Winter 2023 Classics & Jazz catalog

We are excited to present our latest Classics & Jazz Catalog – the Winter issue for 2023! Highlights in this catalog include a 20% sale on C Major video titles spanning a wide range of interests, as well as discounts on titles from Pentatone Music and Alpha Classics. Also, you’ll find dedicated label pages for Alto Music and Okeh Jazz, as well as a selection of our top selling jazz titles from the past year. Remember that orders can also be processed online now for your convenience. To order online, visit www.arkivmusic.com and click on the “HBDirect” tab at the top of the screen. Keep in mind that we now offer free shipping for all orders over $150!

We thank you for your business and remind you to keep our catalogs handy. Prices are good through March 31, 2023.

Shipping Policy

HBDirect has updated the shipping policy for all orders. Please view our new shipping rates on the order form of this catalog to determine your freight amount. Delivery time runs 3–7 business days,

Sales

HBDirect

tax obligation changes

Heavenly Bach / Jeannette Sorrell; Apolloʼs Fire

Billboard chart-topping and GRAMMY-winning Jeannette Sorrell, baroque orchestra Apollo’s Fire, soprano Amanda Forsythe and the music of J. S. Bach create a divine musical partnership. Heavenly Bach pairs two of the composer’s most popular cantatas, interspersed with two sublime arias from the St. John Passion. In Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen! (“Shout to joy for God in every land!), Forsythe’s dazzling virtuosity hits the high notes – she “sets arias on fire” according to BBC Music. (Avie) 1CD# AV2547 $17.99

Beethoven for Three / Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos

Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma present their new Beethoven for Three recording, Symphony No. 6 “Pastorale” and Op. 1, No. 3. Like their first Beethoven for Three release — Symphonies Nos. 2 & 5 - this recording challenges the traditional boundary between chamber and orchestral repertoire to offer the listener two very different sides of the composer using the same three voices. Beethoven for Three: Symphony No. 6 “Pastorale” and Op. 1, No. 3 continues a musical conversation between three friends that always brings audiences new depths and delights. (Sony)

1CD# 19658739372 $13.99

Price: Songs of the Oak – Concert Overtures Nos. 1 & 2

The rediscovery of Florence Price’s music has revealed one of the most significant bodies of work by an African American composer in the 20th century. The variety of genres represented on this release place Price’s immense artistic imagination on full display. "Songs of the Oak" is a tour de force of Hollywood-influenced storytelling while "The Oak" offers a more anxious, ultimately tragic portrait. Price’s best-known work is the Suite of Dances–originally for piano it is heard here in the composer’s full, sumptuous orchestration. (Naxos) 1CD# 8559920 $13.99

Martinů: Cello Sonatas / Johannes Moser; Andrei Korobeinikov

Cellist Johannes Moser and pianist Andrei Korobeinikov present Bohuslav Martinůs complete cello sonatas. These works belong to the most significant twentieth-century repertoire for cello and piano. Reflecting Martinu’s troubled existence, defined by wartime, emigration, longing for the homeland, yet also full of hope and life-affirming energy, the music seems entirely topical in our own troubled times. (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5187007 $12.79

Ravel: Vol. 2 / Robert Trevino; Basque National Orchestra

Robert Trevino’s first album together the Basque National Orchestra featuring orchestral works by the great French-Basque composer Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) received an excellent response. The program in this second volume is perhaps more ‘French’ in nature, but the Basque orchestra is giving dazzling performances of these works by their own national composer. While the first album was focused on some of Ravel’s most popular orchestral works, this album includes some rarities, including Ma mère l’Oye (Mother Goose) in its complete ballet version. (Ondine) 1CD# ODE 1416-2 $16.99

The Great American Songbook / Camilla Nylund [DVD or Blu-ray Video + CD]

Finnish opera star Camilla Nylund sings masterpieces from the Great American Songbook in this unique collaboration with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under their music director Marin Alsop. The classic songs in this film were specially arranged to suit Nylund’s performance style, vocals and personality, as if they had been written for her. This special edition includes a Blu-ray of the concert film-project by André Heller in black and white, plus an audio only recording. (Naxos)

1Blu-ray/CD# NBD0162V $27.99

1DVD/CD# 2110747 $27.99

New Boxed Sets

Mahler: Symphonies 1–9 / Mariss Jansons [12 CDs]

In the complete edition compiled by BR-Klassik, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under the direction of its long-time principal conductor Mariss Jansons explores Mahler’s symphonic oeuvre. This complete recording of Mahler’s impressive symphonies is further enhanced by revealing rehearsal recordings and interesting interviews. (BR Klassik)

12CD# BRK900719 $79.99

Alfvén: Complete Symphonies, Suites & Rhapsodies [7 CDs]

Hugo Alfvén’s music has always been close to the hearts of the Swedish people, and ranks among some of the most significant and representative of the spirit of the country. Alfvén is known as a cheerful entertainer in compositions such as “Den forlorade sonen” (‘The Prodigal Son’), and these recordings sweep us into the remarkable world of Scandinavian landscape and culture. (Naxos)

7CD# 8507015 $46.99

Erbach: Complete Organ Music [9 CDs]

Like Hans Leo Hassler, Christian Erbach was evidently influenced as a composer by Italian and in particular Venetian flavors of polychoral and effervescent writing even in his instrumental output. The predominant forms in this set are toccatas, canzonas and ricercars, as well as instrumental ‘settings’ of the Magnificat and the Ordinary of the Mass for liturgical use. (Brilliant Classics)

9CD# BRI95329 $54.99

[3 CDs]

For a long time Johannes Brahms was considered the epitome of conservatism, who, contrary to the disciples of Wagner and Liszt, fell back on old forms, which allegedly had no power anymore. Indeed, Brahms was an expert on music of the past, going back till the polyphonic composers of the 16th century. He made use of old patterns such as the variation and the interrelated passacaglia. (Profil) 3CD# PH20037 $25.99

A significant undertaking for any pianist, this project also marks the rising piano star’s Sony Classical debut. Described by The Times of London as a “musician of tremendous versatility and taste, with a poetic sense of pulse,” Mao Fujita signed an exclusive contract with Sony Classical in 2021, following a solo debut at the Verbier Festival performing the same set of works. (Sony)

5CD# 19658710762 $59.99

David Oistrakh captured the hearts of listeners with his impeccable technique, rich tone and emotional power.

Born in Odessa, he graduated from Conservatory aged 18 and a year later performed his debut with the Glazunov concerto under the composer’s baton. His New York debut was 1955 and his entire career was full of searingly memorable performances with major worldwide orchestras. (Alto Music)

10CD# MOB431449 $44.99

Jacqueline du Pre: Complete Warner Recordings [23 CDs]

Jacqueline du Pré was recognized during her brief prime as one of the supreme cellists of the 20th century, with an intense commitment and a well-honed technical mastery to back up her heaven-sent talents. This treasury of her recordings – almost all of them painstakingly remastered from the original tapes – includes previously unissued performances and reminds us of the level of her artistry. (Warner)

23CD# MOB611384 $99.99

Les Ballet Russes [10 CDs]

Les Ballets Russes was founded by director Sergei Diaghilev in 1909. SWR Classic has released many of the ballets commissioned or produced by Diaghilev, featuring music by composers from Stravinsky through to Richard Strauss. These are now being re-released in this expansive 10 album boxed set. (SWR) 10CD# SWR19431CD $51.99

Perfect Moods – Contemplative, Contemporary Piano Miniatures [6 CDs]

This six album boxed set includes Tanya Ekanayaka’s Twelve Piano Prisms performed by the composer, as well as works by Valentin Silvestrov performed by Elisaveta Blumina. These contemplative contemporary piano miniatures have been expertly curated from the Grand Piano discography, and are sure to leave listeners and critics alike extremely satisfied. (Grand Piano)

6CD# GP898X $49.99

Passions / Sofia Gubaidulina, Osvaldo Golijov [4 CDs]

These works were commissioned by the International Bach Academy in Stuttgart to write works to mark Bach Year 2000. Osvaldo Golijov´s “Pasión Según San Marcos” is the work of one who moves back and forth between different worlds and can scarcely be pigeonholed as representing a specific culture. (Hanssler Classic)

4CD# HC22036 $29.99

Brahms: Complete Symphonies

Mozart: Complete Piano Sonatas / Mao Fujita [5 CDs]

Violin Masterclass

for Winter

Vocal Soloists – 40th Anniversary [10 CDs]

After collections celebrating the label’s 40th year that focused on sacred, orchestral, and chamber/ soloist music, respectively, Capriccio’s fourth and last Anniversary Box now features the singing stars in the label’s history. We hear unexpected works from icons like Peter Schreier (with lute accompaniment) and Cecilia Bartoli in her first Wagner role! (Capriccio)

10CD# C7410 $34.99

Maria Kliegel – Anniversary Edition [3 CDs]

Maria Kliegel celebrates her 70th birthday in 2022 and this collection brings together some of her most outstanding recordings, personally selected by Kliegel from her vast Naxos discography. Combining the best from her teachers Janos Starker and Mstislav Rostropovich, and working alongside excellent orchestras and pianists, Kliegel’s inspirational joie de vivre radiates from all of these performances. (Naxos) 3CD# 8578370-72 $29.99

Beethoven/Liszt: The 9 Symphonies / Giovanni Bellucci [5 CDs]

As the Italian pianist Giovanni Bellucci remarks in an extensive booklet introduction, this album is the fruit of study over the past 20 years and more, into the worlds of both Beethoven and Liszt and their meeting point in these transcriptions where the Hungarian composer sought to honor his forebear as the original leader of an artistic movement we now think of as Romanticism. (Brilliant Classics)

5CD# BRI94863 $19.99

Ingrid Haebler – The Philips Legacy [58 CDs]

58-disc original jackets collection bringing together for the first time the complete Philips recordings of Ingrid Haebler. Highlights include: The international CD release of Haebler’s J.S. Bach’s French Suites, Mozart’s Complete Piano Concertos & Piano Sonatas, and includes the first-ever CD release of her 1953 recordings of Mozart’s Piano Sonatas Nos. 12 & 13. (Decca)

58CD# MOB520053 $197.99

NEW BOXED SETS IN BRIEF

Mozart: Da Pointe Operas [9 CDs]

La Petite Bande was founded in 1972 by Sigiswald Kuijken at the request of the record company Harmonia Mundi (Germany) in order to record Lully’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, under the direction of Gustav Leonhardt. On this new release, the ensemble has chosen a selection of Mozart operas, including Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Cosi fan Tutti. (Accent) 9CD# ACC 24390 $39.99

Monteverdi: Orfeo, Ulisse, Poppea [8 CDs]

On this release, three of Monteverdi’s operas are showcasedL’Orfeo, Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, and L’incoronazione di Poppea. The recordings were made between 1996 and 2000 and feature Ensemble Elyma, an early music ensemble specializing in the baroque musical heritage of Latin America. (Pan Classics)

8CD# PC10442 $44.99

Ries: Complete Piano Sonatas & Sonatinas [6 CDs]

In Susan Kagan, an acknowledged authority on Ferdinand Ries, these works have found an interpreter of sympathy and eloquence who brings the composer’s fluency, poignancy, and drama fully to life: “Ries could not have asked for a better pianist and proponent than he has found in Susan Kagan.” – Fanfare (Naxos) 6CD# 8506043 $40.99

Martynov Edition [7 CDs]

Born in 1946, Vladimir Martynov is one of several composers from the former USSR whose music taps into a vein of perpetual memory and farewell. One of Martynov’s most distinguished contemporaries was the Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov, who explicitly recognized his own output as ‘meta-music’ or even ‘post-music’, and the same could be said of many pieces in Martynov’s output. (Brilliant Classics)

7CD# BRI96380 $46.99

The Young Friedrich Gulda / Vienna Phil, LPO, LSO [6 CDs]

In addition to Beethoven, Friedrich Gulda’s repertoire encompasses works by Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Debussy, Ravel and Strauss. (Profil)

6CD# PH19017 $25.99

Queen Elisabeth Competition: Cello 2022 [4 CDs]

This four-album box set with the best moments of the 2022 Queen Elisabeth Cello Competition highlights the great diversity of the repertoire for this instrument. (QEC)

4CD# QEC2022 $39.99

Martini: Complete Organ Music [9 CDs]

Giovanni Battista Martini (1706–1784) was born in Bologna and later received the appointment of chapel-master at the Basilica of San Francesco, where his compositions attracted attention. (Brilliant Classics)

9CD# BRI96182 $46.99

The New Gustav Leonhardt Edition [35 CDs]

The abundant legacy of Gustav Leonhardt’s recordings for Telefunken’s Das Alte Werk series invites us to follow his trajectory as a performer from the early 1960’s onwards. (Warner Classics)

35CD# MOB467714 $79.99

New Boxed Sets

Heinrich Schütz Edition [10 CDs]

This set comprises ten albums and offers reference recordings of all central Heinrich Schütz works such as the Psalms of David, the Cantiones sacrae, the Resurrection History, the Small Sacred Concerts, the Sacred Choral Music and, last but not least, the Passions. (Berlin Classics)

10CD# 0302786BC $26.99

Brahms: Complete Symphonies / Herbert Blomstedt [3 CDs]

Herbert Blomstedt and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig present Brahms’s Complete Symphonies on Pentatone. These recordings, made between 2019 and 2021, have already met with extraordinary critical acclaim. BBC Music Magazine praised the performance of the First Symphony as “splendid and inspiring”, praising Blomstedt’s “admirable attention to detail” and “wonderfully controlled performances”. (Pentatone)

3CD# PTC5186978 $23.99

Cécile Ousset: Complete Warner Recordings [16 CDs]

The EMI Classics recordings of Cécile Ousset (b. 1936), spanning the years between 1982 and 1991, would mark her third and most prestigious recording collaboration, launching her, at age forty-six, into the international limelight. Indeed, recognition did not come easily to this grand dame of the piano, who, at the age of fourteen, obtained her prize at the Paris Conservatoire. (Warner)

16CD# MOB436246 $44.99

Beethoven: Complete String Quartets: Vol. 3 [3 CDs]

The celebrated Dover Quartet, the young, GRAMMY-nominated ensemble brimming with prestigious awards and residencies, concludes its critically acclaimed, three-volume Beethoven cycle with the composer’s five monumental, revolutionary Late Quartets and imposing Grosse Fugue. The triple-album release comprises Beethoven’s very last compositions. (Cedille)

3CD# CDR 215 $32.99

Schumann: Complete Works for Piano / Florian Uhlig [19 CDs]

The first true complete recording of Robert Schumann’s works for piano solo on 17 albums, played by Florian Uhlig, seeks for the first time to offer imaginative compilations containing all original works for pianoforte written between 1830 (Abegg Variations Op. 1) and 1854 (Ghost Variations). Several of these albums also contain premiere recordings, often of fragments that were amenable to completion. (Hanssler Classic)

19CD# HC22074 $79.99

Piano Concertos & Sonatas / Clara Haskil [6 CDs]

Clara Haskil was throughout her life a sensitive, empathetic and intelligent pianist with enormous expressive power. She is acknowledged as a great Mozart pianist, but she also left a significant legacy in her interpretation of works by Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert and Schumann. This recording presents a few samples of her duo recordings with Paul Casals, George Enescu, and especially Arthur Grumiaux. (Profil)

6CD# PH22053 $22.99

Eben: Velvet Revolution – Complete Organ Music, Vol. 1 [3 CDs]

Petr Eben (1929 – 2007) was born in Žamberk, northeastern Bohemia. He studied music from an early age, becoming “conscripted” as organist when the men from his town were away at war. Because of his father’s Jewish heritage he was captured and imprisoned by the Nazis in Buchenwald. After the war, he studied piano with František Rauch and composition with Pavel Borkovec. (Brilliant Classics)

3CD# BRI96312 $15.99

Legendary Conductors – Symphonic Masterpieces [10 CDs]

In 2016 the SWR symphony orchestras merged and are known today as the SWR Symphonieorchester. On this 10-disc box set the listener will find 12 of the greatest conductors of the 20th century leading the orchestras, such as Wilhelm Furtwängler, Leopold Stokowski, Hans Knappertsbusch, Karl Böhm, Kirill Kondrashin, Carlos Kleiber and Kurt Sanderling. (SWR Classic)

10CD# SWR19432CD $51.99

Schubert: The Symphonies [4 CDs]

In a style above all oriented on Haydn and Mozart, Schubert’s symphonic works are youthful in the best sense of the word and display a disarming freshness which the present performances convey to perfection. The four discs gathered here were released singly between 2010 and 2014, receiving critical acclaim in the international music press. (BIS)

4SACD# BIS-2514 $59.99

Staffan Biörklund-Jullander: All You Need [3 CDs]

Staffan Biörklund-Jullander is a pianist, piano teacher, composer, church musician. In addition to his work as a church musician, he is a composer and improviser on piano and organ. Among his compositions and arrangements are music for choir, organ, piano and various chamber ensembles as well as church operas. His concerto for piano and orchestra has been performed several times with himself as soloist. (Sterling)

3CD# CDA1864 $29.99

for Winter

D’Ambrosio: Complete Music for Violin & Piano [3 CDs]

Alfredo d’Ambrosio (1871–1914) was born in Naples and perhaps became a student of Marco Enrico Bossi, but he made his career around the turn of the last century once he moved to France. The present album has the field to itself in attempting a complementary survey of D’Ambrosio’s work as a salon musician. (Brilliant Classics)

3CD# BRI96727 $15.99

Elgar: Orchestra Works; Cello Concerto [7 CDs]

Sir John Barbirolli began as an orchestral cellist, and played under Elgar’s baton in the premiere of the Cello Concerto. After Elgar’s death, Barbirolli vowed to make the composer’s music his special mission in life and to do his utmost to make it known all over the world. From the performances here, we can judge how well he kept his promise.

(Warner)

7CD# MOB438424 $19.99

Stabat Mater / Various Artists [4 CDs]

In Jörg Handsteins audiobiography

Die Macht der Musik (The Power of Music), over three albums you will hear about the life of George Frideric Handel. This compelling biography is interwoven with Handel’s most famous and important compositions. The numerous musical examples are from well-known interpreters, choirs, and orchestras – all of them important baroque specialists.

3CD# BRK900911 $27.99

Earl Wild: Complete Piano Music [3 CDs]

Born in 1915, the American pianist Earl Wild was known to most listeners as a specialist in the line of Romantic pianist-composers from Chopin to Rachmaninov. Recorded between 2013 and 2018, this is the first and so far only complete collection of Wild’s piano music. It opens with deeply affectionate transcriptions of poetic slow movements from Marcello to Fauré. (Brilliant Classics)

3CD# BRI96705 $16.99

Stabat Mater is a 13th-century Catholic hymn to Mary’s suffering as Jesus Christ’s mother at his crucifixion and has been set to music by many Western composers. This four-album box presents timeless interpretations of the most important compositions of Stabat Mater. Soloists featured on the release include Margot Guilleaume, Ingeborg Danz, Thomas Quasthoff and many more. (Hanssler Classic)

4CD# HC22051 $29.99

Hassler: Complete Organ Music [11 CDs]

Born in Nuremberg in 1564 within a musical family, Hans Leo Hassler received his formative musical instruction from his father and quickly developed into a keyboard player of formidable gifts. On this set, Manuel Tomadin plays a collection of historically appropriate instruments in Italian churches, and the collection is highly attractive as a gallery of Italian organ-building in its own right. (Brilliant Classics)

11CD# BRI95331 $50.99

Capriccio – Instrumentalist Soloists Box Set [10 CDs]

Boris Lyatoshynsky was a leading member of the Ukrainian cultural renaissance in the 20th century and his five symphonies remain the most important cycle in his country’s musical history. His symphonic orchestration was inventive, his themes memorable. The Third Symphony is his most moving and famous, and originally bore the epigraph ‘Peace will defeat war.’ (Naxos)

3CD# 8503303 $21.99

Kapellmeister Edition – Great German Conductors [10 CDs]

The fruits of a long-term collaboration: “Kapellmeister” literally means “master of the chapel choir”. This expansive release features recordings by some of the finest German conductors, including Herbert Blomstedt, Herbert Kegel, Otmar Suitner, Kurt Sanderling, and Kurt Masur. (Berlin Classics) 10CD# 0302856BC $35.99

Capriccio continues to celebrate its 40th anniversary with this retrospective of some of the greatest instrumental recordings in its catalog. The keyboard mavens: Ton Koopman, Christine Schornsheim, and Tzimon Barto. Wind-aces Burkhard Glaetzner (oboe), Eckart Haupt (flute) and Reinhold Friedrich (trumpet). A generous and tasty synopsis of what this plucky label is about! (Capriccio)

10CD# C7399 $34.99

Bach: La Petite Bande – 50th Anniversary [9 CDs]

This amazing box celebrates the 50th anniversary of one of the most influential and seminal Baroque ensembles of the recording history: La Petite Bande and its conductor, Sigiswald Kuijken. The box contains the St. Matthew Passion, the St. John Passion, the Christmas Oratorio and the Mass in B minor (Challenge)

9CD# CC 72917 $49.99

Handel: Die Macht der Musik [3 CD Audiobiography]

Lyatoshynsky: Complete Symphonies [3 CDs]

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10 / Mahler: Symphony No. 10

These two Tenth Symphonies represent powerful statements by composers undergoing the greatest of crises in their eventful lives. Shostakovich’s intense and deeply symbolic Symphony No. 10, considered by many to be his finest, was kept hidden by the composer for fear of Soviet reprisals, and was only performed after Stalin’s death in 1953. (Naxos)

1CD# 8574372 $13.99

Fabrice Bollon: The Unborn Grandchildren

This setting of Austrian Expressionist writer Georg Trakl’s poems by composer and conductor Fabrice Bollon is the first ever composition for classical singers and solo electric cello. As a result the work’s striking sonorities open unexpected and fascinating new directions for contemporary music. (Naxos)

1CD# 8574456 $13.99

Beethoven: Grand Symphonies, Vol. 2

Unless one lived in a major European center with an orchestra, the opportunity to hear large-scale works by the great composers of the age was well-nigh impossible. The insatiable demand for new chamber versions of famed orchestral works saw Hummel arranging Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 2 and 6 ‘Pastoral’ not long after the great composer’s death. (Naxos)

1CD# 8574200 $13.99

New Releases

Joyce: Caravan Suite / RTA Concert Orchestra

Archibald Joyce was known as ‘The English Waltz King’. The composer of delectable vignettes directed his own dance band which, depending on the size of the venue, sometimes numbered a hundred. His evocative music also included theatrical numbers, dramatic suites and the ‘concert valse’, designed for the silver screen. (Naxos)

1CD# 8555218 $13.99

Howells: Piano Music, Vol. 2

In the first volume of this series, Matthew Schellhorn surveyed six decades of Herbert Howells’ compositions for the piano. This second volume reprises the journey, tracing the composer’s stylistic development from the charming poetic miniatures of his youth through to the resonant modal quirkiness of his later dances. The survey includes a centrally important work, the Sonatina of 1971. (Naxos)

1CD# 8571383 $13.99

Rubenstein: Piano Works – Opp. 16, 21, 28 & 51

Anton Rubinstein occupied an uneasy place in the history of Russian music, largely because of his Jewish origins and the perception of him as a ‘German in Russia’. In recent years his solo piano music has begun to be re-evaluated. This album focuses on the series of works written in the mid-1850s and reveals music of charm and flair. (Naxos)

1CD# 8574300 $13.99

Marschner:

Overtures

& Stage Music, Vol. 1

Heinrich Marschner, the leading German composer of Romantic opera between Weber and Wagner, was a progressive innovator, bringing to his music a new dimension – the supernatural anti-hero enmeshed in horror, such as the protagonist of Der Vampyr (1828). (Naxos)

1CD# 8574449 $13.99

Hommage a Victor Babin / Two4Piano

The year 1972 saw the death of Victor Babin, one half of the legendary Vronsky & Babin, arguably the most brilliant piano duo of the 20th century. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Babin’s death Katerina Moskaleva and Alexey Pudinov come together as TWO4PIANO, a duo perfectly suited for breathing new life into Victor Babin’s appealing and colorful repertoire. (Naxos)

