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. As scholar Ewald V. Nolte observes, these fugues – most transcribed and arranged here by director Amanda Keesmaat for various combinations of cellos, archlute, and organ – show Pachelbel as a keen, pragmatic, yet sensitive contrapuntist.

One of the most original groups to emerge on the Canadian music scene, Forestare guitar ensemble returns with Douze guitares Paris, a tribute to French music that is as unique as the ensemble's boundary-pushing vision. Works by Impressionist masters Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel share the program with compositions by contemporary guitarists Roland Dyens and Arnaud Dumond.Debussy and Ravel introduced many of the compositional elements still used by guitar composers today: timbres, textures, and wholetone scales are a perfect fit with the instrument's poetic qualities.

ATMA Classique is pleased to present Fables, a new solo recording by Canadian pianist Philip Chiu. The album pairs two piano transcriptions of music by Ravel with Mnidoonskaa (A Multitude of Insects), a 2021 work by Anishinaabekwe composer Barbara Assiginaak.One of Ravel’s best-known works, Mother Goose is heard here in a version for solo piano by Jacques Charlot, published in 1910. Though the composer’s String Quartet in F major is an early piece from 1903, Ravel’s playful, idiosyncratic language is already well established. Chiu performs a transcription of the quartet for solo piano by Lucien Garban, published in 1921.