When one considers the life of Nikolai Karlovich Medtner it is impossible not to be amazed by his strange, tragic and yet marvellous destiny. He was recognized in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century as one of the most important composers and was, with Scriabin and Rachmaninov, an extremely influential, almost ‘cult’ figure for a whole generation of the Russian intellectual élite. He was also a great pianist and an outstanding musical thinker. His personality was completely divorced from everyday life, but the depth and power of his intellect, entirely absorbed in music, philosophy and the history of culture, were deeply respected by such contemporaries as Nikisch, Rachmaninov, Furtwängler, Koussevitsky, Glazunov and Prokofiev.

This album is pianist Peter Jablonski’s third solo album for the Ondine label. In this album Jablonski represents Grazyna Bacewicz’s (1909–1969) dazzling piano etudes and piano sonatas which are hardly known outside of her native Poland. Jablonski’s piano albums have received an enthusiastic response and his previous album release received Editor’s Choice from the Gramophone magazine.

Andris Nelsons has held major conducting posts on both the concert and operatic stages, and in each realm, has distinguished himself as an incisive interpreter of a broad range of music. Whether conducting Puccini at the Met, Wagner at Bayreuth, or Stravinsky with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Nelsons has managed to win over both critics and the public alike. He is the music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. In 2022, Nelsons led the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig in the latest installment of their survey of Bruckner's symphonies on the Deutsche Grammophon label. Nelsons was born in Riga, Latvia, on November 18, 1978. His parents and stepfather were musicians, and at an early age, Nelsons studied piano but took up the trumpet at 12. He later sang in his mother's early music ensemble and played trumpet in the Latvian National Opera Orchestra. After local studies, Nelsons began studying conducting at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with Alexander Titov.

Seether’s Deluxe Edition release of their acclaimed 2020 album, Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum features 22 tracks in all, five of which are previously unreleased including the set’s lashing first single “Leech.”

Thrashing party metal legends Municipal Waste are back with a brand-new album called ‘Electrified Brain’. Out on July 1st, 2022 via Nuclear Blast. "Electrified Brain" marks MUNICIPAL WASTE's first album in 5 years, following the release of their critically exalted 2017 record "Slime and Punishment." And don't think they've slowed down in the years since. Recorded in Philadelphia with producer Arthur Rizk (Power Trip, Code Orange), "Electrified Brain" is a high-voltage non-stop masterclass of neck-snapping thrash that'd be the ideal soundtrack for high-speed car chases and backyard steel cage matches as witnessed on the new track "Grave Dive."

The self-described ‘patron saint of self sabotage’ combines her penchant for viewing life through an absurdist lens with her love for melody and storytelling to create serious music that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

A close contemporary of Buxtehude, Johann Pachelbel was, by all accounts, an outstanding keyboard player himself, and his compositions provide a fascinating stylistic bridge between early-Baroque composers such as Frescobaldi and Froberger (both of whom influenced him) and the later music of Johann Sebastian Bach and his contemporaries. Organist Matthew Owens continues his major exploration of the many extant organ works of Pachelbel with this second volume, recorded on a recent instrument by the renowned French organ builder, Bernard Aubertin. The recital includes Pachelbel’s largest set of Magnificat Fugues – 23 in total – alongside free works and chorale-based works.

The album "Hans Gál works for viola and piano" (RecArt 0045) performed by Magdalena Tchórzewska (viola) and Katarzyna Wasiak (piano) contains the only surviving compositions for viola and piano by H. Gál - an Austrian composer at the turn of the 19th / 20th century, a distinguished Viennese and J. Brahms, a lover of F. Schubert's melodies, as well as J.S. Bach, referring in its style to the complex harmonies of modernism of the beginning of the 20th century. Music on the CD, composed during the composer's stay in England in the 1940s, appear for this instrumental viola-like instrument, with the accompaniment of a voice in the equatorial unified dialogue. The work of the composer, which from 1933 to create the "degenerated" category only for years, was reborn anew. This album is the result of many years of cooperation and the artistic activity of discovering and expanding the music of forgotten composers.

