Rachmaninoff's etudes-tableaux, Op. 39 is a masterpiece of late Romanticism, full of extreme contrasts with an overwhelming melancholy. Ravel's Miroirs explores a concise and colourful language, exemplified by sonic experiments, rarefied timbres and a refinement of utterance demanding meticulous technical clarity. Pianist Catalin Serban has long wanted to present these two great piano cycles juxtaposed, exploring the tensions between them and finding an inner arc that spans both cycles.

On 13 November 2026, Metier is proud to present Distant Horizons from pianist David Palmer, featuring works by Robert Saxton, Thomas Metcalf, and David Palmer himself. David Palmer and Thomas Metcalf met through Robert Saxton when they were both his students at Worcester College, Oxford, and have worked on projects together continuously over the past decade. The album is an exciting multi-layered collaboration exploring and visualising themes of fragmentation and the intangible through the language of music, and reflects the close collaborative friendships between the three composers. As students, Thomas Metcalf and David Palmer were inspired by Robert Saxton's music, the rigour of his process, and his respect for and commitment to the craft of composition. This album stands as a reflection of those values while displaying the evolution and development of their own compositional voices. Saxton's work 'Distant Horizons' was commissioned by and dedicated to David Palmer: it's seven movements each address an aspect of the title, exploring distance in music, whether that be in registers, intervals, harmony, or melody, and the idea of moving towards something ungraspable. 'Distant Horizons' is a radiant, intricate, and engrossing work, demonstrating all the aspects of Saxton's imaginative and technically masterful music. Saxton's music provides a gateway to the pieces by Thomas Metcalf and David Palmer, which are more fragmented and modernist, but also illuminating and colourful. Metcalf's two pieces 'Arrays' and 'Involuntary' are separated by five years and display his fascinating compositional journey of aesthetic and technical exploration. 'Arrays' considers how a varyingly pixelated text can be used to create musical structure and material, a playful interpretation of what 'word-setting' really entails. The work was highly commended by the jury of the Royal Musical Association's Tippett Medal (2023). 'Involuntary' contemplates involuntary musical imagery (INMI): the phenomenon known colloquially as 'earworm', aiming to translate Metcalf's experience of it as an annoying transient memory into a single work for piano. David Palmer's own innovative piece demonstrates his ever-searching mind both as a performer and as a composer. 'Twine' takes it's name from the method of it's construction: multiple independent lines intertwined to form a single tightly bound strand which then gradually frays. After early advice and support from Benjamin Britten, Robert Saxton studied with Elisabeth Lutyens, Robin Holloway, Robert Sherlaw Johnson and Luciano Berio. He was awarded first prize at the 1975 Gaudeamus Competition in Holland and, from 1985-86 was the Fulbright Arts Award Fellow at Princeton University, USA. His output includes orchestral, chamber, and solo music, and opera, through which he has collaborated with many major artists and ensembles. He is Emeritus Professor at Oxford University. Thomas Metcalf is a musicologist and composer specialising in music, visual art, and intermediality, and is currently the Christopher Cox Junior Research Fellow at New College, Oxford. David Palmer is a London-based composer and pianist specialising in 20th- and 21st-century repertoire. He is a College Lecturer in Music at Keble College, Oxford, and at the Royal College of Music Junior Department.

GRAMMY Award-winning tenor Nicholas Phan's thoughtful and probing recital program Fellow Citizens delves into stories of immigration and migration through compositional voices ranging from the 19th century to the present day. Nick explains, 'The 'wanderer' has been a trope at the centre of song repertoire since the advent of the art form fostered by travelling troubadours; through the migrant journeymen protagonists of Schubert, Mahler, and their contemporaries; to today's itinerant singer-songwriters.' Fellow Citizens, with Nick's fellow GRAMMY Award winner pianist Myra Huang, is bookended by works of composers who migrated during their lifetimes. The album opens with 'God Bless America,' Irving Berlin's musical prayer of thanksgiving to the nation that gave him refuge as a child fleeing pogroms in Russia. In the closing set of songs are by Robert Owens and Florence Price, each of whom followed the path of America's Great Migration in the twentieth century, whilst Rebecca Clarke's relocation to the United States was prompted by the Second World War. Songs by British-American composer Rebecca Clarke and British composer Errollyn Wallen CBE, alongside works by Franz Schubert and Ralph Vaughan Williams, explore the act of traveling from one place to another. Folk-song arrangements by Bela Bartók and Antonín Dvorak - both of whom spent extended periods in America - sit alongside an arrangement of the folk-gospel tune Poor Wayfaring Stranger by Ohio-born composer Steven Mark Kohn. Ruth Crawford Seeger's striking setting of Chinese-American poet and actor Hsi Tseng Tsiang's Chinaman, Laundryman, is juxtaposed with Schubert's expansive setting of Franz von Schober's poem romanticising the figure of the homeless wanderer as a kind of eternal pilgrim. Mohammed Fairouz's setting of W. H. Auden's poem, Refugee Blues, recounts the plight of Jewish refugees during World War II, who found themselves denied entry at nearly every port as they sought to escape the Holocaust. The title track comes from a song by Chicago-based composer Eric Malmquist, an eloquent setting of Carl Sandburg's poem of the same name. The world premiere recording of Shawn Okpebholo's cycle, The Beautiful, responds to Sandburg's poem, meditating on the question of who are our fellow citizens as Americans, through settings of poems by Margaret Noodin, Carl Sandburg, Claude McKay, and Tsitsi Jaji. Booklet art features historical images of immigrants passing through Angel and Ellis Island, as well as scenes from the Great Migration. In the year of America250, Fellow Citizens reflects on two enduring narratives in American history: one that asserts America is for Americans and another that celebrates the country as a Nation of Immigrants.

