England's the Blues Band is led by ex-Manfred Mann vocalist Paul Jones and guitarist/vocalist Dave Kelly, who, before forming the group in 1979, had been a member of the John Dummer Blues Band and issued several solo recordings on his own (Kelly had also received praise for his playing by such blues legends as Howlin' Wolf and John Lee Hooker). After hooking up with friend/bassist Gary Fletcher, the seeds for the Blues Band were sown, resulting in countless albums (including such titles as 1980's Official Bootleg Album and Ready, 1981's Itchy Feet, 1982's Brand Loyalty which featured new member ex-Family drummer Rob Townsend, 1983's Bye Bye Blues, 1986's These Kind of Blues, 1989's Back for More, 1991's Fat City, 1993's Homage, and 1995's Wire Less, among others).

Irish cellist Ailbhe McDonagh and world renowned Beethoven specialist John O'Conor celebrated Beethoven’s 250th anniversary year with this recording of his complete sonatas for cello and piano.
“Out of several performances of the Beethoven A Major Sonata heard over 30 years, McDonagh’s was the most musically complete and satisfying” (Irish Times) “O'Conor brought real poetry to his recital of late-period Beethoven … incisive, even visionary projections that drove to the heart of the musical matter” (Washington Post)

Fast identisch sind die Lebensdaten von Johann Graf mit denen von Johann Sebastian Bach. Der Rudolstädter Hofkapellmeister gehörte zu den am meisten geschätzten Geigern seiner Zeit. Die Geigerin Anne Schumann, der Bratscher Klaus Voigt und der Cembalist Sebastian Knebel veröffentlichen hier ein Programm mit seinen musikgeschichtlich bedeutenden, jedoch bisher selten gespielten Violinsonaten. Die Werke umfassen leidenschaftliche und virtuose Musik im italienischen Stil, der gerade Klaus Voigt eine besondere Färbung gibt: Er unterstützt das schwingende und klare Violinspiel von Anne Schumann durch die Viola da spalla, eine Art mit einem Gurt vor dem Bauch gehaltenes kleines Cello.

The musicians working with soprano Maacha Deubner take us to exotic worlds of sound on their new recording, which is exclusively comprised of world premiere recordings. These include works by the Russian composer Elena Firsova and fellow composers, set in dialogue with the oeuvre of the poet Ossip Mandelstam. In addition to Firsova's works, we make acquaintance with music by Sofia Gubaidulina, Edison Denisov, and Valentin Silvestrov. Maacha Deubner and her colleagues from the KAPmodern ensemble of the Kammerakademie Potsdam devote themselves to the invariably highly expressive music, performing it with great seriousness and mastery.

Soprano Lisette Oropesa presents her solo debut album "Ombra Compagna", a kaleidoscope of concert arias by Mozart, whose music is very dear to her heart. These concert arias, written for important sopranos in his life, contain the most lavish and virtuosic music Mozart composed, both for the voice and for the orchestra. The emotional centre of the album is the aria Ah, lo previdi, in which the most sublime music accompanies the journey between life and death, as the spirit of a loved one slips away. For Oropesa, to be an “Ombra compagna” means to be with someone in spirit, a comforting yet heart-breaking testament of love.

On the album Starry Night, a new release from Berlin Classics, Alexej Gerassimez and the SIGNUM saxophone quartet explore new musical terrain. The unprecedented combination of percussion and saxophone quartet offers an innovative and inventive voyage in sound. Its focus is on infinity: it places familiar classics like Holsts The Planets alongside contemporary works like Gerassimezs own composition Rebirth. Starry Night shows off the five virtuosos in all their musical versatility and love of experimentation, as they journey through the cosmos and visit distant galaxies. In choosing the repertoire, the musicians took their inspiration from the great questions that have face humanity: Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going to? Musically, the pieces lead us into deep space, but also into the depths of human subconsciousness into our dreams, fears and longings. A realm of contrasting experiences opens up, familiar and amazing, comforting and stimulating, romantic and other\-worldly.

Mitzi Meyerson is a world-renowned American harpsichordist and teacher, based in Berlin for many decades now.

In the history of Spanish monarchy, the Royal Chapel is a fundamental entity for the establishment and dissemination of political and religious doctrine. It constitutes the heart of religious life centered around the kings. In the Royal Chapel, liturgical music plays an essential role as a means of legitimation of the catholic monarchy´s divine origin. In the 18th century, the life of the Spanish court was affected by the fire that razed the Real Alcazar on Christmas Eve of 1734, which also meant the destruction of the musical archive.The then maestro de música Francesco Corselli (1705-1778) had to face the challenge of reconstituting the archive and to provide the music needed for the celebration of liturgical functions, along with other musicians belonging to the institution. With this recording, music that was formerly exclusively intended for royalty is uncovered for the first time.

