and others reflecting Cocteau's wide artistic circle, where high art and popular culture meet without hierarchy. The result is not a comprehensive survey, but rather a carefully drawn portrait, shaped by affection and curiosity.
This new album brings together three works by Edward Picton-Turbervill, centred on Out of Eden, a large-scale meditation on humanity's relationship with the natural world. Written for the London Choral Sinfonia and a small group of instrumentalists, Out of Eden creates a rich sound world from modest forces, the score moving between moments of stillness and intensity as it combines choral writing with solo voices and instrumental color. The program is framed by two shorter works. Spell of Creation and Spell of Sleep, inspired by the poetry of Kathleen Raine, offer a more intimate contrast, while Songs of Eden, an instrumental suite, reflects on similar ideas in distilled form. Performed under Michael Waldron, the London Choral Sinfonia brings clarity and commitment to music that speaks with urgency but also restraint. Together, these works present a distinctive and thoughtful new voice in British choral writing.
Mark Kaplan has long been recognised as one of the world's leading violinists. His career spans decades and a discography of more than forty-five recordings. Here, for the first time on record, he is joined in Brahms's three violin sonatas by his son, pianist David Kaplan, himself an artist of growing international presence and critical acclaim. Brahms's three violin sonatas provide a natural meeting point for this unique collaboration between father and son, shaped by the close and equal dialogue between violin and piano. Together, they trace a path from the inward lyricism of the G major Sonata, Op. 78, through the warmth of the A major, Op. 100, to the darker, more dramatic world of the D minor Sonata, Op. 108, whose finale ranks among Brahms's most powerful chamber works.
Mosaic is a debut album defined by freedom of approach: a program for saxophone that moves beyond genre and convention, revealing the instrument's full expressive range. Classical works sit alongside jazz and Latin repertoire, creating a contemporary sound world and giving new life to the classical canonical repertoire. At it's centre, Fernande Decruck's Sonata in C-sharp is heard in dialogue with music by Ravel, Piazzolla, Gershwin, Erroll Garner and McCoy Tyner, while works by Alvaro Carrillo and Joao Donato highlight a strong Central and South American thread. Short interludes-improvised, transitional fragments-link the program, guiding it towards an increasingly open and uninhibited close. Taken as a whole, Mosaic is a curated selection of works which reflects the many strands of Salvador Flores's musical life-his background, influences and collaborations-assembled into a single artistic statement.
Double Concertos brings together three works by composer and conductor Eric Nathan, each exploring the expressive possibilities of paired solo voices in dialogue with space, memory, and one another. Written between 2019 and 2023, the pieces on this album grew from Nathan's long-standing fascination with how two individuals interact through sound-coming together, diverging, supporting, and remembering. The Double Concertos for violin and clarinet, and for two violas, are shaped by close personal relationships between the soloists, while Just a Moment for two antiphonal oboes reflects on distance and connection, both physical and emotional. Across the album, Nathan sets present-day musical language in conversation with older forms and gestures, drawing on spatial placement, texture, and timbre to create music that is intimate in scale yet expansive in feeling. Themes of mentorship, partnership, love, and loss run quietly through these works, performed here by long-time collaborators and musicians closely connected to the music's origins.
In the second volume of his complete Mozart piano sonata cycle, Jae-Hyuck Cho continues his exploration of Mozart's keyboard writing as a living, singing voice. Four sonatas trace a journey from warmth and intimacy to outward brilliance, revealing the composer's remarkable gift for dialogue and character. From the graceful charm of the Sonata in B-flat major, K.281 to the broader expressive range of the Sonata in F major, K.332, the programme moves through the poised intimacy of K.282 before concluding with the theatrical sparkle of the Sonata in C major, K.309. Part of a five-volume series for Orchid Classics, Cho's interpretations emphasise clarity and vocal phrasing, reflecting the operatic spirit at the heart of Mozart's keyboard writing.
Eduard Tubin stands among the most significant symphonic voices of the twentieth century, a composer whose music draws deeply on Nordic landscape, folklore and myth while speaking with a powerful modern voice. This recording with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and conductor Mihhail Gerts explores the formative years of Tubin's creative life. At it's centre is the Symphony No. 2, "Legendary" (1937), a work that established Tubin's distinctive voice, moving from a mysterious opening through sombre reflection to a fiercely driven finale. Alongside it appears the Suite on Estonian Motifs, his first major orchestral composition, presented here in it's first recording. Completing the program are two early Piano Preludes from 1926, performed by Mihhail Gerts, offering a glimpse of Tubin at the very beginning of his compositional journey. Together these works trace the emergence of a composer who would go on to become one of Estonia's most important musical figures.
