As composer, musicologist and critic, Erkki Salmenhaara (1941-2002) was one of the major figures in Finnish musical life in the second half of the twentieth century. His music for organ charts his stylistic evolution, from a modernism influenced by his teacher, György Ligeti, to triadic harmonies spiced with dissonance. Even so, all these works manifest his fondness for the ability of the organ to generate massive and powerful blocks of sound, giving this music a monumental character in keeping with the grand spaces of the buildings in which it is usually heard.

Immensely gifted emerging artist" (New York Times) Daniel Lozakovich has been dreaming about recording the Beethoven Violin Concerto since he was eight. He first performed it on stage when he was thirteen, and at fifteen was invited by Valery Gergiev to perform the concerto with him in Moscow. A few short years later, he has reunited with his mentor Gergiev to record the Beethoven with the Mnchner Philharmoniker for Deutsche Grammophon.

It figured that some other prolific composer of Handel’s time would have composed a competing “Water Music,” but Telemann’s half-hour work–otherwise known as an Overture in C–remains relatively obscure. Written for the centenary of the Hamburg Admiralty a few years after Handel’s “Water Music,” it is an invigorating piece of work, consisting of an Overture and nine dance movements with various watery descriptions from mythology that the listener can take or leave.

Although Auber was one of the most popular of 19th-century French composers, his music is seldom revived in the opera house. This series is restoring his overtures and orchestral excerpts from operas, a swathe of refined and elegant music showing his importance in operatic history. Featured in this volume are the overture from La Muette de Portici, his revolutionary masterpiece, as well as premiere recordings of music from La Barcarolle and Les Chaperons blancs, exuding both the drama and the charm that permeate all his mature works.

The second volume in this series continues to explore little-known examples of Auber’s elegant and refined operatic music. Julie was his first stage work, its fantasia-like beauty foreshadowing the operas, opéras-comiques and lyric dramas to come. Striking melodies and haunting episodes abound in these overtures and entr’actes, and there is restrained yet fragrant Iberian colour in the overture to Léocadie. The Violin Concerto is lightly scored and gentle, with a tarantella-like finale full of folk vitality.

With the exception of a few works by Ottorino Respighi, and for reasons which are relatively obscure, the orchestral concert music of the generation of Italian composers to which Ildebrando Pizzetti belongs has—so far as international acceptance is concerned—remained little-known outside Italy.

The record Pato (Dam) depicts the power of singing together: the happiness of belonging and being united, the comfort of liberation from difficult feelings, the delight of sharing joy, and empowerment even amid difficult challenges. Singing together makes you stop in the very moment to experience beauty. The songs on the record flow through moments of refuge, otherness and loneliness into being united with oneself, the other and nature. The process of making this record also underlines the power of singing: a major part of the practice work took place in the times of isolation on spring 2020, due to restrictions on singing together caused by the pandemic.

A noteworthy fact: Marais, in his five books of Pièces de viole, published only two suites for two viols and continuo. Aside from the two suites for three viols (Book IV), all the other pieces are intended for the solo instrument with accompaniment of harpsichord, theorbo or a second viol in different combinations.

Carl Maria von Weber wrote music that has been admired by composers as diverse as Schumann, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky. But in his lifetime he was also recognised as one of the finest pianists of the period, with an exceptional technique and a brilliant gift for improvisation. Especially during the 1810s he toured extensively, and like other composer-pianists he wrote works to use as his personal calling cards, among them the two piano concertos recorded here. They were both composed in 1811-12, but while the First Concerto takes Mozart's concertos as its model, Piano Concerto No. 2 looks towards Beethoven.

Andreas Romberg is now more than an insiders tip; he is a recognized composer situated on the interface between Classicism and Romanticism. Romberg was regarded as a celebrated violin virtuoso, concertmaster, and composer, and his stays in Paris, Vienna, Prague, and Italy spread his fame internationally. He met Ludwig van Beethoven, Joseph Haydn, and many other musical personalities of his times. A great deal of his oeuvre covering all sorts of different genres was forgotten, but this is slowly changing, primarily owing to the Arbeitsstelle Andreas Romberg at the University of Vechta, a research center that since 1993 has engaged in the systematic investigation of this composers works.

Live at the BBC is a Live two disc compilation album featuring various line ups of the rock group Electric Light Orchestra (ELO). Released in 1999 and featuring various live BBC sessions as well as Live concert segments recorded by the BBC…

Songs in the Key of Life was Stevie Wonder's longest, most ambitious collection of songs, a two-LP (plus accompanying EP) set that – just as the title promised – touched on nearly every issue under the sun, and did it all with ambitious (even for him), wide-ranging arrangements and some of the best performances of Wonder's career…