This selection of transcriptions celebrates childhood in a variety of ways, featuring popular works – Schubert’s Erlkönig, Granados’s atmospheric Tales of Youth, Mozart’s elegant Sonata facile, Schumann’s Scenes of Childhood and Debussy’s Children’s Corner – presented in a totally natural and idiomatic manner within the guitar’s distinctly expressive soundworld.

A musical journey, James W. Iman's latest album, IMAN II, is a stunning blend of Classical and contemporary piano compositions that will leave you spellbound. Four years in the making, this album is the culmination of Iman's passion for Debussy and Donald Martino, as well as his permiere of work from composer and sound designer, Jenny Beck. Iman's masterful interpretations of Martino's Fantasies and Impromptus are nothing short of awe-inspiring, and his renditions of Debussy's works provide the perfect contrast, bringing together the past and present in a way that is both exciting and unique. But it is Beck's electrifying compositions that truly set this album apart.

Iman says, "I have played Stand Still Here more times than any other work in my repertoire. Each of the five pieces that comprise the work are brief–the longest is four minutes–but Jenny Beck achieves a depth of introspection and emotional sweep that is absolutely magnetic.” What makes Beck's work so remarkable is the way she achieves such depth and complexity with seemingly simple motives and harmonies. The pieces on this album hover and linger, creating a hypnotic and immersive listening experience that is nothing short of miraculous. Iman's passion and dedication to this project are evident in every note he plays. He has crafted a captivating album that showcases his skill as a pianist and his ability to bring together the best of the past and present in a way that is fresh, exciting, and deeply moving.

With Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Monologues, the piano duo Vincent and Sophie Neeb place a rarely performed masterpiece at the centre of their debut recording. The composer describes his work, first performed in 1965, as "dialogues across the ages of dreamers, lovers, sufferers and praying people", which offers a journey through music history with sophisticated collages.
Following this inspiration, the programme is completed with a contrasting selection of compositions quoted there: Works by Bach and Debussy, creatively arranged for two pianos and percussion by Johannes Xaver Schachtner, and a Mozart arrangement by the piano duo Neeb enter into a unique dialogue via this inner context?

Together with percussionists Christian Benning and Patrick Stapleton, the piano duo Neeb explores surreal dream worlds - playfully light and enigmatically profound at the same time.

"After Hours" is the new concept album by the Faure Quartett. The world famous piano quartet consists of the same for members since íts founding in 1995. They present an album full of encores from composers such as Debussy, Strauss and Dvorak. These pieces are lined by original compositions dedicated to the ensemble by composer friends such as Jarkko Riihimaki. Two other friends, clarinettist Matthias Schorn and soprano Annette Dasch, make appearences as soloists. Encores defy the convention and have the potential to be surprising and engage the listeners in a special way and exactly that is what this album does.

The ARUNDO quintet shines with virtuosic expressiveness and a variety of sounds in the classical lineup of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn. On its second CD, "Saga," the ensemble brings to life four varied worlds of sound that immediately stimulate the imagination. Claude Debussy's colorful re-creations of a bygone ideal, Carl Nielsen's play with the diversity of human characters, and Lalo Schifrin's reinterpretation of the New Orleans style have long accompanied the ensemble and have become part of its own history as "heartfelt pieces." As with the highly acclaimed debut CD, "Origin," the ARUNDO quintet has commissioned a new work from the American composer Kevin Beavers: The "saga" continues…

In 1910, the Italian poet Gabriele D'Annunzio wrote a play about the martyrdom of St. Sebastian. He enlisted Claude Debussy as the composer and the "Mystère en cinq mansions composé en rhythme français" already premiered in 1911. The text combines and overlaps Christian and pagan traditions, playing with both the flair of antiquity and the fascination of the exotic. The Catholic Church took offense concerning the portrayal of Sebastian, who was played by a female Russian Jew, the dancer Ida Rubinstein, and the audience also reacted hesitantly, so that neither D'Annunzio's play nor Debussy's music to it remained in the repertoire of the concert halls. Debussy himself was very fond of his work and soon put together an orchestral suite, the "Fragments symphoniques", which adapts some of the central numbers of the incidental music for orchestra. Additionally, Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht created a kind of concert version that radically shortened the text and reduced it to around 15 minutes of recitation in addition to Debussy's music. The same applies to the present recording, which juxtaposes Debussy's original music with texts by the writer Martin Mosebach. These texts do not necessarily reflect the course of D'Annunzio's piece, but rather summarize central aspects of the Sebastian legend, sometimes more directly, sometimes more abstractly.

The present version, a studio recording from 2005, is enriched with (German) text additions by the writer Martin Mosebach, making it thus unique among other recordings of Le Martyre.

With its breathtaking nature and history, Provence in Occitania continues to inspire countless artists. The album "To the Muse", which combines original French works for saxophone and orchestra with transcriptions of music by troubadours for saxophone, hurdy-gurdy, cello and vibraphone, is a result of this inspiration. The album is completed with a tribute to the music of the troubadours, namely Bo Wiget's new instrumentation for saxophone, hurdy-gurdy, cello and vibraphone. The exciting region of Occitania played a formative role in the art of the time of the troubadours. The region was a great centre of attraction for dreamers and idealists.

This book + 2-CD set will ship on or after 21 June 2024.

Read about it in the New York Times!

Music in Time of War, the new double album from pianist Kirill Gerstein, places the music of Komitas, pioneer of ethnomusicology and founder of the Armenian national school of music, alongside that of Claude Debussy, a seminal composer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who held a deep admiration of Komitas’s music. This 2-CD release comes with a 172-page hardcover book.

Both composers were profoundly affected by the implosion of their worlds – Komitas by the Armenian Genocide, Debussy by the First World War – and their music reflects a close emotional alignment. Music in Time of War grew from Gerstein’s fascination with music’s power to reflect a narrative. The project will be released as a double CD album and will be accompanied by a hardcover book containing a series of illustrations and detailed essays in three languages commissioned by the pianist.

Gerstein pairs Debussy’s 12 Études from 1915 and Komitas’s Armenian Dances for piano, composed the following year, and includes a selection of Debussy’s late piano pieces composed to raise funds for the war. The artists featured on the album include Armenian soprano Ruzan Mantashyan, and pianists Thomas Adès and Katia Skanavi – they join Gerstein in a selection of works for voice and piano, piano four hands as well as for two pianos. Accompanying the recording are four in-depth essays from historians Annette Becker and Khatchig Mouradian, musicologist Artur Avanesov and composer Heinz Holliger, that explore the impact of war and genocide on society, and the reaction of artists to such events. These essays give socio-historical context to the music of Debussy and Komitas, and their response to creating in times of catastrophe.

Music in Time of War epitomizes both Kirill Gerstein‘s creative curiosity and his insightful approach to curating projects. The album will be released as a double CD including the high-quality 172-page hardcover book by myrios classics.