The Serenade for Orchestra in D major, K. 250/248b, popularly known as the "Haffner-Serenade", was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on the commission of Sigmund Haffner Junior in 1776. This Serenade is undoubtedly a jewel among Mozart's Salzburg compositions. The eight-movement work is Mozart's most extensive serenade and also the one with the largest instrumentation, with 13 instruments. Yet it is almost forgotten, or overshadowed, by it's famous Viennese counterpart, the Symphony in D major, K. 385, the "Haffner Symphony", commissioned by Leopold Mozart in the summer of 1781 for the nobilization of Johann Sigmund Haffner.

With his life and work, Miloslav Kabeláč, one of the greatest 20th-century Czech symphonists, foregrounded a highly topical theme: the necessity of not yielding to evil and commitment to humanistic ideals. He displayed both during the Nazi occupation and the time of Communist dictatorship in Czechoslovakia. Within the toughest totalitarianism Kabeláč escaped the ideological grip of the authoritarian regime by looking up to the star-studded sky.

This recording celebrates my long and fruitful relationship with the Escher Quartet, and also salutes the beloved flutist Carol Wincenc on her 50th Anniversary season. Though the string ensemble is the common thread in all of these recorded works, their inspiration and ideas are quite varied. In String Quartet No.4, dynamic shapes and configurations – spiral, waveform, labyrinth – are the catalysts for each movement, whereas String Quartet No.6 (“Canticle”) invokes the idea of ritual as its point of departure – coloured by the use of small, bell-like disks called crotales. Air in Motion brings a flute into the ensemble, adding a new dimension suggested by the flow of air through a column of metal.

György Cziffra was one of the most celebrated and individual piano virtuosos of the postwar decades in Europe, especially noted for his powers of improvisation and as a Liszt pianist. He was born in a shantytown called Angels Court on the outskirts of Budapest to a family of gypsy musicians. The family was desperately poor, and ultimately both his father and a sister died of starvation. He learned piano by watching an older sister's lessons. By the age of five, he was improvising requests from the audience at a circus. At ten, he was sent to the conservatory in Budapest.

Ian Bostridge Avec sa belle prestance et sa suprême élégance, il a tout d’un Lord anglais. Ténor atypique pas sa voix et par son parcours, Ian Bostridge est un brillant intellectuel formé aux prestigieux collèges d’Oxford et de Cambridge. Cet érudit a publié plusieurs ouvrages, dont sa thèse de doctorat en philosophie consacrée à l’importance de la sorcellerie dans la vie publique anglaise entre 1650 et 1750. Son livre consacré à la Winterreise de Schubert a été édité en une douzaine de langues et devrait bientôt paraître en français sous le titre : «Le Voyage d’hiver de Schubert : Anatomie d’une obsession ».

For her second solo recital album for Rubicon, Esther Birringer turns to Debussy with a recital that includes both books of his Images.  Composed in 1901-5 (book 1) and 1907 (book 2), the composer was very pleased with Images, writing about the first set: “Without false pride, I feel that these three pieces hold together well, and that they will find their place in the literature of the piano… to the left of Schumann, or to the right of Chopin.”Esther Birringer began playing piano aged three and made her debut as soloist with an orchestra aged just six. A meteoric career has followed both in Europe and around the world, where Esther both performs and teaches, as well as promoting young talent.

September 2022 (exact date unknown) marks the 350th birthday of composer Antoine Forqueray, a master of the viol whose works raised to fame thanks to the transcriptions his son Jean-Baptiste realized for the harpsichord. Or perhaps, as Ton Koopman seems to suggest, the real arranger was in fact his daughter-in-law, Marie-Rose, and Jean-Baptiste was only a figurehead. The debate is still debated among musicologists.

Ron Goodwin is famous for several iconic film scores such as the rousing 633 Squadron. He was an instantly recognisable musical voice, combining an innate ability to write both memorable tunes and to evoke the many moods demanded by film directors, qualities that extend into the gloriously evocative Drake 400 and New Zealand Suites. Goodwin’s long and distinguished career earned him multiple Ivor Novello Awards and a Golden Globe Award among many other accolades. Conducted by the composer, this recording represents the best of a true leader in the field of popular music.

Giuliano Carmignola Révélé en 1992, par un nouvel enregistrement des Quatre Saisons de Vivaldi à une époque où ils devenaient pourtant pléthoriques, Giuliano Carmignola s’est vite imposé comme un des plus grands violonistes italiens de sa génération. Réalisé dans une chapelle romane en Vénétie, pour un petit label indépendant (DIVOX), c'est le premier enregistrement du bluffant violoniste italien, avec l'ensemble des Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca.

A live recording of the complete set of Concerti Grossi in the Handelian style by the foremost Dutch composer of the late Baroque. Following on from the great examples of and Handel's works, Hellendaal develops his own proper approach to the Concertos for string orchestra. This is the fourth recording by Dutch leading Baroque group La Sfera Armoniosa and its leader Mike Fentross for Challenge Classics.

For this new recording, taking the form of an initiatory journey, Marianne Piketty and Le Concert Idéal explore the subject of night-time and the fascination it holds for composers. From the capricious and exuberant nights of Antonio Vivaldi to the melancholy of Lili Boulanger’s D’un soir triste and the greater optimism of its partner piece, D’un matin de printemps, via the poetic and sensuous dreams of Eugène Ysaÿe, the musicians of Le Concert Idéal travel to different places and different periods in time, looking at the night sky, and reaching the present day with the concerto Bajo la estrella, commissioned from the composer Alex Nante and recorded here for the first time.

This is the first commercially available recording of Tippett's first opera in over 50 years, recorded in a landmark performance conducted by Tippett enthusiast Edward Gardner. Performed at the Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall and broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, this performance was a thrilling start to Edward Gardner's tenure as Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

For this new recording, taking the form of an initiatory journey, Marianne Piketty and Le Concert Idéal explore the subject of night-time and the fascination it holds for composers. From the capricious and exuberant nights of Antonio Vivaldi to the melancholy of Lili Boulanger’s D’un soir triste and the greater optimism of its partner piece, D’un matin de printemps, via the poetic and sensuous dreams of Eugène Ysaÿe, the musicians of Le Concert Idéal travel to different places and different periods in time, looking at the night sky, and reaching the present day with the concerto Bajo la estrella, commissioned from the composer Alex Nante and recorded here for the first time.

Jorge Grundman is one of Spain's best-known composers. The musical career of the 1961-born Madrilenian, which initially led him into pop bands, is also reflected in his sensuous, light-flooded musical language, which is deliberately written for listeners of our time and reminds many of film music without images. This also applies to his works for flute, which appear here as world premiere recordings. These include the Concerto for Flute and Chamber Orchestra op. 31 "On The Back of a Nightingale", the two Sonatas for Flute and Piano: "Warhol in Springtime" and "Lagerfeld in Winter", the Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano "De la Hermosura y Dignidad de Nuestras Almas", op. 43 as well as the Duo for Flute and Piano "Tan bonita como tú", op. 82.

Peter Breiner is one of the world’s most recorded musicians with over 200 releases and more than two million albums sold, of which his "Beatles Go Baroque" alone reached sales of a quarter of a million copies. In addition to being a multifaceted composer, arranger and conductor, Breiner is also a pianist, and the third volume of his "Calm Romantic Piano Music" series melds melodic substance with delicate musical expressiveness. The original and descriptive miniatures heard on this album present music of touching tranquillity and beauty