For his Steinway label debut, pianist Davell Crawford offers inspiration and peace with contemplative interpretations of devotional songs.

Nonesuch Records releases its second album from Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Caroline Shaw, Narrow Sea, on January 22, 2021. The title piece was written for Sō Percussion, Dawn Upshaw, and Gilbert Kalish in 2017; they perform it on this recording as well. Narrow Sea comprises five parts, each a new setting of a text from The Sacred Harp nineteenth century collection of shape-note hymns. A composition Shaw wrote for Sō Percussion in 2012, Taxidermy, also is on the album.

Ståle Kleiberg’s concertos unfold in the space between poetry, passion and playfulness. This is contemporary music with which listeners can easily engage, but which does not for one moment compromise artistic quality. “I try to form the musical expression so that it corresponds with my experience of life; or, to put it another way, to form it so that it is in accord with my conception of what it means to be a human being,” says Kleiberg about himself and his music.

In February 2020, pianist Baptiste Bailly recorded his first solo album in Valencia, titled SUDS. A jazz work, around piano and improvisation but also musical production and experimentation. Bailly incorporates electronic textures using the Moog, organ sounds, a prepared piano or even his own voice. SUDS is inspired by the pianists many travels between Spain and France. It is an intimate logbook that presents a dreamy universe, mixing the imaginary of the north and south, a space where snow covers the olive tree. One thinks one recognizes flamenco accents and musettes tunes bathed in fascinating impressionism. Lyrical and rhythmic, we discover a very personal bittersweet poetic force. The work Suds represents an important part of the record, highlighting his relationship with Mediterranean music. On the contrary, Neiges, Leau et le Vent or Larbre aux Secrets are composed like paintings of his native land, landscapes of his childhood. ""If colors or rhythmic impulses sound deliberately flamenco, Spain can be heard in its influence on impressionist language."

The initial impetus of the ‘Australian Thais’ project came from David Howie’s Thai family connections and the shared interest to explore the connections between the music and people of both countries. This led to collaborations with some of Thailand and Australia’s premiere composers to commission, workshop and produce new music for a cross-cultural exchange aimed at enhancing and strengthening links between the two countries, greatly increasing cultural awareness and understanding through music. This project was made possible by a Sydney University, Conservatorium of Music internal research grant.

Songs of Solitude was conceived by the violist Hiyoli Togawa at a time when a virus was forcing people across the world into isolation and she herself needed to find a new rhythm of life as concert after concert was being cancelled. As she relates in the booklet to the disc, playing Bach – music that combines powerful emotions with a crystal-clear structure – became part of her daily routine, along with walks along the empty streets of Berlin. During these, the importance of remaining creative became even clearer to her, along with the idea to offer people the opportunity through music to reflect upon the difficulties of living through a pandemic. Having recently collaborated with the composer Kalevi Aho, she came upon the idea of asking him and a number of other composers to write for her – pieces that would ‘reflect life and work in the time of the coronavirus and that distil isolation in music’.

In this album Mauricio Arias-Esguerra offers a kaleidoscopic view of recent Colombian piano music, highlighting its striking stylistic variety. Germán Darío Pérez sees a traditional dance through a jazzy lens, and Blas Emilio Atehortúa takes a post-serial approach in his Preludio, Variaciones y Presto Alucinante. The influence of progressive rock music can be heard in Gustavo Parra’s Pavec Lingus, as can Jaime León’s love of US American music in his Made in U.S.A. preludes; and there is techno and angst in Ian Frederick’s Suite Catrina. Arias-Esguerra’s own contributions are highly contrasted, with lyricism in his Arizona Mirage and rhythmic drive in his Toccata Bachkovsky.

"New Day Begun" features works by Black American composers whose music resounds as a celebration of heritage, a cry for freedom, a call to action, and a promise to the next generation. This collection embraces a reawakening, as we emerge from the darkness of pandemic to craft a new American era.

A frequent collaborator with both the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Jac van Steen, David Matthews new recording explores both the natural world and the symphonic idea, the second of which has, in his words, obsessed me since I started composing at the age of 16. As well the Sinfonia and Symphony No. 8, the programme includes Toward Sunrise; inspired by the sound of the sun (a rising fourth of C-F), as recorded by scientists at Sheffield University, and A Vision of the Sea; drawn from the sights and sounds of English Channel near the composers home in Deal, Kent. With a singular body of work spanning almost 60 years, David Matthews has established an international reputation as one of the leading symphonists of our time. Born in London in 1943, he began composing at the age of sixteen.

Dubai-based British composer Joanna Marsh has a growing international reputation for new works across many genres. Here, the choir of her alma mater, Sidney Sussex College, with their director David Skinner celebrate her recent position as composer-in-residence of the college with this new album of choral and instrumental works, including a number of premiere recordings.

A selection of sacred and Christmas choral music published by Oxford University Press in Spring 2021, performed and recorded by renowned choral group, The Gesualdo Six. Includes music by Rutter, Quartel, and McGlade. “Ingeniously programmed and impeccably delivered, with that undefinable excitement that comes from a group of musicians working absolutely as one.” (Gramophone)

The "Tango Sentimentale" ensemble - Maximilian Spenger, Susanne Gargerle (First Violin), Isolde Lehrmann (Second Violin), David Ott, Silvia Cempiny (Violoncello), Thomas Jauch, Manuel Lopez, Hermann Weindorf (Piano & Percussion) - succeeds in fusing classical and modern music in one project. Tango… play between passion and melancholy dance of seduction, devotion and distance lure of fascination and eroticism Moments in the style of traditional tangos by Astor Piazzolla and Sebastian Piana meet modern compositions of the present. In such encounters of a very special kind, familiar elements of a bygone era combine with the forever enduring wishes, dreams and desires in the here and now. Played with abandon with accordion and string quintet, "Tango Sentimentale" takes us into a world of sound full of emotions and fantasy.

SOMM Recordings is pleased to announce Birdsong, a fascinating crossgender exploration of art songs associated with the female voice by baritone Roderick Williams, accompanied by pianist Andrew West. The recital features signature songs from the height of Romanticism by Brahms and Clara and Robert Schumann alongside a more recent quartet of sensuous songs by Sally Beamish. In his revealing foreword, Williams recalls having his choice of Brahms’s Sapphische Ode refused by competition organisers because it was “a woman’s song”. Returning recently to the work prompted him to question why some songs are considered gender specific. Birdsong is his response.