The music on this album grew from the idea for a new song cycle in which women-so often silent in history and mythology-were to speak for themselves and in which all material would be created and performed by women. The Ragazze Quartet found a true kindred spirit in soprano Katharine Dain. A remarkable group of female composers and librettists also joined the project entitled They Have Waited Long Enough, each contributing in their own unique and personal way. The result is a rich and diverse collage of songs by Aftab Darvishi, Annelies van Parys, Calliope Tsoupaki, Aida Shirazi, and Saskia Venegas Aernouts. What unites them is the urgency that resonates throughout: it is important-if not essential-that these stories are recorded and heard. The fact that these stories are historical or mythological does not make them any less relevant today. The female perspective carries just as much weight as the male one-and deserves to be remembered. In addition to soprano Katharine Dain, the Ragazze Quartet is joined by Raphaela Danksagmüller (duduk), Anna voor de Wind (clarinet), Osama Abdulrasol (qanun), Elif Canfezâ Gündüz (kemenche), Marianna Soroka (percussion), and Agata Kruszewska (percussion).

Grammy-nominated pianist/composer Michael Eckroth makes his long-awaited SteepleChase debut as a leader with Contrafacto, joined by veteran bassist Ron McClure and dynamic drummer Steve Johns. Long recognized on the label as a versatile sideman, Eckroth steps forward with a program that highlights his refined touch, modern harmonic sense, and deep grounding in the jazz tradition. The trio explores originals and reimagined forms with clarity, swing, and understated fire, allowing Eckroth's melodic imagination to unfold in conversation with McClure's seasoned authority and Johns's responsive drive. Contrafacto introduces a mature, distinctive pianist whose writing and improvising balance structural elegance with spontaneity, marking a compelling new chapter in the SteepleChase piano trio lineage.

In two virtuosic parts, the brilliant and internationally renowned pianist Lucas Debargue reinterprets-and even reimagines-the repertoire of the illustrious American composer George Gershwin in a unique and personal way. The first part of the album, recorded during a memorable evening at the Philharmonie de Paris in September 2025 on Stephen Paulello's unique SP/287 piano, features the famous Three Preludes and Concerto in F, accompanied by the Orchestre de Paris conducted by Elim Chan. Also included: a highly personal version of Rhapsody in Blue, enriched with the pianist's own cadenzas. The second part, recorded at the Paulello Studio, is entirely devoted to twelve virtuosic etudes composed by Lucas from Gershwin's most popular songs, spanning all chromatic keys. This cycle represents the most ambitious creation of his career as a pianist to date, affirming a deep commitment to freedom and invention, while placing itself in the tradition of the great composers who wrote their own etudes. Gershwin's most celebrated works appear reimagined: The Man I Love, Someone to Watch Over Me, Ain't Necessarily So, They Can't Take That Away From Me, I Got Rhythm plus 20 variations on the theme of Summertime! Internationally acclaimed pianist Lucas Debargue's Gershwin Variations stand as an ambitious and unprecedented project, born from the desire to explore a radically different universe after recording Scarlatti sonatas and the complete solo piano works of Faure. This double album is an ode to George Gershwin, an unclassifiable composer standing at the crossroads of classical music and jazz, whose singularity inspired Lucas to create a work equally impossible to categorize. The Gershwin Variations is neither a classical album nor a jazz album, but a hybrid work reflecting the anticonformist spirit and the American dream embodied by Gershwin. Lucas offers a bold and poetic reinterpretation in which counterpoint, shifting harmonies, and unconventional rhythms reveal the richness of Gershwin's melodies. He invites listeners to rediscover a repertoire where popularity is never synonymous with triviality, and where music becomes a space for freedom, daring, and vitality.

Clarinet, voice, and percussion trio Sputter Box releases their debut album featuring composers Martha Callison Horst, Allison McIntosh, Filippo Scaramucci, Daijana Wallace & Kakia Gkoudina, Bethany Younge, and Brendan Sweeney. As the first full-length album entirely composed of works for this unique instrumentation, this album showcases their mission to build and expand the repertoire for the trio with tracks ranging from contemporary art songs to absurdist music theater.

