Johan

Multi-award-winning guitarist Johan Smith has considerably extended his instrument’s repertoire with this selection of transcriptions celebrating childhood in a variety of ways. These popular piano works – Schubert’s Erlkönig, Granados’s atmospheric Tales of Youth, Mozart’s elegant Sonata facile, Schumann’s Scenes from Childhood and the exquisitely sensitive and insightful miniatures of Debussy’s Children’s Corner – are presented in a totally natural and idiomatic manner within the guitar’s distinctly expressive soundworld.

‘The Bach violin concertos are not only one of the Baroque period highlights, but are one of the foundations of the entire history of music’ writes Swedish violinist Christian Svarfvar on his new album of Bach Re Composed by fellow Swede Johan Ullén. ‘It’s a whole world of beauty in 60 minutes. Then you may ask yourself: why recompose something that is already so perfect?’ The result is this brilliant album of re-composed Bach concertos, with a fearless and technically challenging stratospheric solo violin part contrasting with enriched cellos and basses. For those who loved Max Richter’s Four Seasons Re Composed, Infinite Bach will be a wonderful discovery for them. Bach was forward looking and his influence has travelled the centuries, influencing jazz, rock and pop musicians as well as every classical composer who came after him.

A few years after the success of her album crossing Baroque music with folk, Love I Obey (ALPHA538), the Franco-American singer Rosemary Standley visits Schubert, this time with the complicity of the Ensemble Contraste: ‘We all have a few notes of Schubert buried deep inside us’ say the artists, who have got together around his music and brought to it an original sound texture, the result of their varied influences – classical, pop, jazz, folk.

Judith Bingham is established as one of the foremost British composers writing for the organ. The powerfully atmospheric and evocative music in this recording richly demonstrates her gift for creating compelling works which draw inspiration from a broad range of historical, literary and artistic sources. The Åkerman & Lund organ of Västerås Cathedral is the perfect vehicle for this colourful programme, and both Heaven and Earth and Eternal Procession for two organs also feature the cathedral’s Fredriksborg choir organ. Tom Winpenny’s acclaimed recording of Bingham’s Jacob’s Ladder and other works for organ can be heard on Naxos 8.572687.

The beautiful Persian etymology of the word "Caravan" goes back to the d awn of time, embracing the ideas of nomadic travel and of mutual aid. Drawing on this unforgettable poetry and inspired by the legendary song of the same name by Juan Tizol and Duke Ellington, Caravan Party invokes friendship through music, the miracle of which is always present at the Bal Blomet, one of the oldest jazz clubs in Europe.

The beautiful Persian etymology of the word "Caravan" goes back to the d awn of time, embracing the ideas of nomadic travel and of mutual aid. Drawing on this unforgettable poetry and inspired by the legendary song of the same name by Juan Tizol and Duke Ellington, Caravan Party invokes friendship through music, the miracle of which is always present at the Bal Blomet, one of the oldest jazz clubs in Europe.

The beautiful Persian etymology of the word "Caravan" goes back to the d awn of time, embracing the ideas of nomadic travel and of mutual aid. Drawing on this unforgettable poetry and inspired by the legendary song of the same name by Juan Tizol and Duke Ellington, Caravan Party invokes friendship through music, the miracle of which is always present at the Bal Blomet, one of the oldest jazz clubs in Europe.