Elements explores the distinctive sound world of saxophone and harp in a program that moves between Baroque masterworks and newly commissioned music inspired by the four classical elements: Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Performed by saxophonist Huw Wiggin and harpist Oliver Wass, the album places Bach, Purcell, Vivaldi and Couperin alongside contemporary works written specially for the duo. Each commission reflects a different elemental idea, from the luminous textures of Charlotte Harding's Euphotic to the volatile energy of Laura Bowler's Caesium and the wind-driven virtuosity of David Wallace's blowing A gale. Interwoven throughout are inventive arrangements of Baroque works, drawing subtle connections across centuries. The pairing of saxophone and harp creates a sound palette that is intimate and richly coloured, capable of lyric stillness and brilliant display. Praised for his "liquid gold tones" by The Times, Wiggin joins forces with leading harpist Oliver Wass in a programme that moves between reflection, drama and radiant beauty.
Unspoken explores the piano-duet repertoire as a space of intimacy and shared imagination. Pianists Wu Qian and Juho Pohjonen present a program that moves between intimate lyricism and virtuosic display, centred on works for piano four hands. At it's heart are the two major duets by Felix Mendelssohn, framed by a striking rediscovery: the Sonata in F major by Sophia Maria Westenholz, whose bold harmonic language and orchestral sweep bridge Classical clarity and early Romantic ambition. The program is completed by the characterful four-hand writing of Cecile Chaminade and Amy Beach, offering contrasting worlds of colour, scene and poetic miniature. Recorded with warmth and clarity, Unspoken reflects the piano duet at it's most intimate: two musicians sharing a single instrument.
Maksimal brings together three major works by Daniel Temkin, music shaped by vivid physical images and a search for the forces that connect experience, memory, and place. At it's center is the violin concerto Maksimal, written for and performed here by Francisco Fullana with Ryan McAdams and the Maksimal Ensemble. Bright, agile, and rhythmically charged, the three movements balance solo virtuosity with quicksilver ensemble dialogue, nodding to Baroque concerto principles while stretching them into larger, continuous arcs. Dreamed Landscapes turns to the piano, with Ryan MacEvoy McCullough tracing three impressionistic studies inspired by galaxies, glaciers, and canyon horizons. Rather than literal depiction, the music focuses on colour, resonance, and the inner sensation of inhabiting these spaces. Completing the program is Ocean's Call, performed by the Aizuri Quartet, a work inspired by California's Pacific coast. From misty harmonics and brittle wind textures to expansive, storm-driven waves, the piece unfolds as a meditation on nature's power and calm. Recorded across Houston and New York, Maksimal is Temkin's second solo album on Orchid Classics: a focused, immersive portrait of a composer drawn to sound as landscape, motion, and shared human experience.
With this fifth volume, Jonathan Biss concludes one of the most ambitious and innovative Beethoven release series of the 21st century. Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto is many things, but foremost, it is a thrillingly taut construction, grabbing the listener by the collar and not letting go. It is the first work to take full advantage of the dramatic potential inherent in the concerto genre, pitting the soloist against the orchestra in often uneasy confrontation. In it's slow movement, it becomes something completely different, the tonality transporting us to a faraway place, time suddenly elastic, ferocity giving way to spirituality. The whole piece is a marvel. It is therefore very exciting to hear a voice as singular as Caroline Shaw's grapple with Beethoven's concerto and the process through which it was conceived. Shaw writes that her Watermark is "woven from strands and patches and patterns" of the earlier work. She imagines Beethoven imagining it, and in doing so, creates something wholly original. "This album brings to a close the Beethoven/5 project, which has challenged and stimulated me for the past decade. I look forward to spending the rest of my life with the ten remarkable pieces that comprise it."
