Handel Trio Sonatas – Op 2 Hwv386 91; Op 5 Hwv396 402 Academy of Ancient Music

Under the title I vanni occulti, ensemble Al Ayre Español, led by maestro Eduardo López Banzo, offers us its personal vision of Handel’s Sonatas Op. 2. The phrase comes from the oratorio Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno (The Triumph of Time and Disillusion, 1707). The reference to this aria is not anecdotal, because Sonata No. 1 in this Op. 2 contains references to this music — an aspect that, hardly surprisingly, constitutes a characteristic element of the composition technique of the maestro from Halle.

Turbulent, fanciful, and intensely intimate, Schumann's D Minor and F Major piano trios burst with creative energy. This album explores the inner worlds of colour and texture that can only be found in the iridescent pianos from Schumann's time - in this case, an 1830 Streicher.

The Choir of The Queen’s College, Oxford, Academy of Ancient Music, and an outstanding array of soloists join forces to breathe new life into the choral works of Giovanni Bononcini (1670-1747). Bononcini was Handel’s main rival in London, and with little to separate the two in terms of public status and reputation, they were dubbed the Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee of London’s music scene in the 1720s.

The violinist and composer Pieter Van Maldere was once the most famous musicians in the Low Countries and can be considered among the most important creators of the classical symphony. He uses lively and original melodic language, idiomatic to the violin.

AAM Records’ newest release features the Academy of Ancient Music joining forces with The Choir of Keble College and director Matthew Martin in a landmark recording of Francisco Vall’s ‘forgotten’ Missa Regalis [1740]. Performed from a new edition by Simon Heighes, Valls’ fascinating (and frequently confusticating) juxtaposition of ancient and ‘modern’ compositional styles provides a intriguing glimpse into the treasure-trove of Spanish baroque music, much of which remains relatively unknown to the wider world.

Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) releases the penultimate volume of an acclaimed project to record Mozart’s complete works for keyboard and orchestra. This volume includes Mozart’s Concerto No. 7 for Three Pianos and Orchestra, performed here uniquely on three different types of keyboard instruments: by Robert Levin (tangent piano), Ya-Fei Chuang (fortepiano) and Laurence Cummings (harpsichord). It follows the release of the same concerto in Mozart’s own arrangement for two keyboards (Vol. 11) and is joined on this album by two other Piano Concertos composed in Salzburg in the early months of 1776.

AAM releases the final volume of an acclaimed project to record Mozart’s complete works for keyboard and orchestra. Fittingly, this final instalment includes three works that in various ways are valedictory: K595 is Mozart’s last completed keyboard concert, while K503 is the last concerto of his Viennese years. Louise Alder joins AAM and Robert Levin in an aria for solo soprano, solo keyboard and orchestra; Ch’io mi scordi di te? is a farewell to one of Mozart’s favourite singers, Nancy Storace.

Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) continues a celebrated project to record Mozart’s complete works for keyboard and orchestra, with this tenth volume of the series. Together with renowned scholar-pianist Robert Levin, and directed by Laurence Cummings and Bojan cicic, AAM presents the Church Sonata. No. 17 alongside the Piano Concerto No. 5 – Mozart’s first original keyboard concerto – both for orchestra and organ. The three K107 concertos are joined by a concerto movement from the music book of Mozart’s sister, Nannerl, believed to have been drafted by Mozart as a young child, and completed here by Robert Levin. The hardback CD package is accompanied by comprehensive notes commissioned specially for the album.

Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) continues an acclaimed project to record Mozart’s complete works for keyboard and orchestra, with this eleventh volume of the series. Renowned pianists Robert Levin and Ya-Fei Chuang join Laurence Cummings and AAM to present Mozart’s Concertos Nos. 7 and 10, the former of which is recorded here in Mozart’s own arrangement for two pianos. Also included is the Concerto Movement for Piano, Violin, and Orchestra, completed by Robert Levin.

The best collection of classics in 2024, a selection of 100 tracks of the most advanced music.