The Ebor Singers, with director Paul Gameson, returns to the Resonus Classics label with an album of American Christmas music. The contemporary American Christmas choral tradition is a remarkable confluence of stylistic confluences, sacred and secular, which reflect the country’s cultural vibrancy more so than other times of year. Featuring works from composers including Morten Lauridsen, Eric Whitacre, Stephen Paulus, Susan LaBarr, Abbie Betinis, Timothy C. Takach, Jake Runestad, Matthew Culloton, René Clausen, Alfred Burt, Dan Forrest and Melissa Dunphy, the ensemble is joined by harpist Rachel Dent and oboist Jane Wright.

Beethoven’s three sonatas of Op. 10 were published in September 1798 and were written with Beethoven the pianist as much to the forefront as Beethoven the composer. During this time, the young virtuoso was certainly as renowned as a pianist and improviser as he was a composer, and these three early sonatas contain the whole kaleidoscopic range of his youthful musical, emotional and pianistic language. Pianist Daniel Tong returns to Resonus with this period instrument recording, his first solo album for the label, performed on a fortepiano by Paul McNulty – a copy of an 1805 instrument by the celebrated ‘Viennese School’ maker, Anton Walter.

Continuing his landmark survey of the piano works of Elisabeth Lutyens, pianist Martin Jones delves deeper into the music of this undeservedly neglected composer. This second volume features further world premiere recordings including pieces from her early maturity such as The Check Book, a compelling collection of twelve miniatures for children; Piano e Forte that recalls Lutyens’s lifelong enthusiasm for the music of Debussy and explores the possibilities of the instrument in a way she had never attempted before; and Maybe–Encore Op. 159, which was Lutyens’s final work for piano composed in 1982. Also included is an early unpublished sonata movement (Allegro molto) possibly written as early as the 1930s.

Beethoven’s Piano Trios Op. 1 were first performed in 1793 at one of the chamber music soirées held at the home of Prince Karl Lichnowsky – the dedicatee of the whole set – and in the presence of Beethoven’s teacher, Joseph Haydn. The influence of Haydn is clearly apparent in both works, with Beethoven enhancing his teacher’s trademark rhythmic drive with an energetic drama that was to become one of the most distinctive characteristics of Beethoven’s later chamber music. The Rautio Piano Trio returns to Resonus with this first volume of the complete cycle of Beethoven’s Piano Trios, recorded on period instruments. This is the culmination of the Trio’s wider project charting the evolution of the piano trio from its emergence in the mid-eighteenth century, with the music of J.C. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, Mozart and Haydn, through to Beethoven’s complex and mature realization of the genre.

Australian early music group the Elysium Ensemble continue their series of recordings of duos on period instruments focusing on the art of elegant conversation in the Baroque with this album of canons and fantasias by Georg Philipp Telemann. With a programme centered on the Melodious Canons composed in 1738 in Paris, Elysium principals Greg Dikmans (flute) and Lucinda Moon (violin) also introduce an accompanying selection of Telemann’s solo fantasias for their respective instruments. The Elysium Ensemble has been acclaimed by critics for its elegant performances, fine musicianship and authoritative interpretations of music from the Baroque and Classical periods. This special ensemble embodies the concept of elysium (defined in the 17th century as a state of ideal happiness) by bringing together musicians whose awareness of the stylistic demands of the repertoire is combined with a mastery of period instruments. The ensemble’s performances are indicative of the freshness and spontaneity which the musicians bring to this collaboration through discussion, rehearsal, experimentation and research.

The experimental female vocal trio Juice Vocal Ensemble joins Resonus Classics for this unique and innovative collection of seasonal and winter music for upper voices. Formed around works written specially for Juice in a call for scores on a wintry theme, the programme of world premiere recordings also contains new works and arrangements by the group’s three members as well as pieces from Simon Speare, Tarik O’Regan, Bernard Hughes David Breslin, and a new commission from composer Emily Hall. Juice are at the forefront of the UK’s experimental/classical scene, performing new vocal music which draws on classical, world music, jazz, folk, pop, improvisation, and theatre. They have been featured on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM. Juice love experimenting with various art forms and cross-collaboration: they have had their music choreographed by Maurice Causey, have devised their own live vocal score to the 1916 film The Danger Girl, have performed live for a London College of Fashion Show, and have worked with internationally renowned beatboxers Shlomo and Beardyman. All members are experienced and passionate music educators.

