2 CDs for the price of 1. After finishing the chorus ‘How dark, O Lord, are thy decrees’ in February 1751, Handel noted in the autograph score that he couldn’t continue his work on Jephtha because of eye problems. Later in the year, he regained his eyesight and was able to complete the work in the autumn. The problems returned however, and in January 1753 a London newspaper reported that ‘Mr Handel has at length, unhappily, quite lost his sight’. Jephtha was thus Handel's last oratorio, and indeed his last major work. It is no less a masterpiece than his earlier works, and contains some of his noblest music. The plot of this ‘Sacred Drama’ is loosely based on the story of Jephtha in the Old Testament: a father who in order to win the the Israelites’ struggle against the Ammonites makes a rash promise to God, and after his victory is compelled to sacrifice his own daughter. The situation gives rise to music of touching poignancy, as well as great choral set-pieces. This rousing live performance, recorded in 2008 in the Stavanger Concert Hall, boasts a roster of soloists headed by the fine British tenor James Gilchrist as Jephtha, as well as the eminent Belgian choir Collegium Vocale Gent, all backed up by the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. At the helm of these large forces is Fabio Biondi, the Baroque violinist and conductor who since 2005 has been artistic director of the Stavanger orchestra in the baroque and classical repertoires.

Rachmaninov Corelli Variations Op 42, Bach arr Busoni Chaconne from Partita No 2 BWV1004, Ravel Valses Nobles et Sentimentales, Stravinsky Three Movements from Petrushka

All four works on this disc rely on existing compositions, with titles that  more or less specifically refer to this fact. In the case of Rachmaninov’s Corelli Variations, it is the famous theme used by Corelli in his violin sonata La Follia which undergoes a radical pianistic treatment taking it through all the sonic and atmospheric possibilities offered by the instrument. With his celebrated transcription of Bach’s Chaconne, Ferruccio Busoni had a very different aim, wanting to shed new light on the work without actually changing it. Ravel’s collection of waltzes was composed as a nod to Schubert, who in 1823 had written two collections of waltzes, the Valses nobles and Valses sentimentales. In no way is it possible to call the work a pastiche, however – in it Ravel shows the full range of his musical palette, which Debussy describes as ‘the most refined that has ever existed’. Finally, Stravinsky’s Three movements from Petrushka is the composer’s arrangement of music from his own ballet, commissioned by Arthur Rubinstein. Freddy Kempf has previously recorded no less than ten highly acclaimed solo discs for BIS, his recital of Mussorgsky, Ravel and Balakirev pronounced by Gramophone 'a formidable programme formidably played...This is “live” virtuosity with a vengeance, with absolutely no hint of a safety net.’

During the 1910s, at a time when late-romanticism had been taken about as far as possible, the collaboration between Igor Stravinsky and the ballet impressario Sergei Diaghilev had a huge influence on the development of music. Performed by Diaghilev's company Les Ballets Russes, their first joint effort, The Firebird, was a great success in Paris in 1910, and within the space of just a couple of years two further landmarks of 20th-century music followed: Petrushka and Le Sacre du printemps. Stravinsky's clear-cut textures, strong primary colours and almost percussive treatment of the orchestra staked out a route later explored by many of his colleagues. Particularly striking in the case of Petrushkawas the extensive use of scraps of folk song and street music, treated with extreme refinement and often biting irony – the character of Petrushka, a puppet come to life, was described by Stravinsky as ‘the immortal and unhappy hero of every fair-ground in all countries’. On the present recording the original 1911 version is used, giving an even more immediate and exciting effect. As for The Rite of Spring, the scandal at its 1913 premiere has become legendary – a scandal probably caused as much by Nijinsky’s choreography as by Stravinsky’s score. But even today, the music offers an extremely powerful experience, above all through its rhythmic qualities. Both scores belong to the pinnacles of 20th-century orchestral music, and are here performed by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by its music director Andrew Litton.

Over 30 years ago, Brian Eno released Music for Airports, his first 'ambient' album. It was the precursor for the broad spectrum of music that is today called ambient, a term Eno himself invented. It was a four-part piece, composed in the studio, devoid of all but the most basic aspects of song, challenging listeners to re-imagine what music might be. Twenty years later, Bang on a Can All-Stars created their own version of the work with live musicians, all the while staying close to the source by sharing the project as it developed with Brian Eno. In the recording, the overarching calm of the piece is enhanced with touches of instrumentation behind and around its central six-note piano phrase. In the two sequences that follow the piano phrase, a choir of voices fades in and out against the sparest of sonic landscapes. Bang on a Can performs Music for Airports at the Perth International Arts Festival in March.

