This album includes a carefully curated selection of Renaissance and early Baroque gems. Lightly skirting the fluid boundaries between high art music and folk music in early modern Europe, much of the vocal music presented here demonstrates the grace and charm with which even the most erudite and famed composers applied their craft to popular song and dance. The instrumental music further reiterates the centrality of dance music in the 16th and 17th centuries, whether explicitly or as a rhythmic and formal underpinning. Above all, while skillfully composed by master musicians, the music is infused by musical cultures existing beyond the Church and court. At first glance unrelated, but a more discerning gaze will uncover the fine thread of cultural exchange between high art music and popular musical traditions running throughout the album.

Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony occupies a special position in Anton Bruckner's symphonic cycle. It heralds the cycle of his "mature" symphonies and with it the composer addressed his audience directly and wanted to be understood by them. He succeeded in this - today the “Romantic” is one of Bruckner's most popular symphonies. Still, he revised it time and again and today there are three versions of it.

The home of my mother – a pianist and singer herself – was where I first came in contact with Beethoven’s piano sonatas. Several of her piano students from Weimar Conservatory often came to take lessons or visit us in our apartment. Curiously, instead of popular sonatas such as the Pathétique or the Appassionata, we tended to hear other ones: I still vividly recall Sonata No. 30 in E Major op. 109, on which my mother was working with a student to whom I had taken a liking.

Pietro Torri's (1650-1737) life and work are closely connected with the Bavarian Elector Max Emanuel, whom he served for almost half a century. The monarch loved a pompous court with elaborately staged operas and festive cantatas. Torri provided the music, composing almost 20 operas and a large number of sacred and secular works for the Bavarian court, making Munich one of the great musical centers north of the Alps alongside Vienna. A special feature of Torri's oeuvre are his Trastulli (literally: time-wasting, playfulness) - a collection of 60 Italian arias with partly obligatory virtuoso instrumental interludes for evening entertainment in private court circles.
Daniela Dolci has compiled a selection of Trastulli into a pastiche and combined it with virtuoso opera arias by Torri. The program gives a wonderful insight into the work of the opera and vocal composer Pietro Torri.

For a production at the King's Theatre, Handel had created a mixed version of his Italian serenata Aci, Galatea e Polifemo HWV 72 and the English masque Acis and Galatea HWV 49a, which was performed semi-staged several times in 1732 with a star cast (including Senesino) to great acclaim. For today's ears, the musically attractive version HWV 49b suffers not least from the mixture of English and Italian text. In keeping with Handel's intentions, a purely Italian version was created here with additions from Italian works by the composer. The result is as convincing musically as it is scenically and would have deserved its own number in the catalogue of works.

Francesco Gasparini was held in high esteem by his contemporaries, as can be easily seen from his curriculum vitae: In Rome he was in the service of the great patrons of the arts Cardinal Pamphili, Marchese Ruspoli and the Borghese family, and in between he was music director at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice for twelve years, at the same time as Antonio Vivaldi. Gasparini wrote a total of almost 60 operas and nearly 30 oratorios, which were performed in many Italian cities. The countertenor Filippo Mineccia has cherry-picked the repertoire that suits his voice and presents a portrait of Gasparini's alto arias. He was very careful to select arias with different affects in order to present Gasparini's broad dramatic palette. Slow arias are interspersed with furioso pieces and contrapuntal pieces. Particularly brilliant are the rage arias, in which Mineccia is able to display all his vocal prowess. In the richly orchestrated and harmonically exciting arias from Gasparini's oratorios, the Orchestra Nazionale Barocca dei Conservatori Italiani can shine with its qualities.

Although Paderewski is more readily associated with his career as a legendary virtuoso pianist, his modest output of 70 orchestral, instrumental and vocal works deserves to be more widely known. Prominent among his vocal output is a series of early songs that reveal natural flowing patterns while exploring both melancholy and folk idioms. The Douze Mélodies, written at the end of his compositional career, is the most original and striking Polish set of songs of the period, notable for dissonance, chromaticism and a palette of rich and unusual musical colours, to which this orchestral arrangement adds a whole new dimension. Little known, the early Suite in G major offers youthful warmth and brio.

