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.

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.

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.

Chopin is reserved, visionary and mysterious," says Beatrice Rana. "There are many layers to his music. It's pleasing to the ear and sincere in it's communication, but the deeper you go, the more you find…" For this album, Rana pairs Chopin's 12 op 25 études with his four scherzi, focusing on two musical genres that the composer, combining intellect and imagination, transformed into something new. "It was Chopin who invented the 'concert study'," explains Rana. "To me, the études seem implicitly connected, joined by a single line of expression, as if they are taking you on a journey.

Here Spohr manifests himself not as a serial producer from the nineteenth century’s age of virtuosity but as a highly imaginative composer who lent a unique imprint to each and every one of his concertos. Brought together in this new box set are the Violin Concertos with the Concertanti for two violins and orchestra.

Recipient of the prestigious Brahms Prize of the Schleswig-Holstein Brahms Society in 2024, Kent Nagano, leads the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, of which he was principal conductor from 2015 until 2025, in the first two symphonies by the Hamburg-born composer, recorded in concert.

This album marks the beginning of a new era with Lahav Shani as chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic. On his first album with the orchestra, he presents two masterpieces from the dawn of modern music. Claude Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune is regarded as a key work of Impressionism and, even at its world premiere, captivated audiences with its finely nuanced timbres and transparent orchestral texture. Arnold Schoenberg’s symphonic poem Pelleas und Melisande, by contrast, is a work of monumental orchestral power and relentless intensity – an early work still rooted in the tonal legacy of Wagner, Mahler and Strauss, yet characterised by a creative boldness that already foreshadows the dawn of a new era.

The dance permeated every layer of Romantic society. From popular dance halls to courtly salons, people showed their public face, enjoyed themselves and met one another in waltz time or to the rhythms of the quadrille or the polka. At the same time, ballet gained unprecedented fame on the stage of the Paris Opéra. The music that accompanied this frantic round in France has long been neglected, whereas the Viennese have never ceased to celebrate their waltzes. Under the expert baton of François-Xavier Roth, the orchestra Les Siècles has set out to rediscover this French repertory using historical instruments. Their album explores the output of both established composers – Camille Saint-Saëns, Ambroise Thomas, Charles Gounod, Jules Massenet – and their colleagues who specialised in Terpsichorean entertainment, including Philippe Musard, Isaac Strauss, Émile Waldteufel and Hervé.

Following the 2025 release of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 and Intermezzi Op. 117 – an album that received rave reviews worldwide – Francesco Piemontesi, conductor Manfred Honeck, and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig continue their Brahms journey with a compelling new recording of the composer’s Piano Concerto No. 1. A work of striking emotional force and symphonic grandeur, it was born from a profound personal and artistic crisis. Composed in the aftermath of Robert Schumann’s tragic collapse, the concerto reflects Brahms’ struggle for artistic identity, as well as his confrontation with grief, responsibility, and expectation. From its monumental opening – once likened to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony – to the deeply introspective slow movement, often understood as a portrait of Clara Schumann, this interpretation reveals the work’s extraordinary psychological depth.

Composed in 1813, Symphony No. 7 reflects and magnifies the dramatic climate of a Europe engulfed in war and bloodshed, especially in its second movement, driven by an unrelenting funeral march. Insula orchestra restores the original soul of the piece by performing the symphony with Insula camerata as a double orchestra.

Anna Fedorova presents the late keyboard works of Brahms. “These works feel as if he is speaking to us in a more private voice than ever before. The music is deeply personal, full of tenderness, nostalgia, love, and quiet reflection” says Fedorova. “His lifelong bond with Clara Schumann remained a central part of his inner world. She was among the first to see these manuscripts, and her presence seems to quietly accompany them.” Op. 117 are three sets of melodies without words. Of Op. 118, Clara wrote: “It is simply marvellous how your inner self seems to bubble, shine and whisper, constantly imbued with the grandeur and depth of your ideas!” With Op. 119, the keyboard seems once again to contain an entire orchestra, just like the early works that the young Brahms had presented to Robert Schumann forty years earlier.

For her newest album, guitarist Carlotta Dalia performs works by Niccolò Paganini together with the Goldmund quartet on historic Stradivari instruments dating back to Paganini's era. This creates an authentic sound world which connects today's artists with Paganini's timbre. It is the first musical and artistical cooperation of Carlotta Dalia and the Goldmund Quartet.

This fabulous five disc set is replete with some of those old Stokowski warhorses all recorded in absolutely mind boggling Phase 4 sound, overblown perhaps but astounding for its time. Decca's remastering is absolutely magnificent and the discs are jam packed with almost six hours of music. This is another fine memorial to a great conductor who remained astonishingly vital until the very end of his life.

In the 41 - year gap between these two sonatas Fauré, increasingly beset by deafness, withdrew into a more private, recondite world all his own. The Second, in consequence, has never enjoyed the popularity of the First—and in fact was conspicuous by its absence from the CD catalogue until this welcome new release. Collectors may recall that when Lydia Mordkovitch and Gerhard Oppitz recorded the First for Chandos they preferred to couple it with Richard Strauss's early Sonata in E flat. Comparison of the two teams in the A major Sonata, Op. 13, leaves me in no doubt that the newcomers would be my first choice. In saying that, I don't want to underestimate Mordkovitch. But with her fine-spun, silken tone and sensitively tapered phrasing she is far too often overpowered by Oppitz, who in the resonant acoustic of St Luke's Church, Chelsea, emerges not only too loud but also rather too often the victim of his own over-generously used right pedal. The Cologne venue accorded to Mintz and Bronfman is kinder: though anything but timid Bronfman preserves far greater textural clarity, and never allows his piano to outweigh Mintz's violin unless at the composer's own behest.(Gramophone, 1/1988)