Supplement to Year 2 Venezia e Napoli

Virtuoso Canadian pianist Louis Lortie has recorded all three books (‘Years’) of the Années de Pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage) on this 2-disc set. It is rarely recorded in its entirety and Chandos' collection includes the supplement to Year 2, ‘Venezia e Napoli’. Liszt was deeply affected by external influences and he was a master at translating these feelings into music. The first of the Années is a reworking of pieces from his earlier Album d’un Voyageur, which was inspired by his travels in Switzerland as a young man. The second Year was inspired by the art and literature encountered during his travels in Italy, and evokes famous paintings and sculptures. The third and last Year was written much later, when Liszt was in his sixties and at a time when both the man and the style of his music had undergone a vast change. Liszt said himself that the work was ‘written for the few rather than the many’, as he saw it as ‘art’ rather than the futile distraction of passing entertainment. Lortie plays on a Fazioli piano.

Rarely heard choral works by Verdi, performed by all-Italian forces for totally idiomatic results. The opera La forza del destino was first performed in the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre of St Petersburg in 1862. Featured on this recording is ‘La vergine degli angeli’, the chorus that ends Act III. Here Leonora (whom everyone supposes to be a man) is sent by the Monastery of Hornachuelos to live in a hermit’s cave for the rest of her life. The  monks invoke the Virgin to protect the new hermit and send Leonora off with one of Verdi’s most beautiful choruses  (which also features an exquisite solo for Leonora). Soon after completing La forza del destino, Verdi was asked to prepare an Italian entry for the London International Exhibition. He agreed, and the result was the Inno delle nazioni, to words by Arrigo Boito. Verdi cites the national anthems of England, France, and Italy, before combining them in a contrapuntal tour de force. With the death in 1868 of Gioachino Rossini, Verdi took it upon himself to commission all the most important composers of Italy to prepare a composite Mass in his memory. The mass was to be performed on the first anniversary of Rossini’s death, but when the city of Bologna proved unable to arrange the performance in time, the project was abandoned. Verdi, however, persevered and did complete the intended final movement, ‘Libera me, Domine’, recorded here. He would rework the movement for his later Messa da Requiem. Completing the disc are the Quattro pezzi sacri (Four Sacred Pieces).

Symphonic Suite from Gloriana, Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes

Edward Gardener conducts the BBC Philharmonic with Paul Watkins as cello soloist in this new release of orchestral works by Britten. It is a unique collection, combining the popular ‘Four Sea Interludes’ from Peter Grimes with the Symphony for Cello and Orchestra and the rarely recorded Symphonic Suite from Gloriana. The ‘Four Sea Interludes’ need no introduction; Britten extracted them from the large-scale opera Peter Grimes for concert performances. The Symphony for Cello and Orchestra was Britten’s only substantial piece of absolute symphonic music. It was written for Rostropovich who gave the premiere in 1964 at the Moscow Conservatory. Gloriana was first performed at Covent Garden in 1953 to celebrate the coronation of HM the Queen. The work did not receive favourable reviews and was rarely revived in the composer’s lifetime. Britten did however produce the Orchestral Suite heard here for concert use.

Symphonie Italienne, Poeme des Rivages Op 77

A contemporary of Debussy and Ravel and pupil of Franck, d’Indy was a talented composer, conductor, educator, and propagandist for French culture. This is the fourth volume in the Chandos series with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rumon Gamba. The early symphony, inspired by d’Indy’s travels in Italy, is a tuneful work indebted in style to Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Berlioz. The Suite Poème des rivages is d’Indy’s late orchestral masterpiece, a work of outstanding technical accomplishment and poetic inspiration. The orchestral forces, which include four saxophones, create an almost visual impression of light and atmosphere in the manner of Claude Monet. The previous three volumes in this series have received excellent reviews: Volume 1 (CHAN10464) was ‘superbly realised by the excellent Iceland Symphony Orchestra under Rumon Gamba and the state-of-the-art Chandos recording; definitely a key record of d’Indy’s orchestra output.’ – Gramophone.

Requiem, Lamentations, Tenebrae Responsories

Recently in Australia for their annual summer school, The Tallis Scholars release a specially priced ‘3 for 1’ boxed set to mark the 400th anniversary of Victoria’s death. Includes the famous Requiem and last year’s stunning recording of the Lamentations of Jeremiah. Watch The Tallis Scholars perform Victoria.

