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NOVA! NOVA!

Resonus Classics

$18.99 Oct 01, 2015

The two resident choirs of St Catharine's College, Cambridge, and their director Edward Wickham, join together to record this stunning and evocative selection of contemporary Christmas carols. The college can boast having the first and only college-based Oxbridge girls' choir, and its own beautiful chapel in the very heart of Cambridge, provided the venue for this debut recording of the recently founded St Catharine's Girls' Choir. Joined by the student choir, the album features premieres from such composers as Richard Rodney Bennett, Roxanna Panufnik, Cecilia McDowall and John Tavener. It also includes works specially written for the Girls' Choir by Stevie Wishart and Christopher Fox.

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NOVA! NOVA!
Resonus Classics Oct 2015
CD
$18.99

C’est si bon - Foreign Artists Singing in French 1931-1962

Frémeaux

$32.99 Feb 20, 2026

An irresistible invitation to a journey into the heart of the "so chic" glamour of 1950s and 1960s France! This 2-CD box set, curated by Olivier Julien, brings together tracks from major international artists like Blossom Dearie, Eartha Kitt, Marlene Dietrich, and Louis Armstrong, who ventured into French, the language of love. These unforgettable performances transport us back to an eternal Paris, with it's restaurants, it's fashion, and it's music at the forefront of global sophistication. - Patrick Frémeaux

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C’est si bon - Foreign Artists Singing in French 1931-1962
Frémeaux Feb 2026
CD
$32.99

Homilius, Stolzel & Rolle: Christmas Cantatas / Willens, Die Kolner Akademie

CPO

$18.99 Jan 20, 2017

For more than two thousand years the birth of Christ, the incarnation of God as a child in the manger at Bethlehem, has fascinated and inspired artistic production and reflection. It is precisely in the field of music that thousands of songs and multipart compositions have come down to us attesting to the richness of this body of works and documenting the diversity of artistic expression. Most of these works were composed for liturgical use in the Christian churches. It is a rewarding experience to sift through the repertoire and to edit and record previously unknown works. This year our Christmas album presents recording premieres of five cantatas: one each by Bach's contemporaries Christoph Förster (1693-1745) and Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1690-1749) and three by members of the following generation, one by Gottfried August Homilius (1714-85) and two by Johann Heinrich Rolle (1716-85). All the cantatas were composed for use in Lutheran religious services and are based on a similar plan of construction: an extensive opening chorus is followed by recitatives and arias, and a chorale strophe from a church hymn concludes the work. The opening choruses are usually based on short quotations from the Bible, and the festive splendor of the trumpets and timpani forms the dominant tonal element.

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Homilius, Stolzel & Rolle: Christmas Cantatas / Willens, Die Kolner Akademie
CPO Jan 2017
CD
$18.99

Olsson / Langlais: Te Deum / Messe Solennelle
BIS Jan 1985
CD
$21.99

Straight from the Heart: The Chansonnier Cordiforme

Naxos

$19.99 Oct 14, 2016

The Chansonnier Cordiforme is a songbook, probably copied in 1475 for a roguish but musically cultivated priest named Jean de Montchenu - a contemporary chronicler called him "dissolute and full of all the vices". The beautiful marnuscript containing 43 songs is, uniquely, heart-shaped and covered in velvet. This recording presents both a representative cross-section of the manuscript's repertoire, the majority of which is set to French texts and is among the best known and beautiful of the age, and a portfolio of differing performance options including instruments. In addition to works by such luminaries as Gilles Binchois and Johannes Ockeghem - music of elegant melody, textural refinement, and sometimes startling harmonic turns - there are ingenious and anonymous parodies of popular songs.

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REVIEW:

The performers sensibly take a pragmatic approach to the heated debate as to precisely how these pieces were performed and use a mixture of voices and instruments, with occasional a cappella renditions. I loved these accounts, which are both musically expressive and eloquent in an unhurried way. Binningen provides just the right resonance for full enjoyment of this lovely music.

