Rachmaninov, considered by academics to be a late romantic, often draws on Baroque models: an eclecticism of languages. He experiences music as a memory of affection, and in few places, as here, his insatiable Faustian aspiration to 'stop the moment' reaches a similar intensity. Op. 19 breathes a sense of a return to life and the otherworldly cello calls shatter according to a principle of hallucinatory suspension which is already the Rachmaninov of the Symphonic Dances op. 45. Piano Sonata No. 2 in E-flat minor, Op. 36 had a complex gestation, culminating in a 1931 revision in which the Maestro reduced a certain 'pleasant storytelling' in the style of Liszt, moving closer to the neoclassical matrix, but 'Russian-style', of his later works. As an ideal encore, the programme also features the Danse orientale Op. 2, No. 2, the adolescent Sergei's homage to that narrative of exotic landscapes, musical scales infused with chromatic enchantments.

Despite being a work of great importance for the history of Italian opera, Nerone has almost no discography, except for the late Hungaroton edition (with Hungarian interpreters). Fortunately, in 1975, the Italian Rai of Torino produced this precious live edition under the Gavazzeni conduction, without any noise from the audience and with a perfect stereophonic recording. This is the best available performance of an opera that deserves the utmost attention, and which for years has not been available until today, thanks to the restoration by Urania Records.

Brother of the more known, Giovanni Battista, oboe and flute virtuoso, He was judged to be an ingenious composer on a par with Corelli and Geminiani. The success of these Sonatas, was largely due to their particular instrumental use, at a time when the 'flauto traversiere' was becoming increasingly fashionable; the flute performance of this CD fully adheres to the canons of articulatory practice (bisyllabic phonetics) of the first half of 18th century Europe.

Luigi Gordigiani was a prominent figure in 19th-century Florence who became known as the "Italian Schubert." Like his Viennese counterpart, Gordigiani's creativity found it's best expression in songs for voice and piano that earned him international renown in a period when opera reigned supreme in Italy. Gordigiani's style found a balance between brilliant, almost operatic drawing-room writing, and a deliberately regional vernacular language that gave his songs an honest and innocent character. All of his songs are graceful and delightful, and at the heart of his output are the Popular Tuscan Songs, which captivated the likes of Rossini, Meyerbeer, and Chopin.

The album Excursin Animato is a live recording of a unique project that Irena and Vojtech Havel, and the experimental-ambient duo Kora et le Mechanix, performed at the Alternativa Festival in 2006, created specifically for this festival. Here, the Havel couple for the first time combined their fragile, meditative music with electronics, which they had purposefully avoided until then (and even after). The album Excursin Animato is dedicated to the memory of the exceptional musician Vojtech Havel, who died a year ago. He and his wife Irena had been working together since the 1970s, recording a number of albums that mixed elements of European minimalism with Baroque and Eastern traditions. The depth and unpretentiousness of their expression have won them loyal fans at home and abroad and inspired many artists across genres. For their latest album Four Hands (Animal Music, 2024), they received the Czech Music Academy Award. The duo Kora et le Mechanix, formed by Michal Kor�n and Filip Homola, is celebrating 20 years of existence this year. They have established themselves as one of the most interesting electronic ambient projects in our country. The starting point of the collaboration with the Havel couple was their debut album Excursin (2006). The electronic compositions of Kora et le Mechanix (electronics, sampler, synthesizer, vocoder) are combined with the fragile world of acoustic music of Irena and Vojtech Havel (viola da gamba, cello, piano, and Tibetan bowls). The album Excursin also has a remix version, Excursin Forte (2007), featuring some of the most remarkable artists of the Czech and Slovak electronic scene. Excursin Animato thus concludes this trilogy.

The Athens State Orchestra is the oldest symphony orchestra in Greece. On the occasion of Mikis Theodorakis' 100th birthday, GENUIN evokes the spirits of his homeland and of classical antiquity in three symphonic works by Greece's most famous composer-works that played an important role toward the end of his life: from the early "Sinfonietta" in a new version, through the folk-inspired "Rhapsody for Guitar and Orchestra," to the equally moving nine-part "Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra," Theodorakis's last orchestral work. The young, rising Kornilios Michailidis leads Greece's premier orchestra with verve, while the album's soloists contribute at the highest standard of playing to these remarkable recordings!

The music that celebrates the agony of Romanticism, lives on a mysticism whose traces our materialism has rendered legendary. Around the artists of Art Nouveau (Liberty), is a proliferation of esoteric movements, in search of that link between soul and cosmic forces, which, in music, becomes sound.

Outside his homeland; Vitezslav Novak is not nearly as well known today as his compatriot and colleague Josef Suk; even though he also enjoyed great international renown during his lifetime. Like his friend Antonin Dvorak; who trained him; Novak was a composition teacher and later rector of the Prague Conservatory. He left behind a wide-ranging oeuvre that extends from chamber music to ballet and opera. Clear influences from national folk music; a humorous approach to "exotic" elements and a refined sense of sound characterise the language of this artist who began as a fervent post-Romantic. The juxtaposition of the piano concerto; composed in 1895; and the two ballet pantomimes; written some 35 years later; creates a field of tension that compels the listener to engage with this fascinating luminary.