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik K525

'I don’t know of any [performances] that can match these for freshness, exhilaration and sheer fun.' (BBC Music Magazine). 'It is quite an achievement to make a performance of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik gripping and revelatory, but in his first recording as director of the English Concert, Andrew Manze manages it.' -The Guardian

For more than fifteen years, Mahler drew on the early 19th-century anthology collected by Arnim and Brentano for virtually all the poems he set to music. The resulting songs in their turn constituted the principal source of inspiration for the first four symphonies. The lieder of Des Knaben Wunderhorn, the quintessence of the Mehlerian universe, derive their impact from the simplicity that lies at the heart of their dense musical texture, but also from their gently ironic vision of the vanity of the world. Sarah Connolly is a superb soloist, and few conductors understand Mahler more intimately than Philippe Herreweghe.

Closely associated with the folklore of the Balkans, the musical tradition of Slovenia also has a Romantic branch born at the confluence of the Alps and the Adriatic, between Austria and Italy. Deeply connected with their origins (their parents are Slovenian), brother-and-sister vocal duo Bernarda and Marcos Fink have selected the most representative songs and duets of a style wich, around the turn of the 20th century, combined the poetic rigour of the great European musical centres - the influence of the lied is obvious- with the expression of its own identity. This intimate release from the Finks follows their best-selling Canciones Argentinas (HMC901892).

Two masterpieces on one CD: Isabelle Faust goes back to the roots of one of the most famous Romantic concertos, which is also one of the most difficult from a technical point of view: Hans von Bülow called it a 'concerto against the violin'. Born of close collaboration between Brahms and the violinist Joseph Joachim, the work is a fine testimony to friendship – whereas the Sextet op.36 is directly linked to the love affair between the composer and the beautiful Agathe von Siebold. Isabelle Faust and conductor Daniel Harding are ideal collaborators on this disc.

John Williams, Lauridsen, Tilson Thomas, Broughton, Puts, Hiltzik Sound The Bells, Fanfare for a Festive Occasion, Aloft To the Royal Masthead, Street Song, Fanfare for Brass Sextet, O Magnum Mysterium, Fanfares Marches Hymns and Finale

San Francisco-based ensemble The Bay Brass presents a showcase of American music both rousing and moving with these first recording of recent works by John Williams, Michael Tilson Thomas, Morten Lauridsen and others. ‘A truly wonderful brass ensemble with a full-bodied sound and no rough edges.’  - American Record Guide

Gaspard de la Nuit, Sonatine, Miroirs, La Valse, Le tombeau de Couperin, Menuet in C Sharp Minor, Menuet antique, Serenade grotesque, Jeux d'eau, Prelude, Menuet sur le nom d'Haydn, A la maniere de Borodine, A la maniere de Chabrier, Pavane pour une infante defunte, Valses nobles et sentimentales

New releases of Steven Osborne’s best-selling discs have become some of the most eagerly-awaited events in the pianophile diary. This most delicate and subtle of musicians also displays a pyrotechnical deployment of digital acrobatics, mesmerising colour control and breathtaking articulation. All these qualities are visible in this two-disc set of some of the most important piano music of the early twentieth century. Ravel’s works have been central, too, to Steven Osborne’s performing repertoire throughout his career, making this set a perfect marriage of composer and performer. 'Ravel's entire output was small, which makes his vital impact on 20th-century music all the more remarkable. Each piece is distinctive and original, yet unmistakably in his voice: playful, impassioned, translucent, cool and Gallic. The piano works can be contained on two CDs, with two major compositions, Gaspard de la nuit and Le tombeau de Couperin dominating, and here including an arrangement of his orchestral masterpiece, La valse. Apart from the Pavane pour une infante défunte, the shorter pieces, some only lasting a minute or two, remain unfamiliar to non-Ravelians. Steven Osborne, ever a poised, technically impeccable virtuoso, combines clarity with heart. All a shimmering pleasure.' -The Guardian

Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe, Trois Odes Funebres, Zwei Episoden aus Lenaus Faust

As part of Liszt’s anniversary year Hyperion turns to some of the composer’s most underrecorded and underperformed works. Liszt’s piano music is so much in the foreground that his works for orchestra have been almost forgotten. Here we present a fascinating selection. Liszt’s Trois Odes funèbres were composed between 1860 and 1866, and exist in a variety of versions: for orchestra, for piano solo and for piano duet. Although it is quite clear from the original manuscripts that Liszt intended these works to be performed as a cycle, they have never been published together and have rarely been performed as he wished. ‘From the cradle to the grave’ was written after a drawing by the Hungarian artist Mihály Zichy (1827–1906) depicting three stages of existence: birth; the struggle for being; and death, the cradle of the life to come. The Faust legend preoccupied Liszt for much of his life, and inspired the composer’s most famous orchestral work, the Faust Symphony. However Zwei Episoden aus Lenaus Faust also contains some of the composer’s most thrillingly atmospheric music.

