This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Francesco Piemontesi, conductor Manfred Honeck, and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig come together in a new recording of Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2. This concerto transcends the traditional form, blending symphonic grandeur with virtuosic brilliance and moments of intimate chamber-like dialogue between piano and orchestra. Piemontesi's sensitive playing and Honeck's precise, passionate leadership create a richly detailed and moving interpretation of one of Brahms's greatest masterpieces. Alongside the concerto are Brahms' Three Intermezzi, Op. 117 - quiet, reflective pieces that offer a window into the composer's most personal thoughts. Francesco Piemontesi, one of today's most-cherished pianists, presents the fifth release in his exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE, following the widely praised Schubert - Last Piano Sonatas (2019), Bach Nostalghia (2021), Schoenberg, Messiaen & Ravel (2022), and Liszt Transcendental Etudes & Piano Sonata (2023).

"Marc Albrecht's taut performance of this fascinating piece is delivered with great sensitivity and careful attention to dynamics, while the luminous recording is tinglingly atmospheric." – SA-CD.net

Composer Arnold Schönberg considered it vitally important to study the techniques of other composers in order to thus penetrate more deeply into the true content of their music - and he believed the best way to do this was by arranging the original compositions. And thus between May and September 1937, Schönberg penned an orchestral version of the Piano Quartet in G minor by Johannes Brahms. His first reason was personal: “I like the piece.” But the other two were more of a practical nature. “It is seldom played. It is always very badly played, because the better the pianist, the louder he plays, and you hear nothing from the strings. I wanted for once to hear everything, and this I have achieved.”

In this regard, conductor Marc Albrecht and Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra prevail, with individual instruments and sections coming forward in carefully drawn sections. It is a fun Quartet, and one that is brilliantly played by Albrecht and the orchestra. Furthermore, Albrecht’s style suits the composition, with its grand, impressive gestures and vivid colour to the music.When asked why he is so enthusiastic about the composition Marc Albrecht replies, “Schönberg’s contributions made it a true orchestral work: American with a Schönberg-like sound. It is a fantastic trip through an insanely good piece.”

Recorded at the orchestra’s impressive residence - the NedPhO-Koepel, formerly the Majella church - this album also features Schönberg’s own work, Begleitmusik zu einer Lichtspielscene (which translates as ‘Accompaniment to a cinematic scene’). Although the work reflected the customs of silent movies, Schönberg’s original score could not be used for film as it was not possible to adapt the music to the length of the scenes. The première was held in Frankfurt in 1930, without an accompanying film, and led by conductor Hans Rosbaud. Schönberg’s idea was not fulfilled until 1973, when three films by Jean-Marie Straub, Jan W. Morthenson and Luc Ferrari respectively were made to accompany the score.

All the elements for a great recording are present here. Each of the three works is a masterpiece by one of the great composers of the 20th century. Each exploits the potential of a virtuoso string orchestra, and each includes brilliant solo- as well as ensemble-writing. Gordan Nikoli?, violin virtuoso and conductor, and the excellent Netherlands Chamber Orchestra are powerful interpreters of these scores, and PentaTone has delivered their performances in rich, resonant, and, where appropriate, biting surround sound. Thanks to the two-channel layer on the disc, those with conventional CD players can also find sound and performances of the highest quality.

All three composers were working under the gathering shadows of the century’s greatest catastrophe. Benjamin Britten (1913–1976), the youngest of this trio, composed his Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge in 1937, in time for its performance by the Boyd Neel String Orchestra at the Salzburg Festival. As Austria had not yet fallen to the Nazis, there is no political significance to this; Bela Bartók (1881–1945) composed his Divertimento on commission from the Swiss conductor Paul Sacher in the summer of 1939. This also was free of political inspiration; yet both Britten and Bartók would soon sail to the United States, escaping a Europe suddenly torn by war. By contrast, Karl Amadeus Hartmann (1905–1962) had withdrawn from the musical life of Germany after the Nazis took power in 1933. He sent his haunting Concerto funèbre for solo violin and string orchestra (1939) abroad, as a musical protest against the cynical division of Czechoslovakia accomplished in Munich, his hometown, in 1938.

