Newly arrived in Paris, where he meets again his ex-pupil Marie-Antoinette, Gluck decides to court the Parisian public by revising one of his great Viennese successes: Orfeo ed Euridice. More than a simple adaptation to the French language and taste, his Orphée et Eurydice proves to be an out-and-out aesthetic revolution. This operatic wind of change has been recaptured for us to rediscover by Paul Agnew, Les Arts Florissants and three exceptional soloists.

When we think of the waltz, it is easy to imagine the ballrooms of European high society in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. However, to dismiss it as just another formal ballroom dance does it a great disservice! Evolving out of earlier peasant dances and breaking through to the ballroom, it was the waltz that for the first time allowed dancers to face one another and revolve together in an embrace. This was nothing short of a shocking outrage to many, and yet, the waltz persisted, breaking social norms and resistance. It then broke geographical boundaries as well as it began to spread across Europe and become a dance of many different national flavours.

Home is a return to the essentials. In this new album, recorded in Normandy, where Emmanuel Rosenfelder lives, breathes and finds himself, the guitarist retraces his career and reveals his influences. Each of the 20 tracks on this recording is a piece from the exceptionally diverse universe of the musician, who gives free rein to his virtuosity with the help of transcriptions of his own works. From the first notes he heard of Chopin or Schumann, to the precious lessons of his teacher Lagoya, the discovery of Sor or Ponce, to the lullabies that have taken a place in his repertoire…

Arising from a passion shared with his father, Luis Fernando Pérez is inviting you to explore his ‘encores’, the little pearls he only reveals to the audience at his concerts. This album, recorded in a single session, combines masterpieces with rare items, paying tribute to those like his father who supported and inspired him from the very start.

Sources inconnues was born from these (non-exhaustive) questions. A piece from Jean-Yves Labat de Rossi’s album En Voyage —musician known as Mr. Frog and cofounder of the Ad Vitam records label— lent its name to this musical recollection. Is this yet another concept album gathering random pieces that have nothing to do with each other merely adorned with a clever, enigmatic title and a misleading premise, all in an attempt to dress itself up in pseudo-intellectualism and wrap the whole thing in a trendy, marketable theme? Reader, listener, trust me. If I had any kind of marketing plan, I’d have recorded Beethoven’s last 3 sonatas or Chopin’s Four ballads instead of starting out with a monograph dedicated to Moondog and following that up with Alan Hovhaness, Philip Glass, Erik Satie and Keith Jarrett.

Mozart died barely 11 months after completing his final piano concerto, No. 27, in January 1791. It’s one of the composer’s most serene concertos, full of wit and beauty, with a piano part that eschews technical difficulty for songlike elegance. Whether, as has been suggested over the years, the piece contains hints of a man resigned to his fate, doesn’t matter. Mozart was at the height of his inventive powers, and the piece is treated here to a performance of lightness and grace by a team of musicians determined never to overstate and risk romanticizing Mozart’s sublime utterings. Even when Mozart veers into minor-key territory, the storm clouds dissipate almost as soon as they gather.

RossoPorpora made its Arcana debut with an album dedicated to Luca Marenzio, which received widespread critical acclaim, including the German Record Critics' Award, Classic Voice’s Disc of the Month, a Diapason rating of 5, and five-star reviews from Musica and Amadeus. It was described as “magnificent” by Early Music Review and hailed as “a desert island disc” by Forum Opéra. Now, with its second album, the ensemble turns to one of the cornerstones of 17th-century music: Claudio Monteverdi’s Sixth Book of Madrigals. In a deeply immersive exploration of the composer’s inner world during his final years in Mantua, RossoPorpora delivers a profoundly moving interpretation of the many masterpieces contained in the collection—Lamento d’Arianna, Lagrime d’Amante sul sepolcro dell’Amata, Zefiro torna, Oimè ’l bel viso, Qui rise o Tirsi—which together mark one of the highest achievements in the history of the madrigal.

25-year-old rising American violinist Karisa Chiu, noted for her “easy virtuosity … humor, nuance… [and] playful[ness]” (Cleveland Classical), and renowned Chinese pianist Zhu Wang (“a thoughtful, sensitive performer” —New York Times) unite for Chiu’s debut album, HOME. Influenced by her Chicago upbringing, pandemic discoveries, and Korean and Chinese family roots, the recording reflects on the various interpretations of “home” in Chiu’s life, with works by Jean Sibelius, Claude Debussy, Augusta Read Thomas, Cyril Scott, and Gabriel Fauré.

Following her internationally acclaimed and multi-award-winning 2023 debut, Rising Sun, pianist Shuteen Erdenebaatar returns with Under the Same Stars—an exquisite duo album with the rising ACT Music artist Nils Kugelmann on contra-alto clarinet and upright bass. Meditative, romantic, and daring, this duo paints poetic miniatures with strokes of jazz, classical, and cinematic music. Alto Recorder and Mongolian horsehead fiddle features add soulful mystery.

Since the creation of their ensemble La Néréide in 2019, the three sopranos Camille Allérat, Julie Roset and Ana Vieira Leite have wanted to tell stories about women, women who are courageous, vulnerable, passionate, powerful, secretive — and sometimes all of these at once. Le Cœur et la Raison imagines the fate of a young noblewoman sent to the Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr, where she received a meticulous education, particularly in music; she took part in services and sang works by its organist Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (1676-1749) — including his magnificent Miserere — and by Jean-François Lalouette (1651-1728), a pupil of Lully.

The deliciously erotic aspects of the text of the Song of Solomon inspired a great many composers during the 17th century, although it remains curious that even the strictest Lutheran composers could not resist setting it to music. The majority of Hammerschmidt's pieces on this text are written for soprano or tenor voices; these obviously represent the two protagonists, the beloved and the lover. This programme is built around these works, creating an entertainment — a small sacred opera —in which evocations of love or sensual dialogues are framed by dances and instrumental pieces. Works by Andreas Hammerschmidt, Johann Vierdanck, Dieterich Buxtehude, Thomas Strutz and others.

Joseph Swensen conducts Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with an inner fire that grips all those who have attended one of his concerts; for him it is Beethoven’s ultimate achievement, a celebration of humanity —not the romantic hero, but the truly ordinary individual, musically represented by the chorus. Beethoven begins his epic symphony in the darkness of primordial chaos. The first and second movements are visions of the universe before humanity. The third movement is a celestial dream. The beginning of the finale is our awakening. Beethoven wanted Ode to Joy to be a melody that all can sing. This chorus, a realisation in sound of the ideals of the 18th-century Enlightenment, is neither transcendent, divine, perfect nor impeccable. It is humanity singing of its joy!

The ZilliacusPerssonRaitinen string trio was a prominent Nordic chamber music ensemble formed in 1999, consisting of violinists Cecilia Zilliacus and Johanna Persson, and cellist Kati Raitinen.

Night Surrendering to Dawn features an engaging and eclectic program of works for flute and piano by 21st century composers Valerie Coleman, Christian Ellenwood, Amanda Harberg, and Samuel Zyman.

Celebrated accordionist Bjarke Mogensen showcases the full expressive power of the classical accordion in this compelling album of 20th and 21st-century concertos.