Along with two other piano sonatas and the sublime String Quintet, the A major Piano Sonata D959 is one of the four visionary masterpieces Schubert finished in 1828 which were to be among the very last things he wrote. On a less imposing scale, the six Moments musicaux reveal an alternative side to the composer.

With his first stage work ‘Le Villi’, the young Giacomo Puccini instantly struck a chord with his contemporaries. His unerring instinct for deeply moving melodies made him a beacon of hope for a new generation of Italian opera composers. In this ‘opera ballo’ he masterfully set to music the gruesomely beautiful legend of an unfaithful fiancé who is killed by the frenzied dance of the “Willis” – elemental spirits haunting the Black Forest. On October 13, 2024, a few weeks before the centenary of the composer’s death on November 29, the Munich Radio Orchestra presented a concert performance of the two-act version of ‘Le Villi’ at the city’s Prinzregententheater.

On sait peu de choses sur la vie personnelle de la talentueuse compositrice. Cependant, les quelques témoignages qui existent d'Anna Bon di Venezia indiquent une carrière musicale impressionnante à travers divers pays européens. Anna Bon di Venezia est née en août 1738 à Bologne, en Italie. Elle vient d'une famille de musiciens italiens prospères qui ont été actifs dans de nombreux pays européens. Anna Bon a reçu sa formation musicale au célèbre « Ospedale della Pietà » de Venise. L'Ospedale était un orphelinat pour filles, et en même temps une importante école de musique où enseignaient des professeurs comme Antonio Vivaldi. L'orchestre de filles de l'Ospedale avait une excellente réputation internationale.

Sebastian Knüpfer is yet another Baroque composer whose reputation and popularity have been overshadowed by J S Bach. Little of Knüpfer's music has previously been transcribed from its many manuscripts, let alone published. However, in his day Knüpfer was a respected and highly sought-after composer; his compositions were admired by his contemporaries and, according to his obituary, he 'composed quotations of the Psalms and other Biblical books with such sweetness and skilfulness that he delighted even the saddest hearts, and his name is spoken with admiration not only in Leipzig but also outside'.

The latest album from Christina Pluhar and her instrumental ensemble L’Arpeggiata sheds new light on the chamber cantatas of 17th century Italian composer, Luigi Rossi. He wrote more than 300 of these works and Christina Pluhar’s new double album includes an impressive number of 21 world premiere recordings, which are the fruit of Christina Pluhar’s research among music manuscripts held in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and the Vatican Library.

The Colourful Telemann presents works from different periods of Georg Philipp Telemanns life, reflecting his lively personality and exploring his seemingly unlimited invention over a wide variety of styles and genres. A contemporary of Bach and Handel, Telemann wrote music that stands out for its delightful and remarkably generous character, each piece like a leisurely walk with a good friend. From the German and French influences of the earlier Sonata to the dignified Sinfonia Melodica, possibly composed in the year of his death, this is Telemann at his best. Barthold Kuijken is an eminent leader in the field of early music.

Vienna Mandolin Stories is Alon Sariel's first full concerto album, inviting listeners on a journey through late-18th- and early-19th-century Vienna. The album features works for mandolin and orchestra by Haydn, Mozart, Krahmer, and Paisiello. While some pieces were originally composed for mandolin, others have been skillfully adapted by Sariel. The album thrives on Sariel's inventive and playful approach, as represented in "Haydn's Mandolin Concerto", an imaginative rearrangement combining movements from different concertos, including one by Malzat long misattributed to Haydn.

These two ballets reveal a specific facet of Stravinsky's genius, his skill in pastiche. Having used music from eighteenth-century Naples for Pulcinella, he turned to Tchaikovsky for Le Baiser de la fée. On both occasions, he succeeded in transforming the exercise of homage into a highly personal work. Stravinsky had a special artistic affinity with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, which amply repays the debt in this new recording!

If the Piano Concertos nos. 19 and 23 are among the most famous in the corpus, it is of course because of their sublime middle movements, but also because they reach the very heights of Mozartian subtlety in terms of orchestration, thematic development and dramatic instinct. The historically informed performances presented here take the same interpretative approach as earlier volumes in the series, underpinned by an utterly luminous musical discourse!

Hot on the heels of two successful albums (as leading member of Sonar w. David Torn), Swiss composer and guitarist Stephan Thelen presents his first named RareNoise release, World Dialogue. World Dialogue casts a light on Stephan Thelen's work as a contemporary classical composer. It features four works for String Quartet, composed over the last decade,performed by the Kronos Quartet and the Al Pari Quartet.'World Dialogue', 'Silesia' and 'Chaconne', composed between 2006 and 2018, were performed and recorded by the Al Pari Quartet in Berlin earlier this year. 'Circular Lines' was commissioned then performed in 2017 by the Kronos Quartet as part of their '50 For The Future: The KronosLearning Repertoire' series of commissions.

Throughout his life, from his very beginnings right up to the end, Telemann wrote for the basse de viole (as the French called it) and especially in chamber music. Of course, the viola da gamba also plays an important role in works intended for larger formations, such as concertos and orchestral suites, church cantatas and, lastly, oratorios. According to the custom of the time, Telemann also used the viol in funeral cantatas. Furthermore, he wrote for it as a solo instrument: for example, the Sonata in D major, TWV 40:1, recorded here, or sonatas for two viols or for viol and basso continuo. The present recording brings together various works with solo viol, selected from different periods of the masters output. Here one will find a double concerto for recorder, viol, strings and continuo, two solos with basso continuo, a sonata for solo viol and two quartets.

Lars Vogts new solo piano release is dedicated to the piano works of Leos Janacek (18541928), one of the most original voices among the 20th century composers. This album includes three of the composers most well-known and most extensive solo piano works. These works by Janacek are marked by deep melancholy and passion. They manifest the composer's rich inner world through a musical language that remains to be timeless. Lars Vogt has established himself as one of the leading musicians of his generation. Born in the German town of Düren in 1970, he first came to public attention when he won second prize at the 1990 Leeds International Piano Competition and has enjoyed a varied career for over twenty-five years.

Founded in 1998 at Pro Corda, Suffolk, the multi-award-winning Doric String Quartet describes recording Brittens quartets as a significant milestone: In our recording we have endeavoured to tread a line that brings out the humanity in these works but also recognises the need for distance and fragility. This is very personal and intimate music, yet also world-encompassing and timeless. The Quartet continues: Another feature of this recording is that Hélène Clément, our violist, is playing on Benjamin Brittens own viola. This instrument (on loan from the Britten-Pears Foundation) was made in 1843 in Milan by Francesco Guissani. It was previously owned by the composer Frank Bridge who gave it to Britten, as a departure gift when Britten and Pears set sail for the USA in 1939. ​

Here is the work of a genius who died at the age of twenty-six: Pergolesi's Stabat Mater is one of the miracles of eighteenth-century sacred music. Nourished by their experience of ‘setting in resonance’ early and contemporary repertories, Riccardo Minasi and the Hamburg musicians shed an astonishingly modern light on these moving pieces, in which the voices of Giulia Semenzato and Lucile Richardot intertwine in the most sublime of communions. The Stabat is echoed by Joan Rossell’s poignant Salve Regina, long attributed to Pergolesi himself.

The large collection of antique instruments at Les Siècles' command makes its recordings more than just speculative period exercises, but something approaching musical time travel. Led since 2003 by its founder, François-Xavier Roth, this singular French orchestra has given thrilling historically-informed recreations of the repertoire of the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries on vintage instruments that were available to the musicians of the time, crafted by hand, and possessing the unique sonorities and tunings of different regions.