Russian Revolutionaries: Ewald & Böhme' marks both the centenary of the 1917 Russian Revolution and the launch of period instrument ensemble The Prince Regent’s Band’s survey of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century Russian brass chamber music. PRB perform two of the revolutionary Victor Ewald Quintets in their original instrumentation along with works by the versatile composer and cornettist Oskar Böhme, a German emigrant to Russia who was caught up in the turmoil of the fall out of the revolution and executed by the Soviet regime. The Prince Regent’s Band was formed to explore the wealth of historic chamber music for brass and wind instruments from a period roughly defined as between the French Revolution of 1789 and the end of First World War in 1918. Members of the current The Prince Regent’s Band are specialists in the period performance field and perform with regular with internationally renowned specialist ensembles.

Celebrated harpsichordist Steven Devine completes his monumental survey for Resonus Classics of the complete solo keyboard works by Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) with this new collection. These seminal works of the French Baroque era are brought to life vividly by Devine, mainly marking the earlier part of Rameau’s career and charting the development of the future prolific opera and ballet composer. The three books of Pieces de Clavecin are joined by the Cinq Pieces (derived from the Pieces de Clavecin en Concert), and the individual work La Dauphine. Also included is the substantial compendium Les Indes Galantes- keyboard transcriptions that Rameau himself made from his own opera-ballet of the same name composed in 1735/36. “[Devine] is authoritative, suave, technically dazzling and delivers immaculately manicured ornaments that lend brilliance and expressive introspection when required.” (BBC Music Magazine)

Critically acclaimed ensemble Chamber Domaine returns to Resonus with this portrait of Finland’s most prominent national composer- Jean Sibelius. Featuring a combination of both well known and lesser performed works, artistic director and conductor Thomas Kemp leads a programme of instrumental, chamber and string orchestra compositions including the suite for strings, Rakastava (The Lover), the brooding Malinconia for cello, and the fulsome Andante Festivo in celebrating the depth and versatility of this great composer. The album was recorded with spectacular sound quality, and features a full color booklet. Chamber Domaine is a trailblazing ensemble acclaimed for its virtuosity, distinctive programming and passionate advocacy of the music from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Chamber Domaine is project based and has a modular lineup of outstanding instrumentalists and vocalists ranging from duos to chamber orchestra.

Celebrating their 25th anniversary, illustrious period brass group The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble joins Resonus Classics with an illuminating recording of works that would have been heard at the court of England’s James I. Taken from an extant set of part books from this period of the Royal Music, now housed in Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum, ECSE’s programme explores the repertoire known to have been performed in the royal household, including many composers from the European continent. The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble is a virtuoso period instrument ensemble with a host of distinguished recordings to its name. Since its formation in 1993, ECSE has performed at many major music festivals in the UK and abroad. The group has appeared on numerous albums, one of which recently won the prestigious 2015 Gramophone Award for Early Music.

York-based chamber choir, The Ebor Singers, with the director Paul Gameson, make their Resonus Classics debut with an album of works inspired by the English Civil War and, in particular, the 1644 Siege of York. Based around the ''York'' psalms of William Lawes, this fascinating recording features a programme of music that may have been performed in York's historic minster around this time of huge political, social and religious upheaval.

Making their Resonus Classics and recording debut is the UK period wind ensemble Boxwood & Brass. The ensemble’s first recording is based around German composer and clarinettist Franz Tausch, and the two suites of his Op. 22 XIII Piéces en Quatuor Op. 22 for two clarinets, horn and bassoon. Also included is repertoire from two of Tausch's pupils (Heinrich Baermann & Bernhard Henrik Crussell) as well as an important influence on Tausch’s career, Johann Stamitz.

Pianists Julian Perkins and Emma Abbate have come together to record the first of two volumes of the complete piano duets of Mozart on original fortepianos. Some of Mozart’s lesser-known works, his piano duets span most of his active life, with the earliest written at the age of nine. Often delightful and lyrical as well as humorous and exciting, these works are given an authentic air on period instruments. Included on this first volume are duets in D major K381, C major K521 and B-flat major, K358. Also included is a duet by Johann Christian Bach, with whom the infant Mozart is alleged to have played keyboard duets whilst sitting on the older composer's lap. The two original fortepianos used in this recording form part of the Richard Burnett Collection of early keyboard instruments: a grand fortepiano by Johann Fritz (Vienna, c. 1815) and a travelling piano by Anton Walter (Vienna, c. 1805). This album represents the final recording made at Finchcocks Musical Museum.

Former Royal Opera House Jette Parker Young Artist baritone Ashley Riches, and rising star pianist Emma Abbate, perform a ravishing selection of previously unrecorded Shakespeare Sonnets by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

Composed after his migration to the USA in 1939, these songs contain all the wistful atmsophere of, and his obvious warmth for, his native Florence as well as his life-long obsession with William Shakespeare. Making his solo album debut with this album, Ashley Riches, along with the superbly eloquent pianist Emma Abbate, wonderfully capture the mood of each of Shakespeare's masterpieces in miniature.