– Early Music Review (D. James Ross)

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Straight from the Heart: The Chansonnier Cordiforme
Naxos Oct 2016
CD
$19.99

Les Angelus

Aeolus

SACD

$30.99 Oct 02, 2026

This double SACD (stereo and 5.1 multichannel surround sound) brings together Louis Vierne's complete works for solo voice and organ for the first time, with AEOLUS securing the services of Wurzburg soprano Franziska Bobe and Wurzburg Cathedral organist Stefan Schmidt. In addition, Stefan Schmidt plays rarely heard pieces from the composer's early creative period as well as little-known late works. Another highlight is the complete 6th Organ Symphony from 1930. The large French symphonic instrument at St. Peter's in Dusseldorf, built by the Karl Gockel workshop, was inaugurated 25 years ago and attracted a great deal of attention from experts at the time. In combination with the cathedral acoustics of the large neo-Gothic sanctuary, it is ideally suited to Vierne's music.

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Pre-order

Les Angelus
Aeolus Oct 2026
SACD
$30.99

Theme varie

Chandos

$21.99 Jul 17, 2026

Conceived as a treasure trove of lesser-known French and Belgian repertoire, the works on this album span a forty-year period, from 1892 to 1932. A number of unifying threads run through the programme, perhaps the most significant of which is the influence of a composer whose music is not heard here at all: César Franck. Franck taught and championed Guillaume Lekeu and Mel Bonis; and Bonis in turn taught Charlotte Sohy, whose principal composition teacher was Vincent d'Indy, one of Franck's most devoted acolytes. The artists decided against including Franck's Violin Sonata in favour of the work by his fellow Belgian Lekeu, much more rarely recorded and hardly ever heard in the concert hall. A number of shorter works surround this sonata to form a uniquely rewarding programme, starting with Charlotte Sohy's Thème varié. Three works by Mel Bonis complement the duo's recording of her Violin Sonata on their previous album (CHAN 20275), whilst the two Élégies by Saint-Saëns have also been unfairly neglected. Fascinatingly, the second Élégie and Messiaen's Thème et variations are separated by just a dozen years, although they inhabit sound worlds seemingly decades apart. Elsa Barraine was Messiaen's contemporary and lifelong friend. Her haunting Nocturne seemed to provide a fitting conclusion to this programme.

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Theme varie
Chandos Jul 2026
CD
$21.99

Mix & Match

Danielis - Caeleste Convivium / Desenclos, Et Al
Alpha Sep 2007
CD
$8.99

MELODIES FOR THE POLISH PSALTE
DUX Jul 2001
CD
$21.99

Keeping Christmas: Beloved Carols & The Christmas Story / Patterson, Gloriae Dei Cantores

Gloriae Dei Cantores

$18.99 Dec 01, 2010

Each year at Christmas, Gloriæ Dei Cantores celebrates the "dawn of redeeming grace" with a traditional candlelit Service of Readings and Carols, retelling the stories of Christ's birth that stir us with memories and hopes for peace and love. Just for a time as you listen to these carols and stories, let your heart fill with gratitude for our many blessings, and with goodwill toward others. Gloriæ Dei Cantores offers this recording with a prayer that the joy of the season brings you renewed hope and a fresh sense of wonder!

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Keeping Christmas: Beloved Carols & The Christmas Story / Patterson, Gloriae Dei Cantores
Gloriae Dei Cantores Dec 2010
CD
$18.99

Mendelssohn: V1: Songs without Words / Donohoe

Chandos

$21.99 Jan 07, 2022

Peter Donohoe CBE is acclaimed as one of the foremost pianists of our time, for his musicianship, stylistic versatility, and commanding technique. On this first volume of Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words, he writes: ‘When I first became conscious of my desire to be a musician, Mendelssohn meant more to me, personally, than almost any other composer – he certainly ranked alongside Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert. My choice of program for the present recording is based around a large selection from the Lieder ohne Worte, which I preface with the Rondo capriccioso, Op. 14 and the three wonderful Fantaisies ou Caprices. The Rondo capriccioso and Trois Fantaisies ou Caprices are exquisite examples of the extraordinary facility of Mendelssohn (implicitly as a pianist, but also as a composer), of his originality and inspiration, at an age that allows us, in my view, to place him in the same group of wonderfully natural and prodigious composers as Haydn and Mozart. It is always a pleasure to play these works, and they go to the heart of why I became a musician in the first place.

