The French and Italian Renaissance song repertoire, immortalised during the first three decades of the sixteenth century by the printed editions of Pierre Attaingnant in Paris and Ottaviano Petrucci in Venice, invites audiences, and in former times performers, to immerse themselves in a world in which memories of medieval courtly poetry, the austerity (as reimagined in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries) of ancient lamentations, and a fully polyphonic narrative style, were all collided and superimposed-a certain sense of conversation can remind us also of the French air de cour as well as the early Italian madrigal form. These chansons and frottole give rise to discrete, almost enigmatic emotions, where music and text unite as one, transparent and restrained. Guided by the subtle sound of Hopkinson Smith's lute, the diaphanous voice of German soprano Sophie Klussmann roams over this little-known early Renaissance territory through four sections which take the form of return journeys between France and Italy. The sly melancholy of songs by Claude de Sermisy (Puisqu'en amours) and other French contemporary figures, some of them settings of poems by Clement Marot, thus collides with more plaintive pieces, by Marchetto Cara (Io non compro piu speranza) and Bartolomeo Tromboncino, whose supplicatory Per dolor me bagno il viso and final, heady Dolermi sempre voglio both attain peaks of intensity, at the same time being two sumptuous examples of the frottola form. During these sixty minutes, Sophie Klussmann produces exquisitely subtle and precious wisps of sound, recalling that the heart and soul of these snapshots very often remains the matter of love. Her dark gold timbre hints at the eternal in the one piece in the programme whose text is of a religious nature, the sublime, questioning prayer Se mai per maraveglia.

Divine Art is delighted to announce a superb collection of sensuous classical Spanish language songs for voice and piano, from the sublime musical partnership of lyric soprano Esther Rayo and renowned pianist and conductor Peter Grunberg. This program of works was first heard in a series of concerts given by the San Francisco based teaching and performance organization LIEDER ALIVE! The album features songs by early 20th century Spanish language composers: Fernando Obradors, Manuel de Falla, Enrique Granados, Alberto Ginastera, Xavier Montsalvatge, Consuelo Velazquez and Manuel Ponce. Drawing from Spanish classical poetry and regional folk melodies, these vibrant song cycles offer appeal to art song aficionados and first-time listeners alike. Born in California, and surrounded by Spanish music and language, this music is close to Esther Rayo's heart. Her connection with these songs started when she was introduced to the music of Manuel Obradors while in college. Obradors offered the perfect starting point for her continued study and discovery of Spanish art song, and she was guided by the great 20th century sopranos Montserrat Caballe and Victoria de los Angeles, who kept this music alive. While she was at graduate school in 2017, Esther was introduced to Peter Grunberg by Maxine Bernstein, Founder and Director of LIEDER ALIVE! And they made an immediate musical connection around the works of Spanish language composers. LIEDER ALIVE! #helped provide opportunities for Peter and Esther to perform this music together, alongside it's standard mission of promoting German Lieder. Over the years they continued to study and learn more classical Spanish repertoire, resulting in this, their debut album together. And, even after all these years, they still feel they've only just scraped the surface of this wonderful repertoire!

With his eighth album MORLA, ECHO award winner Tim Allhoff shows curiosity, self confidence and a stylistic diversity that reflects his various musical influences. For many years he has been one of the most important pianists on the German scene. The magazine JAZZTHING calls him the "Piano Shooting Star of the Republic" and the SuDDEUTSCHE congratulates him, with this release, on his "ascent to the top class of solo pianists". In his new Album MORLA, Allhoff takes the opportunity to reflect on the origins and course of his artistic work as a pianist and composer; the resulting collection of compositions evokes a variety of contrasting moods, reminiscent of a photo album - an album that exhibits different stages of his artistic career and the melting pot of the musical genres that is Tim Allhoff.

An exciting listening adventure: The "Ten Preludes" by Sofia Gubaidulina from 1974 merge with the Allemandes from Johann Sebastian Bach's Cello Suites into a fascinating dialogue between past and present.

