Ferdinand Ries may once have been celebrated as ‘one of the finest piano-performers of the present day’ (the 1820s), but he is now remembered chiefly for his association with Beethoven. Yet the music here is never slavishly imitative: Piers Lane makes a persuasive case for rescuing these works from the pages of musical history.

The ‘air-spun brilliance and stylistic elegance’ which Gramophone so admired in Howard Shelley’s previous recording of Sterndale Bennett is in abundant evidence in this new release of the first three piano concertos.

Volume 72 of our Romantic Piano Concerto series comes to the rescue of yet another neglected figure with three first recordings courtesy of Howard Shelley and his Tasmanian forces. Composer, pianist, writer and educator (he was an early Principal of the Royal Academy of Music), London-born Cipriani Potter was encouraged by Beethoven and admired by Wagner.

Active in every genre other than opera, Carl Czerny is largely remembered for the numerous piano studies he wrote as pedagogical aids. Howard Shelley's advocacy of his three overlooked virtuoso works for piano and orchestra is a welcome reminder of this composer's greater appeal. Alongside the Piano Concerto in A minor Op.214 are two premiere recordings of his Piano Concerto in F major Op.28 and Rondo Brillant in B flat major Op.233.

Though lesser-known today, composers Alfred Hill and George Boyle enjoyed distinguished careers, both in their native Australia and abroad. Hill was known as the 'grand old man' of Australian musical life in his time. His Piano Concerto in A minor and Piano Sonata in A major are effectively the same work, the one being an orchestral expansion of the other. In addition to his work as a composer, Boyle took on students in New York that included such luminaries as Copland and Barber. The Romantic Piano Concerto Vol.69 features his Piano Concerto in D minor. All works are performed here by Piers Lane and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra led by Johannes Fritzsch.

The first recording of Moritz Moszkowski’s long-lost—and eagerly awaited—early Piano Concerto makes for a particularly important addition to the Romantic Piano Concerto series. The coupling is another rarity (and recorded premiere): the Russian Rhapsody by Adolf Schulz-Evler.

Solti in Chicago at his very best. The promising excitement in the first movement opens to a performance of drama and poetry… This is simply great conducting, great orchestral playing, captured in superbly recorded early digital engineering.

For anyone who ever wondered what Pachelbel was up to when he wasn't writing his Canon in D, this CD offers some lovely answers. (He was also playing the organ and teaching, and one of his students was Johann Sebastian Bach, in whose works it's possible to detect Pachelbel's influence.) While there is nothing as immediately catchy as the Canon, the sacred and secular arias and vocal concertos recorded here reveal a composer with a gift for attractive vocal writing and inventive instrumental accompaniments.

Our collection of previously unknown Christmas oratorios is growing impressively and happily. After Joseph Eybler in October, I can even announce two trouvailles for this month. There is the Christmas Oratorio by Carl Heinrich Graun (1703-1759), the conductor of Frederick the Great. It was only recently found in Washington. A precise dating is not yet possible, but it certainly arose in Graun's pre-Berlin time in Dresden or Braunschweig. However, it is a masterpiece on the threshold of a sensitive style. The well-balanced alternation of melodically accented and contrapuntally rigorous choral movements, of soulful, colorfully orchestrated arias and harmoniously far-reaching recitatives is particularly impressive.

Franz Liszt was without doubt one of the greatest (if not The Greatest) pianists of all time, as well as an innovating and visionary composer, in one word…a Genius!

Der Wiederaufbau der Dresdner Frauenkirche hat in ganz Europa eine breite öffentliche Aufmerksamkeit gefunden. Den „Klangspuren“ dieser Kirche, der eigens für sie komponierten Musik nachzugehen, ist das Anliegen dieser CD, auf der Kantaten von Homilius zu Himmelfahrt, Exaudi, Pfingsten und Trinitatis erstmals eingespielt werden, in einer Farbigkeit, wie sie nur wenige kennen.

This is the 21st album by this orchestra on Pentatone, most of which have received the highest critical acclaim. In particular, the recordings of Russian repertoire conducted by Russian conductors are artistically and commercially successful.

Con questo terzo CD, dedicato a varie composizioni di Alessandro (Pietro Gaspare) Scarlatti (Palermo, 2 maggio 1660 – Napoli, 22 ottobre 1725) destinate precipuamente all’organo, continua il progetto che prevede la registrazione degli «Opera Omnia per tastiera» del grande compositore «Palermitano».

Although François Couperin (harpsichord) and Antoine Forqueray (Viola da Gamba) often played together in Versailles, they were very different musical personalities. Couperin was regarded as the ideal type of French music with its affective aesthetics. Forqueray on the other hand used the robust, highly virtuoso style of Italy. Together with Pieter-Jan Belder and Sofia Diniz, Rainer Zipperling presents the works of the antipodes, which show their contrasting musical characters.

After the success ofOfficina Romana(awarded 5 Diapasons, 5 stars inMusica, and selected amongst the best albums inLe Mondein 2021), Le Stagioni, under the direction of Paolo Zanzu, invites the listeneron a journey through 17th-century Venice in the company of outstanding singers:Emmanuelle de Negri, Blandine Staskiewicz, Paul-Antoine Benos-Djian, Zachary Wilder and Salvo Vitale.From 1637 to 1645, between the opening of the firstpublicopera houses and the start ofthe Cretan War, Venicewitnessed a musical blossoming of international significance.