This album charts pianist Alexandra Dariescu’s artistic journey through discovery, memory, and celebration, bringing together canonical works, rediscovered repertoire, and world premieres. The programme opens with Mozart’s Rondo in D major, K. 382, alongside the revived Child’s Dream by Emmy Schäfer Klein and the newly commissioned Humble Birth by James Lee III. Music by Clara Schumann, Nadia Boulanger, Florence Price, Amy Beach, Germaine Tailleferre, Leokadiya Kashperova, and others foregrounds women composers across generations. Personal touchstones, including Bach/Siloti’s Prelude in E minor and Villa-Lobos’ O polichinelo, complement lesser-known youthful works, creating a cohesive narrative of reflection and renewal.

The distinguished Russian composer, pianist and teacher Rodion Shchedrin writes: “I spent my childhood in the small Russian town of Aleksin, situated on the river Oka, 300 kilometres south of Moscow. When I was growing up, purely entertaining, commercial music was not yet as ubiquitous as it is now… It was still possible to hear choral songs, the sound of the accordion, the strumming of the balalaika, funeral laments, the cries of shepherds at dawn, coming from beyond a river, enveloped in fog. All that distant and now extinct musical atmosphere of a Russian province is strongly etched in my childhood memories. I think, in all three compositions on this CD, it has found it own nostalgic echo.”

Selim Palmgren was a highly regarded pianist-composer in the period preceding the First World War, known for his extensive and stylistically diverse catalogue of piano works, much of which remains underperformed. His output spans virtuosic concert pieces, character miniatures, études, and waltzes, often reflecting influences of Impressionism, Nordic musical traditions, and Chopinesque lyricism. This repertoire is highlighted in an acclaimed recording series performed by Jouni Somero, a leading interpreter of Palmgren’s music today. The volume features demanding works such as the Fantasie, Op. 6, alongside shorter pieces that demonstrate both technical brilliance and expressive charm rooted in early 20th-century pianistic style.

After their explorations of Italian repertoire in Che fai tù? (MU-037) and French in Vous avez dit brunettes? (Alpha 761), Les Kapsber'girls, a vocal and instrumental ensemble founded by lutenist Albane Imbs in 2015, devotes its third album to Baroque women composers: hidden talents, unrevealed destinies, few of these composers have had the opportunity to reveal their art, which is nevertheless very real. Recent research has made it possible to revive the fascinating works of composers such as Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677), Isabella Leonarda (1620-1704), Lucia Quinciani (1566-1611), Francesca Caccini (1587-1641), Antonia Bembo (c.1643-1715), and Francesca Campana (c.1615-c.1665), who spent sixty-nine years of her life in an Ursuline convent in Novara, although this did not prevent her from composing no fewer than two hundred works!

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Kirill Karabits, with Corinne Winters leading the cast, presents the world premiere recording of Thomas de Hartmann’s rediscovered opera Esther. Composed during the Nazi occupation of Paris, the work reflects the composer’s response to the Holocaust, drawing parallels with the Biblical story as adapted from Racine. Revived through detailed study of the manuscript and a new performing edition, Esther blends operatic and oratorio elements, combining monologues, choral writing, and rich orchestration. Influenced by de Hartmann’s diverse training and stylistic evolution, it stands as his most ambitious late work and a significant revival within the ongoing Thomas de Hartmann Project.

To mark their collaboration with harmonia mundi, Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra present a recording of two rarely performed 1913 masterpieces. The programme spans the ironic, Shakespearian portrait of an aging knight in Falstaff and the existential, Poe-inspired meditation of The Bells. Both works exemplify the lingering allure of late Romanticism, combining literary inspiration with rich orchestral imagination to create music of dramatic intensity and subtle nuance.

Bertrand Chamayou and Leif Ove Andsnes join forces to record Schubert’s Fantasia in F minor, composed in 1828 and regarded as one of the greatest works for two pianists at one piano. They first performed it together in 2016 at the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival, drawn together by a shared mentor, Jacques de Tiège. Both emphasize the intimacy and unity required to perform the piece, describing it as a musical collaboration where they must “become one.” On the album, Andsnes plays primo in the Fantasia and the Rondo in A major, while Chamayou assumes primo for the Allegro in A minor and the Fugue in E minor.

The NOVO Quartet—its name meaning “new”—embodies curiosity and a spirit of discovery that has already led the ensemble, trained by Tim Frederiksen, to success at the Geneva and Carl Nielsen competitions. Their debut album Track 1 revisits the group’s origins, featuring Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8, the first work they played together; Matias Vestergaard’s HJERTEBLAD (“heart-leaf”), marking their entry into contemporary music; and Carl Nielsen’s First Quartet, honoring Denmark’s great composer and launching a planned complete cycle. Track 1 tells a story of beginnings, showcasing NOVO’s expressive intensity, unity, and musical depth as a rising world-class ensemble.

