Bbc Music 2025

Following two highly acclaimed albums, the Maxwell Quartet rounds off its Haydn mini-series with the composer’s two Op. 77 string quartets, juxtaposed with its signature pairing of Scottish folk music. The quartet, which has become known for its ‘infectious enthusiasm’ and ‘irresistible’ playing (BBC Music Magazine), showcases its compelling storytelling with Haydn’s last foray in the genre.

Praised by BBC Music magazine for his ‘lucid, velvety tenor and pop-star charisma’, the Lebanese-American Karim Sulayman has garnered international attention as a sophisticated and versatile artist. He joins the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective for this album of works by Reynaldo Hahn. The founder members Tom Poster and Elena Urioste write: ‘Kaleidoscope has championed many unjustly neglected composers, but in the case of Reynaldo Hahn the neglect seems particularly puzzling to us. is music is immediately approachable, soaringly beautiful, and speaks directly to the heart; audiences, on the rare occasions that they get to hear it, seem to adore it. His life story is fascinating, too: born in Caracas, to a Jewish-German father and a Catholic- Venezuelan mother of Spanish / Basque origin, the handsome and urbane Hahn charmed high-society Paris, enjoying great success as composer, conductor, singer, writer-lecturer, and music critic. The Piano Quintet had been on our programming wish list for some time: it was lauded as Hahn’s greatest work at its 1922 première, and the powerful intensity of its first two movements in particular acts as a firm rejoinder to those who criticised Hahn as a lightweight salon composer. By the time he finished his Piano Quartet, in 1946, Hahn was a man out of place in the world; this is music which bears no trace of modernism, instead looking back nostalgically to Hahn’s heyday in la belle époque.

Praised by BBC Music magazine for his ‘lucid, velvety tenor and pop-star charisma’, the Lebanese-American Karim Sulayman has garnered international attention as a sophisticated and versatile artist. He joins the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective for this album of works by Reynaldo Hahn. The founder members Tom Poster and Elena Urioste write: ‘Kaleidoscope has championed many unjustly neglected composers, but in the case of Reynaldo Hahn the neglect seems particularly puzzling to us. is music is immediately approachable, soaringly beautiful, and speaks directly to the heart; audiences, on the rare occasions that they get to hear it, seem to adore it. His life story is fascinating, too: born in Caracas, to a Jewish-German father and a Catholic- Venezuelan mother of Spanish / Basque origin, the handsome and urbane Hahn charmed high-society Paris, enjoying great success as composer, conductor, singer, writer-lecturer, and music critic. The Piano Quintet had been on our programming wish list for some time: it was lauded as Hahn’s greatest work at its 1922 première, and the powerful intensity of its first two movements in particular acts as a firm rejoinder to those who criticised Hahn as a lightweight salon composer. By the time he finished his Piano Quartet, in 1946, Hahn was a man out of place in the world; this is music which bears no trace of modernism, instead looking back nostalgically to Hahn’s heyday in la belle époque.

Following two highly acclaimed albums, the Maxwell Quartet rounds off its Haydn mini-series with the composer’s two Op. 77 string quartets, juxtaposed with its signature pairing of Scottish folk music. The quartet, which has become known for its ‘infectious enthusiasm’ and ‘irresistible’ playing (BBC Music Magazine), showcases its compelling storytelling with Haydn’s last foray in the genre.

Record Store Day 2025. Soul Jazz Records’ special new 18th anniversary one-off limited-edition heavyweight special-edition red coloured vinyl pressing (+ download code) exclusively for Record Store Day 2025 of their out of print classic Rumble In The Jungle. This album is fully remastered, relicensed and with new tracks exclusively for RSD 25.Soul Jazz Records journey in to early 1990s ragga, drum and bass and jungle. The album features all-time classic jungle anthems such as General Levy’s ‘Incredible’ alongside some serious Ragga heavyweight tunes like Cutty Ranks ‘Limb By Limb’ and Congo Natty’s classic re-make of Barrington Levy’s Under Me Sensi’.

The third instalment in their award-winning series, the Calidore Quartet return with a three-disc album of the Early Quartets. Their Beethoven performances have been described as ‘shockingly deep’ by LA Times. The first album of Late Quartets won the Chamber Music Award at the BBC Music Magazine Awards 2024, and their second album of Middle Quartets will be awarded Chamber Recording of the Month in the October issue of Gramophone Magazine. Their interpretation is informed by their diverse set of mentors which include Alban Berg, Emerson, Guarneri and yet still uniquely representing the sentiments, aesthetics and research of their generation. Their interpretations of Beethoven are already critically acclaimed with performances at the Lincoln Centre planned as part of their residency.

Vox Luminis looks to the past and the future with this special digital reissue of its Kantaten recording comprising spiritual concerts and sacred cantatas by the ancestors of Johann Sebastian Bach. Named a Choice recording by both BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone upon its release in 2019, this new edition is enriched by three additional compositions which have just been recorded for Ricercar’s forthcoming release of the complete edition of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach’s ancestors: Kyrie a 6 by Heinrich Bach, Liebster Jesu, hör mein Flehen by Johann Michael Bach and Siehe wie fein und lieblich ist by Georg Christoph Bach. The Kantaten programme also includes the cantata for the Feast of St Michael the Archangel by Johann Christoph Bach and the cantata Christ lag in Todesbanden by Johann Sebastian Bach, in its original version dating from his Arnstadt period, containing copious elements linking it to the music of his forebears.