With Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, the French ensemble Links presents a classic of the 20th century. Music for 18 Musicians is approximately 55 min utes long. The first sketches were made for it in May 1974 and it was completed in March 1976. Although its steady pulse and rhythmic energy re- late to many of my earlier works, its instrumentation, structure and harmony are new.

A rendition of a tango operita, commissioned by the Argentinian Ministry of Culture (this rendition anyway), was revived by violinist Gidon Kremer, who had such a love for the original LPs from Piazzolla and Horacio Ferrer that he wanted to recreate the music. Ferrer was kept on as El Duende (the Goblin) – the role that he created when he wrote the libretto thirty years earlier. Regrettably, Piazzolla had passed on prior to the remake. Nonetheless, the arrangements and orchestrations are remarkable. The suffering and the passion of Maria (the main character in the show) are perfectly portrayed by the tango. The music changes forms as her character progresses, taking on traditional tangos, modern tangos, milongas, waltzes, and other styles to reflect changes in Maria. The music is always well-composed. This is an opera for the display of modern music, and the tango of Piazzolla is modern music at its finest.

2026 marks both the 60th anniversary of Gaspar Cassadó’s death and the 150th anniversary of Pablo Casals’s birth.

Emilie Mayer - her works bear witness to an indomitable personality, despite having languished for so long in the shadow of her male peers. The musicians of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin have resolved to do her justice with this revelatory symphonic triptych of recordings. They begin with two of her most remarkable works played on period instruments, including a wondrous Blüthner piano handpicked by the soloist here, Alexander Melnikov.

Inspired by the idea of performing in a musical in Japan for the first time, the album brings together newly recorded songs and beautifully reimagined favourites, including pieces that many Japanese audiences will recognise from films and commercials. Sunset Over Broadway is currently available exclusively in Japan through Amazon Japan, Tower Records, and at Sarah’s performances of Sunset Boulevard at Tokyu Theatre Orb.

It is a fact that Chopin frequently performed his concertos in various chamber versions as was common practice among many composer-pianists of the period. But unfortunately, there is no extant version for strings and piano which can be linked to Chopin's own hand. The principal objective of these versions of the two Chopin Piano Concertos was to create a suitable reduction of the full orchestral score which accommodates the particular requirements of a small ensemble while remaining as close as possible to the original - not an easy task given the lack of reliable source material.

Sean Shibe’s fifth PENTATONE release, Vesper, features contemporary guitar works by Harrison Birtwistle, James Dillon, and Thomas Adès, all composed by non-guitarists and recorded here for the first time. The album explores the instrument’s expressive potential in contrasting ways: Birtwistle’s music is ritualistic and evocative, Dillon’s is elemental and textural, and Adès’s is allusive and finely detailed. Shibe’s performances highlight the guitar’s subtle colour and transformative capacity, bringing clarity and imagination to each work. On selected Birtwistle pieces, he performs on Sylvette (2021), a specially crafted instrument by Simon Ambridge featuring artwork by Lydia Corbett, adding a visual dimension linked to Picasso’s influence on Birtwistle’s aesthetic.

This program showcases the viola as a central voice of the French School, spanning the lyrical intimacy of Fauré’s songs to the celebrated Sonata by Franck, alongside works by Honnoré, Büsser, and Enescu. Rich in lyricism, refinement, and expressive depth, the selection highlights a broad and nuanced musical tradition. Performed by violist Timothy Ridout and pianist Jonathan Ware, the repertoire is carefully chosen to reflect both artists’ technical command and interpretive sensitivity, offering a compelling exploration of color, elegance, and emotional intensity.

During the first half of the 18th century, chamber music blossomed in France. Nearly all French composers, from great geniuses to obscure provincial masters, wrote innumerable collections of suites, sonatas and various other pieces for popular instruments of the day: the violin, flute, viola da gamba, harpsichord and rustic instruments like the musette and the hurdy-gurdy. The pieces were often written for prosperous bourgeois clients, many of whom were amateur musicians.
Though uneven in quality, this vast musical output shows a variety of musical instrumentation which would be impossible to find in Italian and German works of this era.

This recording explores the early orchestral works of Giacomo Puccini, offering insight into the composer’s development before the success of Manon Lescaut. Conducted by John Wilson with the Sinfonia of London, the program traces Puccini’s formative years at the Milan Conservatory, where he studied with Amilcare Ponchielli between 1880 and 1883. It includes student compositions such as Preludio sinfonico, Scherzo, Trio, and Adagietto, and Capriccio sinfonico, the latter foreshadowing the opening of La bohème. The recording also highlights music connected to his early operas, including Le villi, written for a Sonzogno competition, and material later reused in Manon Lescaut. It concludes with extracts from Edgar, an ambitious but less successful early opera.

Born in Paris, Mélanie Hélène Bonis (1858–1937) was a prodigious musical talent who studied under César Franck alongside classmates Claude Debussy and Gabriel Pierné. Parental pressure forced her into an arranged marriage, briefly halting her career until a later reunion with a former lover reignited her creative passion in the 1890s. Bonis composed over 300 works, but modesty and widespread gender bias caused her music to fall into obscurity after World War I. Despite late-life illness, she composed until her death. This album highlights her exceptional orchestral output, written during her most prolific period between 1891 and 1912.