Tarquinio Merula belonged to a generation of Italian composers, all of whom were born around 1600, for whom the concertante style was no longer a new idiom but a preferred musical medium, one that had been acquired in childhood and which had become not only the dominant musical language of the time but which was also to spread across the whole of Europe. Tarquinio Merula was renowned as a violin and organ virtuoso and published a wide variety of instrumental music per la chiesa e la camera. Here InAlto explores Merula’s sacred works, including the famous lullaby Hor che è tempo di dormire. His works may seem simple at times, but are impressively innovative; whilst sacred in character, they are rooted in human emotion.

A new live album that sees the band reflecting on their 6th album, Radiohead’s Hail to the Thief (Live Recordings 2003-2009) is comprised of performances of songs in London, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, and Dublin between 2003 and 2009. The album was mixed by Ben Baptie and mastered by Matt Colton.

Two albums - Obaluayê (1957) and Orquestra Afro-Brasileira (1968) - were enough for Orquestra Afro-Brasileira to mark its history in music forever. Born in 1942 in Rio de Janeiro by its founder Abigail Moura, it remained active until 1970 and, in 2021, was revived by the only living member of the original line-up at the time, Carlos Negreiros, when the third and final album in the orchestra's career, entitled 80 years, was released by Amor in Sound/Night Dreamer.

Loewe composed Hiob as his twelfth oratorio in 1848. To understand the context and background of the work and Loewe’s oratorio style in general, it is important to be aware of the environment in which he wrote: Mendelssohn had died a year earlier, and his benchmark oratorios ‘Paulus’ (1836) and ‘Elias’ (1846/47) were already available, and Loewe is likely to have been familiar with them. Telschow wrote a condensed summary of the 42-chapter Book of Job from the textbooks and psalms of the Old Testament for the oratorio.

For a long time, the fact that three of J.S. Bach’s harpsichord concertos are arrangements of earlier violin concertos led scholars to suspect that the remaining concertos were also adaptations of lost works for strings or winds, prompting several musicologists to attempt reconstructions.

Cassandra Jenkins is a New York–based songwriter, recording artist, and touring musician working at the intersection of sound, storytelling, and immersive installation. Known for her critically acclaimed albums An Overview on Phenomenal Nature (Badabing, 2021) and My Light, My Destroyer (Dead Oceans, 2024), Jenkins blends field recordings, voice, and instrumentation to create textured soundscapes with a focus on collaboration and experimentation. Her recent work explores spatial audio and bioacoustics, bridging natural soundscapes with contemporary production techniques. With experience in both solo and ensemble settings, Jenkins brings a deep commitment to creative risk-taking and intuitive composition. At the center of it all is her curiosity toward the quarks and quasars that make up her universe, as she melds field recordings with poetic lyricism.

Woody Guthrie's raw and intimate home recordings will be released for the very first time ever in a two-volume collection, Woody At Home – Volumes 1 & 2. This collection contains 22 unreleased recordings, including 13 previously never-before-heard Woody Guthrie songs. These rare recordings include This Land is Your Land, featuring new verses, and the only known Guthrie recording of Deportee in existence.

David Conte’s Intimate Voices presents a deeply personal journey through a decade of his chamber music, with works recorded between 2014 and 2024.

On his seventh release for Posi-Tone, trumpeter Josh Lawrence delivers a thrilling, heartfelt exploration of works by Thelonious Monk and Frédéric Chopin. Still We Dream combines fiery post-bop drive with classical elegance, resulting in a suite of reimagined pieces that move seamlessly between jazz tradition and forward-thinking improvisation. With an all-star ensemble including Diego Rivera (tenor sax), Art Hirahara (piano), Boris Kozlov (bass), and Rudy Royston (drums), Lawrence strikes a compelling balance between intellectual depth and emotional resonance. A standout release that bridges eras and genres with imagination and soul.

Award-winning jazz singer Michelle Nicolle and acclaimed composer and pianist Paul Grabowsky unveil the hidden poetry within beloved ballads by artists such as Frank Sinatra and Cole Porter, transforming familiar melodies into haunting explorations of longing, heartbreak, and the bittersweet beauty of unrequited love. From jazz standards to unexpected gems, each song is stripped back to its emotional core, revealing those ephemeral moments of yearning often disguised beneath popular songs.

With It’s All About Love, seasoned jazz vocalist Donna Byrne makes a radiant return to Challenge Records, delivering her ninth studio album and reaffirming her place among the great interpreters of song. Spanning a rich career of nearly four decades, Byrne remains true to her roots, offering a heartfelt collection that honors the traditions of jazz while showcasing her timeless artistry.

For her second recital with piano, mezzo-soprano Adèle Charvet reunites with Florian Caroubi, who has been her regular duo partner since 2015. Together they celebrate the belle époque of the great French melodists (Massenet, Debussy, Fauré) and their protégés, including Chausson, Hahn, Koechlin, Aubert, Caplet, Messager, Enesco, Albéniz, Madeleine Dubois and Nadia Boulanger, as well as the much less known Xavier Leroux and Ernest Moret. This is a programme about lines of descent and musical transmission, energised by the texts of great poets such as Verlaine, Mallarmé, Maeterlinck, Banville, Leconte de Lisle, Louÿs and Toussaint.

Whether melting away like a singing gondolier on the Grand Canal or tumbling around like Eulenspiegel, whether chuckling melancholically in the depths like a brooding hen or springing acrobatically across the high wire: once the clarinet had outgrown its infancy, its rapidly expanding possibilities soon made it “the talk of the town” – praised by enthusiastic advocates such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, technically advanced by new virtuosos, and given a wide variety of tasks by composers eager to experiment. At the forefront of these pioneers was Carl Stamitz, one of the first Mannheimers of the second generation, who wrote almost a dozen concert works for the slender instrument, leaving the guild of clarinet players with a precious little catechism, which can now be heard in its entirety on record for the first time.

The Far Flung Trio are Katherine Hunka (violin), Dermot Dunne (accordion) and Malachy Robinson (double bass): the name reflects their sense of fun and the eclecticism in their programing and performances.

Three years after their album of works by J.S. Bach (FUG 792), flautist Toshiyuki Shibata and keyboard player Anthony Romaniuk now record works not only by Bach but also by his sons Carl Philipp Emanuel and Wilhelm Friedemann, "the most original and innovative" of the lineage, according to Shibata.