The 4th volume of the Complete recordings of Dussek's Violin Sonatas, containing the two Sonatas Op.69 and the early Sonata Op.4. Johann Ladislaus Dussek (1760-1812) was born in rural Bohemia. He led a restless life, travelling Europe as a keyboard virtuoso and settling in several European capitals, notably Paris and London, where he became a fashionable pianist and teacher. His close connection to piano manufacturer Broadwood resulted in important innovations, notably the extension of the keyboard to 6 octaves. Dussek's style is rich, harmonically expressive and pianistically challenging, Classicism on the brink of Early Romanticism. This new recording presents the 3 Sonatas Op.1 and the Sonata Op.12 No.1. Carl Friedrich Cramer writes in the "Magazin der Musik" in 1783: "These sonatas are the only ones of their kind. Rich in new thoughts and traces of the author's great musical genius. Very brilliant, and appropriate to the instrument. The accompaniment of the violin is so artificially combined with the piano part that both instruments are kept in constant attention; so that these sonatas require a violin player who is just as skilled as a piano player." Played by Julia Huber, a prizewinner of the Locatelli Competition Amsterdam, and concertmaster of L'Orfeo Baroque Orchestra Linz and La Stagione Frankfurt. Miriam Altmann studied piano, fortepiano and harpsichord, she specializes in the Early Classical repertoire and recorded works by Gyrowetz. Both musicians play period instruments.

According to The Telegraph 'Ingrid Fliter was born to play Chopin', such is her profound musicianship and affinity with the Polish composer. Here, the Gilmore Artist Award winner continues her highly acclaimed Chopin odyssey, which began over a decade ago, with the complete mazurkas. This, the first of two volumes to be released on Linn, includes the early Opp. 6 and 7, the Op. 24 as well as the later sets, Opp. 50, 59 and 63. The programme reflects on the composer's evolving style, from simple folk-inspired dances to brilliantly sophisticated, intimate works whose intricate counterpoint and harmonies often push the boundaries of the form and serve as a benchmark for the genre. Also included are some posthumous mazurkas which transverse Chopin's entire compositional career.

Pianist Natalia Ehwald's debut album on Prospero Classical is dedicated entirely to the composer Franz Schubert. In addition to a selection of his (mainly early) landler and waltzes, the artist has chosen the late piano sonatas in A major, D664, and B flat major, D960. Both sonatas are characterised by their profound emotionality and unusual and pioneering harmonies. Particularly noteworthy is the fusion of lyrical melodies with complex structural elements that emphasise Schubert's singular mastery. They also show a remarkable development in form and expression, making them a high point in Schubert's oeuvre.

Recorded live at Boston's magnificent Symphony Hall, CORO brings together on one album the Handel and Haydn Society's recordings of Haydn's early Symphonies Nos. 6, 7 & 8. Known as Le matin, Le midi and Le soir, the three works, written shortly after Haydn joined the court of Prince Paul Anton Esterhazy, are amongst the most striking of the composer's early symphonies. Characterised by unusual virtuoso writing across the orchestral ensemble, all three works feature extensive solo passages for the wind, horn and strings, including rare solo writing for the�double bass�and�bassoon, and demonstrate Haydn's emerging skill as a master of symphonic writing.

Spiegel i'm Spiegel Celebrating Arvo Part at 90 This album, titled after one of Arvo Part's most beloved works, is a meditative tribute marking the composer's 90th birthday on September 11, 2025. On Spiegel i'm Spiegel, music becomes a mirror: between composers, across centuries, and within the listener. At it's heart are three works by Part-Fratres, Da pacem, and Spiegel i'm Spiegel-each embodying his signature language of stillness and spiritual clarity. They are framed by pieces that resonate with his sensibility: Olivier Messiaen's contemplative Louanges, Johann Sebastian Bach's luminous Sonata for Viola da Gamba, and Alfred Schnittke's brooding Cello Sonata. Performed by Onute Grazinyte and Edward King, with the Aidija Chamber Choir led by Romualdas Grazinis, this collection invites deep listening. From Bach's elegant counterpoint to Messiaen's timeless devotion, each work reflects a shared search for the eternal. A sonic meditation on peace, prayer, and presence-this is music that mirrors the soul. Recorded at Studio Residence Paliesius, May 2025

Soundscape of the Corpus Christi procession in Valencia (17th-18th centuries) The Feast of Corpus Christi, established in 1264 by Pope Urban IV, became one of Valencia's most important and magnificent celebrations. It's origins are tied to a Eucharistic miracle that occurred in Valencian territory-the Miracle of the Corporals of Llutxent-Daroca around 1239. This connection helped Valencia become one of the first cities in the Iberian Peninsula to organize a general Corpus Christi procession, beginning in 1355. By the 17th century, the celebration had evolved into a grand public spectacle, rich in music, theatre, and ritual. On the eve of the feast, a parade called the Cavalcada del Convit invited the populace to participate, while the afternoon featured traditional religious theatre in Valencian (els Misteris) and choreographed dances commissioned for the procession. The main procession was a stunning display involving the whole of Valencian society-from guilds to the highest civic, royal, and ecclesiastical authorities. A rich musical tapestry accompanied every step: folk instruments like the dolcainaand tabal, dramatic theatre music, ceremonial city bands, plainchant from clergy, and elaborate polyphony performed by the Cathedral's chapel. In 1672, municipal musician Josep Gomar compiled a manuscript preserving the texts and music of these plays and rituals. Today, this music offers a rare glimpse into the soundscape of baroque Valencia. This concert brings those sounds back to life, allowing audiences to relive the awe and splendor of the city's most cherished feast. Imagine yourself on a Valencian street in the late 1600s, watching and hearing the vibrant procession pass by-an unforgettable journey into the soul of a city's tradition.

