Mel (Mélanie Hélène) Bonis was born in Paris in 1858, and showed a prodigious talent for music from an early age, attending the Paris Conservatoire from the age of sixteen, studying alongside Debussy and Pierné under César Franck. Her passionate relationship with the singer Amédée-Louis Hettich was frowned upon by her parents, who pressured her to marry Édouard Domange, a twice-widowed industrialist with five children. Bonis threw herself into her role as wife and stepmother, until a reunion with Hettich in the 1890s reignited her serious interest in composition. She composed more than 300 works, including pieces for solo piano, chamber music, and over forty mélodies for voice and piano. As Bonis was too modest for self-promotion, and a victim of gender-bias, her music fell into obscurity after the First World War, and she became bedridden from arthritis. She continued to compose until her death, in 1937. Her orchestral output dates from two decades, between 1891 and 1912, and is well represented on this album.

Born in Ålesund (Norway) in 1943, Kjell Flem studied with Einar Englund and Einojuhani Rautavaara, going on to distinguish himself as a much-celebrated composer of Scandinavian contemporary music. His compositions are generally non-radical and atmospherically engaging, creating an ambience that is deeply rooted in the natural landscape of his homeland. His output is not extensive; rather, he allows himself long creative periods because, in his own words, truly magical moments of inspiration are rare.

Haydn composed the three symphonies in this volume during the mid-1780s in a spirit of triumph. Though still employed by the Esterházy family, he had recently been allowed to publish his music himself and to accept outside commissions. A number of symphonies were duly commissioned by a new, large ensemble recently established in Paris. Superficially similar, they reveal Haydn’s inexhaustible creativity whether in the astonishingly colourful introduction to No. 84, the rustic interludes in the trio section of No. 85 – a favourite of Marie Antoinette, or in the greatest of the Paris symphonies, No. 86, where the transition from the slow introduction to the main section is unequalled in his music.

David Hackbridge Johnson, born near London in 1963, is an all-round musician – not only a prolific composer but also a conductor, violinist, singer, pianist, jazz drummer and poet. Both works in this album, recorded under the baton of the composer, have extra-musical stimuli. The Piano Concerto evokes the Kafkaesque fantasy world and tragic fate of the Polish-Jewish writer and artist Bruno Schulz, a victim of Nazi oppression – and it also marks the early death of another uniquely gifted individual, since it was written for Jonathan Powell, whose last recording it became. The Symphony, taking its lead from earlier composers like Bax, Britten and Vaughan Williams, is a response to the English landscape, as seen through the paintings of a number of artists whose work Hackbridge Johnson esteems – its colours and moods changing as kaleidoscopically as nature itself.

Camargo Guarnieri loved writing for the human voice, composing hundreds of vocal works over the course of his long and distinguished career. The works in this programme all use texts by Mário de Andrade – a hugely influential writer who was Guarnieri’s friend and long-term collaborator. The comic opera Pedro Malazarte is representative of an attractively unconventional and colourful Brazilian modernism that sets it apart from Romantic traditions. Alongside other powerful settings, A Serra do Rola-Moça is one of Guarnieri’s finest dramatic vocal works, narrating the tragic story of two young people who die on their wedding day as they and their horses plunge into a ravine.

Richard Strauss summed up his two-act opera Intermezzo as a ‘bourgeois comedy with symphonic interludes’. The soprano role of Christine with its shimmering cantilenas represents Strauss’s wife Pauline, while the successful Kapellmeister Robert Storch serves as Richard Strauss himself in a domestic drama that was avant-garde for its time but now resonates with the accessibility of today’s reality shows. This production from the Deutsche Oper Berlin was acclaimed for its lush orchestral sound and superbly characterful cast led by a formidable central performance from Maria Bengtsson.

