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SOMM RECORDINGS is delighted to announce the return of pianist Peter Donohoe to the label following his acclaimed complete survey of Mozart’s Piano Sonatas with a dazzling new recital coupling Rachmaninoff – on the 150th anniversary of his birth in...
Boult had led the UK premiere of Berg’s excoriating setting of Georg Büchner’s play about a war-scarred veteran driven to madness and murder in 1934, although only Act II of that performance survives. This complete 1949 recording with the BBC...
“Dreams, Desires, Desolation was created out of our love for English Song. The album comprises a real mixture of very familiar songs, along with some relatively unknown ones, and a few which were very popular in their day but have...
On this one-of-a-kind album, the outstanding Danish ensemble Mathias Reumert Group presents three of Cuban composer Louis Franz Aguirre’s strongest pieces, including the large-scale composition for percussion ensemble and flute soloist, Orula (Liturgia de la Adivinación), a journey in extreme...
As well as exceptional performances, this recording offers phenomenal sound. The recording was made on 3-5 April 2023 at the Fazioli Concert Hall in Sacile, Italy in 5-channel Dolby Atmos high-definition audio and is available as hybrid multichannel SACD as...
Samuel Andreyev’s music is incredibly varied, from the sparse resonance of the Sonata da Camera, the ‘cartoon music’ – as the composer puts it – of Vérifications, characterized by primary colors and strong instrumental timbres; the Sextet in Two Parts...
The short-lived, San Francisco-based Women’s Philharmonic, founded in 1981 and disbanded in 2004, had an enormous impact on America’s classical music scene, promoting not only the music of woman composers but performances by prominent woman conductors and soloists. In 1992,...
To the general amazement of musical circles, Aleksander Tansman, a citizen of Lódz, a young student of law, and a student of Piotr Rytel and Henryk Melcer swept all three prizes (the Grand Prix and two honorable mentions) at the...
In his Éventail de musique française, Swiss oboist and composer Heinz Holliger traverses a broad selection of French works for oboe and piano in a multichromatic program of early 20th-century music. Contained in this wide-ranging recital are compositions by Ravel,...
Plinio Fernandes embarks on a captivating exploration of his favorite composer’s legacy on Bacheando. A dynamic inheritor of a decades-long tradition in which extraordinary Brazilian musicians have looked to the German master’s music for inspiration, Fernandes performs a harmonious blend...
Since his incredible breakthrough in 2011, when his debut album held the no. 1 position in the UK Classical charts for a breathtaking 28 weeks, MILOŠ has built an impressive international career by performing solo recitals and concertos at most...
When it comes to putting together a programme, Zsófia lets instinct guide her: “My choice of music repertory is intuitive. Pieces of music are like places for me, like spaces that I visit, step into and experience. They all have...
Lisa Reagan, former member of the Washington National Opera, has made another unexpected career turn with What We Need Is Here, to be released on October 6 by Stillpoint Records. The new album offers ten classic poems by noted poets,...
The Alexander String Quartet and guitarist William Kanengiser form a dynamic collaboration that explores the music of Sting, Led Zeppelin, John Dowland and The Beatles by way of contemporary composers Ian Krouse, Dušan Bogdanović and Leo Brouwer.Track ListingLabyrinth (On a...
SOMM Recordings is delighted to announce the label debut of the acclaimed British composer Howard Blake with a disc of his orchestral music to mark his 85th birthday.Blake himself is heard at the piano and conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra, with...
The history of music-making in Rome tends to focus on Renaissance polyphony, with an occasional nod to the Baroque thereafter. But thanks to composers like Giovanni Battista Casali (1715–92), choral music continued to flourish in Roman churches and other religious...
Harpist to Queen Victoria, the Welsh composer John Thomas (1826–1913) also wrote prolifically for his own instrument, both for solo harp and for duos of two harps or harp and piano – a combination where the different sounds of the...
The Swiss composer Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865–1950) is best remembered for his development of Eurhythmics, which teaches the appreciation of music through movement. This first-ever complete recording of all his German-language Lieder – setting folksongs as well as more recent Romantic...
Leo Ornstein is as well known for his extraordinary longevity as for his music: he was born in Ukraine in 1893 and died in Wisconsin in 2002, aged at least 108. His generous output of music, much of it for...
On Friday, November 3, 2023, Scribe Records releases Penitence & Lamentation, the Byrd Ensemble’s new album marking 400 years since the death of its namesake, William Byrd, and coinciding with Byrd Ensemble’s 20th anniversary season. Praised for their “rich, full-voiced, and...
Heinrich Schütz (18 October 1585 – 6 November 1672) was a German early Baroque composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as one of the most important composers of the...
Conductor Kathryn Cavanaugh writes -The meaning of Mahler's 10th has always eluded me until recent world events unfolded in front of my eyes.As the world turns further from the gospel of Jesus Christ, Satan fills the void. After all, Man...
Renaud Capuçon’s exciting new Mozart project for Deutsche Grammophon comprises three albums and two STAGE+ performances, all to come before the end of the year. Together they encompass the artist’s multi-faceted career as a concerto soloist, chamber musician, artistic director,...
Austrian composer Thomas Larcher’s new album features premiere recordings of three strongly contrasting works.The Living Mountain, composed 2019-20, draws inspiration from Scottish poet and nature writer Nan Shepherd’s book of the same name. Having grown up in Tyrol and familiar...