In the years immediately leading up to the First World War the Royal College of Music in London welcomed three of the most brilliant young musicians of their generation as students: Eugene Goossens, Arthur Bliss, and Herbert Howells. Close friends as they became, their musical personalities nevertheless evolved over the following years as notably distinct from one another. This disc brings something of their individual characteristics to the fore through a selection of their rarely performed solo songs, including four first recordings and three unpublished works. The songs are performed by tenor James Geer and pianist Ronald Woodley in this continuation of their long-standing partnership.

The French composer Florent Schmitt was born in 1870, in Meurthe-et-Moselle, close to the German border. He studied music locally before entering the Paris Conservatoire aged nineteen, where he studied with Gabriel Faure, Jules Massenet, Theodore Dubois, and Albert Lavignac. Winner of the Prix de Rome in 1900, Schmitt saw his post-romantic music regularly performed in France before the second world war, but subsequently his music became neglected and is now very rarely played (or recorded). This recording of his Symphonie concertante, featuring Peter Donohoe as soloist, is only the second commercial recording of the piece. Cancunik, 'Suite in Two Parts', was composed for a competition run by the Compagnie francaise de radiophonie which oversaw Radio-Paris. The suite won first prize, and here receives it's premiere recording. The other pieces on the album (Three Dances and Memorial) are orchestrations by the composer of his own works, originally written for solo piano.

On 6 November 2026, Divine Art is thrilled to announce Window to the Stars, it's second release devoted to the highly appealing chamber music of Scottish composer Helen Leach. Window to the Stars follows her hugely successful 2024 debut album Diary of the Bee, and features an acclaimed lineup of artists, including pianist Simon Leach, cellist Adrian Bradbury, clarinettist John Bradbury, and violinist Benedict Holland. A cornucopia of new, imaginative works, Window to the Stars overflows with finely crafted and deeply redolent, sensitive music, with titles set to become classic repertoire. Leach writes: 'Often inspired by the abundance and timeless beauty of the natural world here in Scotland' Window to the Stars combines lush 'romantic lyricism, bursts of harmonic colour with evocative textures. At times majestic and dramatic, elsewhere infused with deep peace and moments of lightheartedness, the music reflects my own inner world'. 'Out of the Depths', the tender and poignant opening work for solo cello, is followed by two pieces transporting us to the wild and beautiful Scottish landscape: 'As the Feet of a Deer', a rich, expressive, earthen combination of clarinet, cello, and piano, conveying the stag's nobility and physicality, and 'Wherever I Wander', which is inspired by Robert Burns' poetry, begins with a simple folk melody, rhapsodic in it's nostalgia for a treasured homeland, and ends softly with a sense of sublime peace. 'When the Seasons Danced' also reflects the natural world, taking the listener through the seasons and landscapes and ending with the dreamy movement that gives the album it's title, 'Winter: Window to the Stars', which leaves a sense of wonder with distant echoes of Christmas bells. 'The Dove of Peace', for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano, is a tribute to the beautiful, spiritual musical language of Messiaen's 'Quatuor pour la fin du temps', articulating our need for peace. 'Hommage a Edgar Degas' celebrates an artist beloved among musicians and dancers alike through melodic lines, musical gestures, and vivid colours reflecting the forms and movements of Degas' works. The uplifting and deeply spiritual 'Butterfly Garden draws on the inherent ethereal nature of the clarinet, while the expansive melody and undulating accompaniment of 'Prelude for a Royal Swan' for cello and piano seek to portray the beauty, dignity, and unwavering commitment of England's late Queen. Hallmarked with vivid storytelling and melodic strength, the distinctive compositional voice of Helen Leach is becoming increasingly regarded internationally, with the music of her Divine Art 2024 debut album Diary of the Bee being regularly broadcast on the airwaves around the world. Helen has a background as a clarinettist and church musician and was Principal Clarinet with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, going on to study at the Royal Northern College of Music. She was a Director of Worship in Manchester and there directed the music for live BBC Radio 4 broadcasts. In 2022, she became Composer-in-Residence at Marchmont House, Berwickshire, and the historic Lorimer Music Room. Helen works with the BBC Songs of Praise team, and since 2024 has conducted and arranged the ensemble music for the annual BBC Young Chorister of the Year event with Aled Jones.

