Turkish composer, musician and researcher Ozan Baysal specialises in şelpe, an Anatolian bağlama playing style originating from pastoral-nomadic cultures in Central Asia and the Middle East. Through his research, Ozan gained insight into the many playing techniques within şelpe to produce a uniquely rich and resonant sound. Bağlama performers nowadays combine Western tonal harmonic approaches with traditional şelpe in their own compositions, arrangements and solo performances. Additionally, they have fused the traditional şelpe methods with techniques from flamenco and classical guitar, as well as from instruments such as the dutar and dombra, resulting in a new musical synthesis. Ozan’s debut album features instrumental arrangements of traditional Anatolian tunes for the double-necked bağlama, alongside new improvisations and compositions that explore the modern şelpe style.

This release continues the Capriccio label’s exploration of rarely performed or recorded symphonic works by Miklós Rózsa, composer of the renowned film score for Ben-Hur. The programme comprises his Rhapsody for Cello, in which the young composer found his true style; the Notturno Ungherese (‘a nostalgic night piece, harking back to the memories of my childhood in Hungary’); and the late Sinfonia concertante for violin and cello, a fiendishly difficult work that is among Rózsa’s finest, least filmic concert works, and one of his most underrated. It was legendary cellist Gregor Piatigorsky and violinist Jascha Heifetz who instigated its composition, but they never went on to perform it. Fortunately we get to hear it performed brilliantly on this recording by two equally distinguished artists: Harriet Krijgh, one of today’s most exciting and promising young cellists, and violinist Nikita Boriso-Glebsky, soloist with the Moscow Philharmonic Society and laureate of international music competitions.

Positioned between Southern Europe and North Africa, Malta has long been an artistic crucible that forms one of the Mediterranean’s most significant cultural crossroads. Charles Camilleri’s African Dreams explores that continent’s qualities in native rhythms and intense pianistic colours, while Carmelo Pace and Carlo Diacono look towards the worlds of Liszt and Chopin. Josie Mallia Pulvirenti’s rarely heard Impressione Sinfonica is a concert masterpiece of virtuosic majesty, steeped in the piano’s Golden Age. Award-winning Maltese pianist, Charlene Farrugia, has conducted extensive research into the life and work of composers from the country of her birth.

Since its inception, the Le Beau Ensemble has specialised in the works of the composer from whom it takes its name, Luise Adolpha Le Beau (1850–1927). Le Beau left behind more than 65 works with opus numbers in almost all genres: songs, choral music, piano pieces, chamber music, symphonic works, a piano concerto, two oratorios and the fairy tale opera The Enchanted Caliph. This debut album features songs with chamber accompaniments alongside the programme’s major work, the Piano Quartet, Op. 28.

Although the young Felix Mendelssohn was not brought up in any faith until the age of seven, Christian traditions featured largely in his creative make-up. Already in 1821 – when he was aged just 12 – he embarked on a series of psalm settings, before eventually going on to produce his mature, large-scale choral works that include St Paul, Elijah, and Die erste Walpurgisnacht. In the final decade of his life, however, Mendelssohn returned to writing unaccompanied choral works; most of the works featured in this collection were composed during the 1840s, when the composer was already ailing with what would prove his final, fatal illness. The more significant works on the album are the Sechs Sprüche, with each anthem themed to a specific feast day of the year, and the Three Psalms. This recording of the psalms also includes the world premiere recording of Ehre sei dem Vater, published by Carus Verlag in 1997.