This release features music from Stanley Grill’s MUSIC FOR THE EARTH and MUSIC FOR PEACE projects. Summer (a symphony) was composed while out walking on during a very hot August. From out of the hot blue sky came the sound of brass choirs, and from the green trees, choruses of strings and woodwinds. Cicadas were calling.

Work on Symphony for Peace started late in 2023 as wars raged in both Ukraine and the Middle East. Unlike other wars that have been fought since the last century, these are wars that pose a threat of escalating on a world-wide scale.

Not that music ever brought peace. But, as Lenny Bernstein famously said, ‘This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly, than ever before.’ Scattered throughout the score, in somewhat altered form, are melodies by various composers ranging from the Renaissance through the 20th century that were settings of the words ‘dona nobis pacem.’

Paper Pianos is a multimedia project co-created by composer Mary Kouyoumdjian and librettist Nigel Maister, with music performed by Alarm Will Sound and music director Alan Pierson. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Music, the work draws on taped interviews with refugees and refugee resettlement workers to tell a deeply moving story of dislocation, longing, optimism, and the search for safer harbours. This full-length performance was recorded live on February 25, 2023 at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) in Troy, NY.

In July 1983, Idil Biret stunned audiences at the Istanbul Festival with her masterful interpretation of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3, performed alongside the Leningrad Orchestra under Alexander Dmitriev. The conductor declared that no woman in the Soviet Union could play the work with such mastery, and only a handful of men could match her artistry. More than three decades later, in July 2017, Biret performed at Rachmaninov’s restored Ivanovka estate, presenting his Moments Musicaux with profound sensitivity. These landmark concerts, preserved on this LP, affirm Biret’s enduring authority in Rachmaninoff and her rare, deeply moving musicianship.

Completely forgotten today, Friedrich Schwindl (1737–1786) was a highly esteemed violinist and composer in his time. Although his name appears repeatedly in the writings of Leopold Mozart, Charles Burney and Daniel Schubart, the construction of his biography remains very fragmentary. Born in Amsterdam, the stages of his life can be traced along the Rhine, from the Netherlands to Switzerland. The focus of his work was instrumental music, especially symphonies, of which 31 survive. They display the influence of the Mannheim School, but with a more folk-like character. This release represents a fascinating historical rediscovery, brought to life with virtuosity and authenticity by the musicians of the l’arte del mondo orchestra under Werner Ehrhardt.

Between 1972 and 2018 the Ukrainian composer Yevhen Stankovych – born in 1942 and now the senior figure in Ukrainian music – produced a series of seventeen Chamber Symphonies, many of them doubling as concertos. This substantial body of music has remained largely unheard until now, even inside Ukraine, and should prove a major discovery for audiences everywhere. These works cover a kaleidoscopic range of moods – lyrical, rhythmically propulsive, bashfully hesitant, buoyantly assertive, elegiac, optimistic – expressed in a direct language with its distant roots in the mild modernism of Berg, Britten, Janáček, Shostakovich and like composers. Stankovych’s achievement is unparalleled in the history of music not simply because of the sheer number of his Chamber Symphonies – they also contain some of the finest music of the past half-century.

Hailed by Fanfare magazine as ‘one of the major artists of our time’ Ukrainian violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv continues to give voice to her country’s rich musical heritage in Music of Resilience. The album explores her homeland’s ongoing war and features new works: Victoria Vita Polevá’s searing lament, Bucha. Lachrimosa, and two pieces by Bohdan Kryvopust, the powerfully commemorative On the River and the folk-music inspired Ukrainian Suite. Hanna Havrylets’ Ex Libris dates from 1993 and employs folk music techniques that draw on ornamentation more than development. Representing an earlier generation, the richly Romantic works by Osyp Zalesky and Roman Prydatkevych are heard here in arrangements by Bohdana Frolyak. As an encore, Ivakhiv plays Yuriy Shevchenko’s arrangement of Ukraine’s national anthem.

In 1776, during a spell in Italy early in his career, the Ukrainian composer Dmytro Bortniansky (1751–1825) wrote Creonte, an opera seria based on Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone and poised, like early Mozart, on the cusp between Baroque and Classical styles. Although a success in its day, Creonte then vanished for 250 years, until it was discovered by chance in a Portuguese library. It may have been hidden there because its tale of love versus power ends with a surprising democratic twist – a daring move in those autocratic times. Since Creonte is the first surviving opera by a Ukrainian composer, its revival in Kyiv in 2024 became a gesture of defiance, a symbol of national importance underlining the continued vigour of Ukrainian culture even in wartime. This remarkable recording then followed, made in sessions between Russian bombing, black-outs and power-cuts – itself a testimony to Ukrainian national resilience.

