The phrase 'Baltic music' is not just a label, but a key that unlocks the rich creativity of composers living around the Baltic Sea. However, it is more than a specific style, mood, or aesthetic. It is about a diverse landscape of Baltic music, each piece being a unique story of individual experience, desire, and reflection of identity. The Baltic identity manifests itself in the most diverse ways, as a cultural tapestry that is both engaging and intriguing. The album Baltic Prayer opens up part of this landscape, united by the motifs of peace, and a conversation with oneself, others, or God. Works by the Lithuanian composers Anatolijus senderovas and Jurgis Juozapaitis, by the Latvian composer Peteris Vasks, and by the Estonian composer Arvo Part, are presented. Next to them are some stylistically close compositions by the Norwegian star of choral music Ola Gjeilo, the British composer John Tavener, and the Ukrainian Myroslav Skoryk.

The pieces in this recording belong to Messiaen's first compositional period, from the 1940s to the early 1950s. The music of O. Messiaen had a major influence on the Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu (Tokyo, 1930 ibid., 1996). Raised in militaristic Japan during the Second World War (at just 14 years old, in anticipation of an American invasion, he was drafted into the Japanese army), Takemitsu initially had a sort of rejection of the culture and philosophy of his own country and instead showed great interest in the various musical trends of the Western avant-gardes, especially French. The pieces in this recording cover a compositional span of about fifty years.

What if Michelangelo Rossi's keyboard Toccatas had been played by harpists in Rome 400 years ago? Of all the 17th-century Italian keyboard repertoire I have attempted to play over the last thirty years, I find the Toccatas by Rossi to be by far the most organic, idiomatic and intuitive music to play on the arpa doppia, the chromatic triple-row Baroque harp of seventeenth-century Europe. At least ten harpists are known to have been active in Rome during this time, and archives are full of documents and correspondence that detail performances, commissions for instruments, purchases of strings, harp covers and cases, and other fascinating information, which together create an idea of the wealth of music and culture before and during the reign of Pope Urban VIII.

The protagonist of this new album is the Fairy Guitar Quartet, a group born in 2020 from the meeting of four guitarists united by a strong passion for chamber music. Volver, the album that marks their recording debut, explores the great Argentine musical repertoire with a new research approach, offering an evocative musical journey along the multiple ties that unite Italy to the South American country and allowing you to experience and rediscover intense emotions. In a story of continuous departures and returns, complex fee- lings emerge, chapters with great evocative power that belong to the shared cultural heritage. A precious opportunity to rediscover a world that is always full of charm, a reflection of the creative encounter of dif- ferent cultures (African, indigenous, Spanish and Italian), through a listening journey that develops along the subject of Volver, a theme that resonates deeply in Italian and Argentine culture but also, more generally, in every corner of the southern hemisphere: the sadness of separation from what you love and the hope of re-embracing your roots. With the surprising arrangements of Gianvincenzo Cresta and Francesco Fausto Magaletti, the album features songs by Carlos Gardel, Anibal Troilo, Ariel Ramirez, Gustavo Leguizamon, Daniel Toro and Astor Piazzolla.

The CD entitled Contrappassi sees the two protagonists, Leonardo Zunica on piano and Leandro Lo Bianco on electric guitar, engaged in compositions by contemporary authors, with pieces that find poetic-musical inspiration in the fascinating and complex world of Dante. A program with broad musical visions that transport you to an unexpected soundscape, with the two performers who give life to moments and atmospheres of surprising suggestion. The CD's lineup opens with the Sonata n. 1 "DANTE SONATA" for piano by the Danish composer Poul Ruders (born in 1949), a work divided into two distinct movements with contrasting characteristics. The roots of the Dante Sonata are not only linked to Dante's canticles but also to the author's admiration for Liszt's Sonata in B minor. Dante, therefore, seen through the eyes of Liszt. The piece by Ruders is followed by MALEBOLGE for electric guitar and piano TRE CANZONI DI FRANCESCO LANDINI for piano with electric guitar ad libitum by the Italian composer Gabrio Taglietti, a journey that leads to the VIII circle of Hell. Taglietti wanted to alternate his three pits with transcriptions for piano, and in the last case for piano and electric guitar, of as many ballads by Francesco Landini, a composer of the fourteenth century, the genre in which Landini excelled. This singular listening journey ends with a piece by Leandro Lo Bianco, here in the role of composer as well as performer: THREE IMPROVISATIONS ON R. RAUSCHENBERG "DANTE'S INFERNO" for solo electric guitar and electronic devices.

