Born in Ålesund (Norway) in 1943, Kjell Flem studied with Einar Englund and Einojuhani Rautavaara, going on to distinguish himself as a much-celebrated composer of Scandinavian contemporary music. His compositions are generally non-radical and atmospherically engaging, creating an ambience that is deeply rooted in the natural landscape of his homeland. His output is not extensive; rather, he allows himself long creative periods because, in his own words, truly magical moments of inspiration are rare.

Paul Büttner was born in Dresden in 1870 and studied violin and oboe at the city's conservatory, from whence he gradually established himself as an outstanding musician. But he remained virtually unknown as a composer until 1915, when the celebrated conductor Arthur Nikisch premiered his Symphony No. 3, following which Büttner became acknowledged as one of the greatest contemporary symphonists after Brahms and Bruckner. His Symphony No. 4 from 1917 continued this success and was performed on numerous occasions by several orchestras. In 1933 his music was marked as 'degenerate' by the totalitarian regime, which deleted him completely from the musical culture available to the public.

After Hugo Kaun had finished his American adventure and returned to the Old World, he first set about transforming the exotic events into the two symphonic poems that have been in our catalog since the end of 2023 under the title "Im Urwald". While he soon rose to become one of the most highly regarded German composers (primarily thanks to his striking works for male choirs), he turned his attention to programmatic characterization once again: Sir John Falstaff, the incomparable charmer from William Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor and drinking companion of the future King Henry V, was given a well-deserved place in 1905 in the musical gallery of famous literary heroes alongside Till Eulenspiegel, Macbeth, Don Quixote, Don Juan and Zarathustra, to whom he does credit from his first broad-tracked appearance. Moreover, it prepares the listener excellently for the mighty Second Symphony, which was completed five years later - another testimony to an orchestral tamer who had a commanding command of the late Romantic palette.

Leokadiya Kashperova was Igor Stravinsky's piano teacher, having herself been a student of Anton Rubinstein. To this day, however, her compositions remain in the shadow of the male Russian masters, a fate shared by many other women of this era. Although her output is nowhere near as comprehensive as that of her contemporaries, what she did produce demonstrates incredible talent, mature skill and a deeply Romantic Russian idiom so typical of its time.

Karl Gustav Vollmoeller’s pantomime Das Mirakel is arguably his most important stage work, and the score Engelbert Humperdinck provided as accompaniment impresses with its rich, romantic sound and large-scale choral scenes. Nonetheless, the work has remained an unjustly neglected part of Humperdinck’s output. Premiered in London in 1911, it was none other than the great Max Reinhardt who adapted Das Mirakel for film in 1912, staging numerous performances with hundreds of actors, singers and dancers before it eventually reached the Salzburg Festival in 1925. This thoroughly Romantic masterpiece can now be enjoyed in its first complete recording.

Internationally acclaimed violinist Arabella Steinbacher presents a dazzling album which brings together two of the most challenging concertos of the 20th century: Britten's Violin Concerto, Op. 15 and Hindemith's Violin Concerto. Full of intense and emotive moments alongside vivid virtuosity, Steinbacher shines with the support of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and conductor Vladimir Jurowski.

Alexej Gorlatch was born in 1988 in Kiev and has been living in Germany since 1991. He began his piano studies at the age of seven with Eduard-Georg Georgiew in Passau, before becoming a junior student of Martin Hughes at the Berlin University of Arts at the age of twelve, continuing his music studies two years later with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling at the University of Music and Drama Hanover and subsequently with Bernd Goetzke. On this recording Alexej Gorlatch plays Stravinsky with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin and Alondra de la Parra.

Anton Bruckner had to wait an age before bagging his first and greatest success. The Austrian composer’s Seventh Symphony, first performed in Leipzig in 1884 shortly after his sixtieth birthday, proved an immediate hit. Vladimir Jurowski’s visionary interpretation of the work with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, recorded live at the Berlin Philharmonie, stands as the utterly compelling outcome of the conductor’s profound study and long experience of performing Bruckner’s music. He’s backed to the hilt by superlative playing, remarkable for its intense focus, lyrical warmth, and jaw-dropping beauty.

Maria Herz, née Bing, was born in Cologne in 1878. By the 1920s, she had become recognised as a dynamic element of the contemporary music scene. New music’s ‘chief theoretician’, Theodor W. Adorno, became interested in her works and their style, which was rooted in late Romanticism and aimed at Modernism by way of Expressionism, New Objectivity and Neo-Baroque, all the while retaining its playful, charming air.

William Youn's first orchestral album for Sony Classical in cooperation with Deutschlandradio Berlin is dedicated entirely to the exuberant flair of fin-de-siècle Paris with rare repertoire by Reynaldo Hahn, Nadia Boulanger and Gabriel Fauré - a musical excursion into the salons of the Belle Époque full of dazzling rediscoveries.

César Franck’s only symphony came at a time when the French music world was seeking to rival the great Austro-German tradition. The ‘darkness-to-light’ narrative of the Symphony in D minor owes a debt to Beethoven and there is a unique power within its distinctive themes, innovative cyclic form and general gravitas. Franck’s student Ernest Chausson was no doubt inspired by his teacher’s thematic metamorphoses, but the anguished influence of Wagner is also ever present. The published score of the Symphony in B flat major includes many errors which conductor Jean-Luc Tingaud has meticulously corrected after careful study of Chausson’s autograph manuscripts.

On this Hyperion's release, Alban Gerhardt performs the three concertos by Hans Pfitzner. Pfitzner's early Cello Concerto in A minor was scorned by his teachers (although liked by the composer himself). His Cello Concerto Op.42 is a beautifully constructed work that derives its material from a lyrical cello solo heard at the very start of the work. The Cello Concerto Op.52 is dedicated to Ludwig Hoelscher, a pupil of two giants of German cello-playing: Hugo Becker and Julius Klengel. As a bonus, the recording also includes Pfitzner's Duo for violin, cello and small orchestra.

The Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and conductor Carlo Montanaro present a powerful interpretation of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca, together with a cast of soloists including Melody Moore (Tosca), Ștefan Pop (Cavaradossi) and Lester Lynch (Scarpia). Tosca has been an audience favourite from the onset. Premiered in 1900, it marks the beginning of twentieth- century opera, in which sex, violence and the uncanny abysses of the human psyche would be explored, inspiring composers to expand the musical means of expression in all thinkable ways.

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

Although the originality of Georgi Catoire's musical language paved the way for Russian modernism, his output still followed the artistic ideals of Russia and not the new culture of the Soviet Republic. His highly expressive work is characterised by polyphonic density, heightened expressiveness, variety of colour, and a wide rhythmic and harmonic mix. Catoire's music was rarely performed in his day, his name being largely unknown. He left behind 36 works, including symphonic pieces, a piano concerto, chamber music, songs and piano cycles. This music was written in the fin de siècle style, which combined brilliance and nobility with fragility.