This release focuses on a unique selection from Beethoven's late period: works for piano with an optional flute part - ad libitum - that reveal a rarely explored, yet all the more fascinating side of the composer. Framing Beethoven's monumental Hammerklavier Sonata, the two sets of folk song variations form the greatest conceivable contrast to this pianistic summit work. While the sonata, with its formal and technical radicalism, is considered the epitome of Beethoven's late style, the surrounding pieces are characterised by cantabile lines, accessible virtuosity and a sense of chamber-like lightness.

After the hostile reaction to the politically charged Sometime in New York City, John Lennon moved away from explicit protest songs and returned to introspective songwriting with Mind Games. Lennon didn't leave politics behind - he just tempered his opinions with humor on songs like "Bring on the Lucie (Freda Peeple)," which happened to undercut the intention of the song. It also indicated the confusion that lies at the heart of the album. Lennon doesn't know which way to go, so he tries everything. There are lovely ballads like "Out of the Blue" and "One Day (At a Time)," forced, ham-fisted rockers like "Meat City" and "Tight A$," sweeping Spectoresque pop on "Mind Games," and many mid-tempo, indistinguishable pop/rockers…

Over a dozen albums and several compilations, American-born British resident Stacey Kent has sung standards with polish and class, but perhaps her fans might not have expected the result on this CD. A program of tunes interpreted entirely in French, Kent here fancies herself as a modern-day Edith Piaf, with a very low-key, late-night, romantic approach. Her thin, wispy voice rides very much under the radar of these selections, with a small instrumental complement including pianist Graham Harvey, guitarist John Parricelli, and in select spots her husband, saxophonist Jim Tomlinson. Most of the tracks are French pop songs, but occasionally Kent sneaks in a ringer like Antonio Carlos Jobim's always delightful "Les Eaux de Mars" (Waters of March), and adds a Brazilian flavor to the title selection or calypso on the most upbeat number, "Mi Amor"…

Greg Foat, Moses Boyd and Jihad Darwish in a classic piano trio setting. Three Superb musicians skillfully performing Foat's distinctive and endearing compositions.

One of the leading sarod players of India from Kolkata, Partho Sarothy will be joining sitarist Paul Livingstone for a tour of the Americas in the Spring of 2025. Paul and Partho have been performing together for more than 15 years performing in India, US and Mexico. They offer an extension of the tradition of dynamic interactive improvisation exemplified by their guru the legendary Pandit Ravi Shankar and his groundbreaking work with Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. Paul and Partho have a new record release of pure alap jor duet in Raga Jogeshwari a raga creation of their illustrious guru. Listening link above. Paul and Partho along with tabla virtuoso Abhijit Banerjee bring a cohesive and 21st century approach to the Maihar Gharana legacy of ensemble playing known as jugalbandi.

Although he had famous students (amongst whom Szymanowski) and a famous teacher, Moniuszko, few listeners know much, if anything, about Zygmunt Noskowski. And yet, for most of the 19th century, he was the primary exponent of modern symphonic music in Poland. His Third Symphony and his symphonic poem The Steppe, Op. 66 blend sweeping Romanticism with Polish folk spirit. The symphony is a journey through the seasons while The Steppe evokes Poland's vast landscapes with colourful hints of Borodin's In the Steppes of Central Asia.

The name of Domenico Ferrari (1722-1780) was well known throughout Europe in the second half of the 18th century. He was considered one of the finest violin virtuosos as well as a sublime composer. One of Tartini's best Italian pupils, Ferrari quickly gained fame first at the imperial court in Vienna and later at the Wurttemberg court in Stuttgart. After his successful debut at the Concert Spirituel in Paris in 1754, he was granted a ten-year royal privilege to publish his works in France, where he remained until the end of his life, never to return to his native Piacenza. During his stay in Paris, Ferrari published the six violin sontatas with continuo, Op. 3, composed in 1760. These works showcase a blend of late Baroque and Classical characteristics.

Sueye Park is no stranger to solo violin recitals. After her recording of the Paganini Caprices (BIS2282) and a recital entitled Journey through a Century (BIS2492), both critically acclaimed, she brings us another solo project, Echoes of Exile, an undertaking that finds its raison d'etre in today's very turbulent times. Park offers us different perspectives on the topic of exile with works composed between the 1920s and 1950s, by great composers who left their country as a result of political circumstances as well as by others who went into their own inner exile. Two pieces by composers who left their native lands for artistic reasons, Enescu and Ysaye, frame three substantial and very contrasting works by composers forced into exile, either because their existence was threatened or because of a feeling of alienation within their respective countries.

To mark the 50th anniversary of Dmitri Shostakovich’s death on August 9, the Oliver Schnyder Trio—joined by violinist Julia Fischer and violist Nils Mönkemeyer—has recorded Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57. This cornerstone of his chamber output is complemented by both of his piano trios.

Saint-Saëns, as Mats Lidström notes, did not have exclusive rights to draw inspiration from swans and this album presents twenty-four examples from a wide range of composers, written before and after the one featuring in Saint-Saëns’s menagerie. Most are heard in arrangements for cello made especially for the album by Mats, who is accompanied by his son, Leif Kaner-Lidström.

The Gesualdo Six explore different aspects of light and shade—musical evocations of dawn and dusk, the seasonal and the sacred—by composers from Saint Hildegard, writing in the twelfth century, to Owain Park in the twenty-first. The participation of trumpeter Matilda Lloyd, whether soaring above or blending with the voices, makes this a G6 album like no other. Matilda Lloyd is an exclusive artist of Chandos Records and appears here with their kind permission