Norwegian saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Harald Lassen returns with RIK, a vibrant and exploratory new album that picks up the threads of his acclaimed Balans - the album that earned him a Spellemannprisen (Norwegian Grammy) - and weaves them into something stranger, softer, and more surprising. “It’s the little brother,” Lassen says. “Same blood, same environment, but making different choices.”

The Schumann Quartet is releasing its eighth album. "Martin – Ullmann – Fauré" will be published on August 15th by Berlin Classics and is a co-production with Deutschlandfunk Kultur. The string quartet, founded in Cologne in 2007, does not bear its name in honor of the composer Robert Schumann, but is named after the three brothers Erik, Ken, and Mark Schumann, who have been playing music together since childhood. Since 2022, the violist Veit Hertenstein has completed the ensemble. The renowned group has received numerous awards, including first prize at the International String Quartet Competition in Bordeaux. For this latest recording, the four musicians teamed up with the Berlin-based pianist Hinrich Alpers. Together, they focus on works by Frank Martin (1890–1974), Viktor Ullmann (1898–1944), and Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924).

For this, the fifth instalment of his Shostakovich symphony cycle, John Storgrds turns to some of the earliest of the composers orchestral output, works which Shostakovich largely wrote during his student years. The orchestral scherzo was a favourite task set by composition tutors of the time: the relatively simple form still demands that the student produce contrasting material for the outer and central sections, and manage the transitions effectively. Unsurprisingly, the form looms large in the early works of Shostakovich, as well as Stravinsky, Bartk, and many others.

Christian Li signed to Decca when he was just 12 years old. Now 17, this album represents a ‘coming of age’ moment for the young violinist as he records Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. With the winning combination of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and their Conductor Laureate, Vasily Petrenko, the album includes several transcriptions of popular Tchaikovsky works, arranged for violin and piano or string ensemble. “Whatever he touches, this young violinist emerges as an extraordinary wunderkind.” BBC Music Magazine.

Matthias Bamert and the LMP have dusted off some treats in their 'Contemporaries of Mozart' series for Chandos. This latest release, featuring premiere recordings of six symphonies by the Bohemian-born Josef Myslivecek, is one of the best. None of these works, dating back to the 1770s is much more than 10 minutes long, yet each is delightfully imaginative, and benefitting from the LMP's sprightly playing.

The musicians of Les Ombres pay tribute to Luigi Boccherini. The free and audacious composer was an insatiable traveler and the inventor of the string quartet whose belatedly acknowledged genius has now earned him a major place in the history of music.

Schubert set the poetry of over 115 writers to music. He selected poems from classical Greece, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, from eighteenth-century German authors, early Romantics, Biedermeier poets, and Heine. The Deutsche Schubert-Lied-Edition presents all Schubert’s Lieder, over 700 songs, grouped according to the poets who inspired him. Thanks to the Bärenreiter’s Neue Schubert-Ausgabe (New Schubert Edition), Tübingen, which uses primary sources, the performers have been able to benefit from the most recent research of the editorial team. For the first time, the listener and interested reader can follow Schubert’s textual alterations and can appreciate the importance the written word had for the composer.

This disc, suitably and finely recorded with depth in 1985, is a very fine rendition of Vaughan Williams' seventh symphony, subtitled Antarctica, reflecting the source of its inspiration. The film depicts Scott's ill-fated expedition to the South Pole and Vaughan Williams was commissioned to write the music. While doing so, he became so engrossed by the subject that he reworked much of the material into his next symphony. The degree of reworking combined with fresh material took the music out of the realm of a film score suite and more properly into a symphonic conception.

The Wiener Philharmoniker, or Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, has attained a kind of exalted status among symphonic ensembles of the German-speaking world. In fact, it may be so exalted that it only occasionally, when properly motivated, bestirs itself to creativity. From this perspective, this cycle of Beethoven symphonies, with Andris Nelsons conducting the venerable Viennese, is a success worthy of the shelf and hard drive space among all the other hundreds of Beethoven symphony cycles. Nelsons generally makes his Beethoven brisk enough to put the players into a bit of a state of tension, and when they execute, the results are thrilling indeed, in a way that brings the entire weight of the Vienna tradition alive.

Dominic Miller has been called “a great, serene storyteller” by Peter Ruedi in the Swiss weekly Weltwoche, and Vagabond, the guitarist’s third recording for ECM, might prove his most poetic tale to date, as he creates striking melancholy textures fronting a quartet with Ziv Ravitz on drums, long-time associate Nicolas Fiszman on bass and pianist Jacob Karlzon.

Bebel Gilberto releases her new album via [PIAS] Recordings. Entitled Joao, the album is a collection of songs made famous by her father João Gilberto, widely regarded as the “father of Bossa Nova music. João Gilberto passed away in 2019 after a 70 year career in music. Bebel began singing with him as a small child and the songs she sings on this new album have been with her all her life. Says Bebel- "João" is a love letter to my father. Since my first album I've never really covered any of my Dad's music. Now it's time to present to the public the songs from João Gilberto that have influenced me since I was born- and even before”.