On Daydreaming, Italian saxophonist and composer Carla Marciano transforms memory, grief and love into an intensely personal musical journey. Dedicated to her father Giovanni, the album reflects the profound bond between father and daughter and the lifelong passion for music he inspired in her. Marciano's compositions move between intimate reflection, lyrical beauty and powerful improvisation. Her alto and sopranino saxophones are joined by her long-standing quartet (Alessandro La Corte, Aldo Vigorito and Gaetano Fasano with Dario Deidda appearing on acoustic bass). Several pieces are further enriched by the Philharmonic Orchestra of the 'Giuseppe Verdi' Theater in Salerno, conducted by Antonio Sinagra. Created during a period marked by the loss of both parents and Marciano's recovery from a serious road accident, Daydreaming is also a testimony to resilience and renewal. The music evokes childhood memories, shared songs, imagined embraces and the enduring presence of loved ones. It is an album about absence, but above all about gratitude, courage and a love that continues beyond time.

Ephemer takes it's title from the Greek word for something that lasts only a short time: fleeting, transient and impermanent. It is a fitting image for the music of bassist, composer and bandleader Vroni Frisch, whose quartet thrives on the tension between carefully shaped compositions and moments that can exist only once. With Gregor Schor on reeds, Manuel Seng on piano and Rhodes, Tobias Frohnhofer on drums and Frisch on six-string electric bass, the VRONI FRISCH BAND moves freely between contemporary jazz, lyrical chamber-like passages, cinematic colours and powerful grooves. Frisch's writing leaves room for contrast: music can be smooth and delicate one moment, rough and untamed the next. At the centre are strong melodies, rich harmonies and intricate rhythms, while improvisation gives each piece the freedom to take an unexpected turn. Across nine original compositions, Ephemer captures that balance of structure and openness. Tracks such as 'Why,' 'Stream,' 'Lugano,' 'Drab' and the expansive 'Megalodon' reveal a band equally comfortable with subtle interplay and grand gestures. The result is music that feels composed without becoming fixed: constantly shifting, developing and responding in the moment. For Frisch, whose work spans jazz, improvised music, art-pop and large ensemble composition, the quartet has become a focused space in which to bring together these different musical experiences.

Greatest ever Danish pianist in rare releases. With this eighth volume, Danacord's series The Great Danish Pianist Victor Schioler is brought to it's conclusion. The series contains the greater part of Schioler's studio recordings, supplemented by a selection of live performances and productions made for Danish Radio, and it encompasses, with a single exception, all the works he recorded in the studio. Where he recorded the same work on more than one occasion, one version has sometimes been included and in other cases two or three. Volume 8 presents Schioler in three capacities: as solo pianist, chamber musician and concerto soloist. CD 1 opens with Beethoven's Cello Sonata Op. 69 and Brahms's Cello Sonata in F major, both featuring Schioler in inspired and sympathetic partnership with the 22-year-old Erling Blo¨ndal Bengtsson, who had by 1954, when these recordings were made, already established a considerable reputation. The two cello sonatas are followed by solo piano music, again by Beethoven and Brahms. First comes the Moonlight Sonata, which Schioler recorded no fewer than three times: in 1929, 1942 and 1951. The first and last of these recordings-both outstanding performances-are interpretatively quite close to one another: a slow and dreamlike first movement, a restrained and delicately played middle movement taken at a moderate tempo, and finally a dramatic and stormy yet perfectly controlled finale. The 1942 recording presented here is no less masterly, but differs markedly from the 1929 and 1951 versions in it's more classical approach, with a considerably faster and far less inflected first movement. Fu¨r Elise, which follows immediately afterwards, is not generally counted among Beethoven's major works, popular though it is. Yet Schioler's delicate touch and poetic phrasing elevate this modest work into a little masterpiece. Victor Schioler Volume 1 DACOCD 491-492 Victor Schioler Volume 2 DACOCD 782-783 Victor Schioler Volume 3 DACOCD 832-833 Victor Schioler Volume 4 DACOCD 867-868 Victor Schioler Volume 5 DACOCD 872-873 Victor Schioler Volume 6 DACOCD 962-963 Victor Schioler Volume 7 DACOCD 987-988

