The Cremonese composer Marc’Antonio Ingegneri (c. 1535/36–92) is chiefly remembered as the teacher of Claudio Monteverdi while, for well-nigh 500 years, his own achievements were left to sit in the shadows. This fourth in a series of pioneering recordings from the Choir of Girton College, Cambridge, presents a sequence of music for Holy Week and Easter, confirming Ingegneri to have been one of the masters of his age. The striking range of moods heard here will confound conventional expectations of Renaissance polyphony: Ingegneri’s emotional palette extends from tender intimacy in some of these motets to dancing, celebratory jubilation in the Mass setting – all of it music of breathtaking richness and beauty.

Friedrich Kleinhapl was immediately impressed by Astor Piazzolla's Le Grand Tango, his only original composition for cello and piano. The idea of combining South American temperament with European depth and a classical conception of sound ultimately resulted in the album program Pasion Tango for cello and piano (ARS38161). The next step was a logical continuation: tangos again with cello, but this time with a classical orchestra, in order to explore the tonal and emotional potential even more deeply - the result is a Gran Pasion Tango!

What happens when three different musical personalities with different backgrounds but a common home in Georgia join forces and decide to form a trio? This can lead to an unconventional journey, as in the case of Ketevan Sepashvili, Temo Kharshiladze and Sandro Sidamonidze. They met in Vienna in 2019 and realised that it was only logical to embark on a musical path together.

Dorothy Fields (1904–74) was an American lyricist who wrote the lyrics to classics including I’m in the Mood for Love, On the Sunny Side of the Street, and The Way You Look Tonight. She began her journey in the early twentieth century in New York-based Tin Pan Alley, which was a group of music publishers and songwriters. She eventually worked on Broadway and in Hollywood.

"I don't think Mendelssohn gets the attention he deserves," said Paavo Järvi at the start of the 2020-2021 season. Faced with this observation, he undertook to record a complete cycle of Mendelssohn's orchestral works with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra for his second season as Music Director. On the programme are the composer's five symphonies, including the second, known as 'Lobgesang', half-symphony, half-cantata, with the participation of the Zürcher Sing-Akademie, tenor Patrick Grahl and sopranos Chen Reiss and Marie Henriette Reinhold. Finally, A Midsummer Night's Dream , based on Shakespeare's play, the overture to which Mendelssohn composed when he was just 17, concludes this very fine cycle.

“ Vulnerasti cor meum ” literally translates as “You have wounded my heart” – which is not only the most classic of amorous metaphors, but also one of the most celebrated to be featured in the Song of Songs . In this, perhaps the greatest love poem in the history of literature, the two central characters of the story exchange promises of love that are pervaded by sensual metaphors and passionate similes verging on the erotic, in a style that lies on the border between the sacred and the secular.

In this recital, Véronique Gens and Hervé Niquet bring back to life a neglected aspect of France’s Romantic heritage: songs with orchestral accompaniment. Aside from a few pieces by Debussy and Duparc, and Berlioz’s famous Nuits d’été, orchestral mélodies form a virtually forgotten continent. In collaboration with the specialists of the Palazzetto Bru Zane, Alpha Classics now revisits these musical landscapes, taking us from Brittany (Hahn) to Persia, whose beauties Fauré and Saint-Saëns exalt in very different ways. Mélodies by Chausson, Gounod and Dubois and rarely heard instrumental pieces by Massenet, Fauré and Fernand de La Tombelle round out the journey with their musical reveries.

When selecting the works for their recording at ARS PRODUKTION, Tiffany Butt and Maria Cecilia Munoz looked at different eras to understand the impact that oppression and lack of freedom had on the creative process. They were not so much interested in what people were unable to do due to restrictive situations and adverse circumstances, but above all in what they achieved despite these circumstances. During their research, they came across impressive artistic personalities who have left behind music of great value.

Love Is the Thing is a 1957 album released by American jazz vocalist Nat King Cole. It is the first of four collaborations between Cole and influential arranger Gordon Jenkins. Launching the charting single "Stardust", which peaked at #79, the album reached #1 on Billboard's "Pop Albums" chart and tied at #1 on the UK Charts with the soundtrack for the 1956 film "The King and I". According to the records of the RIAA, the album achieved gold status in 1960 and broke platinum in 1992. The LP was Cole's first gold album.

This special double edition of the critically acclaimed "Heal My Soul" features the album packaged with its companion album, "Holding On", for the first time. "Heal My Soul" is composed of 12 songs recorded during a 3 year period (1996-98) of intense creativity.

Benny Green’s notes on his upcoming album, Benny’s Crib: My primary instrument will always be the piano, but as a child of the 1970s, I grew up in an era in which the sound of an electric piano was more prevalent in the popular music of the day than was the acoustic instrument.

Peter Appleyard, OC (26 August 1928 – 17 July 2013) was a British–Canadian jazz vibraphonist, percussionist, and composer.

The distinguished clarinettist Michael Collins has in recent years also gained recognition as a conductor, appearing with eminent orchestras across the world.

A cornerstone of piano literature, Liszt’s set of 12 ‘Transcendental Études’ needs a performer who is up to the challenge: able to rise above the work’s fearsome technical difficulties and to bring out all its uniqueness and compositional refinement.

h i l d e is curious, melancholic and brave. She embraces, disperses and puts together free improvisation with composed elements. She is wild and eccentric, with a courage to create beauty. h I l d e is Julia Brussels (violin), Marie Daniels (voice), Maria Trautmann (trombone) and Emily Wittbrodt (cello). All four are part of the The Dorf & Umland collective.