Recorded live in concert at the Krematoriet, Stockholm, on 12 October 2024. Recorded by Adam Forkelid. Mixed and mastered by Klaus Scheuermann, 4ohm Berlin. Photos by Joona Toivanen (front cover) and Fredrik Gille. Cover design by Jonas Holmberg

This album features a unique recording of Die sch�ne M�llerin (The Beautiful Maid of the Mill), one that stands apart from most interpretations. It is the first performance of this song cycle in Poland-and one of the first worldwide-by a countertenor, accompanied by a historical piano. The high register of the countertenor amplifies the sense of innocence and the intensity of the protagonist's emotions-a young miller tragically in love. Written by the 26-year-old Franz Schubert, Die sch�ne M�llerin is now regarded as one of the pinnacles of the Romantic lieder tradition. The music is not merely an accompaniment to the text, but a complete entity in itself, responding to the subtlest shifts in the character's emotions while masterfully painting the backdrop for the unfolding drama. Although the love story does not have a happy ending, the overall tone of the work remains surprisingly light-hearted, perhaps reflecting the bittersweet nature of the narrative. It is in this delicate balance that the secret to the enduring popularity of Die sch�ne M�llerin lies. The cycle offers a brief escape, allowing listeners and performers alike to immerse themselves in a world that no longer exists, yet still moves the imagination with equal power.

The protagonist of these recordings owed his posthumous fame to an error. The Jena Symphony, discovered in the city's university library in 1909, was thoroughly studied, discussed, and even recorded as a supposed early work by Beethoven. However, since 1968 it has been established that the composition is by no means the titan's "zero" symphony, but rather the 14th of 23 symphonies that Friedrich Witt wrote in Niederstetten, Baden-W�rttemberg, many of which were also published. A full five weeks older than his colleague from Bonn, whom he outlived by nine years, he had been court conductor in W�rzburg since 1802, where his symphonic output took an astonishing turn and was apparently renumbered. The three symphonies recorded here, Nos. 1 to 3, were written a few years earlier than their much-praised cousin, but consistently display uncompromising quality.

Romanticism had many faces. Mozart's spirit still floated through musical life, and Beethoven's mighty music set the benchmark for every Romantic composer. Mozart's legacy was carried forward by two great pianists: Hummel, a pupil of Mozart, and Ries, a pupil of Beethoven. They each steered Romanticism in a different direction. Newspapers across Europe wrote of the 'wild Romanticism' of the bohemian Ries, now seen as a forerunner of Schumann. Meanwhile, the virtuoso Hummel enchanted and astonished his audiences. Around 1815, at the time of the Congress of Vienna, he was the most famous pianist in the world, and Liszt was crazy about his music. Schubert, by contrast, was the creator and embodiment of personal expressiveness in the Romantic era. He performed only in private circles and had no interest in empty virtuosity, even though he was a superb pianist whose instrument, according to contemporaries, would sing under his hands. This new recording presents the Piano Quartet in G major by Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837), the Piano Quartet in F minor by Ferdinand Ries (1784-1838), and the Adagio & Rondo Concertante by Franz Schubert (1797-1828).

The album features ten works by Ciurlionis, arranged for cello and piano by Lithuanian cellist Juozas Celkauskas. These arrangements open a new window for experiencing the piano works of Ciurlionis as chamber music, while his pictorially enhanced musical vision remains intact. In addition to the pieces by Ciurlionis, the album introduces three contemporary opuses composed especially for this project by Lithuanian composer �ibuokle Martinaityte, Latvian composer Arturs Maskats and Estonian composer Mihkel Kerem. Each of them, drawing personal inspiration from Ciurlionis, not only wrote a new composition for cello and piano, but also dedicated their creative efforts to the Ciurlionis' anniversary and this duo of performers, thus making this album not only a retrospective, but also a lively, creative dialogue between eras, cultures and personalities. This album is not merely a musical recording. It is a return to the source for the journey, during which the four bars of an unfinished work are transformed into a newly born world.

Christianity, in all it's forms, excels through it's high degree of adaptability. We encounter one of the more fascinating examples of adaptation in Latin American Catholicism that developed in the colonies of "New Spain." Not least did the veneration of Mary find an especially receptive genius loci here, whose musical disposition soon wedded to an artistic concept that was the non plus ultra for the rulers of the Old World. For some composers, the transatlantic regions thus had such appeal that they abandoned their traditional sphere of activity. One of them was the Italian Ignacio de Jerusalem, who worked at the cathedral in Mexico City; he was joined by the Mexican "home-grown talent" Manuel de Sumaya, as well as two Spanish musicians who were known and beloved in the land of the Aztecs only for their printed works. This yields a truly exquisite mix for Christmas.

This album captures the live premiere of a concert performance of the opera, marking it's first-ever recording. The work is based on the libretto of the 18th-century poet and monk, Pietro Metastasio. Azione sacra is a genre closely related to oratorio, but with a distinct emphasis on drama-this is not a static, contemplative work, but rather a mini-opera in two acts. The composer, Lukaszewski, draws partially from a Polish translation while also returning to the original text. He describes Joasza as a sacra rappresentazione, making it the second such work in his compositional legacy. Musically, Lukaszewski stays true to his own distinctive style, which is rooted in tonality and features a rich, varied texture-from intimate recitatives to powerful, dynamic choral segments. The work's intricate structure allows listeners to follow the plot through memorable musical motifs assigned to different characters and storylines. The choir plays a pivotal role, commenting on the action, while instrumental intermezzos add depth and emotional nuance. The recording features a stellar lineup of soloists, whose voices blend seamlessly with the dramatic intensity of the piece, creating an unforgettable listening experience.