Rarely heard on recording, the songs of Florent Schmitt receive fresh exposure in this significant new survey of these neglected works including a number of world premiere recordings. The qualities that appeal in many of Schmitt’s larger works are found in abundance in this selection that spans his entire creative life: his music’s gorgeous sensuality, biting wit, laconic charm, and unleashed savagery. Pianists Fabienne Romer and Edward Rushton along with an outstanding lineup of soloists, explore this rich seam of complex compositional techniques, revealing a composer of extraordinary individuality along with a fascinating affinity with the darker side of human existence.

Director and keyboardist Julian Perkins and his acclaimed ensemble Sounds Baroque join with soprano Anna Dennis for this celebration of the songs of Henry Purcell. Known for his undisputed mastery in setting the English language, Purcell also absorbed influences from both French and Italian styles, and the programme is complemented with close contemporaries who also worked in London - a guitar suite from the Italian Francesco Corbetta and a harpsichord suite from Giovanni Battista Draghi, along with two songs from the earlier Stuart court composer Henry Lawes. Anna Dennis studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London. Notable concert performances have included Britten's War Requiem at the Berlin Philharmonie, Russian operatic operas with Philharmonic Baroque in San Francisco, roles in all three Monteverdi operas in John Eliot Gardiner's world tour of the Trilogy, Thomas Ades' Life Story accompanied by the composer, and many more.

The sixteenth-century madrigal, a deceptively simple, whimsical poetic form of no fixed structure, had an elusive quality that was to prove inspirational to generations of musicians; madrigal settings came to form the core of many composers' outputs and quickly evolved a musical identity independent of their poetic origins. 'The Madrigal Reimagined' opens a window on how musicians exploited the madrigal's charm, poignancy and flexibility, with settings ranging from intimate solos to grand operatic scenes; virtuoso diminutions, old and new, share the stage with touching, subtle dissonance in music by Rore, Bovicelli, Caccini, Monteverdi and others. The Monteverdi String Band is joined by soprano Hannah Ely and lutenist Toby Carr under the direction of violinist Oliver Webber.

Charles Villiers Stanford felt a special affinity for the orchestral song, an idiom which began to establish itself as a distinct art form in it's own right at the end of the nineteenth century with composers such as Mahler, Richard Strauss, Elgar and Bantock. This recording, released to mark the composer's centenary year, features a wide selection of colourful and inventive orchestrations he made of his own songs and arrangements of Irish folk melodies for the concert hall, many of which were made for the leading soloists of the days such as Harry Plunket Greene, David Bispham, Marie Brema and Olga Michailoff (the wife of Henry Wood).

The flute concertos by Jacques Ibert, Andre Jolivet and Joaquin Rodrigo together embody a distinctive musical heritage written for the flute in the twentieth century, exploring the instrument's limits. These works are now heard together for the first time on one album. Flautist Sami Junnonen is joined by the Helsinki Chamber Orchestra under the direction of conductor James S. Kahane. The album features Ibert's 'Concerto for flute and orchestra', which is now considered to be one of the most esteemed concertos in the flute repertoire; Jolivet's virtuosic and rarely-recorded 'Concerto for flute and string orchestra'; and Rodrigo's 'Concierto pastoral for flute and orchestra', which has gained a formidable reputation among flautists for it's exceptional technical requirements.

Jonathan Dove (b. 1959) and Dame Judith Weir (b. 1954) may diverge in musical style, yet their organ compositions converge through evocative storytelling. On this album, their works for organ intertwine, revealing a shared fascination with the organ's pictorial prowess, particularly in the depiction of watery motifs. From Weir's turbulent Scottish river in Ettrick Banks, and her rugged yet ghostly depiction of traditional Eastern European folk instruments in The Wild Reeds, to Dove's jubilant celebrations of organ pipes in The Dancing Pipes, and the almost over-whelming force of his Niagara, each piece unfolds like a rich tapestry of sound. Organist Thomas Corns breathes life into these compositions, where theological reflections mingle with vibrant sonic imagery, and the organ becomes a palette for storytelling.

British composer Eleanor Alberga is renowned for her mastery of orchestral colour and form. With her distinctive blend of lyricism and rhythmic dynamism, Alberga crafts a sonic journey that is both exhilarating and deeply moving. From the arresting grandeur of the symphonic landscapes in her first symphony, Strata, to the pulsating and evocative energy of Mythologies, each piece is a testament to Alberga's boundless creativity. The BBC Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Thomas Kemp, are joined by the Castalian String Quartet for Tower with it's cascading melodies and rhythmic intensity, embodying both strength and intimate intricacies.

