The French word ‘noël’ is closely associated with the organ, and this new recording from the Breton organist Christian Lambour introduces the listener to works from the 17th to the 20th century. Noëls provided organists with the opportunity to introduce variations on popular tunes, often making use of Christmas carols and shepherd songs. The evocative sound of these traditional melodies – sung around the fire during advent – are assured to get you in l’esprit de Noël!

Sara Sant'Ambrogio and Robert Koenig join on Ecstasy, a 9-track collection of works from Manuel De Falla, Astor Piazzolla, Enrique Granados, Alberto Ginastera, Gaspar Cassado, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and Manuel Ponce.

French organ music under Napoleon and the Restoration is an overlooked period in musical history, inheriting the glories of classical organ and heralding the great romantic organ music. This pivotal time, teeming with great performers - most of them improvisers - counted Isaac-Francois Lefebure-Wely among its masters, who presided over the prestigious Eglise Saint-Roch from 1805. In 1823 he published a collection of 34 Noels, inspired by those of his predecessors yet deeply rooted in their time, imbued with the memory of the Incroyables and the Merveilleuses. These extremely popular works for nativity ring out in true splendour from the organ of the Chapelle Royale, shimmering with the mysteries of Christmas through Quentin Guerillot's generous, familiar style.

Founded in 2008. Performs about 50 concerts annually, in Russia and abroad. Consists of 60 professional singers.

Of the 14 piano sonatas composed by the Russian composer Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951), Canadian pianist Benjamin Bertin has selected the last three sonatas for his ATMA Classique debut album. These sonatas represent a contrasting and fascinating portrait of the mature composer at the peak of his powers. In terms of ingenuity of form, diversity of mood and character, and overall mastery of craft, these final works are akin to those of Beethoven, who inspired Medtner throughout his life.

Prokofiev's chamber music output is relatively modest–a handful of sonatas, two string quartets, an overture of Hebrew themes for clarinet, string quartet and piano, as well as this quintet for oboe, clarinet, violin, viola and bass.

Raphaela Gromes from Munich is a highly virtuoso cellist who immediately seduces her audience with her personality, charisma and a certain magic. She received her earliest artistic training from her parents, both cellists themselves, with whom she had her first taste of the stage at the age of seven. She attended masterclasses with renowned cellists such as David Geringas, Natalia Gutman and Yo-Yo Ma. The young musician likes to tread unusual repertoire paths - and at the highest level: the Süddeutsche Zeitung attested to her "beauty of sound and poetry", the Neue Zürcher Zeitung "diabolical acrobatics and an infectious love of music-making".

The Finnish conductor Paavo Berglund was considered one of the best-known and greatest interpreters of Jean Sibelius' works in his time. His lively conducting brought out the unique compositional language and special tonal colours in Sibelius' work and fuelled interest in his oeuvre. Berglund paid meticulous attention to the original Sibelius text.

Das Stradivari Quartett (Eigenschreibweise StradivariQuartett) ist ein Streichquartett, das sein Debüt beim ersten Konzert der Saison an der Tonhalle Zürich am 18. September 2007 hatte.

This album is part of a series of twenty must-have titles from the Warner Classics catalog, featuring their original and well-known iconic covers. Few musical works express man’s metaphysical aspirations more powerfully than Beethoven’s titanic Missa Solemnis. As Otto Klemperer wrote some years before making this recording, “It is enormously difficult to translate into reality a work which doesn’t take reality into account.” He had first conducted the Missa Solemnis in 1927 and it came to define the epic grandeur of his interpretative style.

Bruckner's Third - a creative history that is unique even for the great Austrian romantic. No other of his symphonies has been revised, reshaped and reissued more often. Yet the first version from 1873, which François-Xavier Roth has chosen for this recording, bristles with boldness and the joy of experimentation. Here, the reminiscence of Beethoven's Ninth and the works of the dedicatee Richard Wagner is almost tangible.

Often overshadowed by the likes of Mozart and Beethoven, Joseph Haydn’s piano sonatas have a profound story to tell. From his humble beginnings as a piano teacher to his pivotal role in the Esterházy court, Haydn’s journey as a composer and performer was as intricate as his compositions.

In 2015, composer Michael Zev Gordon took up the idea of writing musical diary entries, which has spawned this ongoing series of small pieces for solo piano. With most written in a single day, with only minor subsequent refinements, Gordon beautifully captures a feeling, a nuance, an image and, as is the nature of a diary, often with personal associations.

The four young singers of Ensemble Quartonal are among the most sought-after vocal ensembles in Germany. This time, their album program features dreamlike and fabulous romantic vocal music from the 19th and early 20th centuries with works by Mendelssohn, Rheinberger, Poulenc, Josef Kromolicki and Mathieu Neumann, among others.

For his second album on the SWR label Robert Neumann chose two works that are easily paired and are close to the pianist’s heart. Robert Schumann’s Kreisleriana depicts a character featured in several tales by E.T.A. Hoffmann, while Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition describes the contemplation of art works by the painter Viktor Hartmann. Both are examples of programme music with somewhat comparable ideas but, as Neumann puts it, ‘One idea deals with a real character, the other one doesn’t… And I think both show in an exemplary manner how flawlessly and in different ways a great Romantic cycle can be structured.’