Beverly Claire Rosinkranz

Jos van Immerseel and Claire Chevallier have enjoyed a close collaboration for many years now. Like Jos van Immerseel, Claire Chevallier loves period pianos; like him, she is a researcher and possesses her own collection of keyboard instruments.

On her most recent album, the pianist Claire Huangci made her first discographic foray into the chamber-music world of Ernest Chausson and Maurice Ravel. Her latest album creates a musical link almost back to the beginning of her professional career, to her highly acclaimed Scarlatti album, and proves yet again that she has a very close relationship with Baroque repertoire: with Johann Sebastian Bach’s varied and sparklingly virtuoso Toccatas she has taken ownership of a rarely heard collection of works, in which she presents the entire emotional spectrum of the young adult Bach.

The first chamber music album 'Ravel & Chausson' by Claire Huangci as part of the Trio Machiavelli has been released today. The combination of Maurice Ravel's Piano Trio and Ernest Chausson's Piano Quartet marks an encounter between two works of opposite character.

"Whole Heart" is the debut album from cellist Claire Bryant featuring seven bold works for solo cello and string duo written by a luminary slate of diverse living composers: Caroline Shaw, Jessie Montgomery, Andrea Casarrubios, Adam Schoenberg, Jessica Meyer, Reena Esmail, and Tanner Porter. These works reflect love and the human experience. Whole Heart is a reminder of the collective challenges we face and the resilience and strength that live inside each of us.

A remarkably intimate recording of Schumann's Cello Concerto in A minor, this performance by Anne Gastinel and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, directed by Louis Langrée, may be a little too forward for the average listener's comfort. Direct Stream Digital engineering places Gastinel front and center – almost in one's living room – and the orchestra is not far behind. Such "living presence" may be an audiophile's delight, but others may find the proximity disconcerting, especially because Gastinel's bowing seems overly resinous up close. However, this is the only complaint worth making about this disc, for Gastinel is wonderfully expressive and the orchestra is extraordinarily balanced and clear in its timbres, no mean achievement in Schumann's problematic, thick orchestration. The remaining performances are less forwardly recorded and sound pleasant and natural, with a fresh spontaneity that feels more like a recital than a studio session.

Named after the 1934 Ray Noble-penned standard made famous by Bing Crosby, The Very Thought of You is the sixth studio album from Canadian jazz vocalist Emilie-Claire Barlow. Released in 2007, it features silky-smooth renditions of Nat King Cole's "Almost Like Being in Love," Billie Holiday 's "What a Little Moonlight Can Do," and Mama Cass' "Dream a Little Dream of Me" alongside interpretations of hits from various musicals including Guys and Dolls, Oklahoma!, and Pennies from Heaven.

For her 10th anniversary with Berlin Classics, the US pianist Claire Huangci presents herself and her label with a weighty recording project, Schubert's late sonatas D 894, D 958, D 959 and D 960, as well as the Three Piano Pieces D 946 and a selection of songs from Schwanengesang. She accompanies the baritone Thomas E. Bauer in four of the songs, and plays two in an arrangement by Franz Liszt. To be heard in a box with 3 albums under the title META. META stands for the importance of Schubert's music in Claire Huangci's personal and musical life. It is Schubert's compositions, which she has played since her earliest youth, "that show my development, that reflect unconscious emotions", as she writes in the booklet. Schubert's music is "the music I would like to take with me to a desert island. Schubert has accompanied me through all times", especially the late sonatas, which are at the centre of the META box.