The eagerly awaited volume 2 in the fascinating exploration of Antoine Reicha's keyboard music by the trailblazing pianist Ivan Ilic is now out! Ilic here digs into a crucial aspect of Antoine Reicha's music: counterpoint and the manner in which Bach's music served as a point of departure for Reicha's eclectic, fertile mind and wide variety of musical styles. If most of these etudes are made up of a Prelude paired with a Fugue, their variety offers the album great diversity, and unveils the compositional genius of Antoine Reicha: here are unexpected moods and textures, sophisticated canons, cheeky invertible counterpoint, chaconnes and minuet-like character pieces, even a piece the only unifying characteristic of which seems to be its tumbling scales in dotted rhythm.

Beatrice Rana, in the words of the New York Times, is a pianist who "has ferocious technique but is distinguished by her musical intelligence." Here she plays virtuosic, poetic works that evoke the creative ferment of Paris in the transitional early years of the 20th century: piano transcriptions of Stravinsky's iridescent ballet scores The Firebird and Petrushka, and Ravel's Miroirs and La Valse.

Continuing the series 'Bach's Contemporaries', this volume concentrates on the wonderful music of Johann Schelle — a cousin of Kuhnau (another composer featured in this series). This immensely striking sacred music by Schelle (one of Bach's predecessors in the post of Kantor in Leipzig's famous Thomas Church) brings together a top-flight group of soloists and a large and colourful assembly of instrumentalists, and presents remarkable and splendidly varied music which not only stands up proudly in its own musical right, but also greatly enhances our understanding of Bach's own sacred writing.

After the resounding success of Volume 1 (Gramophone Editor’s Choice, Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Diapason d’Or, Choc de Classica, FFFF Télérama), the project to record the complete Sibelius symphonies continues with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Santtu-Matias Rouvali, whose career as a conductor is entering top gear: he has just been appointed Principal Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London. At the turn of the twentieth century, as Finland struggled to free itself from Russian rule, Sibelius and his wife faced several domestic dramas, including the loss of one of their daughters, Kirsti, to typhoid fever.

The 18th century was the golden age of the mandolin. The ensemble Artemandoline presents world premiere recordings of forgotten masterpieces written in Florence and Rome for mandolin and basso continuo. A music full of energy, beauty and virtuosity.

Catherine Gayer makes a spirited, fresh sounding Adonis and Brigitte Fassbaender as Venus is superb throughout; Venus's ''Augelletti, si cantate'' has an almost irresistible allure and her radiant duet with Adonis at the conclusion of the work is something to treasure. The instrumental accompaniment is excellent of its kind and of its vintage, with a notable contribution from Hans-Martin Linde on the sopranino recorder. This is, in a word, enlightened music-making which brings a ravishing score to life affectionately and convincingly. Excellent recorded sound and a considerable adornment to Archiv Galleria's otherwise arbitrary and mainly disappointing selection of reissues.

Along with two other piano sonatas and the sublime String Quintet, the A major Piano Sonata D959 is one of the four visionary masterpieces Schubert finished in 1828 which were to be among the very last things he wrote. On a less imposing scale, the six Moments musicaux reveal an alternative side to the composer.

With his first stage work ‘Le Villi’, the young Giacomo Puccini instantly struck a chord with his contemporaries. His unerring instinct for deeply moving melodies made him a beacon of hope for a new generation of Italian opera composers. In this ‘opera ballo’ he masterfully set to music the gruesomely beautiful legend of an unfaithful fiancé who is killed by the frenzied dance of the “Willis” – elemental spirits haunting the Black Forest. On October 13, 2024, a few weeks before the centenary of the composer’s death on November 29, the Munich Radio Orchestra presented a concert performance of the two-act version of ‘Le Villi’ at the city’s Prinzregententheater.

On sait peu de choses sur la vie personnelle de la talentueuse compositrice. Cependant, les quelques témoignages qui existent d'Anna Bon di Venezia indiquent une carrière musicale impressionnante à travers divers pays européens. Anna Bon di Venezia est née en août 1738 à Bologne, en Italie. Elle vient d'une famille de musiciens italiens prospères qui ont été actifs dans de nombreux pays européens. Anna Bon a reçu sa formation musicale au célèbre « Ospedale della Pietà » de Venise. L'Ospedale était un orphelinat pour filles, et en même temps une importante école de musique où enseignaient des professeurs comme Antonio Vivaldi. L'orchestre de filles de l'Ospedale avait une excellente réputation internationale.

Sebastian Knüpfer is yet another Baroque composer whose reputation and popularity have been overshadowed by J S Bach. Little of Knüpfer's music has previously been transcribed from its many manuscripts, let alone published. However, in his day Knüpfer was a respected and highly sought-after composer; his compositions were admired by his contemporaries and, according to his obituary, he 'composed quotations of the Psalms and other Biblical books with such sweetness and skilfulness that he delighted even the saddest hearts, and his name is spoken with admiration not only in Leipzig but also outside'.

The latest album from Christina Pluhar and her instrumental ensemble L’Arpeggiata sheds new light on the chamber cantatas of 17th century Italian composer, Luigi Rossi. He wrote more than 300 of these works and Christina Pluhar’s new double album includes an impressive number of 21 world premiere recordings, which are the fruit of Christina Pluhar’s research among music manuscripts held in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and the Vatican Library.

The Colourful Telemann presents works from different periods of Georg Philipp Telemanns life, reflecting his lively personality and exploring his seemingly unlimited invention over a wide variety of styles and genres. A contemporary of Bach and Handel, Telemann wrote music that stands out for its delightful and remarkably generous character, each piece like a leisurely walk with a good friend. From the German and French influences of the earlier Sonata to the dignified Sinfonia Melodica, possibly composed in the year of his death, this is Telemann at his best. Barthold Kuijken is an eminent leader in the field of early music.

Vienna Mandolin Stories is Alon Sariel's first full concerto album, inviting listeners on a journey through late-18th- and early-19th-century Vienna. The album features works for mandolin and orchestra by Haydn, Mozart, Krahmer, and Paisiello. While some pieces were originally composed for mandolin, others have been skillfully adapted by Sariel. The album thrives on Sariel's inventive and playful approach, as represented in "Haydn's Mandolin Concerto", an imaginative rearrangement combining movements from different concertos, including one by Malzat long misattributed to Haydn.

These two ballets reveal a specific facet of Stravinsky's genius, his skill in pastiche. Having used music from eighteenth-century Naples for Pulcinella, he turned to Tchaikovsky for Le Baiser de la fée. On both occasions, he succeeded in transforming the exercise of homage into a highly personal work. Stravinsky had a special artistic affinity with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, which amply repays the debt in this new recording!

If the Piano Concertos nos. 19 and 23 are among the most famous in the corpus, it is of course because of their sublime middle movements, but also because they reach the very heights of Mozartian subtlety in terms of orchestration, thematic development and dramatic instinct. The historically informed performances presented here take the same interpretative approach as earlier volumes in the series, underpinned by an utterly luminous musical discourse!