Stradivarius is pleased to announce the release of a CD by Andrea Rebaudengo, a pianist with an intense concert career and a particular predilection for music written over the last hundred years, featuring a performance of Finale by Paolo Castaldi (1930-2021), an Italian composer and essayist with a highly personal artistic path, ranked among the greatest contemporary Italian composers. Produced in collaboration with the Sentieri selvaggi cultural association, the album offers a live recording of the performance of Finale on December 1, 2008, in the presence of the composer, 35 years after the publication of the score, composed between 1971 and 1973. A monumental score lasting approximately 45 minutes and in four movements, the work marked a break with the spirit of the years in which it was published, revealing a new poetics on which the composer would later build much of his creative journey. The album thus offers a re-listen to an important body of twentieth-century piano composition, to rediscover a composer of fundamental importance for the musical languages of the second half of the twentieth century, then an isolated voice and today finally recognized.

Spike Wilner makes a striking SteepleChase debut as a leader with Bird's Words, an album that distils the essence of Charlie Parker into something both reverent and freshly alive. Recorded in Paris with longtime colleagues Dmitry Baevsky, Yves Brouqui, Paul Gill, and Joe Strasser, the session embraces bebop's original discipline: concise, melodic soloing and a shared commitment to speaking Bird's language without modern embellishment. Wilner-steeped in the lineage of Walter Davis Jr., Jaki Byard, and Barry Harris-brings clarity and deep historical insight to every track. The band's tight interplay, crisp articulation, and unforced authority make Bird's Words a vibrant homage that reclaims the art of the concise, meaningful solo. A joyful celebration of Parker's enduring legacy.

Throughout the years, Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble have had the opportunity to work and tour in a number of countries and continents, among them the United States, China, Australia, Spain, Germany, France, and Japan. Many esteemed artists and musical directors have chosen to collaborate with the ensemble. In Sweden, concerts have been arranged together with Eric Ericsons Kammarkör and Bachkören. Among international names may be mentioned the directors Christopher Hogwood, Andrew Parrott, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Sigiswald Kuijken, Emmanuelle Haïm, and Alfredo Bernardini, as well as soloists such as Anne Sofie von Otter, Malena Ernman, and Emma Kirkby.

Adolf Reichel, born in 1816 in Tursnitz, was a prominent pianist, composer, and conductor who followed in the footsteps of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Siegfried Dehn. After studying in Dresden and Berlin, he spent several years in Paris, where he began a lifelong friendship with the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin. After stints in Meiningen and again in Berlin, he was appointed to Bern, where he assumed all leadership roles for the orchestra, various choirs, and the conservatory. Both symphonies were premiered in Bern (1869 and 1870). Elegance and contrapuntal virtuosity are complemented by original thematic development and a fundamental commitment to classical aesthetics. The Bern Symphony Orchestra performs the two symphonies by it's first chief conductor in a world-premiere recording under the baton of Christoph-Mathias Mueller.

Helge Burggrabe is a versatile composer who writes large oratorios and orchestral works, but also realises large-scale projects involving music, dance, and education. The composer has produced his extremely successful HAGIOS series for Berlin Classics, which is continued here with it's 3rd part. The idea behind HAGIOS is musical meditation and making music together, accompanied by concerts and workshops.

The medieval vocal works on this recording-most of which are world-premiere recordings-come primarily from Swiss monasteries and cathedrals. They were composed in the 13th and 14th centuries, an era in which spiritual and secular power were virtually inseparable. Switzerland's religious communities maintained close ties with the major cultural centers of the time and their musical innovations. In Paris, the intellectual center of the 12th and 13th centuries, outstanding figures were active, including Philip the Chancellor (c. 1160-1236), one of the greatest scholars of his time. It is precisely this connection between European exchange and local tradition that defines the special character of the Swiss sources gathered here: St. Gallen, Lausanne, the Abbey of La Maigrauge, and the Basel Song Manuscript were explored by the singers of the Ensemble RESONEZ and recorder player Marie Verstraete through exciting musical testimonies of that era.

Sandrine Piau and David Kadouch are reuniting for a project that the French soprano conceived as the second part of a diptych begun with Voyage intime (Alpha 911). This time we enter the world of childhood, but even though this album is called Contes, 'these aren't stories for children,' says David Kadouch. Actually, these stories might even present themselves in a way that provokes anxiety-dark and menacing Sandrine Piau continues: 'Folk tales and legends often serve as an initiation, and they also act providentially as pebbles that guide us through the forest of our most secret atavistic fears.' With their well-known and recognised expertise, Piau and Kadouch bring together composers from a variety of linguistic and artistic backgrounds-Hahn, Debussy, Ravel, Wolf, Strauss, Zemlinsky, Poulenc, Shostakovich-and introduce us to fascinating female composers such as Jeanne Bernard (1895-1965), Wally Karnevo (1914-2015), Louise Didier (1872-1955), and Ilse Weber (1903-1944).

