For anyone who ever wondered what Pachelbel was up to when he wasn't writing his Canon in D, this CD offers some lovely answers. (He was also playing the organ and teaching, and one of his students was Johann Sebastian Bach, in whose works it's possible to detect Pachelbel's influence.) While there is nothing as immediately catchy as the Canon, the sacred and secular arias and vocal concertos recorded here reveal a composer with a gift for attractive vocal writing and inventive instrumental accompaniments.

The musical works of this program were composed during the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763), one of the earliest wars fought across several continents. It involved France as a major European power (backed by the Habsburg Monarchy, the Electorate of Saxony, Russia, and Sweden) against an alliance comprising England and Prussia (supported by the Electorate of Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, Brunswick, Bückeburg, and Saxony-Gotha). The primary focus was on European dominance, with underlying interests in the North American and South Asian colonies of England and France.

The program presented on this CD, featuring songs and ballads by Carl Loewe along with texts and poems by Heinrich Heine, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Max Frisch, and Ingeborg Bachmann, reflects the human relationship with the sea in various ways. Carl Loewe, who as cantor and organist was an important figure in Stettin in the mid 1800s, was so inspired by the sea during his travels that he wrote many songs and ballads that thematise the sea. This live recording of a song recital is one of the programs where the art forms of song interpretation and recitation complement each other to create a comprehensive dramaturgy. Nina Röder‘s paintings also inspire the listener visually, expanding the horizons of the program. The viewer is led to enchanted places in the works from her series „Über das Verschwinden” (About Disappearance) and encounters mysterious beings. This visual yet poetic perspective completes the circle by confronting the transience of humanity and nature – a theme more relevant than ever in times of climate change and rising sea levels.

The genre of the mélodie accompanied Fauré like a kind of personal journal. This music voluptuously – and sometimes vehemently – encompasses the meanderings of the soul: dreams, nostalgia, reflections or mirages . . . Stéphane Degout and Alain Planès take advantage of the iridescent tones of an 1892 Pleyel in their interpretation of some of his finest song cycles, including the testamentary L’Horizon chimérique.

A new collection of Cecilia Bartoli’s finest recordings, including two unreleased arias from Handel’s Alcina. Featuring beloved arias and duets stretching from Handel and Porpora, through Gluck and Mozart, to the Three Kings of 19th-century Italian song: Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti. Featuring guest appearances from Sir Bryn Terfel, Alessandro Corbelli, Sumi Jo, Juan Diego Florez and Luciano Pavarotti.

Baritone Andrè Schuen began his Deutsche Grammophon career in 2020 with a critically acclaimed reading of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, recorded with his duo partner Daniel Heide. In 2022, the pair added Schwanengesang to their discography, a recording that went on to win the Solo Song category in the 2023 Opus Klassik Awards. Now they complete their trilogy of Schubert’s major song cycles with a thoughtful and moving interpretation of the 24 inward-looking songs that make up the composer’s Winterreise.

2021 sees the 500th anniversary of the death of Josquin Des Pres, the most celebrated composer of his day. Dominique Visse and the Ensemble Clément Janequin are recording a selection of his chansons from one of the most important editions of his works, Tylman Susato’s Septiesme livre de Chansons published in 1545. This edition bear witness to the diversity of Josquin’s chanson writing, but above all to the melancholy and sorrow so present in his works, and is clearly a tribute, as is also evident in the two Déplorations on his death, Musæ Jovis by Nicolas Gombert and O mors inevitabilis by Hieronymus Vinders. This recording endeavours to present a Josquin legacy, a post mortem illustration of his chanson œuvre, in remembrance of his musical genius.

The Adoration is the latest release by the Warsaw Philharmonic, performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir conducted by Bartosz Michałowski. This album is devoted entirely to the music of Paweł Łukaszewski – one of the most outstanding contemporary Polish composers – and comprises selected works of sacred music for a cappella choir written between 2006 and 2018.

John Storgards's acclaimed series of Shostakovich symphonies continues with this recording of Symphony No. 13. The BBC Philharmonic is joined by the bass-baritone Albert Dohmen and the Estonian National Male Choir. The symphony, subtitled 'Babiy Yar', caused a great deal of tension and controversy in the lead-up to its premiere, in December 1962 - not because of the music, but the poetry.

In the Baroque period, the duetto da camera, usually conceived for two equal voices and continuo, was an important form of vocal chamber music, of which innumerable examples are found in the works of composers associated with Venice, the leading protagonist in the history of this genre. Venetian Sara Mingardo is joined by a large group of young, talented solo female voices (Silva Frigato, Lea Desandre… ) in this amazing project, where masterpieces by the leading composers of the time have been entrusted to the voices best suited to highlight the respective particular musical content.