1CD# 8551462 $13.99

Piano Recital / Valentin Malinin

Russian pianist Valentin Malinin, winner of the 62nd Jaén International Piano Competition, has chosen a program that offers moments of reflection alongside dazzling virtuosity. The album opens with Shostakovich’s imposing Piano Quintet, one of the composer’s most popular chamber works. (Naxos)

1CD# 8574468 $13.99

Brahms: Complete Songs, Vol. 2

Brahms was opposed to the Lied cultivated by the ‘New German’ circle of composers around Franz Liszt who developed it into a highly artificial art form. In the books of the 49 Deutsche Volkslieder Brahms discovered a repository of dialogue songs, narrative ballads, laments, and songs of disputation and love, some tragic, others comic, that appealed to his need for authenticity. (Naxos)

1CD# 8574345 $13.99

Delius, Smyth: String Quartets

1CD# 8574376 $13.99

Works for Violin & Percussion Orchestra 1CD# 8574212 $13.99

Vaughan Williams: Five Mystical Songs 1CD# 8574416

La

Foerster: Festive Overture Symphony No. 1 1CD# 8574336 $13.99

Schumann:

Mayr:

Burge: Sinfonia Antiqua 1CD# 8579073 $13.99

Wolf-Ferrari: Suite Veneziana 1CD# 8573583 $13.99

Suppé: Around the World in 80 Days 1CD# 8574396 $13.99

Danielpour: 12 Études for Piano 1CD# 8559922 $13.99

New Classical

Brahms, Schumann: Double Concerto & Piano Trio

Anne-Sophie Mutter and Pablo Ferrández – a musical team united by friendship, inspiration and mentorship. For this recording, both artists, mentors and friends unite once more to capture their musical friendship on their first joint album with pianist, long term collaborator and friend Lambert Orkis, conductor Manfred Honeck and the Czech Philharmonic. (Sony)

1CD# 19658741102 $11.99

Romantic Music of Robert, Clara, and Johannes

On this release, pianist Lorna Griffitt and violinist Haroutune Bedelian present a program of works by Robert and Clara Schumann. Dr. Lorna Griffitt began her performing career at 16 as a soloist with the Louisville Orchestra, and enjoys an active career as soloist, chamber musician, and pedagogue both in the United States and in South America, Europe, and the Middle East. (Centaur)

1CD# CRC3948 $15.99

Thomas: Complete Works for Solo Violin

Clarissa Bevilacqua writes: “Welcome to Dream Catcher, an album that journeys through ten unique compositions. I met Augusta Reed Thomas about five years ago, and instantly started to study other works of hers. This album features Augusta’s complete works for solo violin, as well as the world premier recording of her Violin Concerto No. 3 “Juggler in Paradise”…” (Nimbus)

1CD# NI8109 $18.99

Silent Dance / Margret Koell

Since 2020, Margret Koell, a proven specialist in historical harps, has been in possession of a “Welsh Triple Harp”. It is a copy of an instrument by the famous harp maker Evans, whose original from 1736 is kept in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. This wonderful harp was the occasion for the present album with works by the two famous British composers John Dowland and Henry Purcell. (Accent)

1CD# ACC 24387 $18.99

Bach: Miscellaneous Pieces [3 CDs]

On this new album, recorded in 2020 and 2021 on a modern Titus Crijnen copy of a Ruckers model, PieterJan Belder turns to the overlooked corners of Bach’s early writing for the harpsichord. These include standalone fugues, fantasias and suites based on themes by contemporary composers such as Reincken and Albinoni. (Brilliant Classics)

3CD# BRI96065 $15.99

Gazarossian: 24 Etudes / Nare Karoyan

Though she gave piano recitals throughout Europe during her career, the name of Koharik Gazarossian has largely been forgotten today. Gazarossian made a name and a career for herself as a pianist touring 24 ‘well-tempered’ recitals, arranged by tonality after the model of Bach’s keyboard manuals. This album of the 24 Etudes presents the most compelling case for her revival. (Piano Classics)

1CD# PCL10263 $18.99

Musickè – Harpsichord Music by Female Contemporary Composers

Ursula Mamlok’s Three Bagatelles are miniatures characterized by a free application of serial technique, courting expressionist parallels with rhetorical, concentrated gestures. In Tumbáo, Tania Leon uses a string bass pattern from her native Cuba without being confined to a specifically Latin style in its development. (Brilliant Classics)

1CD# BRI96476 $14.99

Mozart & Beethoven Transcribed / Paul Wee

This recording brings together two of the greatest works of the Classical era in transcriptions for solo piano by two of the greatest pianist-composers of the Romantic era, resulting in two of the most thrilling experiences that nineteenth-century pianism has to offer. (BIS)

1SACD# BIS-2615 $19.99

La Ricordanza / Catherine Gordeladze

The theme of this release is ricordanza (reminiscence). This is established right at the beginning by “La Ricordanza“, a very thoughtful, rarely played piece by Liszt’s teacher, the important educator and composer Carl Czerny. Pianist Catherine Gordeladze has gained renown by virtue of her “sparkling tone,” “an original, profound musicality”

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Antes)

1CD# BM319324 $22.99

The Bachs & the Flute / Musica Gloria

The Bachs must count as one of the most musical families in the history of Western music. Next to Johann Sebastian Bach, there were many other outstanding musicians and composers in the family. This release presents a varied anthology of flute music by Johann Sebastian and his composing sons – with every piece containing typical compositional characteristics of each of them. (Pan Classics)

1CD# PC10441 $18.99

Golden Ring – Great Scenes from Wagner’s Ring Nibelungen

One of the greatest recordings of all time is sounding better than ever before! Now, Solti and Culshaw’s Ring Cycle can be enjoyed in the highest quality possible. This compilation of great scenes contains a selection of incredible highlights from across the Ring Cycle, including the timeless, “Ride of the Valkyries,” and “Siegfried’s Funeral March.” (Decca)

1SACD# MOB533640 $29.99

Mahler: Symphony No. 5 / Czech Philharmonic

After their critically-acclaimed recording of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, the Czech Philharmonic and Semyon Bychkov continue their Pentatone Mahler cycle with a rendition of the composer’s Fifth. The Fifth Symphony marks an important turning point in Mahler’s symphonic output, away from the prominence of vocal movements in his previous symphonies. (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5187021 $12.79

Dvořák: Greatest Melodies / Peter Breiner

Peter Breiner has selected 33 melodies in simple yet revealing piano reductions that give the listener an opportunity to journey with Dvořák through his career in Prague and ultimately overseas to America. This carefully curated program also brings moods ranging from rustic celebration to nostalgic melancholy, and from traditional Czech dumka dances to the famous Song to the Moon (Naxos)

Sibelius: Orchestral Songs

1CD# 8574371 $13.99

Virtually all Sibelius songs are written for voice and piano, but many of them seem as though made for orchestral sounds and instrumental subtlety. Therefore a number of his finest songs have fortunately been orchestrated, and it is these editions which are used for this recording. (Lawo)

1CD# LWC1239 $16.99

Origins / Lucie Horsch

From Charlie Parker to Piazzolla: The recorder as you’ve never heard it before! Origins is a collection of music rooted in folk cultures from all around the world, personally sourced & curated by Lucie Horsch, presented here in newly commissioned arrangements & transcriptions for the recorder. The tracks feature a variety of supporting musicians, including the trailblazing genre-bending collective Fuse Ensemble. (Decca)

1CD# MOB531929 $13.99

Parlando / Jérémy Garbarg

Jérémy Garbarg writes: “Here we bring together such emblematic chamber ensembles as the piano trio and the string quartet to perform works inspired by the folk traditions of Eastern Europe. Parlando also symbolizes the sharing that takes place between artists who are passionate about the human exchanges involved when rehearsing and performing these chamber works.” (Fuga Libera)

1CD# FUG802 $18.99

Accordion Concertos / Michał Gajda

“I consider the album Accordion Concertos to be one of the most important musical achievements in my artistic life. On this [album], I present three stylistically diverse accordion concertos. Each of them is extremely close to my heart and has played a huge role in the development of my musical career.” – Michał Gajda (Dux)

1CD# DUX1834 $19.99

Santoro: Symphonies Nos. 11 & 12 / Goiás PO; Neil Thomson

The Eleventh Symphony is one of the densest and most dramatic of the cycle, its finale exploding into an evocation of the opening of Brahms’ First Symphony, while the Twelfth Symphony is an unusual ‘sinfonia concertante’ for nine soloists and orchestra. (Naxos)

1CD# 8574406 $13.99

NEW CLASSICAL TITLES IN BRIEF

Martha Argerich Live, Vol. 8 [2 CDs]

This set is the 8th volume of Doremi’s special series of live performances and broadcasts featuring the artistry of the young Martha Argerich. (Doremi)

2CD# DHR-8181/2 $37.99

Martha Argerich Live, Vol. 9 [2 CDs]

This program features live recordings from Martha Argerich made between 1965 and 1973, including works by Beethoven, Prokofiev, Chopin, and Bach. All items included are first release! (Doremi)

2CD# DHR-8185/6 $37.99

Farrenc: Complete Piano Works, Vol. 1

Louise Farrenc was one of the most respected composers in the 19th-century Parisian music scene, and her four sets of Études are her most important compositions for piano. (Grand Piano)

1CD# GP912-13 $24.99

Bach: Sonatas for Viola & Harpsichord

The three sonatas by Bach of this album are likely to rank among the most performed compositions for viola da gamba, and they represent one of the tops of the literature for this instrument. (Urania)

1CD# LDV14090 $19.99

New Classical Releases

Beethoven: Egmont [2 CDs]

In September 1809, the Vienna Hofburg Theatre commissioned Ludwig van Beethoven to create new incidental music for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s “Egmont”. The tragedy had premiered in Mainz on January 9, 1789. It calls for incidental music, but various attempts – some commissioned by the poet himself – had remained unfinished or were unsatisfactory. (BR Klassik)

2CD# BRK900340 $21.99

El cielo y sus estrellas / Camerate Antonio Soler

Camerata Antonio Soler and its conductor Javier José Mendoza draw us into the heady world of 18th-century music from ‘New Spain’ – which encompassed parts of the Spanish Empire including presentday Mexico and Cuba. This elegant ‘galant’ repertoire includes nonliturgical Christian works performed by the cathedral choirs of the time. (Orchid Classics)

1CD# ORC100208 $16.99

Dvořák: Poetic Tone Pictures / Leif Ove Andsnes

A rare jewel among the piano repertoire, Dvořák’s Poetic Tone Pictures, a cycle of piano solo works, is mostly unknown to the public. Following the great success of his Sibelius album in 2017, Leif Ove Andsnes once again brings lesser known piano music into the spotlight, delivering a treasure chest of accessible and romantic tunes performed with artistic brilliance. (Sony)

1CD# 19439912092 $11.99

Vaughan Williams Live, Vol. 3 / London SO [2 CDs]

Somm Recordings celebrates the 150th anniversary of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ birth with Vaughan Williams Live, Vol. 3, featuring signature works conducted by the composer including the 1943 world premiere of his Fifth Symphony with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. All performances on this double-album set have been expertly restored and re-mastered by Lani Spahr. (SOMM)

2CD# ARIADNE 5019-2 $29.99

Mein Traum – Schubert, Weber, Schumann

One morning in 1822, Schubert wrote down an enigmatic text in which all his ghosts seem to take shape: wandering, solitude, consolation, disappointed love. Inspired by this dreamlike narrative, Raphaël Pichon, Pygmalion and Stéphane Degout have devised a vast Romantic fresco, combining resurrection of unknown treasures with rediscovery of established masterpieces. (Harmonia Mundi)

1CD# MOB944790 $19.99

Haydn: Die Schöpfung (The Creation) [2 CDs]

Along with Handel’s Messiah, which was greatly admired by Joseph Haydn (1732–1809), the oratorio The Creation is one of the few works of this genre written before 1800 that from the outset has enjoyed uninterrupted popularity with audiences and choirs alike.

(Accentus)

2CD# ACC30564 $36.99

Bruckner: Symphonies 4 & 5 [2 CDs]

Rudolf Kempe made his conducting debut with an amateur Leipzig orchestra in 1934. After taking a Figaro rehearsal at short notice for general music director Paul Schmitz he was offered a contract as solo répétiteur and conductor at Leipzig Opera in addition to his orchestral position. (Profil)

2CD# PH20038 $25.99

Vollrath: Old & New Poetry, Vol. 2

Old & New Poetry, Vol. II is a compelling musical-literary experience featuring the works of seminal poet William Blake and contemporary writer John Gracen Brown. An enticing follow-up to his 2021 release of the same title, Carl Vollrath employs piano and clarinet with various vocal ranges in this recording, each an intimate setting reflecting his close relationship with the text itself. (Navona)

1CD# NV6474 $14.99

Passages – German Ritual Music 1600–1800

Ceremonies, both festive and solemn, lie at the heart of all the works in this program devoted to German music of the 17th century, beginning with music by Heinrich Schütz and ending with Johann Sebastian Bach. These occasional works make frequent use of brass instruments, whose sound is both the foundation and the identity of the InAlto ensemble. (Ricercar)

1CD# RIC443 $18.99

Rather Romantic / Duo Giovivo

Songs without words in the velvety smoothness of a splendid brass instrument: this is what we are offered by the new GENUIN release of the Duo GIOVIVO from Switzerland. Fabian Bloch (euphonium) and Muriel Zeiter (piano) take us on a journey through three centuries of masterpieces to which they lend a new voice. (Genuin)

1CD# GEN 22791 $18.99

Dvořák:

Pavarotti in Hyde Park

1Blu-ray# 762404 $26.39

Puccini:

Salzburg

Teatro

Janácek: Jenufa [DVD or Blu-ray Video]

1Blu-ray# 760504 $34.39 1DVD# 760408 $26.39

David Garrett: Unlimited [DVD or Blu-ray Video]

1Blu-ray# 759904 $34.39 1DVD# 759808 $23.99

Bach Project – Cello Suites [DVD or Blu-ray Video]

754504

Weber:

20% Sale

Karajan New Year’s Concert 1988

1Blu-ray# 759704 $34.39

Domingo – 50 Years at the Arena di Verona [DVD or Blu-ray Video]

1Blu-ray# 755104 $34.39 2DVD# 755008 $30.39

Tchaikovsky: The Sleeping Beauty [DVD or Blu-ray Video]

1Blu-ray# 756104 $34.39 2DVD# 756008 $23.99

The Original Three Tenors –Rome 1990

1Blu-ray# 758804 $26.39

Beethoven’s Ninth –Symphony for the World 1DVD# 756408 $23.99

Dvořák: Rusalka [DVD or Blu-ray Video]

1Blu-ray# 759604 $34.39 2DVD# 759508 $38.39

Teatro alla Scala Ballets [DVD or Blu-ray Video] 5Blu-ray# 758704 $68.79 7DVD# 758608 $68.79

Mahler: Complete Symphonies [DVD or Blu-ray Video] 5Blu-ray# 733004 $76.79 9DVD# 732908 $76.79

Woodlands and Beyond… [DVD or Blu-ray Video] 1Blu-ray# 755504 $34.39 1DVD# 755408 $23.99

Brahms / Tchaikovsky [DVD or Blu-ray Video]

1Blu-ray# 757204 $34.39 1DVD# 757108 $23.99

Gluck: Alceste [DVD or Blu-ray Video] 1Blu-ray# 756804 $34.39 1DVD# 756708 $26.39

The Pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli 1DVD# 755208 $23.99

Salzburg Festival – 100th Anniv. [DVD or Blu-ray Video]

10Blu-ray# 755704 $186.39 17DVD# 755608 $186.39

Kit Armstrong Plays Wagner, Liszt and Mozart

[DVD or Blu-ray Video]

1Blu-ray# 756604 $34.39 1DVD# 756508 $23.99

Beethoven: The Complete Symphonies 4Blu-ray# 749904 $68.79

Bruckner: 11, Vol. 3 / Thielemann [DVD or Blu-ray Video]

On the occasion of the Bruckner bicentenary, the Wiener Philharmoniker recorded its first ever complete Bruckner cycle under the baton of Christian Thielemann. In addition to the well-known canon of nine symphonies, the two earliest Bruckner symphonies in F minor and D minor were also recorded for the first time in the orchestra’s history. “Only the highest musical perfection sounds like this.” Die Presse (Unitel)

1Blu-ray# 807204 $42.99 2DVD# 807108 $37.99

Verdi: La Traviata [DVD or Blu-ray Video]

Giuseppe Verdi was well on the way towards renown and prosperity when he took up the story of Violetta, a famed courtesan whose intensely romantic and colorful but tragically brief life marked the emergence of realism into Italian opera. This alchemy of masterful acting, vivid bel canto voices and the vitality of Zubin Mehta’s conducting results in a triumphant and unforgettably poignant operatic experience. (Dynamic)

1Blu-ray# DYN-57955 $27.99 1DVD# DYN-37955 $27.99

Plácido Domingo at the Arena di Verona [DVD or Blu-ray Video]

Opera legend Plácido Domingo returns to the spectacular Arena di Verona, where he more than 50 years ago made his debut. Plácido Domingo and Saioa Hernández perform a program dedicated to the great Italian composers Verdi and Giordano. “Domingo performed with bravura, alternating with the spectacular Saioa Hernández” – operaactual.com (C Major)

1Blu-ray# 758104 $34.39 1DVD# 758008 $23.99

The Art of Lauren Cuthbertson [DVD or Blu-ray Video]

Since joining The Royal Ballet in 2002, Lauren Cuthbertson has become a much-loved member of the Company and this special boxed set showcases why. This collection includes two iconic roles: the fun-filled, eponymous Alice (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) and Jacqueline du Pré in the biographical work The Cellist. (Opus Arte)

4Blu-ray# OA BD7307BD $54.99

4DVD# OA 1360BD $39.99

Arena di Verona Collection, Vol. 2 [DVD or Blu-ray Video]

A 3-Opera Digistack (Limited Edition) featuring great productions seen at the prestigious Arena di Verona: Bizet’s Carmen, Verdi’s Nabucco, and Rossini’s Barbiere di Siviglia Bizet’s Carmen – one of the most beloved operas – staged at the world-famous Arena di Verona. (Belair)

3Blu-ray# BAC624 $39.99

3DVD# BAC623 $39.99

Metanoia – A Music Documentary [DVD or Blu-ray Video]

In the imposing Arena di Verona, soprano Sonya Yoncheva and tenor Vittorio Grigolo present with dramatic and passionate synergy an evening of the most beautiful operatic love arias and duets in opera history. This concert includes arias from Roméo et Juliette by Charles Gounod as well as from Puccini´s Tosca, La bohème, and Verdiʼs La traviata (C Major)

Puccini: La bohème [DVD or Blu-ray Video]

Set in the artistic but impoverished milieu of early 19th-century Paris, the tragic love of the poet Rodolfo and seamstress Mimì is one of the most affecting in all of opera. This exceptional Oslo production, strongly cast and conducted, and staged by internationally acclaimed director Stefan Herheim, explores the work as never before. (Naxos)

1Blu-ray# NBD0148V $24.99

1DVD# 2110728 $24.99

‘Metanoia’ – the word itself – means beyond thought; to broaden and change the way of seeing. Together with her ensemble, K, the choir Sequenza 9.3, and violinist Manon Galy, Simone Menezes travels across Italy and invites us to experience the thoughttranscending aspects of music, and to uncover the personal journeys of Metanoia of some of the greatest figures in music and art. (Accentus)

1Blu-ray# ACC10550 $39.99

1DVD# ACC20550 $24.99

John Neumeier Collection [DVD or Blu-ray Video]

The John Neumeier Collection presents four ballets by legendary American choreographer John Neumeier. Featured works include The Little Mermaid (Die kleine Meerjungfrau), Tatiana, Weihnachtsoratorium (Christmas Oratorio) and Nijinsky. “Nearly nobody else besides John Neumeier can tell stories with the bodies of his dancers. – Hamburger Morgenpost (C Major)

4Blu-ray# 748604 $68.79 8DVD# 748508 $68.79

Bruckner: 11, Vol. 2 / Thielemann [DVD or Blu-ray Video]

On the occasion of the Bruckner bicentenary, the Wiener Philharmoniker recorded its first ever complete Bruckner cycle under the baton of Christian Thielemann. In addition to the well-known canon of nine symphonies, the two earliest Bruckner symphonies in F minor and D minor, which are a world premiere on DVD and Blu-ray, were also recorded for the first time. (Unitel)

1Blu-ray# 807004 $41.99 2DVD# 806908 $36.99

Blu-ray Video

Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas [DVD or Blu-ray Video]

Few musicians in the world are as intimately familiar with Beethoven’s piano sonatas as Daniel Barenboim, who has been exploring these works since the earliest days of his career – a musical novel in 32 chapters and an artistic cosmos in itself. Barenboim recorded the full cycle of Beethoven sonatas in the Pierre Boulz Saal in 2020 and presents these works in chronological order of their creation. (Unitel)

4Blu-ray# 808004 $95.99

8DVD# 807908 $95.99

Domingo – The Versailles Gala [DVD]

Plácido Domingo has held a unique place in the history of opera for six decades.

Eighty years young, this Madrileño is a lion of the stage who is putting on a Gala for the Opéra Royal du Château de Versailles worthy of the French public’s great admiration for him. Accompanied by the Orchestra of the Opéra Royal under the direction of Laurent Campellone. (CVS)

1DVD# CVS091 $31.99

to Ballet

Escape with us to the glamour and grace of Paris, 1960. Step into the studio, watch the dancers warm up and hear the piano start to play – a new show is taking shape that will be fit for the gods. One of the first choreographers to bring the ‘American style’ to Europe, the legendary Gene Kelly was invited to create an original work for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1960. (Opus Arte)

1Blu-ray# OA BD7311D $29.99

1DVD# OA 1364D $24.99

Levin: Written on Water [DVD or Blu-ray video]

Written on Water is a dance feature film about an artist whose happy and comfortable married life is upended when she unexpectedly falls in love with someone else. Featuring Paris Opera Ballet’s Aurélie Dupont, Ballet Zurich principal dancer Alexander Jones, and choreographer, dancer, writer and director Pontus Lidberg, Written on Water conveys the drama of desire and the turmoil of the creative process. (Naxos)

1Blu-ray# NBD0128V $19.99

1DVD# 2110688 $19.99

Memory in Motion: Percussion in Surround DVD

Memory in Motion: Percussion in Surround was a research project developed to examine how percussionists memorize musical actions within ensembles. As part of this research, director Aiyun Huang commissioned new works to compliment selected existing repertoire. (Mode)

1DVD# MOD-DV-325 $29.99

Palais Garnier – Rebuilding the Paris Opera House DVD

The thrilling tale of the construction of the Palais Garnier, a total work of art built over fifteen tumultuous years by the brilliant architect Charles Garnier. Commissioned by Napoleon III, the Palais Garnier is the symbol par excellence of the Second Empire, a building set apart by its technical and artistic ambition. (BelAir)

1DVD# BAC184 $24.99

Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet [DVD or Blu-ray Video]

Kenneth MacMillan’s passionate choreography for Romeo and Juliet shows The Royal Ballet at its dramatic finest. Sergey Prokofiev’s famously evocative score is the driver for some of the most ardent pas de deux and powerful set pieces in ballet history. The vibrant crowd scenes with magnificent designs by Nicholas Georgiadis vividly recreate the color and bustle of 16th-century Verona. (Opus Arte)

1Blu-ray# OA BD7273D $39.99

1DVD# OA 1314D $29.99

Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 1–9 [9 Blu-ray video]

This release contains the international acclaimed Bruckner cycle of Christian Thielemann, a “magician of the Bruckner sound,” (Kurier on Symphony No. 5) and the Staatskapelle Dresden, whose own Bruckner tradition dates back more than a century. Outstanding reviews emphasize the exceptionally high artistic quality of the concerts. (C Major)

9Blu-ray# 757504 $87.99

Mozart: Così fan tutte [DVD or Blu-ray Video]

A classic story of love under the microscope is given a contemporary perspective in this performance of Mozart’s “school for lovers”. Così fan tutte is a compassionate examination of young love, full of wit and wonderful music which ensure its lasting popularity. Così fan tutte was Mozart’s final collaboration with the Italian librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. (Opus Arte)

1Blu-ray# OA BD7286D $39.99

1DVD# OA 1331D $29.99

The Arte of Roberto Bolle [DVD or Blu-ray Video]

This set of three films provides an outstanding showcase for the artistry of dancer Roberto Bolle, a ballet star of our own time. For the 75th anniversary celebrations of The Royal Ballet, Frederick Ashton’s Sylvia was restored to the splendor of its elegant and opulent threeact form. Casting Bolle as Aminta alongside Darcey Bussell in the title role, this is a wonderful showcase for virtuosity, invention and classical beauty. (Opus Arte)

3Blu-ray# OA BD7224BD $54.99

3DVD# OA 1233BD $39.99

Starstruck-Gene Kelly’s Love Letter

[DVD or Blu-ray Video]

Critics Choice

Schubert: Schwanengesang & Einsamkeit

“Where Bostridge’s 2009 recording gave us an impeccably smooth and polished take on Schwanengesang, this new one ultimately delivers much more in terms of character. Listeners will appreciate how the duo brings out the best in each other. Warmly recommended.” – The Classic Review (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5186786 $12.79

Berg: Violin Concerto, Three Orchestral Pieces

“Come within hearing distance of the music of Alban Berg and there’s an awful danger you’ll enter a vortex from which there’s no escape. The Austrian composer’s music has a peculiar drugged beauty, at once corrupt and glowing with a strange light, which makes the mundanities of this world hard to bear.”

