SOMM Recordings' fruitful collaboration with Leon Bosch, renowned double bass player and director of I Musicanti, has recently produced a group of world premiere recordings, which consist of four delightful and interestingly disparate British Piano Quintets. The two quintets by Percy Godfrey (1899-1945) and Richard Walthew (1872-1951) fall within a post-Romantic idiom reminiscent of Rachmaninoff's music, while those of John McCabe�(1939-2015) and Ivor Hodgson (b.1959) share terrific rhythmic vitality and modern harmonies whilst remaining entirely accessible. Although the music of Percy Godfrey is little known these days, he received two notable awards around the turn of the last century. In 1902, he won a competition for a Coronation March for King Edward VII and, in 1899, he was awarded the prize for a newly-announced chamber music competition. That winning piece was his Piano Quintet in E flat major heard on this release. The quintet by Richard Walthew is titled Phantasy Quintet. Walthew was an important figure in English�chamber music�during the first half of the 20th century, having a natural affinity for the genre. His single movement Phantasy Quintet is his most successful chamber work, and it recreates the spirit of the Elizabethan consort through a varied statement-counterstatement-restatement format. John McCabe produced works in virtually every genre, including music for television. His theme tune for the 1973 family drama series, Sam, became a huge hit and was the inspiration for his 1989 chamber work, Sam Variations. As McCabe noted, "The theme itself is never heard direct - the nearest we get to it is in the rather enigmatic coda... But all of the material is taken from the theme and transformed in a variation-like way... " Among the varied works by the prolific composer and double bass player, Ivor Hodgson, is a set of nine concerti-including one he wrote for the pianist, Peter Donohoe, who is featured on this release. Hodgson's first Piano Quintet, featured here, was inspired by four Derbyshire inns, as indicated by the names of the four movements: The Quiet Woman, Earl Sterndale, Buxton; The Waltzing Weasel, Hayfield; Moonlight over Mount Famine, The Lamb Inn, Chinley Head; and The Oddfellows, Whitehough, Chinley. The mixed instrument chamber ensemble I Musicanti-hand-picked by the group's artistic director, international double bass virtuoso Leon Bosch-comprises some of the most experienced and respected musicians in the UK. Their previous collaborations with SOMM include Giovanni Bottesini: String Quintets, SOMMCD 0645 ("vivacious, colourful, flowing and finely nuanced accounts" -BBC Music Magazine) and Nimrod Borenstein: Piano Concerto, Shirim, Light and Darkness, SOMMCD 281 ("dramatic and energetic accents from the orchestra" -Pizzicato.) This recording features pianist, Peter Donohoe; violinist, Zsolt-Tihamer Visontay; violist, Robert�Smissen; cellist, Ursula Smith; and double bassist, Leon Bosch.

UN is the result of many hours of practice, concerts and a lot of work done, but above all it is the result of five people who, although time has passed and making five very different lives coincide with each other has become difficult, can't wait to meet up to play together, giving life to a project that connects the contemporary Italian repertoire to the American Jazz and Blues ones. Luciano Berio, through the blasts of Call, captures the attention and prepares the listener for the inexorability of the four movements of For Brass by Giuseppe Garbarino; an electric History of Mok by Alessio Manega involves and charges the audience with energy which Corrado Saglietti, with his Blues and Encore from the Any Time Brass Quintet collection, welcomes and transforms into dance, transporting the listener overseas. Who better than Duke Ellington and George Gershwin to squeeze the juice of so much passion? Summertime is just one of the themes that greet listeners with the same warmth felt by the musicians when recording them. Erika is still trying to understand if she is reading an 8 or a B on the score; Michele consolidates his career as Major with the patience that distinguishes him; Marina, extricating herself from the numerous instruments that she inexplicably plays at a level beyond human comprehension, is determined to divide Nicol� and Federico, engaged in their usual umpteenth and eternal squabble: immersed in their very well known calm and relaxed mood, the five members of the Canaja Brass Quintet have never been so proud to wish you happy listening.

A new name appears in our collection of rarities: Richard Ro�ler, born in 1880 in Riga, the Latvian capital, trained at the Berlin Music Academy and later highly esteemed there as a professor of piano from 1918 to 1953, was one of those late-Romantic composers deeply influenced by Johannes Brahms. Unlike his Hungarian contemporary Bela Bartok, Ro�ler remained steadfastly loyal to the worldview of his great role model. When he realized, around 40, that aesthetic developments were passing him by, he limited his output to a few occasional pieces. This is all the more regrettable, as the two newly recorded works here reveal a significant and profound talent capable of creating distinctive characters using traditional musical means.