Trio Azura's Storytellers launches the Colburn Collection: an exclusive new recording partnership between Delos and the Colburn School, Los Angeles, whose main design is to be a powerful springboard for the next generation of musicians. Nearly a century separates the works on this album, yet Charles Ives, John Harbison, and Jennifer Higdon share a distinctly American spirit of curiosity and individuality. Their music questions, provokes, implies, jokes, challenges, and explores, always searching for new ways to tell a story. Their singular compositional voices are realized in these performances by Trio Azura, praised by Gramophone for their 'intelligence and imagination' and 'profound emotion.' Ensemble-in-Residence at Colburn, Trio Azura was named the winner of the 2025 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions and the organization's first Ensemble-in-Residence, as well as the Grand Prize winner of the 2024 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Trio Azura consists of Canadian violinist Duncan McDougall, South Korean cellist Yejin Hong, and Chinese pianist Yanfeng (Tony) Bai.

Twenty years have passed since the release of The Seasons, The Months & Other Divisions of Time - I (ALPHA1289, also reissued) by the violist Sophie Watillon, who died prematurely a year after the album's release. Lucile Boulanger and the ensemble she named Les Lucioles have decided to record the second half of this programme-the fantasies from July to December and the two remaining seasons-composed by Christopher Simpson (born c. 1602-1606, died 1669), an English violist and leading music theorist. This album pays tribute to Sophie Watillon: 'Her serene and never ostentatious virtuosity, her freshness and her sense of musical warmth made her both one of the most memorable female role models of my childhood and also a profound inspiration to most budding violists,' says Lucile Boulanger. With the expert collaboration of Myriam Rignol, Manon Papasergio, Gabriel Rignol, Elisabeth Geiger, and Josh Cheatham, Lucile Boulanger and Les Lucioles bring Simpson's music back into the spotlight, elevating the viola da gamba to a level of virtuosity that is almost unrivalled.

In September 2026, Ekkozone proudly presents Nsambia Mpungun from Cuban composer Louis Franz Aguirre, one of the foremost Latin American composers of his generation, and featuring three of his fiercest champions and interpreters, Karolina Leedo (flutes), Mina Fred (viola), and Adam Ørvad (accordion). This intoxicating collection of premiere recordings of solo and chamber works for viola, flute, and accordion bears all the hallmarks of Aguirre's mystical and spiritual musical universe. Many of the works are inspired by the Cuban Santeria religion and it's religious texts, realised in his unique, visceral musical language. In 2011, Aguirre had the idea to bring together, in a single ensemble, these three musicians who were both able and willing to confront the particular challenges of his music, saying, 'We have shared fifteen years of close collaboration-years of exploration, dedication, and deeply rewarding musical exchange, resulting in the works on this album. My gratitude to them is both profound and enduring.' Nsambia Mpungun for amplified solo viola and singer unfolds as a work of transcendental, mystical, and ritual intensity, shifting between a wide spectrum of complex scratch sounds and a more contemplative dimension. Olakun II for viola and accordion has a profound physicality, paying tribute to the powerful and mysterious marine Orisha of the Afro-Cuban tradition. Oggún Adeolá for flute, viola, and accordion reveals Louis Aguirre's most intimate, quiet, and mystical side. A theme presented in the bass flute is followed by eighteen variations, ending with a solo accordion chorale. The continually evolving, organ-like sonority pays homage to Bach. Fantaisie-Impromptu (after The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dalí) for accordion is Aguirre's homage to Salvador Dalí, directly inspired by the Spaniard's masterwork The Persistence of Memory. In an unusual twist for the Cuban avant-garde composer, there is also a nod to Franz Schubert: a shadow of the Fantasia in F minor for four-hand piano. In Aguirre's own words, 'It's a melted Schubert, like Dalí's clocks.' The final work, Gardens of the Beloved (Three Tropes for Solo Alto Flute/Flute), is conceived as an instrumental monodrama based on texts by the Persian poet Rumi, combining Christian and Islamic references with Aguirre's ever-present connection to Afro-Cuban and Carnatic traditions. Multi-award-winning composer, violinist, and conductor Louis Franz Aguirre was born in Cuba in 1968 and is now based in Denmark. His music has been described by critics as 'music from hell' and 'not for the faint-hearted.' His numerous works include operas, orchestral and chamber music, works for soloists, vocal music, choral, electronic, and didactic music. He has received commissions from leading international ensembles and soloists, and his works have been performed at major festivals across the world. He was Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Camagüey Symphony Orchestra from 1995-2002 and has appeared as a guest conductor with the National Symphony Orchestra of Havana and the Santiago de Cuba Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he taught at the Camagüey Music Conservatory and was the Artistic Director and Chairman of the Camagüey International Festival of Contemporary Music (1996-2002), which he founded.

