Anna Loannova

In this imaginatively shaped and sensitively played album – her third for ECM - Russian pianist Anna Gourari explores musical connections and influences extending across the arts. Three suites of contemporary music are heard here. Alfred Schnittke’s Five Aphorisms (1990) draw impulses from the poetry of his friend Joseph Brodsky. Rodion Shchedrin’s Diary - Seven Pieces (2002) dedicated to Gourari and inspired by her playing, reflects the life of a pianist and composer. Wolfgang Rihm’s sequence of tombeaux, Zwiesprache (1999) pays tribute to musicologists Alfred Schlee and Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht, conductor Paul Sacher, and art sociologist Hermann Wiesler. Threaded between the cycles are two Giya Kancheli miniatures drawn from theatre and movie music, as well as Arvo Pärt’s early tintinnabuli-style Variations for the Healing of Arinuschka (1977). Gourari’s investigation of artistic affinities is framed with Bach’s transcriptions of Venetian composers Antonio Vivaldi and Alessandro Marcello: “Anna Gourari makes these Bach slow movements, too, ours,” Paul Griffiths writes in the liner notes. “And the newer music is cherished and invigorated.”

Songs by Warlock & Howe - Anna Harvey / Mark Austin - This delightful recital of English songs brings together one of the form's most distinctive and prolific composers, Peter Warlock, with a composer born in 1951 who continues very much in the tradition of the older composer - Frederick Howe, whose selection of his own folksong arrangements dovetail neatly this aspect of Warlock's output. Howe's songs are receiving their world-premiere recordings. Magpie by Warlock is also a world-premiere recording using the original text.

As an instrument from Italy, one that was exotic and evocative of Mediterranean atmospheres, the mandolin was very much in fashion in France until the end of the Century of Enlightenment: a fact also confirmed by many iconographic and musical sources. Pizzicar Galante, an ensemble that stands today as a benchmark for the interpretation of the galant literature for mandolin and continuo, has been acclaimed for the “finesse, creativity and spirit” (Olivier Fourés, Diapason) and “communicative energy” of its performances (Sébastien Llinares, France Musique). For its second recording with Arcana, it offers a compilation of the finest music played during the veritable “golden age” enjoyed by the mandolin in Paris from the 1760s to the Revolution. It is a rare and unexplored repertoire in which the dazzling virtuosity of Anna Schivazappa, a specialist in historical mandolins, dialogues with the beguiling and charismatic voice of Marc Mauillon.

Orchid Classics presents one of two releases showcasing winners of the Carl Nielsen Competition 2019. Hailed as ‘One to Watch’ by Gramophone magazine, Slovenian clarinettist Blaž Šparovec was praised by jury member Michael Collins as “the deserving winner … he showed immense qualities from the start and is able to communicate with the audience his joy of music-making. His technical skill and warm sound will make him stand out as a true individual.” With the Odense Symphony Orchestra, Blaž Šparovec performs four masterpieces: Debussy’s breathtaking Première rhapsodie, written as a competition piece for the Paris Conservatoire; Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto, often described as the greatest of the 20th century; Lutosławski’s folk-like Dance Preludes; and Copland’s demanding, jazzy Clarinet Concerto, performed in its original state – unaltered by simplifications made by its dedicatee, Benny Goodman.

The Ghost Ship (2CD): The beauty and brilliance of the piano - a double CD of virtuoso and Romantic music by Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Liszt, Skryabin, Dvořák, Saint-Saëns and many more.

Signum Records present an exciting new collaboration and a debut recording with Leeds International Piano Competition Winner (2015), Anna Tsybuleva, of music by Johannes Brahms together with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, conducted by Ruth Reinhardt.

Anna Lapwood is a trailblazing musician. Alongside her work as a conductor, Director of Music and public speaker, she performs an extensive number of organ recitals on some of the greatest instruments across Europe each season. In 2022 she was announced as Associate Artist of the Royal Albert Hall and Artist in Association at BBC Singers. Directed by Anna Lapwood, The Chapel Choir of Pembroke College has one of the most exciting and varied ranges of choral endeavours among Oxbridge choirs. Alongside their primary responsibility of contributing to worship in the College’s Chapel, they engage in regular artistic collaborations, media appearances and outreach work.