For the Fourth Volume of their Schumann Collection, Pierre and Theo Fouchenneret, along with their fellow musicians in Quatuor Strada, take us through the year 1842. It was a prolific period for the composer being the year of the three String Quartets, Opus 41, and the Quintet for Piano and Strings, Opus 44.

Cos� fan tutte, a comic opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, is noted for it's sophisticated ensemble writing and Mozart's nuanced portrayal of the characters' emotional journeys. The opera's overture, and arias such as "Come scoglio" and "Un'aura amorosa", showcase the composer's melodic genius and ability to convey complex psychological states through music, making it one of Mozart's most performed and beloved operas, celebrated for it's wit, intricate musical textures and insightful commentary on the human condition. This great opera is here arranged for wind quintet by Ulf-Guido Schafer, a multiple Echo-Klassik award-winning clarinettist who has held principal posts with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie (1989-94) and the NDR Radiophilharmonie (1994-present) and boasts a distinguished career as a soloist and chamber musician (in ensemble acht, the Trio Roseau, the NDR's Arte-Ensemble, and the Ma'alot Quintett). Schafer has also made a name for himself as an arranger and composer. He was twice awarded the Echo-Klassik for CDs with the Ma'alot Quintett featuring his arrangements of Dvorak (2006) and Rossini (2010), respectively. Other information: - Recorded May 2024 in Trivolzio (Italy) - Booklet in English contains liner notes by Lorenzo Fazzini and a profile of the ensemble - Mozart's operas enjoyed such success and popularity in their time, that tunes from them were whistled in the street and arrangements of them were widely spread. - One of the most popular forms of arrangement was for Wind Ensemble, and already during Mozart's life these were often performed on all kind of occasions. - This new recording presents an arrangement for wind ensemble by Ulf-Guido Schafer, a highly successful clarinetist, composer and arranger, winner of several ECHO Klassik Awards. - Founded in 2019, the Spiritum Wind Quintet consists of Lorenzo Fazzini, Luca Etzi, Riccardo Nanni, Vincenzo Riccio, and Giacomo Alfano. All of them have won prizes in (inter)national competitions, and each enjoys a successful individual solo career.

Praised by BBC Music magazine for his 'lucid, velvety tenor and pop-star charisma', the Lebanese-American Karim Sulayman has garnered international attention as a sophisticated and versatile artist. He joins the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective for this album of works by Reynaldo Hahn. The founder members Tom Poster and Elena Urioste write: 'Kaleidoscope has championed many unjustly neglected composers, but in the case of Reynaldo Hahn the neglect seems particularly puzzling to us. His music is immediately approachable, soaringly beautiful, and speaks directly to the heart; audiences, on the rare occasions that they get to hear it, seem to adore it. His life story is fascinating, too: born in Caracas, to a Jewish-German father and a Catholic-Venezuelan mother of Spanish / Basque origin, the handsome and urbane Hahn charmed high-society Paris, enjoying great success as composer, conductor, singer, writer-lecturer, and music critic. The Piano Quintet had been on our programming wish list for some time: it was lauded as Hahn's greatest work at it's 1922 premiere, and the powerful intensity of it's first two movements in particular acts as a firm rejoinder to those who criticised Hahn as a lightweight salon composer. By the time he finished his Piano Quartet, in 1946, Hahn was a man out of place in the world; this is music which bears no trace of modernism, instead looking back nostalgically to Hahn's heyday in la belle epoque. A number of years ago, our dear friend Karim Sulayman joined Tom in several performances of a set of Hahn songs, and a shared love for the music led to a discussion about how beautifully some of the piano parts could work in chamber arrangements. Karim had first discovered Hahn through the touching recordings on which the composer simultaneously sings and plays his own songs; and we, in turn, have always been deeply touched by the direct channel which Karim seems to have to Hahn's heartfelt expressive world. For all of us, it has been a profound joy to put these new song arrangements down on disc for the first time.'

Franz Schubert's famous String Quintet, one of the major works of classical chamber music, in a stunning version for five Saxophones.

