Erin Morley is one of today's most sought after coloratura sopranos, and her debut recital album presents a thoughtfully curated program which mirrors a stroll through a garden, delving into rich repertoire inspired by flowers, birds, and nature. Morley, known for her operatic roles, draws on connections to the natural world, offering a mix of well-known pieces, contemporary compositions, and hidden gems. A notable feature is the premiere recording of Ricky Ian Gordon's "Huit Chansons de Fleurs," a contemporary song cycle exploring themes of death, resurrection, fragrance, and the fleeting nature of beauty, adding a layer of poignancy to an album which features a diverse selection of vocal repertoire. Among the album's highlights is Saint-Saëns's "La Libellule," a rarely heard gem capturing the agile movement of a dragonfly. Sullivan's "Rose-in-Bloom" stands out as the first to present the aria in its original key, the heights of the final cadenza just one example of Morley’s extraordinary performance of the repertoire. The program also includes compositions by Rachmaninov, Zemlinsky, and Milhaud, exploring further connections to the themes of blossoms and birds. "Rose in Bloom" is an exploration of nature's influence on music, a testament to Erin Morley's artistry and originality, and a delightful journey through a garden of musical encounters.

Dathanna: Hues and Shades is the debut album from clarinetist Berginald Rash and harpist Fiona Gryson, offering late romantic and fin-de-siècle character pieces in a unique chamber setting. Created amidst the challenges of the pandemic, this album reflects a journey of resilience and artistic exploration. It began as a dream to celebrate blends of tonal textures and evolved into a testament of strength and endurance. The music is an intimate portrayal of tonal elements and musical expression, capturing subtle nuances, finger movements, and ambient sounds to create an atmosphere reminiscent of 19th-century salon concerts. Dathanna takes listeners on an emotional journey—a celebration of chamber music's vulnerability and subtle beauty. It marks not just a debut, but a deliberate exploration of timbre and tonal virtuosity within the unique combination of clarinet and harp. Rash and Gryson delve into intricate tonal hues, inviting audiences to appreciate the vibrancy and depth of these much loved compositions through a fresh and intimate lens.

"The Sacconi Quartet celebrates its 21st birthday with a recording of two of the finest works in the repertoire: Schubert’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ Quartet, and one of Beethoven’s magnificent late quartets, the String Quartet No. 14 in C sharp minor, Op. 131. Schubert’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ Quartet represents a young man grappling with mortality, resulting in some of his most hauntingly beautiful music. At around the time Schubert worked on this piece, Beethoven was composing his late quartets, including the seven-movement String Quartet Op. 131 – the quartet Beethoven is said to have considered his greatest. The Sacconi Quartet writes of its relationship with these works in the album booklet: ‘For two decades and more, we have strived to bring this music to life. Music that we hold so dear to our hearts; music that we believe in, that we are passionate about; music that we are committed to sharing. We are still learning, still exploring, still discovering.’"

From Sappho’s Lyre is a multimedia, scenic cantata for large chamber ensemble based on Sappho’s two major surviving poems: “The Hymn to Aphrodite” and “He Appears to Me (Equal to the Gods).”Conceived as a stage work to be accompanied by dance and spectacle—and though it can be performed as a traditional vocal work with instrumental accompaniment—the composition’s overall formal/architectural design functions as a hybrid, one that lavishly fuses elements of ancient Greek play and theatre with Western ballet and opera.

Ilya Gringolts plays with a ferocity that – in tandem with taut rhythmic control – adroitly avoids even the slightest hint of frenzy. And yet, for all its intensity and firmness of grip, there’s an equally riveting sense of spontaneity to his playing, too – particularly in Adams’s Concerto, with its intricately variegated, continuous solo part. Gringolts phrases assertively and with such expressive agility that at times in the first movement it sounds as if the violin and orchestra are working independently yet in sync, like separate gears in a great machine.

For some years, I have been performing and recording eighteenth-century galant music from the viceroyalty of New Spain. This latest album with the Camerata Antonio Soler presents a sample of the instrumental soundscape, along with vocal works set to Spanish paraliturgical texts that were all performed in New Spain. Although some of the works included here were not written in the New World, every piece presented on this album is conserved in present-day Mexico and Cuba – they were undoubtedly a part of cathedral musical life. We have included works by Davide Perez, Luis Misón, and José Herrando; each having made their careers on the Iberian Penninsula. Also included are two Italians who served as chapel masters in present-day Mexico. Santiago Billoni and Ignacio Jerusalem worked in Durango and Mexico City respectively. Finally, Esteban Salas was born in La Habana, Cuba and worked at Santiago Cathedral.

