Compiled from pieces that were clearly composed much earlier as well as from more recent works, the Deuxième Livre pays homage to its two masters and calls for tonalities that it had not yet employed; it evokes the past and the great lutenists of that time with the Pavane and yet also contains important innovations. It is truly a transitional work: published at the very dawn of the century, it opened the doors to the important stylistic changes that French music would undergo during the Age of Enlightenment.

François Devienne (1759-1803), sometimes nicknamed the French Mozart, was equaled famed for his talents as a flautist and a bassoonist. He was one of the first professors at the Paris Conservatoire, established in the early years of the Republic. Devienne devoted a large proportion of his compositions, in several different forms, to the two instruments of which he was a virtuoso exponent. The programme presents several of his trios, which combine the violin and the cello with the two wind instruments in turn. These works possess all the charm of the galant aesthetic that developed in the late eighteenth century, along with a certain penchant for virtuosity.

Schubert set the poetry of over 115 writers to music. He selected poems from classical Greece, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, from eighteenth-century German authors, early Romantics, Biedermeier poets, and Heine. The Deutsche Schubert-Lied-Edition presents all Schubert’s Lieder, over 700 songs, grouped according to the poets who inspired him. Thanks to the Bärenreiter’s Neue Schubert-Ausgabe (New Schubert Edition), Tübingen, which uses primary sources, the performers have been able to benefit from the most recent research of the editorial team.

As the founding father of Finnish music, Jean Sibelius is the measure of all things to such an extent that an outside observer may easily miss the abundance of talented masters who also practiced the art of composition quite successfully in the land of a thousand lakes. One of them was Erkki Melartin. Not ten years younger than the composer of Finlandia, he also left us a significant oeuvre that repeatedly begs a comparison to his older colleague – of course, it is a comparison whose results are subject to debate. To be fair, we can discover a phrase here or there that reminds us of Sibelius; occasionally, some of Mahler's vocabulary may have sneaked in as well; but the persona whose legacy is six mighty symphonies has blazed his own independent trail away from the Romantic tradition, leading us relentlessly to an unheard cosmos.

…This is the best you will ever hear of the "Spiritual Choir-Music of Heinrich Schuetz (1585-1672). This one-disk performance is a selection of ten of the 49 motets in Schuetz's 1648 opus, interspersed with six quite distinct selections from the Kleine Geistliche Konzerte of 1636. The two sources are radically different; the earlier works are in the operatic 'secunda prattica' style of Monteverdi, sung by soloists over decorated basso continuo; the later works are superbly old-fashioned choral polyphony of the 'prima prattica' of composers dead before Schuetz was born. As a concert listening experience, the combination is highly effective, offering a variety and sprightliness that a through-reading of the complete Geistliche Chormusic can't provide.

In 1968, six former choral scholars from King’s College, Cambridge established the King’s Singers, later described by The Times as “the superlative vocal sextet”. The group has always comprised two countertenors, a tenor, two baritones and a bass, and over the years it has proved consistently exceptional for vocal distinction and breadth and diversity of repertoire. This celebratory collection of eight CDs focuses on Renaissance composers from Italy, England, France, Spain, Germany and the Low Countries.

Schubert set the poetry of over 115 writers to music. He selected poems from classical Greece, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, from eighteenth-century German authors, early Romantics, Biedermeier poets, and Heine. The Deutsche Schubert-Lied-Edition presents all Schubert’s Lieder, over 700 songs, grouped according to the poets who inspired him. Thanks to the Bärenreiter’s Neue Schubert-Ausgabe (New Schubert Edition), Tübingen, which uses primary sources, the performers have been able to benefit from the most recent research of the editorial team.

Decca Classics proudly announces Shostakovich & Britten, the new album from internationally acclaimed cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason. Featuring Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2, performed with John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London, alongside the cello sonatas of Shostakovich and Britten, this deeply personal recording pays tribute to cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, the towering figure who inspired both composers—and Kanneh-Mason himself.

A new page in the history of the NDR Radiophilharmonie opened in 2024 with the arrival of a sought-after chief conductor, Stanislav Kochanovsky. For harmonia mundi, he has chosen to explore a repertoire that he knows inside out, the music of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russia. Here is a chance to hear an expert interpretation of the famous Capriccio espagnol alongside works by Tchaikovsky and Tcherepnin, perhaps less well-known but utterly thrilling!

The album centers around a never-before-released rendition of "Silentium," the second movement of Pärt's most famous concerto, Tabula Rasa, performed by Boston-based chamber orchestra A Far Cry. The group plays "Silentium" at nearly half the speed of the best-known version, released on ECM in 1984. The piece, known for its healing properties for the dying and often used in palliative care facilities (one patient famously called it "angel music"), is breathtaking at half speed, seemingly stilling time itself.

Daniil Trifinov's, Silver Age, recorded w/ Valery Gergiev & the Mariinsky Orchestra, recalls a time when Russia's composers, poets, & artists were among the most original anywhere in the world. It illustrates the artistic audacity & brilliance of a turbulent era in the country's history w/ works by 3 of its most pioneering composers: Scriabin's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in F sharp minor Op.20, Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No.2 in G minor Op.16, & Stravinsky's Three Movements from Petrushka.

Jan Nigges ist der Flötist des jungen Ensembles "Four Times Baroque", welches für sein erstes Album bei deutsche harmonia mundi gleich als Newcomer des Jahres einen Opus-Klassik-Preis gewann. Für diese Aufnahme bei dhm hat er sich mit einem Ensemble aus befreundeten Musikern und der Sopranistin Sibylla Elsing zusammengefunden, um Werke von Telemann, Händel, Fasch und Pez aufzunehmen.

Antonio Cesti's Le disgrazie d'Amour is a comic opera from 1667 that played very well in its day, though not as well as his slightly later Il pomo d'oro, which proved the defining smash of Cesti's short career. Time enough has passed to expunge the repertoire of anything that may have served as a hit to Cesti in the past, and sometimes performing groups have an excellent grasp of what opera from a composer to revive based on the quality of a work itself, rather than its perceived popularity at a given time. Carlo Ipata and Auser Musici's Cesti: Le disgrazie d'Amour on Hyperion is an excellent example of that.

This world premiere performance by the Los Angeles Philharmonic was commissioned by the LA Phil with generous support from the MaddocksBrown Fund for New Music as part of its centennial celebrations. Recorded live in May 2019 at Walt Disney Concert Hall and conducted by LA Phil Conductor Laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen with solo vocalist Nora Fischer.Two artistic discoveries influenced Andriessen as he wrote The only one. The first was a collection of poems by the Flemish poet Delphine Lecompte from The animals in me. His second discovery was the work of Nora Fischer, an Amsterdam–based singer known for developing dynamic creative projects that fuse classical and pop music.

The title “Overture Suites” stems from the stage tradition of the court of Louis XIV in which the overture for an opera, ballet, or play was followed by a set of dances. The term “overture” was applied to the whole grouping, though in actuality these are orchestral suites as we understand the term from J.S. Bach. Some of Telemann’s overture suites are delightful works that must have provided wonderful preparatory entertainment for the evening’s main event. The G major suite, whose title “La Putain” translates as “The Whore”, quotes from the song “It’s been so long since I’ve come to you”. Despite the bawdy name, the suite is filled with jaunty, lively melodies and inventive, characterful dances.