The famous Rarities of Piano Music from Husum When Peter Froundjian conceived a festival devoted exclusively to unknown and rarely played piano music, some might have thought the idea too ambitious or even foolhardy. It proved to be a stroke of genius, and since 1987 the strong support of audiences from many countries has been consistent. It has kept it's intimate atmosphere, with a maximum of 130 listeners in the Rittersaal of Husum castle, and 40 more beyond an open door, with a TV screen to keep in touch. It's influence around the world has been considerable, with more ambitious concert programmes in evidence and record companies willing to take on a wider repertoire. This disc contains a particularly large number of short pieces by ten different composers. However, the producers have arranged them thoughtfully into groups and sequences which should make for a coherent listening experience. If these examples encourage listeners to seek out other examples of music by the composers, then they have surely served their purpose. As usual Peter Froundjian made the initial choice of music, with the agreement of the performers. His co-producer Jesper Buhl and the team at Danacord took care of the technicalside, including the final order of tracks and the maximum duration to suit most CD players - about 79 minutes these days. The recordings are all taken from live performances with no editing. If the very noccasional 'noises off' can be heard, they only serve to show how quiet and concentrated the Husum audiences are most of the time.

The third and final volume in an enlightening series of Liszt's music for two pianos: new recordings masterminded by the great Lisztian of our time, Leslie Howard, and featuring several world-premiere recordings. Leslie Howard's complete survey of the piano music of Liszt has been widely acknowledged as a monument in the history of sound recording. Since that vast project reached completion, however, he has continued to mine the Lisztian archives for buried treasure. In partnership with Mattia Ometto, he has recorded the complete symphonic poems and the Faust and Dante symphonies, in versions for two pianos made by Liszt himself. Issued by Brilliant Classics, these collections have met with enthusiasm from dedicated Lisztians, who will be even more eager to acquire the final volume of the series. This features several works better known in their solo-piano versions, such as the Reminiscences de Don Juan de Mozart and the Fantasia and Fugue on B-A-C-H. The Concerto pathetique may be slightly more familiar in this, it's original version for two pianos, but the Groes Konzertstück based on three of Mendelssohn's Songs without Words is a genuine rarity. There are two versions of the multi-authored Hexameron based on a theme from Bellini's I Puritani, the second of which has never been recorded, along with a transcription of the Festklange tone-poem which again differs in detail from the one recorded by Howard and Ometto in their earlier survey. The finer points of the editions are engagingly discussed by Howard in his booklet note. The performances themselves lack nothing for drama as well as authenticity, and open a window on to the generosity of Liszt's artistic relationship with earlier masters and notable contemporaries. If we view Liszt these days as a pivotal figure in 19th-century music, it is not least thanks to Howard's dauntless dedication to the cause.

Two remarkable yet rarely heard masterpieces of the late Romantic piano concerto repertoire come together in this compelling recording by acclaimed pianist Severin von Eckardstein, the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra, and conductor Lukasz Borowicz. Franz Xaver Scharwenka's dazzling Third Piano Concerto radiates brilliance, lyrical warmth and virtuoso flair, while Nicolai Medtner's deeply personal Third Piano Concerto unfolds as an epic musical journey, rich in mystery, melancholy and spiritual depth. Together, these works reveal two strikingly different visions of Romantic expression - one outwardly brilliant, the other profoundly introspective. For von Eckardstein, Medtner's Third Concerto represents the summit of the composer's creative life: a work that rewards every new listening with fresh discoveries and emotional depth. Paired with Scharwenka's exuberant, richly coloured concerto, this recording offers a fascinating dialogue between two overlooked masters of the Romantic tradition. Performed by one of Poland's finest orchestras under one of today's leading advocates of Central European repertoire, this album shines new light on two extraordinary concertos that deserve a place alongside the great classics.