“If you happen to come to Frankfurt, especially in the first half of winter, please let me know. I would also come, either inviting Mühlfeld or bringing a viola part – for two clarinet sonatas that I would like Mrs. Schumann to hear. The unpretentious pieces would not disturb our comfort – but it would be nice!” This is what the 61-year-old Johannes Brahms wrote to his friend, the violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim, on October 14, 1894. Even this brief note indicates the composer’s early intention to have his two sonatas, Op. 120, performed alternatively by a wind instrument or the viola. Proving that these works are much more than ‘unpretentious’, Salzburg violinist and violist Thomas Albertus Irnberger, together with his long-standing piano partner Michael Korstick present a late new focus of Brahms’s. The subsequent “Märchenbilder”, Op. 113, by Robert Schumann marked another pinnacle of the viola-piano repertoire.

This album presents a refined dialogue between cello and piano, featuring classic works by Fryderyk Chopin and Cesar Franck. Performed by distinguished cellist Wen Ma and pianist Zijian Wei, winner of the 2024 Cleveland International Piano Competition, the album reflects the performers’ deep affinity for this classical repertoire. Throughout the recording, the dialogue between cello and piano is infused with a lingering romantic resonance.

In this remarkable recording, Daniel Müller-Schott blends masterful cello artistry with a deeply personal musical journey. Together with Irina Zahharenkova and Anderson Fiorelli, they bring works by Bach, Vivaldi, Geminiani and Boccherini to life – performed on the very harpsichord his mother played, the sound of which has accompanied him since childhood.

The sonatas unfold with a captivating mix of Baroque elegance, emotional warmth and technical brilliance. Each interpretation reflects intimacy, nostalgia and the timeless power of music. This is an album that resonates: authentic, poetic, and radiant with Baroque expressiveness.

The music of Artur Lemba has been strangely neglected, even in his native Estonia – although during his lifetime (1885–1963) he was held in high regard as pianist and teacher. That oversight is all the more surprising in view of the expansive, passionate lyricism of his writing – listeners who enjoy the music of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov are likely to warm to Lemba’s full-blooded Romantic style. This second release in a pioneering series discovering his chamber music reveals three expansive, big-hearted works full of personality.

Zygmunt Noskowski, the influential Polish conductor and composer, is perhaps better remembered for his role as a teacher and mentor to later luminaries such as Karol Szymanowski and Mieczysław Karłowicz than for his own compositions; also, for his connection to Stanisław Moniuszko. Yet for much of the 19th century, he was Poland’s leading exponent of modern music and his works are central to the Polish tradition. Following the Capriccio recordings of his symphonies (C5509 and C5547) this album presents a programme of his string quartets that again embody a veritable picture book of Polish Romanticism.

With this sixth volume, the Arcadia Quartet completes its series of recordings of Weinberg’s string quartets. The ensemble comments: ‘Although from time to time we encounter music that we have never heard before, rarely is that music something we would listen to or play again. In our times, with our technology of information, it is rather difficult to discover something meaningful and valuable that had been overlooked in the past, but when it does happen it is a really special moment. For us it happened when we first encountered the string quartets of Mieczysław Weinberg. We felt instantly captivated by the wonderful music, the deeply inspired melodies, and perfectly shaped structures. The joy of playing his music has only proved equalled by the enthusiastic response of the public every time we present these quartets in concert, so the obvious question arises: “How can it be that we never heard about Weinberg earlier?” His music is like a glow of light surrounded by the darkness of the unknown, and it quickly became a goal of ours to attempt to dilute these shadows. With every recording and every live performance of his music, we intend to shine some light on this wide-ranging, profound phenomenon, which has remained overlooked for so long.’

Virtuosity meets lyricism.

Fukuma explores new horizons in piano transcriptions!

Beyond his 20th anniversary, Kotaro Fukuma presents a transcription collection fusing virtuosity and lyricism. From his own Wagner arrangement to signature chansons and opera transcriptions, this “Fukuma-style” anthology is crafted for major playlists.

The digital release includes four bonus tracks–notably a J. Strauss II duo with Kaoru Jitsukawa–and is available in Dolby Atmos. This album marks Fukuma’s next strategic leap in the digital market, building on his success with global curators.