Britten’s masterpiece shows amazing skill and originality in orchestration. His variations encompass several styles and periods of music, but each also is charged with original musical thought and observation—there is no mere imitation here. One becomes aware of a certain debt to Stravinsky, but perhaps most of all to Frank Bridge himself, a complex and gifted composer and teacher. Bartók’s piece is considerably more profound and complex than the name divertimento implies. The outer movements both begin in a folksy, cheerful way, but both contain more serious passages, unexpected dynamic shifts, and moments of considerable profundity. The Adagio begins in a veiled, mysterious fashion, and goes on to be an altogether serious and perhaps tragic statement. One might more properly think of this work as Bartók’s Concerto for String Orchestra. Finally, Hartmann’s work is written in (for him) a rather conservative musical language, while remaining uniquely original in its effect. The composer’s penchant for atonal or trans-tonal composition is present, if at all, in the angry third movement. But even there, firm tonal foundations are almost always evident. The brief introduction, the following Adagio, and the final Chorale/Slow March are deeply sorrowful, but also quite lovely, and the music ends with a full chord in D Major, as if to say that truth and beauty, however derailed in the turmoil of the time, would someday prevail.

Robert McColley, FANFARE

Nominated for a GRAMMY® Award!

Tenor Karim Sulayman and guitarist Sean Shibe present Broken Branches, a conceptual album with music ranging from Dowland, Monteverdi, Britten, Rodrigo, Takemitsu, Harvey, and Chaker to traditional songs from the Middle East, scrutinizing the close cultural and musical ties between East and West. This musical exploration ties in with the artists’ personal experience of a dynamic, in-between identity, as they grew up in the West having ethnic roots in the East (Lebanon and Japan respectively). Broken Branches explores the wood of the guitar and its relatives, as well as the splintering of history known as diaspora. Karim Sulayman has garnered international attention as a sophisticated and versatile artist, and won a Grammy Award for Classical Solo Vocal in 2019. Multi-award-winning guitarist Sean Shibe brings a fresh and innovative approach to the traditional classical guitar, while also exploring contemporary music and repertoire for electric guitar. He continues his exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE after his well-received Camino (2021) and Lost & Found (2022).

REVIEWS:

It’s a thoughtful and idiosyncratic project, one carried through in several arrangements and realizations by the two musicians that blur the line between song and art song into something broadly ‘folkish’.

-- Gramophone

This is an eclectic album, built on friendship, which explores the performers’ own sense of identity, memory, diaspora, often in their own arrangements. Sulayman, a Lebanese-American singer, light-voiced and flexible, brings intensity to traditional Sephardic song, and new inflections to John Dowland, Claudio Monteverdi and Benjamin Britten (his six songs from the Chinese).

-- The Observer (U.K.)

On this critically-acclaimed recording, Arabella Steinbacher brings together Bruch’s world famous First Violin Concerto with Chausson’s lush Poème and Korngold’s Violin Concerto, which is gradually gaining ground as a twentieth-century masterpiece. Steinbacher is joined by the Orquestra Gulbenkian under the baton of Lawrence Foster, with whom she has developed a congenial musical partnership over the years. BBC Music Magazine commented that “there is no doubting Steinbacher’s refulgent sound or the flair of her delivery” while MusicWeb International praised “the tingling climax of this Chausson.”

After a temporary absence, this album now returns to the physical market in an affordable Stereo re-issue. Arabella Steinbacher is a multiple award-winner with an extensive Pentatone discography spanning more than a decade. Lawrence Foster and the Orquestra Gulbenkian are also longstanding partners of the label.

Excerpt from review of the original SACD version of this release:

There is no doubting Steinbacher's refulgent sound or the flair of her delivery.

-- BBC Music Magazine

The 1980 Deutsche Grammophon debut of violinist Shlomo Mintz re-issued on Pentatone’s Remastered Classics series, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado. Mintz then still in the fresh bloom of both critical and popular acclaim chose his program well in this debut featuring the penultimate pieces in Romantic era violin repertory: Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, and Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1. Inescapably an essential musical snapshot which contains impassioned playing giving freshness to these much performed pieces. Originally recorded in quadraphonic sound.