Telegraph UK (Chandos)

1SACD# CHSA 5270 $19.99

Brahms: Liebeslieder Waltzes for Piano 4-Hands

“These are all delightful pieces and make very easy and pleasant listening. All the numbers are short –none is as much as three minutes and several are less than one minute long. They are skilfully varied in character. So, for example, in the first set 1 is rather in the mood of Johann Strauss, as if in homage to him, but otherwise, the predominant influence is Schubert.” – MusicWeb (Brilliant Classics)

1CD# BRI96166 $12.99

Secret Love Letters / Lisa Batiashvili

“Lisa Batiashvili’s new release is a collaborative effort with both the Philadelphia Orchestra/YannickNézet-Séguin and pianist Giorgi Gigashvili. This is a fine artistic effort from Batiashvili and all the performers. The choice of works is both well-rounded and refreshing, making for a wonderful listening experience.” – The Classic Review (Deutsche Grammophon)

1CD# MOB604623 $14.99

“Away from Verdi, the program opens with Rodolfo and Marcello mooning over their failed relationships in La bohème (perhaps not the most convincingly youthful bohemians). And there’s that terrific scene for Enzo Grimaldo and the Inquisition spy, Barnaba, from Ponchielli’s La Gioconda, their two stylish voices opening up like a pair of Porsches.”

Gramophone (Sony)

1CD# 19439987002 $13.99

“In this program of concertos and chamber works, Sharon Bezaly’s trademark clarity of both thought and tone is matched by her colleagues. Her stripped-back, rounded sound is at the fore in Telemann’s Concerto in E minor, with her fellow instrumentalists dancing around one another before reaching the thrilling climax in the gypsy-style Presto.”

BBC Music (BIS)

1SACD# BIS-2339 $19.99

Sørensen: The Island in the City / Trio con Brio Copenhagen

“Unsurprisingly, it’s Beethoven who most directly haunts Sørensen’s 2018 Grawmeyer award-winning triple concerto, L’Isola della Città (‘The Island in the City’). Superbly performed by Trio con Brio Copenhagen and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra under Jukka-Pekka Saraste, the piece was inspired by Sørensen’s experience of apartness, standing on his balcony above a nocturnal city.” – BBC Music (Dacapo)

1CD# 8226086 $15.99

Hollywood Soundstage / John Wilson

“Sinfonia of London and John Wilson present an album that celebrates the golden age of Hollywood. There are also suites from Max Steiner’s Now, Voyager and Franz Waxman’s Rebecca (receiving here it’s premiere recording). Shorter pieces from David Raksin, Frederick Lowe, Johnny Mandel and Alfred Newman complete this rewarding program.” – Gramophone (Chandos) 1SACD# CHSA 5294 $19.99

Vaughan Williams on Brass

“Of all the new releases for the 150th anniversary of Vaughan Williams’ birth, this is one that I have been most eagerly awaiting. Of the ten works presented on this disc, six are the first recordings of new arrangements or editions of the particular score. Simply put, for any collector wishing to have a collection of the composer’s music for band this disc is both unique and invaluable.” – Musicweb (Albion)

1CD# ALBCD052 $18.99

Verdi: Falstaff [DVD or Blu-ray Video]

“This recent staging of Verdi’s final opera Falstaff, which was produced last year in Florence, is one of the most consistently entertaining productions of the opera that I have viewed in many years. What stage director Sven-Eric Bechtolf offers the audience is a well crafted comedic romp in the traditional style.” – MusicWeb (Dynamic)

1Blu-ray# DYN-57951 $27.99 1DVD# DYN-37951 $27.99

Insieme – Opera Duets / Jonas Kaufmann & Ludovic Tézier

Synergy / Sharon Bezaly

Standout New Releases

Igor Levit: Tristan [2 CDs]

“Never try to second-guess the Russian-German pianist Igor Levit. Love and death are the twin flames of his double album Tristan Contrasting with the polychromatic presentation of last year’s On DSCH, his new Tristan has monochrome sobriety. The unifying theme is the Tristan legend made famous by Wagner and explored by others, in homage and inspiration.”

– The Guardian (Sony)

2CD# 19439943482 $18.99

Portrait – Alex Baranowski / Angèle Dubeau

“The opening Wiosna (‘Spring’), inspired by his (Baranowski) grandfather’s resilience after imprisonment in a Soviet forced labour camp during the Second World War, exudes a deep sense of melancholy throughout, matched by Dubeau’s silky-smooth, immaculate and gloriously unadorned solo playing, and her ensemble’s uncanny sonic mix of richness and almost icy purity.”

– The Strad (Analekta) 1CD# AN28750 $18.99

Lortzing: Der Groß-Admiral [2 CDs]

“Anett Fritsch is dignified as Heinrich’s betrayed wife Catharina, but Julia Sophie Wagner is the pick of a more than passable bunch in the trouser role of the page Eduard. The choral singing has spirit, the recording (in Munich’s Prinzregententheater, though it doesn’t sound live) is nicely balanced, and it’s all swept cheerfully along by conductor Ulf Schirmer.” – Gramophone (CPO)

2CD# 555133-2 $33.99

Vaughan Williams: Symphonies Nos. 6 & 8

“As wonderful as it is to hear the Eighth treated with the respect it deserves, the main focus has to be on Symphony No. 6. Nothing is forced – the fury and the anguish, the grandeur and the desolation seem almost to speak for themselves. What’s surprising on first hearing is how the Symphony’s epic sweep is balanced with such focused clarity.”

– BBC Music (Hyperion)

1CD# MOB283968 $19.99

Beethoven: The 5 Piano Concertos [3 CDs]

“Zhang’s technique is, as one would expect, dazzling. Runs are dispatched with enviable evenness and crystalline clarity; one searches in vain for smudged notes or misjudged rhythms. Beethoven’s writing is always carefully voiced to ensure the melodic line is clearly heard, and Zhang gets a lean, lissome tone from his Steinway, perfectly suited to the fast movements of first two concertos.”

The Classic Review (BIS)

3CD# BIS-2581 $39.99

Walton: The Complete Facades

“The playing of the instrumentalists under JoAnn Falletta is exceptionally clear both in manner and recorded sound, Timothy McAllister’s oily saxophone in particular conjuring up the jazz elements that underlay Walton’s original inspirations. For the four additional numbers, this recording is a must for all Waltonians.” – MusicWeb (Naxos) 1CD# 8574378 $13.99

Saint-Saëns: Complete Symphonies [3 CDs]

“Mǎcelaru’s tempos find a sweet spot between Soustrot’s languor and Kantorow’s speed. The Orchestre National de France plays with a charismatic sophistication and panache, captured in engineered sound of impressive warmth and great clarity. Based on the success of this cycle, one hopes this team will go on to record a great deal more French repertoire – warmly recommended.” – The Classic Review (Warner) 3CD# MOB533433 $26.99

Choirbook / Jesper Koch

“A lyrical suite of seven chapters for mixed choir a cappella, Jesper Koch’s Choirbook is a meditation on nature, complex and yet simple, communicating openly with the listener. This is interesting: a new, large, coherent and thoroughly worked out choral work with the potential to become a modern classic.” – Klassik (Dacapo) 1SACD# 6220627 $15.99

Nethsinga

“In performance – if that is the right word in a liturgical context –Nethsingha treats each psalm as a mini tone-poem of vocal affects, each line inflected in distinctive ways to elicit meaning and emotion from the biblical text. The 19 verses of Psalm 18, for example, are rich in local incident.” – BBC Music (Signum Classics)

1CD# SIGCD721 $17.99

Music

“If I thought about the Australian composer Don Banks at all, it was probably only when picking off the shelf the recording of his Horn Concerto. It is marvelous, then, to be reacquainted with him. We should, as ever, raise our hats to Martin Anderson and his team for helping us to rediscover this music. The musicians – mostly Australian, an excellent idea – do Banks proud.”

MusicWeb (Toccata Classics)

1CD# TOCC0591 $18.99

The Psalms / Andrew

Don Banks: Vocal & Chamber

20% Sale on

New Paths / Mari Kodama

Mari Kodama presents New Paths, exploring the young Johannes Brahms and his fascinating friendship with Clara and Robert Schumann. The program brings together Brahms’s first piano sonata, his Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op. 9, as well as his Theme And Variations, Op. 18b, made at Clara Schumann’s request. (Pentatone)

1SACD# PTC5186976 $15.99

Molieri: Arias / Adam Plachetka

Bass-baritone Adam Plachetka presents Molieri, a program of opera arias by Mozart and Salieri, together with the Czech Ensemble Baroque. Molieri brings the two composers together, focusing on bass-8 baritone arias from their opera buffas. (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5187022 $12.79

Antwerp Requiem c. 1650

Antwerp Requiem c. 1650 showcases the exceptional wealth of musical life in Antwerp in the age of Rubens. Philippus van Steelant’s recently-rediscovered Requiem settings are unique in their exuberant splendour, tied to a funerary culture that embraced the glory of life. B’Rock Orchestra is one of today’s most forward-thinking period orchestras with a desire for encounter and exchange. (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5187006 $12.79

Lost & Found / Sean Shibe

Visions offers Tamara Stefanovich and Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s return to Pentatone, presenting a program revolving around Messiaen’s intoxicating Visions de l‘amen for two pianos. This centrepiece is surrounded by Enescu’s Carillon nocturne, Knussen’s Prayer Bell Sketch and Clock IV from Birtwistle’s Harrison’s Clocks Stefanovich and Aimard invite the listener on a mesmerizing acoustic journey. (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5186957 $12.79

Pentatone re-issues Julia Fischer’s epoch-making Mozart Violin Concertos recordings, starting with her readings of the famous 3rd and 4th concertos, as well as the Adagio in E Major and Rondo in B-flat Major, first released in 2005. Fischer performs them together with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Yakov Kreizberg, with whom she developed a highly congenial partnership. (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5187016 $12.79

Anna-Lucia Richter

On her third Pentatone album Brahms Lieder, Anna Lucia Richter returns to the German lied, making her recording debut as a mezzo-soprano with a recital of Brahms songs. Brahms is particularly suitable for this recording debut as his songs fit the mezzo-soprano voice like a glove, and the pieces presented here range from love poetry and dark Romanticism to folk songs. (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5186986 $12.79

Bach: Harpsichord Concertos III

Sean Shibe’s second Pentatone album Lost & Found is an ecstatic journey containing music by outsiders, mystics, visionaries, who often have more than one identity and lay claim to various artistic traditions, genres, or audiences. The repertoire ranges over ten centuries, with pieces are bound together by Shibe’s unique electric guitar sound and aesthetic. (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5186988 $12.79

Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven: La Passione

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin returns to Pentatone together with soprano Christina Landshamer, presenting La Passione, a collection of dazzling concert arias on love, longing and loss by Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn, paired with the latter’s “La Passione” Symphony. Ranging from pastoral simplicity to exuberant outrage, the program offers some of the finest vocal writing around 1800. (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5186987 $12.79

Schubert: Unfinished & Great Symphony / B’Rock Orchestra

Multiple prize-winning conductor René Jacobs and the B’Rock Orchestra complete their Schubert cycle on Pentatone with the composer’s two most famous symphonies, the Unfinished and Great. In his extensive liner notes, Jacobs develops a theory that the B Minor Symphony was deliberately left unfinished, because Schubert shaped its two movements in analogy to Mein Traum (My Dream). (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5186894 $19.19

Francesco Corti and il pomo d’oro continue their acclaimed series of Bach harpsichord concertos, now moving to the works for two harpsichords, BWV 1060-1062, together with Andrea Buccarella. Compared to the previous two installments, the accompanying ensemble is small, allowing for maximal transparency and focus on the soloists. (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5186966 $12.79

Visions / Tamara Stefanovich; Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Brahms: Lieder /

Pentatone Music

Beethoven: Cello Sonatas / Alisa Weilerstein; Inon Barnatan [2 CDs]

Cellist Alisa Weilerstein and pianist Inon Barnatan present a complete recording of Beethoven’s Cello Sonatas. Composed over a span of nearly twenty years, these works not only contain some of the most appealing and lyrical music Beethoven wrote, but also allow the listener to trace his exceptional artistic development. (Pentatone)

2CD# PTC5186884 $19.99

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto / Julia Fischer

First released in 2006, Julia Fischer’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, alongside other gems by this composer has proven to be a reference recording. It not only highlights Fischer’s exceptional skill, but also her unique congeniality with the late Yakov Kreizberg, who leads the Russian National Orchestra and accompanies her on the piano on Souvenir d’un lieu cher. (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5187005 $12.79

My Paris / Ana de la Vega; Paul Rivinius

Flautist Ana de la Vega’s fourth Pentatone album My Paris is a declaration of love to the glorious French capital and its rich flute history, as well as a trip down memory lane, featuring some of the greatest gems of French music history, including works by Debussy, Ravel, Massenet, Satie, Poulenc, Mozart, Chaminade, Lili Boulanger, Von Paradis, as well as Bizet.

(Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5186873 $12.79

Minne / Holland Baroque; Bastarda Trio

Holland Baroque presents Minne, an improvised program inspired by the love poetry of medieval mystic Hadewijch from Brabant. Hadewijch was a 13th-century beguine who wrote an impressive oeuvre of love poetry, providing an original, female perspective on medieval life. For this project, Holland Baroque works together with Bastarda Trio. (Pentatone)

1SACD# PTC5187002 $15.99

Hommage à Horowitz / Maxim Bernard

Brahms:

Symphonies 3 & 4 / Herbert Blomstedt

Maestro Herbert Blomstedt and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig close their acclaimed Brahms cycle with the composer’s Third and Fourth Symphonies. Compared to the epic First and gloomily pastoral Second, Brahms’s Third Symphony is a glorious exploration of the chambermusical possibilities of the symphony orchestra. (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5186852 $12.79

Mahler: Symphony No. 4 / Czech Philharmonic

The Czech Philharmonic and its Chief Conductor and Music Director Semyon Bychkov present a new recording of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, laying the foundation of a complete Mahler symphonies cycle to appear on Pentatone. It is the Czech Philharmonic’s first survey of this extraordinary symphonic opus since their recording under Neumann between 1976 and 1982. (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5186972 $12.79

Flow / Annelien Von Wauwe

On her second Pentatone album Flow, Annelien Van Wauwe presents a program inspired by her love for yoga, combining Mozart’s famous Clarinet Concerto with the world premiere recording of Wim Henderickx’s concerto SUTRA. Van Wauwe performs both works on the characteristic basset clarinet, together with the renowned NDR Radiophilharmonien. (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5186973 $12.79

Blue / Jeanine Tesori & Tazewell Thompson [2 CDs]

Washington National Opera presents Blue, a contemporary opera on racial injustice in the US today, with a libretto by Tazewell Thompson set to music by Jeanine Tesori. Blue tells the tragic story of an African-American police officer whose son is killed by a fellow officer during a protest. Historically and musically, Blue compassionately tells a story that is at once painful and identifiable. (Pentatone)

2SACD# PTC5186967 $23.99

PENTATONE TITLES IN BRIEF

On his Pentatone debut album Hommage à Horowitz, pianist Maxim Bernard revives Vladimir Horowitz’s legendary 1986 Moscow concert. (Pentatone).

1CD# PTC5186898 $12.79

Handel: Apollo e Dafne

Handel composed these two cantatas shortly after his Italian sojourn (1706–1709), and they demonstrate his acquaintance with and aptitude for Italian operatic music. (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5186965 $12.79

Bach: Sonatas & Partitas / Julia Fischer [2 CDs]

First released in 2005, Julia Fischer’s multiple award-winning recording of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonatas & Partitas has proven to be an evergreen, now returning in a stereo version. (Pentatone)

2CD# PTC5186994 $19.99

Vincerò! / Piotr Beczala

First released in May 2020, Piotr Beczala’s album Vincerò! has been one of the must successful and critically acclaimed opera recital albums of the last few years. (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5186993 $12.79

Bach / Collegium Vocal Gent [10 CDs]

Founded by Philippe Herreweghe at a time when the Baroque revival was still a matter for specialists, Collegium Vocale Gent has been at the heart of the rediscovery of Bach’s sacred music. This tenalbum set brings together some of his finest sacred vocal works, from a selection of Leipzig cantatas (Gramophone Editor’s Choice) to the St. John Passion by way of the Mass in B minor. (Phi)

10CD# LPH038 $41.99

Echo – Songs Across the Ages / Ruby Hughes

Huw Watkins’ song cycle Echo, composed for soprano Ruby Hughes and premiered in 2017 at Carnegie Hall, is at the center of this artfully crafted recital. Setting texts by five different poets, the cycle is a work centered on melancholy – on transience, remembrance, and in the final song a numbed cry of inconceivable loss. (BIS)

1SACD# BIS-2568 $19.99

Hans Sommer: Orchestral Songs

Pentatone presents a new album full of world-premiere recordings of orchestral songs by Hans Sommer, sung by an excellent

1CD# PTC5187023 $12.79

Grace Davidson presents her third release with Signum Classics, an intimate disc of Sacred Chants by Hildegard von Bingen, translations by Jeremy Summerly. The florid imagery of Hildegard’s texts is matched by suitably florid tunes, whose calculated intervals suggest both vocal improvisation and carefully controlled composition.

(Signum)

1CD# SIGCD717 $17.99

Zauberoper / Konstantin Krimmel

Following his acclaimed first recording for Alpha Classics, Saga, the German baritone Konstantin Krimmel continues to tell us stories, with a program focusing on Zauberoper or ‘magic opera’. Krimmel explores operas by Mozart, Salieri and Gluck, alongside less well-known titles by Paul Wranitzky and Peter von Winter. (Alpha)

1CD# ALPHA892 $17.09

Pianist Jenny Lin is joined by contralto Sara Couden on this album of Artur Schnabel’s Complete Vocal Music. Both artists have received widespread critical acclaim for their prior performances. “Sara Couden deployed her huge and fluid mezzo-soprano to glorious effect in a range of vocal showcases —now tender and probing, now extravagantly athletic.” – Opera Chaser (Steinway & Sons)

1CD# STNS30208 $17.99

Sophie Gail: Romances d’Empire

Eden: Joyce DiDonato

The 16 tracks, some instrumental, open with Charles Ives’s The Unanswered Question and rove freely, from a premiere recording of Rachel Portman’s prayer-like The First Morning of the World to the baroque composers we associate with DiDonato, to Mahler and, yes, Wagner. Made with such dedication, Eden provokes thought and asks us to engage. – The Guardian (Warner Classics)

1CD# MOB465154 $18.99

Bijoux Perdus / Jodie Devos; Flemish Radio Choir

After her triumph with the album Offenbach Colorature, Jodie Devos has chosen to follow in the footsteps of one of her compatriots, the Belgian coloratura soprano Marie Cabel (1827–85), who at the age of twentysix scored a phenomenal success in Adolphe Adam’s opéra-comique Le Bijou perdu, which she premiered in Paris. (Alpha)

1CD# ALPHA877 $17.09

Cantos y Cuentos / Jennifer Olson

Jennifer Olson holds a Master’s degree in voice from the University of Michigan and a Doctorate of Musical Arts in voice from the University of Minnesota. She is fluent in French and in addition to her education in the United States, has studied in Milan Italy and in Orford Québec. For the past eight years, Jennifer has been teaching voice at the collegiate and high-school levels. (Centaur)

1CD# CRC3917 $15.99

Like a shooting star, the French singer Sophie Gail filled her short life with music and passion. Publishing her first romances at the age of 15 in 1790, this divorcée who led a free life, and achieved fame as a composer at the Opéra-Comique in 1813, while having her romances hummed by all of the Empire’s “Belle société”. They are brought back to life by the magnificent duo of Maïlys de Villoutreys and Clara Izambert. (CDV)

1CD# CVS077 $18.99

Sacred Chants / Grace Davidson

Schnabel:

Complete Vocal Works / Sara Couden; Jenny Lin

quartet of soloists – Mojca Erdmann, Anke Vondung, Mauro Peter and Benjamin Appl – together with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under the baton of Guillermo García Calvo. Sommer was a Liszt student whose operas were performed and praised by Richard Strauss. (Pentatone)

Recitals

Reencuentros / Cecilia Duarte

Reference Recordings presents Reencuentros, Cecilia Duarte’s first solo album, produced by multiple-time Producer of the Year GRAMMY winner, Blanton Alspaugh. Cecilia is best known as a classical and opera singer. This album is a departure, containing 12 romantic boleros from multiple countries. Sung in Spanish, these Latin popular standards are truly art songs from the mid-20th century. (Reference)

1CD# FR-748 $16.99

The Silver Swan / Emily Gray; Nicole Johnson

“Singers of English Song have a vast treasury in which to find their repertoire. Michael Head’s songs are generally well known, but many of Eric Thiman’s songs are rarely performed and have never been recorded commercially. These beautiful performances by Emily Gray and Nicole Johnson should help to end their obscurity.”

