On this album Danny Driver brings his impeccable pianism, consummate style and imagination to Schumann's Novelletten and Nachtstucke, less wellknown sets from his extraordinary output for the piano. Schumann wrote Nachtstucke upon the death of his brother, and would have entitled it Corpse Fantasia were it not for Clara's intervention. The eight pieces of the Novelletten form what is at once the largest and the least known among Schumann's major piano cycles.

Pizarro's acclaimed second disc of Beethoven sonatas, beautifully played on a Blüthner piano. Beethoven's last three sonatas mark a culmination in the classical-romantic sonata form, and Beethoven's farewell to the genre. Pizarro explains: "Beethoven not only aesthetically and emotionally heralds the arrival of the Romantic Age in music but also profoundly alters what had been the accepted parameters of sonata form. Man has become the centre of the universe as can be heard through the outpouring of emotion, as human condition and the circle of human life is depicted in these three works.

Norwegian composer SVEIN HUNDSNES has written a considerable number of works ranging from concertos to pieces for young musicians. His piano music is stylistically wide-ranging and occupies a significant place in his oeuvre. Piano Sonata No. 2 exemplifies his practice of working from tiny core motifs as he makes a series of connections between each vivid movement. Syncopated rhythms animate Vinterdanser (Winter Dances) a sequence of round dances; whereas torches swirling in the air, a cradle song and clouds of illuminated water particles are magically evoked in Nuances de Lumière (Shades of Light). Finnish pianist Laura Mikkola, continues her critically acclaimed discovery, in this second volume of Hundsnes piano works.

The essence of Camille Saint-Saëns' music comes through perhaps most clearly in his music for solo instrument and orchestra, which exemplifies his elegant combination of melody and conservatory-generated virtuosity. The two cello concertos are here, plus a pair of crowd-pleasing short works for piano and orchestra, and the evergreen Carnival of the Animals, with pianists Louis Lortie and Hélène Mercier joining forces along with a collection of instruments that includes the often-omitted glass harmonica. There are all kinds of attractions here: the gently humorous and not over-broad Carnival, the songful cello playing of Truls Mørk, and the little-known piano-and-orchestra scene Africa, Op. 89, with its lightly Tunisian flavor (sample this final track). But really, the central thread connecting them all is the conducting of Neeme Järvi and the light, graceful work of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra; French music is the nearly 80-year-old Järvi's most congenial environment, and in this recording, perhaps his last devoted to Saint-Saëns, he has never been better.

American pianist and composer Kit Armstrong steps back in time to revive the spirit of Elizabethan England. For his first album on Deutsche Grammophon, Kit Armstrong presents works by two composers who elevated instrumental music to new heights of refinement in the Golden Age of Elizabeth I and her successor James I.

J. S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier Daniel Barenboim "Das Wohltemperierte Klavier is not only the sum of everything that has preceded it, it also points the way ahead." Daniel Barenboim sees Bach's encyclopaedic collection of 48 preludes and fugues, with it's dual traversal of all 24 keys, as a work of pivotal importance and epic stature. His interpretation elicited a rapturous response from Gramophone magazine: "There is no sense of received wisdom, only a vital act of recreation that captures Bach's masterpiece in all it's first glory and magnitude; no simple-minded notions of period style or strict parameters but a moving sense of music of a timeless veracity."

In a true meeting of musical minds, the two superb pianists team up once again for a delectable programme of miniatures by Fauré, Poulenc, Stravinsky, Debussy and Ravel. A bewitching programme of music often associated with childhood, including favourites by Fauré, Ravel and Debussy; works which amply reward the care lavished on them by Paul Lewis and Steven Osborne in these exquisite accounts.

Jeneba Kanneh-Mason's debut solo album is out now! 'Fantasie' takes you on a journey that explores connections across different composers' sound worlds. From Claude Debussy, Frédéric Chopin and Alexander Scriabin to Florence Price, Margaret Bonds and William Grant Still, Jeneba presents a programme which is also very personal to her as an artist.

Selim Palmgren, a student of Busoni, was one of the leading Nordic composers during the first decades of the 20th century. His wide-ranging music for piano was performed and recorded by some of the greatest artists of the day. This third volume in the first complete cycle of Palmgren’s piano music on disc includes a varied cross-section of works written over a 50-year period. It includes the youthful Lyriskt intermezzo, Op. 8, romantic miniatures of great charm—as well as one of his greatest achievements, the atmospheric suite Kevät (‘Spring’), in which impressionist elements fuse with rich Finnish folk melody.

Gerard Willems is one of Australia;s finest concert pianists and Beethoven scholars. He has recorded all the Beethoven sonatas and concertos and has chosen to record the Diabelli on the Australian designed and built Stuart and Sons piano. This instrument features an extra 2 octaves, producing an enhanced resonance and unrivalled sound.

This recording stems from a long and personal relationship with the composer’s music, which reached a major public milestone when she made her BBC Proms solo debut in 2023, performing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3.