Fractal is a septet around the Swiss jazz guitarist Jan Herzog. In 2013 he founded the "Extended in Motion Sextet" from which the "Fractal" septet emerged in 2014. The music of the ensemble moves from dense networks to intimate solos and duos, seemingly simple harmonic and rhythmic structures to complex grooves and soundscapes. Passages written out for a long time are contrasted by large forms of improvisation. In the course of a concert, the formation affects various musical states of composition, both in terms of composition and improvisation, in both small and large.

En février 1935 Alban Berg reçoit la commande d'un concerto (pour violon). Deux mois plus tard, Manon, fille d'Alma Mahler et de Walter Gropius, meurt à l'âge de dix-huit ans.(…) (Une) septicémie … l'emportera à la fin de décembre. Prenant la valeur d'un double requiem, le Concerto « A la mémoire d'un ange » suscite une intense émotion lors de sa création, à Barcelone le 19 avril 1936 … Cette partition reste l'oeuvre de la seconde école de Vienne la plus jouée et aimée du grand public. A un portrait gracieux et joyeux de Manon (Andante - Allegretto), succède une musique plus dure incarnant la douleur puis la « transfiguration » (Allegro - Adagio), qu'engendre une citation du choral "Es ist genug". Soutenu par un Georges Prêtre aux petits soins, Christian Ferras en livre en janvier 1963 une vision sensuelle et passionnée, à fleur de peau, vraiment poignante. Le violoniste français domine avec une remarquable aisance la complexité du langage de Berg, dodécaphonique mais émaillé de réminiscences tonales.

Recognized as among our most eloquent and insightful interpreters of the major keyboard works of Bach and Beethoven, pianist Andrew Rangell has drawn acclaim for a variety of recordings, ranging from the music of Sweelinck, Farnaby, and Gibbons to that of Janacek, Enescu, Nielsen, Bartok, Valen, Christian Wolff, and many others. The present recording, newly documenting Mr. Rangell’s long and loving exploration of Bach, is also something of a counterpart to his 2-album 2017 release, A Bouquet of Beethoven.

After coming to prominence as the frontman of the Mercury Prize-winning Klaxons, recording with Arctic Monkeys, and crafting his Shock Machine project, James Righton now releases his debut solo album The Performer. The Performer stands in stark contrast to the electro-hedonism of Righton’s work with Klaxons. Instead, it spins through various points from 1970 onwards. It touches on the suave art-lounge of Roxy Music, the jangly grooves of R.E.M., the sumptuous psychedelia of latter day Beach Boys, and the songwriting gift of Nick Lowe. In short, it uses classic elements as the groundwork for something which feels a natural fit for 2019.

It’s always sad when a band you love announces that they’re calling it a day, especially when the band in question are currently producing the best work of their career.Such is the case with Australian Black Metal crew Deadspace, who recently declared that, due to a variety of reasons, this year would be their last as an active band.

When this sumptuous production by Giancarlo del Monaco opened in 1995, legendary tenor Plácido Domingo gave a riveting performance as the fiery revolutionary Gabriele Adorno, a tenor part. In the 2010 revival, he made history by taking on the baritone title role, one of Verdi’s most fascinating characters, and thrilling audiences with his multifaceted and gripping portrayal. Boccanegra is beset on all sides, juggling political adversaries bent on murder with his love for his long-lost daughter Amelia (Adrianne Pieczonka). James Levine’s conducting brings out all the color and surging emotion of Verdi’s magnificent score.

Puerto Rican jazz guitarist Richard Peña has just released his latest album “Synergy”, in which the award winning artist pays homage to his different mentors, friends and loved ones throughout 10 remarkable songs imbued with clever melodic phrasing and dynamic arrangements full of brio and vitality that are meant to move the listeners, giving them an honest and exciting sonic experience.

The Keith Jarrett American Quartet's last recording session combines most of the contents Byablue and Bop-Be, omitting "Yahllah" and "Konya" from the former and "Pyramids Moving" from the latter. The partial sampling of the sessions indicates that the quartet went out on a high note, still exciting and inventive, the old interplay very much in action, unrepentantly acoustic in an electric era. The quartet was soon to be defunct.