– Dorothy Webster (Convivium)

1CD# CVI075 $16.99

Nicht Wiedersehen! / Günther Groissböck

The Austrian bass Günther Groissböck enchants on the opera and concert stages around the world with the unique noble sound of his voice and virtually breathtaking verve of performance. Groissböck presents on the album “Nicht Wiedersehen!” incomparable interpretations of late Romantic songs and ballads by Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler and Hans Rott. (Gramola)

1CD# GRAM99280 $22.99

Love & Let Die / Katharina Ruckgaber

Katharina Ruckgaber notes: “In the search for suitable pieces for my idea of a sophisticated, classical, and at the same time varied lieder recital, which aims on a second level to tell a new tale of (crime) fiction in a tight dramatic form, I went rummaging through the full and rich gamut of German-language lieder repertoire.” (Solo Musica)

1CD# SM405 $18.99

VOCAL RELEASES IN BRIEF

Dodgson: The Peasant Poet – Songs, Vol. 1

SOMM Recordings announces the launch of a major three-volume series devoted to the rich and varied songs of Stephen Dodgson on the eve of the 10th anniversary of his death in 2013, aged 89. Dodgson was a prolific composer with a notable focus on works for guitar, harpsichord and recorder. (SOMM)

1CD# SOMMCD 0659 $18.99

Beethoven: Christus am Ölberge

Beethoven composed the oratorio Christus am Ölberge (Christ on the Mount of Olives) in just ‘a fortnight, amid all sorts of tumult and other unpleasant and alarming events in my life’. It marked the first time since 1790 that he had embarked on a multi-movement vocal work. Christus am Ölberge was also Beethoven’s first composition on a religious subject and remained his only oratorio. (Phi)

1CD# LPH039 $18.99

Wenn ich nur Dich hab / Richard Resch

On his debut solo album, German tenor Richard Resch presents a selection of early Baroque cantatas and other vocal music works from northern Germany. Together with Ensemble La Silla, he explores this beautiful but not so wellknown repertoire, including two world premiere recordings of rediscovered works by Johann Friedrich Meister and Gottfried Philipp Flor. (Carpe Diem)

1CD# CD-16330 $18.99

A Shropshire Lad – English Songs Orchestrated by Roderick Williams

This album represents the culmination of what leading British baritone Roderick Williams described as ‘a dream come true’. It features premiere recordings of his orchestrations of songs by Vaughan Williams and other composers associated with him and is released to commemorate those who perished in WWI. (Hallé)

1CD# CDHLL7559 $18.99

R. Strauss: Sinnbild – Orchestral Songs / Hanna-Elisabeth Müller

Soprano Hanna-Elisabeth Müller presents an enchanting collection of orchestral songs by Richard Strauss, together with the WDR Symphony Orchestra. (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5186806 $12.79

Taverner: Heaven & Earth [2 CDs]

Discover here a performance unlike any other of John Tavener’s Ikon of Light, his landmark setting of the Prayer to the Holy Spirit. (Capella Romana)

2SACD# CR424 $24.99

Vintersong / Daniel Saether

All the music on this release has the countertenor as a common denominator. The composers represented here are all honest seekers who adopted different musical approaches. (Lawo)

1CD# LWC1236 $16.99

Rossini, Donizetti: French Bel Canto Arias / Lisette Oropesa

On her second solo album Lisette Oropesa has combined two of her greatest loves, the French language and Italian bel canto. (Pentatone)

1SACD# PTC5186955 $12.79

New Choral

Creator of Angels – Choral Works / Alfred Momotenko

1CD# ODE 1413-2 $16.99

Van Gogh in Me / Netherlands Chamber Choir; Peter Dukstra

With Van Gogh in Me, the Netherlands Chamber Choir presents an experience in which the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh and Gustav Klimt come to life to the music of the great Romantic and early 20th century composers such as Debussy, Saint-Saëns, Mahler... and, in a world premiere, a transcription for a cappella choir of Satie’s first Gymnopédie. (Alpha)

1CD# ALPHA638 $17.09

All Angels – Choral Works by George Arthur [2 CDs]

Explore this new album of choral works by British composer, George Arthur, performed by The Choir of Royal Holloway. George is a multi award-winning composer, published by Universal Editions, Music Sales, Shorter House and the Guild of Church Musicians. He has been commissioned by various cathedrals and chapel choirs at home and overseas and his music is regularly performed around the world. (Convivium)

2CD# CVI078 $19.99

Saint-Saëns, Hahn: À la lumière

Ever since its creation more than twenty-five years ago, the Accentus chamber choir has ardently championed the a cappella repertory. Hahn and Saint-Saëns are on the program of this album in superb choral works combining simplicity and expressive power, some of which have never been recorded before. (Alpha)

1CD# ALPHA864 $17.09

Raff: Choral Works a cappella

Joachim Raff wrote sacred works and secular political songs of awakening alike. Translated into music, this meant that he drew on the romantic vernacular of the time but could combine it with his very own take on the Cecilian revival of renaissance polyphony in a way rivaled only decades later, by Hans Pfitzner. (Capriccio)

1CD# C5501 $16.99

The King’s Singers: The Library, Vol. 3

This is the third volume in the EP series ‘The Library’ – a series that explores both the history, and the new horizons, of The King’s Singers close-harmony repertoire. Closeharmony is the part of their work for which they are best known, and their library of thousands of arrangements is one they’re determined to explore, maintain and develop. (Signum)

1CD# SIGCD678 $9.99

Alfred Schnittke: Choir Concerto | Arvo Pärt: 7 Magnificat Antiphons

Łukaszewski:

Sacred Choral Works

Paweł Łukaszewski (b. 1968) is possibly the most-performed contemporary composer from Poland. His spiritual choral works are performed by both professional and amateur choirs around the world. Pawel Lukaszewski’s output has a significant position in Great Britain where his works are performed and premiered by renowned London and Cambridge choral ensembles. (Ondine)

1CD# ODE 1406-2 $16.99

Bryars: A Native Hill

As Alfred Schnittke and Arvo Pärt both adopted the Orthodox faith in the 1970s, Orthodox choral traditions became increasingly prominent in their work, but both composers also looked to the music of the Western church. Included texts by the medieval Armenian poet Gregory of Narek are informed by a humanistic individualism, with the poet often writing in the first person. (BIS)

1SACD# BIS-2521 $19.99

Navona Records presents A Native Hill from Philadelphia’s professional chamber choir, The Crossing. This monumental unaccompanied work is the result of a collaboration with composer Gavin Bryars, whose previous work for The Crossing won them their first of two recent GRAMMY awards. (Navona)

1CD# NV6347 $14.99

Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Te Deum / Kammerchor Stuttgart

“My commitment to the present new recording is not only important because of advanced ensemble techniques, but also because I believe that with a cast of soloists, as in the sixteen-part Hora est, transparency of the polyphonic movement can be achieved that is not so readily feasible with larger forces.“

– Frieder Bernius (Haenssler Classic)

1CD# HC20034 $18.99

Latvian Radio Choir’s new album conducted by Sigvards Klava marks the international debut of composer Alfred Momotenko. Momotenko’s timeless choral works continue the centuries old great tradition of choral works combining them with contemporary language, a blend most recently exemplified by the likes of Alfred Schnittke. (Ondine)

I Vow to Thee, My Country – Choral Music by Gustav Holst

SOMM Recordings announces the release of I Vow to Thee, My Country, believed to be the first recording to feature all of Gustav Holst’s sacred choral music. Included are his only setting of the Anglican Service for Evening Prayer, Nunc Dimittis, and his substantial Two Psalms and Four Festival Choruses, whose inspirations range from the Bible, Byzantine liturgy, and Welsh hymns. (SOMM)

1CD# SOMMCD 279 $18.99

Bruckner Spectrum / Zurich Chamber Singers

Renaissance polyphony and contemporary sound clouds orbit around vocal late Romanticist like satellites. The Zurich Chamber Singers unearth a special narrative drama. Starting with Anton Bruckner, they turn their attention to Palestrina as a point of reference. At the same time, they cast a spotlight back on the work of the Austrian vocal innovator through three contemporary works. (Berlin Classics)

Carr: I Offer You Love

1CD# 0302806BC $18.99

This album is a collection of short works for choir by English composer Paul Carr. The title of the album, “I Offer You Love”, comes from Mahatma Gandhi’s popular Prayer for Peace which he wrote for Dallas Chamber Choir, and is an apt title setting the mood of the album as a whole. This is quiet music of love and reflection – music for the soul. (Stone Records)

1CD# 5060192781205 $17.99

The Music of Richard Pantcheff, Vol. 3 / London Choral Sinfonia

Orchid Classics presents its third volume of choral music by Richard Pantcheff in world-premiere recordings performed by the London Choral Sinfonia. This release again offers a wide range of interconnected works, centered around the genres for which Pantcheff has achieved the most notable success: music for organ, instrumental ensembles and choirs. (Orchid Classics)

1CD# ORC100206 $16.99

CHORAL TITLES IN BRIEF

Supraskie Kantyki / Podlasie Opera & Philharmonic Choir

Supraskie Kantyki [Supraśl Canticles] are a collection of 49 musical pieces, written for 6 male voices (treble a, treble b, tenor a, tenor b, bass a, bass b). They were created in Supraśl in the 1670s–80s. The recording of the works featured on this album, made by the Warsawbased DUX record label, took place in 2021 at the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic. (Dux)

1CD# DUX1787 $19.99

21 Great Anthems & Choruses

This fine collection of anthems and choruses includes works performed by the Choirs of Westminster Abbey, Christ Church Oxford, and Salisbury Cathedral. “…fine collections sung with fervour and discipline…zestfully infectious… shaped beautifully…brass resonantly sonorous...fully in the demonstration bracket.” – Penguin Guide (Alto Music)

1CD# MOB414497 $10.99

The Den Bosch Choirbooks, Vol 1 / Cappella Pratensis

Music clearly fascinated the great Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch (c.1450–1516); his sketches and paintings are peppered with closely observed depictions of music-making and musical instruments. Every Wednesday Bosch could gather with his Confraternity brothers in their opulent chapel in the church of St. John the Evangelist to celebrate a votive Mass in honor of the Blessed Virgin. (Challenge)

1CD# CC 72877 $16.99

Let it Shine! / VoiceMix, Steffen Schreyer

VoiceMix succeeds in merging their eight extraordinary voices with esprit, concentration and fun to create a unique sound. Colorful carpets of sound and gaudy vocal lines underline the music which ranges from classical to modern choral literature to spirituals and upbeat songs. (Cantate)

1CD# CAN58054 $18.99

McDowall: Sacred Choral Music / Trinity College Choir Cambridge

McDowall’s keen sensitivity to text and her flair for writing vocal lines that are grateful to sing are just two of the virtues which justify the success of her choral music. (Hyperion)

1CD# MOB282510 $19.99

Black Pierrot / University of Missouri University Singers

This is a program of great choral works, including one work from the 1500s, works from the 20th Century, and one work that was commissioned by R. Paul Crabb. (Centaur)

1CD# CRC3838 $15.99

Vedel: Twelve Sacred Choral Concerti & Divine Liturgy [2 CDs]

Juno nominated chamber choir Luminous Voices along with Spiritus Chamber Choir presents twelve works by Ukranian composer Artem Vedel (1767–1808). (Leaf)

2CD# LM244 $16.99

Jesu meine Freude / Ensemble Bachwerkvokal

“Jesu meine Freude” by Bach, Doles, Krebs and Telemann: Gordon Safari serves up no less than four very varied settings of one of the most popular church hymns in the latest production. (MDG)

1SACD# 9232207-6 $18.99

Music for Chamber Ensemble

Adams: Sila – The Breath of the World

Acclaimed by the New York Times as “an alluring, mystical new work” when it premiered outdoors at the city’s Lincoln Center in July 2014, John Luther Adams’ Sila: the Breath of the World is so carefully orchestrated that the recording itself pushes the limits of how to capture multiple ensembles of musicians in one setting. (Cantaloupe)

1CD# CA21177 $19.99

Kahn: Chamber Music / Hohenstaufen Ensemble

Rahel Rilling writes: “The decision to record works by my great-grandfather was actually made some time ago. Back in 2006 I founded the Hohenstaufen chamber music festival, and we came to engage with the chamber music of Robert Kahn and produce the first album with Hänssler Classic in 2013. I was aware of Kahns´s compositions at the end of the 1990s. (Haenssler Classic)

1CD# HC22075 $18.99

Chamber Music with Viola / Yue Yu; Anthony Hewitt

An accomplished horn and viola player, York Bowen is said to have preferred the tone of the viola to the violin. Bowen’s subtle shifts of key and heartfelt melodies are well in evidence here, including the powerful and poised Rhapsody, Op.149, considered to be one of his most important works. (Naxos)

1CD# 8574150 $13.99

Schubert: String Quartet Quartettsatz

Celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in 2022, the Brodsky Quartet has performed more than 3000 concerts on the major concert stages of the world and has released more than seventy recordings. A natural curiosity and insatiable desire to explore have propelled the group in many artistic directions and continue to ensure it a place at the very forefront of the international chamber music scene. (Chandos)

1CD# CHAN 10978 $18.99

Talistrio – Works by Casella, Rachmaninoff & Yamada

Paul Klee’s picture Ad marginem provides inspiration and context for the present program and is a visual guide to performance for us as Talistrio. It is surely this mixture of melancholy and hope that links all the works listed below, be it Casella’s neoclassical dance on the volcano from the early 20th century, or the Japanese child scene at sunset. (Solo Musica)

1CD# SM409 $18.99

Marteau: Complete Works for String Quartet, Vol. 3

In contrast to his first two quartets, the third quartet, which Marteau composed towards the end of the First World War, is of a completely different nature and presents itself as a strongly biographical work. The CD is supplemented with the “Eight Songs with String Quartet Accompaniment,” Op. 10 speak, written in 1905. (CPO)

1CD# 555130-2 $16.99

Chamber Music / Alfred Huber

Tovey: Chamber Music, Vol. 3

Sir Donald Tovey (1875–1940), long hailed as one of the finest writers on music in English, saw himself primarily as a composer. His occasionally turbulent friendship with Paul Casals was the spur for a monumental concerto and one of three sonatas: for solo cello, two cellos and cello with piano. (Toccata Classics)

1CD# TOCC0497 $18.99

Ruders: Clarinet Quintet; Throne; Piano Quintet

With his characteristic wit and quirkiness, GRAMMY-nominated Danish composer Poul Ruders has summed up his mission as a composer as being “To entertain, to enrich, and to disturb, not necessarily in that order.” The current program features works spanning 30 years, beginning with the elliptical Throne (1989) for clarinet and piano and two major chamber works dating from 2014 and 2016 respectively. (Our)

1CD# 6220680 $19.99

Raff: Chamber Music, Vol. 2 / Leipziger Streichquartett

To mark the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth, the renowned Leipzig String Quartet presents a world premiere recording of the 5th String Quartet from Joachim Raff’s much under-appreciated chamber music. In addition, the four musicians present the quartet Op. 192, No. 2 with the epithet “Schöne Müllerin.” The Leipzig String Quartet’s joy in this life-affirming music is clearly audible! (MDG)

1CD# 3072255-2 $18.99

Chamber music expressing the most intimate – in Alfred Huber’s music the creative will of a subject pushes outwards, thoughts and feelings become music. Musicians include Eszter Haffner, Othmar Muller, Niek de Groot, Martin Kerschbaim, Cathering Klipfel, and the Morgenstern Trio. (Audite)

1CD# AUD97772 $19.99

String Instruments

20 for 2020 / Inbal Segev [2 CDs]

Cellist Inbal Segev’s inspirational commissioning project, 20 for 2020, originally released as four digital EPs, brings all 20 compositions together in a 2-album deluxe digipack, capped by the premiere of Inbal’s own work, Behold for Cello Quartet. The result is an utterly moving and immensely varied palette of strong and distinctive compositional voices. (Avie)

2CD# AV2561 $27.99

Ascenso / Santiago Cañón-Valencia

Santiago Cañón-Valencia has been praised as one of the most promising young cellists of his generation. Born in Bogota in 1995, his major musical mentors have been Henryk Zarzycki in Colombia, James Tennant in New Zealand, Andres Diaz in the United States and Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt at the Kronberg Academy in Germany. (Sono Luminus)

1CD# SLE-70028 $15.99

Campagnoli: 41 Caprices for Viola, Op. 22 [2 CDs]

The considerable fame that Bartolomeo Campagnoli (1751–1827) achieved during his own lifetime was largely due to his contribution to violin studies. The 41 Caprices he wrote for viola and the 7 Divertimenti for solo violin are still in use today. Campagnoli’s career as a concert performer began in Rome in 1775, continuing in a long tour of the courts of the capital cities of Europe. (Brilliant Classics)

2CD# BRI96551 $14.99

Bohemian String Trios / Deutsches Streichtrio

Cellist Scott Kluksdahl and harpsichordist Hedi Salanki present this new release featuring the music of Neapolitan master Giulio de Ruvo. Scott Kluksdahl serves as Professor of Cello at the University of South Florida, where he has been on the faculty since 1991. (Centaur)

1CD# CRC3954 $15.99

The Essential Hebrew Violin / Anne Battegay

Born in Zurich 1988, into a traditionally Jewish family, Anne grew up in Zurich, Washington D.C. and Basel. She started to play the violin at the age of six and was immediately drawn to the beautiful sound of this instrument. (ARS Produktion)

1SACD# ARS38348 $20.99

Duftschmid

Franz Schubert’s so-called “Arpeggione Sonata” owes its peculiar name to a long-forgotten string instrument that was usually referred to in Vienna in the 1820s as the “bowed guitar” or “guitar-violoncello”. Soloist Lorenz Duftschmid has recorded five Schubert songs in instrumental versions as well as three nocturnes by an almost forgotten Romantic from the Rhineland: Friedrich Burgmüller. (CPO)

1CD# 555446-2 $16.99

The Little Consort / Fretwork

This program is the perfect treat for listeners who enjoy discovering new works and expanding their musical horizons! Vaclav Pichl and Johann Baptist Vanhal penned their works in an early classical style, while Bohuslav Martinů and Roland Leistner-Meyer deployed the aesthetic means of expression of their own period to enrich the repertoire. (Tyxart)

1CD# TXA22168 $19.99

The Cello at the Montecassino Abbey [2 CDs]

The Benedictine abbey at Montecassino can date its foundation back to AD 529, though it gained a more tragic renown during World War II as the site of exceptionally heavy bombing. The abbey’s surviving library of manuscripts was mostly moved to Rome, but local archives mined for this release have turned up a treasure trove of pieces. (Brilliant Classics)

2CD# BRI96713 $14.99

Beneš: The Complete String Quartets

Josef Beneš (Joseph Benesch) was primarily referred to in period sources as a virtuoso violinist and distinguished teacher. Now, 150 years later, the Martinů Quartet, who have rediscovered a number of overlooked works of music, are evidently the first to perform his quartets, which definitely do not deserve to fall into oblivion. (Supraphon)

1CD# SU4320-2 $36.99

Fretwork returns for the second installment of their cycle of works by Matthew Locke. Locke was born 400 years ago in 1622, and is often ranked as one of England’s finest composers, with his works described by Fretwork as having a “quixotic, capricious restlessness that is constantly challenging the listener to follow his argument ... a thrilling musical ride”. (Signum)

1CD# SIGCD728 $17.99

Giulio de Ruvo: Five Sonatas for Violonvello & Basso continuo

Arpeggione / Lorenz

Organ Recordings

Franck: Complete Organ Works [4 CDs]

An outstanding edition for the 200th birthday César Franck’s complete organ works At the center of the perception of César Franck as an organ composer are the twelve largescale works, which are counted among the most radiant contributions to the organ literature. (CPO)

4CD# 555477-2 $39.99

Bach: Himmerod Abbey / Adriano Falcioni

In 1731, Johann Sebastian Bach was commissioned to write a cantata to mark the inauguration of the new town council in Leipzig. The resulting piece, Wir danken dir, Gott begins with a Sinfonia, based on a transcription for organ and orchestra of the prelude from Bach’s own Partita No. 3 in E major for solo violin BWV 1006. (Brilliant Classics) 1CD# BRI96615 $12.99

10 Famous Cathedral Organs

These are not only renowned organs with splendid sound, but here as recorded by renowned sound engineers with great experience and success with organ recordings. Featured organs include those from Westminster Cathedral, St. Paul’s Cathedral, York Minster, Winchester Cathedral, Guildford Cathedral, King’s College Chapel in Cambridge, and as a bonus, Royal Albert Hall. (Alto Music)

1CD# MOB414640 $10.99

Nordic Journey, Vol. 12 / James D. Hicks [2 CDs]

American organist James D. Hicks continues his quest to present fine Nordic organ music, including exciting music with other instruments, on the 1884 Nielsen / 2009 Kuhn pipe organ of Uranienborg Kirke in Oslo, Norway.

James D. Hicks is a concert organist living and working out of Califon, New Jersey. (Pro Organo)

2CD# PO7299 $24.99

ORGAN ALBUMS IN BRIEF

Lux: Organ Works, Vol. 1 / Jan Lehtola

The Organ Composer [2 CDs]

Liszt was a constant musical seeker and researcher, and many formal as well as harmonic innovations in the Romantic period can be traced back to him. The three main works of his organ compositions contributed significantly to a re-evaluation of organ music in the 19th century. (Audite)

2CD# AUD97793 $31.99

Reger: Organ Works, Vol. 8 [2 CDs]

Our successful Reger edition can finally continue, and critics continue to be more than enthusiastic about the previous installments, Musik & Theater even claiming, “These recordings are among the best currently available in organ music by Reger.” And now the penultimate volume No. 8. The focus is on Reger’s Op. 67. (CPO)

2SACD# 555342-2 $33.99

The Hazel Wright Organ – The First Recording

Few pipe organs in history have received as much attention as the iconic “Hazel.” David Ball’s performance takes full advantage of this “King of Instruments’” potential. “It is always an honor to sit in front of Hazel’s console and play,” said David Ball, Cathedral Organist and Head of Music Ministry. “I am continuously in awe of the sheer power and breadth of this amazing instrument.” (Gothic)

1CD# G-49337 $18.99

Bach: 50°55’12.4”N 13°20’36.7”E / Jorg Halubek [2 CDs]

The large-scale Bach Organ Landscapes project featuring J.S. Bach’s entire organ oeuvre recorded on a range of instruments aims to provide an overview of organ-playing and organ-building traditions that were key to Bach’s composing. This album features the legendary Silbermann organ in Freiberg near Dresden. (Berlin Classics)

2CD# 0302815BC $20.99

The organ music of Friedrich Lux (1820–95) brings together elements of the musical language of Bach, Mendelssohn and Schumann. (Toccata Classics)

1CD# TOCC 0663 $18.99

Emma Whitten performs on the re-envisioned and restored Hazel Wright Organ in Christ Cathedral’s fresh acoustical space. (Gothic)

1CD# G-49338 $18.99

Vierne: Organ Symphonies, Vols. 1 & 2 [2 CDs]

Daniel Roth, widely acclaimed as one of the leading French organ virtuosos, has held several prestigious positions as both performer and teacher. (Aeolus)

2SACD# AE11231 $29.99

Belgian Symphonic Organ / Peter Van de Velde

The Antwerp cathedral organist Peter Van de Velde gathers almost exclusively world premiere recordings on this new album. (Aeolus)

1CD# AE11351 $19.99

Hazel is Back! (Christ Cathedral) / Emma Whitten

New Piano

Marguerite Long Plays Chopin, Debussy, Milhaud & Ravel [2 CDs]

Undoubtedly the foremost French female pianist of the 20th century, Marguerite Long (1874–1966) prided herself on her personal friendships with some of the foremost composers of her day – Debussy, Fauré and Ravel. This addition to our continuing French Piano School series is the second of two APR volumes, containing her complete recordings of French repertoire, and of Chopin. (APR)

2CD# APR6039 $19.99

De Groot / Hommage – Piano Music [2 CDs]

The name of Cor de Groot (1914–1993) adorned the cover of many LPs of canonic concertos and sonatas throughout the 1950s, when his qualities were summed up in High Fidelity magazine in a review of the first two concertos of Beethoven: ‘De Groot is a solid and sympathetic interpreter in the Central European tradition... His playing impresses with its substance and authority....’ (Piano Classics)

2CD# PCL10259 $22.99

The Young Chopin / Eric Zuber; Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra

Hailed as an “irresistibly fluid” by The New York Times and “illuminating” by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, pianist Eric Zuber releases his debut album, The Young Chopin, with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra and conductor Wilbur Lin. The release celebrates the early piano repertoire of Frédéric Chopin. (Azica)

1CD# ACD-71355 $16.99

Mozart the Poet – Piano Sonatas / Michael Wessel

Despite their young age, Zala Kravos and her younger brother Val are outstanding pianists performing all over the world since many years. They regularly impress professionals and the audience by their talent and musical maturity. They are soloists but often play together the repertoire for piano duo and their fusional relationship is particularly striking. (ARS Produktion) 1CD# ARS38756 $20.99

Passion for Ukraine / Lena Belkina

The Ukrainian folk song is unquestionably a unique phenomenon. No nation in history has amassed such a wealth of songs as those created by the Ukrainian people. The program includes 15 songs: three romances by four composers and three folk songs. (Solo Musica)

1CD# SM418 $18.99

Piano Concertos / Yorck Kronenberg

These three piano concertos provide new insights: two discoveries from the classical era that alter our perspective on the seemingly familiar. Giovanni Battista Martini was a leading music theoretician of his time. His compositions caused a sensation, and his many pupils included Johann Christian Bach. Christoph Willibald Gluck, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. (Tudor)

1CD# TUDOR7211 $19.99

Piano Trios / Bellarti Trio

Michael Wessel is a professor for piano playing, song accompaniment and methodology at the University of Protestant Church Music in Bayreuth. The present release is the fourth volume in his project of recording Mozart’s complete piano sonatas. (ARS)

1SACD# ARS38332 $20.99

Franck: Piano Rarities – Original Works & Transcriptions

Few composers have enjoyed a late flowering to compare with that of César Franck. Many of the great works in this recording were composed during his final decades and still stand today as powerful representatives of French music in the post-Franco-Prussian War period. The influence of Wagner can be heard in the poetic evocations of Les Éolides. (Grand Piano)

1CD# GP906 $16.99

Shaken Not Stirred – Classic Meets Movie / Anna Scheps [2 CDs]

From the late Romanticism of the music from Pearl Harbor to the delicacy and refinement of “The Girl with the Pearl Earring”, Anna Scheps brings the full resources of the piano to bear on some of the most beautiful and rousing film scores of the last half century. She creates an album of ambitious bravura and poetry. (Naxos)

2CD# 8551468-69 $24.99

The Bellarti Trio was formed in 2004, when members met during their studies at the Royal Academy of Music and Trinity College of Music. Since then the trio has made regular performances and continuously broadened their repertoire. On this release they present a program of works by Anton Arensky and Dmitri Shostakovich. (Dux)

1CD# DUX1860 $19.99

Piano Duet / Zala & Val Kravos

Arensky Shostakovich:

Albums

Clementi: Piano Sonatas & Preludes / Ilia Kim

‘She is adventurous, as well as accomplished’ (Fanfare) – Ilia Kim’s second volume of Clementi for Piano Classics juxtaposes a quartet of musical ‘trifles’ with a trio of adventurous mid-period sonatas.