Jacques Casterede (1926-2014) was a distinguished French composer, pianist, teacher, and musical analyst whose career bridged the traditions of twentieth-century French music and a personal, highly expressive compositional language. Born in Paris on 10 April 1926, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire under influential teachers including Tony Aubin and Olivier Messiaen. His exceptional talent earned him first prizes in piano, chamber music, harmony, composition, and musical analysis, culminating in the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1953. Following a residency at the Villa Medici in Rome, Casterede returned to France and became an important educator at the Paris Conservatoire, where he taught analysis, composition, and musicianship for several decades. Casterede's music combines melodic vitality, modal inflections, rhythmic energy, and rich harmonic textures. Although influenced by French masters such as Debussy, Ravel, Honegger, and Messiaen, he developed a distinctive style that balanced clarity of form with expressive freedom. Among his most significant contributions to the string orchestra repertoire is the Symphonie pour orchestre a cordes No.1 (1952). Written when the composer was still in his twenties, the work reveals many of the characteristics that would define his mature style: continuous melodic movement, energetic rhythmic writing, and a sophisticated harmonic language rooted in both tonal and modal traditions. Another important work for string orchestra is the Prelude et fugue (1960), a composition that reflects Casterede's deep interest in contrapuntal technique. Critics have noted it's combination of neo-Baroque energy with a modern harmonic vocabulary, producing music that is both intellectually rigorous and immediately engaging. Casterede also wrote concertante works featuring string orchestra, including his Concerto No.1 for Piano and String Orchestra (1954), and Trois paysages d'automne (1982) for cello and strings. These compositions further demonstrate his affinity for the sonorities of the string ensemble and his ability to combine lyricism with structural elegance. This recording is the 6th CD on Brilliant Classics of the Ciconia Consort (The Hague String Orchestra), a Dutch string orchestra conducted by Dick van Gasteren, an internationally active conductor, who was Bernard Haitink's assistant during the Mahler Festival Amsterdam in 1995. Critical praise for the Ciconia Consort on Brilliant Classics: 'The Ciconia Consort does Casterede proud, dispatching the counterpoint in the finale with relish I enjoyed this disc greatly.' Fanfare (French Music, 95734) 'The Ciconia Consort, resident at the Hague, are a fine ensemble, and this collection will not disappoint.' MusicWeb International (American Pioneers, 96086).

Ferdinand Ries (1784-1838) was born in Bonn and moved to Vienna in 1801, where his life became closely related to that of Ludwig van Beethoven (also a native of Bonn...). Ries studied piano with him, copied his scores and was the interpreter of several new works, notably the premiere of the Third Piano Concerto. Ries also wrote the first biography of Beethoven, an invaluable source of first-hand information. Ries' style inevitably is modelled on that of his master Beethoven; he was, however, strong enough to stand on his own. His compositions include symphonies, violin and piano concertos, three operas, and numerous chamber works, reflecting a style that bridges classicism and early romanticism. The compositions presented on this recording - only a small part of Ferdinand Ries' extensive and still largely unexplored catalogue - belong to the genre of salon music: pieces designed for performance and private enjoyment, with brilliant and virtuosic tones. While remaining within conventional forms, Ries infuses these pages with surprising vitality and inventive richness. What is striking above all is the breadth of the structures: traditionally short genres such as polonaises and marches are significantly expanded to accommodate a generous amount of musical ideas. Played with gusto and flair by Gianluca Faragli and Silvia Giliberto. Faragli already recorded successfully a CD with piano works by Ries for Piano Classics.

Brian Brockless (1926-95), London-born and -bred, was a conductor, organist, teacher and composer whose career embraced orchestral performance, sacred music, musical education and the revival of Renaissance polyphony. After studying with Herbert Howells, Matyas Seiber and Sergiu Celibidache, he taught harmony and orchestration at the Royal Academy of Music and served for many years as Director of Music at a City of London church. This album - the first recorded survey of his music - ranges from works for string orchestra and piano to songs, sacred vocal music and music for organ, most of them prepared from unpublished manuscripts. The music as a whole is marked by an essential Englishness, one which looks to earlier traditions and also reflects the modernity of the second half of the twentieth century.

With this new release, Reinhardt Winkler and his outstanding ensemble present a deeply expressive journey through selected Jazz Standards- performed with elegance, sensitivity, and remarkable musical depth. This is music that breathes naturally. Every note is played with intention, every interaction shaped by mutual listening, trust, and pure musicality. Rather than simply interpreting standards, the musicians celebrate them with warmth, sophistication, and an unmistakable sense of atmosphere. The quartet creates space for one another, allowing the music to unfold with authenticity and emotional honesty. At the center of the ensemble's flowing interplay is Reinhardt Winkler's drumming- combining subtle groove, refined touch, and deep musical sensitivity. With understated rhythmic intuition and an elegant sense of space, his playing guides the music naturally, always serving the collective sound while giving it momentum, warmth, and quiet intensity. The result is an album full of nuanced dynamics, refined interplay, and genuine artistic dedication.

