Various Artists Georges Bizet Djamileh, Vasco de Gama, Cantates, Musique Chorale, Mélodies & Musique Pour Piano (po Flac

While twentieth century Swiss composers often synthesize the Latin and Germanic sources of their country’s inspiration in their aesthetics, it is to France that Pierre Wissmer (1915-1992) is resolutely attached, both in his life’s journey as in his artistic ideals. Imbued at first with a post-Ravellian neoclassicism, over the years his style has shifted toward a more distanced relationship with tonality and a more inner language. However, the refinement of the contrapuntal writing and instrumentation will always remain a constant feauture of his art.

"The young, Venezuelan pianist Walkiria Izaguirre who received her musical training in Vienna presents her debut CD with a pure Beethoven program, which features an early, a middle and a late piano sonata and thereby gives an overview of the master’s oeuv-re. In her own words, this album is a tribute to one of the most important figures in the history of music, whose musical creativity would reach an unexpected and wonderful development towards freedom and individual expression for eternity. The sonata in F major Op. 10/2 was called one of Beethoven’s most joyful works by Paul Badura-Skoda, the sonata in D major Op. 28 described by him as gentle, idyllic and light-filled to the brim, perhaps a response to the gloomier previous “Moonlight” sonata, a rejection of depression, a move towards friendlier climes, and is also called the “Pastoral” sonata. Finally, the sonata Op. 109 is kept in the ‘mystical’ key of E major, expressing exhilaration, rapture, earthly, and heavenly love. The variation movement’s theme is proof that, despite some contemporary critic’s judgement, Beethoven was indeed capable of writing beautiful melodies."

Thierry de Brunhoff (born 9 November 1934) is a French pianist and Benedictine monk.

This new release features three of the greatest piano works by Schumann, superbly performed on fortepiano. DAVID HYUN-SU KIM has distinguished himself as one of the most thoughtful and distinctive musicians to emerge from the newest generation of American pianists. His concerts have been praised as "emotionally expansive" and "idiomatically perfect," his interpretations as "spectacular," and his Schumann playing has been singled out as "splendid and moving… His Florestan was elegantly calamitous, and his melodies representing Eusebius were like a dear friend whispering arcane truths to only you." A sought-after pedagogue and adjudicator, David has taught at Yale and Harvard Universities. His students have gone on to win prizes in international competitions and been accepted for graduate study at Eastman, Oberlin, the University of Michigan, CCM, Indiana University, and similar institutions.

The distinguished New York-based composer-pianist Bruce Wolosoff synthesizes traditional tonal idioms with lifelong enthusiasms for jazz, blues, and rock music, creating a distinct musical language that speaks to the heart, but is unmistakably contemporary. His soaring, soulful melodies are strikingly suited to the cello, “in some ways my favourite instrument,” admits Wolosoff, “after my own of course.” For Paradise Found, Wolosoff reunites with Grammy Award-winning cellist Sara Sant’Ambrogio – the pair previously collaborated on Wolosoff’s Cello Concerto, a Top 10 Billboard Classical chart hit – for the first recordings of his two Cello Sonatas, and two miniatures Circe and The Woods.

First the discovery of his works in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, then the new edition of the chamber music works in the Kammermusikverlag from 2020 and finally the contact to the three performers / inside who had great interest to record these works. So, finally, with these first recordings, about 160 years after the composition of these works, one can have a listening impression of the chamber music of Berthold Dam. Liszt spoke of Damcke as one of the most sought-after composition teachers in Paris. Berlioz called him a "great musician, an artist." The recorded works are worth rediscovering and performing.

Frank Martin’s Mass for Double Choir a cappella is one of the repertoire’s most widely performed monuments, and Valentin Villard’s Mass for six voices could well follow in its footsteps. Although 90 years separate these two works, there is an evident filiation between Frank Martin and Valentin Villard. Both composers develop their own harmonic language based on contemporary practices, seek lines of great vocality and explore the orchestral dimension of juxtaposing human voices. Furthermore, both put their writing to the service of an expression of interiority devoid of affectation, with total sincerity and the same ethical and artistic aim.

SOMM RECORDINGS is delighted to announce the label debut of composer-conductor Nimrod Borenstein with first recordings of three works showcasing the piano in separate guises: his Piano Concerto, piano quintet Light and Darkness, and Shirim for solo piano.Borenstein himself conducts pianist Clélia Iruzun and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in his Piano Concerto, while Iruzun is joined by I Musicanti on Light and Darkness, and is the soloist for Shirim.