The renowned recorder quartet Flautando Köln is celebrating it's 35th anniversary this year. To mark the occasion, AEOLUS now releases a live recording of a Flautando concert from November 2025, which was entitled Light and Darkness. The ensemble invited the minstrel Holger Schafer to perform as a guest artist for this project. The program spans music from the 14th to the 21st century, including works written specifically for Flautando. The recording was produced in stereo and 5.0 surround sound, promising a special experience that captures the live atmosphere.

Clara Haberkamp does not like to be categorized and describes herself as a genre-open pianist and composer. Hailed as 'one of the most distinctive pianists on the German jazz scene' (radio DLF), she has recently made waves internationally with her latest record, Plateaux (TYXart, TXA24184). Blending jazz, classical music, and New Music, her sound is direct, intimate, and unmistakably her own. Occasionally, she adds her voice as another color in her musical palette, speaking directly to the listener. Clara Haberkamp's solo piano album LOVE MAPS (including also two vocal tracks) is a masterpiece of musical navigation-a beautifully crafted sonic map bridging jazz, classical music, and multifaceted improvisation. Familiar pieces and original compositions are transformed through her unique artistic sensibility.

Admired by Beethoven, Friedrich Kuhlau (1786-1832) made the four-hand piano genre his own. From the buoyant early Sonata in F major, Op. 8b, to the Beethovenian struggle of the late Allegro pathetique, Op. 123, this is melodically rich music, formally adventurous, and by turns convivial and dramatic. Marie-Luise Bodendorff and Xenia Kandel Frederiksen present the complete works, including several world premiere recordings, which together form a cornerstone of the Danish four-hand piano repertoire.

Goodbye Ghosts is a pure and intimate return to the essence of solo piano that combines Arnold Kasar's background in jazz, electronics, and contemporary classical music into a unique pianistic language. He performs minimalist yet emotionally powerful pieces that unfold with space, silence, and resonance. This new album is for fans of Nils Frahm, Hauschka, and Keith Jarrett-music that balances improvisation, atmosphere, and clarity.

Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos. 5 ('Spring'), 7 & 9 ('Kreutzer')

This transcription of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring marks the completion of a rewarding multi-year project to rethink this 1913 modernist work for large orchestra and transform it into a virtuoso duo for viola and piano while preserving it's original rhythmic and melodic integrity and formal structure. Stephen Wyrczynski, viola, and Aram Arakelyan, piano, gave the world premiere in the fall of 2024 and recorded the work for Azica Records in the summer of 2025 with producer Alan Bise. A printed edition is published by Songburd Music. This definitive edition of The Rite of Spring for viola and piano was a collaboration between Stephen Wyrczynski and Aram Arakelyan, both in residence at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. We spent many months studying the orchestral score composed by Stravinsky, as well as reviewing and considering the composer's own reduction for piano four hands. This transcription has been undertaken with scholarly rigor and careful attention to the structure, inventiveness, and completeness of the original score.

The CD program Variations on Silbermann is a homage to this late-period gem of Silbermann's craft, consecrated in the chapel of eastern Thuringia Schloss Burgk in 1743, and to music of the 17th- and 18th-century composers who either hailed from Central Germany or were active there. A broader musical horizon is suggested by the inclusion of the Neapolitan Alessandro Scarlatti, whose groundbreaking contributions to keyboard music have all too often been eclipsed by the fame of his son Domenico Scarlatti. The program features variation works from the time of the Burgk Silbermann organ's construction while presenting the entire spectrum of Baroque structural and tonal possibilities on a single-manual instrument. Daniel Beilschmidt, today University Organist in Leipzig and Castle Organist in Altenburg, grew up not far away from Schloss Burgk and knows very well the instrument and it's sound possibilities.

