One of the most important missions of the work of the 441 Hz Chamber Choir is performing and promoting contemporary choral music. On a daily basis, the ensemble, under the direction of Anna Wilczewska, carries out a busy concert schedule, performing mainly contemporary music repertoire. This album is a presentation of contemporary choral music originating from countries of the North, mainly from Scandinavia. The album is filled with the diversity of creative inspiration, free references to the folklore, customs and savage northern nature, and originality of the compositional techniques. All this contributes to a broad musical panorama constructed from the works of eleven composers, which, despite this fact, constitutes a coherent, homogeneous whole, which is brilliantly performed by the ensemble.

Slawomir Wilk writes: "I first came across Sergei Bortkiewicz's music while studying at the Academy of Music in Gdansk. It was only his etudes that I had the opportunity to listen to, but even then I found his output extremely interesting. During the pandemic, I chanced upon the composer's Piano Sonata No. 2 while looking for new repertoire and inspiration for myself and the group of my students. I was surprised that such a beautiful piece was practically unknown and not performed in public. Being under the impression of that composition, I decided to learn more about it's creator. Sergei Bortkiewicz turned out to be not only an extremely colorful figure with an interesting biography, but also a very 'prolific' composer who left behind many wonderful works, not only for piano."

Norgard, P.: Seadrift / Nova Genitura / Fons Laetitiae

The three Danish composers Norgard, Sorensen and Abrahamsen have all created new, visionary forms of musical expression, while also managing to renew a deep Romantic yearning to contain the intangible and the mysterious. In this new recording, Trio con Brio Copenhagen displays a keen awareness of the dreamlike idiom of the three composers.

"A commanding vocal and stage presence, bass-baritone George London, heard here in his only Elias recording, leads a noteworthy quartet of vocal soloists. Conductor Christopf von Dohnányi is best-known for his near twenty-year tenure as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra. Completed in 1846 after extensive revising, Elias proved to be Mendelssohn's last completed work of this scale and scope. Newly remastered."

This release features some of Fischer's best-known recordings and also his rarest. His pre-war Schubert recordings are classics of the gramophone and have been almost continuously available. APR's original 1997 transfers of the Impromptus had the benefit of being taken from vinyl pressings of the 78rpm masters and this reissue has allowed us to improve them even further, presenting these gems in the best possible sound. Fischer's recordings of Brahms and Schumann, on the other hand are much less known and indeed his masterly performance of the 1st Brahms Piano Quartet, recorded in Germany just after the start of the war with principals from the Edwin Fischer Chamber Orchestra, and only issued there, is extremely rare. Not much better known are the very fine Brahms group from 1947, and from 1949 we have the Brahms F minor Sonata and the Schumann Fantasy, his only Schumann recording, but a work he described as "a symbol of the soul of the piano."

Daniel Barenboim continues his acclaimed Mozart concerto cycle with the Berlin Philharmonic, widely acknowledged among the greatest orchestras in the world. Barenboim, conducting from the piano, achieves an effortless collaboration with the orchestra, establishing himself once again as a premier Mozart interpreter. Barenboim's intricate playing and sensitive interpretation misses no detail of these works, and draws a warm and vigorous response from the Berliners.

One of the 20th c. greatest interpreters of the works of his contemporary Richard Strauss, W.A. Mozart, and the Austro-German masterworks more generally, the conductor Karl B�hm (1894-1981 was nearly halfway through his long Vienna Philharmonic association when this now historic 1956 Mono recording of Mozart's Requiem, KV626 was realized. The quartet of soloists - Teresa Stich-Randall, Ira Malaniuk, Waldemar Kmentt and Kurt B�hme - among the greatest Mozartian singers of the era, plus the sterling bonus 1957 Beethoven Choral Fantasy, op. 80, insure this disc's import.

William Alwyn composed some fifty works for the orchestra, including five symphonies, a sinfonietta, concertos for flute, oboe, violin, piano, harp, three concerti grossi, and many other descriptive shorter pieces.

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While the unifying thread which links these works is that of loss, the underlying focus is an uplifting celebration of life and love. Gabriel Jackson's Requiem combines traditional solemnity with poems which embrace wide-ranging spirituality, resulting in images of light and radiant optimism. Contrasting poignancy of expression is heard in personal tributes from John Tavener and Francis Pott, while Bob Chilcott uses Pachelbel's famous Canon to set Oscar Wilde's Requiescat. Vasari Singers' Great British Anthems (8.572504) was described as 'essential listening' by Gramophone. Founded in 1980, Vasari Singers is among the leading chamber choirs in Britain, performing music ranging from Renaissance to contemporary. The choir performs regularly in London as well as visiting many of England's cathedrals to sing services, with recent trips to Canterbury, Salisbury, Bath and Ripon. The choir and Jeremy Backhouse are deeply committed to contemporary music and have commissioned over twenty works since 2000, including works by Francis Pott and Gabriel Jackson.

Aside from his only opera Fidelio, Beethoven's general link with the theater in Vienna came about largely with incidental music or songs to be inserted into the works of other composers- insertion arias. Konig Stephan was written to celebrate the politically significant opening of a new theatre in Pest, it's triumphant mood honoring the ruling Austrian Emperor. Standard Bearer of female heroism Leonore Prohaska is commemorated with a Soldier's Chorus and a Romance with harp accompaniment. In Friedrich von Matthisson's poem Opferlied ('Sacrificial Song'), a young man prays to Zeus to bestow upon him beauty and goodness in youth and old age. Two of Beethoven's four settings are heard on this wide-ranging programme.

The American pianist Yvar Mikhashoff commissioned 127 of the world's leading composers to write tangos for him. Between 1983 and 1991 he received an eclectic, stylistically varied range of works that offer a unique body of contemporary tango music for the piano. Tango's origin was in the waltz and mazurka but has long embraced jazz and even electronic music. In this unique collection the span is international and individual, ranging from traditional evocations to include the twelve-tone approach of Milton Babbitt, the minimalism of Tom Johnson, and the very personal voice of Michael Nyman. Having commenced her international career at the age of eleven, Hanna Shybayeva has transformed from being a 'child prodigy' to the mature and exciting musician she is today. Her playing has been praised by both the public and the press for her deep musical interpretations, captivating energy, a great sense of form and a rich colour palette. Devoted to music in every form, Hanna enjoys her solo performances as much as being a partner in both chamber and vocal music.

United States Army Field Band: The Legacy of Edwin Franko Go

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