Following her acclaimed Alpha album exploring her American roots, pianist Claire Huangci turns her focus to female composers in Heroines, honoring their resilience and artistic legacy. The album highlights figures such as Clara Wieck Schumann, Fanny Hensel, Amy Beach, and Florence Price, each of whom faced significant social, professional, and personal constraints that limited their recognition during their lifetimes. Through this program, Huangci reflects on the challenges these women endured and the transformative power of their music. Heroines is both a historical reflection and a personal statement, giving contemporary voice to composers whose contributions continue to resonate across centuries.

Miguel Bonal, born in Zaragoza in 1999, is a Spanish viola da gamba player who began studying the instrument at the age of seven. He pursued his higher education at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya, graduating with the highest distinctions. For his first solo recital, released in Alpha Classics’ Baroque Stories series dedicated to emerging artists, he presents a programme combining key works for viola da gamba with innovative transcriptions. The repertoire spans composers such as Tobias Hume, Marin Marais, Abel, Schenck, and Telemann, highlighting the instrument’s rich Baroque tradition. The programme also includes Bach’s Cello Suite No. 2 performed on viola da gamba, alongside later works by Gabriel Fauré and Francisco Tárrega, illustrating the instrument’s expressive versatility across centuries.

Paavo Järvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich release the second volume of their complete Mahler symphony cycle, featuring the Symphony No. 1, originally titled Titan after Jean-Paul’s novel. Though Mahler later dropped the title, Paavo Järvi highlights the work’s enduringly programmatic nature, noting that Mahler’s music probes the depths of human emotion and introspection. This recording continues Järvi’s exploration of Mahler’s symphonic universe with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, emphasizing the composer’s ability to transform personal and psychological experience into orchestral expression of striking emotional and philosophical power.

With this second release devoted to Jules Massenet’s mélodies for voice and orchestra, the Palazzetto Bru Zane completes the first comprehensive recording of his works in this genre, continuing a project initiated a decade ago. Following the rediscovery of orchestral songs by Saint-Saëns in 2017, the Centre de musique romantique française has progressively revived numerous examples by major French composers. This research revealed that Massenet composed more than fifty orchestral mélodies previously unpublished and unrecorded. Their inclusion on this disc restores an important chapter of French vocal music. The recording was made at the Opéra Normandie Rouen in April 2025.

Sondra Radvanovsky, in collaboration with Lyric Opera of Chicago and conductor Enrique Mazzola, presents Puccini: Heroines, a live recording from February 2025 featuring an all-Puccini program. Radvanovsky’s voice brings distinct character to each role, from the lyricism of Anna and Mimì to the dramatic intensity of Tosca and Turandot, including roles new to her stage repertoire. The performance showcases Puccini’s mastery of emotionally charged arias and character depth, spanning works from Le Villi and Manon Lescaut to La Bohème and Turandot. Encores include Musetta and Lauretta, highlighting both theatrical flair and expressive nuance, continuing Radvanovsky’s acclaimed collaboration with the Lyric Opera Orchestra and Mazzola.

Premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1857, Ambroise Thomas’s Psyché recounts the tragic love of Eros and Psyche, entangled in jealousy and manipulation by Mercury and Psyche’s sisters. Exemplifying mid-19th-century French opéra-comique, the work blends Rossinian brilliance with expressive vocal writing, including dazzling coloratura passages for its leads, with Eros written as a breeches role. Librettists Jules Barbier and Michel Carré skillfully balanced comedy and tragedy through contrasting characters. Anticipating Thomas’s later masterpieces Mignon and Hamlet, Psyché stands as a major achievement in his oeuvre. This recording was made in February 2025 at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall in Budapest.

Representing the third volume of Berlin Classics' "New Talents Edition," this album presents the complete concertos of Camille Saint-Saëns, recorded by a new generation of soloists alongside conductor Howard Griffiths and the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. Supported by the Swiss Orpheum and Eppur si muove foundations, the release features pianist Yilan Zhao in the expressive Piano Concerto No. 1, and award-winning cellist Hayoung Choi performing the virtuosic Cello Concerto No. 1. Concluding with the humorous Carnival of the Animals, the album showcases rising Turkish pianists Ilyun Bürkev and Arya Su Gülenç, delivering an exceptional showcase of emerging international talent.