Inicia! is a collective of three composers (Alireza Farhang, Antonin Servière, and Patrick Marcland) founded in 2020, with the aim of promoting contemporary musical creation in the Nice region. Engaging renowned musicians, the ensemble presents concerts in which particular attention is paid to scenography, staging, and choreography, with a focus on trans-disciplinarity and dialogue between art forms. In 2021, they produced and performed the music for Laurence Marthouret’s triptych of choreographic works, Rituals. The Inicia! ensemble has collaborated with the CIRM (National Center for Musical Creation in Nice, now extincted) and L’Entrepont at the 109 Contemporary Culture Center, located in Nice.

This first volume of Joseph Marx’s chamber music charts a period of 30 years from the cello works of 1913–14 to the Violin Sonata No. 2, written in 1944, shortly before he ceased all composition. The Pastorale is characteristically subtle with impressionistic devices harnessed to ever-changing variations. The Suite in F major, for which the Pastorale was originally intended, balances a rural idyll with more sombre elements, informed by a noble Classical design. Violin Sonata No. 2, subtitled Frühlingssonate (‘Spring Sonata’), consciously re-uses material from earlier works to form a lyrical dance-like work irradiated by ingenious harmonic twists.

The music of Douglas Gordon Weiland – born, like Elgar, in Worcestershire, in 1954 – is one of the better-kept secrets of British musical life: very little of his substantial catalogue of orchestral, chamber and choral works has been recorded. This first volume in a projected series reveals a composer with an individual musical language, an angular lyricism informed by echoes of Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Frank Martin, its quieter moments having something of the autumn elegance of late Brahms and its more propulsive passages the energy and rough humour of Nielsen and Robert Simpson. Weiland was himself a professional violinist for some years, moreover, and he writes for the instrument with deep understanding.

This album is my love letter to the bassoon, and to bassoonists, who are the most generous and lovely collaborators. After a decade of commissioning a slew of new solo works, I longed for the collaborative aspect of bassoon ensemble playing. Although this album is realized as a solo project, the idea behind the commissioning of these pieces is to create a deep and varied repertoire for bassoon choir to be performed with myriad voices, and to encourage others to keep adding to this new library. I’m grateful to my bassoonist colleagues who joined me in exploring early premieres of many of these works at the Fridman Gallery in June of 2024 (you can find their names in the thank yous).

Louise Farrenc won the admiration of her contemporaries as one of the most respected pianists, composers and pedagogues in 19th-century Paris. She was acclaimed as a performer of Beethoven’s music, and her graceful Mélodie in A flat major was included in an 1846 anthology of works by an array of composers inspired by the music of Beethoven. Farrenc’s Impromptu in B minor appeared in another publication, Vogt’s Musical Album of Autographs, alongside compositions by 62 other musicians including Berlioz, Gounod and Liszt. The Fugues were never published in Farrenc’s lifetime and are heard here in a world premiere recording. ‘[Stratigou] has a full mastery of Farrenc’s romantic style and a technique to match’ (American Record Guide on Volume 3, GP942).

Born in Manchester in 1953, Peter Donohoe studied at Chetham’s School of Music for seven years, graduated in music from Leeds University, and went on to study at the Royal Northern College of Music with Derek Wyndham, and then in Paris with Olivier Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod. He is acclaimed as one of the foremost pianists of our time, for his musicianship, stylistic versatility, and commanding technique, a critic concluding in Musical Opinion that ‘I cannot imagine a living pianist capable of improving upon Donohoe’s outstanding artistry’. Following his previous volume of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces (CHAN 20254), this double-album presents the remaining 39 pieces, alongside the Ballade, Op. 24. Born in Bergen in 1843, Grieg is widely regarded as Norway’s “National Composer”. Grieg wrote for the piano throughout his career, but eschewed the German Sonata in favour of miniatures, which he named Lyriske stykker (Lyric pieces). Often influenced by the folk-music of his native Norway, these works were published in 10 volumes. Rather than recording them sequentially, Peter Donohoe has arranged the pieces in an order of his own choosing.

Garth Knox’s Viola Spaces consists of eight compact works, each built around a specific extended technique for the viola. Multiphonics, harmonics, alternative pizzicato forms, bow-pressure effects, and noise-based sounds are shaped into concise musical studies that expand the instrument’s expressive and technical range.

Günter Teuffel is widely recognized for his long-standing engagement with contemporary viola repertoire. As performer, teacher, and former solo violist, he has contributed significantly to the understanding and dissemination of modern playing techniques and new music for the instrument. This release brings together Knox’s inventive cycle and Teuffel’s broad experience within the field of contemporary viola music, offering a focused look at the instrument’s modern possibilities.