“Slightly the audience remember that I’m – as a descendant of writing tonal music – still alive and continue composing” (Walter Braunfels, 1946).Walter Braunfels is a composer whose music died twice: once when the Nazis declared his music “degenerate art”. Then again when post-war Germany had little use for the various schools of tonal music; when the arbiters of taste considered any form of romantic music – almost the whole pre-war aesthetic – to be tainted. This 9th release of Capriccio’s Braunfels Edition shows us also an open-minded composer who experimented with Jazz elements in his Divertimento for Radio-Orchestra in 1929.

The right music for summer "On A Cold Winter's Day", the first dhm album by Quadriga Consort, became a bestseller, and the ensemble's further albums were also praised everywhere for their special repertoire and successful interpretation: "Some songs move to tears, others almost invite you to dance. (…) Timelessly beautiful." (WAZ) The Austrian ensemble now has the appropriate music for summer: the new album features songs and instrumental pieces from Scandinavia and the British Isles on the theme of Midsummer. Midsummer's Eve has always had a special meaning for the people in the far north and is celebrated with long-established customs and atmospheric festivals. The Quadriga Consort has found, and in some cases rediscovered, some 20 traditional songs and melodies from Sweden, Denmark, England, Ireland and Scotland that refer to these exuberant celebrations and the Nordic summer. One of them is "Idas sommarvisa", a song that is still extremely popular in Swedish and German schools today, with lyrics by Astrid Lindgren.

Alongside his success directing the ensemble Ars Antiqua Austria, Gunar Letzbor has not let up on demonstrating his talents as a violinist. After the recording of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas the 12 Fantasias by Georg Philipp Telemann present him again completely “a solo”. Telemann’s Fantasias for Solo Violin are reflections both of his full maturity as a composer and of being highly proficient violinist himself, with the exceptionally prolific and enormously busy composer publishing sets of fantasias for solo instruments – flute, viola da gamba as well as violin – without basso continuo in Hamburg in the 1730s. The 12 Fantasias recorded here are written for an unaccompanied instrument and manage to embrace both the long established style for polyphony in German violin music – with fugues and multi-part writing for the violin – and more modern trends – galanterien and Italian sonata and concerto influences. Gunar Letzbor plays a Sebastian Klotz violin from the eighteenth century.

With “Lagrime d’amante”, La Compagnia del Madrigale, so accomplished with 16th- and 17th century Italian music and words, turns its attention afresh to the music of Claudio Monteverdi. This new Glossa release, recorded in Cumiana, outside Turin, faithfully conveys the beauty of the ensemble’s vocal blend in a selection of five-part compositions drawn from the Monteverdi of Cremona, Mantua and Venice, but centring on that cornerstone of his art, the Sixth Book.
The act of singing whilst weeping – as Marco Bizzarini points out in his booklet essay – is somewhat unfeasible, but time after time Monteverdi strove to overcome that improbability by his music, often calling upon the best Italian poetry of the time: here, the fabulously vivid imagery of Torquato Tasso, Battista Guarini and Petrarch are well served by Monteverdi’s musical response.

Is this an hommage to Schubert? Or just to a leading Lieder tenor of our time? Probably this box is both and it represents a clear reference for anyone who is a seasoned Lieder lover or a neophyte wanting to approach this genre.
I don’t say anything new when I state that the three Schubert’s Lieder cycles are the the pinnacle in the history of the art song. Not by chance any serious male singer wants to record at least one of these masterpieces.

In this programme two musicians travel criss-cross through two centuries and six countries in search of melodious gems. Gems that really belong to somebody else’s ‘domain’. For here we listen to the giant of string instruments, the double bass, as it whets its appetite on the melodious and virtuosic repertoire of its smaller siblings, the violin, viola and cello. Surely, the double bass can sing compellingly too, and tackle the most daredevil escapades? Yes, it can, and in so doing it surfaces from those low and hidden orchestral depths in which its life and lot usually lie. For this recording the double bass and its faithful friend the piano, have journeyed extensively, bringing home a rich booty of musical discoveries, ‘stolen gems’ from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From Argentina, Germany, Austria, the USA, Russia and Italy

The award-winning Dutch composer and bass clarinet player Joris Roelofs is also currently working on a PhD dissertation on Friedrich Nietzsche, improvisation and the notion of freedom.