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Mendelssohn: V1: Songs without Words / Donohoe
Chandos Jan 2022
CD
$21.99

Lindberg, N.: A Christmas Cantata
Proprius Oct 2003
CD
$20.99

Chopin: 24 Preludes; Barcarolle; Polonaise; Berceuse / Goerner

Alpha

$20.99 Jan 29, 2016

"After Debussy and Schumann, Nelson Goerner comes back to the composer who revealed him to the great audience of recorded music: Chopin. His first Chopin recordings won him high praise and countless distinctions (3 Diapasons d’Or!): ‘Everything he touches seems 'right’ wrote Gramophone in a recent issue. Nicknamed ‘the great poet of the piano’, he now attacks Chopin’s 24 Préludes, which he chose to record live, in a single go, in Poland where he is particularly appreciated and considered an essential pillar of the Chopin Institute. As a complement, Nelson Goerner opts for the Barcarolle Op. 60, the Polonaise Op. 44 and the Berceuse op.57.

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REVIEW:

This is a disc that can only solidify Goerner's reputation as one of the outstanding Chopin exponents of his generation. His interpretations are never less than original, deeply considered, and filled with characteristic detail. That they also exhibit rare qualities of wisdom and discernment make him someone to return to, again and again.

– Gramophone

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Chopin: 24 Preludes; Barcarolle; Polonaise; Berceuse / Goerner
Alpha Jan 2016
CD
$20.99

Rheinberger & Mendelssohn: Choral Works / Goodson, Netherlands Radio Choir

PENTATONE

$19.99 Oct 20, 2023

On their Pentatone debut, the Netherlands Radio Choir and its chief conductor Benjamin Goodson bring together choral works by Josef Rheinberger and Felix Mendelssohn, presenting some of the greatest choral compositions of the nineteenth century. This recording begins with Rheinberger’s rarely-recorded Mass in E-Flat Major and closes with the composer’s stirringly beautiful Abendlied. Four of Mendelssohn’s most expressive and original psalm settings are paired with his lesser-known Sechs Sprüche, powerful choral miniatures that reflect on key moments in the church year. These pieces are performed in a warm, intimate acoustic, allowing the words and remarkable detail in this music to be heard and relished. The Netherlands Radio Choir, established shortly after the Second World War, is the only professional choir in the Netherlands performing the great choral-symphonic repertoire. The choir's chief conductor, Benjamin Goodson, is a leading performer in this recording repertoire and also works with many of the other most notable choirs worldwide, including the BBC Singers, Rundfunkchor Berlin and SWR Vokalensemble.

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Rheinberger & Mendelssohn: Choral Works / Goodson, Netherlands Radio Choir
PENTATONE Oct 2023
CD
$19.99

Dutch Cello Sonatas, Vol. 9 - Van Goens

Audiomax

SACD

$24.99 Aug 01, 2025

Award-winning duo, cellist Doris Hochscheid and pianist Frans van Ruth present enchanting works by Daniel van Goens with natural elegance and breathtaking virtuosity. Their highly-acclaimed Dutch Cello Sonatas Project is a veritable treasure trove of musical rediscoveries and the duo was honoured with the Knight's Cross of the Order of Orange-Nassau for their contribution to Dutch culture.

