In his debut recital album, countertenor Hugh Cutting presents Refound with pianist Audrey Hyland. This programme revolves around songs that are the product of two roots, seen through two lenses. Cutting and Hyland build a recital celebrating rediscovery and reinterpretation, presenting songs that blend old and new in their construction, text, or context. It is a testament to the beauty of interpretation and revival. This theme unfolds in folk-inspired songs by Ravel and Vaughan Williams; ancient texts in Howells and Dvořák; an imagined past in Wolf and Hahn; emotional education in Beach, Rodrigo and Lama; Lehrer’s parody; the recently rediscovered Mel Bonis; Piers Connor Kennedy’s improvisation-adjacent Rough Rhymes (world premiere recording); and Jeremy Sams’ new translation of Schubert’s Abschied.

The revival of interest in female classical composers reflects a growing recognition of their overlooked contributions to music history. For centuries, women composers were marginalized, their works overshadowed by their male counterparts. However, recent efforts by musicians, scholars, and institutions have brought these composers into the spotlight, highlighting the richness and diversity of their compositions.

Women composers had great difficulty in making their voices heard and gaining recognition during their lifetimes. Even today, they are all too rarely heard in the concert hall or the opera house. That situation obviously cries out for a change in attitude, but then come the questions: all right, let’s programme women composers, but which ones, and which of their works? In this eight-CD set featuring several hundred performers, the Palazzetto Bru Zane offers its initial answer as far as nineteenth-century France is concerned. The selections range over chamber music, orchestral works, piano pieces and songs. They highlight twenty-one female creators, from already identified personalities like Hélène de Montgeroult, Louise Farrenc, Pauline Viardot, Marie Jaëll and Mel Bonis to such completely unknown figures as Charlotte Sohy, Madeleine Jaeger, Marthe Grumbach, Jeanne Danglas, Hedwige Chrétien and Madeleine Lemariey. From now on, there will be no excuse for ignoring Romantic women composers.

The duo of violinist Elena Urioste and pianist Tom Poster have often recorded eclectic fare, but here, in a more or less conventional program of late Romantic French fare, they excel with deeply affecting playing. The album made classical best-seller lists in early 2024, and one reason was certainly the presence of the little-known Violin Sonata in F sharp minor, Op. 112, of Mel Bonis. This female composer, whose life is richly deserving of feature film treatment, was recognized in her own time (as the high opus number suggests) but was later forgotten, and even the recent rediscovery of music by women has only slowly revealed her talent.