Gobi Canticle brings together eleven works for solo violin, violin and viola, and violin duo by ten composers of Asian heritage, many presented here in first recordings. Performed by Natalie Lin Douglas and Patrick Yim, longstanding advocates for new music with extensive experience commissioning, premiering, and recording contemporary repertoire, the album spans a wide expressive range from ritual and folk-derived sound worlds to contrapuntal studies and contemporary virtuosity. At it's centre is Lei Liang's Gobi Canticle, shaped by Mongolian musical traditions, microtonal inflection, and percussive string techniques. Zhou Tian's Duo provides a compact, high-energy showpiece, while Chen Yi's Energetic Duo distils rhythmic drive and color into a striking miniature. Several works draw on literary and seasonal imagery: Kai-Young Chan's Echoes of the Autumn Night reflects Tang-dynasty poetry through Cantonese speech rhythms, and Jungyoon Wie's Dan Poong traces the quiet transformation of autumn leaves. Across the program, composers engage imaginatively with string technique-scordatura, harmonics, ricochet bowing, hocketing, and microtonal tuning-creating a palette that is both refined and immediate. The result is a coherent collection that highlights individual compositional voices while revealing shared concerns with timbre, gesture, and cultural memory. Recorded in Watertown, Massachusetts, Gobi Canticle documents a significant body of contemporary duo repertoire and showcases two performers deeply committed to new music and collaboration.
This recording brings together three closely related works for clarinet and strings, linking Classical elegance with 20th-century English lyricism. At it's heart is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Clarinet Quintet in A major, K.581, written for Anton Stadler and one of the defining masterpieces of the clarinet repertoire. From the poised opening Allegro to the intimate, aria-like Larghetto and the finely judged closing variations, Mozart places the clarinet at the centre of a richly expressive chamber dialogue. Gordon Jacob's Clarinet Quintet (1940), composed for Frederick Thurston, reflects a clear admiration for Mozart's clarity of form while speaking in a distinctly English voice. Concise, lyrical and expertly balanced, the work moves from an autumnal opening through urgency and rhapsodic reflection to a characterful set of variations. The program concludes with a rarity: the unfinished Allegro of a second Mozart clarinet quintet, completed by Duncan Druce, offering an intriguing glimpse of a work Mozart never completed. Performed by the Gaudier Ensemble with clarinettist Richard Hosford, this recording combines stylistic authority with warm, natural chamber sound, the clarinet's expressive range and it's evolution across two centuries.
Undreamed Shores brings together three major contemporary string quartets written for and performed by the Jupiter String Quartet, works the ensemble has lived with in performance over many years. In To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores, Michi Wiancko traces a sequence of vividly imagined musical scenes inspired by the natural world. Across seven concise movements, the music reflects on fragility, ecological loss, and kinship, gradually moving toward a quietly hopeful call for collective responsibility. Composed during the pandemic, Stephen Andrew Taylor's Chaconne/Labyrinth is built around a repeating harmonic cycle, using just intonation to evoke the tension of being caught between stasis and searching. Familiar material continually returns, reshaped by a sense of uncertainty before leading toward clarity. Completing the album, Kati Agocs's Imprimatur (String Quartet No. 2) unfolds as a continuous rhapsodic meditation. Musical ideas are repeatedly transformed, moving between darkness and light, and culminating in a serene, luminous conclusion. Together, these works form a thoughtful exploration of contemporary quartet writing, each offering space to reflect on our shared humanity and to find moments of hope and light in challenging times.
A focused portrait of Britten alongside a little-known but significant British contemporary, marking both the 50th anniversary of Britten's death and the centenary year of Arthur Oldham's birth. Under Michael Waldron, the London Choral Sinfonia pairs Britten with the one composer he privately mentored: Arthur Oldham. The program brings together familiar works by Britten with a substantial selection of Oldham's choral music, placing the two composers in direct conversation. At the center is Britten's Serenade for tenor, horn and strings, a cycle of nocturnal poetry (Tennyson, Blake, Keats and others) framed by the horn's natural harmonics in the Prologue and Epilogue. Horn soloist Annemarie Federle and Tenor Nick Pritchard trace it's shifting atmosphere, with string accompaniment from the London Choral Sinfonia. Britten's Te Deum in C appears in the rarely heard orchestrated version for strings and harp, presented here as a world premiere recording. Oldham's music completes the program: the cantata Laudes Creaturarum on the text of St Francis of Assisi (with Carolyn Sampson), the carol Remember, O thou man, and the ceremonial Sacerdos et Pontifex for chorus and organ - also recorded here for the first time.
