The Dream of Gerontius by Edward Elgar is a two-part work for voices and orchestra composed in 1900 to text by John Henry Newman. Widely regarded as Elgar’s finest choral work, and by some his masterpiece, Gabrieli’s first-class performance, and McCreesh’s superb interpretation demonstrate why their recordings are seen as some of the best in classical music today.

La Nuova Musica and its artistic director David Bates present Henry Purcell's most widely admired work Dido and Aeneas. With Nathum Tate's libretto based on Virgil's Aeneid Book IV, Dido and Aeneas is a miniature opera, as well as the only all-sung opera Purcell ever composed.

Malcolm Martineau follows up his acclaimed complete song collections of Poulenc and Faure with an album celebrating the solo songs of Henri Duparc, performed by an acclaimed roster of British singers - Dame Sarah Connolly, Huw Montague Rendall, Nicky Spence & William Thomas. An iconic figure in the world of French music - his songs described as being 'imperfect… but works of genius' by Ravel and 'perfect' by Debussy - Duparc only composed a handful of works during the first half of his life: following a nervous disorder in 1885 at age 37 he lived for a further 48 years, orchestrating and tinkering with his songs, but publishing nothing new. Scottish pianist Malcolm Martineau is recognized at the highest international level as one of the UK's leading accompanists, performing worldwide alongside the world's greatest singers and with a discography of over 100 albums, including a number of award-winning recordings.

Anglo-German contralto Claudia Huckle, tenor Nicky Spence and pianist Justin Brown present Mahler's autograph piano version of Das Lied von der Erde in this stunning new recording. The recording was a lockdown project, which provided Huckle with a focus for over a year during the pandemic.

The song cycles of Ralph Vaughan Williams recorded here, some of them including instruments other than the piano, are some of his most characteristic early works. One hears both his growing interest in folk song and his indebtedness to Ravel, put together with a piquant kind of youthful ambition. In the opening Four Hymns for tenor, piano, and viola, the generally agnostic or atheist Vaughan Williams composed some lovely examples in the rare genre of religious art song. The only really well-known set here is 1909's On Wenlock Edge, and the Britishness of the whole project is shown by the fact that the annotator does not feel it necessary to name the author of the texts. It is A.E. Housman, whose faux-simple verses are ideally suited to the natural voice of tenor Nicky Spence.

Malcolm Martineau follows up his acclaimed complete song collections of Poulenc and Faure with an album celebrating the solo songs of Henri Duparc, performed by an acclaimed roster of British singers – Dame Sarah Connolly, Huw Montague Rendall, Nicky Spence & William Thomas.

Christopher Glynn continues his series of Schubert in English releases with a new recording of ‘The Fair Maid of the Mill’ (Die schöne Müllerin) with acclaimed Scottish tenor Nicky Spence. Set to a new translation by writer and director Jeremy Sams, Willhelm Müller’s direct and emotionally-charged poetry became the basis of Schubert’s first cycle to tell a complete story over the course of its 20 songs. Nicky Spence is one of Scotland’s proudest sons and his unique skills as a singing actor and the rare honesty of his musicianship have earned him a place at the top of the classical music profession. Nicky won a record contract with Decca records while still studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and then took a place as an inaugural Harewood Artist at the ENO. Christopher Glynn is a Grammy award-winning pianist, praised for his ‘breathtaking sensitivity’ (Gramophone), ‘irre- pressible energy, wit and finesse’ (The Guardian) and ‘perfect fusion of voice and piano’ (BBC Music Magazine). He is also Artistic Director of the Ryedale Festival, where he has been praised as a ‘visionary’ and ‘inspired programmer’ (The Times).

Folk Songs from the Eastern Counties is is the third in a series of four albums recording all 81 of the folk songs in English that Ralph Vaughan Williams arranged for voice and piano or violin. 57 of the 81 songs have not previously been recorded in these arrangements.