Marco Pieri, born in 1966, picked up musical instruments very early thanks to his father and his love for the Beatles (we are in 1973/74). He plays bass, harmonica, and guitar, and had his first live experience at age 11 with a quintet where his brother (Max Pieri) also played, performing original songs and covers of Neil Young.

There are numerous legends surrounding the Christmas carol "Silent Night". What is certain is that it was first heard on Christmas Eve 1818 in St. Nikola in Oberndorf near Salzburg. Sung as a duet with the author Joseph Mohr, who also played the guitar, and the composer Franz Xaver Gruber. The Belgian conductor Erik Van Nevel and his ensemble Currende capture the chamber music atmosphere with only six singers and six instrumentalists. Their Christmas concert with works by mainly Austrian composers was recorded in Leuven in 2023.

Sonorous, romantic horn sounds perfectly match the organ with its many contrasting colours and huge tessitura. Yet, hardly any original compositions have been written for this combination. However, the music of the Austrian composer Anton Bruckner and his Belgian French contemporary Cesar Franck lends itself perfectly to transcriptions for horn ensemble and organ. Both were famous organists and both include prominent horn parts in their orchestral works. Their compositions were deeply influenced by the music of Richard Wagner. Three examples of Wagner's innovative musical language, along with works by Weber, Delibes, Massenet and Richard Strauss complete the programme of this CD. Herman Jeurissen wrote all the arrangements and conducts the Ensemble Capricorno with Geerten van de Wetering, organ.

This album, released by The Gustav Holst Society, with Albion Records, is in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Gustav Holst's birth on 21 September 1874. It is based on chamber works written or arranged for violin with either voice or another instrument, by Holst himself and four composers who were contemporary with him - with a focus on neglected works but including a new arrangement of one very popular piece. Distinguished violinist Hannah Roper is joined by Martin Jacoby at the piano, by soprano Emma Tring and by harpist Valeria Clarke.

The corridor leads from somewhere to somewhere, and through all kinds of doors you can enter Renaissance halls, Baroque church halls, smoky cellars of jazz pubs, modern rooms, blue or red salons, or even the wide-open natural landscapes of folk music. And it is just such a wide variety of music that this ensemble plays, without any genre restrictions, almost just making music for pleasure, pushing its own boundaries.

Karl Böhm in 1973 for the 425th anniversary of the orchestra wrote, “I headed the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden for nine years – the most wonderful and meaningful time of my life.” He was forty in 1934, when he moved to assume direction of the Dresden State Orchestra and Opera. There, his sensitive yet dramatic style of conducting, his vigour and intellectual resilience, his feel for classical form and unerring sense of tempo, very soon won the respect and trust of the musicians and singers in his charge; they did after all represent one of the best orchestras and most capable opera ensembles in Europe.

The fantastic Italian producer Antonio Martino never ceases to surprise us with his very eclectic yet equally fascinating choices. This is undoubtedly one of the reasons our friendship has developed over the years—being on the lookout for sounds, creations, and after all, it doesn’t matter if we push beyond the borders of jazz or find ourselves on more classical projects. You can take all the projects Antonio has produced and put them together—there’s nothing to throw away.

Seven new compositions and six composers from Latvia representing the young and middle generation - this is the balance sheet of the Sharp Green album by the Atomos Saxophone Quartet. It features a variety of composers with roots in academic as well as non-academic music, but all are united by their willingness to surrender to the adventurous spirit of Atomos, which has encouraged them to explore the possibilities of the sound of a saxophone quartet.

The title of Sam Norris' debut album, Small Things Evolved Slowly, is sourced from an Erik Satie quote: "I took to my room and let small things evolve slowly." It is an apt title, as the album features compositions inspired by Norris' life in London that have been honed and polished in live performances over considerable time, in some cases over several years. In addition, many of the tracks advance in an unhurried manner, taking their time to open up.

From the first seconds of the opening track, trumpeter Jonathan Powell immediately signals that his new album Mambo Jazz Party is no ordinary record. With irresistible layers of groove and the indomitably danceable feels of Latin Jazz spurred eternally forward by the campana (cowbell), the audience is instantly hooked. Drawing on two decades of expertise as a sideman for Latin Jazz legends such as Eddie Palmieri, Arturo O’Farrill, Miguel Zenon, Oscar Hernandez and the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, and Tito Puente Jr., Powell assembles a rotating 18-piece ensemble that brings the party of great, danceable Latin Jazz and Mambo and combines it with the aesthetic of modern electric jazz on Mambo Jazz Party, releasing August 9, 2024 via Circle 9.

Paul Cohen’s OF LIGHT AND SOLACE highlights music by several 20th century composers whose work is deeply engaged with both the tradition and innovation of classical music. Evocative, contemplative, and teeming with emotional depth, the works presented in this Ravello Records release explore and expand upon the liturgical canon, offering instrumental expressions in Gregorian Chant, fresh takes on the iconic Amazing Grace, and more. Cohen pairs a unique selection of saxophones with organ to bring this music to life including his Conn-O-Sax, a bold, innovative saxophone made by the Conn Company for a very limited time in 1928.

Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks and Water Music, two of his greatest orchestral achievements, have become synonymous with mid-18th-century England and with the pomp, ceremony and tradition of British royalty. But is this music necessarily synonymous with Handel? Where did his eclecticism and experimentalism come from? How and why did he conquer the emerging genre of the English oratorio and what were the circumstances that allowed him to become one of opera’s greatest composers? This revealing audio biography is accompanied by musical examples drawn from his orchestral and instrumental music, his cantatas, oratorios, operas and those two famous royal commissions.

This album restores to the world the solo piano and chamber music of a long-forgotten, enigmatic fgure.
Jessy Lilian Reason, nee Wolton, born in London in 1878, was the daughter of a wealthy hop merchant. In 1902, in Cornwall, she married a gentleman of private means twenty years her senior, with whom she settled frstly in Devon and later in Tonbridge, Kent. In the late 1920s the couple made a fnal move, to Reading, where Jessy died in 1938. In May 1992 the writer Alan Poulton discovered a large haul of manuscripts in a Leicester junk shop. He purchased the collection and took it home in two suitcases. In the 2020 Covid lockdown, now retired and with time on his hands, he set about exploring and cataloguing the manuscripts, and researching the life of the woman who had penned the 70 handwritten works in the early decades of the twentieth century.

You recognize bebop as soon as you hear it, and Dada as soon as you see it. There are many conections to be made between the two. Both originally came from revolutionary scenes, as a break with what came before in their respective mediums. They share a subversive sense of humor. Both have influenced an endless variety of works and ideas across music, art, literature, philosophy, and culture. And the names of both are primal and pre-verbal sounds, not born of any language.

Lisa Illean is a composer whose work has been described as ‘music that seeps into your consciousness’ (ABC Classic FM). Her subtle, mesmerising compositions explore nuances of sonority, timbre, auditory phenomena and perspective, and have been performed by acclaimed ensembles across the globe. On arcing, stilling, bending, gathering, Illean's debut portrait album, four different works are assembled to offer a portal into her delicately captivating sound-world.