This edition features American label MSR Classics highlighting a two disc set celebrating string-quartets by Alabama based composers, the University of Massachusetts Wind Ensemble and the Japanese landscapes evoked in southeast Texas by composer Marty Regan and the  shakuhachi.  Its Bulgarian cousin, the kaval, visits Places with Zhivko Vasilev on a Gega New release.  Presented by Laurence Lewis.  Playing Time: 10.54 mins.    

Jason Calloway, cellist with the Amernet String Quartet, discusses with Laurence Lewis their new two CD MSR Classics release highlighting composers who have connections to Alabama.  Playing Time: 13.23 mins.

Milan Pala takes his violin and viola into  uncharted musical territory with his two disc survey of Moravian solo string music.   Bass, Gustav Belecek visits Fantastic Landscapes of Songs, while "Between Us" celebrates the meeting of Czech Jazz greats, pianist,  Emil Viklicky and the bass clarinet of Pavel Hruby.  Playing Time: 10.46 mins.

Bulgarian composer Yassen Vodenitcharov puts into music the antique and very obscure texts of The Voynich Manuscript, using an ensemble of viola da gamba's and a mezzo-soprano.  Karel Bendl (1838 - 1897) goes into The Nature Realm with the Foerster Female Chamber Choir, and there's Shostakovich's First and Fifteenth Symphonies to complete the cycle conducted by Emil Tabakov.  Laurence Lewis presents these new releases by Bulgarian label Gega New and Czech label Arta.  Playing Time: 10.04 mins.   

Czech conductor, Zdenek Klauda, talks to Laurence Lewis about his latest Nibiru release, Concertos for Cello and French Horn by Jakub Jan Ryba, and his discovery of this composer previously known only by his celebrated Old Czech Christmas Mass.  Playing Time: 23.04 mins.

Discover the extraordinary  Cello Concerto by Jakub Jan Ryba - known for his Old Czech Christmas Mass - and listen to our interview with conductor Zdenek Klauda in our latest  Classic Music Podcast Extra.  There's String Quartets by Shostakovich and Goleminov and Contemporary sounds by Dust in the Groove.  Laurence Lewis introduces these digital releases by Czech label, Nibiru, Bulgarian label Gega New and Slovakian label Hevhetia.  Playing Time: 9.31 mins. 

Our first edition of 2021, hosted by Laurence Lewis,  features Unexpected Isolation, guitarist David Kollar and trumpeter Arve Henriksen's staggering electronic meditation, released by Hevhetia,  on Covid-19,  there's Scriabin's Sonata No. 8 from an MSR Classics disc of Russian Piano Sonatas with Euntaek Kim and Dvorak and Suk, on Artesmon,  played by the Variace Ensemble Prague.  

Laurence Lewis introduces the sound, on Pavlik Records,  of the Saxophone Syncopators in Nuclear Sax by Evgeny Irshai, on Hevhetia, guitar and electronics master David Kollar tells of the Crime on the Bunny and on a second disc 10 Poems for Ronroco and in their ongoing series Famous Opera Voices of Bulgaria, Gega New present tenor Nikola Nikolov, the Pavarotti of a previous age.  Playing time: 11.18 mins.

In our November episode Laurence Lewis introduces a moment, on Hev Het Tune,  from Julo Fujak's sonic landscape, kaleidoSONICope! There's a first Slovakian recording of York Bowen's Viola Phantasy, on Pavlik Records, while MSR Classics release amazing American soprano Amy Johnson singing Janacek's Kat'a Kabanova and lusting over John  the Baptist in the final astonishing moments of Salome by Richard Strauss, giving this podcast a positive finale!  Playing Time: 9.46 mins.

Laurence Lewis highlights an important two disc set release by Slovakian label Pavlik Records, with Milan Pala playing the Six Violin Sonatas by Weinberg.  Beginning in 1943, these reflect the times in which Weinberg lived, suffered and composed.  The "live" recording brings a huge emotional impact to these performances.  We discover the French inspired music of Danae Vlasse on her MSR Classics album, Poeme, and, on another Pavlik Records release composer Evgeny Irshai reveals his Six Bratislava Concertos.  Playing Time: 9.06 mins.