At the heart of this new album from renowned British pianist Charles Owen stand two towering masterpieces: Liszt's Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen and Franck's Prelude, Choral et Fugue - works that chart spiritual journeys through grief, doubt and despair toward radiant, redemptive hope. Each embodies the essence of de Profundis - a rising from the depths, a cry of the soul yearning for transcendence. Liszt and Franck, so different in temperament yet united by deep mutual admiration and shared faith, drew profound inspiration from their Catholic spirituality. Where Liszt's unbridled Romanticism blazes with drama and color, Franck's introspection glows with quiet devotion; both speak to the indomitable human spirit. Balancing such intensity are Liszt's visions of nature in the Deux Legendes and Les jeux d'eaux a la Villa d'Este: birdsong, flowing water, and the shimmer of divine light. His piano writing moves from the lightest suspension of sound to thunderous resonance, creating musical landscapes of awe and serenity. Charles Owen brings this immensely personal recording to life with luminous clarity and poetic insight, revealing music of both earthly struggle and eternal hope.
This recital brings together three late piano groupings by Franz Schubert, works that distil his distinctive blend of intimacy, lyricism and emotional ambiguity. The program centers on the complete Six Moments musicaux D.780, framed by the poignant Allegretto in C minor D.915 and the Drei Klavierstucke D.946, composed in the final year of Schubert's life. Rich in expressive depth, the Moments musicaux move effortlessly between simplicity and complexity: gentle lyricism gives way to sudden shadows, major and minor coexist in close tension, and fleeting dance rhythms dissolve into quiet resignation. The Allegretto D.915, composed as a farewell to a close friend, exemplifies Schubert's rare gift for finding increased poignancy in moments of apparent calm. The Drei Klavierstucke, published posthumously, stand as impromptus in all but name-restless, searching works that juxtapose turbulence with luminous stillness. For pianist Katya Apekisheva, Schubert has been a lifelong companion. This recording represents a deeply personal homage, shaped by years of performing and living with this music. Recorded on a Steinway Model D at Syde Manor, the album offers a thoughtful, finely judged reading of some of Schubert's most inward and compelling piano writing.
Songs of Angels marks the 400th anniversary of Orlando Gibbons' death, with a thoughtfully curated program of choral music forming a landmark recording in Ora Singers' Reflections series. Here, Renaissance masterworks inspire living composers to respond in their own voices - not in imitation of Gibbons, but in dialogue with him across the centuries. Performed by the highly acclaimed choir under Suzi Digby OBE, the album places the ten complete surviving full anthems by Orlando Gibbons at it's centre-ranging from favourites such as O clap your hands and Hosanna to the Son of David to lesser-heard masterpieces including I am the resurrection and O Lord, how do my woes increase. Several works appear in modern reconstructions by David Skinner, allowing these pieces to be heard complete. Interwoven throughout are Gibbons' hymns from Hymns and Songs of the Church (1623), reimagined for the 21st century in jazz-inflected arrangements by pianist and arranger Harry Baker, combining choir and piano in a fresh yet respectful sound world. Continuing Ora Singers' commitment to commissioning, across a stellar decade of activity as one of the UK's foremost chamber choirs, new works by Marco Galvani, Nicola LeFanu, Cecilia McDowall and Will Todd respond directly to Gibbons' originals-offering a vivid contemporary counterpart to his clarity, balance and depth of feeling.
This first volume of Jae-Hyuck Cho's complete Mozart piano sonata cycle reflects the pianist's belief that Mozart's keyboard writing is inseparable from the vocal world of his operas - music that should feel sung, alive, breathing and vividly expressive. Cho approaches these works as dialogues filled with wit, drama and character, seeking not perfection but truth in every phrase. The program begins with the Sonata in C major, K.545, whose apparent simplicity reveals Mozart's precision and elegance. The Fantasia in C minor, K.475, and the Sonata in C minor, K.457, follow as powerful companion works: improvisatory, unpredictable and stormy, yet touched by tenderness. Cho presents them as a single expressive journey, from the Fantasia's restless soliloquy to the Sonata's theatrical sweep, aria-like Adagio and fiercely driven finale. The Sonata in B-flat major, K.333, closes the album with it's lyrical generosity and classical poise - a radiant counterpart to the emotional turbulence of the C-minor pieces. Recorded with Grammy winning producer Michael Fine, this release introduces a cycle shaped by Cho's conviction that Mozart's piano music speaks, laughs and sighs with the freedom and spontaneity of song.