Ludwig van Beethoven went to Prague for the first time in 1796, accompanying Prince Lichnowsky, who introduced him to the city’s foremost aristocratic families. One of these was the Clam- Gallas family, who played an eminent role in musical circles. It was here that Beethoven met Josephine Clary-Aldringen, an amateur singer and mandolinist who in 1797 married Count Christian Christoph. It was to her that Beethoven dedicated a number of pieces for mandolin and piano that feature in this recording, along with two interesting sonatas by Johann Nepomuk Hummel and Bartolomeo Bortolazzi, originally composed for the same combination of instruments.

SOMM Recordings continues its acclaimed championing of neglected British composers with Dame Ethel Smyth: Songs and Ballads 17 vocal works with piano and chamber orchestra accompaniment composed between 1886 and 1913. Contralto Lucy Stevens has a long relationship with Smyth, portraying the composer, political activist and writer in her widely admired stage show Ethel Smyth: Grasp the Nettle. She is joined by her long-time stage companion, pianist Elizabeth Marcus, and Odaline de la Martinez conducting the Berkeley Ensemble. All four are making their debuts on SOMM. Published in 1886 and receiving their first recordings in English are the five Op.3 Songs and Ballads. Dedicated to Livia Frege, the singer to whom Mendelsohn and Schumann dedicated some of their finest songs, they blend images of the natural world with themes of lost love to reveal Smyth as a songwriter of already considerable gifts. Dedicated to Smyths mother and exploring themes of motherhood while shot through with images drawn from troublesome dreams, the five Op.4 Lieder, settings of German texts, exalt in an emotional palette that ranges from tenderness to trenchant emotion.

Throughout his career, Adam Lambert has always been open to change. With 2019’s Velvet: Side A EP, the pop singer and LGBTQ+ icon hinted that he was heading in a funkier, rock-edged direction—far removed from the gleaming electro-pop sound of 2015’s The Original High. Now that he’s completed the second half of his fourth LP, VELVET, Lambert makes it loud and clear that he’s going to do things on his own terms. “Try to put me in a box/Make me something I’m not/Don’t give a fuck ’cause I’m gonna take back,” he sings on the swaggering anthem “Superpower” over a sensual funk-soul groove. Self-discovery is at the core of these songs, as he struggles with unrequited love (“Loverboy”), bemoans the lack of human connection (“Overglow”), and yearns for a fresh start (“Closer to You”) with his usual theatrical flair (he is the current Queen frontman, after all). On “Roses,” Lambert shakes off the drama with producer Nile Rodgers by his side, stretching his pearly falsetto to the limit over Rodgers’ signature guitar riffs.

World Premiere Recording (all tracks except for Stabat mater). Features sacred music celebrating Easter week by 17th century Neapolitan composer Antonio Nola. It also includes a work by his contemporary Pietro Marchitelli. This recording was made during the 2019 edition of the Misteria Paschalia Festival in Krakóv. Antonio Florio Florio is an internationally acclaimed specialist of this repertoire and artistic director of the Krakóv Festival. Latin texts included.

“The recorder has even more ability than portraying a pastoral shepherd idyl!” (“Die Blockflöte kann mehr, als nur eine pastorale Schäferidylle abbilden!”) This is the artistic credo of Simon Borutzki, who performs “Extravaganza” together with Lea Rahel Bader (baroque cello), Magnus Andersson (baroque guitar and lute) and Daniel Trumbull (harpsichord and organ) on stage of the opera. As a prima donna, this kind of an operatic scene is denied by the soloist from works by Tomaso Albinoni, Pietro Castrucci, Johann Adolf Hasse, Giuseppe Sammartini, Domenico Scarlatti, Leonardo Vinci and Antonio Vivaldi. All composers featured on this CD were either opera composers or played in Händel’s opera orchestra in London. However, they also had in common the composing of continuo-accompanied solo sonatas, which are played in alternating formations here.

Italian Concerto, BWV 971 : Among the best known of Bach’s solo harpsichord works, the Concerto each Italienischen Gusto was published in 1735, as the first half of the second volume of the Clavier-Übung (with the French Overture as the second half).