In Ilia Kim’s new recital, Clementi comes across in all his remarkable individuality. (Piano Classics)

1CD# PCL10254 $18.99

Moscheles:

Etudes, Op. 70 / Michele Bolla

As stringent a critic of his fellow composers as he was of himself, Mendelssohn wrote in unusually effusive terms about the Etudes Op. 70 when Moscheles sent them to him in 1829. The Op. 70 Etudes have attracted previous recordings, complete and in part, but they are presented here for the first time on instruments of the composer’s time – an 1844 Erard and a modern copy of an 1819 Graf model. (Piano Classics)

1CD# PCL10231 $18.99

Meyer: Concerto for Piano

The pieces featured on this album show two faces of Krzysztof Meyer’s music from the 1980s. The Piano Concerto was created in the spring of 1979 and performed soon afterwards, but apparently it did not satisfy the composer, since in the autumn of 1989 he once again approached the score and subjected it to thorough modifications. (Dux)

1CD# DUX1898 $19.99

Clarke, Busch: Complete Piano Music / Simon Callaghan

In his obituary of William Busch, the writer and broadcaster John Amis observed that ‘His music is distinguished by its sensibility and warmth with a strong sense of form and a fine texture, linear rather than harmonic’. Though some of Rebecca Clarke’s most successful pieces feature the piano, she only wrote a handful of solo piano pieces, all featured on this release. (Lyrita)

1CD# SRCD408 $18.99

Chasing Heisenberg / Clemens Christian Poetzsch

As a child in Dresden, Germany, the German pianist Clemens Christian Poetzsch received his first piano lessons from his opera singer grandfather and was soon immersed in Bach, Schubert, and Clementi. Now, Poetzsch releases “Chasing Heisenberg”, the third and final album of this trilogy, and a full embrace of the random sparks of beauty that inspire him. (Neue Meister)

1CD# 0302761NM $18.99

Schubert: Works for Solo Piano, Vol. 6 / Barry Douglas

This sixth volume in Barry Douglas’s acclaimed Schubert series features two major works. The Sonata in A minor, D 845 was completed in 1825, just before Schubert started work on his ‘great’ Symphony in C major. As in so much of his later writing, Schubert is pushing at the boundaries of sonata form, particularly in terms of the harmonic variation he introduces throughout the piece. (Chandos)

1CD# CHAN 20253 $18.99

Piano Trios / Feininger Trio

In its recording cycle, the Feininger Trio is pairing each of the three piano trios written by Brahms with a work by another Viennese composer: Alexander Zemlinsky, Ernst Krenek, and Erich Wolfgang Korngold, respectively. (CAvi Music)

1CD# AVI 8553513 $17.99

Realms of Gold – The Recorded Legacy of Pianist William Corbett-Jones [2 CDs]

Cambria is pleased to present Realms of Gold – The Recorded Legacy of American Concert Pianist William Corbett-Jones in honor of his 93rd birthday. Spanning nearly five decades, the recordings are taken from never-before released live concert performances. (Cambria)

2CD# CD1265 $16.99

Dvořák: Slavonic Dances / Adrienne Soos; Ivo Haag

To this day, the Slavonic Dances remain Dvořák‘s most popular work. They represent his own quintessential musical style, which competently plays with a masterly invented folklorism. (Prospero)

1CD# PROSP0047 $21.99

Arc II – Ravel, Brahms, Shostakovich / Orion Weiss

This album strives to understand the varying ways composers comprehend grief, loss and death. How did they cope, their hearts broken, their peace gone? (FHR)

1CD# FHR128 $15.99

Onslow: Piano Quintets Op. 70 & Op. 76

The Piano Quintet Op. 76, written in 1846, is an arrangement of George Onslow’s 4th Symphony. An interesting feature of this work is the nickname of the Finale, ‘Le Coup de Vent’. (Brilliant Classics)

1CD# BRI96720 $12.99

Sonate intessere / Charles Foreman

On his new release, pianist Charles Foreman presents a program of sonatas by Beethoven. Pianist Charles Foreman made his debut in 1972 with the Chicago Civic Orchestra. (Centaur)

1CD# CRC3959 $15.99

Opera Recital &

Donizetti: L’elisir d’amore [DVD or Blu-ray Video]

Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore is a melodrama giocoso in two acts and has remained one of the world’s most popular and often performed operas. This performance restores cuts and is heard in full, as Donizetti intended, played on original instruments of the time at the original pitch. This allows one to hear more fully how he turned a traditional opera buffa into a masterpiece of theatrical power. (Dynamic)

1Blu-ray# DYN-57944 $27.99

1DVD# DYN-37944 $27.99

Mozart: La Clemenza di Tito [2 CDs]

Flanked by a spectacular cast featuring the role debuts of Nicky Spence and Simona Šaturová, the conductor Ben Glassberg (Music Director of the Opéra de Rouen Normandie) once again demonstrates his Mozartian temperament. (Alpha)

2CD# ALPHA793 $25.19

Signor Gaetano / Javier Camarena

Star tenor Javier Camarena makes his Pentatone debut with Signor Gaetano, together with Gli Originali under the baton of Italian opera specialist Riccardo Frizza, presenting a carefully-curated exploration of Donizetti’s greatest tenor arias. (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5186886 $12.79

Cherubini: Les Abencerages [3 CDs]

Cherubini’s Les Abencérages, premiered in 1813, heralds the spectacle and extravagance of Romantic grand opera. From the Alhambra gardens to the battlefield, the action skillfully intertwines political conspiracies with a love story. Underpinned by the energy and timbres of period instruments, this recording demonstrates the work’s modernity and its musical qualities. (Bru Zane)

3CD# BZ1050 $41.99

Wolf-Ferrari: The Garment of Heaven [3 CDs]

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari is best known for his comic operas. With this reputation established, the appearance of Das Himmelskleid in 1927, with its ‘symbolical twilight world... that rises musically to religious greatness and a world of dreams’ was a surprise for critics of the day. (Naxos)

3CD# 8660518-20 $29.99

Mattheson: Boris Goudenow [2 CDs]

The story of how Johann Mattheson’s political comedy Boris Goudenow came into being reads in large parts more exciting than many a mystery script: written in 1710 for the Hamburg Opera at the Gänsemarkt, the work was suddenly withdrawn by the composer. The score fell into oblivion, eventually ended up in the Hamburg City Library, and rediscovered in 2005 after a delay of almost 300 years. (CPO)

2CD# 555502-2 $33.99

Donizetti: The Three Queens / Lyric Opera of Chicago [2 CDs]

Lyric Opera of Chicago presents The Three Queens, a program that brings together the finales of Gaetano Donizetti’s ‘Tudor’ trilogy, showcasing three of the most fascinating heroines of opera history. These extraordinary women are interpreted by soprano star Sondra Radvanovsky, who performs them together with an excellent ensemble of soloists. (Pentatone)

2CD# PTC5186970 $19.99

Der Schatzgräber (Reissue) [2 CDs]

Necessity being the mother of invention, the English conductor Ben Woodward has arranged the full-symphonic textures of some of Wagner’s operas for eighteen-part chamber orchestra to bring them within range of the forces available to Regents Opera in London –arrangements which should, indeed, put them with the reach of smaller companies everywhere. (Toccata Classics)

1CD# TOCC 0673 $18.99

Pasquini: L’Idalma [3 CDs]

Schreker is well known for his operas and wrote the libretto and composed his opera Der Schatzgräber after the great success of “Der ferne Klang ” (1912) and “Die Gezeichneten ” (1918). Der Schatzgräber questions the value of materialism versus love, and proved particularly powerful in post-War Europe. Musicweb-International : “This is one of those operas and recordings which has it all.” (Challenge)

2CD# CC 72927 $19.99

It’s already a tradition: at the opening of the Innsbruck Festival there’s a baroque opera rediscovery. This time it is L’ Idalma overo Chi dura la vince – “Idalma, or Whoever perseveres wins” by Bernardo Pasquini. Competing against Alessandro Scarlatti, Pasqini composed his “Idalma” in the Roman Carnival of 1680. It is about marital fidelity and steadfast love. (CPO)

3CD# 555501-2 $33.99

Wagner by Arrangement, Vol. 3: Operatic Highlights

Song Programs

Handel: Xerxes [3 CDs]

This 1962 production of Xerxes was based on Rudolf Steglich’s 1958 version, which is distinguished by close reference to the autograph, preserved in the British Museum, and by a new German translation. As regards the orchestra, Kubelik favors a rather objective string sound, completely avoiding the monumental. (Orfeo)

3CD# ORF-C230063 $34.99

Martinů: Short Operas / Staatsorchester Stuttgart

Martinů is a musical chameleon. On the one hand, there’s an unmistakable from to his output, on the other hand, he would adopt and adapt just about any style that happened to be en vogue or to his liking. These two one-act operas, presented on record for the first time in their respective versions, are a case in point. (Capriccio)

1CD# C5477 $16.99

Concert for Ukraine / Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

On March 14, 2022, the Met presented a benefit performance to support Ukrainian citizens under attack with Yannick NezetSeguin conducting the Met Orchestra and Chorus and star soloists in a performance that was broadcast live globally. This CD contains the entire 70-minute program with music by Valentin Silvestrov, Barber, Verdi, Strauss, and Beethoven. (Decca)

1CD# MOB532803 $18.99

Schütz: Dafne / La Capella Ducale

The first and presumably only performance of the opera Dafne took place in Torgau on April 13, 1627, as part of the festivities celebrating the marriage of the Saxon Duchess Sophie Eleonore. Although the libretto by Martin Opitz appeared in print, virtually nothing of the music has survived. At first glance, the reconstruction of an opera whose music has not survived appears to be a daring undertaking. (CPO)

1CD# 555494-2 $16.99

OPERA TITLES IN BRIEF

Verdi: Falstaff [2 CDs]

Pfitzner: The Little Elf of Christ [2 CDs]

Pfitzner was captivated by the cozy sphere of this typically German Christmas fable. The sound of Christmas bells and carols awakens in an elf the wish to draw close to humans. Although the old fir tree warns the elf of the heartlessness of the human race, he becomes acquainted with grief and illness and at last offers himself to be taken to heaven instead of Trautchen. (Orfeo)

2CD# ORF-C230082 $24.99

Der Ring Des Nibelungen [DVD or Blu-ray Video]

The tetralogy of four operas that form Der Ring des Nibelungen (‘The Ring of the Nibelung’) explores the conjunction of love and power in a mythic landscape. Staged by the award-winning director Stefan Herheim, this innovative new production from Deutsche Oper Berlin features a leading international cast conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles. (Naxos)

4Blu-ray# NBD0156VX $99.99

7DVD# 2107001 $99.99

Handel: Judas Maccabaeus [2 CDs]

When Handel composed his Judas Maccabaeus in 1746 he had brought to an end his activity for the (Italian) opera in London and begun a second career as an oratorio composer. This historical live recording from 1963 presents Fritz Wunderlich as Judas together with Agnes Giebel, Julia Falk, Naan Pöld and Ludwig Welter. (Orfeo) 2CD# ORF-C230072 $24.99

Monteverdi: L’Orfeo [DVD or Blu-ray Video]

Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo was premiered in 1607 and is the oldest opera still performed today. The opera’s dramatic power is brought to life in this acclaimed production conducted by the great Monteverdi expert and interpreter Jordi Savall. Filmed at the Opéra Comique in Paris, L’Orfeo features a virtuoso cast with the service of text and music always at its core. (Naxos)

1Blu-ray# NBD0152V $24.99

1DVD# 2110733 $24.99

Solti’s Falstaff still shines brilliantly as a masterpiece! Solti’s overwhelming interpretation is vividly revived here with the beauty of the Decca sound of the time. (Urania)

2CD# WS121.401 $29.99

Arias for Anna Renzi – The First Opera Diva

As the most celebrated singer in Venice during the 1640s, Anna Renzi created roles in operas by the great dramatists of the day including Ottavia in L’incoronazione di Poppea. (Brilliant Classics)

1CD# BRI96716 $12.99

2SACD# PTC5186956 $23.99

Tchaikovsky: Iolanta [2 CDs]

Russian soprano Olga Mykytenko and the astonishing tenor Piotr Beczala give riveting performances as Iolanta and the noble knight. Reissue of the critically acclaimed former release. (Pan Classics)

2CD# PC10439 $24.99

Sacred Music

Tudor Church Music / London Ambrosian Singers

To be exact, we should include in the Tudor Church music only the period prior to 1549 and consider Robert Fayrfax (1464–1521) and Hugh Aston (died 1522) as the first Tudor composers. They were succeeded by a great master – John Taverner; only a small number of works with English texts in his hand are extant. Then came Thomas Tallis, who composed works for the reformed Church. (Tudor)

1CD# TUDOR7210 $19.99

Hymns from Cambridge / Trinity College Choir

Collection of hymns performed by the Trinity College Choir under the direction of Richard Marlow. Songs include “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus,” “Ye Choirs of New Jerusalem,” “Love’s Redeeming Work is Done,” “The Church’s One Foundation,” “All People That on Earth Do Dwell,” “Immortal Love for ever Full,” and more. (Alto Music)

1CD# MOB414466 $10.99

Kyr: All-Night Vigil / Cappella Romana, Alexander Lingas

Cappella Records proudly announces the release of Robert Kyr’s All-Night Vigil, performed by Cappella Romana,

same 15 selections from the Orthodox vigil for the Resurrection. (Cappella Romana)

1SACD# CR426 $19.99

Dal Barba: Requiem & Other Sacred Music

Daniel Pio Dal Barba’s (1715–1801) music was highly appreciated for its spontaneous and popular character. He introduced a simple style into the church, far from learned academicism but above all aimed at the common people, pleasing, melodious and harmonious. (Brilliant Classics)

1CD# BRI96189 $12.99

De Sayve: Ad Vesperas / Musique en Wallonie

In the 17th century the city of Liège was described as a “priests’ paradise” on account of its imposing cathedral, its seven collegiate churches, about thirty parish churches, and its numerous abbeys and monasteries. This recording does more than justice to two manuscript which provides rare evidence of the polyphonic repertoire in use by the Liège religious orders. (MEW)

1CD# MEW2201 $18.99

Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom / Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir

The music of the Russian Orthodox Church was an essential part of Sergei Rachmaninov’s musical background. As a boy he was deeply moved by the sound of St. Petersburg’s cathedral choirs, and phrases reminiscent of liturgical chant permeate his music. His Vespers has long been admired as a summit of Russian liturgical music. (BIS)

1SACD# BIS-2571 $19.99

Rachmaninov: Vespers

Musica Sancomontana / Silesian CO; Camerata Silesia

The present album is another in a series featuring music by Józef Zeidler, one of the leading representatives of the Classicist period in Polish music. He is a composer who for many years was known solely to a narrow circle of musicologists. The works included in the present recording come from the musical collections in Gostyń, Gniezno and Poznań. (Dux)

1CD# DUX1869 $19.99

Haydn: The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross

After Haydn composed The Seven Last Words for chamber orchestra as a devotional accompaniment to the Good Friday liturgy at Cadiz Cathedral in 1786, several other arrangements were made during his lifetime, by himself and others, all of them familiar to us now: as an oratorio with soloists and chorus, and in string quartet and solo keyboard transcriptions. (Brilliant Classics)

1CD# BRI96659 $12.99

Couperin: Messe Propre / Oliver Latry

On the magnificent and historic Great Organ of the Royal Chapel of Versailles, celebrated organist of Notre-Dame de Paris, Olivier Latry, performs a sumptuous version of this Organ Mass which, in a world premiere, is interlaced with captivating Chants sur le Livre, those sublime holy improvisations unique to French baroque music. (CDV)

1CD# CVS082 $18.99

Considered one of the peaks of Orthodox religious music, Rachmaninoff ‘s Vespers were greeted with triumphant success from their premiere in March 1915, never denied since. Having largely drawn from the Russian musical heritage, they favor modal, archaic turns of phrase, popular-type harmonies. A grandiose piece of choral goldsmithery. (Harmonia Mundi)

1SACD# MOB945919 $19.99

directed by founder and music director Alexander Lingas. Robert Kyr’s All-Night Vigil takes its formal inspiration from Sergei Rachmaninoff, who in 1915 set the

Early Music

The Splendour of Florence / Gothic Voices

Following its Gramophone Editor’s Choice album Echoes of an Old Hall, Medieval expert Gothic Voices has recorded The Splendour of Florence, a collection of Franco-Flemish music that was found in or associated with Florence. Occupying pride of place, Dufay’s motet Nuper rosarum flores is widely thought to reflect the proportions of the newly completed dome of Florence cathedral. (Linn)

1CD# CKD700 $18.99

Machaut: Remede de Fortune / Blue Heron;

Les Délices

This live recording of a concert production of the Remede—a collaboration between two outstanding American ensembles, Blue Heron and Les Délices—includes all seven musical items from the Remede as well as a selection of other motets, songs, and dances, which take the place of the narration, express the emotions and thoughts of the Lover. (Blue Heron)

1CD# BHCD1012 $19.99

William Byrd: Pavans & Galliards [2 CDs]

Daniel-Ben Pienaar continues his campaign of performing early music on a modern piano with an abundant selection of Pavans & Galliards, Variations & Grounds by William Byrd. The 16th-century composer’s finest sets of dances and variations, featuring some of the Elizabethan era’s most popular tunes, set the standard for English keyboard music for generations to come. (Avie) 2CD# AV2574 $24.99

Giaches de Wert: Versi d’Amore / Voces Suaves

Following three critically acclaimed albums of sacred music, Voces Suaves turns to the most important secular genre of the Renaissance: the madrigal. Their new album for Arcana, Versi d’Amore, is dedicated entirely to the madrigals of Giaches de Wert (1535–1596): rarely performed nowadays, these expressive works are the true forebearers of the madrigals of Claudio Monteverdi. (Arcana)

1CD# A536 $18.99

EARLY MUSIC IN BRIEF

D’India: Lamenti & Sospiri [2 CDs]

“Sigismondo d’India has a “twin”, a “mirror” in music: Claudio Monteverdi. Both men developed, in parallel, a style that radically changed the history of music. A style inherited from composers such as Luca Marenzio and Carlo Gesualdo, but which d’India and Monteverdi were to transform through the creation of new techniques. (Ricercar)

2CD# RIC429 $18.99

Con Arte E Maestria / Oliver Webber; Steven Devine

The decades around 1600 bore witness to the flourishing of a remarkable musical tradition: the art of diminution, in which simple melodies were given exquisitely virtuosic embellishments, effectively creating new works. Monteverdi String Band members Oliver Webber and Steven Devine present newly ornamented versions of a selection of sixteenth – and early-seventeenth-century works. (Resonus)

1CD# RES10282 $16.99

Gabrieli: Gloria A Venezia! / La Guilde Des Mercenaires

Around 1600, when opera was invented in Italy, Venice was resplendent with the works of Giovanni Gabrieli in the Basilica of San Marco. Adrien Mabire and his Mercenaries have been recruited to serve under Maestro Gabrieli, to enable his works to resound loud and clear, where we hear the triumphant flapping banners of the Victory at Lepanto, Glory be to the Serenissima! (CDV)

1CD# CVS041 $18.99

Echoes of an Old Hall / Gothic Voices

Gothic Voices’ eagerly awaited new album features music from The Old Hall Manuscript : a wonderful collection of classy compositions from late 14th-to early 15th-century England. It embodies the English ‘flavor’ of music of the time, with its smooth melodies and sweet harmonies, irresistible to FrancoFlemish composers writing a generation or so later, and known by them as the ‘Contenance Angloise’. (Linn)

1CD# CKD644 $18.99

Music for the King of Scots / Binchois Consort

This project from The Binchois Consort and Andrew Kirkman offers a fascinating perspective on how such repertoire might originally have been heard. (Hyperion)

1CD# MOB283333 $19.99

Marais at Midnight / Catherine Liddell; Laura Jeppesen

French composer Marin Marais was one of the greatest French composers of the Baroque, and possibly the greatest of all Baroque composers in terms of his compositions for viola da gamba. (Centaur)

1CD# CRC3866 $15.99

Josquin: Motets & Mass Movements / Brabant Ensemble; Stephen Rice

This program of shorter works, from The Brabant Ensemble and Stephen Rice, most in unusual guise, celebrates Josquin’s 500th anniversary. (Hyperion)

1CD# MOB283210 $19.99

De Monte: Madrigals and Chansons / Ratas Del Viejo Mundo

The year 2021 marked the 500th anniversary of the birth of Philippe de Monte. This selection of madrigals, motets and chansons is a contribution to the restoration of his much-merited fame. (Ramee)

1CD# RAM2004 $18.99

The Baroque

Bach: Orchestral Suites (transcribed for piano duet)

World premiere recording of Eleonor Bindman’s new arrangements of Bach’s Orchestral Suites for piano four hands, performed here with duo partner Susan Sobolewski. This album follows Bindman’s critically acclaimed versions of the Brandenburg Concertos. (Grand Piano)

1CD# GP915 $16.99

Vitali: Artificii Musicali, Op. 13 / Andrea Coen

There are 40 canons included here from Giovanni Battista Vitali (1632–1692), and interspersed among them there are four that can be classified as riddle-canons or enigma-canons. These intriguing pieces are accompanied by a brief Latin motto containing the key for their realization, which is left to the reader to decipher. (Brilliant Classics)

1CD# BRI96686 $12.99

Werner: Requiem, Vol. 2 / Le Festa Musicale

Once again la festa musicale focuses on the music of Gregor Joseph Werner, Kapellmeister and immediate predecessor of Joseph Haydn at the Esterházy court. The second album in the recording series dedicated to Gregor Joseph Werner is characterized by darkly shimmering hues between suffering and redemption. (Audite)

1CD# AUD97808 $19.99

Biber:

Sonatae Violino Solo 1681 [2 CDs]

With his sonatas of 1681, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber succeeded in setting new standards and achieving a previously unattained synthesis of equally high virtuoso demands, artistic content and compositional technical level. Violinist Plamena Nikitassova uses a historical playing technique for her interpretation – a technique that is hardly cultivated any more even among baroque violinists. (CPO)

