With its album of the same name, the vocal ensemble sy'zan is not only treating itself to a present for its tenth anniversary: the acappella ensemble presents exquisite highlights from its programmes of recent years - with works that are particularly close to the hearts of both the ensemble and its audience: Starting with the name, which is directly inspired by the "Susanne un jour" by Renaissance master Claude Le Jeune, through well-known choral works by Alessandro Scarlatti, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms and Gustav Holst, supplemented by contemporary arrangements of not only well-known folk songs, to today's compositions with a focus on Nordic compositions and arrangements. The eight singers impress with their simultaneously powerful and delicate interpretations as well as their stylistic diversity, for which they have received several awards in the field of contemporary choral music.

Gavin Higgins’ music is bursting with authenticity. Everything he writes speaks in some way of where he comes from, of the land, of the community, of the family which formed him. He grew up in a working class former mining community in the Forest of Dean, a borderland between England and Wales with its own dialect, a liminal place where Welsh songs and stories as well as English are in the air. It’s a place where brass band music is the chief legacy of the coal mines, the last of which closed a decade before Gavin was born and where the forest, with its sounds, its colours and its stories was a constant presence.

The recent ‘discovery’ of the music of Cecile Chaminade (1857-1944) belies the fact that in the early years of the 20th century she was immensely popular, touring both Europe and the US as a pianist, exclusively in her own music. Changing fashions brought an abrupt end to this fame, but in the first thirty years of the recording industry, over 80 discs of her piano music alone were released. Her own discs from 1901, presented complete here, are some of the earliest by a classical pianist. Many of her most popular pieces were recorded multiple times, but this set presents chronologically at least one version of every work recorded on 78s and introduces as many different pianists as practical.

The flute instrument is closely associated with the Prussian King Frederick the Great and his residence Sanssouci, as the Prussian king was a passionate flautist and numerous works were composed for him. For the recorder player Isaac Makhdoomi, it is a special challenge to transfer these works, which were actually composed for a transverse flute, to his instrument. The idea behind this was to bring new aspects and facets to the works originally composed for the transverse flute, which he actually succeeds in doing brilliantly.

SYMPHONY NO. 3 from composer Michael Kurek is a tribute to the history and natural beauty of England. The work is fundamentally Romantic, but is also influenced by Edwardian English music. The composer draws inspiration from personal memories, nature, poetry, and art; “Upon a Walk in the English Countryside,” recalls the composer’s emotional reaction to the lush, pastoral beauty of the English countryside. “Stonehenge” reflects the austerity and timelessness of that ancient monument, while “The Lady of Shalott” nods to Waterhouse’s colorful, pre-Raphaelite depiction of Tennyson’s famous poem. The symphony’s conclusion, “The Major Oak of Sherwood Forest,” celebrates the roughly 1000-year-old tree in Nottinghamshire and is perhaps the most climactic of Kurek’s works.

German jazz musician Nicole Johänntgen (*1981) is saxophonist, composer and workshop leader. She has won a total of 9 awards internationally and nationally. Among them the International Jazz Contest Monaco, the JTI Trier Jazz Award, the Seven Virtual Jazz Club Contest, the European Yamaha Saxophone Contest, the Young Soloist Contest in Fribourg. Then she received awards such as Lichtenburg Award 2023, Art Award 2022 Saarland, Sponsorship Award of Saarlandic Radio and Sparkassen Finance Group Saar and the first prize for the best composition of Jazzclub Moods in Switzerland. Nicole Johänntgen has played with stars like Daniel Powter (Bad day), Roger Cicero, Eric Harland, Aaron Parks, Nils Landgren and is on CD release tour with her band Nicole Johänntgen “Labyrinth”.

If you're a jazz fan in the Ann Arbor area, you know Paul Vornhagen. The saxophonist-flutist-pianist-singer has been a mainstay in the area for 40 years as the leader of his own bands as well as Tumbao Bravo while also playing with The Lunar Quartet, Kozora Quartet, and a few world-music-leaning ensembles.

The sixth recording in the Young Composers series – a collaboration with the National Youth Choir. The works featured on the recording are by Jamie Powe, Crystalla Serghiou, Áine Mallon and Cameron Biles-Liddell, the four National Youth Choir Young Composers for 2024. Their works are based around the creative theme of ‘Evolve’, which coincides with the refresh of National Youth Choir’s ensemble names earlier last year.