Francesco Almasio (Milan, 21 April 1802 - Milan, 14 November 1871) was one of the protagonists of the musical life of Milan during the nineteenth century, and is considered the father of the reformation of sacred music in Italy. He was Kapellmeister and organist in several Milanese churches, and the very first teacher in the organ course at the Conservatory of Milan: the few surviving manuscripts of sacred music compositions of his, and the printed corpus of his organ pieces, reveal the everyday life of his liturgical and teaching activities. Francesco Almasio was born in Milan to Pietro Almasio (1780-1846), from Legnano, who also was a Kapellmeister and organist, and Maria Porri; his father made him study the piano, the organ and composition. Organist Fabio Nava uses the historic Bossi-Urbani organ from 1886 in the Prepositurale Church of Leffe (Bergamo) to best render this recording of Francesco Almasio's organ works. In addition to the original compositions, the organ transcriptions by the Milanese composer are particularly interesting. In addition to famous pieces such as Eja Mater from Rossini's Stabat Mater and the symphony from Giuseppe Verdi's La Forza del Destino, true musts of the era, he surprisingly adapts two movements from Beethoven's Septet for organ, enriching the sacred and liturgical repertoire of his time with chamber music genre.

The term Popsongs is a blend of the two English words popular (meaning both "popular" and "celebrated") and songs, emphasizing the intention to combine accessibility with the elegance of refined compositional forms. This collection of sixteen instrumental pieces, composed by Marcello Panni between 2013 and 2015 during his tenure as conductor of the "Tito Schipa" Symphony Orchestra in Lecce for the group of soloists Ensemble del Sud, represents a passionate and playful homage to the most celebrated melodies of Italian musical tradition, both operatic and folk. This project stands out not only for the exceptional artistic quality of it's orchestration but also for it's ability to pay tribute to and draw inspiration from the illustrious precedents of 20th-century mu- sical history. An essential reference is Luciano Berio's (1925-2003) Folk Songs, composed in 1964, with whom Panni was a close friend and collaborator for many years. This cycle of pieces, created for the singer Cathy Berberian (1925-1983), Berio's muse and spouse, was accompanied by a group of seven instruments, the "Juilliard En- semble" from New York, with which Panni himself collaborated in the 1970s. Another point of reference for the Popsongs is Igor Stravinsky's (1882-1971) famous Histoire du Soldat. This composition, also written for a septet (violin, double bass, clarinet, bassoon, cornet, trombone, and percussion, the same ensemble used by Panni), represents an extraordinary example of chamber music that combines storytelling, theatricality, and a remark- able fusion of musical styles.

In memory of the great tenor Peter Schreier, Berlin Classics released a reiussue of the 4-CD box "Vom Knabenalt zum lyrischen Tenor", which was originally released in 1995. The CD box contains recordings of lieder, opera arias, arias from cantatas and oratorios and also from his time as a boy alto in the Dresdner Kreuzchor. A cross section of the entire career of a singer whose enormous talent was already discovered and supported in his childhood by the former conductor of the Dresdner Kreuzchor, Rudolf Mauersberger. Additionally the CDs are accompanied by a short biography, which gives an exciting overview of Peter Schreier's career stages.

Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979) wrote vocal chamber music over the whole of her career, from Wandrers Nachtlied, her first completed composition, in 1903, through her overhaul of Lethe, in the winter of 1976-77. Taken together, her songs and duets constitute one of the greatest and most distinctive contributions to the vocal repertoire of the twentieth century.

Marches and other patriotic music frequently occupied the final place in Liszt's recitals, often emphasising the Hungarian cause, which Liszt supported. They also could have contributed to the previously mentioned mood of Lisztomania. It is therefore unsurprising that marches are to be found in Liszt's compositions and arrangements throughout his lifetime. They are represented here with works from around 1830 to 1879, all arrangements of other composers' music, which, in Liszt's hands, achieve artistic heights only found infrequently elsewhere. Given the common practice of the era for performer-composers to play their own music, Liszt could, through the inclusion of an arrangement of a well-known march, acknowledge others' music, and also pay respect to the culture of wherever the concert was taking place. In an era when recordings were not possible, piano arrangements of orchestral and vocal works were commonplace. Liszt cultivated this medium particularly successfully, creating arrangements of, for example, Beethoven symphonies and paraphrases of stage works by Russian composers such as Glinka. Arrangements heard here of marches by Beethoven, Giuseppe Donizetti, Glinka, Massenet, Meyerbeer, Rossini, Schubert and Szechenyi, indicate the breadth of Liszt's programming for his time.

Why Poesia? Because this album explores the cello as a lyrical instrument, with resonances close to the human voice. From the bel canto of Mercadante, a little-known but refined opera composer, to Vanherenthals' flamboyant Rhapsody on the Themes of Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, each work evokes the vocal universe, sometimes with modesty, sometimes with exuberance.