Trio Barclay present Beyond The Pacific, an album of contemporary works for piano trio that sits at the intersection of chamber music excellence and a 21st-century American musical experience. The album opens with a cathartic journey: the Piano Trio No. 1 of Sheridan Seyfried. Energetic and heartfelt in equal measure, the range of tones and color on display throughout the album is immediately apparent. Elsewhere, "Orcas Island: The Rose of the San Juan Islands" by John Wineglass heightens the imagery, depicting a stunning portrait of the seascapes of the Pacific Northwest. Further down the Western coastline, Michael Fine's "California" delights in the fascinating multiculturalism of the Golden State, the third of three works showcased fittingly by three of California's foremost chamber musicians. Trio Barclay present these thought-provoking works with their usual flair and vigour. Having fostered a reputation as an ensemble of big musical personalities who create dynamic and exciting musical experiences across North America and beyond, this album is a moving and nostalgic return home, underscored by three gems of contemporary music.
Eugene Ysaye - "the King of the Violin" - was one of the most influential figures in the history of string playing. A performer of dazzling brilliance and expressive depth, Ysaye transformed violin technique into a language of pure emotion, inspiring composers from Franck and Saint-Saens to Debussy and Chausson, while his own music captures that same fusion of virtuosity and soul. This new album brings together some of Ysaye's most evocative and rarely heard works -from the youthful Grande valse de concert and poetic Reve d'enfant to the passionate Poeme elegiaque, the tender Amitie, and the rhapsodic Extase. In the hands of award-winning artists Natalia Lomeiko, Yuri Zhislin, and Ivan Martin, the music reveals Ysaye's extraordinary ability to merge Romantic lyricism with bold harmonic imagination. A journey through nostalgia, friendship, ecstasy, and reflection, this new album of Ysaye's works reveals the heart of a composer whose music, like his playing, was devoted to expression over showmanship.
Defiance is sound against silence - fragile, eruptive, unbound. Finnish saxophonist-composer Esa Pietila presents his most personal solo statement to date: eight original works, eight unfolding journeys - spheres of resonance, waves of liberation, fire, mist, and crystalline edges. Drawing on contemporary classical, avant-garde and free-jazz vocabularies, Pietila creates a cycle of contrasting sound worlds - from the circular resonances of Sphere and the crystalline brilliance of Diamond Jor to the eruptive intensity of Fire and the spacious lyricism of Colours of Liberation. Recorded in the extraordinary and resonant acoustics of the medieval Church of St. Lawrence in Finland, Defiance captures the full breadth of Pietila's sound: whispering, calling, resisting, expanding beyond boundaries. It is both a manifesto of freedom and a meditation on breath, silence, and the human voice within one instrument.
Life Stories brings together soprano Claire Booth and pianist Jams Coleman in a vibrant program exploring the borderland between classical song and cabaret. At it's center is Zoe Martlew's Hotel Babylon, a contemporary cycle written for Booth: seven sharply drawn character studies that trace a playful yet unsettling journey through temptation, vice and redemption. Blending cabaret, expressionism, tango and baroque echoes, Martlew's music creates a modern counterpart to Schoenberg's Brettl-Lieder, reimagined for the 21st century. Surrounding this new work is a constellation of composers who also navigate the everyday and the existential through song. Gershwin's The Man I Love and I Got Rhythm offer melodic clarity and bittersweet simplicity; Eisler's Hollywooder Liederbuch excerpts deliver intimate, politically charged reflections from the composer's American exile; and Poulenc's Banalites reveals profound emotion beneath it's surface wit and elegance. Earl Wild's piano transcriptions of Gershwin bring Romantic virtuosity into dialogue with the album's lyrical core. The program concludes with Thomas Ades' Life Story, a candid, fragmented setting of Tennessee Williams that mirrors the fragile human connections running through the disc. Together, these works form a compelling portrait of storytelling in song-by turns ironic, tender, biting, and deeply humane.
A compelling introduction to the choral works of Simon Beattie, this album showcases a fresh yet deeply rooted voice in British music. Entirely self-taught, Beattie draws on the English choral tradition with a rare sensitivity to text and vocal colour. His settings range from medieval Latin liturgy to contemporary poetry by Rowan Williams and Carol Ann Duffy, as well as Beattie's own English translations of Rilke and Heine. Highlights include Advent Calendar, first broadcast by St John's College, Cambridge; the evocative Missa Sanctae Annae for upper voices; and poignant standalone works such as A Remembrance and The World to me. Whether writing for massed voices or just two lines in counterpoint, Beattie's music is marked by narrative clarity, lyrical precision, and emotional resonance. Performed by the London Choral Sinfonia under Michael Waldron, this album includes many premiere recordings and affirms Beattie's growing reputation as a distinctive choral composer.