Quatuor Diotima celebrates the bicentennial anniversary of Anton Bruckner with a recording of his String Quartet in C Minor, Rondo in C Minor and Theme with Variations in E-Flat Major, alongside the String Quartet in E-Flat Major from his pupil Friedrich Klose. Bruckner wrote these pieces as composition exercises, yet they adumbrate the originality and power of his later works, as well as pay tribute to the glorious Viennese quartet tradition. Like Bruckner, Klose strongly sympathized with Wagner and the proponents of programme music, and chamber music had not appealed to him very much up until the moment he embarked on his only string quartet composition. Sarcastically, he subtitled it a "tribute paid in four instalments to my stern German schoolmasters", yet he demonstrates a full mastery of the conventions of musical form, paired with an almost unprecedented wealth of musical ideas. This album, recorded at and in close cooperation with the Brucknerhaus Linz, shall be one of the most original contributions to the Bruckner year 2024, highlighting his achievements in the field of chamber music as well as his compositional legacy. Quatuor Diotima is one of the most in-demand chamber ensembles in the world today, and has worked in close collaboration with several of the greatest composers of the late twentieth century. Reflected in the mirror of today's music, the quartet projects a new light onto the masterpieces of the 19th and 20th centuries. The quartet returns to PENTATONE after their acclaimed Metamorphosis Ligeti, released in 2023.

The Rundfunkchor Berlin, led by its chief conductor Gijs Leenaars and accompanied by wind players from the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, presents masses by Bruckner and Stravinsky. The mass is arguably the oldest genre in music history, full of traditions, but also an inexhaustible soil for originality and innovation. This mix of tradition and innovation makes the genre an ideal vehicle for Bruckner and Stravinsky, who were both masters at blending the old and new into a uniquely personal musical idiom. Bruckner’s Mass in E Minor and Stravinsky’s Mass share their unusual orchestrations of almost a cappella voices with a sparse, extraordinary wind accompaniment. While Bruckner was inspired by open air “country masses”, Stravinsky’s Mass is emblematic of his neo-classical style. The Rundfunkchor Berlin is one of the most established German choirs, and has participated in several PENTATONE releases of Wagner operas, as well as a recording of Bruckner’s Mass in F Minor (2013) and Richard Strauss’s Die Tageszeiten (2015). The Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin has an even more extensive PENTATONE discography, containing collaborations with conductors such as Marek Janowski, Jakub Hruša and Vladimir Jurowski. Gijs Leenaars makes his PENTATONE debut.

The MDR Leipzig Radio Choir and its chief conductor Philipp Ahmann present motets by Anton Bruckner and Michael Haydn. While Bruckner’s Locus iste, Christus factus est and Ave Maria enjoy great popularity and can be heard frequently in concerts, Michael Haydn’s contributions to the same genre are far less known. The younger brother of Joseph and successor of Mozart as Salzburg organist has, however, had a huge impact on religious composition in the German-speaking world, and particularly in Austria. As such, Bruckner’s motets, composed about a century later, are still firmly grounded in the tradition of Michael Haydn. By combining their motets, this album allows the listener to discover this uniquely Austrian church-musical style, while simultaneously showing how both composers’ gave a highly personal substance to it. The MDR Leipzig Radio Choir is the largest German radio choir with the richest tradition. Since 2020, Philipp Ahmann serves as its chief conductor. After having featured on several PENTATONE recordings, including Il Tabarro, Cavalleria rusticana (both 2020), Der Freischütz (2019) and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis (2017), the choir now presents its first solo album with the label.

Mari Kodama celebrates the Bruckner bicentenary year with a collection of piano works, most of which are rarely heard. While some of them, such as the Fantasie, Erinnerung and Stille Betrachtung, reveal the serious symphonist and church composer, the many dances included on this album illuminate a lighter side of the composer. In general, hearing his approach to the piano enriches our understanding of this enigmatic genius. As much of the material was taken from study sketch books, these pieces allow us a look into the workshop of this ever-searching spirit. To Kodama, the Bruckner that appears from his works is in many ways more interesting than the various, cliche-ridden accounts of his life and character. Instead, Kodama aims to paint a nuanced Bruckner portrait, gaining in depth thanks to the original selection and perspective. Mari Kodama is one of the most extraordinary pianists of our age, and has an impressive Pentatone discography, featuring Beethoven's complete piano sonatas (2003-2014), piano concertos of Loewe and Chopin (2003), Tchaikovsky Ballet Suites for Piano Duo (2016), de Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain (2017), Martinu's Concerto for Two Pianos (2018), Kaleidoscope, Beethoven Transcriptions and MON AMI Mon amour (both 2020), New Paths (2022) and Mozart & Poulenc Double Concertos (2024).