Onda Sonora is a production that aims to show how a group of passionate and committed young people can perform a mature and eclectic repertoire. They range from monumental classical pieces to more contemporary and popular music. When you listen, you can hardly tell the difference between the performances of these young musicians and those of professional orchestras. The orchestra started in October 2012 with a concert in the Parco della Musica in Rome. Angela Colucci, Michele D'Auria and Nicola de Giacomo supervising rehearsals to improve performances. They participated in the Giffoni Film Festival, releasing CDs titled "Tachisax" and "Sonora Junior sax in the district." They were the first Italian orchestra selected for and won first place in their category at the SummaCumLaude competition in Vienna in 2016. In 2023, they won second place and gained recognition from the audience and judges. They performed at renowned venues like Musikverein, Muth, and Konzerthaus. Sonora Junior Sax aims to educate young people about music, teaching them respect for their roles and the importance of working together. They also focus on developing emotional intelligence through music study and practice from childhood. Their group environment encourages healthy competition, respect, and meritocracy. They welcome diversity, using music to integrate and educate.

The new CD Time is breathing by the Sbaffi Campi Duo is released on Stradivarius, with Leonardo Sbaffi on saxophones and Cristina Campi on piano. A singular musical journey between present and past that develops, with a free and passionate approach, a listening journey characterized by contamination, in the wake of musical solutions that broaden horizons and outline stories, images and emotions, in an eclectic meeting between the classical and contemporary repertoire. The album opens with two medleys, the result of elaborations by the Duo: Discontinuous Vibrations and Cellular Armonies, with songs by G. I. Gurdjieff, Claudio Monteverdi, G. F. Handel, Arcangelo Corelli, J. S. Bach. "The CD - declares the Duo - is nothing other than our reading of what we live, of what happens and of what happens to us. The work is conceived as a fractal, the individual pieces are entities having their own structure which then go on to constitute another, larger but identical one. This is the purpose of the two medleys, where centuries-old songs intertwine and overlap to form a single work. "Vibrazioni Discontinuous and Armonie Cellulari are followed by Paul Hindemith's Sonata and the first ever recording of Last Cloud by Alberto Napolitano, a piece which, states the composer, "finds it's expressive modernity in memory". To complete the programming of the CD, the Debussy's Rhapsody, an integral part of the work which can be downloaded by connecting to the website stradivarius. It. The booklet of the album is enriched by images, texts and poems in an enthralling meeting of the arts.

The album's repertoire explores music for two guitars written by Italian composers over the last 50 years. The peculiarity of this program lies in it's eclectic variety, which ranges from more traditional influences, rooted in the past, to distinctly contemporary expressions, exploring in which ways the guitar duo has been approached by different authors. This album features prestigious names: Franco Donatoni, one of the most important Italian composers of the second half of the 20th century; Alvaro Company, guitarist and composer, among the most authoritative students of the famous Spanish guitarist Andres Segovia; Giorgio Colombo Taccani, an extremely active composer in the contemporary music scene, awarded in 2023 with the Golden Guitar for Composition, awarded as part of the 28th International Guitar Conference in Milan. The album boasts numerous first ever recordings: Algo n. 2 by Franco Donatoni, Sonata II by Franco Margola, Colloquio by Bianca Maria Furgeri, Winter day by Vittorio Fellegara, Piccoli rainbowi by Gilberto Bosco, as well as Ricercare by Aldo Clementi, recorded for the first time in the version for two guitars elaborated by Andrea Monarda. Furthermore, Consonancias y Redobles by Azio Corghi (a piece with several possible instrumental destinations) is recorded for the first time by a guitar duo. This project finally marks the recovery of a piece of great value. An image (thinking of Schubert) of Alvaro Company, until now neglected by the guitar world.