Alongside their respective solo careers, Hélène Mercier and Louis Lortie regularly meet to perform as a highly sought-after piano duo. Both born and raised in Montreal, they have formed a musical partnership that goes back to the 1980s, developing a musical intimacy present throughout their wide-ranging repertoire. Their complicity has been strengthened over decades of playing concerts and recording together. This, their nineth album for Chandos, continues their exploration of works by Debussy. The programme features transcriptions by Ravel, Dutilleux, Woollett, Durand, Roques, and the composer of some of his best-known orchestral works (Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, Nocturnes) and solo piano pieces (Clair de lune, La Soirée dans Grenade, La plus que lente, Rêverie). These sit alongside Lindaraja and En blanc et noir, original compositions for two pianos. Mercier and Lortie alternate the first and second player responsibilities in this mixture of works for two pianos and piano duet.

Louise Farrenc was one of the most respected pianists, composers and pedagogues in the Parisian musical scene of her day, gaining the admiration of Robert Schumann. Her Theme and Variations sets are regarded as some of the most significant pieces she composed for piano. In this volume, Farrenc takes inspiration from the famous bel canto operas of Bellini and Donizetti, as well as popular airs and dances that would have resounded throughout the fashionable salons of 19th-century Paris. Maria Stratigou continues her acclaimed survey of Farrenc’s complete works for piano.

Virgile Barthe, winner of the 2025 Guitar Foundation of America Competition, presents works ranging from the Baroque to the 21st century performed with his impeccable virtuosity and artistry. This recital takes us from arrangements of Domenico Scarlatti’s deeply expressive sonatas and Buxtehude’s brilliant Suite, to the lyrical Songs without Words of Mendelssohn and the haunting Music of Memory by Nicholas Maw. The album closes with Dušan Bogdanović’s Third Sonata, a truly virtuoso piece with its quotes from Stravinsky and musical influences from the Balkans, jazz and the Renaissance.

Hans Werner Henze. Royal Winter Music. Two Sonatas on Shakespearean Characters marks an important stage in Stefano Grondona’s recording career: after years of sustained engagement with it and public performances (roughly from 1982 to 1995), the musician returns to confront this pivotal work of twentieth-century guitar repertoire. At the same time, in the manner and outcomes of this traversal, the record bears witness to an oblique and little-trodden modality of approaching compositions that, like this one, embody peculiarities and contradictions of the more cultured guitar repertoire.

Florestano Rossomandi developed his musical education within the Neapolitan Pianistic School under Beniamino Cesi at the then Royal College of Music in Naples, after having passed the entrance examination for the boarding school – where young students could reside during their years of study – at just over ten years of age.

He thus moved to Naples where he remained until his death in 1933, and where he worked as a professor at the “San Pietro a Majella” Conservatory of Music from 1889 to 1929. He was the first to feel the need to write a proper didactic method capable of guiding piano teachers in the training of their students. Beniamino Cesi had also written a Piano Method, but it consisted solely of technical exercises, lacking the methodological and instructional guidance useful for teachers.

In this album dedicated to him, pianist Rosaria Dina Rizzo – the foremost scholar of the composer – presents an anthology based mainly on four-hand piano transcriptions, in keeping with a practice that the author considered of fundamental importance for the musical education of a pianist.

The reputation of Havergal Brian (1876–1972) as a late-blooming symphonist obscures the fact that he was an early-blooming composer of choral music for the huge market of amateur choirs thriving in Edwardian England. His choral songs range from simple unison settings for children’s or women’s voices to harmonically complex essays intended to tax the ability of groups taking part in the choral competitions once popular in regional Britain. This second selection includes four canons that Brian wrote in the early 1920s as contrapuntal studies for his mighty Gothic Symphony.

Giuseppe was composed by Mayr in 1829 for graduation concerts at the academy of music in Bergamo over which he presided. His inspiration was a Biblical opera that had won great popularity, Méhul’s Joseph, which had premiered in Paris in 1807, featuring prayers, hymns and unassuming arias. Mayr, however, drew on a much wider musical canvas to include grand arias, duets, a cavatina and a final chorus. He also repeatedly references popular melodies by his contemporaries Donizetti, Rossini and Bellini as befits a pasticcio oratorio.