Regarded as the father of Czech music Bedřich Smetana was a pioneer in developing a national style that culminated in his popular symphonic cycle Má vlast. Composed after he had become deaf the Czech Dances are Smetana’s last major piano works. Sparkling with distinctive character and inventiveness Book 1 elevates the humble polka to the level Chopin achieved with his mazurkas, while Book 2 was inspired by the old Moravian and Bohemian dances played to Smetana by his neighbour, a local amateur violinist. Coloured with Lisztian harmonic richness, the Piano Sonata in G minor combines Romantic expressiveness with puckish good humour.

The voice of baritone Matteo Mencarelli – accompanied by Filippo Farinelli on the piano – magnificently interprets the chamber music anthology presented in this release: a journey through Italian lieder repertoire spanning the transition from the 19th to the 20th century. The overview of the featured composers (including a world premiere recording of works by Francesco Morlacchi) traces an intriguing path in which the use of poetic texts by both ancient and contemporary authors defines the thread running through the album. From the literary sources employed by the composers of the Italian Historical 20th century – ranging from Dante Alighieri to Gabriele D’Annunzio, via 19th century German poetry and unique figures such as the Neapolitan poetess Laura Beatrice Mancini-Oliva – spring musical masterpieces in which the composers seek and find emancipation from the dominance of 19th-century theatrical melodrama, thereby realigning the genre of vocal chamber music with the European lied tradition.

LEGENDS: Rebellion is the next installment in a series of recordings celebrating women as storytellers and bearers of cultural memory. Featuring world-premiere recordings, GRAMMY-nominated, long-time collaborative duo soprano Laura Strickling and pianist Joy Schreier returns to add to the evolving legend of modern art song in an album exploring rebellion in many forms: political, emotional, erotic, maternal, and spiritual. From Afghan women’s landay poetry composed in defiance of oppression, to mythic heroines reclaiming their own narratives, to an unflinching portrayal of new motherhood and a powerful meditation on love as resistance. Pushing against conventional expectations of what art song “should” be, this album offers a kaleidoscopic array of harmonic and rhythmic languages alongside compelling, deeply human texts; a program that fascinates, challenges, informs, and delights – inviting both devoted listeners of art song and those less familiar with the genre into a richly expressive sonic world celebrating contemporary song as a space for courage, vulnerability, witness, and transformation.

24-year-old Tuva Bergenheim is a Swedish drummer, composer, and bandleader from Stockholm who, with her debut album Skärgårdsjazz (‘Archipelago Jazz’), creates a dreamy and melancholic sound where Swedish jazz meets pop, folk ballads (visa), and Nordic folk music. Unlike other Swedish jazz artists, there are no influences here of traditional vocal jazz or the American standard repertoire. As a drummer, composer, and lyricist, she shapes a personal sound that defies expectations – dreamy, melancholic, and a unique blend of old Sweden and modern jazz. Produced and composed by Bergenheim herself, Skärgårdsjazz is a nostalgic tribute to what has shaped all her summers – the docks of the Swedish archipelago, salt-sprayed cliffs, and a melancholic feeling of the transience of time.

Escape to the countryside with Frederick Ashton’s ballet about a capricious girl who hopes to marry her love. Brimming with humour and choreographic invention, La Fille mal gardée is the perfect ballet for all the family.

Lise is the only daughter of Widow Simone, the owner of a prosperous farm. She is in love with the young farmer Colas, but her mother has higher ambitions for her, hoping to marry her off to Alain, the son of the wealthy proprietor Thomas. Desperate to marry Colas rather than Alain, Lise contrives to outwit her mother’s plans.

When La Fille mal gardée premiered in Covent Garden on 28 January 1960, it instantly won all hearts. Inspired by Jean Dauberval’s French ballet, Ashton’s version combines exuberant good humour and an affectionate portrayal of village life. The Royal Ballet’s Founder Choreographer, Ashton hoped to capture the ‘leafy pastoral of perpetual sunshine…the suspended stillness of a Constable landscape of my beloved Suffolk, luminous and calm’. Osbert Lancaster’s colourful designs bring the charm of the countryside to life.

With a spectacular cast and the staging direction of Stefano Poda, this production of Verdi’s Nabucco presents the Arena di Verona in a postmodern aesthetic brought to light through a futuristic vision, cosmic symbolism and absolute abstraction. Anna Netrebko gifts the festival’s audience with a powerful interpretation of one of Verdi’s most demanding roles: her Abigaille is ‘beautiful, vivacious, magnetic’ (La Stampa) and ‘tackles this formidable challenge with great confidence’ (Rivista Musica). Amartuvshin Enkhbat is ‘a marvellous performer of Nabucco, deeply moving’ (Forum Opera). ‘Pinchas Steinberg conducts the choir and orchestra of the Arena di Verona with verve, power, brio and fire’ (Der Merker), a magnificent performance that culminated in a rendition of Va’ pensiero brimming with pathos and intensity.