This is my third album released by Stradivarius Records. The first record, "My Art of Gypsy Jazz" released in 2020, was followed by "Gypsy Jazz Style" in 2022. From my earliest compositions, I have wanted to emphasize a personal vision of the Gypsy style, combining it's stylistic features with a wide range of elements and skills I had studied and learned during my academic and creative journey. My proposal of music styles has been expanded with this new collection of unreleased songs using the touch and sound of the Manouche guitar in conjunction with the power of flamenco sound, the elegance of Vals Musette, passionate and energetic moments of intimate and contrasting atmospheres: "ALMA GYPSY"!!! Alma Gypsy In this arrangement my intent is to highlight the diverse "Gypsy" nuances of my "Soul". Gypsy Jazz and Gypsy music, from flamenco to 20th century Spanish classical composers, have greatly influenced my technical and musicmaking journey, both interpretatively and compositionally. The sounds of this piece are a blend of styles and techniques embraced by my area of expertise.

This musical proposition combines two compositions created about 30 years apart, in two different countries and moments of life, but that emerge from the same feelings well portrayed in the poetic and autobiographic citations above. Formally, they are very different music pieces, but they both describe the emotional introspection of a man that narrates through music his own condition as an exile. The Concerto per chitarra e orchestra, Op. 99 is brought to life at the end of 1938: Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco is in Florence and the latest Christmas vacation in Italy is filled with concern for him, the racial laws that came into effect make his and his family’s life intolerable. Almost thirty years later, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, two years before his death, comes back to this theme so dear to him and relives it again intensely, with decidedly more bitter and disenchanted undertones, through an alterego that experienced, 900 years before him, a similar fate (as to almost underline the historical cycles of humanity and its mistakes). Moses Ibn Ezra (1055/60-1138?) was a Spanish poet, of Jewish religion, who was forced to flee from his Granada possibly following family conflicts, but maybe after the Almoravidi Arabs conquered the city and enforced a cultural regime less tolerant towards the jew minorities compared to the previous Arab domains. The Diwan (or Divan) is a collection of short poems, often sang, typical of the jewish culture, but also of the Arab one and, in particular, the one from el Andalus, the Spain under Arab rule.

Mael Bailly's music undoubtedly bears the imprint, rather than the weight, of his composer mentor Gerard Pesson, for the elder Bailly is gifted with a wellknown benevolence and generosity. A respectful distance from a heritage that has been accepted and fulfilled, and a singular and facetious imagination, encourage emancipation. Mael Bailly's musical style is already clear. Numerous works are emerging, with instrumentations and styles as eclectic as they are surprising. Mael Bailly is resolutely of his time. He is one of those who develop a form of living discourse that offers at every moment many possible paths towards his own future. (Brian Ferneyhough) The musical flow is leaping, bouncing, stomping, boiling. The sound textures whirl around in a wide spectrum of fumaroles of colours, both finely chiselled and sometimes melting like magma. In this game of hands or sonic hopscotch, as Mael Bailly himself calls it, the sounds develop, continue and imitate each other in a rhythmic whirlwind that is at times relentlessly robotic and at other times endowed with a suspenseful elasticity that gives the discourse a new dimension. At other times, they are endowed with a suspenseful elasticity that gives the discourse the singular impression of hesitating, especially when it evolves in an open form. The improvising spirit is often lurking in the shadows.

