Lawrence is an impeccable trumpet player with a glossy sound. Like all but a few jazz musicians under 40 in the world, he wants to write his own stuff. The concept behind this album is synesthesia, one form of which is the experience of music as color. Tunes include “Green,” “RED!,” “Black” and “Blue.” The relationships between songs and specific colors mean something to Lawrence; listeners will have to take these relationships on faith. Tracks alternate between energetic, intricate postbop structures and slow-to-medium forms. All are harmonically astute, well made and expertly executed. All are nice. None is sufficiently differentiated from the vast recent canon of compositions by under-40 jazz musicians to make it entirely memorable. Lawrence's new leader record "Color Theory" showcases his original compositions and is meant to be reflections of the entire color spectrum.

Like Richard Strauss, besides the dominating stage works Richard Wagner’s oeuvre catalogue shows several works for other genres, including compositions for choir, piano and chamber music as well as songs. Amongst them, the Wesendonck-Lieder, composed after texts by his occasional muse, Mathilde von Wesendonck, the wife of a Swiss industrialist, have attained special popularity. Very special is the version which can be heard on this recording for deep voice played by the violoncello. Additionally to the chamber pieces by Richard Strauss also the Album Page and prelude to Tristan und Isolde in the cello/piano version by Richard Wagner can be found on this album.

This release includes the world première recording of the full orchestral score written by Armas Järnefelt (18691958) for Mauritz Stillers silent film Song of the Crimson Flower (1919) performed by Gävle Symphony Orchestra under Jaakko Kuusisto. Armas Järnefelt today largely known in music literature only as Sibelius brother-in-law became one of the most remarkable Finnish orchestral composers during the 1890s. The composer wrote several symphonic poems and orchestral suites in his young age which were highly successful and widely performed by various orchestras in his home country.

At the end of the Seventeenth Century, London became a city full of promise, the stuff that dreams were made of: theatres and concerts were packed every night and the music publishing market was flourishing.

Modigliani, one of the greatest portrait painters, is the inspiration for this journey made up of pieces with unique characters. Designed as a portrait gallery, this new opus brings together masterpieces and discoveries. The look or hear the ear, linger on the curves, the lines, the singular melodic drawing of each of these partitions. Filigree is another portrait, that of the quartet.

Trumpet and organ has us immediately thinking of trumpet tunes and trumpet voluntaries, of majestic, bombastic music by Henry Purcell and George Frideric Handel, of mixtures and reed stops that resound so strongly as to make church walls tremble. The music on this CD does not adhere to those stereotypes: it is very delicate, light, transparent, elegant. If one was to pigeon-hole it, the choice of genre would be difficult.

Diana Damrau and Jonas Kaufmann, reigning stars of opera, are also consummate interpreters of song. In early 2018, with master pianist Helmut Deutsch, they performed Hugo Wolf’s multi-faceted Italienisches Liederbuch in 12 cities around Europe. “One couldn’t ask for more,” wrote the Telegraph after their London concert, which took place two days before this live recording was made in the German city of Essen.

After the go-ahead of his recording of the complete Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin by Bach, Swiss violinist Sebastian Bohren now presents a unique combination of masterpieces for violin and orchestra. Besides the famous Violin Concerto in E minor by Mendelssohn (one of the most famous violin concertos par excellence), Sebastian has recorded Benjamin Britten's Violin Concerto, Op. 15. This work was written from 1938 to 1939 and dedicated to Henry Boys, Britten had to simplify the solo part for it's dedicatee, but later restored it's technical pyrotechnics. The program is completed by Tchaikovsky's "Sérénade Mélancolique", It was the composer's first work for violin and orchestra, and was written immediately after completing the Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor.

Soprano Jodie Devos, who has signed with Alpha for several recordings, here pays homage to Offenbach, whose bicentenary of his birth is celebrated in 2019. This programme shows Offenbach’s fascination with the vocal fireworks of coloratura divas. This kind of ‘lyric coloratura’ or ‘soprano leggero’ voice runs like a thread through most of the composer’s oeuvre, from his first pieces for two or three soloists to those grand frescoes of his maturity, La Vie parisienne, Robinson Crusoé, and Orphée aux Enfers.

Driven by the pulsation of the "Beat Generation" intellectual and literary movement, the French jazz ensemble Grand Ensemble Koa follows Jack Kérouac’s, Allen Ginsberg’s and William Burroughs’ steps and set the contrarian poets’ texts to music, interpreted in French and English by the luminous voice of Caroline Sentis.

On Heart Songs two of the world's greatest guitarists, Tommy Emmanuel and John Knowles, make this clear. Both are masters of their instrument, honored by the iconic Chet Atkins with the rare designation of CGP (Certified Guitar Players). Emmanuel has twice been voted "Best Acoustic Guitarist" by readers of Guitar Player Magazine and honored as both a "Member of the Order of Australia" and an official "Kentucky Colonel". Knowles is a Grammy winner, a member of the National Thumb Picker's Hall of Fame, and editor of the respected FingerStyle Quarterly.

Alto saxophonist Steve Coleman’s Live at the Village Vanguard, Vol. I (The Embedded Sets) is his first live release in over 15 years. It captures his band Five Elements in two joyous sets at the historic New York venue where some of the most famous jazz recording from the likes of John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, and Bill Evans have been made. Coleman’s personal history is tied deeply with the club: One of the main reasons he moved to New York City from Chicago was for the opportunity to play in the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, of which he was a member from 1978 to 1980.

Henri Marteau (1874-1934) was one of the most important violin and violin teachers of the early twentieth century. His compositional work found little attention despite some respectable successes.

Gardens of Delight' is the first in a series of new recordings from the popular Medieval ensemble The Telling. This beautiful and interesting album features songs associated with flowers from the composers Guillaume de Machaut, Johannes Ciocnia, Antonio Zacara da Teramo and Hildegard of Bingen.

The regime of Queen Elizabeth I dealt harshly with supporters of the old Catholic religion. Torn between obedience and conscience, some of England’s most talented musicians - Philips, Dering and Dowland - chose a life of exile abroad. Others chose to remain in spiritual isolation in England, comparing themselves to the exiled Israelites in Babylon.