Jonathan Ferrucci, one of the most exciting young pianists, presents his eagerly awaited second recording for audite. Following his highly acclaimed performances of Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccatas, Ferrucci now turns his attention to one of Bach's best-known and most demanding keyboard cycles: the six "English Suites", a universe of Baroque music comprising concertante preludes and French dance movements.

'A single motif is enough to identify the composer,' is howfriends have described the work of the composer Anatolijus senderovas (1945-2019). A distinctive artist who balanced the rationality of contemporary music with an innate emotionality in his work, he left a special mark on Lithuanian musical culture in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, continuing the Litvak thread that is inseparable from Lithuania's cultural history. This album, marking the 80th anniversary of the composer's birth, features three works: the Concerto in Do (2002), the Concerto No 3 for cello and symphony orchestra (2012), and 'The Songs of Shulamith' for cello and symphony orchestra (2000). These works are performed by Gleb Pysniak, one of the most prominent cellists in Lithuania and the Baltic States, and the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Robertas servenikas. ' Text: Rasa Murauskaite-Juskiene English text editor: Joseph Everatt

The publication Der Seele Innerstes ward offenbar on Walther von Goethe brings together exclusively world premiere recordings with a comprehensive accompanying book (edited by Ulf Bastlein and Ariane Ludwig). The compositions of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's eldest, almost completely forgotten grandson are characterised by a wide stylistic range: from delicate 'miniatures en musique' through sarcastic and ironic scenes to sweeping ballads. A pupil of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Carl Loewe, he set to music, amongst other things, texts by his grandfather, by Heinrich Heine, by poets largely unknown today, and also his own poems. Compositionally, he forged his own, often experimental path. Central to his work is his aesthetic of inwardness. Some elements (harmonic breaks, surprising modulations) sound almost 'modern'. Goethe repeatedly explores the boundaries between sung melody and declamatory speech. As he conceives the song in terms of vocal melody, many of his songs are instantly memorable. The performers are Ulf Bastlein (baritone) and Silke Evers (soprano). Their musical partners at the grand pianos - five historical instruments, including the Goethe family's Nannette Streicher grand piano - are Christoph Ritter and Hedayet Jonas Djeddikar. Contributions on biographical, musical and cultural-historical aspects were written by, amongst others, Ulf Bastlein, Dieter Borchmeyer, Jochen Golz, Peter Gülke, Christian Hain, Karsten Hein and Ariane Ludwig.

The Seasons 2.0 is an adventurous, contemporary journey through the year, where music, poetry, illustration and performance flow together into a single 360° artistic experience. Pianist Marie Francois reimagines Tchaikovsky's 150-year-old concept for today. Every four weeks, a new interpretation of one of his monthly pieces is released, paired with a freshly written poem and a bespoke illustration - each publication including a QR code that leads directly to the corresponding music and the narrated poetry. This new album is a compilation of the piano music.

Tapestries brings together trumpeter Adam Zinatelli, composer and percussionist Chris Sies, pianist Chloe Weston, and Kensington Sinfonia in contemporary works by Canadian composers Chris Sies, Evan Ware, Mark Limacher, and Jens Ibsen. Written for combinations of trumpet, piano, percussion, and string orchestra, the four works explore connections between memory, perception, musical history, and experimentation, drawing on influences that range from Baroque traditions to psychedelia and progressive metal. At the centre of the album is Sies' Tapestries, an exploration of sound, colour, and memory shaped by experiences of psychedelia, sonic hallucination, and synesthesia. Evan Ware's Concerto for Trumpet and Strings approaches Baroque sensibilities through a contemporary harmonic language, while Mark Limacher's Ruminations considers musical variation through the shifting processes of remembering and reimagining. Jens Ibsen's Overdrive brings the intensity of progressive metal into the string orchestra, expanding it's sonic vocabulary through a distinctly different musical influence. Together, the works move between historical reference and contemporary experimentation, revealing contrasting approaches to texture, form, and expression within Canadian composition. Trumpeter Adam Zinatelli has served as Principal Trumpet of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra since 2009 and is a founding member of the Canadian National Brass Project and Reveille Trumpet Collective. Composer and percussionist Chris Sies has composed, produced, and performed with artists and ensembles across a wide range of musical settings, with performances throughout North America. Pianist Chloe Weston performs as a soloist and chamber musician across Canada and internationally, with a focus on creating connection through shared musical experience. Founded in Calgary in 1988, Kensington Sinfonia has built a longstanding commitment to chamber and string orchestra repertoire, including the commissioning and performance of Canadian music. On Tapestries, these musicians come together in a program that reflects the breadth of contemporary Canadian musical expression.