BRUCKNER Symphony No. 4 (Version 1878/1880) • Marek Janowski, cond; O de la Suisse Romande • PENTATONE 5186 450 (SACD: 63:27)


I’m irresistibly tempted to say the porridge here is just right, except for the fact that when you deal with Bruckner, there are far more than three bears at stake and a lot more stirring to be done over the stove. Performances of the Bruckner Fourth range from the mystical (think Celibidache) to the craggy, or at least extremely direct (think Blomstedt). Less often do we suppose the music to be graceful, rich, and beautiful as a Brahms symphony. But that is what we have here. This is an unexpectedly wonderful CD. I find it the most beautiful Bruckner Fourth I have ever heard, marginalizing even Kertész’s glowing one in memory.


Marek Janowski has become visible in recent years as a ubiquitous guest conductor, touring with mostly German repertory, which he performs with a remarkable sense of balance and formal integration. He is not generally a passionate conductor, willing to break the musical line to make a point. But he shapes everything in a fluid manner, which sets him apart from Blomstedt, Wand, and from the historical line of clipped phrase endings brought to us by Toscanini and Szell. I first took notice of him a few decades ago on a trip to Europe, encountering on Radio France the most rounded and velvety broadcast of the Brahms Haydn Variations that I had ever heard. In the years since, my assessment of Janowski has risen and fallen with the CDs he has released, some of which come across as emotionally neutral. His recent Brahms recordings with the Pittsburgh Symphony have tended to be fast and rather dry-eyed, his Strauss Alpine Symphony a bit short on mystery, but his Macbeth white hot and the one to seek out.


Similarly, Janowski’s Bruckner cycle with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande does not always probe for brooding depths in the more apocalyptic works. But this Fourth is just about ideal, unfolding naturally and simply, every phrase more ravishing than the last. Given the history of the Suisse Romande in French music (and little else for decades), one is astonished to experience such idiomatic Brucknerian sonority from a Francophone orchestra. Janowski’s earlier recording of this symphony for Virgin with Radio France was marred by just the sort of nasal and blaring brass sound one would fear from traditional French players. But the sound of the Suisse Romande today is golden, beautifully matched, and virtuosic. And the strings are luminous and accurate in a way Ernest Ansermet would never have achieved. This is now an orchestra fully of the first rank. Victoria Hall, which verges to the eye on being a too-muchness of Victorian kitsch, sounds here like one of the great shoebox recording sites, if PentaTone’s miking is any judge. The listener is in an ideal seat for Bruckner, a bit towards the back of the hall. And the surround channels supply a glowing sense of space. There is no edge; nothing grates on the ear.


The performance, itself, is on the swift, flowing side, like Kertész, who is even two minutes faster. I do miss in it one touch we get only from Barenboim: the timpani at the conclusion of the first movement’s development chorale—a nice touch. But Janowski otherwise shapes this section beautifully, surrounding the chorale more than usual with filigree from the cellos. The slow movement usually is what kills conductors—and the audiences forced to plod through it with them. The movement essentially is about walking, stopping, breathing, and then walking on. The sense of pulse must carry it more than any melody. Most conductors miss this, attempt too much, and give the listener an out-of-shape Bruckner, lumbering forward and pausing to deal with what sounds like near-death emphysema. Here, all is as natural as a performance of Beethoven’s Pastorale . The scherzo is nimble and the brass fruity. There are many ways to make this movement whoop appropriately at the end of the hunting call, and these players are as good as any you will find. And Janowski phrases the three great declamations at the beginning of the Finale with a remarkable set of slithers that give them real profile and contour.


It is an unusual experience to emerge from a Bruckner performance—moved and satisfied—without feeling that one has also been assaulted. Shostakovich and Bruckner performances tend to suffer from a public address system syndrome. But here all comes together: thorough, extremely interesting notes, perfect hall, perfect brass and string sound. A Kapellmeister transcends himself—and the effect is emotional nourishment.


As I suggested at the beginning: The porridge is just right for this bear!