Philatelically interested friends of music might be tempted to title this rarity the "Mauritius" of early music, for of the First Part of Sacred Concertos that Hamburg's municipal musician and Kapellmeister Johann Schop published in 1644, only a single complete copy survives in Germany, while the three others traceable worldwide are preserved only fragmentarily. For the value of an artwork, however, different criteria apply than mere rarity, and precisely these Schop's church music fulfills entirely: supplemented by some of the instrumental pieces that the composer and violin virtuoso once played for noble dance entertainments, the filigree, directly appealing song-settings rise in their wondrous weightlessness, full of hope, above the devastating times-here reigns the peace that in reality would wait another four years to arrive.

The Potsdam-based brothers Sebastian and Daniel Selke have, throughout their career, been employing themes surrounding their Communistera, East German heritage. From modern classical to jazz to electronic music, CEEYS invites 10 contemporary composers to share their musical impressions by reworking tracks of HAUSMUSIK on MUSIKHAUS. To name a few: Neue Meister colleague, Marina Baranova gave her own major melody to CEEYS' harmonies making her interpretation of the piece Circa one half-CEEYS' evocative mood and one halfBaranova twist with the pianist's unique touch. Singer-songwriter Mara Simpson adds her haunting voice and poignant lyrics, 'We keep the pieces to build better, to build hope brick by brick' to the soft, repetitive backdrop of 'Yes, brick by brick' embracing the meaning of the original composition. Erased Tape's electronic-music composer, Ben Lukas Boysen builds around Fallen's repetitive and tense motif, adding an ascending energy and instrumentation to the composition which stretches it to new planes of emotion.

Premiered at the Opera-Comique in Paris on 26 January 1857, Ambroise Thomas's Psyche tells the story of the ill-starred love between Eros and Psyche, who are manipulated by the cynical Mercury and envied by Daphne and Berenice, the heroine's own sisters. The style of the work represents the nec plus ultra of mid-nineteenth-century French opera-comique, notably in the Italianate influence of Rossini, which gives the singers of the two leading roles - one of which, Eros, is a breeches part for mezzo-soprano - a chance to glitter amid torrents of coloratura poured forth in impressive, passionate love duets. The librettists Jules Barbier and Michel Carre achieved an inspired blend of comedy and tragedy by contrasting a quartet of cruel and grotesque characters (Psyche's sisters and their suitors) with the noble hero and heroine. Ambroise Thomas's music does not merely foreshadow the future triumphs of Mignon and Hamlet: it is worthy to stand beside them at the pinnacle of his operatic legacy, as his obituarists declared. This recording confirms their judgment.

Composer Adam Roberts'�Book of Flowers�is a celebration of the large scale collection of character pieces, participating in a tradition that traces from Schumann to Chopin to Debussy to Crumb. Performed by piano virtuoso Conrad Tao, Roberts explores an expansive range of expression and techniques on the keyboard, fashioning many short components into work of epic scope.

Divine Art is delighted to announce a superb collection of sensuous classical Spanish language songs for voice and piano, from the sublime musical partnership of lyric soprano Esther Rayo and renowned pianist and conductor Peter Grunberg. This program of works was first heard in a series of concerts given by the San Francisco based teaching and performance organization LIEDER ALIVE! The album features songs by early 20th century Spanish language composers: Fernando Obradors, Manuel de Falla, Enrique Granados, Alberto Ginastera, Xavier Montsalvatge, Consuelo Velazquez and Manuel Ponce. Drawing from Spanish classical poetry and regional folk melodies, these vibrant song cycles offer appeal to art song aficionados and first-time listeners alike. Born in California, and surrounded by Spanish music and language, this music is close to Esther Rayo's heart. Her connection with these songs started when she was introduced to the music of Manuel Obradors while in college. Obradors offered the perfect starting point for her continued study and discovery of Spanish art song, and she was guided by the great 20th century sopranos Montserrat Caballe and Victoria de los Angeles, who kept this music alive. While she was at graduate school in 2017, Esther was introduced to Peter Grunberg by Maxine Bernstein, Founder and Director of LIEDER ALIVE! And they made an immediate musical connection around the works of Spanish language composers. LIEDER ALIVE! #helped provide opportunities for Peter and Esther to perform this music together, alongside it's standard mission of promoting German Lieder. Over the years they continued to study and learn more classical Spanish repertoire, resulting in this, their debut album together. And, even after all these years, they still feel they've only just scraped the surface of this wonderful repertoire!