In a triumph of creative teamwork, the UK's Phaedra Ensemble presents the group's Cantaloupe Music debut Realms - recorded and produced in collaboration with renowned composer and singer Meredith Monk. The album collects, for the first time, Monk's only stand-alone string quartet (Stringsongs), together with one of her rarely performed instrumental works for small ensemble (Backlight), and the multi-layered Realm Variations, scored for six voices and mixed ensemble.

Tenebrae - The Journey marks the choir's 25th anniversary with a programme built around the theme of passage and transformation. Conductor Nigel Short pairs three new commissions-from Jason Max Ferdinand, Joby Talbot, and Joanna Marsh-with established works by Eric Whitacre, John Tavener, Max Richter, and others. Sarah Henderson's piece, winner of Tenebrae's inaugural Undiscovered Voices composition competition, also features. Recorded in February 2026, the album demonstrates the choir's characteristic blend of precision and warmth across repertoire spanning gospel-inflected anthems, intimate meditation, and large-scale choral drama. Music, as Short puts it, that rewards attentiveness-the more you listen, the more you hear.

Zampa enjoyed a triumph at the Opera-Comique on 3 May 1831. This was probably because Melesville's libretto displayed some resemblances to Mozart's Don Giovanni: a godless and lawless protagonist, the pirate Zampa, attempts to force Camille, betrothed to Alphonse, to marry him, but the statue of Alice Manfredi, one of his earlier victims, comes to life and carries him off to Hell. The action skilfully combines tragic and comic elements. In musical terms, Herold responds to the Romantic sensibilities of his time: he incorporates a few discreet 'Gothic' touches, plays on local colour (the plot unfolds in Sicily), and exploits the dramatic resources of orchestration and harmony (Berlioz noted 'chords of a wild, fantastical appearance'). Zampa amplifies the opera-comique through borrowings from grand opera: vocal styles blending French and Italian elements, spectacular events such as the eruption of Mount Etna (recalling the denouement of La Muette de Portici in 1828), and the contrast between collective and intimate scenes. The work is clearly a response to the concurrent gestation of Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable.

On September 18, Storyville Records releases a newly remastered edition of Circular Chant, percussionist Marilyn Mazur's 1994 recording made in connection with the Jazzpar Project, featuring new liner notes by saxophonist Fredrik Lundin and new album cover art. Marilyn Mazur (1955-2025) was a singular presence on the international jazz scene. Few percussionists have commanded such a wide range of instruments. She reshaped the role of percussion in improvised music and developed a personal musical language that expanded it's expressive scope. Recorded in March 1994 at Sun Studio in Copenhagen and at the Jazzpar Prize Concert at the SAS Falconer Center, the album documents a specially assembled ensemble featuring Nils Petter Molvær, Per Jørgensen, Michael Riessler, Hans Ulrik, Bugge Wesseltoft, Mikkel Nordsø, Klavs Hovman, Jacob Andersen, and Mazur herself. The album contains 13 tracks in total: nine compositions by Marilyn Mazur and four co-composed group pieces. Although the group was formed for the Jazzpar concerts, the recordings show a high degree of cohesion. The ensemble, often referred to as Pulse Unit, combines composed material by Mazur with ensemble pieces and shorter interludes. Mazur worked throughout her career at the intersection of composition and improvisation, and Circular Chant reflects this approach to ensemble writing and performance. The album places strong emphasis on group interaction, with the ensemble frequently functioning as a responsive collective. The three wind players, Molvær, Ulrik, and Riessler, play a central role throughout, moving between melodic and textural roles. They are supported by Wesseltoft on keyboards, Nordsø on guitar, Hovman on bass, and the rhythmic interplay between Andersen and Mazur on percussion and drums. The recording moves between composed ensemble works, vocal-led sections, electric group passages, and shorter interludes. More than thirty years after it's original recording, Circular Chant stands as a distinctive collaborative release from European jazz in the 1990s, bringing together a group of musicians who were central to the Scandinavian and wider European scene at the time.