Seven pieces inspired by Bach's Brandenburg Concertos. A high-grade bio-vinyl LP transfer for a quirky album scored for a modern-jazz ensemble but crossing genre boundaries in a stylish fusion of Baroque, lounge, jazz and minimalism. Adler, Ibis, Western, Sheraton, Hyatt, Umai, Terminus. The titles of these instrumental songs evoke the restless nowhere space of the international hotel chain, where guests may feel at once at home, in a space of comforting familiarity, and yet curiously suspended from the world around and outside. Through the high-rise windows of a hotel, we see but are isolated from the surrounding cityscape, Tokyo or London or Los Angeles. The passage of time becomes redefined in these spaces, moving faster through the impermanence of one's stay and yet stretching out along their endless corridors, their smooth lifts and impersonal restaurants. All these sensations and impressions are evoked by Erik Bosgraaf and his colleagues. Passing impressions and sketches of particular places embed themselves within riffs and ostinatos. What is improvised, and what is composed? Such distinctions melt away. Meanwhile fragments of Baroque rhetoric - specifically, motifs and ideas drawn from the Brandenburg Concertos of Bach - surface from time to time, but on instruments and in contexts entirely foreign to Bach himself. In one sense, then, there is a kinship with the 'lift music' which accompanies listeners and guests on their frictionless passage to the 45th floor. In another, Bach is the grit in the oyster, reminding us that music is not another industrial process but the work of living genius. In Sheraton, the sublime melody from the slow movement of the First Brandenburg becomes stuck on a loop, while other instruments enter and leave. The album is a rich sonic metaphor for contemporary life but also a dream sequence as ideal in it's way for late-night consumption as the particular pleasure of a lonely brandy and soda, sipped in a penthouse bar while the world beyond flows ever onwards through it's diurnal cycle.

The largest collection of piano nocturnes on CD, celebrating the art of the romantic piano song without words. Over a century of repertoire in all modern recordings, plus a new booklet essay exploring the history and context of the nocturne. Composers of the 18th century such as Haydn and Mozart wrote notturnos as serenades to be sung and played at night time, both on an operatic stage and as independent pieces for entertainment. The early 19th century saw a rapid evolution in the technological, the cultural and the musical development of the piano - as an instrument of longer sustaining power and greater volume than before, offering a broader palette of tone-colours, presenting composers with the potential to write quasi-orchestrally for a single instrument, as Baroque composers had done for the organ. At the same time, musical forms were becoming looser, more shaped by extra-musical inspirations in literature, poetry and the natural world. The Irish composer John Field was the first to publish nocturnes for the solo piano as standalone works, rather than as poetic interludes within larger pieces such as suites or sonatas. Having inherited the form from Field, Frederic Chopin then raised the nocturne to new heights of inward expression. As much as the salon became a place for pianistic display of technique, it also became a space for quiet soliloquy through the course of the 19th century, accessible to the rapidly expanding bourgeoisie with access to an instrument at home and to the education required to play it. Thus publishers commissioned nocturnes from both greater and lesser composers to satisfy an ever-growing market. The nocturnes in this box cover all the great names of Romantic-era piano writing, and many lesser-known ones too. Many of the performances are played on instruments of the period, enabling listeners to immerse themselves into a 19th-century world of softer and more gentle colours and expression. This new box also features an essay by Peter Quantrill outlining the history of the nocturne and it's lasting hold upon our affections and imaginations.

In the Baroque era, European society turned it's gaze to foreign countries in the Orient, with Persia exerting a particular fascination that was not necessarily anthropological in nature. Foreign countries and figures made it possible, for example in Montesquieu's famous Lettres Persanes (1721), to express and disseminate the new Enlightenment ideas, such as criticism of absolutism, under the guise of the exotic. However, music was less philosophical or anthropological: Persian themes tended to provide a special "kick" in opera or instrumental music. Gambist Simone Eckert presents such works with Persian subjects with her Hamburger Ratsmusik on the new album Persian & Baroque and has teamed up with the Neoclassical Ensemble of Tehran for this. This formation, under the direction of musicologist Arash Mohafez, specializes in Persian music that has been passed down in ancient manuscripts, while traditional Persian musicians and ensembles usually play music that has been passed down orally and whose origins only go back to the 19th century. The Neoclassical Ensemble complements the baroque program with classical Persian pieces from surviving manuscripts from the 17th and 18th centuries. The special feature of the cooperation between these two formations is that both the European baroque repertoire and the Persian classical repertoire are shared by the ensembles.

