A milestone in the history of the novel, Samuel Richardson's epistolary and elaborate Clarissa follows the life of a chaste young woman desperate to protect her virtue. When beautiful Clarissa Harlowe is forced to marry the rich but repulsive Mr Solmes, she refuses, much to her family's chagrin. She escapes their persecution with the help of Mr Lovelace, a dashing and seductive rake, but soon finds herself in a far worse dilemma. Terrifying and enlightening, Clarissa weaves a tapestry of narrative experimentation into a gripping morality tale of good versus evil. The recording is divided into three volumes.

Here's a new album that brings together two of Canada's most prominent young musicians, Andrew Wan, concertmaster of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal since 2008, and Charles Richard-Hamelin, Silver medalist and winner of the Krystian Zimerman award at the International Chopin Piano Competition in 2015. For this first studio collaboration, they recorded the three sonatas of Beethoven's Op. 30, one of the most important works for violin and piano. Wan and Richard-Hamelin’s playing is dynamic and expressive and the result is nothing short of impressive. These works by Beethoven highlight three facets of the composer’s personality. While Sonata No. 6 shows Beethoven’s calmer side, Sonata No. 7 reveals a more tempestuous and tormented man, and the charming Sonata No. 8 displays a touch of humor. This is the first album of three by Wan and Richard-Hamelin that will cover the complete sonatas for violin and piano of Ludwig van Beethoven.

London Labour and the London Poor is a rare and fascinating insight into the lives and struggles of the 19th century poor. Written by journalist and reformer Henry Mayhew, a founder and editor of the satirical magazine Punch, it collects hundreds of testimonials from the lower strata of Victorian society. We encounter street entertainers, 'pure finders,' cabinetmakers, gingerbread sellers, 'screeve-fakers,' swindlers and burglars. We hear accounts from toshers finding items in sewers, people attempting to train pigs to dance, and witness the sale of everything from gilt watches and chickweed to needles, dog collars and eel soup. It is a remarkable work, said to have inspired the socially conscious fiction of Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray, who described it as 'a picture of human life so wonderful, so awful, so piteous and pathetic, so exciting and terrible, that readers of romances own they never read anything like to it.' David Timson's sharp-witted and authoritative tone perfectly suits Mayhew's detailed social observations.

This is the second album from the Stockholm based music collective Tall Tales, run by the trombone player, composer and producer Arvid Ingberg. Since the release of their debut album "GAMUT", the music has become more and more pop sounding, but the songs are still mostly instrumental. Even though the sound is inspired by pop, the structure and arrangements of the songs are often influenced by jazz and funk music. One of the main goals for Tall Tales is making instrumental music everyone can relate to, even though you're not used to listen to music without vocals. The songs on this album are inspired by artists and bands such as Wintergatan, Susanne Sundf�r, Loney Dear, Vulfpeck, The Beatles and Bj�rk.

Intended to be a defense of the Christian religion, Pensees is a penetrating collection of thoughts on faith, reason, and theology. Unfinished at the time of Pascal's death, the book consists of philosophical fragments on the 'wretchedness' of man and the controversial schisms of the church at the time. It includes the philosopher's infamous wager encouraging belief over agnosticism, as well as his thoughts on numerous other topics, including the great essayist Montaigne and the Stoic teacher Epictetus. Endlessly quotable, Pensees overflows with pearls of wisdom, with each elusive sentence pregnant with a universe of thought. Peter Wickham's elegant and personable reading makes Pascal's work immediately approachable and accessible.

Composer Richard Blackford writes of his Five Naidu Songs for Mezzo Soprano: "Sarojini Naidu's poems cover a wide range of human experience, from love, ecstasy, delight in the natural world, loneliness, acceptance and praise. These five poems form a cycle of one Indian woman's experience of lost love, delight in a colourful procession, the thrill of new young love, contemplation of death, and ecstasy at the beauty of creation and the omnipresence of God. Her poetry pulsates with her love of Indian landscapes, seasons and flowers, simple joys, devotion and the splendor of Indian festivals. I chose an accompaniment of string quartet and clarinet to extend and enhance the richness of Naidu's imagery and the passion she evokes. The clarinet, like a second melodic voice, weaves around the vocal line, sometimes sensuous, sometimes raucous and abandoned, in imitation of the Indian double-reed instrument the shenai. Many of the songs have long introductions, interludes and postludes, where the writing becomes more symphonic than mere accompaniment." The present edition is the full score with instrumental parts.

David Bovee was the first FES guitarist from 1999 till 2003. After four years he left the band to develop his own project "Think of One" (BBC Radio 3 World Music Award in 2004 and 2007). Whether they worked with throat singers from Greenland, Gnawa musicians from Morocco or Brazilian virtuosos, they achieved an exciting melting pot of music. The fruitful collaboration with Peter Vermeersch for the 'Theater aan Zee Festival' in Ostend in 2013 (an ad hoc orchestra with four Gambian musicians), triggered both artists to develop a new project. Meanwhile, David lives and works in Sao Paolo (Brazil) and knows the Maracutu, Frevo, Ciranda and Coco music through and through. For Boggamasta, Vermeersch and Bovee wrote an exuberant repertoire, got rid of the word Frevo, to bring their own direct, energetic and frenzied music: feverish, delirious and groovy, and lots of electro!