2CD# 555481-2 $33.99

Violin Sonatas from Opp. 3–5

The young violinist Conor Gricmanis and his early music ensemble Noxwode, have recorded rare and beautiful violin sonatas by the early Italian Baroque composer Marco Uccellini for FHR. His sonatas for violin and continuo contributed to the development of an idiomatic style of writing for the violin, expanding the instrument’s technical capabilities and expressive range. (First Hand)

1CD# FHR125 $15.99

Bach: The French Suites [2 CDs]

Bearing in mind the special pedagogical value of suites, Bach, already a kapellmeister in Köthen, in 1722, began to write Suites pour le Clavessin into his second wife’s private musical notebook, entitled ClavierBüchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach

These were five suites, marked with BWV numbers 812–816, now known as French Suites. (Dux)

2CD# DUX1759-60 $19.99

Bach: Orgelbüchlein, BWV 599–644 [2 CDs]

With it’s forty-five chorale preludes, the Orgelbüchlein bears witness to a mastery of the art of improvisation on the organ, as the congregation heard it at the time before singing the hymn in it’s turn. By collaborating with the combined forces of the Ensemble Vocal Bergamasque, Benjamin Alard gives the ‘little organ book’ it’s full significance and expressive power. (Harmonia Mundi)

2CD# MOB944813 $21.99

Vivaldi: Nulla pax in mundo / Pandolfis Consort

Works by Antonio Vivaldi by definition fall within the repertoire of an Ancient music ensemble such as Pandolfis Consort, which specializes in Renaissance and Baroque music. This release is an extremely varied program, in which the motets are interwoven with the Concerto for Cello (Michal Stahel) in D minor, RV 405 as well as the Concertos for Strings and b.c. RV 157 and RV 119. (Gramola)

1CD# GRAM99267 $22.99

Telemann: Fantasias for Solo Violin / Alina Ibragimova

Telemann may have written his twelve fantasias for the amateur market, but he would surely have rejoiced to hear such superlative performances as these. Alina Ibragimova again demonstrates just what can be accomplished on the four strings of a solo violin. (Hyperion)

1CD# MOB283845 $19.99

Forza Azzurri! Music by Dall’Abaco, Brescianello, Sammartini, Vivaldi, & Zavateri

Expert early-music ensemble La Serenissima perform works by Lorenzo Gaetano Zavateri, Giuseppe Sammartini, Evaristo Felice Dall’Abaco and Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello alongside works by Vivaldi on this new album of Italian Baroque masterpieces. (Signum)

1CD# SIGCD705 $17.99

Uccellini:

Handel: Ballo per Orchestra

Some three hundred compositions by Handel such as Overtures, dances and short instrumental interludes titled Ritornello, Sinfonia or Sarabande are hardly ever perceived as a separate category, despite appearing in his most important compositions. Such observations provided the basis for this concept album. (Tudor)

1CD# TUDOR7197 $19.99

Byrd: Psalmes, Songs & Sonnets (1611) [2 CDs]

The Psalmes, Songs and Sonnets of 1611 was William Byrd’s final publication. And what a superbly fitting culmination to a lifetime of musical service it is! As well as being packed with variety and invention –including both sacred and secular music and using a range of forces from small trios to consorts to full choir – it is probably the happiest, most serene collection of music Byrd ever produced. (Coro)

2CD# COR16193 $29.99

Tuma Te Deum / Czech Ensemble Baroque

Czech Ensemble Baroque’s first recording dedicated to František Ignác Antonín Tuma confirmed his firm position among Europe’s major late-Baroque composers. His music is characterized by immaculate refined counterpoint. Dating from three different phases of his life, the three pieces featured on the present album map Tuma’s artistic development. (Supraphon)

1CD# SU4315-2 $21.99

Bach: Concertos for Recorder, Vol. 2 / Erik Bosgraaf

With a catalogue of acclaimed albums for Brilliant Classics stretching well into double figures, the Dutch recorder virtuoso Erik Bosgraaf goes back to Bach for his latest release, with an album of arrangements as imaginatively conceived and as stylishly executed as Vol. 1 released in 2011, which won glowing reviews from the international music press. (Brilliant Classics)

1CD# BRI96394 $12.99

BAROQUE TITLES IN BRIEF

Baroque Bohemia & Beyond VIII

Pegolotti: Trattenimenti armonici de camera

This album is dedicated to Tomaso Pegolotti, a character who held the double role of notary public and musician in the land of the Estense dukedom between Modena and Reggio Emilia. In fact, his father Livio initiated him into both the study of music and law, and thanks to his commitment and his talent, Tomaso had a brilliant career in both professions. (Tactus)

1CD# TC661604 $16.99

Fiocco: Lamentations Hebdomadae Santae [2 CDs]

Among this collection is a complete set of nine Lamentations for Holy Week for the unusual instrumentation of solo voice, obbligato cello and basso continuo. Fiocco’s Lamentations are conceived in the most elevated Italian style of the early eighteenth century. They are masterful and can compete with the most beautiful such compositions, given their dramatic power and poignant emotion. (Ramee)

2CD# RAM2105 $27.99

Pachelbel: Magnificat Fugues

The threads that weave through this entire music program, and indeed that inspired it, are 15 fugues taken from the 95 such works covering the eight church modes written by Pachelbel as preludes to settings of the Marian Magnificat canticle sung at vespers at St. Sebaldus. (Analekta)

1CD# AN28911 $18.99

Bach: Partitas, BWV 825–830 [2 CDs]

Playwright Luise Gottsched, née Kulmus, in 1732 wrote a letter to her future husband, the writer Johann Christoph Gottsched: ‘The keyboard pieces sent over by Bach… are as difficult as they are beautiful’ . The name Sinfonia for the first movement in the Partita in C minor is redolent of opening cantata movements and the dotted rhythm of a French overture. (Brilliant Classics)

2CD# BRI96464 $14.99

Vibrant, energetic and wonderfully secure playing is supported by a sumptuous recording... yet there is no loss of detail in the fast music” – Gramophone (Alto Music)

1CD# MOB414435 $10.99

Telemann: Zwolk Fantasien / Anca Vasile Caraman

The Fantasias for solo violin composed by Georg Philipp Telemann were published in 1735, some fifteen years after the Sonatas and partitas for solo violin by Johann Sebastian Bach. (Stradivarius)

1CD# STR37199 $16.99

Rameau: Fetes Persanes

The East and its Thousand and One Nights (published in France in 1717) were a fantasy of French opera, and Rameau wrote on this theme for three decades. (CDV)

1CD# CVS079 $18.99

Sancta Ovetensis / Forma Antiqva

Thomas Sella’s work occupies a special position. His story is told as neo-Latin poetry meets Bible verses, combined in a highly intellectual way with subtexts and set to moving music. (Winter & Winter)

1CD# 910283-2 $18.99

The Classical

Mozart, Salieri: Requiem / Herve Niquiet

Two illustrious composers at odds with their Requiem? In 1791, a 36-year-old Mozart composed the one that would remain unfinished due to his death. At the time, Salieri was at the height of his glory at the age of 41, famed for his operas from Paris to Vienna. In 1804 he composed his Requiem, which was strictly intended for his own funeral, where it was indeed played – in 1825. (CDV)

1CD# CVS078 $18.99

Haydn: Piano Works, Vols. 1 & 2 [2 CDs]

Acclaimed British pianist Peter Donohoe returns to Signum Records with Vols. 1 and 2 of a new series of Haydn piano works – including the Variations on Gotterhalte den Kaiser, Hob. i, 430. “I cannot imagine a living pianist capable of improving upon Donohoe’s outstanding artistry.”

Musical Opinion (Signum)

Wilms: The Piano Concertos, Vol. 2

2CD# SIGCD726 $25.99

Born in the vicinity of Cologne, only two years after and some sixty km distant from Beethoven, Johann Wilhelm Wilms was once a musical force to be reckoned with. In Amsterdam, where he lived from the age of 19, his music was actually performed more frequently than Beethoven’s at one period, and his orchestral works were played in such musical centers as Leipzig. (BIS)

1SACD# BIS-2524 $19.99

Boccherini: The Six Symphonies, Op. 35 [2 CDs]

Emilio Moreno’s passion, knowledge and thirst for the music of Luigi Boccherini yields a further revelation with the Six Symphonies, Op. 35, premiered in 1782, performed here by the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century. The wide-ranging repertoire this orchestra performs includes works by Purcell, Bach, Rameau, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Chopin. (Glossa)

2CD# GCD921131 $19.99

Beethoven: Diabelli Variations, Op. 120

Diabelli was overwhelmed by the work submitted by Beethoven which overshadowed anything else sent by others. He pronounced it ‘a work to set alongside J.S. Bach’s masterpiece (Goldberg Variations) and he must have been exceptionally gratified that his otherwise ordinary waltz tune would survive in perpetuity as a result of Beethoven’s efforts. (Alto Music)

1CD# MOB413100 $10.99

Wranitzky: Symphonies, Opp. 37, 50 & 51

Individual Symphonies by Paul Wranitzky II According to current research, Paul Wranitzky composed at least 47 symphonies for which sources have been preserved. The symphonies opp. 50 and 51 belong to Wranitzky’s last series of symphonies. (CPO) 1CD# 777943-2 $16.99

Beethoven: Overtures / Roger Norrington

Haydn: Symphonies

Nos. 6, 7, & 8

Recorded in St. John’s Church West Norwood, London in March 2022, Florilegium release their 31st Channel Classics album: Haydn Symphonies Nos. 6, 7 and 8. This recording involves 18 members of Florilegium, the exact same number Haydn had at his disposal when he composed these symphonies shortly after arriving at Esterhazy in 1761. (Channel)

1CD# CCS44722 $18.99

Bach, Haydn / Sophie Dervaux

With her new album, Sophie Dervaux brings to the fore two composers who have received less attention so far – despite their great surnames Bach and Haydn.The bassoonist has chosen for her third recording on Berlin Classics, works by Bach’s youngest son – Johann Christian Bach (1735–1782) – and Johann Michael Haydn (1737–1806), Joseph Haydn’s younger brother. (Berlin Classics)

1CD# 0302347BC $18.99

Mozart: Symphonies II / Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen

The series of Mozart symphonies was recorded by Johannes Klumpp with “his” Folkwang Chamber Orchestra Essen at Genuin. The ensemble thus draws connections between works that lie 25 years apart. Its joy of playing and virtuosity brilliantly illuminate Mozart’s innovative power and artistic mastery! (Genuin)

1CD# GEN 22783 $18.99

This recording presents Ludwig van Beethoven’s most important overtures composed for his stage works, which were few and far between yet cover a wide variety of styles: the three overtures for his only opera Leonore which was later known as Fidelio followed by the introductory music to the ballet The Creatures of Prometheus. (SWR Classic)

1CD# SWR19121CD $18.99

Mozart: The Prussian Quartets / Chiaroscuro Quartet

After their exciting interpretations of Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert, the Chiaroscuro Quartet now turns to Mozart’s Prussian Quartets, his last compositions for this formation. These quartets were written for Friedrich Wilhelm II, King of Prussia and amateur cellist, and offer that instrument an unusually prominent role. The first of the three was composed fairly quickly. (BIS)

1SACD# BIS-2558 $19.99

Paganini: 24 Caprices / Laura Andriani

In this recording, the use of specific gut strings, of historical bows and the reconstruction of Paganini’s posture, bring to life an aesthetic that does not stop at pure instrumental virtuosity and explores musical language in its theatricality. (Passacaille)

1CD# PAS1134 $19.99

Haydn: Pro Festo Innocentium

The final nine pieces in Vitali’s Artificii are an eclectic collection of balletti, capricci, a passagallo, and 2 violin sonatas, representative of the main forms of instrumental music at the end of the 17th century. Although Artificii was originally written for violin and bass, Andrea Coen performs here on a harpsichord, and furthermore a harpsichord in equal temperament. (Brilliant Classics)

1CD# BRI96688 $12.99

Sammartini: Six Viennese Sonatas for violin and b.c.

Giovanni Battista Sammartini attained a leading role in Milan’s music scene in the 18th century, his career extending from the height of the Baroque era to the Classical worlds of Mozart and Haydn by his death in 1775. Appearing here in world premiere recordings, these works appear to belong to Sammartini’s early period. (Dynamic)

1CD# DYN-CDS7959 $16.99

CLASSICAL ERA IN BRIEF

Mozart Requiem in D Minor, K. 626 / Kuijken String Quartet

Transcriptions for string quartet by the composer or someone else was common practice in Mozart’s time. In that light this string-version of Mozart’s Requiem is nothing special. What makes it special, is that Mozart left the majority of the work incomplete, and that on request of Mozart’s widow, his pupil Süssmayer did the finishing job. Where one’s work ends and the other’s starts, no one knows. (Challenge)

1CD# CC 72854 $16.99

C.P.E. Bach: Light & Darkness / Accademia Ottoboni

Manuel Granatiero presents his first solo album, following several successful recordings with Amandine Beyer’s Gli Incogniti and Accademia Ottoboni, of which he is a founding member. Here, Manuel is joined by Yu Yashima and Marco Ceccato, as he turns his attention to the flute music of C.P.E. Bach. (Arcana)

1CD# A537 $18.99

Haydn: Kaiser Constatin I. Feldzug und Sieg [2 CDs]

The Purcell Choir was founded in 1990 in Budapest by György Vashegyi for the performance of Purcell’s Baroque opera Dido & Aeneas. Few suspected at the time that the group was to become the most respected choir in Hungary thirty years later. All the choir members are excellent professional singers, musicians and instrumentalists, and some of them are also members of other choirs and orchestras. (Accent) 2CD# ACC 26504 $22.99

Kleinknecht: Trio Sonatas

Jakob Friedrich Kleinknecht (1722–1794) composed a large catalog of chamber music and symphonies that put his skill at the same level as his more famous contemporaries. Ensemble La Cantonnade presents this new release of Trio Sonatas for two flutes and basso continuo. Each of these works is receiving here its world premiere recording. (Tyxart) 1CD# TXA19126 $19.99

Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 8 [2 CDs]

The least famous of Beethoven’s symphonies? Yet these two works are genuine tours de force: the composer takes the listener on a journey brimming over with structural innovations. (Harmonia Mundi)

2CD# MOB944776 $21.99

Haydn: Opus 54 / Quatuor Psophos

Composed in 1788 and considered works of Haydn’s full maturity as a composer, the quartets of Opus 54 immerse us in the bountiful universe of “the Father of the String Quartet”. (EnPhases)

1CD# ENP009 $18.99

Mendelssohn Bartholdy: The Complete String Symphonies [3 CDs]

This CD box set from BR-Klassik combines Mendelssohn’s twelve string symphonies, his “Symphoniesatz“ in C minor (No. 13) and his early violin concerto in D minor. (BR Klassik)

3CD# BRK900337 $29.99

Schubert: Song Cycles / Christoph Pregardien [3 CDs]

Christoph Pregardien has taken an innovative approach in the history of interpretation, a way of singing that is linked to his consolidated experience as a Baroque tenor. (Challenge)

3CD# CC 72665 $24.99

The Romantic

Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 3 / Sinfonia of London

Rachmaninoff’s tone poem “The Isle of the Dead” was composed in 1908–09, inspired by the 1880 painting of that name by the Swiss symbolist Arnold Böcklin. The painting depicts a ferryman rowing a coffin towards the Isle of the Dead, and Rachmaninoff, unusually setting the piece in five beats to the bar, captures the atmosphere and the motion of oars in the water in the most extraordinary detail. (Chandos)

1SACD# CHSA 5297 $19.99

Mahler: Symphony No. 9 / Simon Rattle

For the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the performances in November 2021 in the Isarphilharmonie marked the beginning of a new chapter in its Mahler interpretation: with its designated new principal conductor Simon Rattle, the orchestra is now headed by a Mahler admirer every bit as ardent as his predecessors Jansons, Maazel and Kubelík. (BR Klassik)

1CD# BRK900205 $17.99

Rauchenecker: Symphony No. 1, Orientalische Phantasie

Although almost completely forgotten today, Georg Wilhelm Rauchenecker was an exceptionally versatile musician of European stature: as founder and conductor of the first professional orchestra of the city of Winterthur (1875), composer, ardent Wagnerian, city organist, music dealer and pedagogue, he left weighty and far-reaching traces in Germany, Switzerland and France. (CPO)

1CD# 555416-2 $16.99

Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings / United Strings of Europe

After two stylistically diverse anthologies – In Motion and Renewal –the United Strings of Europe and their director Julian Azkoul have chosen to devote their latest project to a single composer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. They open with the composer’s Serenade, a tribute to Mozart’s divertimentos. (BIS)

1SACD# BIS-2569 $19.99

Taste the Best / Malevich Ensemble

The Cologne University of Music and Dance, WDR, and ARS Produktion have joined forces to bring us this high-quality album featuring some stars of tomorrow – the Malevich Ensemble. The group has been making performance rounds at Universities, Conservatories, and Festivals across Europe, always to great acclaim. (ARS Produktion)

1CD# ARS38351 $20.99

Hensel: Klaviermusik (1821–46) / Sontraud Speidel

Sontraud Speidel studied with Irene Slavin and Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen in Karlsruhe, with Branka Musulin in Frankfurt, with Stefan Askenase in Brussels and Géza Anda in Lucerne. She has been honored several times in national and international competitions. (ARS Produktion)

1CD# ARS38615 $19.99

The premiere of Nabucco at La Scala, Milan in 1842 was a huge success for Verdi and soon led to foreign performances of the work. For its appearance in Brussels under the name Nebuchodono zor Verdi fashioned an orchestral Divertissement which was inserted into Act III; the composer’s score of this, performed here, has only very recently been rediscovered. (Dynamic)

1CD# DYN-CDS7941 $16.99

Schubert: Piano Sonatas D. 537, 568 & 664

Paul Lewis completes his exploration of Schubert’s sonatas, begun almost twenty years ago, with three early masterpieces. The Sonatas D. 537 and D. 568 display the daring and freshness of their youthful creator, while with D. 664, dazzling in it’s artless charm. (Harmonia Mundi)

1CD# MOB944738 $19.99

Mozart: Double Concertos / Capella Savaria

Capella Savaria has earned its fame as the first period- instrument chamber orchestra of Hungary. The ensemble’s objectives were, from the onset, to play baroque and classical music in an authentic way. Established in 1981, in Szombathely, they most often perform music from the 17th and 18th centuries, and have performed around Europe, as well as making a number of recordings. (Hungaroton)

1CD# HCD32866 $24.99

Schubert: 2020–2028 (The Strings Project 2)

Looking ahead to 2028 and the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death, the Alinde Quartet will annually release an album of Schubert string quartets for the next eight years, alongside a specially commissioned work. This Alinde Quartett has been warmly received at Europe’s most heralded festivals and halls. (Hanssler Classic)

1CD# HC22011 $18.99

Vive Verdi! French Rarities & Discoveries / Roberto Abbado

Works for Piano Duet / Anna & Ines Walachowski

The 4th album by the Piano Duo Walachowski is dedicated to works by the young Richard Strauss and the famous Schubert Fantasy in F minor. The world premiere recording to be heard is the Strauss arrangement of Lachner’s Nonet, which Strauss made when he was young. Anna & Ines Walachowski are one of the leading piano duos of our time. (Oehms Classics)

1CD# OC 486 $14.99

Schubert: The Complete Symphonies, Vol. 4

Fourth and final volume in Jan Willem de Vriend’s survey of Schubert’s symphonies. It includes Symphonies 5 & 6. As a fill-up you will find the Overture in D in the Italian style, a ‘Rossinian’ piece. de Vriend’s complete edition of Schubert’s symphonies has so far received a widespread acclaim from international press. (Challenge)

1SACD# CC 72803 $18.99

Mayer: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 7

Emilie Mayer was one of the very few successful female composers of her time. The Mecklenburg-born composer was also referred to as the ‘female Beethoven’. On our second symphony album, Emilie Mayer opens up a new facet of her compositional spectrum by exhibiting classicistic tendencies: clear and transparent outlines, and regular periods in the formation of themes. (CPO)

1CD# 555511-2 $16.99

Bruckner: Symphony #4 (1876 Version)

Continuing their survey of all of Anton Bruckner’s symphonies in each and every one of their various versions, Markus Poschner and his team now tackle the original 1876 version of Bruckner’s arguably most popular symphony, the Fourth. (Capriccio) 1CD# C8084 $16.99

ROMANTIC ERA IN BRIEF

Schubert: The

Chopin: 1st Piano Concerto, Op. 11 in E Minor / Margarita

Höhenrieder

For years, Margarita Höhenrieder was searching for the authentic sound of Frédéric Chopin’s piano works. The choice for the recording therefore fell on a Pleyel fortepiano, built around 1855 in Paris and expertly restored using historical materials and methods. It is absolutely identical in construction to the instrument Chopin owned. (Solo Musica) 1CD# SM400 $18.99

An Unexpected Mozart / Ensemble Les Suprises [2 CDs]

Always curious about unjustly neglected repertoire, Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas introduces us here to a Mozart we have not met. Above and beyond his church sonatas, works written on commission, pieces meant to showcase a vocalist or an instrument or as a mark of friendship, this is a veritable treasure chest of musical gems. (Harmonia Mundi)

2CD# MOB944837 $21.99

Loewe: Two Symphonies

Of Carl Loewe’s oeuvre, his comprehensive Lied edition is best known. In contrast, his two symphonies are rarities that we do not want to withhold from you. The album is completed with Loewe’s Themisto Overture, a compressed drama whose atmosphere comes to a head with tremolo surfaces, falling lines and syncopated counter-motives. (CPO)

1CD# 555319-2 $16.99

Raff: Piano Four-Hands Sonatas

Raff was not only a skilled composer, but a skilled arranger as well. In addition to his original works, he wrote a further eight works for piano four-hands which were either early pieces based on the melodies of other composers or more straightforward arrangements and transcriptions of the works of others, made at the request of publishers. (Sterling)

1CD# CDA1850 $18.99

/ Mathieu Gaudet

Schubert: The Wanderer by pianist Mathieu Gaudet is the seventh volume in his wonderful collection The Complete Sonatas and Major Works for Piano of Franz Schubert. (Analekta)

1CD# AN29187 $18.99

Wagner: Parsifal Suite / London PO; Andrew Gourlay

Andrew Gourlay conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in his new Parsifal Suite, a finely-wrought concert piece consisting of instrumental music from Wagner’s Parsifal. (Orchid Classics)

1CD# ORC100207 $16.99

Saint-Saëns: Dances & Ballet Music

This album presents a selection of Saint-Saëns’ incidental music and music from his operas. (Naxos)

1CD# 8574463 $13.99

Schumann: The Three Violin Sonatas

Andrew Wan and Charles Richard-Hamelin continue their fruitful collaboration by performing the complete sonatas for violin and piano by Robert Schumann (1810–1856). (Analekta)

1CD# AN29003 $18.99

Wanderer

Post-Romantic

Poulenc: Les Animaux modèles / Bramwell Tovey

When we recorded this album, in March 2022, no one could have imagined that it would be Bramwell Tovey’s last recording. Chandos Records would like to dedicate this recording to the memory of Bramwell Tovey, with whom the company had collaborated for over a decade; a versatile musician highly accomplished as both a composer and a conductor. (Chandos)

1SACD# CHSA 5260 $19.99

Works by Debussy, Shostakovich, & Fauré / York-Biran Duo

These are three of the greatest works for cello and piano, beautifully performed by Paul York, cello, and Dror Biran, piano. Recently hailed by The New York Times for his “warm-toned” performance of Lutosławski’s Grave (Metamorphoses), cellist Paul York is an accomplished soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. (Centaur)

1CD# CRC3966 $15.99

Shostakovich: 24 Preludes & Fugues, Op. 87 [2 CDs]

After Bach’s Goldberg Variations, which won him worldwide honors (including a Diapason d’Or), Hannes Minnaar challenges and confronts what has become a ‘classic’ of the 20th century repertoire: Shostakovich’s Preludes and Fugues, composed in 1951. (Challenge)

2CD# CC 72907 $24.99

Ravel: Valley of the Bells / Philharmonia Orchestra

Ravel’s status as one of the most popular composers of all time rests to a large extent on the phenomenal success of Bolero. Yet there is much more to this endlessly intriguing man’s work: childhood fantasy, Spain, the Orient, American jazz, the theater, clockwork toys and all the things mechanical, preoccupied Maurice Ravel throughout his life, and echoes of each can be found in all corners of his music. (Signum)

1CD# SIGCD2159 $17.99

Debussy: Early & Late Piano Pieces / Steven Osborne

A program which bridges Debussy’s first work for piano (the ‘Danse bohémienne’, from 1880) and his last (‘Les soirs illuminés par l’ardeur du charbon’, from 1917). Steven Osborne is equally responsive to the very different musical moods of both. (Hyperion)

1CD# MOB283906 $19.99

Stravinsky: Symphonies Divertimento

The Symphony in C was conceived in Paris in the late 1930s, but completed in America in 1940. Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and premièred in 1946, the Symphony in Three Movements presents us with movements that also manifest different ways of moving: a march, a slow dance, and a march-jog-race. (Chandos)

1SACD# CHSA 5315 $19.99

Szymanowski: Transcriptions for Flute & Piano

The cycle of Nine Preludes, Op. 1 gained recognition already two years before its official release. In each of the miniatures, a smooth synthesis of Romantic influences and harmonic and textural procedures typical of many of the composer’s works occurs. These works are beautifully performed by flutist Agata Igras and pianist Mariusz Rukowski. (Dux)

Langgaard: Symphony No.