Under the title Amoroso pensamiento (a text by Miguel de Cervantes, one of the greatest writers in the world), we present a very special selection of works by great musical figures and texts by writers who contributed to the splendor of the Spanish Baroque. The Golden Age is called the "Golden Age" of Spain because philosophy, art, music and literature flourished between 1492 and 1681.

NYFOS Record’s latest release is Schubert / Beatles featuring baritone Theo Hoffman, pianists Steven Blier and Kunal Lahiry, and special guests soprano Julia Bullock and tenor Andrew Owens. First introduced to NYFOS audiences in NYC eight years ago as a thrilling live concert, this program pairs Schubert songs with Beatles songs on similar themes, and, in Blier’s words, “Lo and behold, the Holy of Holies sits comfortably next to the Oldie of Oldies.” Yesterday and Im Frühling are hymns to lost love, while Der Wanderer an den Mond and She’s Leaving Home tell contrasting stories of young people cast adrift into the world.

The genre of solo concertos has become increasingly important for Peter Ruzicka since the 1990s. In his oeuvre, it mediates between the dramatic forms of music theater and orchestral or ensemble works. The four compositions on this CD were created over a decade: AULODIE in 2011, STILL in 2016 (included as the final movement in the Chamber Symphony in 2021), the second concerto for viola or violin and large orchestra in 2020 and 2021 (expanded to include a chamber choir in the violin concerto). DEPART and EINGEDUNKELT were written when cultural life was at a standstill due to the COVID pandemic. For both, remembering acts as an elixir of life, and in both, Paul Celan once again takes center stage in Ruzicka's music. In DEPART, the title and form refer to the poet, "who knew how to name the wounds of the 20th century like no other" (P. Ruzicka), in EINGEDUNKELT his poetry forms the center.

ATMA Classique, Ensemble ArtChoral and Mécénat Musica are proud to present Art choral, vol. 6: Moderne with Ensemble ArtChoral under the direction of Matthias Maute. Volume 6 surveys modern choral repertoire from 20th and 21st century composers, including Canadian Andrew Balfour (Præter rerum seriem), Americans Samuel Barber (Agnus Dei), Aaron Copland (Help Us, O Lord), and Morten Lauridsen (O magnum mysterium), and English composer Edward Elgar, among others. The album features outstanding works in the modern choral repertoire, some of which have become a reference point for any choir open to contemporary music.

Guitarist and composer Stein Urheim has been a prominent artist in the HUBRO catalog for more than ten years. In addition to releases under his own name, he has contributed to albums by Erlend Apneseth, Benedicte Maurseth, a duo with Jørgen Træen, and most recently, the critically acclaimed "Barefoot in Bryophyte" with Mari Kvien Brunvoll and Moskus. On January 31st 2025, HUBRO will release "Speilstillevariasjoner". For these recordings, Urheim invited a group of highly distinctive musicians to collaborate, resulting in his most original and uncompromising album to date. The outcome is experienced as both poetic, atmospheric and mind-expanding.

Didier Rotella’s "Zone Grise" unfolds in a space of perpetual transformation, where sound navigates between density and purity, acoustic and electronic, structure and fluidity. Catharsis combines hybrid instruments and spatialized textures to evoke a dramatic journey of evolution and renewal, while Fragrances draws inspiration from perfume composition, blending musical elements into a rich, multi-layered tapestry. Mogari reflects on ritual and humanity through augmented instruments and poetic gestures, tracing a spiritual passage from lament to resolution. Each piece reveals Rotella’s ability to craft intricate, ever-shifting soundscapes that invite reflection on balance, motion, and the ephemeral nature of musical expression.

Doktor Faust was left incomplete at the time of Busoni’s death. Intended as his masterpiece, the opera’s genesis was complex and long. Based on Goethe’s tragic play, the story of Faust’s pact with the devil is well known but the opera’s structure represents Busoni’s unique conception, cast in two Prologues, a beautiful orchestral Intermezzo and three scenes. Exploring ideas of rationality and metaphysical doubt as well as the concepts of artifice and pretence inherent in operatic performance, the result is one of the most creative and unsettling of Busoni’s works.