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Dutch Cello Sonatas, Vol. 9 - Van Goens
Audiomax Aug 2025
SACD
$24.99

Charpentier, Cherubini & Lefebure-Wely: Noel sous l’empire / Guerillot

Château de Versailles Spectacles

$20.99 Dec 01, 2023

French organ music under Napoleon and the Restoration is an overlooked period in musical history, inheriting the glories of classical organ and heralding the great romantic organ music. This pivotal time, teeming with great performers – most of them improvisers – counted Isaac-François Lefèbure-Wély among its masters, who presided over the prestigious Eglise Saint-Roch from 1805. In 1823 he published a collection of 34 Noëls, inspired by those of his predecessors yet deeply rooted in their time, imbued with the memory of the Incroyables and the Merveilleuses. These extremely popular works for nativity ring out in true splendour from the organ of the Chapelle Royale, shimmering with the mysteries of Christmas through Quentin Guérillot’s generous, familiar style.

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Charpentier, Cherubini & Lefebure-Wely: Noel sous l’empire / Guerillot
Château de Versailles Spectacles Dec 2023
CD
$20.99

V1: FRENCH CHORAL MUSIC
Globe Records Aug 2002
CD
$18.99

Debussy: C'est l'extase, La mer / Franck, Radio France Philharmonic

Alpha

$20.99 Jun 09, 2023

Debussy’s song cycle Ariettes oubliées of 1888 set six poems from Paul Verlaine’s collection Romances sans paroles, beginning with C’est l’extase and Il pleure dans mon cœur – penetratingly poetic images of love’s ecstasy and rainlike tears of despair. The six Ariettes are the departure point for the arrangement realized in 2012 by British composer Robin Holloway in response to a request from the San Francisco Symphony. Holloway has altered their order while adding a further four Debussy songs, binding the whole work together with brief orchestral links and a feverish epilogue, ‘con moto agitato’. This world first recording is given by French soprano Vannina Santoni, with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under the baton of Mikko Franck. The Finnish conductor, a great admirer of Debussy, here also presents the master’s bewitching masterpiece La mer, first heard in Paris in 1905.

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Debussy: C'est l'extase, La mer / Franck, Radio France Philharmonic
Alpha Jun 2023
CD
$20.99

Sale

MESSIAEN: 5 Rechants / JOLIVET: Epithaleme / DEBUSSY: 3 Chan
SWR Jun 2003
CD
~~$20.99~~ $10.49

Having Fun
Delos Jan 1989
CD
$18.99

O schone Nacht: Romantic Choral Music / Alber, Orpheus Vokalensemble

Carus

$20.99 Jul 31, 2020

O charming night – like a common thread, the romantic motifs of yearning for peace, farewell to lovers and mystical experiences of nature run through the works in this recording. With particular sensitivity and subtle harmonic effects, Rheinberger brings the world of elves and mermaids to life. Brahms’s “charming night,” moonlit and enhanced by the song of the nightingale, serves as the backdrop for an implied amorous adventure. And Herzogenberg’s Notturnos evoke an entirely otherworldly reverie. The Orpheus Vokalensemble, consisting of singers from all over the world, was founded in 2005 as the Landesakademie Ochsenhausen’s professional chamber choir. Since then, the ensemble has grown into a significant chamber choir enjoying international respect, working with renowned choral conductors such as Michael Alber, Gunnar Eriksson, Gary Graden, Florian Helgath, Bo Holten and others. The musical and stylistic spectrum of the ensemble is documented by further artistic partners such as Ida Bieler, Konrad Elser, Jürgen Essl, Edita Gruberová, Dieter Ilg, Sibylla Rubens, the Stenzl Piano Duo, Ars Antiqua Austria, Concerto Köln, the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden/Freiburg and many more.

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O schone Nacht: Romantic Choral Music / Alber, Orpheus Vokalensemble
Carus Jul 2020
CD
$20.99

Stille Nacht - Christmas Carols For Guitar / Rossini Hayward

Naxos

$9.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 50% Nov 13, 2020

Rossini Hayward, one of the most creative guitarists of his generation, has written a sequence of Christmas carol arrangements that range across the centuries and over continents. These beautiful pieces respect the original carols while bringing to them ingenious new features. Seven of the arrangements involve overdubbing by Hayward himself with voice, percussive effects or guitar, adding new colors, but showing that he always ‘understands the charm and power of simplicity’ (Classical Guitar).