In Jubilo Women's Chorale performsTurn AroundA Girl's GardenThe Road Not TakenGod Help the OutcastsAve VerumThe Sun Never SaysSet Me As a SealMr. PostmanWest Side Story Choral SuiteJackie Riddle-Jackson, DirectorDee Holt, DirectorTeresa Redd, Accompanist
After the huge success of his previous Deutsche Grammophon album, devoted to works by Mozart, oboist Albrecht Mayer turns his attention to the uniquely talented Bach family. For Bach Generations, he has chosen a selection of music by four members...
Norwegian composer and pianist Ola Gjeilo announces the release of his choral album, ‘Dreamweaver’ via Decca Classics, featuring several world premiere recordings. Gjeilo is one of the most frequently performed composers in the world, his previous albums have garnered over...
Tenor Jonathan Tetelman marks the Puccini centenary by paying homage to one of the best-loved Italian opera composers The Great Puccini includes both favorite arias and rarities, with extracts from Il Tabarro, La bohème, La fanciulla del West, La Rondine, Le...
Cappella Romana has prioritized Arvo Pärt’s music for over thirty years. It gave the first US performance of Pärt’s Passio by a US ensemble in 1993 directed by Paul Hillier, with national broadcast on NPR. Cappella Romana has continued to...
...“full of the most delicious music you could ask to hear, and the players give every indication of loving every note they play” was how one enthusiastic reviewer described the first volume of aria arrangements on SOMM, of “Handel at...
Boireann features two compositions specifically crafted for this release. "Five Études for Two Flutes" reimagines earlier pieces for two violins, demonstrating Buckley's ability to transpose musical ideas across different instrumental settings. "In Memoriam Doris Keogh," a three-movement piece for flute...
HR Recordings releases The Weary Blues, an exciting new recording of songs resulting from a long and wonderful collaboration between American composer Drew Hemenger and soprano Adrienne Danrich. This first collaborative recording features a set of songs written for Adrienne...
Henry Purcell’s “fantasias” are regarded as some of the finest and most intricately wrought examples of the fantasia, due to their profound embrace of counterpoint and great command of the polyphonic techniques of the time. Composed in the summer of...
The elemental power of ancient folk music was the life force that drove the compositions of Veljo Tormis (1930-2017). As the great Estonian composer famously said, “I do not use folk song. It is folk song that uses me.” This...
Los Angeles, the city in which Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) spent the last few months of his life, played host to an exceptional festival of music last February. As part of this year’s Rachmaninoff 150 celebrations, Yuja Wang joined the Los...
The Philadelphia Orchestra and its Music and Artistic Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin continue their pioneering project to revive neglected music by Black American composers. Their latest recording, set for digital release by Deutsche Grammophon out today, captures Florence Price’s Symphony No....
Following his 2020 studio album, “Mozart,” this new recording features a repertoire by Rachmaninoff, the composer whose works played a pivotal role in Yekwon Sunwoo’s Van Cliburn victory. The release also coincides with the 150th anniversary of Rachmaninoff’s birth. Yekwon...
Tan Dun’s Buddha Passion is a captivating tale of wonder, truth, and gentle but irresistible transformation. The monumental work involving massed choirs, a large orchestra, six percussionists, and an array of soloists including indigenous singers, traditional Chinese instruments, and a...
A Prayer to the Dynamo was written in response to a commission from the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. It received its first, and so far only performance at the orchestra’s New Music Festival on 3 February 2012. As noted by the...
For this album, James Newton Howard created eight suites that are piano-centric and include new and original material. Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet performs throughout the recording. Violinist Hilary Hahn recreates her contributions to the soundtrack recording of the score for The...
Hélène Grimaud explores the rich universe of German Romanticism For Clara couples Robert Schumann’s Kreisleriana Op. 16 with Brahms’s Intermezzi Op. 117 and Lieder und Gesänge Op. 32, featuring baritone Konstantin KrimmelTrack Listing:1 Schumann: Kreisleriana Op. 16 : No. 1...
“This is how I want to make music!” That was Avi Avital’s reaction when he first saw Il Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini play live in Jerusalem. Now famed worldwide for his own charismatic and passionate performances, the mandolinist is...
When cellist Ofra Harnoy entered London’s venerable Abbey Road Studios in 1996 to record Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85, she never imagined she would have to wait 27 years for the recording’s release – at last,...
Ronald Stevenson (1928–2015) is best remembered for his huge output of music for the piano, an instrument he played with a rare understanding of tonal color. It was thus entirely within character that he responded enthusiastically to the opportunity to...
Friedrich Lux (1820–95) was one of those musicians who formed the fabric of musical life in nineteenth-century Germany: though he worked away from the major cities, as a conductor, teacher, organist, organizer, and composer, he was an indispensable element of...
Mélanie Bonis (1858–1937), a fine pianist herself, composed some 150 works for solo piano, publishing them with her first name shortened to ‘Mel’ to disguise the fact that she was a woman – while she lived among the French haute...
Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker, which has its origins in a novella by E. T. A. Hoffmann, contains some of the best-loved music ever written. But its composer wasn’t very happy with it, perhaps because the plot he was given to...
In 2022, at the end of a series of performances dedicated to Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), Claudio Cruz (violin), Adonhiran Reis (violin), Gabriel Marin (viola), and Alceu Reis (cello) from the award-winning Quarteto Carlos Gomes, decided to record the entirety of...