FANFARE: Steven Kruger

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

"The orchestra is fine, its brass smooth, clean, deeply sonorous...the Pentatone SACD recording is clear and solid with exceptional dynamic range, and clean as a whistle...Janowski knows his Bruckner as well as anyone around." - American Record Guide

Although the timings for this recording are about as typical as one will find, the performance is distinctive. Russian-born and American-trained conductor Jakov Kreizberg gives us a rather subdued first movement, beautifully paced and carefully balanced, with the Vienna Symphony drawing close to its senior rival, the Philharmonic, in the beauty of its playing. The mood becomes downright solemn in the Adagio, the most important movement in this symphony. The first subject is funereal, suggesting that Kreizberg recalls that Bruckner intended it as a memorial to Richard Wagner, seriously ill when the composer began his work on it, and deceased before its completion. The contrasting second subject, which can be played as a cheerful contrast, here maintains the original air of seriousness, while realizing in unusually high degree Bruckner’s splendid part-writing in the strings. The build-up to the movement’s climax is unhurried, making the outburst of the full orchestra, complete with crashing cymbals and thunderous drums, even more effective than usual. The long coda comes across as the lamentation Bruckner intended.

Kreizberg then demonstrates that this symphony, unlike several by the composer, changes from solemnity to robust affirmation in its two shorter and concluding movements. After a fast and boisterous Scherzo, we hear a suitably Haydnesque finale, full of playfulness and affirmation. In sum, this is a first-rate Bruckner Seventh, sounding very good in stereo and even better in multichannel SACD mode. Its measured pacing in the first two movements, along with the use of modern instruments, make it a quite different affair from the recent and highly praised Herreweghe recording for Harmonia Mundi, also available as an SACD, with its original instruments and brisk tempos. More dramatic recordings exist, to be sure: one thinks of several deceased masters—to name a few, Eugen Jochum, Günter Wand, Georg Tintner, Hans Knappertsbusch, Kurt Eichhorn, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Otto Klemperer, and Kurt Sanderling. But Kreizberg’s thoughtful and superbly executed interpretation deserves a wide hearing.

Robert McColley, FANFARE

PentaTone continues the collaboration between Marek Janowski and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande with the release of the 3rd Symphony of Anton Bruckner.

Rising star violinist Chloe Chua presents a recording combining Chen Gang and He Zhanhao's Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto with Niccolo Paganini's First Violin Concerto, performed together with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Rodolfo Barraez and Mario Venzago. The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto was written in 1959, and inspired by a tale often called the Romeo & Juliet of ancient China. Chen and He deftly combine a Western classical idiom with elements from Chinese opera, such as grace notes and portamento effects, and the work has become one of the most famous and acclaimed pieces of Chinese classical music. This album also features an interpretation of Chen Gang's Sunshine over Tashkurgan, which adds Central-Asian maqam to the stylistic palette. The programme concludes with Paganini's First Violin Concerto, musically inspired by Rossinian bel canto. The three works share a richness of melodic invention and orchestral colours, as well as breathtaking virtuosic demands for the soloist. The solo parts are in excellent hands with Chloe Chua, who admires the steadfast love and perseverance of the Butterfly Lovers, and feels fully at home in these evocative and exhilarating masterpieces.

Camino is guitarist Sean Shibe’s first PENTATONE album, an introspective programme exploring French-Spanish musical borders, a pilgrimage leading from Ravel’s Pavane pour une Infante défunte, Satie’s Gymnopédie No. 1 and Gnossiennes 1 and 3, Poulenc’s Sarabande, De Falla’s Miller’s Dance and Homaje, pour le Tombeau de Debussy and José’s Pavana triste all the way to Mompou’s Canços i dansas 6 and 10, as well as his Suite compostelana.

Shibe has deliberately granted Mompou a central role on this album, as his music demonstrates that melancholy, aimlessness, and a whole host of other feelings are not things to be avoided or fixed or solved, but experiences to be felt deeply: not with sad nostalgia, but with genuine wonder and excitement at what this means for the future. In that respect, Camino also documents Shibe’s personal quest to overcome the challenges of a time dominated by COVID-19, and to ultimately see the world anew.

Multi-award-winning guitarist Sean Shibe brings a fresh and innovative approach to the traditional classical guitar, while also exploring contemporary music and repertoire for electric guitar. Camino is the first fruit of an exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE.