Sonorous Earth is conceived as a cultural statement celebrating interdependence and commonality across all cultures; and as a musical statement celebrating the extraordinary beauty and diversity of expression inherent in bell sounds. Scored for four percussionists playing bells from a wide variety of cultures and historical periods, Sonorous Earth can be heard and imagined as a United-Nations-of-Resonances. Probing into bells' rich meanings and characteristics as carriers of history, ethnicity, societal and cultural connotations is a joy and wonder. Bells can be used to celebrate grand occasions, hold sacrificial rites, keep a record of events, give the correct time, celebrate births and weddings, mark funerals, caution a community, enhance any number of religious ceremonies, and are even hung around the necks of animals. As carriers of history and culture, bells, of numerous shapes, sizes, types, decorative patterns, weights, functions, and cultural connotations, enrapture and inspire. Bells are central to Augusta's music; bells permeate her music. For over 25 years, in every work for orchestra, and in many for smaller ensembles, she has been composing music frequently using percussion consisting of bell sounds (pitched metal percussion and all the mallet percussion instruments) many of which have their origins in other than Western musical cultures. As such, her new piece is an extreme extension of work she has been doing for decades.

Richard Harvey : L'Homme Arme Study ScoreFor three brass choirs and percussionDuration: c. 9 minutesFormat: 48 page scoreThis was written in 1983 for a follow-up tour of The Brass of Aquitaine and London. We decided to stick with the style of La Citadelle and I chose to write a set of variations on the theme of L’Homme armé, a popular cantus firmus of the early 15th century. This song formed the basis of several settings of the Mass, including a famous version by Guillaume Dufay. Its origins are unclear, but one theory claims it started life as a battle hymn for the crusaders. So it seemed appropriate that one of the great churches we performed in on that tour was the magnificent Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud, near Anjou, where King Richard the Lionheart is buried. The tour was a great success and we decided to record the whole repertoire in the church of La Sauve-Majeure in Entre-Deux-Mers. The album was released later that year, met with considerable critical success and is still available today.

Classical Music

Following the huge success of My First Classical Music Book, Genevieve Helsby and Jason Chapman return with My First Piano Book. Bursting with life and humor, this is a uniquely comprehensive introduction to the piano, designed first and foremost to inspire. Text and illustrations are so perfectly in tune with each other that every page is a treat to explore. With a cast of animal characters showing what they know (and what they don’t!), this truly is both informative and great fun. This original and vibrant approach to the piano integrates listening to professionals and learning to play in a unique and approachable way.

The Jazz Orchestra of the Concert-gebouw, the JOC, is used to working with famous soloists originating from different directions in the industry. These soloists bring their own repertoire, that is arranged, prepped and performed in no time. In 2010, on a Thursday night in February, a unique concert took place in the Amsterdamse Bimhuis. Together with a living legend, Dr. Lonnie Smith, the group played a stunning concert. For the Sultan of the Hammond organ, a long-cherished desire to play with a big band was fulfilled. Most noticeable on Smith at this performance was his auditory memory and the lucid, varied sounds he managed to wrest his impressive B3. JOC knows how to expertly blend with Smith's timbre and his shouts. The orchestra can glow with sovereign intensity, sparkle and fire, but manages to also add to the expression that can be produced by the Hammond organ. This is an true tribute to soul jazz.

The Letters of Abelard and Heloise is one of the most extraordinary correspondences in European history. Written in the 12th century, the letters document the love affair between Peter Abelard, a revolutionary philosopher and biblical scholar, and his beautiful and precocious student, Heloise. Eviscerated by his religious opponents and castrated by Heloise's family, Abelard is haunted by ill fortune, and the star-crossed lovers are forced into separate lives, as monk and nun respectively, with letters being their only form of communication. What unfolds is tragic and heartbreaking, but also fascinating. The letters gave rise to compelling philosophical, theological and sociological discussions, and they provide a window into the medieval mind as the everyday lives of the two lovers are laid bare through their passionate discourse.

Augusta Read Thomas : Two Thoughts About the Piano (2017)For solo pianoDuration: c. 5 minutesFormat: 24-page scoreTWO THOUGHTS ABOUT THE PIANO was inspired by - and is a response to - Elliott Carter's Caténaires from his Two Thoughts About the Piano. My work is entirely original and does not quote from or share music in common with Mr. Carter’s work.

The Story of My Life is the explosive and exhilarating autobiography by the infamous libertine Giacomo Casanova. Intense and scandalous, Casanova’s extraordinary adventures take the listener on an incredible voyage across 18th-century Europe – from France to Russia, Poland to Spain and Turkey to Germany, with Venice at their heart. He falls madly in love, has wild flings and delirious orgies, and encounters some of the most brilliant figures of his time, including Catherine the Great, Louis XV and Benjamin Franklin. He holds a verbal dual with Voltaire, a pistol duel with a Polish noble, and finds himself hauled before the court multiple times, including in London, where the judge in question turns out to be none other than Henry Fielding. His appetite for life is voracious; for him, a life lived close to the precipice is the only life worth living. The book is divided into six sections. Volume 1 contains the first two sections: ‘1: Venetian Years’ and ‘2: To Paris and Prison’.