Born in the Cuban capital of Havana, Alí Arango has won numerous awards including the prestigious Alhambra International Guitar Competition in 2014. Arango’s programme follows a tradition of eminent Spanish and Latin American performers who are also distinguished composers, musicians who live and breathe the idiom and style of their national instrument. These include Arango’s teachers and fellow Cubans Joaquín Clerch and Leo Brouwer, the latter acclaimed as one of today’s most innovative composers. This selection ranges from the spectacular Guajiras de Lucía by Paco de Lucía to Arango’s own lullaby to his daughter Lúa.

One of the foremost Spanish performers and composers of the last few decades, Pedro Iturralde is a significant innovator in the fusion of jazz and flamenco styles. This album contains the composer’s complete works for saxophone and piano. These versions were made specifically for this recording, and this is their premiere. This release features saxophonists Juan M. Jimenez and Claude Delangle, and pianist Esteban Ocana.

This album is the first to present an entire program of works by Debussy and Ravel, the greatest exponents of Impressionism in music, transcribed for two guitars. The arrangements bring new life to the rich canvas of sonorities and complex harmonies in these popular works. The reflective atmosphere in Debussy's famous Clair de lune and special upper-harmonic effects in La plus que lente contrast with the "merry romp" of the Golliwog's Cakewalk and Ravel's nod to Schubert in the Valses nobles et sentimentales.

Argentinian guitarist and composer Jorge Morel’s long and distinguished career has made him a legendary figure amongst guitarists, renowned as “a consummate and virtuoso artist” (Guitar Magazine) whose music is favored for its blend of colorful Latin American vibrancy and North American sophistication. From gently lyrical pieces such as the Milonga del Viento to the life-force of the dance in works such as the Giga Criolla, to the more classical Sonatina, deeply descriptive Pampero and much more besides, this program is a true reflection of the amazing variety of Morel’s creative output.

In 1891 Symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé asked Debussy to compose incidental music for a theatrical version of his poem L’Après-midi d’un faune (The afternoon of the faun) and the resulting work, with its innovative melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic writing, is both impassioned and expressive. The four-hand arrangement was made by Ravel in 1910. Subtitled “esquisses symphoniques” – or symphonic sketches – La Mer, inspired by the natural phenomena of water, light and wind, is a masterpiece that doesn’t conform to structural convention. Of the evocatively enchanting Images, he wrote that it marked a departure for him, dealing with “realities” not impressionism.

After a period as a court composer at Detmold, Brahms returned to the city of his birth, Hamburg, in January 1860. Here, in relative tranquillity, he explored the then rare piano quartet repertoire. The Piano Quartet No. 2 received a very sympathetic hearing in Vienna, Clara Schumann even preferring it to its immediate predecessor, the Piano Quartet, Op. 25 (Naxos 8572798). Its lyricism is heightened by a romantically beautiful Adagio. Mahler's vibrant Piano Quartet in A minor dates from 1876, the end of his first year at the Vienna Conservatory, where the only completed movement was first performed.

Liszt had first met Berlioz in Paris, before the first performance of the Symphonie fantastique in 1830 and in the following years did much to promote Berlioz’s work in transcriptions and then, in Weimar in the 1850s, in performances of original orchestral and dramatic works. Berlioz recalls their first meeting in his Memoirs: “I talked of Goethe’s Faust, which he admitted he had not read, but which he soon came to love as much as I. We felt an immediate affinity and from then onwards our friendship has grown always closer and stronger.” This new release, the 46th installment in the Complete Piano Music of Franz Liszt series, features several of his Berlioz Transcriptions, including selections from Berlioz’s most famous work, Symphonie Fantastique. Pianist Feng Bian received his Bachelor of Music degree and artist diploma from Colburn Conservatory of Music, where he studied with John Perry, and his Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music, where he studied with Peter Frankl and earned the Elizabith Parisot Prize. He is currently pursuing a doctor of musical arts degree at the USC Thornton School of Music. He has given recitals in China, Europe, and the United States, as well as having appeared as a soloist beside several major orchestras. In 2015 he was nominated for an American Pianist Award.

Francois Devienne performed as an orchestral bassoonist and flautist but rose to fame as an operatic composer. His greatest achievement, however, lies in his sequence of Flute Concertos, of which this is the final volume. Despite his failing health, the four works on this recording demonstrate the hallmark combination of melodic elegance and graceful virtuosity that characterizes Devienne’s flute concertos and are among the most attractive of their time. Concerto No. 10 is one of his masterpieces, distinguished equally by the beauty of its thematic material and its confident, cohesive musical structure. Patrick Gallois belongs to the generation of French musicians leading highly successful international careers as both soloist and conductor. From the age of seventeen he studied the flute with Jean-Pierre Rampal at the Paris Conservatoire and at the age of 21 was appointed principal flute in the Orchestre National de France, under Lorin Maazel, playing under many famous conductors, including Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Pierre Boulez, Karl Bohm, Eugen Jochum, and Sergiu Celibidache. He held this post until 1984, when he decided to focus on his solo career, which has subsequently taken him throughout the world.

Composer and Latin Grammy-winning flautist Nestor Torres has inspired a generation of composers to write music that has made vivid contributions to the instrument’s repertoire. This album represents his first foray into classical recording and his own unique fusion of Caribbean virtuosity and classical training can be savored in his own composition, “Marta y Maria.” Tania Leon’s “del Caribe, soy!” encapsulates the pulsing rhythms, vibrant color and improvisatory elements that represent the key features of the album and contrasts beautifully with the seductive allure and expressive depth of Miguel del Aguila’s “Miami Flute Suite.”

This new release from BBC Radio 3 and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra led by Grant Llewellyn features Violin Concertos by exclusively British composers, including Paul Patterson, Kenneth Leighton, and Gordon Jacob. The featured soloist in these works is violinist Clare Howick. Described by The Strad as “playing with beguiling warmth and affection” and by American Record Guide as “simply spectacular”, Clare Howick is at the forefront of a generation of inspiring violinists. As a champion of new music, Clare has premiered many new works, both on disc and in performance. She recently gave the world premiere performance at St John’s Smith Square of Violin Concerto No.2 ('Serenade') by Paul Patterson, a song-like, wistful and exuberantly sparkling work, which was specially written for her. This is the piece’s world premiere recording.

This 48th release in the Naxos edition of Franz Liszt’s complete piano works complements the first two volumes of the Hungarian Rhapsodies played by Jeno Jandó (8.554480 and 8.554481) that contain Nos. 1-19, S244/R106. This recording offers the much less frequently heard original Hungarian Rhapsodies S242 from the Magyar Dalok collection, introducing themes that Liszt would re-use in the much more famous S244 volumes. Jen? Jandó is one of the most prolific artists in the history of classical music recording. He is also one of its most appreciated and admired. Jen? Jandó is a professor at the Liszt Academy Budapest.