The young German violinist Carolin Widmann, who received praise and awards both for her accounts of Schumann's Violin Sonatas and for the recital disc 'Phantasy of Spring' (music of Feldman, Zimmermann, Schoenberg and Xenakis) now applies her acute interpretive sensibilities to Franz Schubert. Widmann and pianist Alexander Lonquich (whose own ECM New Series disc with music of Schumann and Holliger was also a critical success) play the C major Fantasy of 1827 and the Violin Sonata in A of 1817, as well as the B minor Rondo of 1826, the only one of these works published in Schubert's lifetime.

Bernard Haitink, internationally renowned for his interpretations of Bruckner, returns at the helm of the LSO following his acclaimed recording for the label of the fourth Symphony. Bruckner s symphonies are often described as Gothic cathedrals in sound, an apt description considering the composer s devout faith and early vocation as an organist. He died before he could finish his 9th Symphony but within its three movements can be found some of his most complete music, imbued with a sense of deep solace and resolution.

For all of his short adult life, Alexander Scriabin wroteor planned to writemonumental works of great import, and in between these efforts he produced a steady torrent of miniatures, tiny concentrated droplets of this same expansive genius. Fascinatingly, the composer's designation 'poème' is applied both to ground-breaking symphonic perorations and to the extended series of thirty-four little piano pieces, written over more than a decade and often grouped into little sets. Their inspirations are as varied as their titlesfrom black magic to cosmic aspirationand they offer a key into their composer's inner world.

Conducted by Laurence Equilbey and featuring the renowned Accentus choir and Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, this new recording of one of the French masterpieces of the mid-19th century is a real discovery. French composer Félicien David spent 4 years in Egypt and Algeria before returning to Paris, where he composed this romantic 'ode symphonie' which pandered to the popular orientalist trend and was a huge success throughout Europe. Born in 1810, Félicien David's voyage took him to Egypt and Algeria between 1831 and 1835.

Harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt said that Bach had written his Art of Fugue for himself, without thought of performing it on any instrument in particular. In the presence of a speculative work, every musician is free to chisel the perfect lines of polyphony as he or she chooses. Up to the final canon, which continues to pose the question of its incompletion. It is the Franco-Swiss pianist Cédric Pescia, with his subtle, understated playing, who will make this sublime score sing. But he will do so on an untempered piano, which is hardly banal! After a first æon disc devoted to Cage, which created a tremendous stir, Cédric Pescia deploys a low-key art in Bach, a sense of rhythm combined with a rubato of extreme subtlety and an inventiveness in the phrasings and ornaments, both flowing and sharp, that have no equivalent in the discography. Such relief, such life!