REVIEW:

Guitarist Sean Shibe has been known for daring programming, and an album of Spanish guitar music might seem a retreat to normalcy, but this is not the case. Shibe devises a program that brings in a wide variety of effects and moods and executes it all flawlessly. The program is both constantly shifting and entirely absorbing, and any stereotypes of Spanish music the listener may have will be gone by its end.

-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)

Les Arts Florissants, one of the world's most renowned Baroque ensembles, joins forces with legendary founder and artistic director William Christie for a landmark release: the first complete recording of Andre Campra's Requiem, paired with his profoundly moving Miserere. These works, filled with clarity, grace, and emotional power, offer a deeply personal and spiritual listening experience. Campra's music speaks straight to the soul, with harmonies that are subtle, expressive, and timeless. Performed on period instruments at original French pitch and shaped by authentic ensemble forces, this recording is a masterclass in historically informed performance, true to Campra's era, and brought vividly to life by musicians at the top of their craft. With it's unmistakably rich and nuanced sound, Les Arts Florissants infuses every phrase with the elegance of French musical heritage, even in Latin texts shaped by the unique French pronunciation of the time. This is more than a recording, it's a rediscovery of one of sacred music's most refined voices. Though Campra's genius has long been underappreciated, this release brings his spiritual artistry to the forefront for a new generation. A powerful listening experience and a milestone debut for Les Arts Florissants and William Christie on PENTATONE, this album is an essential addition to any collection of great sacred choral works.

This album contains a selection of solo cantatas, both secular and sacred, from the Italian, German, and English traditions. Including works by Handel, Vivaldi, and Bach in settings large and small, with obbligato instruments ranging from oboe to chimes, the magnificent cantatas on this album create a portrait of this intimately transcendent repertoire. With ‘Cantata; yet can I hear…,’ the American countertenor Bejun Mehta releases his first album on Pentatone. Hailed as “arguably the best countertenor in the world today” by the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Mehta here joins forces with the players of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, one of the most renowned early music ensembles of today. Mehta writes: “This is by far the most personal recording I have ever made. Unlike Lieder, which as miniatures often work their magic in impressionistic ways, or opera, which unleashes human passions to their largest and most raw expression, solo cantatas lie in the middle and take the singer on a highly specific conversation with himself as he grapples with the subject at hand.”

Le temps des lilas is an ode to Romanticism, a love song and a nostalgic reflection on the bittersweet beauty of lost happiness. Dedicated to the music of Ernest Chausson, this album oscillates between passion and melancholy, wonder and nostalgia. The Concert Op. 21, a masterly work on the borderline between chamber music and orchestra, is carried by Pierre Fouchenneret's magnetic violin and David Violi's colorful piano. I Giardini also deliver a previously unpublished version of Poeme Op. 25, reworked for violin, piano and string quartet. The album closes with Pauline Buet's equally sensitive retelling of Chausson and Barbara's 'Temps des/du lilas', using cello in the former and singing voice in the latter. Barbara's song and Chausson's melody stand as a simple, timeless tribute to the magic of past moments and the fragility of human existence. Le temps des lilas is I Giardini's first full-length album for PENTATONE, following an already rich discography: Nuits (which has been awarded the prestigious Diapason d'Or), Bleu, Shaw and Faure, an EP released with PENTATONE in 2024.

Having completed the entire trilogy of Handel's Concerti grossi, the Akademie Fur Alte Musik Berlin presents a recording of the first six Concerti grossi, Op. 6 by the composer, ensemble leader and violin virtuoso Arcangelo Corelli, who received the almost cult-like reverence during his lifetime. The composer had been experimenting with this one of the most distinctive forms of instrumental music of the Baroque era since the late 1670s, but it was only towards the end of his life that he sought to publish these compositions and selected only twelve exemplary pieces from what was probably a much larger collection. He laid the foundations of this instrumental form for future composers such as the aforementioned Georg Frederic Handel, who paid tribute to the Italian Baroque master with his two opuses. The Akademie Fur Alte Musik Berlin and it's two concertmasters, Mayumi Hirasaki and Georg Kallweit, who demonstrate their extraordinary virtuosity, only prove why they are regarded as one of the most influential period-instrument ensembles of today. The Akademie Fur Alte Musik Berlin has a substantial PENTATONE discography, including the Diapason d'Or awarded CANTATA with Bejun Mehta (2018), Handel's Concerti grossi Op. 3 and 6 (released in 2019 and 2020), Telemann's Miriways (2020), Handel's Messiah (2020), Haydn's L'isola disabitata (2021), La Passione with Christina Landshamer (2022), a recording of Mozart's Paris and Haffner symphonies and the Oboe Concerto with Xenia Loffler (2023), Telemann's Ino (2024), and a recording with Mozart's symphonies Nos. 29 & 33 and the Clarinet Concerto with Ernst Schlader (2024).