Widely recognised as the leading Welsh composer of his generation, Huw Watkins is an increasingly prolific writer of works for chamber ensembles, alongside his distinguished career as a pianist. Composed between 2009 and 2022, the five works featured on this disc take the listener on a fascinating journey through Watkins’s recent musical evolution. The acclaimed Leonore Piano Trio begin with the earliest of these works – the 2009 Piano Trio No. 1 – whilst conductor George Vass’s Orchestra Nova brings us the Little Symphony for strings and exquisite Concertino for violin and strings, performed here by trio violinist Benjamin Nabarro. The trio is joined by violist Rachel Roberts for Watkins’ luminous Piano Quartet, while the programme concludes with the 2022 Piano Trio No. 2 – written for the fortieth anniversary of the Presteigne Festival and premiered there by the Leonore Piano Trio.

Poulenc the miniaturist par excellence burst into public view, fully-formed in his late teens, emerging flamboyantly into the artistic swirl of 1920s Paris. His fabulously inventive, quirky and colourful approach to writing for chamber ensemble and voice comes vividly to life in this set of early works which capture all of his youthful elegance, wit, and occasionally sardonic humour. Many of these early masterpieces are now well-known in their incarnations for piano; but his sheer inventiveness and joyful revelry in a kaleidoscopic riot of instrumental colour is celebrated here in the earliest versions of such classics as Le Bestiaire and Cocardes, alongside masterpieces more cruelly treated by his contemporaries, the Quatre Poemes de Max Jacob and Le Gendarme Incompris.

The Rautio Piano Trio returns to Resonus with this second volume of Beethoven’s Piano Trios, recorded on period instruments. The album features his Op. 11 trio – ‘Gassenhauer’ – together with his Piano Trio Op. 1 No. 3, showcasing the young composer’s early mastery of the genre; and his virtuosic Variations for Piano Trio Op. 44. 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.

Highly acclaimed organist Stephen Farr presents an album of organ works by composer Francis Grier, performed on the American-built Dobson Organ of Merton College, Oxford.

Grier demonstrates an individual approach to timbre and texture in writing for the organ and shows fascinating traits which are a testament to a wide range of musical, and non-musical, influences extending beyond the bounds of the cathedral world to experiences drawn from his years in India.

The album features "A Celebration for All Saints," commissioned by Farr and first performed in 2022, "De Profundis" scored for organ and cello, performed here by Indira Grier, "Flourish and Reverie" dating from shortly after Grier’s return from India in 1990, and "Wir haben schwerlich," composed to join works by a variety of composers in the Orgelbüchlein Project.

Guitarist James Akers presents Fantaisie Romantique – a collection of premier recordings of significant works by little-known Eastern European guitarist composers of the nineteenth century. With many of the works based on popular pieces of the day, including opera arias and folk melodies, it gives them an accessibility that belies their obscurity and underpins their virtuosity. Having been neglected for over a century this recording attempts a reassessment of these composers and their work employing period instruments and techniques to render them as sympathetically and accurately as possible.

Winners of the First Prize at the inaugural Birmingham International Piano Chamber Music Competition, violinist Usha Kapoor and pianist Edward Leung present an album of violin sonatas by American composers Amy Beach and John Corigliano. The album features Beach’s large-scale chamber work of 1896, the Sonata for Violin and Piano Op. 34, and her earlier Romance for Violin and Piano, Op. 23 from 1893, together with Corigliano’s Sonata for Violin and Piano. Completed in 1963, this work was originally called ‘Duo’ and is very much intended for two equal musical partners.

In this, the final volume of his landmark survey of the piano works of Elisabeth Lutyens, pianist Martin Jones presents further world premiere recordings from this undeservedly neglected composer. Featuring works from across the span of Lutyen’s career, the earliest works to be included on this album are the short pieces Overture, Berceuse, Barcarolle and Dance Souvenance from 1944. The unpublished Holiday Diary from 1949, Helix from 1967, and Three Books of Bagatelles from 1979 complete the set.

Keyboardist Steven Devine continues this complete survey of Johann Ludwig Krebs’ significant contribution to the keyboard genre with the third volume in this series dedicated to the composer’s keyboard works. Featuring one of the three surviving Partitas from a presumed set of six, this album also includes the world premiere recording of Krebs’ Six Keyboard Sonatas (Krebs-WV 832-837), that only came to light during the historic restoration of the archive of the Sing-Akademie to Berlin following its removal to Ukraine during the war in 1943. With a compositional style that points to a period later in Krebs’s life, these charming, witty and sometimes quirky works clearly demonstrate the composer’s confident yet straightforward charm.