Au long de la Loire is a musical portrait of the river during the Renaissance, including motets by Jean Mouton, prayers by Ockeghem, poems by Ronsard set to music by Clément Janequin and much more. Through polyphony, chansons and odes by the French masters, the Ensemble Jacques Moderne celebrates the great personalities of the period as well as the landscapes, cathedrals, monasteries and châteaux in which they lived.

Cellist Guy Johnston and pianist Tom Poster first met at the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition in 2000, and have been firm friends and frequent collaborators ever since. During their many recitals together, Johnston and Poster have foundthemselves returning again and again to certain works, associating these pieces with key moments in their lives, or simply deriving great pleasure from the sheer quality of the music.

In this fascinating recording the legendary Neeme Järvi explores two lesser-known French ballets by Sauguet and Ibert, complemented by the Ballet Suite from Massenet’s opera HérodiadeLes Forains. Sauget’s wide-ranging influences, notably the orchestration of Richard Strauss as well as the works of Satie and les Six, give his work a flowing, openly melodic style that is immediately appealing and full of wit and charm. Following the success of Les Forains, Ibert’s ballet Les Amours de Jupiter premiered on 9 March 1946.

Regarded as one of the finest interpreters of classical and romantic repertoire, Imogen Cooper is internationally renowned for her virtuosity and lyricism. This recording is her sixth release on Chandos Records, following earlier discs of works by Liszt, Wagner, Brahms, Chopin, and Robert and Clara Schumann.

Berlioz wrote his own text for L’Enfance du Christ, which he composed in 1853 and 1854. It was first performed at the Salle Herz, Paris on 10 December 1854, with Berlioz conducting. He described the work as a Trilogie sacrée. The first of its three sections depicts King Herod ordering the massacre of all newborn children in Judaea; the second shows Mary, Joseph, and Jesus setting out for Egypt to avoid the slaughter, having been warned by angels; and the final section portrays their arrival in the Egyptian town of Saïs where they are given refuge by a family of Ishmaelites. Berlioz was not religious as an adult but remained all his life susceptible to the beauty of the religious music that had enraptured him as a child. Sir Andrew Davis conducts the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and MSO Chorus and an outstanding team of soloists.

Nadia Shpachenko’s latest Reference Recordings release The Poetry of Places features World Premiere recordings of works for solo piano, for two pianos, percussion, electronics, voice, and toy piano in a fascinating mélange inspired by great architecture and places.

Smiley Smile is the 12th studio album by American rock band the Beach Boys, released on September 18, 1967. Devised as a simplified version of their then-forthcoming Smile—a different, much more elaborately constructed LP—Smiley Smile contrasts significantly with its minimalist approach and Lo-Fi production. Its music is often cited for having positive effects during an LSD comedown, and was used by at least one drug clinic to help relieve users from bad trips. Regarded as a forerunner to certain bedroom pop acts, in 1974, it was voted the 64th greatest album of all time by NME writers and, in 2000, it was one of 100 albums featured in the book The Ambient Century as a landmark in the development of ambient music.

Shut Down Volume 2 is the fifth album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released on March 2, 1964 on Capitol. Produced by Brian Wilson, it was the first of three studio albums that the band would release in 1964. The album is the first not to feature rhythm guitarist David Marks, who departed from the band following disagreements with manager Murry Wilson. The "Volume 2" in the album's title refers to a previously released multi-artist compilation album featuring and named after the Beach Boys' song "Shut Down", issued eight months earlier by the band's label, Capitol.

Kun-Woo Paik made his debut at age ten performing Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Korean National Orchestra. At 15 he moved to New York to study with Rosina Lhévinne at The Juilliard School, and he also studied in London, with Ilona Kabos, and in Italy, with Guido Agosti and Wilhelm Kempff. His international career took off following his first New York appearance, performing Ravel’s complete piano works at Lincoln Center, as well as his orchestral debut at Carnegie Hall.

There are many questions surrounding Johann Sebastian Bach’s ‘Six Solos for violin’, or the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin, as they are usually called today. When did he compose them, and why, and for whom? In what circumstances were they performed? And why would a master of polyphony choose to write for a melody instrument with limited scope for polyphony or chords? We can only guess at the answers – which makes the works all the more fascinating. The legendary violinist George Enescu famously described the set as ‘the Himalayas of violinists’, but for more than 200 years they were primarily regarded as pedagogical exercises rather than compositions worthy of the concert hall.

In 1728, the recently appointed court Kapellmeister Johan Helmich Roman was approached by Count Golovin, the Russian ambassador in Stockholm. Golovin was organizing a celebration of the recent coronation in Moscow of Tsar Peter II, and naturally wanted music to add to the festivities. His six years in London – where he made the acquaintance of Handel among others – and subsequent experience as assistant court Kapellmeister, made Roman the obvious choice for the count.

Bons composed Nomaden for Queyras and the Atlas Ensemble – a group he himself founded in 2002, made up of 18 eminent musicians from China, Japan, Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe. From the Japanese shakuhachi and Chinese erhu to the Armenian duduk and the Persian setar, the scoring offers an untold number of combinations and an unheard spectrum of timbres. Nomaden was premièred by these performers in 2016, under the baton of Ed Spanjaard, and has been awarded the prestigious 2019 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.

The brilliant soprano María Cristina Kiehr, together with lutenist-vihuelist Ariel Abramovich, presents her first solo album devoted to Renaissance music. With her broad experience in sixteenth-century polyphonic repertoire (in La Colombina and Ensemble Daedelus, among others), and a project almost completely using her native language, Kiehr brings to the music of Spain’s Golden Age her own unique perspective.

UNKLE have announced their new album, The Road: Part II/Lost Highway, out March 29 on Songs For The Def. It’s the second part of a new musical trilogy from James Lavelle and the gang, and the follow-up to UNKLE’s 2017 album The Road: Part I. The new record is reportedly split into two acts, and features collaborations with Tom Smith (The Editors), Ian Astbury (The Cult), Andrew Innes (Primal Scream), Jon Theodore (Queens of the Stone Age), and Mick Jones (The Clash).

Haitink's Mahler interpretations offer a combination of objectivity and distance, emotional reflection and release, continuity and tradition. Under Haitink, the Concertgebouw secured its reputation as one of the world's great Mahler orchestras and their cycle of the composer's symphonies and orchestral songs stands as witness to the orchestra's feeling for its deep history and to the enduring artistry of its conductor.