After Berg, Schoenberg, Bartók and Stravinsky, Isabelle Faust now tackles Britten with Jakub Hrůša and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, revealing a little-known facet of the British composer. This concerto, highly personal in its language, combines drama with humour, seriousness with satire, in music of overwhelming emotional depth. The programme is completed by early chamber works.

Star oboist Albrecht Mayer was praised by the press for his successful Baroque album »Tesori d'Italia«: »What makes Albrecht Mayer's musical treasures, tonal beauty and technical mastery so precious in these five treasures, is hard to beat.« (FonoForum). Now he presents his new recording Longing for Paradise, recorded with the Bamberger Symphoniker.

Stravinsky, Bartók and Martinů were established international figures when they wrote these works for violin, travelling across Europe as well as the United States. With the onset of World War Two, all three composers would ultimately emigrate because of their rejection of fascism. In an age of political upheaval and cultural displacement, each of them found an individual approach to reinventing the language of tonal music, laying down roots in the west without abandoning their Eastern European identities. While the Russian-born Stravinsky was experimenting with possibilities of modern violin technique in his concerto, Martinů took these efforts a step further in his Suite concertante by blending the sounds of his native Bohemia with the colours of French neo-classicism. In the Rhapsodies, Bartók turned to the folk music of Hungary and Romania.

Oh, not another Dvořák Cello Concerto recording, you would be justified in asking. Well, yes and no. This is indeed a special one, but not only for the superb performance the German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser gives with the Prague Philharmonia under Jakub Hrůša of this most popular of all cello concertos. What makes this disc practically indispensable is its inclusion of the less frequently heard Lalo concerto in the best account I have heard since Pierre Fournier recorded it many years ago with Jean Martinon and the Lamoureux Orchestra for DG.