CRD is releasing a collection of Beethoven piano works recorded by Virginia Black, the three sonata’s recorded (Sonata No. 17 in D Minor, Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, and Sonata no. 31 in A-flat major), were chosen by Virginia as a expressing the Power, Passion, and Ecstasy of Beethoven’s work.

Swedish composer Melcher Melchers (1882–1961) has been largely forgotten by music history. Melchers studied composition in Paris and his circle of friends included, among others, Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani, Guillaume Apollinaire, Erik Satie, and members of Les Six. Among the Nordic composers he had the biggest impact on the French music life but his aesthetics in music were quite conservative: d’Indy, Chausson and César Franck were his greatest influences. This album by the Gävle Symphony Orchestra and conductor Jaime Martín includes Melchers’ magnum opus, his finely crafted Symphony in D minor, Op. 19 together with world première recordings of two symphonic poems.