The Portuguese composer Fernando Lopes Graca (1906-94) was one of the thousands of victims of Salazar's right-wing dictatorship: his works were confiscated, and he was prohibited from teaching. He responded in music, with a prolific output inspired by both folk-music and the evolving musical language of his European contemporaries, marrying tradition and modernism. His songs for voice and piano set texts from both popular and 'high' culture, unified by his ardent humanist outlook and the dignified manner in which he expressed it.

Martin Eastick (b. 1957) has a reputation as an authority on some of the most obscure piano music of the nineteenth century: his south London home is a repository of a vast number of rare scores. But even those who consult him for advice on repertoire are generally unaware that he is himself a composer, his handful of compositions reflecting his fondness for the music of the 'Golden Age' pianist-composers whom he admires, from Chopin and Czerny to Godowsky and Paderewski, just sometimes with a hint of jazz - it's overt and timeless charm belying it's fearsome difficulty.

This album brings together a striking collection of works written for or premiered by Robert Plane, one of today's most distinguished clarinettists. Music by Judith Bingham, Sally Beamish, Piers Hellawell and David Matthews reveals the instrument's remarkable expressive range. Bingham's Elsewhere takes inspiration from the hidden details of Botticelli's paintings, transforming overlooked moments into vivid musical landscapes. Alongside it are Beamish's inventive Tom's Turn, Hellawell's evocative Woodsmoke and The Rising of Sirius, Matthews's moving tribute A Song for Barrie, and Bingham's compelling concerto Barnaby Rudge. With the Elias String Quartet, Gould Piano Trio, James Gilchrist, Tim Horton and Rhys Herbert, Plane celebrates the imagination and enduring creative partnerships behind these exceptional commissions.

The captivating and mysterious world of Charles-Valentin Alkan, explored by his most insightful modern interpreter, in recordings which have already won definitive status among international pianophiles. According to Liszt, Alkan possessed the finest technique he had ever seen - yet he preferred the life of a recluse. His compositional output comprises some of the most extraordinary music ever conceived for the piano. His mighty Douze Etudes dans tous les tons mineurs, Op.39 (1857) - the epic sequel to the Douze Etudes dans tous les tons majeurs, Op.35 (1848) - is the fullest embodiment of his creative powers. This monumental set of studies runs to 277 pages and comprises some of Alkan's finest music including a Symphony and Concerto for solo piano and a magnificent set of variations on an original theme, Le festin d'Esope. Other major works include the Trois Grandes Etudes pour les deux mains separees et reunies, (1840), the Grande Sonate, Op.33 (1847), the Sonatine, Op.61 (1861) and the 48 Motifs ou Esquisses, Op.63 (1861). All these works and many others feature in this compilation of Mark Viner's Alkan recordings for Piano Classics, now gathered as a budget-priced box. On their original release, each album garnered enthusiastic reviews, affirming Viner's status as not just a pianist committed to bringing this still unfamiliar music to wider attention, but an artist with the technique and the insight to present Alkan as the figure so admired by Liszt and many other contemporaries. Reviewing these albums in Gramophone, Jeremy Nicholas has remarked: 'The more one listens to Alkan, the more one realises what an extraordinary composer he is The album that captured my imagination and admiration like no other this year came from the extraordinary (and hugely under-rated) Mark Viner, whose playing of Alkan's early works is simply staggering, putting one in mind of Marc-Andre Hamelin and Earl Wild.' This set includes Viner's own introduction to Alkan's life and work, making it the definitive starting-point for any listener seeking to investigate one of the most fantastical figures of Romantic pianism.

