Samuel Biork

Nearly every setting of the poems by Kerner, Chamisso, Andersen and Heine heard in this recital dates from 1840, the year Schumann found himself totally engrossed with the song genre, producing no fewer than 138 individual lieder. This creative vein seems to mirror the inner torments that gripped the young composer at the time, while revealing the extraordinary range of his musical invention and unequalled talent of storyteller, as Samuel Hasselhorn demonstrates here, after winning first prize at the 2018 Queen Elisabeth Competition: the young German baritone’s first recording for harmonia mundi is a veritable love letter to this most intimate of art forms.

For their debut album on ATMA Classique, violinist Marie Begin and pianist Samuel Blanchette-Gagnon present sonatas for violin and piano by Claude Debussy and Cesar Franck, as well as Karol Szymanovski's Mythes, Op. 20, a rarity in the modern repertoire for violin and piano.

Acclaimed American composer Mark Abel’s sixth album for Delos extends his growing command of chamber writing while also delivering three major new vocal works. Celebrated sopranos Isabel Bayrakdarian (four times a Juno Award winner) and Hila Plitmann (a pair of Grammys and a longtime Abel collaborator) are joined by mezzo Kindra Scharich in presenting the song cycles Trois Femmes du Cinema and 1966, and debuting Two Scenes from “The Book of Esther,” a provocative excerpt from an opera in development. The album’s impressive array of instrumentalists includes pianist Carol Rosenberger (making the final recording of her epic career); fellow pianists Dominic Cheli, Sean Kennard and Jeffrey LaDeur; Alexander String Quartet violist David Samuel; Pacific Symphony concertmaster Dennis Kim and young cello star Jonah Kim.

Inspired by the legacy of Don Drummond, trombonist Samuel Blaser gathered a gang of greats to create the ultimate Jamaican repertoire. ROUTES is the result of their musical camaraderie, anchored in the musical tradition of the island and firmly rooted in jazz.

Performing, recording and commissioning music by the legendary conductor and composer José Serebrier, throughout my almost 15-years long friendship and collaboration with him, has never been, for me, less than utterly fascinating and inspiring. José Serebrier (born in 1938) is today’s most frequently-recorded conductor, has collaborated with some of the world’s greatest soloists and orchestras, and is among the most sought-after guest conductors, constantly touring with major orchestras around the world. Serebrier established himself as a significant composer as far back as the 1950s, with over 100 published works. Born in Uruguay, of Russian and Polish parents, Serebrier composed music and conducted orchestras since early childhood, conceiving his Opus 1 – Sonata for solo violin at the age of 9, and making his conducting debut at age 11.

The Swiss organist Samuel Cosandey says about his debut album PASSAGES: "When we compose a program, we try to remove each piece from the context of its creation and embed it in a new dynamic. The impact caused by the juxtaposition of works that are different in every respect invites us as listeners to ask ourselves the question: How do the works relate to each other? So, composing a program means creating a journey along which each piece finds itself in the next. The content of this album was created with these thoughts in mind. This results in a motto that is described in the album title PASSAGES." Three major works of the 20th century by Alain, Fachard and Ferneyhough invite the listener to follow Cosandey on his path from one to the next.