Lynden Cranham's earliest memories of Bach were overwhelming, sitting in the huge and resonant space of Westminster Cathedral listening to an organ recital. She subsequently became fascinated (as a listener and a player) by the Bach Cello Suites. It was especially poignant for Lynden, as part of the orchestra during John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, not only to play near the font where Bach had been baptised, in the Georgenkirche in Eisenach, but also to play in Köthen, where he probably composed the Cello Suites. The idea of recording the Suites had been at the back of her mind for most of her career, and when playing part of one of them in a chamber-music concert a few years ago she realised that she'd found an ideal venue for doing such a recording: the beautiful small church of St Peter and St Mary in Fishbourne, West Sussex, complete with its warm, intimate acoustic. As one concert after another was cancelled it gradually became clear to the recording engineer, the producer and myself that, dire as this situation was, it provided the perfect opportunity to begin recording the Suites. So, braving the cold (and maintaining strict social distancing), Suites 1 and 2 were recorded in the church in December 2020. Soon after that, in April 2021, Suite No. 5 was recorded in its original scordatura version; this needed to be recorded alone, as in that way Lynden was able to keep the cello with the A string tuned down to G. Those three Suites make an interesting contrast – the first two relatively conventional in sonority, the fifth introducing something entirely different.

Derek Scott, born in Birmingham in 1950, has an international reputation as an historian of the British music hall and other forms of light entertainment. But he is an outstanding composer in his own right, his music treading a fine line between a very English whimsy and a profoundly felt and natural response to his (often Celtic) subject matter. These works reveal a master craftsman and natural tunesmith, who manages to unite good humour, unerring technique and deep feeling in music of immediate appeal. His two symphonies – originally written for brass band – embody a return to the formal, Classical clarity of Haydn, though expressed with the satisfyingly beefy textures of the modern orchestra. He lists among his influences Shostakovich and Sibelius and, less predictably, The Beatles and The Kinks.

Hellbound Train is a double-album retrospective from Steve Tibbetts with music selected by the US guitarist from 40 years of recordings on ECM . Neatly divided into electric and acoustic chapters, the anthology juxtaposes pieces originally featured on the albums Northern Song, Safe Journey, Exploded View, Big Map Idea, The Fall Of Us All, A Man About A Horse, Natural Causes and Life Of.

The works of Emánuel Moór (1863–1931) ought to be celebrated as among the major achievements of Romantic music, but because of Moór’s peripatetic life – he was born in Hungary, studied in Vienna (with Bruckner), performed in the US and across Europe, became a UK citizen and settled and died in Switzerland – no country has claimed and promoted him to the degree he deserves. Moór’s musical language offers a deeply satisfying blend of contrapuntal mastery and ardent lyricism, as the works on this album – written for or involving the viola – demonstrate. In time he will be recognised as one of the masters of his age.

Suspended Animation is the first studio album by Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci, released independently in 2005 through Sound Mind Music.
Suspended Animation is a decent album that exhibits Petrucci composing skills and technique in a very respectable manner. This is a definitely recommended album for fans of instrumental music, shredding albums or the casual Dream Theater's fans. Petrucci showcase a lot of his shredding abilities in this album, but he doesn't forget to do it in the form of sophisticated progressive compositions, and that's what's good about this album.

A distanza di tredici anni dalla registrazione della Sinfonia n. 9, album di debutto su Decca per Maurizio Baglini, il pianista toscano ritorna ad affrontare Beethoven trascritto da Liszt con una nuova proposta: la Sinfonia n. 6 op. 68 “Pastorale”. Un progetto che presenta all'ascoltatore alcuni legami indissolubili: la figura centrale di Beethoven nella storia universale, l'inclusione di culture esotiche – quella turca, nello specifico – nell'evoluzione sociologica europea, l'intervento fondamentale di Franz Liszt nella valorizzazione della musica di Beethoven nel secondo Ottocento. Beethoven ebbe un rapporto fortissimo con la società, con la politica e con la natura, percepita come trasfigurazione dell'esistenza terrena e ultraterrena: un rapporto spirituale, oltre che concreto e quotidianamente alimentato da un desiderio di frequentazione dell'ambiente a lui circostante. Questo sentimento che lega la natura con l’esistenza stessa, la vita, sono tutti presenti nella “Pastorale” come anche nei brani di Liszt che completano l’album: dal carattere bucolico dell’Allegro Pastorale e della Pastorale n. 3 al senso di caducità dell’esistenza della Totentanz.

It doesn't get much more unusual than a new album by Gwenno. The Welsh singer, who was formerly in mid-aughts retro novelty group The Pipettes, has recorded her last two records in the Cornish language of Kernewek. Not long ago, only around 200 people spoke it; although in 2018, after the release of the singer's second album, Le Kov, the Cornish Language Board reported a 15 percent increase in the number of students taking Cornish exams. As foreign as it all feels to most of the world, you don't need to know what she's saying to feel the music. Tresor (which loosely translates to "treasure"), Gwenno has said, is about being a mother: figuring out who you are while putting someone else's most basic needs ahead of your own, and how to reclaim your body and desires.