Carolina Pazzini Uccelli (Florence, 1801 - 1858) was a composer, symphonist, and a skilful self-promoter, defined as "symphoniste" by French critic Henri Blanchard in 1842. She made her debut with a Symphony published by Ricordi in 1826, but her first major success came with the opera Saul (1830), performed at Florence's Teatro della Pergola thanks to the encouragement of Gioachino Rossini. Widowed in 1832, she continued to have her works performed in Italy and Paris, where she organised concerts with her daughter Emma, a singer, earning critical acclaim and mingling with personalities such as Hugo, Berlioz and Viardot. Her output includes operas, cantatas, symphonies and numerous salon romances. Among her most significant collections are the Quattro Ariette e due Cavatine on texts by Metastasio (1827), dedicated to the British ambassador's wife in Florence, and the cycle Mes reves d'Italie (c. 1843), dedicated to the Duchess of Nemours, which includes pieces performed by celebrated artists such as Rubini, Tamburini and Giulia Grisi. Her works reveal a refined choice of texts, ranging from Metastasian melodrama to Romantic ballads and French chansonnettes. Carolina Pazzini Uccelli represents a pioneering figure in the 19th-century musical landscape, combining compositional talent with organisational ability at a time when women were often excluded from stages and academic institutions. The voice of Marina Comparato - accompanied by Elisabetta Sepe on piano - is the protagonist of this compelling world premiere recording.

Francesco Balilla Pratella is known as a musician and theorist of Futurism, but his activity was much broader: he was a writer, librettist, ethnomusicologist, and director of the "Verdi" Institute in Ravenna. He studied in Pesaro with Antonio Cicognani, to whom he dedicated the Sonata prima per organo op. 23 (1917), which blends references to the Baroque with pushes towards atonality. He contributed with dedication to the dissemination of Italian instrumental music, as evidenced by the transcriptions for viola and piano by Francesco Pasi presented here. This project also includes the 7 Composizioni per viola e pianoforte by Marco Anzoletti (1867-1929), virtuosic and melodramatic, representative of the conflict between operatic tradition and Central European influences. All the pieces on this recording - curated by Federica Cardinali and Lisa Redorici - are world premiere recordings, the result of philological research that recovers an unjustly forgotten Italian instrumental heritage.

Caspar Diethelm (1926-97) was one of the leading Swiss composers of the twentieth century. His free-tonal style - angular yet accessible - drew on the inheritance of several of his predecessors, above all Hindemith, Honegger (both of whom were his teachers), Martin and Schoeck, with Bartók adding rhythmic spice. These influences he combined with an awareness of modernism to form an individual and expressive musical language of his own. These chamber works for clarinet, covering over thirty years of creativity, are variously informed by lyrical tenderness, ironic humour, a dark sense of drama, edgy energy and light-hearted playfulness. Largely unknown until now, they constitute a major addition to the clarinettist's repertoire.

Reference Recordings proudly presents American Triad, with works of Felix Borowski, Ernest Bloch and Beryl Rubinstein. Each composer in the 'triad' has a distinctive credo and style, and each wrote major works for piano and orchestra which are presented on this new album of rarely heard masterpieces - four of which receive their first commercial recordings. Piano soloist Daniel Glover has performed in 42 states and in 25 countries throughout Europe, Asia, North and South America and the Caribbean. He holds a master's degree from the Julliard School, and trained with luminaries including Thomas LaRatta, Nancy Bachus, Jerome Lowenthal, Abbey Simon and Eugene List. He has numerous competition awards including first prize in the prestigious Liederkranz Competition in 1990. Mr. Glover has served on the faculties of New York University, University of the Virgin Islands, University of San Francisco, Notre Dame de Namur University and the Summer Piano Workshop of Kent State University. He has recorded eleven previous albums. He resides in San Francisco and frequently performs locally. The San Francisco Classical Voice remarked, 'The elegance and civility of Glover's approach were musically unimpeachable.' 'Dazzling... a flawless sense of Lisztian style incorporating it's emotional depth.' American Triad was recorded March 31-April 4, 2025 with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, in beautiful and historic Lithuanian National Philharmonic Hall in Vilnius, Lithuania. It was conducted by the GRAMMY award-winning American orchestral conductor and multi-GRAMMY-nominated violinist, John McLaughlin Williams. This release was recorded and mastered by the superb engineering team of Baltic Mobile Recordings: Vilius Keras and Aleksandra Keriene. It was produced by the GRAMMY-winning producing team Encore Consultants LLC (Victor and Marina Ledin).

The final volume of this groundbreaking Thomas Jensen series encapsulates the series as a whole. New remasterings of rare studio recordings from the 1940s complement first-ever releases for live broadcasts from the 1950s and 60s. The repertoire demonstrates Jensen's excellence as a sympathetic concerto partner; an insightful interpreter of Sibelius; and a devoted advocate for the composers of his native Denmark. Note! ALL are first ever releases and all from unpublished radio broadcasts All the previous volumes are available and in stock.