Nominated for a GRAMMY® Award!

Read our exclusive ArkivMusic interview with star Anthony Roth Costanzo

Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Gil Rose present the world premiere recording of The Lord of Cries, a breathtaking opera by John Corigliano and Mark Adamo. Telling the story of Euripides’s The Bacchae with the characters of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the piece explores the power of sexual desire and humans’ need to blame and attack others for what they can neither resist nor accept in themselves. Corigliano returns to opera for the first time since his The Ghosts of Versailles, introduced by the Metropolitan Opera, made an international sensation in 1992. The brilliant cast—most of whom introduced their parts in the world premiere in 2021—is led by star countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo in the title role. Multi-award winning composer John Corigliano’s music has been commissioned, performed, and recorded by many of the most prominent orchestras, soloists, and chamber musicians in the world. The Pentatone recording of The Ghost of Versailles, released in 2016, won two Grammy Awards. Composer-librettist Mark Adamo’s four previous operas, including Little Women (1998) have been staged, recorded, and broadcast hundreds of times on five continents. Under the leadership of conductor Gil Rose, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project has become an unsurpassed advocate for 20th and 21st century American music; they make their Pentatone debut with The Lord of Cries.

This timeless collection is pretty much every piece you would expect to be included, and then some; a good variety of music to please every palate. PENTATONE has some of the finest interpreters in it's catalogue to draw from and over 150 surround-sound albums - each and every one a top-quality DSD recording. This compilation will be enjoyed by both the curious beginner and classical aficionado.

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Magdalena Kozena presents a recital of Czech songs, together with the Czech Philharmonic under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle. The first impression of Czech songs may be atmospheric nature scenes, or stories about pretty peasant girls and village pranks, but the selection on this album demonstrates that the imagination of Czech song composers stretched far wider. For example, Bohuslav Martinu's Nipponari were inspired by Japanese culture, whereas his folksy Songs on One Page obtain a deeper meaning knowing that he wrote them in the US, having fled the Nazi threat. His colleagues and contemporaries Hans Krasa and Gideon Klein did not manage to get away, and both died in concentration camps. Krasa's German-language Four Orchestral Songs show a fascination with nonsense verse typical of avant-garde circles in the early 1920s. Klein's Lullaby can be traced back to Jewish folk songs, yet it's musical realization displays an openness to French musical styles. And no Czech song recital would be complete without good old Antonin Dvorak, whose Evening Songs and Songs, Op. 2 are included. Many of these works are best known with piano accompaniment, but are presented here in orchestrations. The Czech Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle marvellously bring out all the colours, while Kozena once more showcases her mastery in vernacular song.

On Darknesse Visible, Inon Barnatan brings together French and British composers with works by Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy Thomas Ades and Ronald Stevenson. The album title is derived from Ades's piece of the same name and conveys some of the aspects that Barnatan finds most fascinating about the music on this album: all the pieces are inspired by stories or poems, and in all of them dark and light are intertwined. Ades and Stevenson both take their inspiration from existing pieces, by Dowland and Britten respectively. Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit and La Valse showcase the evocative power and colour of his music, while Debussy's Suite Bergamasque contains the world-famous Clair de lune.

