Marking their latest collaboration with their conductor laureate Vladimir Ashkenazy, the Philharmonia returns with a stellar live-performance recording of two late works by Rachmaninov – the Symphonic Dances and Symphony No. 3 in A Minor. This release is third and final in a new series of Rachmaninov’s symphonic works, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy in live performances with the Philharmonia Orchestra. The previous volumes, which included Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2, were met with critical acclaim. “Perhaps the most satisfying of all…” (BBC Music Magazine) “Ashkenazy knows how to shape detail and soar in the big melodic moments. The PHilharmonia sound is muscular and alert, from the opening woodwind solos to the mighty, stirring symphonic tutti of the finale.” (The Observer)

Christopher Gunning has composed twelve symphonies, as well as concertos for the piano, violin, cello, flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, and guitar; many of these have now been recorded. He has also composed many scores for films and television dramas, including Agatha Christie's 'Poirot', La Vie en Rose, Middlemarch, Cold Lazarus, Rebecca, Under Suspicion, Firelight, The Big Battalions, Wild Africa, When the Whales Came and Porterhouse Blue. With a career spanning 50 years, he has won 4 BAFTA and 3 Ivor Novello Awards, and BASCA's prestigious Gold Badge Award. Christopher studied composition with Edmund Rubbra and Sir Richard Rodney Bennett at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After a hugely successful career writing for the big and small screen he is now focused on his classical work and releases. Gunning's second symphony has been composed of a period of years, starting in 2003. Gunning struggled to finish the composition at first, but when the opportunity arose to record the symphony with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, he uncovered the symphony in early 2018. He then worked towards the recording session, tightening the structure and rationalized the orchestration, preparing the composition for the final session, which can be heard on this record. Symphonies 10 and 12 were much simpler for Gunning. No. 10 was composed in a very natural way; the starting material of the symphony allowed Gunning to move from one section to the next with ease. Symphony 12 is the most tonal of the three symphonies. It begins with an uncertain feel, before rising to a climax, and then down to a feeling of mystery. The second movement was inspired for a friends funeral, beginning with a bell, calling people up to the chapel. It then takes influences from English music and countryside (both of which the friend enjoyed), before reverting back to the bell idea again at the end of the funeral.

David Bruce’s highly personal musical and spiritual responses to the natural world inspire his second Signum album, The North Wind was a Woman. Its title song-cycle, scored for folk-imbued ensemble and recorded with the acclaimed Nora Fischer, treats various aspects of the natural world as human characteristics. The Consolation of Rain is a moving reflection on loss and the restorative power of nature, while Cymbeline draws on ancient religious attitudes to the sun. Written for mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital, the work takes its name from an old Celtic word meaning ‘Lord of the Sun.’ Bruce has achieved global recognition as a composer, celebrated for his richly colourful, poetic, and joyful music. Recent commissions include the BBC Proms, Carnegie Hall, Covent Garden, and Glyndebourne.

London Early Opera continue their new series of Handel's works with the second volume of pieces composed in Italy. Both volumes of Handel in Italy explore the young composer's Italian years through his cantatas, sacred pieces, operatic works and instrumental compositions. Featuring performances from internationally acclaimed soloists, the sopranos Sophie Bevan and Mary Bevan with their uncle, baritone Benjamin Bevan, conducted and conceived by Bridget Cunningham.

The Armonico Consert and soloists perform Henry Purcell's evergreen chamber opera Dido & Aeneas, the work based on Virgil's epic, the Aeneid. Armonico Consert is one of the largest and most innovative organizations of it's kind in the UK, existing to inspire audiences with it's unique programs. About Armonico Consert: "... The whole thing seems suffused with light reflected from Manahan Thomas' voice, and Steele-Perkins' effortlessly projected trumpet." (BBC Radio 3 CD review of Let The Bright Seraphim, SIGCD289) "... a disc of unending delight." (Gramophone review of Naked Byrd Two, SIGCD235).

Geoff Stephen’s Winchester Cathedral was released in 1966 and achieved No. 1 on the USA and Canada charts, and receiving a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Recording. This new release celebrates 50 years since that album, and Geoff Stephens has allowed the words of his original tune to be adapted by the Choristers of Winchester Cathedral Choir. This special release also includes Somewhere over the Rainbow and Climb Every Mountain.