Since it's foundation in 2005, the Vorarlberg baroque orchestra Concerto Stella Matutina has firmly established itself as one of Austria's leading original sound ensembles. The group is a regular guest at the Kulturbuhne Ambach, where this live recording was made in 2024. In addition to Beethoven's 2nd Symphony, three concert arias by Mozart for bass voice were performed, which, in contrast to the concert arias for soprano, are unfortunately heard far too rarely in concert. The aria Per questa bella mano KV 612 also surprises with a solo double bass.

Most of C.P.E. Bach's sonatas for flute and continuo date from the composer's early creative period. While some show elements of musical Sturm und Drang, others are more galant works. All of them are true jewels of the 18th century flute repertoire. The flutes played by Barthold Kuijken on the recording are replicas of instruments from the mid-18th century. The simple continuo instrumentation with only harpsichord (or fortepiano) places the emphasis on the imaginative little twists and turns of the flute lines.

Jean Langlais was born on February 15, 1907, in La Fontenelle, Brittany, France. He became blind from the age of two. Sent to the Paris National Institute for the Blind Youth in 1918, he studied piano, violin, harmony and organ with great blind teachers (among others Albert Mahaut and Andre Marchal). Later on, he entered the Paris National Conservatory of Music in the Marcel Dupre's organ class, obtaining a First Prize in 1930. In 1931, after studying improvisation with Charles Tournemire, he received the "Grand Prix d'Execution et Improvisation des Amis de l'Orgue". He completed his studies obtaining a Composition Prize in Paul Dukas' class at the Paris Conservatory in 1934. In 1945, he became the successor to Cesar Franck and Charles Tournemire at the prestigious organ tribune of Sainte-Clotilde in Paris. He gave countless concerts worldwide, and was a prolific composer. He died on May 8th, 1991 in Paris. Langlais' distinctive style combined traditional harmonies with contemporary techniques. His compositions often feature intricate organ textures and colourful harmonies, influenced by his background as a church musician. Langlais was also known for his use of modes and complex rhythms, which added to the unique character of his music. His works often have a strong emotional intensity and sense of drama, with frequent shifts in mood and dynamics. This is the third volume of the complete organ works includes sonatas, suites, Noels, the Symphony "Alla Webern", and many miscellaneous shorter works. Played by 3 excellent Italian organists: Giorgio Benati, Fausto Caporali and Alessandro Perin. The extensive booklet includes information on the organs used on this album.

The Messa a quattro voci con Violoncelli, Fagotti, Basso, ed Organo is an example of a particular type of sacred music that emerged at the end of the 18th century at the Portuguese court, in which the bass instruments imitate a classical orchestral texture. The resulting instrumental ensemble - two cellos and two bassoons with solo lines, with the bass line assigned to double bass and organ - was to remain standard until the first quarter of the 19th century. A body of some thirty works, including masses, settings of psalms. The Te Deum, Vespers, and responsories is proof enough of the importance of this repertoire in Portuguese musical life in this period; there was nothing equivalent to this instrumentation in other European lands at that time. This, the first recording of a work from this uniquely Portuguese repertoire with obbligato cellos and bassoons, is also the first recording of a work by Antonio de Padua Puzzi.

Rigodon Sauvage, with a repertoire (Southern Alps, Dauphine) drawn from folklorists' compilations and field recordings, has created an innovative style, giving a contemporary echo to a long musical history. The dominant image of the traditional music and dance of the Southern Alps and, more broadly, the Dauphine, commonly associates the music with the violin and the dance with the rigodon. This image is the culmination of a rich musical history that has been traced through archives, folklorists' works and fieldwork. This history, with it's mechanisms common to all the French provinces, has exacerbated certain salient features of popular musical practices, giving them an unprecedented representative value and place. These practices and the repertoires that have emerged have their own particularities -melodic-rhythmic forms, types of learning, functions, relationship to dance, etc.- These practices and repertoires are very different from "learned" music, even though they are geographically and sometimes culturally close.

Christoph Graupner (1683-1760) was, during his lifetime, just as renowned and beloved as his contemporary Johann Sebastian Bach. However, unlike the "Bach Revival" that began in 1829, Graupner's rediscovery only started in the early 20th century. To this day, a significant portion of his over 2,000 works remains unpublished. Pandolfis Consort, founded by violist Elzbieta Sajka-Bachler and performing on period instruments, presents three of Christoph Graupner's more than 1,400 church cantatas, featuring Austrian soprano Lisa Rombach. The texts are based on the works of Georg Christian Lehms (1684-1717), and the mood of these cantatas-titled "Angst und Jammer" ("Fear and Misery"), "Furcht und Zagen" ("Dread and Trembling"), and "Verleih, dass ich aus Herzensgrund" ("Grant That I May from the Depths of My Heart")-inspires this album's title: "Lamentare". As interludes, two of Graupner's instrumental chamber works are featured: excerpts from "Entrata per la musica di tavola" in G minor (GWV 468) and the Sonata in G minor (GWV 724).