Nothing comes quite as close, musically speaking that is, to reaching at the core of America quite like the ballet Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copland (1900-1990). Despite having received his formal musical training in Paris under Nadia Boulanger and living in Brooklyn, he's the composer who captures best the "big sky country" spirit of America, especially in works like Billy the Kid, Fanfare for the Common Man, Rodeo and his score for Of Mice and Men. The "outdoorsy" and folksy feel of Appalachian Spring, typical of Copland's open intervals and harmonic structure, have caused it to become one of the best representations of American culture. Conductor David Bernard's relaxed tempo for the Introduction allows for the dawn's natural unfolding, before the full-blown awakening of nature which follows. The agrestic, corn-pone manner within the Revivalist and His Flock segment comes across well here, as well as the energetic, multi-layered rhythms of the Solo Dance of the Bride. The following Meno Mosso recapitulation of the opening sequence is highly expressive as well. The brisk tempo of the Variations on a Shaker Hymn (Simple Gifts) works very well here, and the Coda, as the sun sets in the west is heartfelt, warm and highly evocative.

Hailed as an “epic traversal of solo violin repertoire” and a “monumental achievement” (Chicago Tribune), American violinist Jennifer Koh’s complete Bach & Beyond recordings, pairing J.S. Bach’s violin sonatas and partitas with 20th- and 21st-century works inspired by Bach’s groundbreaking masterpieces, are now available in a convenient, economical boxed set offering all three albums for the price of two. AllMusic said, “Koh’s series is highly recommended to those in search of an experience that will reward repeated hearings.” Audiophile Audition called it a “remarkable three-disc effort, recommended to all with a good degree of urgency.”

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 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, in which impressionist elements fuse with rich Finnish folk melody.

Bach’s Chaconne and folk music from Denmark? Biber’s Passacaglia and a Swiss “Scottish”? And all that for viola alone? Played on a very special instrument: the famous Stradivarius viola “Gibson” from 1743… When Ursula Sarnthein, violist in the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, began recording the famous Chaconne from Bach’s Partita in D minor, BWV 2004, in September 2020, she did not yet know exactly where the journey would take her. The goal was to record music that crossed the violist’s musical path and that touched her – and that she can play alone on the viola. And her viola is a very special instrument: it’s the famous “Gibson”, that Stradivari has built in 1734.

The centenary of the death of Saint-Saëns has inspired French violinist Geneviève Laurenceau to create a programme of contrasts for her many-faceted instrument, which in her hands becomes both intimate and virtuosic, chamber music and concertante all in one. This Saint-Saëns memorial year is an invitation to the more adventurous spirits to explore some of his less familiar works. Among them is French violinist Geneviève Laurenceau, who has devised this album with herself as soloist as an extended poem of varied stanzas profiling "a rather different Saint-Saëns, whose warm and luminous elegance of style gives the instruments a singing voice – singing not only with virtuosity but with a profound sense of humanity".

Ce devait être un sacré rêve éveillé, et émerveillé, pour Janine Jansen que de pouvoir jouer douze des meilleurs violons de Stradivarius mis à sa disposition pendant une dizaine de jours en vue de cet album et d’un film tourné par Gerry Fox à Londres. Dix jours pour apprivoiser ces bijoux, c’est évidemment très peu, même s’ils sont prolongés à jamais par ce documentaire disponible en ligne en automne 2021.

Inspired by traditional melodies and cultural flavors, A GRAND JOURNEY gives us contemporary chamber works by Richard E. Brown, Ovidiu Marinescu, and Mark G. Simon. Performed by internationally acclaimed Trio Casals, these distinct works immerse listeners in varying motifs drawn from diverse cultures, simulating a journey of melodic Korean folk patterns, Greek mythological icons, Irish fiddling, tango, and sensations garnered from the Black Sea and English countryside.

This Acelga Quintet's thematic recording is full of drama! It features original works and arrangements for wind quintet by Luciano Berio, Franz Danzi, Jacob Gade, Claude-Paul Taffanel, and Giuseppe Verdi. All works relate their own narrative, both musically and dramatically: from homicidal opera thrillers to hungover brawls in the backlot. With a diverse tonal palette and a love of detail, the highly virtuosic wind ensemble interprets music that is dear to them. The five young musicians have won prizes in various competitions, including the ARD Music Competition, and hold positions at universities or major orchestras.