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Some critics might dismiss Sophie Milman as simply another pretty female singer, yet with her third CD, she continues to show an adventurous spirit, tackling standards and obscurities while also forging ahead into pop. Retaining many of the musicians from her previous release, Make Someone Happy, the upbeat alto offers a hip take of Duke Ellington's long overlooked "Take Love Easy," exuding sex appeal and backed by guitarist Rob Piltch, bassist Kieran Overs, and percussionist Mark McLean (who also arranged it), with a brief solo added on soprano sax by PJ Perry. Pianist Paul Shrofel contributed the breezy bop vehicle "That Is Love," which showcases Milman in her best light. She soars in the brisk treatment of the old chestnut "Day In, Day Out," starting in a samba setting and switching to bop, featuring alto saxophonist Wessel Warmdaddy Anderson.

Universally considered as one of the greatest violinists of our time, Anne-Sophie Mutter’s stunning and multi-faceted music-making extends across masterworks from the full breadth of the violin repertoire. Mutterissimo – The Art of Anne-Sophie Mutter is a selection of highlights from her discography, personally picked by Mutter herself, bringing together recordings that date for the most part from the last twenty years.

Sophie Yates began her career by winning the international Erwin Bodky Competition at the Boston Early Music Festival, and as a result she was invited to tour and broadcast throughout the eastern states of America. She now performs regularly around Europe, the United States and Japan, and has also worked in Syria, Morocco and Western Australia. Known for her affinity with the French baroque, the music of the Iberian Peninsula and English virginals music, she has performed on most of the playable virginals surviving in Britain and is working on a long-term project to collect a book of contemporary English pieces for this instrument.

This program is a mirror of four musical universes, which are as contrasted as interconnected with each other. Enlightening and transgressive, music full of passions, irony, madness, humor, heart- breaking pain, the controversy of letting go, and the purity of love in different states and forms. Bernstein and Poulenc, invited by Benny Goodman’s artistry to create two delighful chamber works – for one was his penultimate,, for the other his first. Weinberg and Prokofiev achieving at the same time the powerful grandeur of their expression and virtuosity, through two of their most intimate and fragile masterpieces. It has been a super exciting adventure to travel all the way this music has taken us through, and we feel this program has an authentic message which connects us to our recent roots and encourages us to go forward full of love, passion and enthusiasm.

With the exception of the final Chaconne of the second set, these discs contain the two sets of suites of 1720 and 1733 which are Handel’s most important keyboard music. It is an impressive achievement, with stylish harpsichord playing and a real sense of the energy and originality of these works. Repeats are taken, mostly with sensible ornamentation which never strays into tastelessness or exaggeration, and notes inégales are introduced in small amounts, especially in the allemandes, and with commendable moderation – a good thing, since we have little evidence about the extent to which Handel was influenced by this practice.