The motivations behind a choice The basic question we asked ourselves in taking on this work was whether it was practicable and interesting on an artistic level to study and perform these trio sonatas by Bach using musical instruments that he had not originally envisaged, but which nevertheless belonged to his era and musical environment. We are now convinced that the answer is affirmative, and not only that, but that this kind of experience of study and listening can lead to the discovery of details and expressive resources that are fully inherent to the music that Bach composed. On the other hand, it is well known that reworking, "accommodation", as it was then often referred to, was a daily and natural practice in the Baroque era, both at the compositional level and at the performance level tout court (the distinction, with the consequent value judgement, between an "original" and it's adaptations, belongs to a more modern sensibility): the motivation for such operations, which were considered entirely legitimate, often derived from marketing requirements (think, for example, of the numerous title pages of printed works explicitly designated for various different instruments in order to attract more buyers: "[...] for a German flute, Violin, Hautbois or Harpsichord [...]" etc.) and the intended use for teaching purposes and the study of composition, as well as from the availability, in a given court environment, of instruments and virtuosos of particular ability, or even simply the need to have ready-made musical material, one's own or that of others, to be adapted to other ensembles and other functions. What was and is important to us is the survival of the original idea of the work. Indeed, if respected, this is revived and communicated to the listener in all it's potential thanks to the different timbres, the different dynamics and the various "pronunciations" in the emission and articulation of sound that characterise each chosen instrument. A fascinating operation because it can enhance the richness already inherent in the work, in this case of Bach, sometimes revealing it's most hidden and otherwise neglected aspects. While it is true that the musical idea often (but not always) develops in a composer at the moment in which he also imagines it's instrumental destination, and is therefore influenced by it, one could also speculate, precisely on account of what we have described as the very nature of composition and performance in the Baroque era, that the work (the idea) is conceived to a large extent even before it takes on a specific instrumental voice and therefore remains in a certain sense available to be communicated through different means.

New York City-based, Puerto Rican-born composer, guitarist, and visual artist Gabriel Vicens releases his fourth studio album Mural, a recording devoted to his chamber works. Vicens continues his musical journey by releasing a record of contemporary classical music including pieces for piano trio, wind quintet, Pierrot ensemble and more; featuring some of today's finest performers of the New York City classical scene. The immersive and mood-inducing music on this record spans a four-year period of creativity and is the first recording to feature concert works by this wonderful artist. Mural explores modern and contemporary trends such as 12-tone serialism, experimentalism, and minimalism and, at the same time, depicts Vicens' individuality as a composer with a distinctive voice that has been constantly expanding throughout the years of his career. "I see the music of this album as both a continuation of all my previous works and something completely different. Though we could classify this repertoire in a different genre and following different traditions, practices, and influences to my previous records, for me it is all connected. My goals are the same when composing any piece of music, which is to create something interesting, beautiful and profound that works as a whole and evokes some kind of emotional, mental, and/or physical response in the listener," says Vicens, a Doctoral graduate from Stony Brook University. Mural is released on the celebrated Milan-based record label, Stradivarius, which specializes in publishing some of today's best recordings of early music and contemporary classical music. The album comprises seven pieces for different types of ensembles recorded at the renowned Bunker Studio in New York City. The first track of the album and title piece, Mural (2021) for clarinet, violin, and piano is performed by clarinetist Raissa Fahlman, violinist Joenne Dumitrascu, and pianist Corinne Penner. Followed by Suenos Ligados (2020) for piano trio, featuring violinist Adrianne Munden-Dixon, cellist Rocio Diaz de Cossio, and pianist Mayumi Tsuchida. The third track of the album, El Matorral (2022) for Pierrot ensemble is performed by Roberta Michel on flute, Raissa Fahlman on clarinet, Joenne Dumitrascu on violin, Wick Simmons on cello, Corinne Penner on piano, John Ling on vibraphone, and conducted by David Bloom. The recording continues with Una Superficie Sin Rostro (2020) for solo piano, featuring Corinne Penner. Adrianne Munden-Dixon returns with Mayumi Tsuchida on the fifth track of the album, Carnal (2019) for violin and piano. The ensemble Nu Quintet appears on the sixth track, Ficcion (2021) for woodwind quintet. The album concludes with La Esfera (2021) for cello and piano performed by cellist Julia Henderson and pianist Mikael Darmanie. Vicens is interested in how his approach to music and painting correlate with each other, in particular, his attentiveness to the two-dimensional flatness of the canvas and how that translates into music. "I create musical compositions with melody, harmony, rhythm, timbre, and register, and every instrument and part of the composition is equally important to me. Everything needs to work together. The same principle applies to my paintings, but with color, form, line, and texture instead of musical elements. I see my paintings as an extension of my music and vice versa. The conceptual processes are incredibly alike," says Vicens. The compositions included in Mural are characterized by their embracement of dissonance, pointillistic textures, large intervallic leaps, gestural complexity, prolonged silences, great dynamic contrasts, and quiet sustained tones. On many occasions it's possible to encounter a ritualistic and mysterious aspect in his music that is distinguished by the way he uses repetition over melodic fragments and harmonic patterns. The influences of Webern and Feldman are perceivable in Vicens' works. Commenting on the evocative repertoire brought together in this album, Tim Rutherford-Johnson remarks in the CD's liner notes, "... although his music is often quite flat in it's surface relations, in it's unfolding over time it admits cracks into that surface, and slow transitions from one color to another." The title of this recording came from Vicens' passion for Roman and Egyptian mural paintings. "I'm fascinated by how Roman and Egyptian frescoes have decayed slowly for centuries and how the cracks and layers of colors have become part of the current stage of the work, creating a complex and atmospheric character. "Music is a reflection of life; it comes from our experiences. We go through cycles and evolve as the years pass. Over time, we get our cracks and layers of colors, just like the frescoes, and from those experiences, we get the energy and the inspiration to write music that communicates something abstractly. Mural is what I have to say at this point of my life; my future cracks and layers will slowly tell what's next." The seven works offered in Mural display Vicens' unique vision and voice as a composer and conveys a pivotal point that stylistically breaks his career free from the confines of a single genre description. The addition of this album to his discography expresses his immense creativity and wide range of skills, displaying how he shapeshifts magnificently across various musical terrains. Finally, the record reveals an idiosyncratic approach that captures his innovative ideas with brilliance and excitement. The album includes a photo-illustrated, 28-page booklet with liner notes by Tim Rutherford-Johnson.