Includes works by:

• Ebel, Eduard (1839-1905)
• Gauntlett, Henry J (1805-76)
•Gruber, Franz Xaver (1787-1863)
• Hopkins, John Henry (1820-91)
• Nielsen, Carl August (1865-1931)
• Nordqvist, Gustav (1886-1946)
• Schulz, Johann Abraham Peter (1747-1800)

REVIEW:

The results are delightful.

-- The Arts Desk

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Stille Nacht - Christmas Carols For Guitar / Rossini Hayward
Naxos Nov 2020
CD
~~$19.99~~ $9.99

Oiseaux de passage

La Dolce Volta

$18.99 May 09, 2025

Dazzling as the Queen of the Night, deeply moving in Lucia di Lammermoor and La Sonnambula, Natalie Dessay also made her mark on the operatic stage in the roles of Olympia, Manon, Musetta and Cleopatra. After training at the Atelier Lyrique de l'Opera National de Paris and pursuing an international operatic career, Natalie Dessay decided to devote herself to spoken theatre, chansons and the song repertory. The duo she formed in 2011 with her artistic partner Philippe Cassard has given one hundred and thirty-five performances around the world, completely reinventing the song recital as a unique moment of expression, embodiment and shared emotion. Ten years after her last appearance at the Opera Bastille in La Fille du regiment, she has chosen to give her farewell performance on the stage of the Palais Garnier on 31 March 2025. This is the last album from this legendary duo, a fitting way to celebrate the sixtieth birthday of one of the greatest sopranos of her generation.

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Oiseaux de passage
La Dolce Volta May 2025
CD
$18.99

Der Himmel lacht! Die Erde jubilieret

Cantate

$8.49 ~~$16.99~~ Save 50% Jun 19, 2020

The Pfeiffer Trompeten Consort presents this lovely program of works by Telemann, Charpentier, Holborne, Frescobaldi, and more. Pfeiffer-Trompeten-Consort was founded by the brothers Joachim, Martin, and Harald Pfeiffer in 1985. They were soon joined by Dale Marrs, who has decisively put his stamp on the musical style of the group. Mathias Muller, tympanist, joined in 1992. Through Peter Schumann, organist, the group's musical home has always been the Heiliggeistkirche (Church of the Holy Spirit) in Heidelberg, Germany. Most of the works performed by the Pfeiffer-Trompeten-Consort, famous, as well as less-well-known pieces, are presented in new, festive arrangements, most of which (with the exception of a few original compositions) have been revised and adapted by members of the ensemble. These arrangements are unique in their style. It is always easy to recognize the concern for combining Baroque trumpet artistry with modern playing techniques. In addition to the original trumpet parts, the Pfeiffer-Trompeten-Consort tries to include as many of the other instrumental parts as possible, and thus to consider the musical compositions in their entirety. The possibilities of modem trumpets combined with the splendid sound of the instruments transform familiar compositions into a new listening experience.

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Der Himmel lacht! Die Erde jubilieret
Cantate Jun 2020
CD
~~$16.99~~ $8.49

Charpentier & Desmarest: Te Deum / Camboulas, Ensemble Les Surprises

Alpha

$20.99 Jan 12, 2024

Two Te Deums go head to head! The famous one by Marc-Antoine Charpentier and a completely new one by Henry Desmarets. Charpentier and Desmarets, remarkable composers of both sacred music and opera, shared a taste for Italian music and travel, but they also shared the disadvantage of having spent some time in Jean-Baptiste Lully's 'shadow'! Desmarets' life was somewhat tormented, between disgrace and exile; it was while he was superintendent of music at the Court of Lorraine that he composed two Te Deums, including the Te Deum"de Lyon". Written for the same ensemble as Charpentier's famous Te Deum, it uses trumpets and timpani for the grandiloquent sections. It is a true work of craftsmanship, notably in the variety of instrumentation, but also in its alternation of different vocal forces.

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Charpentier & Desmarest: Te Deum / Camboulas, Ensemble Les Surprises
Alpha Jan 2024
CD
$20.99