Harpsichordist Jane Chapman explores The Oriental Miscellany – William Hamilton Bird’s 1789 collection and arrangement of Hindustani airs for harpsichord. Bird’s collection, the first ever publication of Indian music notated for Western instruments, also features his own Sonata, incorporating original Indian tunes with flute accompaniment (here performed by baroque flautist Yu-Wei Hu). “… one of Britain's most distinguished classical harpsichordists, with a repertoire that stretches from early music to contemporary avant-garde…a rule breaker.” (WSJ)

English composer Will Todd is well known for his beautiful and exciting music. His work encompasses choral works large and small, opera, musical theatre and orchestral pieces, as well as jazz compositions and chamber works. His anthem, The Call of Wisdom, was performed at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations with a TV audience of 45 million people. His breakthrough work, Mass in Blue (originally titled Jazz Mass), has been performed hundreds of times all over the world. His arrangement of Amazing Grace was performed at President Obama's Inauguration Day prayer service in 2013 and as part of the BBC's Nelson Mandela Thanksgiving Service. This album celebrates the work of the Bach Choir's amazing outreach project with local schools, which culminated in 2016 with the new commission Lights, Stories, Noise, Dreams, Love and Noodles with words by celebrated poet Michael Rosen. Other works on the disc include Will Todd's vibrant settings of Shakespeare for choir and orchestra Songs of Magical Creatures, and a work in memory of Mark Blanco Kites, Cards and Constellations.

An iconic release that launched a celebrated series of 'London Sound' recordings, this album assembles an unparalleled ensemble of 40 cellos from The London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. David Vernier writes: "Who knows where the idea for this incredible recording came from, but be assured, you've never heard anything quite like it before. The sound of 40 topnotch cellists from four London orchestras performing Saint-Sa�ns's The Swan or Rachmaninoff's Vocalise is indescribable-but when you hear the rich, warm, reedy resonance, you won't forget it."

No songs of love are more passionately ecstatic than the Song of Solomon, which occupies a unique place in the Holy Bible in both style and content. It contains lyric poems of love and courtship as might have been sung at Jewish weddings. For Christians, these poems speak to the beauty of the union of Christ and his ‘bride’, the Church. The present collection presents a diverse group of choral works written between the 16th c. and the present day, with most inspired by this unique sacred text.

Naji Hakim returns to disc on Signum with a new and powerful collection of organ works. Hakim is joined by Marie-Bernadette Dufourcet for the central piece of the program, a set of meditations for two organists inspired by Lucas Cranach the Elder's woodcuts of the Apostles. Completed in 2000, the Schuke Organ of the Palacio Euskalduna is housed in a magnificent concert hall of wood and steel. A modern instrument, it is well-suited to the nuanced voicings of modern organ compositions.

The Gabrieli Consort and Players return to the program that put them on the musical map when it was originally recorded and released in 1990: A musical re-creation evoking the grand pageantry of the Coronation Mass for Venetian Doge Marino Grimani. His love of ceremony and state festivals fueled an extraordinary musical bounty during his reign and formed the background to the musical riches of the period, especially to the works of Giovanni Gabrieli. Two decades later, the Gabrieli's a New Venetian Coronation, 1595 takes advantage of huge developments in early instruments, performance techniques and research into the pieces that were on the original (as well as advances in recording techniques).

Lorin Maazel leads the Philharmonia Orchestra and a star-studded ensemble of performers in Mahler's first three symphonies. This is the first set in a series that will encompass Mahler's nine symphonies, featuring live orchestral recordings from London's Royal Festival Hall of Maazel and the Philharmonia's much-lauded Mahler cycle.

Classical Music

The work of artists, poets and composers forms some of the most eloquent responses to the grave crisis and unutterable horror of the First World War. As humanity confronted it's potential for destruction on a grotesque and unprecedented scale, new depths of musical and artistic expression emerged. Existing texts and music took on fresh poignancy, as if fulfilling their true prophetic value. Composers in England produced works whose plangency and resonance have not diminished in the century since they were written. The Choir of Chichester Cathedral are led by their conductor Charles Harrison in an exploration of these moving choral and organ works, marking the centenary of the end of the Great War. With a total of 18 boy choristers and 6 lay vicars, Chichester has one of the smallest cathedral choirs in Britain. The lay vicars are all professional singers and live in or near the Cathedral Close. The choristers are educated at the Prebendal School where they start as 'Probationers' in Year 3 or 4 (age 7-9), rising to the rank of chorister after about one year. The choir regularly tours abroad, enjoying particularly close links with Ravenna, Bayreuth, Bamberg and Chartres.