Paolo Restani's new recording effort, the result of a constant and very personal research work, guides the listener through various frameworks of piano literature, cornerstones of the history of music. The album opens with two paraphrases of Liszt from Verdi: the first from Aida, Danza sacra e duetto finale S. 436, and the second from Rigoletto, Paraphrase de Concert S. 434, concentrated on the wonderful quartet of Act IV, where the different moods of the protagonists intertwine. From the world of Verdi we move on to Wagner with the Solemn March to the Holy Grail from Act I of Parsifal. This journey into the dynamism of a fascinating universe of references and relationships ends with the performance of four Nocturnes by Chopin (123 and Nocturnes in C sharp min. Op. posth.) and, again by Chopin, the most famous of Polonaise, the Polonaise in A flat. Magg. Op. 53 "Heroique" from 1842, with it's extraordinary central section. A recording that allows you to rediscover musical jewels, entrusted to the wise mastery of Paolo Restani.

The new CD Haptic by the French guitar duo Lallement Marques, two musicians internationally recognized for it's interpretations of the contemporary repertoire, presents a singular program through the compositions of three authors: Helmut Lachenmann, Mark Andre and Pascale Criton, a journey through the surprising sounds of music of our time. The publication opens with Salut fur Caudwell by Helmut Lachenmann ((1935), a piece composed in 1977, with a performance by the Duo resulting from a long experience developed together with the composer. Characterized by a permanent tension, the score has become a reference work for the repertoire for two guitars, a piece by Lachenmann follows iv 14 by Mark Andre (1964), a piece of "intense fragility", terms in which, says Elisa Constable, "all the compositional challenges of Mark Andre's work, profoundly oriented towards the search for an ineffable artistic and spiritual." This intense journey of listening to the textures of different compositional languages ends with Trans, in five movements, by Pascale Criton (1954), an author who in his research he particularly explores the variability of sound and the spatialization of listening.