Dear to Us, the debut album by violinist sisters Hina & Fiona, captures the rare and radiant bond between two rising stars of the classical music world. Born in New York to French-Vietnamese and Japanese parents, these gifted sisters have already achieved remarkable milestones individually: Hina recently won first prize at the 2023 Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition, while Fiona debuted with the New York Philharmonic at 16, and respectively embark on illustrious solo careers. Together, their playing reveals a profound connection shaped by lifelong collaboration, honest artistic dialogue, and complementary interpretations. Accompanied by the distinguished pianist Rohan de Silva, they present a thoughtfully curated program that balances beloved classics with lesser-known treasures, showcasing works by Halvorsen, Moszkowski, Ysaye, Rozsa, and contemporary composer Anna Clyne. From the fiery virtuosity of Ravel's Tzigane and Sarasate's Navarra to the tender warmth of Ponce's Estrellita, Dear to Us is a compelling journey through technical brilliance and heartfelt expression. The sisters' extraordinary synchronicity, paired with their distinctive voices, creates a musical experience both intimate and exhilarating.

Dear to Us, the debut album by violinist sisters Hina & Fiona, captures the rare and radiant bond between two rising stars of the classical music world. Born in New York to French-Vietnamese and Japanese parents, these gifted sisters have already achieved remarkable milestones individually: Hina recently won first prize at the 2023 Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition, while Fiona debuted with the New York Philharmonic at 16, and respectively embark on illustrious solo careers. Together, their playing reveals a profound connection shaped by lifelong collaboration, honest artistic dialogue, and complementary interpretations. Accompanied by the distinguished pianist Rohan de Silva, they present a thoughtfully curated program that balances beloved classics with lesser-known treasures, showcasing works by Halvorsen, Moszkowski, Ysaye, Rozsa, and contemporary composer Anna Clyne. From the fiery virtuosity of Ravel's Tzigane and Sarasate's Navarra to the tender warmth of Ponce's Estrellita, Dear to Us is a compelling journey through technical brilliance and heartfelt expression. The sisters' extraordinary synchronicity, paired with their distinctive voices, creates a musical experience both intimate and exhilarating. In addition to CD, Dear to Us is also available as a 2LP special vinyl release, offering listeners a rich, analog experience of the duo's vibrant artistry-perfect for collectors and audiophiles alike.

This new OSR recording presents the two most ambitious musical responses to Maurice Maeterlinck’s 1893 epoch-making play Pelléas et Mélisande. Conductor Jonathan Nott has created a new suite of Debussy’s opera, which is much more extensive, and focuses more on the actual drama and symphonic development than existing suites that rely heavily on Debussy’s interludes. Schoenberg’s Pelléas und Melisande is often perceived as relatively “amorphous”, its narrative structure obscure, leaving concealed all but the most explicit references to the drama on which Schoenberg based it. In this recording, Jonathan Nott introduces a novel track division and analytical track titles that make the music’s relation to the story much more tangible to the listener. Programming it next to the music of Debussy’s opera allows us to compare both works, and to see how the most important innovators of turn-of-the-century music responded to this haunting, Symbolist story. The arrangement of Debussy’s music on this recording is the work of Jonathan Nott.

REVIEW:

For many listeners, conductor Jonathan Nott's new version of Debussy's work will be reason enough to check this album out. While his task was a difficult one, the results give a feel for the flow of the opera. But there's more. Nott has configured the track divisions and track titles of Schoenberg's single-movement Pelleas und Melisande in a novel way. In part, he seems to have relied on Alban Berg's analysis of the work as a combination of four-movement sonata form and the Wagnerian leitmotif technique, and the track titles, Nott's own, reflect this. One might debate what has been done in the cases of both Debussy and Schoenberg, but there's no debating the value of his effort; comparing the Debussy and the Schoenberg side by side is fascinating. Nott further emphasizes the direct comparison with his relatively straightforward performances of the two works, avoiding operatic gestures in the Debussy, and the venerable Swiss orchestra follows him well through unfamiliar interpretations. This is highly recommended for aficionados of the early 20th century.

-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)

Saskia Giorgini presents Images, containing some of Claude Debussy's most colourful piano works. Starting with tuneful early works such as the Danse (Tarantelle styrienne) and Deux arabesques, Giorgini gradually works towards later, more ambitious pieces such as the Estampes and the two sets of Images, from which the album derives it's name. Debussy's music has always held an enormous attraction to Giorgini, and this album is the result of a years-long search to bring these mesmerising musical pictures to life. With her solo Liszt recordings, Giorgini has demonstrated a masterful touche and unique sense of colour, which makes Debussy's music an obvious next step.