This recording celebrates my long and fruitful relationship with the Escher Quartet, and also salutes the beloved flutist Carol Wincenc on her 50th Anniversary season. Though the string ensemble is the common thread in all of these recorded works, their inspiration and ideas are quite varied. In String Quartet No.4, dynamic shapes and configurations – spiral, waveform, labyrinth – are the catalysts for each movement, whereas String Quartet No.6 (“Canticle”) invokes the idea of ritual as its point of departure – coloured by the use of small, bell-like disks called crotales. Air in Motion brings a flute into the ensemble, adding a new dimension suggested by the flow of air through a column of metal.

A celebration of Mussorgsky’s greatest orchestral masterworks, performed with panache by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and their permanent Associate Conductor Grzegorz Nowak. Included is a rare recording of Gorchakov’s orchestration of the ever-popular Pictures At An Exhibition - arguably darker and more Russian sounding in tone than the often-performed Ravel interpretation. Grzegorz Nowak has led the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on tours to Switzerland, Turkey and Armenia, as well as giving numerous concerts throughout the UK.

Winner of the Strings Final of the BBC Young Musician in 2020, Coco Tomita’s stunning debut album features a varied programme, including works by Enescu, Poulenc, Boulanger, Hubay, Ravel and Debussy. The choice of repertoire for her debut recording was entirely Tomita’s own: 'Having complete freedom over what I wanted to share with the world was amazing, and put simply, I love all the pieces I’ve chosen deeply.

Japanese pianist Yu Kosuge concludes her series of Orchid Classics albums related to the four elements with the final release of the set: Earth. Kosuge was inspired to create this series by the music of Beethoven, who was fascinated by Greek legends, prompting her to explore the Greek concept of the four elements in these albums.

Soviet-born American Violinist Daniel Kurganov and Russian-American pianist Constantine Finehouse perform a stunning program of contemporary and 20th-century music by Lera Auerbach, Richard Beaudoin, John Cage and Olivier Messiaen. As Richard Beaudoin argues in his booklet notes, this program is characterized by the powerful sense of rhythm shared by these composers and the performers themselves.

When the pandemic struck early in 2020, violinist Elena Urioste and pianist-composer Tom Poster responded by channeling their creative energies into #UriPosteJukeBox, a portmanteau of their surnames and a nod to the retro feel of the jukebox with its eclectic selection of songs to be chosen by the listener. The original intention was to produce one video of the duo performing together for every day of the lockdown (which at the time was anticipated to be relatively brief). What followed was a project that took off in ways the pair had never dreamed of, capturing the imaginations and hearts of listeners across the globe, embracing requests that traversed many musical genres, featuring commissions by contemporary composers, and entertaining followers with increasingly elaborate costumes, props, additional instruments, and multi-tracking.
In all, they made 88 videos – one for each key on a piano. The impact of the endeavor and the joy it brought in an extraordinarily challenging time were more formally recognized when the Jukebox won a Royal Philharmonic Society Inspiration Award. This album captures the spontaneous and varied feel of the original videos, drawing together some of the duo’s favorite pieces in a way that celebrates this joyous project and all those who contributed to it.

Full of world-premiere recordings, "String Theory" is an album of works by Pierre Jalbert, an American composer described in The New Yorker as “an acknowledged chamber-music master”. Drawing on influences as diverse as medieval plainchant, the natural world and his French-Canadian heritage, Pierre Jalbert creates music that is “rhapsodic and skillfully written” (The New York Times).

Ukrainian violinist Iryna Gintova performs Telemann’s 12 Fantasias for Solo Violin, one of the pinnacles of the Baroque repertoire for the instrument. Telemann’s 12 Fantasias embrace an array of European styles fashionable at the time, including Italianate concerto-style movements inspired by Corelli, contrasted with pieces in the French style. Telemann was an able, self-taught violinist and relished showcasing the instrument’s varied colours and techniques in these works, including multiple stopping, implied counterpoint, improvisatory lines, and tussles between traditional Baroque intricacy with newer, lighter and more forward-looking virtuoso melodies. Iryna Gintova performs these wide-ranging works with the nuance and fluidity for which she is increasingly known in performances that have taken her to major venues, competitions and festivals around the world.

American cellist John Henry Crawford was named "Young Artist of the Year" by the Classical Recording Foundation in 2019, and his debut album demonstrates exceptional insight and nuance in a varied and fascinating program, performed with pianist Victor Asuncion. Playing a rare 200-year-old cello smuggled out of Austria by his grandfather, Robert Popper, John Henry Crawford performs Sonatas by Brahms and Shostakovich alongside Ligeti’s Solo Sonata.