Evening, Night Prayer, A Drop in the Ocean, Legend of a walled-in woman, Long Road

The live performance last year of this major and substantial work by the young Latvian composer Ešenvalds thrilled critics and audiences alike. As a new liturgical work that looks set to enter the repertoire, it is comparable to Arvo Pärt’s Passio and Górecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. Eschewing the single narrative perspective that characterizes the great Passion settings of the past, the composer has assembled an interlocking mosaic of texts from the gospels, from Byzantine and Roman liturgies, and from the Old Testament. Stephen Layton’s commitment to new Baltic music is well-known and he has a deep understanding of the musical language of the area – reflected by performances of great integrity and passion. This recording is particularly splendid, featuring not only the matchless Polyphony and Britten Sinfonia but also Carolyn Sampson, acclaimed for her performances of early music on Hyperion but heard here to dazzling effect, crowning the performance with her extraordinary singing.

Bernstein Some Other Time, Arlen Happiness is a thing called Joe, Bridge Love went a-riding, Homer Sing to me sing, McArthur Night, Kramer Now Like a Lantern, Carpenter The Sleep That Flits on Baby's Eyes, Sargent Hickory Hill, Youmans Through the Years

This delightful disc, performed by one of the most admired sopranos of today, accompanied by her long-time collaborator, pays homage to an important musical tradition and part of performance history, and to four great sopranos from the past. The repertoire includes the encore-songs, mainly by American composers, performed by Kirsten Flagstad, Eileen Farrell, Helen Traubel and Eleanor Steber at the end of their recitals. As Christine Brewer writes in an intimate performance note: ‘These little gems evoke an era of recitals not often encountered these days. Stepping back into that era has been a joy to Roger and me, and I hope it will bring back memories to those who might have heard these women sing these songs, or perhaps ignite a new love affair for younger listeners!’

from La Cenerentola, Semiramide, Guillaume Tell, Otello, L'Assedio di Corinto, La Donna del Lago

Alex Ross, music critic of the New Yorker who tours Australia with the ACO in March, has praised this young Russian soprano on his popular blog (www.therestisnoise.com). At just 21 years old, Julia Lezhneva has made an impression on Marc Minkowski, who conducts on this dazzling recording. The youngest competitor in last year’s Paris Opera International Competition, she won First Prize with two Rossini arias.

Monteverdi Excerpts from Madrigali Guerrieri et Amorosi Libro 8, Incoronazione di Poppea, Scelsi Excerpts from Trilogie (Three Ages of Man)

Following the success of her stunning album of Jewish song, Chants Juifs, Sonia has constructed a fascinating and intimate solo cello album connecting two Italian composers from the sixteenth and twentieth centuries. These cello arrangements of Monteverdi madrigals beautifully capture the lyrical, emotive vocal quality of her instrument. Watch the mini-documentary.

In Convertendo, Les Boreades, Castor et Pollux, Les Indes Galantes, Les Paladins, Zoroastre

This collection of five operas, plus a rarely performed grand motet, offers a glimpse into the magnificent output of one of the leading French composers of the Baroque era. Jean-Philippe Rameau is renowned for his use of melody, particularly in the operatic field, and this 11-DVD set brings together some of the most lavish and splendid productions of his work, with some of the leading exponents of early music performance.

The Lamb, Magnificat, Nunc dimittis, A Hymn to the Mother of God, Song for Athene, Annunciation, A Parting Gift for Tam Farrow, As One Who Has Slept, The Tyger, The Hymn of the Unwaning Light, The Lord's Prayer

John Tavener describes his music as resembling ‘ikons in sound’ – a window on  to  the  Divine  world.  The  British  conductor/composer  James Whitbourn  leads the  London-based  ensemble  The  Choir  in  a programme of Tavener’s hauntingly beautiful unaccompanied choral music in performances described as 'impressive and spiritual'. ‘The power of the performances is overwhelming and the credit goes to James Whitbourn and his vocal ensemble The Choir’ -The Organ 

3 SACDs + bonus DVD for the price of 2 discs. Classic Julia Fischer recordings with a DVD containing never-before-released footage from the Mozart recording sessions.

John Eliot Gardiner’s recording boasts a superb cast of soloists headed by Mark Padmore as Evangelist. The St. John Passion is part of the Monteverdi ensembles’ core repertoire, their performances described as ‘exactingly schooled and dramatically compelling’ (Opera Today). Packaged as a hard-bound book with 76 pages of notes and essay by Gardiner.

The legendary Australian conductor’s final album release on Supraphon, recorded in 2007 with his beloved Czech Philharmonic. This monumental Romantic symphony was composed by Suk following the death of his daughter and his friend Dvořák: Asrael is the Angel of Death.