Specially remastered for Yarlung’s 20th Anniversary, using analog technology we had not yet developed at the time of the original recording in 2017. Music director Robert Istad is one of the most exciting choral conductors in the next generation of American music. Dr. Istad directs the Pacific Chorale as heard on Yarlung’s All Things Common, serves as president of the California Choral Director’s Association, and is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Studies at California State University, Fullerton. Rob has conducted the Cal State Fullerton University Singers for twenty years, and the ensemble returned ten days before our 2017 recording session from a successful tour in Russia, the Baltics and Scandinavia.

Yarlung’s 20th Anniversary gives us the perfect excuse to look back a bit and celebrate some of our earlier successes with outstanding musicians. We continue this series with Nostos, the inaugural recording made in what is now called The Soraya, an acoustic masterpiece of a concert hall in Los Angeles. Leslie Bigos served as our executive producer for the original compact disc, and we are grateful to Leslie for her continued support.

Famous for composing one of the world’s greatest marches, Alte Kameraden (available on Volume 1 in this series, 8.574317), Carl Teike wrote a body of works that have enriched the German concert march repertoire. They imbue the medium with both diversity and charisma marrying thematic invention with clarity of structure and richness of tone colours. For the 43rd anniversary of his death, a 1918 march was disinterred, and named Neue Kameraden, while Sorgenbrecher is a tribute from Teike to his contemporary, the admired composer Paul Lincke. This is the final volume in the series.

David Handler presents a different take on his debut album with the digital release of Life Like Violence: The Remixes, which gathers some of his favourite artists to reimagine, rework, maul, chop, flip, and sample the collection of original works named in May 2025 by NPR as one of the month’s best classical albums.

In this sixth album the Choir of Girton College, Cambridge, continues its pioneering exploration of the music of the Italian Renaissance master Marc’Antonio Ingegneri (c. 1535/36–92) with a programme exploring in music Christ’s relationship with his disciples – twelve motets, symbolising the twelve disciples, framing the five-voice Missa Kyrie Secundi Toni, all in their first recordings. These further discoveries confirm Ingegneri’s position as one of the masters of his age, writing music as expressive and moving as his better-known contemporaries Palestrina and Lassus – and just as individual.

The Royal Ballet’s perfect pairing of Marianela Nuñez and Vadim Muntagirov takes centre stage in this collection of four fairytale favourites: Cinderella, Coppélia, Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake.

This delightful collection unites four of The Royal Ballet’s most beloved fairytale classics, led by the radiant partnership of Marianela Nuñez and Vadim Muntagirov. It spans the theatrical magic of Ashton’s Cinderella, the witty charm and precision of Coppélia, the glittering grandeur and iconic moments of The Sleeping Beauty, and the timeless romance of Swan Lake in Liam Scarlett’s atmospheric production. Rich designs, inspired choreography and Tchaikovsky’s glorious music combine to create a joyful celebration of classical ballet at its finest.

Among Teatro alla Scala’s most unforgettable productions, this La forza del destino is a performance of striking musical energy, with Riccardo Chailly conducting an exceptional cast of opera stars. Anna Netrebko (Leonora), confirms her absolute dominance of the Verdian repertoire, showcasing “beautiful floating high notes and enviable fiato” (OperaWire). Brian Jagde (Don Alvaro) and Ludovic Tézier (Don Carlo), give impeccable performances of great emotional depth and timbral richness. Joining forces, Stage Director Leo Muscato and Set Designer Federica Parolini deliver a reinterpretation of Verdi’s classic in a modern key. On a set that impresses for both beauty and functionality, the scenes are set across different eras, reminding us that war is always part of humans’ fate. “The undisputed star of the evening is Anna Netrebko. She elevates Donna Leonora with her distinctive, dark, velvety timbre, impeccable high notes, and acting presence.” (Orpheus Magazine)