Using period instruments, Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov breathe new life into these sonatas for keyboard with violin accompaniment, a tradition Mozart renewed from within, blazing the trail for Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann.

On her PENTATONE debut Reine de coeur, star soprano Hanna-Elisabeth Müller brings the German and French art song traditions together, focusing on song cycles by Robert Schumann, Alexander von Zemlinsky and Francis Poulenc, accompanied by pianist Juliane Ruf. The album presents a highly personal anthology of songs that address love and loss, and the heights and depths of the human soul. While Schumann’s Sechs Gesänge Op. 107 and Sechs Gedichte und Requiem Op. 90 offer the quintessence of the Romantic German Lied, Zemlinsky’s turn-of-the-century Walzer-Gesänge introduce the listener to a later and less well-known chapter in the genre’s history.

Masaaki Suzuki and his Bach Collegium Japan made their first recording of the St Matthew Passion in March 1999. Twenty years later, in April 2019, it was time once again, as the singers and players gathered in the concert hall of the Saitama Arts Theater in Japan. ‘A profound joy’ is how Masaaki Suzuki describes his emotion at the opportunity to record Bach’s great fresco of Christ’s Passion for a second time.

It was in 1842, his ‘year of chamber music’ that Robert Schumann took on the combination of violin, cello and piano for the first time. He seems to have decided against releasing the resulting Fantasiestücke as a fully-fledged piano trio, however, but later returned to the work, revising it for publication in 1850. The model here is not the large-scale, quasi-symphonic trios of Beethoven or Schubert – instead Haydn’s characteristic trio textures spring to mind, especially in the first two movements where the cello largely follows the piano’s left-hand bass line.

Besides an acclaimed series of recordings with Ronald Brautigam of the complete piano concertos by Mozart, Mendelssohn and Beethoven, Kölner Akademie and Michael Alexander Willens are undertaking a survey of Mozart’s serenades and other incidental works. Their first album in this series included the Posthorn Serenade and demonstrated, according to the reviewer on MusicWeb-International, that the ensemble is ‘amongst the best groups in the world of period performance.’ Since then the team has recorded works associated with the Freemasons, and here takes on one of the most famous of the serenades, the ‘Haffner’, named after Sigmund Haffner, who commissioned it for the festivities surrounding his sister’s wedding in 1776.

A pair of very unusual albums – back to back on a single SACD! "Stolen Goods" is a totally cool, totally groovy album from the 70s – one that features large orchestral arrangements of themes from the classics – but all augmented with plenty of wild contemporary touches. Next up is "Viva Vivaldi", served up by Italian conductor Ettore Stratta – who you'll know from both sound track and easy instrumental modes – getting a lot of hip help here from arranger Chico O'Farrill.

The second album in Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Schumann series with the London Symphony Orchestra travels from glorious fanfare to dream-like passages with the lively Spring and Rhenish symphonies.

Barely two years separate the monumental Sonata in G (October 1826) from its sister in C minor (September 1828), the first of a trilogy composed on the threshold of death, which was to win the struggle a few weeks later. Two years - and a whole world.

Beethoven’s trifles illuminate his work in a new way: through these short pieces of only a few minutes one encounters the multiple aspects of his abundant and complex musical personality, such as the diary of a Beethoven of the miniature.

French pianist and composer Louise Farrenc commanded an important presence in the musical life of 19th century Paris alongside her more well-known compatriots Chopin and Liszt. As a composer of piano music, Farrenc produced an important collection of 30 etudes written in all major and minor keys. The present recording offers 13 of these etudes as well as 3 sets of variations, including ones based on Bellini’s Norma and Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots. Joanne Polk received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music Degrees from The Juilliard School, and her Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from Manhattan School of Music.

Anton Bruckner wrote his Symphony No. 6 over a period of two years, completing it in September 1881. And for once with this composer, the word ‘completing’ can be used without qualification: known for his habit of reworking and revising his works, Bruckner for once seems to have been satisfied with the result of his efforts. That doesn’t mean that the Sixth has enjoyed a smoother passage to the concert stage than other Bruckner symphonies, however.

Alto Saxophonist Christian Weidner's longstanding partnership with pianist Achim Kaufmann, bassist Henning Sieverts and drummer Samuel Rohrer forges the intuitive magic that makes for inspired music as the group explores the varying shades of Every Hour of the Light and Dark. Four exceptional musicians gaze inwards, sensitive, self-critical, with a simplicity and depth of feeling as they uncover the miracle of the moment. Kaufmann has been lauded as 'one of a handful of exceptional jazz pianists who has injected a new pulse into West European improvised music.'

Alessio Bax plays an Italian-inspired programme, picking his favourite pieces taken from a rich history of music from one of the most romantic countries in the world.  He opens the programme with a J.S. Bach transcription of an oboe concerto by Venetian composer Alessandro Marcello, which reveals a deep insight into Bach’s mind.

The Melt Trio's third album has an atmospheric yet exciting effect. Bernhard and Peter Meyer and Moritz Baumgärtner have refined their special style and show even greater will to design in details. Their combination of acoustic and electronic sounds is more subtle than ever, concrete influences from jazz and classical modern to post and prog rock can only be made out in a vague way, because the music simply sounds like a melt trio. It has always been one of the band's trademarks to merge composed and improvised passages in such a way that they can hardly be distinguished. Conventional structures, such as the succession of leitmotif and soloistic abstractions, have long been dissolved at Melt. And if you are looking for fretboard witchcraft for your own sake, you are welcome to find something else.

Welcome to the Monkey House. This acclaimed project is the brainchild of singer/songwriter/arranger/producer Don Breithaupt, and, nearly 25 years into its career, Monkey House has recorded its strongest work yet. Left, the fifth Monkey House album, is the follow-up to the 2012 album Headquarters. That recording made believers out of some internationally renowned musicians who were then eager to participate in Left. That elite grouping includes LA session great Jay Graydon, guitar ace Elliott Randall (Steely Dan), and jazz star Donny McCaslin (David Bowie), while returning guests include current Steely Dan members Drew Zing and Michael Leonhart.