1CD# DUX1468 $19.99

1 “Klippepastorale”

Despite being eccentric and at odds with his fellow human beings for most of his life, Danish composer Rued Langgaard was convinced that his time would come – and so it did. In Langgaard’s Symphony No. 1, we find its teenage composer celebrating his love of beauty and harmony in the most hedonistic terms. With this recording the symphony sees it return home, performed by the Berliner Philharmoniker. (Dacapo)

1SACD# 6220644 $15.99

Ravel: La Valse / Saxon Wind Philharmonic

Maurice Ravel took a compositional interest not only in the Spanish bolero, but also in the Viennese waltz. In March 1920, he completed the score of the work consistently entitled La Valse, about which he later remarked in an interview: “It is a dancing, spinning, almost hallucinating ecstasy...” (Hanssler)

1CD# HC22068 $18.99

Ibert: Orchestral Works / Helen Dabringhaus

Jacques Ibert is at the center of the third production Peter Gülke has recorded with his Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra for MDG. Gülke presents the special, very individual qualities of this music between impressionism and neo-classicism, between virtuosity and sound painting on this Super Audio album. (MDG)

1SACD# 9012185-6 $18.99

Walton, Shostakovich: String Quartets / Albion Quartet

Following their successful Dvořák cycle with Signum Records, Albion String Quartet are back with a selection of string quartets by Walton and Shostakovich. The concept: to juxtapose two masterpieces written in the same year in the immediate aftermath of war (1946) by composers inhabiting two entirely different social and political worlds in the Soviet Union and Britain respectively. (Signum)

1CD# SIGCD727 $17.99

Prokofiev: Cinderella, Romeo & Juliet Ballet Suites

Of the major works of Sergei Prokofiev, none (apart perhaps from Peter and the Wolf) have become so well loved by a wide audience as the ballets Cinderella and Romeo and Juliet. From the stage productions, to the orchestral suites, to the piano versions, many of these pieces are universally recognized. (Divine Art)

1CD# DDA25232 $18.99

Stravinsky: Poem for Violin

“Whoever has had the privilege of hearing a concert conducted by Evgeny Svetlanov at least once in his life has had the absolute musical Dionysian experience, that of the hurricane, of the breathtaking overflow, the quasi-mystical experience of a ritual trance in which the music becomes the sacred, the keystone of the entire universe!” – Répertoire (Warner)

1CD# MOB145421 $11.99

Gablenz, Paderewski: Romantic Piano Concerto, Vol. 83 / Jonathan Plowright

Ignacy Jan Paderewski is a familiar name, but the same can hardly be said of Jerzy Gablenz. On Vol. 83 of Hyperion’s Romantic Piano Concerto series, Jonathan Plowright makes the strongest case possible for Gablenz’s piano concerto: a substantial work rich in melodic invention and thunderous pianism. (Hyperion)

1CD# MOB283234 $19.99

Hartmann: Scandinavian Folk Music, Op. 30 [2 CDs]

On this release, Danacord presents the first recording of the complete Danish Late Romantic Piano Music by Emil Hartmann. Danish pianist Cathrine Penderup herself made a detective work locating all the solo piano works plus several unpublished manuscripts by the Danish late romantic composer Emil Hartmann. (Danacord)

2CD# DACOCD936-937 $33.99

Sibelius: The Tempest / Royal Danish Opera Chorus

Symphonic in scale and ambition, the incidental music to Shakespeare’s play The Tempest was among the last orchestral works Sibelius composed before entering the mysterious ‘silence of Järvenpää’ that lasted until his death. The wide expressive demands of the play saw Sibelius calling on large musical forces. (Naxos)

1CD# 8574419 $13.99

Ravel: Five O’Clock Foxtrot / Philharmonia Orchestra

Ravel grew up in Paris during la belle epoque, the thirty-odd years prior to 1914. He was an immensely gifted youth, and one by one his early compositions began to show a real mastery of conception and execution-before the 1800s were out, he had produced such assured works as Habenera, Menuet antique, several fine songs, and Pavane pour une infante defunte. (Signum)

1CD# SIGCD2160 $17.99

Dvořák & Martinů: Cello Concertos / Victor Julien-LaFerriere

After a first recital album devoted to Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich and Denisov in the company of the pianist Jonas Vitaud, Victor Julien-Laferrière now presents two cello concertos by Antonín Dvořák (op.104) and Bohuslav Martinů (no.1, H196), accompanied by the Liège Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Gergely Madaras. (Alpha)

1CD# ALPHA731 $17.09

POST-ROMANTIC ERA IN BRIEF

Jana Boušková’s new album, symbolically titled My Country, pays tribute to the most celebrated Czech composers. (Supraphon)

1CD# SU4292-2 $21.99

Hallén: Missa Solemnis

Missa

(1920–21)

1CD# SCD1178 $18.99

1CD# CRC3842 $15.99

Novák: Pan – A Tone Poem for Piano, Op. 43 / Tobias Borsboom

For his debut on Piano Classics, the Dutch pianist Tobias Borsboom presents the five-movement, hour-long tone-poem which Vítezslav Novák (1870–1949) composed in 1910. (Piano Classics)

1CD# PCL10219 $18.99

Má vlast / Jana Boušková, harp

Solemnis

is a monumental, hour-long work for choir, a quartet of vocal soloists, organ, piano, and celesta. (Swedish Society)

The Early Songs of Alban Berg / Steven Kimbrough; Margaret Jackson

Alban Berg left behind a wonderful group of songs. These early songs were unpublished during Berg’s lifetime, but deserve a serious listening. (Centaur)

Pictures of Light – Music of William Baines

1CD# DDA25234 $18.99

African American Voices / Kellen Gray; Royal Scottish NO

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra teams up with its Assistant Conductor Kellen Gray to record works by three of the twentieth century’s greatest African American voices. The two symphonies by William Levi Dawson and William Grant Still proved to be fundamental in the utilization of Afro-American idioms within the symphonic form. (Linn)

1CD# CKD699 $18.99

Hans Gál: Piano Quartet in A major

The program of this album offers a varied selection of chamber music with piano written by Hans Gál between 1922 and 1940. Among these, the main work on the album is undoubtedly the Piano Quartet written for the one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein. (CPO)

1CD# 555276-2 $16.99

Price: Symphony No. 3; Mississippi River Suite

“This first important black female composer has become celebrated recently as we discover her works. This includes her best Symphony and major Suite” (Alto) History bears down on the opening of the Third Symphony. It’s easy to forget that Florence Price was a contemporary of George Gershwin. In fact, (he) attended the premiere of Price’s Symphony No. 1. (Alto Music) 1CD# MOB414619 $10.99

Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony, Serenade to Music [2 CDs]

Vaughan Williams, who also conducted the highly successful premiere at the Leeds Festival in 1910 arranged by Stanford, worked on the Sea Symphony for almost seven years. Originally conceived as a symphonic poem –temporarily titled The Ocean – it marks the turning point in his output from smaller-scale works to large-scale and large-scale choral and orchestral compositions. (Solo Musica)

2CD# SM415 $18.99

Flury: Der schlimm-heilige Vitalis [2 CDs]

Der schlimm-heilige Vitalis (which can be translated roughly as ‘Lustful Brother Vitalisʼ) was the last of the four operas by the Swiss composer Richard Flury (1896–1967). It was premiered in 1963, the year after its completion and then remained unheard until this recording. (Toccata Classics)

2CD# TOCC0632 $24.99

Thomas Jensen Legacy, Vol. 14 (1942–1962)

[2 CDs]

This new release, the 14th volume in the esteemed Thomas Jensen series, includes previously unpublished broadcasts of 20th-century music, not only by figures closely associated with Thomas Jensen such as Carl Nielsen and Niels Viggo Bentzon, but also Ole Schmidt and Gunnar Berg, who wrote outside the Danish mainstream. (Danacord)

2CD# DACOCD924 $16.99

Castiglioni: Complete Piano Works, Vol. 1 / Aldo Orvieto

Niccolò Castiglioni was one of the most singular figures on the Italian music scene of the latter half of the 20th century. Including world première recordings, Vol. 1of this complete edition reveals the exceptional quality of Castiglioni’s early piano works, the cantabile solemnity found in his exploration of twelve-tone techniques, and the quest for simplicity in later pieces. (Grand Piano)

1CD# GP862 $16.99

Thomas de Hartmann: Orchestral Works, Vol. 2

The music of the Ukrainian-born Thomas de Hartmann (1885–1956) has been obscured by his association with the Russian mystic Georgi Gurdjieff. The two works receiving their first recordings here reveal a major late-Romantic voice, downstream from Tchaikovsky, a student of Taneyev, contemporary of Rachmaninov, and alert to the discoveries of Stravinsky and Prokofiev. (Toccata Classics)

1CD# TOCC 0676 $18.99

Frandsen: The Danish Star Conductor [2 CDs]

2CD# DACOCD940 $16.99

John Frandsen was one of the outstanding Danish conductors of his time. This newly remastered compilation brings together 1950s recordings made for Columbia, Odeon and Philips, including Danish classics such as Gade’s Echoes of Ossian and an inspired account of Brahms’s Fourth Symphony. (Danacord)

William Baines is one of those exceptionally gifted composers whose music still remains little known to the general music-loving public. This album includes a number of impressionist piano solos and also the first recording (and first performance) of the Five Songs, presented by veteran tenor Gordon Pullin, who has long been associated with the music of Baines. (Divine Art)

20th Century

Castelnuovo-Tedesco / Greeting Cards [2 CDs]

On this new album, Cristiano Porqueddu plays the 21 Greeting Cards composed for the guitar. They are small, unexpected homages that Castelnuovo-Tedesco liked to give his friends, to musicians who played his works, to his pupils and occasionally also to people who were not musicians. (Brilliant Classics)

2CD# BRI96051 $14.99

Pade: The Orchestral Album

This album is nothing short of a sensation: it shows Else Marie Pade (1924–2016) in a hitherto unknown role as an orchestral composer. With this album, it will be equally legitimate to label her as an ‘acoustic’ composer as it has been to call her an ‘electronic’ composer in the past. (Dacapo) 1CD# 8226719 $15.99

Jacob-Moody-Kinsey: A Breath Between the Strings

The three British composers in this program all found very different ways to integrate the harmonica with that most aristocratic of ensembles, the string quartet. Gordon Jacob’s Divertimento is a delicious musical tableau, full of his characteristic melodic ease and playfulness. (Dynamic) 1CD# DYN-CDS7965 $16.99

Vaughan Williams: Serenade

We celebrate the 150th birthday of Ralph Vaughan Williams, on Wednesday 12 October 2022, with this unique compilation album. The album takes its name from Serenade to Music, transcribed here for organ by David Briggs and recorded on the Willis organ of Truro Cathedral. (Albion)

1CD# ALBCD053 $18.99

Crumb: Dream Sequence, Cello Sonata

From the ensemble: The sad news of George Crumb’s death was announced on 6 February 2022, shortly after these recordings from a concert in Holland in 1978 were discovered in the KRO-NCRV archives in Hilversum. They included the first European performance of Dream Sequence (1976), one of his most beautiful and original compositions. (FHR)

1CD# FHR130 $15.99

Kapustin: New Memories / A Bu

The Russian composer Nikolai Kapustin (1937–2020) was able to experience considerable appreciation in his last two decades, which recently gained more and more momentum. As with many great piano composers since Chopin, the cycle of concert etudes from the middle of his life is particularly suitable for an introduction to this world of works. (Wergo)

1CD# WER74052 $18.99

Arvo Pärt; Jeroen van Veen: Tintinnabuli

Eight years ago, a two-album collection of piano music by Arvo Pärt became a Brilliant Classics best-seller, with Jeroen van Veen’s playing capturing both the zeitgeist and the rapturous stillness of the Estonian composer’s aesthetic. ‘Jeroen van Veen’s recording can stand alongside the best from any source, and this set is worthy of high praise in every regard’ – MusicWeb (Brilliant Classics)

1CD# BRI96840 $14.99

Nielsen: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 4 / Roger Norrington

Among the early 20th century composers involved in the transition from romanticism to modernism, Carl Nielsen was particularly conspicuous for his originality. Today we see in Carl Nielsen’s six symphonies – all as strikingly different from one another – consistent genre contributions of unique and outstanding importance. (SWR Classic)

1CD# SWR19120CD $18.99

TOCCATA 20TH CENT. TITLES IN BRIEF

Moszkowski: Complete Music for Solo Piano, Vol. 2

The early works on this second instalment in Ian Hobson’s survey of Moszkowski’s complete music for solo piano reveal a debt to Mendelssohn and Schumann. (Toccata Classics)

1CD# TOCC0660 $18.99

Sekles: Lieder

This first-ever album of Bernhard Sekles’ Lieder includes a major song-cycle, the freewheeling Aus dem SchiKing, based on ancient Chinese poetry. (Toccata Classics)

1CD# TOCC0651 $18.99

Enescu: The Unknown Enescu, Vol. 2 / Sinfonia da Camera

Working with a handful of composers and musicologists, violinist Sherban Lupu has produced performing editions of a number of Enescu rarities. (Toccata Classics)

1CD# TOCC0647 $18.99

Berry: Orchestral Music, Vol. 1

All three works here have the open-air, open-hearted, even naïve, quality of much American orchestral music, film scores in particular – the kind of ‘Big Country’ sound. (Toccata Classics)

1CD# TOCC0512 $18.99

Contemporary Music

American Stories / Anthony McGill; Pacifica Quartet

Anthony McGill, New York

Philharmonic principal clarinet and 2020 Avery Fisher Prize winner, and the multiple GRAMMY Awardwinning Pacifica Quartet join forces on an album illuminating the diversity of the American experience through works by Richard Danielpour, James Lee III, Ben Shirley (all three worldpremiere recordings), and Valerie Coleman. (Cedille)

1CD# CDR 216 $16.99

Guđmundsson: Windbells / Reyjavik CO

Hugi Guðmundsson writes: “The title piece, Equilibrium IV: Windbells, was the seed this whole album grew from. It was premièred under rather unusual circumstances at the 2005 World Expo in Japan in a venue that more closely resembled a stadium than a concert stage for classical music. It has since become one of my most performed chamber pieces and has received several awards and recognitions.” (Sono Luminus)

1Blu-ray Audio# DSL-92259 $18.99

Leisner: Letter to the World

For the American composer

Caroline Shaw, writing music is like ‘cooking someone you love a meal’, she told BBC Music Magazine. The youngest-ever winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music, Shaw has premiered works at Carnegie Hall and the BBC Proms. She has also appeared in the hit HBO series Mozart in the Jungle (Alpha)

1CD# ALPHA881 $17.09

Preludes

Born in 1961, the Italian composer Raffaelle Bellafronte has produced a wide-ranging body of work in a modern tonal idiom. Previous albums of concertos, guitar music and chamber works paint a portrait of a lively mind and a personal voice embracing large dramatic gestures and lyric reflection, each as quintessentially ‘Italian’ in their expression as the other. (Brilliant Classics)

1CD# BRI96414 $12.99

Artfully mixing Baroque repertoire with experimental electronics, After delivers a stirring mix of antiquity and modernity from one of Newfoundland’s most in-demand violists. Kate Read takes listeners on a journey that entwines the purity of Bach with the chaos of electronic improvisation in ways equally surprising and satisfying. (Leaf Music)

1CD# LM258 $16.99

Complete 48 Seasonal Preludes

The Italian guitarist Angelo Marchese introduced the music of the Serbian-US composer Dušan Bogdanović to the Brilliant Classics catalogue in 2015. His second recording dedicated to Bogdanovic concentrates on a single collection, the 48 Seasonal Preludes which gradually took shape over several years as a fusion of classical, jazz, and ethnic styles. (Brilliant Classics)

2CD# BRI96244 $16.99

Composer and guitarist David Leisner releases Letter to the Word, a portrait album of his oeuvre for voice and instruments. Of his vocal writing The Boston Globe raves, “He shows imagination and taste in taking poems from disparate sources and putting them into cycles that trace emotional progress and develop dramatic shape. (Azica) 1CD# ACD-71353 $16.99

States of Play – Solos & Duos / Robert Carl; John McDonald

States of Play, solos and duos by Robert Carl and John McDonald, features bassist Robert Black, violist Scott Woolweaver, and John McDonald, playing the keyboard parts of the solos and duos with the string players. The recording is a retrospective of joint projects undertaken over the past couple of decades by Carl and McDonald. A special collaboration! (Bridge)

1CD# BCD9564 $16.99

Globe, Travel, Homeland: Piano Ensemble Works by Living Composers

For this release, pianists Sang-Hie Lee and Martha Thomas employ the touchstone of new two-piano duos by living composers, tonally residing somewhere between Prokofiev and Messiaen. Few instrumental setups are as complex as this one, but Lee and Thomas navigate its challenges with great aplomb, to the point where the music feels more like a transcendental conversation between kindred spirits. (Raviello)

1CD# RR8076 $14.99

Bathymetry / Matt McBane; Sandbox Percussion

Composer Matt McBane and the renowned Sandbox Percussion ensemble team up on Bathymetry — a 40-minute piece in eight movements scored for monophonic Moog analog synthesizer and percussion. The album draws on classical minimalism, electronic production, and the diverse palette of ambient modular synth music. (Cantaloupe)

1CD# CA21181 $19.99

Bellafronte: Piano Sonatas, 12

After / Kate Read

Bogdanović:

Shaw: The Wheel / I Guardini

Guitar and Lute

J.S. Bach: Guitar Music / Luigi Attademo

Bach left us a few isolated pieces and suites for the lute, predecessor of the guitar, but guitarists have always found the rest of his music as amenable to adaptation as every other musician. On this new recording Luigi Attademo turns to pieces originally conceived for cello, violin, harpsichord, and flute which have gained iconic status in the three centuries since their composition. (Brilliant Classics)

1CD# BRI96679 $12.99

Isle of Dowland – English Lute Music

This intimate recording presents the colorful spectrum of music from the golden age of the English lutenist songwriters, coupled with instrumental interludes and variations. Violin, viol and lute all join in with the singer in inspired playfulness, for a fresh take on this sublime music. (DB Productions)

1CD# DBCD205 $16.99

The Wonderful World of Nino Rota / David Sautter;

Murat Cevik

Composer Nino Rota not only left his mark on the soundtrack of over one hundred and fifty films, he also left behind a multitude of other pieces: Operas, symphonies, concertos for orchestra and various solo instruments, and chamber music – all of the highest quality. The many Rota interpretations and arrangements are joined by a very special line-up in this recording. (EOS)

1CD# EOS234200-17 $18.99

Pujol: Cuatro Argentinas / George Tossikian

Máximo Diego Pujol studied with various authorities of the guitar including Alfredo Vicente Gascón, Abel Carlevaro and Leo Brouwer. In a place where tango was constantly floating in the air, he honed his skills as a performer by playing at Buenos Aires night clubs, both as a soloist and as an accompanist. (Brilliant Classics)

1CD# BRI96703 $14.99

NEW RELEASES IN BRIEF

Works for Guitar Sextet / Guitarra A Seis

Variations for Guitar / Tilman Hoppstock

Variation means change, and especially in the realm of tones, this is a particularly popular means of creating developments. In the program of the guitarist Tilman Hoppstock, there are works with the designation “Variation” as well as many others, such as “Double”, “Passacaglia”, “Mutazione” or “Capriccio”. (Christophorus)

1CD# CHR77465 $18.99

Ruiz-Pipó: Complete Music for Guitar [2 CDs]

Born in Granada, Antonio Ruiz-Pipó (1934–1997) learnt the guitar in his youth but trained as a pianist. He began his studies in Barcelona at the Escolanía de Nuestra Señora de la Merced. In 1948 he enrolled at the Frank Marshall Academy, named after the Granados pupil who had himself trained a generation of Spanish pianists. (Brilliant Classics)

2CD# BRI96300 $14.99

Vivaldi: Lute & Mandolin Concertos / Paul Grund

“I enjoyed greatly some highly attractive and charming music, sensitive playing, and clean, freshsounding recordings... The Lute concerto in particular has good things... Of the Mandolin concertos, this double is most interesting, done with charm, with one mandolin each to the left and to the right, and is quite delightful. Much of the music is in Vivaldi’s best sombre G minor tone.” – Gramophone (Alto Music)

1CD# MOB414657 $10.99

Laura Plays Laura / Laura Mondiello

This release offers a vivid picture of the diverse and varied spirits that characterized the twentieth century, as told in music. Alongside the mainland represented by the works of Britten and Facchinetti, five well-known songs belonging to the tradition of pop music have been inserted, like a small and intricate archipelago. (Stradivarius)

1CD# STR37238 $16.99

With a range that can emulate that of a whole orchestra, the acclaimed Guitarra a Seis bring us a colorful program that includes works written specially for the ensemble. (Naxos)

1CD# 8551475 $13.99

Galilei: Music for Lute / Christian Zimmerman

German musician Christian Zimmermann presents this interesting anthology dedicated to the lute works by the Galilei family: Vincenzo and Michelangelo. (Tactus)

1CD# TC520004 $16.99

The History of the Russian Guitar, Vol. 1 / Mårten Falk

Prominent Swedish guitarist Mårten Falk, now extends his vast discography with this first volume of “The History of the Russian Guitar” with music for 7-string guitar. (DB Productions)

1CD# DBCD206 $16.99

Plucked Bach / Alon Sariel

Alon

makes his Pentatone debut with Plucked Bach, a program exploring Bach’s cello suites performed on different mandolins, lutes, baroque guitar and oud. (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5186985 $12.79

Sariel

Titles of 2022

New Jazz for

Sunny Side of the Street / Herb Alpert

Herb Alpert, the prolific Tijuana Brass titan, returns with Sunny Side Of The Street. This new set of 11 songs contains gentle ballads like “Childhood” and “Time After Time”, upbeat romps like “Pata Pata” and “Tickle Time” and covers of classic songs like “I’ll Remember You” and Louis Armstrong’s “On The Sunny Side Of The Street”. (Herb Alpert Presents)

1CD# MOB022369 $13.99

Gypsy Jazz Style / Pietro Lazazzara

“This album represents an innovative and renewed production path started in 2020 with my first album My Art of Gypsy Jazz. Already in the previous work, my aim was to immediately highlight in the title a personal vision of the Gypsy style, starting from its stylistic peculiarities, and adding “color” in a harmonic and stylistic combination with my experience. – Pietro Lazazzara (Stradivarius)

1CD# STR57925S $16.99

Four in Blue / Ronner, Spilka, Zapadlo

An album brimming with earthy blues and soulful jazz! The bandleader, saxophonist Radek Zapadlo founded the quartet in 2017, inspired by the great Hammond player Jimmy Smith. Since then, the quartet has moved towards its own original music in the aesthetics of those recordings and styles. (Animal Music)

1CD# BR001-2 $21.99

Levitas / Lubos Soukup; Christian Pabst

Saxophonist Luboš Soukup together with his long-term musical partner, German pianist Christian Pabst, have recorded a new album released on the Czech label Animal Music. By way of improvisation and their free approach to the compositions, they achieve a uniquely powerful style of interpretation. Levitas draws on jazz, but also dips into folklore and classical music for inspiration. (Animal Music)

1CD# ANI106-2 $21.99

Tomorrow’s Finally Here / Bangkok Lingo

Tomorrow’s Finally Here is the second long play album from energetic jazz band Bangkok Lingo. This Quintet is filled to the brim with both high-octane rhythm and intense solos as well as laid back grooves and delightful melodies, and they have established themselves as a sought-after act on the Norwegian live scene. (NXN)

1CD# NXN2012 $14.99

Tiefe Nacht: Andreas Pientka

The Leipzig bassist Andreas Pientka sets massive, monumental music in scene with his tentet on “Tiefe Nacht” (trans.: Deep Night). Pientka actually composed this music for orchestra, but the Corona pandemic thwarted his goal and so he opted for this brassheavy and much more jazz-inspired instrumentation. (Double Moon)

1CD# DMCHR71407 $14.99

Nora / Franco Ambrosetti

Franco Ambrosetti plays all the right notes in typically elegant fashion on Nora. Backed by an all-world group of pianist Uri Caine, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Peter Erskine, with a guest turn by guitarist John Scofield, plus GRAMMY-winning pianist-arranger Alan Broadbent conducting a 22-piece string orchestra. (Yellowbird)

1CD# ENJ-9811 $18.99

Three Seconds / Jussi Reijonen

Free Swing / Tuuri

Free Swing is a fitting name for a jazz quartet, but there is actually more to it in the case of this international band of four; the two words are composed of the internationally customary abbreviations of the countries of origin of the protagonists.

(Double Moon)

1CD# DMCHR71417 $14.99

On Shoulders We Stand / David Linx

Jussi Reijonen: “As I write these notes sitting on my balcony in July 2022, it has been more than 9 years since the release of my debut album. Then the Covid-19 pandemic happened, and the world stopped. Like so many of us caught in the new eerie calm, I retreated into inner spaces. I began revisiting sketches of ideas I had accumulated over the years, and finally, very, very slowly, new music started to come.”

(Challenge)

1CD# CR 73545 $16.99

This is how David Linx and Guillaume de Chassy, initiators of this project, define their common approach. The first one, being the incomparable male jazz vocal reference, has founded his singularity in both the AfricanAmerican culture, and the European musical landscape. The second one, is the cross-border pianist between jazz and classical music. (Yellowbird)

1CD# ENJ-9806 $18.99

Winter 2023

Quietude / Eliane Elias

Superstar pianist, singer, composer and arranger Eliane Elias returns to her Brazilian bossa nova roots with her new album Quietude. A luscious collection showcasing her alluring vocals with her virtuosic instrumental jazz and piano mastery, the recording features songs by such legendary composers as Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Dorival Caymmi along with Dori Caymmi. (Candid)

1CD# MOB305124 $15.99

Jiggs’ Back in Town / Copenhagen Trio

The internationally acclaimed American jazz trombonist Jiggs Whigham meets the two young, talented Danish musicians, guitarist Pelle von Bülow and bassist Matthias Petri on his new album Jiggs’ Back In Town. The recording is the result of two days in the studio in October 2021, where the American trombone sensation visited Copenhagen as the guest of fellow trombonist Anders Jacobsen. (Storyville)

1CD# SVL1018534 $15.99

Swiss Radio Days Jazz, V. 47 / New York Tango Trio

“The jazz approach of New Tango like that of New Musette has always been obvious for me. Jazz, Musette, Tango all feed on the same ingredients, relating to dance, strong melodies, precise and refined harmonies. The most important thing is the style (according to Astor Piazzolla).”

Richard Galliano (TCB)

1CD# TCB 02472 $16.99

Double Vision, Triple Vision / Peter Scharli [2 CDs]

Three wonderful trumpeters from two generations get together to play, supported by a rhythm section that provides everything a soloist on stage needs to take off. The two concerts presented here are each the first of a longer series. The rhythm section sets the standard for what is to be played: standards, namely – swinging and contemporary jazz. (TCB)

2CD# TCB 37302 $19.99

NEW JAZZ IN BRIEF

Solo in Denmark / Michel Petrucciani

Nothing – Nic / Vertigo

To celebrate their twenty years together, the cult multi-genre band Vertigo come with their new studio album – their sixth release with Animal Music. This new album brings complex and extensive, but also minimalist compositions in which different styles and moods interlace with one another in a compact whole, marked by Vertigo’s typical poetics, grace, and intensity. (Animal Music)

1CD# ANI107-2 $21.99

Harmonic Alchemy / Reverso

Continuing a century of mutual inspiration between two vast and interlocking musical worlds, Reverso further explores the interface between jazz and classical music. This recording follows Suite Ravel, a first album inspired by the music of Maurice Ravel. Reverso blends ‘pulsating motifs, long painterly lines’ JazzTimes (Outnote)

1CD# OTN645 $18.99

Clark Terry: Live in Holland 1979

Clark Terry is one of the greatest and most important trumpeters in jazz history. Now, Storyville Records presents a live recording with his fantastic orchestra, Clark Terry’s Big Bad Band – Live in Holland 1979. The whole band is in great form, and besides Clark Terry himself, this recording showcases many of the very best musicians from the heyday of big bands. (Storyville)

1CD# SVL1018529 $15.99

Duke Ellington: Live at the Berlin Jazz Festival

In 1969, the Berlin Jazz Fest took an audacious stand: it was Duke Ellington’s 70th birthday and not only did they welcome him at the head of his big band for the first time, but part of the program focused on his heritage; as a bonus and birthday gift, Ellington was featured on the publicity poster of the festival’s sixth edition. (TLR)

1CD# TLR 2204041 $16.99

This album features French piano prodigy Michel Petrucciani in a solo recording from Silkeborg Church, 1990. (Storyville) 1CD# SVL1018495 $15.99

Jazzissimo / Matthias Well; Lilian Akopova

Violinist Matthias Well and pianist Lilian Akopova present syncopated, blue note-soaked sounds by Astor Piazzolla, Maurice Ravel, and George Gershwin. (Genuin)

1CD# GEN 22792 $18.99

State of Mind / Gilles Grethen Quartet & Strings

State of Mind is a bold undertaking, because on his second album after last year ’s debut Time Suite, the quartet of the young Luxembourg guitarist Gilles Grethen linked up with eleven strings. (Double Moon)

1CD# DMCHR71414 $14.99

Within This Stone / Ziv Ravitz; Lionel Loueke

Within This Stone is the first live recording of the Ziv Ravitz and Lionel Loueke, captured on December 12, 2021 in the Swiss community of Muri. (Intuition)

1CD# INT34612 $16.99

Classic Blues

The Blues Don’t Lie / Buddy Guy

The Blues Don’t Lie is the amazing new album from Buddy Guy, and is the legend’s 34th studio album. Produced by songwriter/drummer Tom Hambridge, The Blues Don’t Lie features guests including Mavis Staples, Elvis Costello, James Taylor, and more. The album tells the story of his lifelong journey, and his vow that “as long as I’m alive I’m going to keep the blues alive.” (Sony)

1CD# 19658731521 $11.99

Done Come too Far / Shemekia Copeland

GRAMMY-nominated blues, soul and Americana singer is revered worldwide for her defiant music and fire-breathing performances. Done Come Too Far continues Shemekia’s riveting, clear-eyed streak of recordings. The new album features an all-star supporting cast including slide guitar whiz Sonny Landreth and Hill Country blues great Cedric Burnside. (Alligator)

1CD# MOB501022 $17.99

Blues in My Heart / Fiona Boyd

Guitarist and singer-songwriter Fiona Boyes is the only Australian ever recognized by The Blues Foundation in Memphis. This remastered 20th anniversary edition of her debut solo album includes Fiona’s diary-style liner notes, photo memories and original folk art in a single album package. (Reference)

1CD# FR-740 $16.99

Blues Pianist of New Orleans / Champion Jack Dupree [4 CDs]

This set contains three outstanding Storyville CDs, two featuring solo piano and vocal performances, and the third with Dupree accompained by Papa Bue’s Viking Jazzband and Fessor’s Big City Band. Also included is a rare DVD with Champion Jack recorded at Copenhagen’s Radhuskroen and Sound Track Studios. (Storyville)

4CD/DVD# SVL1088619 $25.99

The West African Blues Project

Every great artist has a moment when they realize who they are, Jeremiah Johnson has truly come into his own with his new release Hi-Fi Drive By. Get ready for a high-fidelity sonic explosion that combines Johnson’s master guitar work, songwriting skills and uniquely powerful vocals into ten tracks of pure brilliance. (Ruf)

1CD# MOB129929 $16.99

Blues Medicine / Little Freddie King

One of the last bluesmen of his generation: The unstoppable Little Freddie King is a country-style blues musician, links to an era when live music poured from the back-of-town nightclubs that were ubiquitous throughout New Orleans’ African-American neighborhoods. Little Freddie King is an artist who is among the last of his kind. (Madewright)

1CD# MOB181017 $15.99

GRAMMY award-winning blues icon returns to his Delta blues roots for the most captivating musical statement of his long and legendary career. Charlie’s first new solo studio release in seven years is strippeddown and semi-acoustic, driven by his deft guitar playing, while also featuring the masterful harp and soul-deep vocals for which he is famed. (Alligator)

1CD# MOB500926 $17.99

In an intoxicating meeting of cultures, guitarist Ramon Goose and Senegalese singer-percussionist Modou Touré trace the ancestry of the blues – back before its birth to the dunes and deserts of western Africa. The West African Blues Project is a vibrant, exciting marriage of these two seemingly distinct but inescapably-linked musical traditions. (ARC Music)

1CD# EUCD2873 $14.99

Essential Blues / Various Artists

This new collection brings together some of the most famous songs and musicians from the blues tradition. Blues music is one of the oldest popular music genres and its influence spread into many fields, from jazz to rock ‘n’ roll. BB King, Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker and many others sing of troubles and heartache through a series of wonderful tracks that have a remarkably uplifting feel. (Gift of Music)

1CD# CCLCDG1274 $16.99

Chicago Blues – The MCM Records Story / Various Artists [8 CDs]

The brief but dazzling life of MCM Records was a labor of love that captured many treasurable live performances from the classic Chicago Blues age. This 8-CD collection features timeless performances by Jimmy Johnson, Magic Slim, Willie Kent, Bobby King, Eddie Clearwater, and Joe Carter among others. (Storyville)

8CD# SVL1088612 $64.99

Hi-FI Drive By / Jeremiah Johnson

Mississippi Son / Charlie Musselwhite

Okeh Records

I Know I Dream / Stacey Kent

With over 2 million albums sold, Stacey Kent stands strong among the artists that don’t have much left to prove, yet she surprises us once more with her album, I Know I Dream. Recorded inside the famous Angel Studios in London with an orchestra, this is her first orchestral album in a career that spans two decades and more than fifteen albums.(Okeh Records)

1CD# 88985462882 $11.99

Shadows – Songs of Nat King Cole / Hugh Coltman [2 CDs]

This two-disc colllection features a selection of Nat King Cole songs, recorded by vocalist Hugh Coltman in live & studio settings. Disc one includes studio tracks, while disc two features many of the same tracks in a live setting, recorded at the Jazz à Vienne Festival. Tracks include “What’ll I Do,” “Nature Boy,” “Mona Lisa,” “Are You Disenchanted,” “Pretend,” “Smile,” “I Never Had a Chance,” and more. (Okeh Records)

2CD# 88985383282 $16.99

With a Twist / Bria Skonberg

Fusing a modern-day pop sensibility with sleek and timeless jazz chops, singer, trumpeter and songwriter Bria Skonberg returns with her second album for Okeh Records, With a Twist. The album is a collection that pays tribute to legendary ladies of song while offering her take on songs by Leonard Cohen and Ed Sheeran, along with three of her own compositions. (Okeh Records)

1CD# 88985406022 $11.99

Inevitable Western / The Bad Plus

The Bad Plus tenth studio recording (and first collection of original material since 2012’s Made Possible, Inevitable Western continues the leaderless trio’s committed belief in what they’ve dubbed avant-garde populism’ the idea that serious music can be as engaging and accessible as it is forward-thinking and provocative. (Okeh Records)

1CD# 88843024062 $11.99

What’s Up? / Michel Camilo

Pianist Michel Camilo presents What’s Up?, a collection of 11 tracks in “a commanding performance by a truly masterful, wildly creative jazz pianist and composer.” (AllMusic) Tracks include “A Place in Time,” “Island Beat,” “Chan Chan,” “Sandra’s Serenade”, the title track and more. (Okeh Records)

1CD# 88883703992 $11.99

It’s Hard / The Bad Plus

The Bad Plus eleventh studio recording, It’s Hard spans both era and inspiration as The Bad Plus offer new perspectives on classic songs from the 1970s to the 2010s. Tracks include “Time After Time” (Cyndi Lauper), “Don’t Dream It’s Over” (Crowded House), “The Beautiful Ones” (Prince), “Games Without Frontiers” (Peter Gabriel), “The Robots” (Kraftwerk), and more. (Okeh Records)

1CD# 88985337142 $11.99

Craig Handy & Second Line Smith

Music Is / Bill Frisell

All compositions on Music IS were written by Frisell, some of them brand-new – “Change in the Air”, “Thankful”, “What Do You Want”, “Miss You” and “Go Happy Lucky” – others being solo adaptations of now-classic original compositions he had previously recorded, such as “In Line”, “Rambler”, “Ron Carter”, “Pretty Stars”, “Monica Jane” and “The Pioneers”. (Okeh Records)

1CD# 19075815002 $11.99

Slow Motion Miracles / Sachal

On Slow Motion Miracles, Sachal delivers a full set of multilayered gems steeped in a variety of styles, including indie pop, hip-hop, electronic, Brazilian, Afro-beat, old-school jazz and new-styled jazz. The album is produced by Michael Leonhart, best known for his work with Steely Dan. Slow Motion Miracles is Sachal’s most accomplished recording as an artist. (Okeh Records)

1CD# 88875039572 $11.99

2014 album from the renowned sax player featuring guest appearances from Wynton Marsalis and Dee Dee Bridgewater. With this album, saxophonist Craig Handy reinterprets, in his own New Orleans style, ten numbers made famous by Jimmy Smith, the father of the modern Jazz organ. (Okeh Records)

1CD# 88883721832 $11.99

Diwan of Beauty & Odd / Dhafer Youssef

This striking 2016 album from the Tunisian composer, singer, and oud player includes beaultiful melodies and heartfelt chanting over infectious grooves. Songs include “Fly Shadow Fly,” “Diving in the Air,” “Cheerful Meshuggah,” “Delightfully Odd,” “17th Flyways,” “Of Beauty & Odd,” and more. (Okeh Records)

1CD# 88985364092 $11.99

Fifty / The Manhattan Transfer

Recommended SWR Jazzhaus

GRAMMY award winning vocal group The Manhattan Transfer celebrate their 50th Anniversary with the new studio album Fifty The album contains arrangements of some of the groups’ biggest hits, combining the orchestral sounds of WDR with their trademark harmonies. Included are new versions of “Chanson D’Amour” and “The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul.” (Craft Recordings)

1CD# MOB464032 $14.99

Big Bands Live!

/

Anita O’Day; Benny Goodman

A singer with an exciting presence and a voice to immerse yourself in. A band that lit up with high wattage a repertoire including both standards and popular songs. The result a mixture that whisked the concert hall in Freiburg (Germany) for one evening in October 1959 into a wonderful world of successful jazz entertainment and sent the audience out into the night with an earworm. (SWR Jazzhaus)

1CD# JAH-404 $18.99

Mack Avenue Music Group is proud to announce the signing and first label release for Joey Alexander. The pianist, composer and bandleader is one of the most emotive and compelling pianist-composers active on the scene today, and while his accomplishments to this point are significant—including being the youngest artist ever nominated for a GRAMMY Award in a jazz category. (Mack Avenue)

1CD# MAC1198 $19.99

Be-Bop! Pasquale Grasso

Guitar virtuoso Pasquale Grasso presents Be-Bop! a brilliant new tribute to be-bop pioneers Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. BeBop! kicks off in exhilarating fashion with Dizzy’s quintessential 1942 composition, “A Night in Tunisia.” Grasso achieves an astonishing balance of technical wizardry and swing, sounding like two guitarists coming out of the gate on the challenging head on top of the syncopated Latin rhythm. (Sony)

1CD# 19658721632 $11.99

Multicolored Midnight / Thumbscrew

Celebrating ten years of work, the all-star collective trio Thumbscrew celebrates by adding new instrumental hues to their already well-established sound on Multicolored Midnight, the group’s seventh album. An album laden with fully realized connections and reflections, Multicolored Midnight also provides tantalizing hints regarding Thumbscrew’s future explorations. (Cuneiform)

1CD# MOB048529 $16.99

Late Night Jazz / Various Artists

Our second jazz collection is deliberately easy listening; relaxing and enjoyable, with strong melodies and a gentle swing. Sinatra, Holliday, Ella, Nat and many more stars in possibly the ultimate fantasy night club program! Relax into the small wee hours with numbers like “Sweet Lorraine,” or enjoy “April in Paris,” and “Dream a Little Dream” with Armstrong. (Gift of Music)

1CD# GCDG1195 $16.99

Mainz Studio Recordings

(1963–1969)

/ Volker Mainz [2 CDs]

This two-disc collection displays the creative output of German jazz guitarist/.composer Volker Kriegel from 1963 to 1969. Tracks include “Somewhat, Somewhere, Somehow,” “Noisy Silence, Gentle Noise,” “Norwegian Wood,” “St. Louis Blues,” “Autumn Leaves,” “Mother People,” “Sitting on My Knees,” and more. (SWR Jazzhaus)

2CD# JAH-426 $24.99

Baden-Baden 1959 / Oscar Pettiford

Oscar Pettiford’s masterful studio recordings at SWF BadenBaden feature a top-notch list of sidemen such as Jimmy Pratt, Kenny Clarke, Hartwig Bartz, Lucky Thompson, to name a few. Tracks include “But Not For Me,” “Sophisticated Lady,” “Minor Plus A Major,” “Blues in the Closet,” “All the Things You Are,” and more. (SWR Jazzhaus)

1CD# JAH-419 $18.99

Big Bands Live! / Duke Ellington Orchestra

This is a re-release of a Jazzhaus/ SWR music bestseller! By Duke Ellington’s standards, this was a modern concert, exuberant in mood and at times mischievous in arrangements, which allowed some shrill coloring. And it also showed that even an ultimately traditional jazz orchestra in the rocky sixties could develop enough charisma to enthrall an audience like that in the Liederhalle. (SWR Jazzhaus)

1CD# JAH-403 $16.99

Legends Live – Cannonball Adderley Quintet

Recorded live in Germany on March 20, 1969, this explosive quintet features Joe Zawinul, Nat Adderley, Victor Gaskin, and Roy McCurdy. Tracks include “Rumpelstiltskin,” “Sweet Emma,” “Why Am I Treated So Bad,” “The Painted Desert,” “Blue n’ Boogie,” “Somewhere,” “Work Song,” and more. (SWR Jazzhaus)

1CD# JAH-402 $16.99

Origin / Joey Alexander

Jazz Titles

Bootleg Series, Vol. 7 1982–1985 / Miles Davis [3 CDs]

That’s What Happened 1982–1985: Bootleg Vol. 7 is the next installment in the celebrated, award-winning archival series that began in 2011, shining an in-depth light onto different eras of the legendary career of Miles Davis. Miles Davis embraced the 1980s, pulling inspiration from FM radio and an upstart music video channel called MTV. He was always searching for the next frontier, letting his creativity roam. (Sony)

3CD# 19439863852 $28.99

Blue Train – The Complete Masters / John Coltrane [2 CDs]

John Coltrane’s Blue Train: The Complete Masters includes a second disc of alternate and incomplete takes, four of which have never been released. The 2-CD set comes with a bound booklet featuring session photos by Francis Wolff and an essay by Coltrane expert Ashley Kahn. (Blue Note)

2CD# MOB062031 $29.99

Organic Universe / Peter Protschka

Peter Protschka writes: “The history of Hammond organ jazz is very closely connected to my personal musical biography with my good friend and musical companion Clemens Orth – and with two important places for us in Cologne. Clemens and I played our first gigs together here and in the region, and it came to my attention that amongst other things, he was also a terrific organist.” (Double Moon)

1CD# DMCHR71413 $14.99

Molecular Systematic Music / James Brandon Lewis Quartet [2 CDs]

Saxophonist and composer James Brandon Lewis possesses an inspiring energy. His deep curiosity and the thrill he gets from discovery are crucial facets of his personality, and qualities that guide his art. Over the last half-decade he’s emerged as one of the most exciting figures in jazz and improvised music, a voracious listener who has feverishly explored new ideas. (Intakt)

2CD# MOB193898 $32.99

Play Favorites / Aubrey Johnson; Randy Ingram

“Randy and I played together for the first time in 2015 while teaching at a jazz camp in the Catskills. The musical connection was immediate and natural, and one we have continued to explore throughout the past seven years. We hope you enjoy the first of our recorded collaborations as much as we enjoyed creating it.”

– Aubrey Johnson (Sunnyside)

1CD# MOB168328 $16.99

Magic Realism / Chai Masters

“This album was recorded during the 2nd Covid lockdown. Circumstances were against us, as the two shows we planned to do before recording were cancelled, and we felt like we weren’t fully prepared to go into the studio. After we started playing, we began to relax and focus on the music, and some magic started to happen.” – Antonio Moreno Glazkov (Challenge)

1CD# CR 73543 $16.99

Dedication / Bruce Barth

New York pianist Bruce Barth’s inspired vision and generous accompaniment has always led to rich musical collaborations, none more so than with his working trio of many years with bassist Vincente Archer and drummer Montez Coleman. Their collective voice found it’s perfect setting, which makes the release of Dedication a profound and emotion-filled moment. (Origin)

1CD# MOB285523 $15.99

It’s a Foreign Language / Klaus Koenig Jazz Live Trio

Klaus Koenig writes: “In my view, it only makes sense for us as Europeans to become engaged with the fascinating world of jazz if we stay true to our European identity, and reflect the cultures that we come from. On that note, I hope that with this music I have been able to present a contribution to the fascinating world of jazz which shows that it is our own music, the music of the “Jazz Live Trio”. (TCB)

1CD# TCB 36602 $16.99

RECOMMENDED TITLES IN BRIEF

Smile / Tawanda

Smile is the debut release from Tawana, winner of the 2020 Sarah Vaughn International Jazz Vocal Competition. A fresh and adventurous mix of standards! (Resonance)

1CD# MOB122891 $16.99

Recuerdos De Mi Madre / Jackie Ryan

This talented Mexican-American vocalist returns with a passionate Latin album celebrating her roots – 10 of Latin America’s most cherished love songs from the Golden Age of Latin Jazz. (Openart)

1CD# MOB072326 $16.99

Four / Bill Frisell

Bill Frisell convenes a new line-up of musical friends on his third Blue Note album, Four where the foursome delves into intimate explorations of thirteen Frisell originals. (Blue Note)

1CD# MOB523139 $11.99

Marching On / Ray Anderson

Marching On is a journey of sound that leaves the listener astonished, because Ray Anderson manages to give space to many different moods with his trombone. (Double Moon)

1CD# DMCHR71416 $14.99