As for this new album, neither Glinka nor Dvorak are strangers to Haiou Zhang, since he is considered to be one of the most passionate pianists of his generation as far as piano chamber music is concerned. The Dvorak Piano Quintet and Glinka�s Gran Sestetto have always been at the heart of his chamber music repertoire. Haiou Zhang has performed these masterpieces in numerous concerts with ensembles. "It took me quite some time to feel really ready for a recording. Both pieces are delicate and need careful attention to obtain the perfect balance of sound and harmony".

This recording contains two compostions by Welsh composer Matthew Owain Jones, String Quartet No. 1, 'Deletia' and Wind Quintet along with his arrangement of nine movements from Carl Nielsen's ballet Aladdin, Op. 63 for chamber ensemble. All three works on this album are premiere recordings and performed by Denmark's leading chamber ensemble Ensemble MidtVest. Jones is widely regarded as a unique, visionary musician and educator. Alongside composition, Jones is one of the leading violists and violinists of his time, recording 25 solo and chamber albums to date, premiering numerous concertos and commissioning dozens of works.

Eugene Zador's delightful concerto for the accordion - which he called an 'underprivileged' instrument - is tonal, but coloured by a communicative, contemporary vocabulary, and he finds glorious sonority and colour in the Suite for Brass Instruments. The evocative smaller pieces have been arranged by Mariusz Smolij, as has the characterful and wide-ranging Piano Quintet of 1933, all heard here in world premiere recordings.

Luigi Boccherini himself was an outstanding cellist and devoted a great deal of space to his instrument in his oeuvre. He was particularly fond of the string quintet in the special instrumentation of two cellos or cello and double bass, of which he can be considered the "inventor" - he wrote over 100 works in this genre. It's origins are closely linked to the court in Spain, where he found a complete string quartet of professional musicians in the Fontin Boadilla del Monte family, whom he joined with his concertante cello. Cellist Josetxu Obregon and his ensemble La Ritirata have selected four of Boccherini's string quintets for the new CD "Fandango". The quintet's name was inspired by Quintet No. 77, which in the second movement strikes up the rhythm of the popular Spanish dance and requires the cellist to pick up the castanets. But Boccherini also translates his Spanish impressions into music in many other places: in Quintet No. 60, the nightlife in the streets of Madrid is depicted with many sound impressions such as church bells, marching soldiers, beggars playing music and street singers, and Quintet No. 12 takes us to the royal birdhouse with birdsong and twittering.

Hardly any Russian composers in the 19th century who helped develop the national Romantic musical language were able to make a living from their artistic activities. They were civil servants, officers, professors of chemistry or even master builders such as Victor Ewald (1860-1935), to whom composition was purely a hobby. He hardly wrote a dozen works during the course of his life. Among these are four quintets for brass instruments, which were among the most original publications of their time. It is unmistakably Russian in every melodic nook and cranny. Three of them can be heard on this recording by the highly virtuosic Italian Gomalan Brass Quintet, who also interpret the 1970 quintet by Alexander Tcherepnin (1899-1977) - an effervescent and clever homage to an unforgotten homeland.

Sergey Taneyev's supreme mastery of European classical technique placed him outside the more nationalist trends of the day. The Violin Sonata in A minor is neo-Classical in its reserved and often song-like moods and expressions, and contrasts dramatically with the grand scale of the Piano Quintet in G minor.

REVIEW:

In the Violin Sonata, the players add some piquant touches to the occasionally dissonant harmonies and bring a degree of charm to the composer’s rustic-sounding rhythms and melodies. The Piano Quintet receives a fantastic performance, really capturing the gripping tension and turmoil the music whips up.

— Fanfare

Wolf-Ferrari was a composer of great artistic merit, Italian by nationality but raised in Germany, unfairly forgotten and deserving of rediscovery. His works meld compositional and spiritual elements with a preference for melodic purity and smooth harmonies, a passion for clear and linear forms inspired by Classical-era Vienna, and a meticulous approach. His aversion to complexity and his love of clarity and simplicity - as far removed from the operatic verismo movement as from the experiments of the avant-garde - meant he was, in a certain sense, an isolated figure, yet he knew that, despite the nostalgia in his writing, he had his own vibrant and original voice. His writing for strings displays expert compositional technique and a thorough technical knowledge of the instruments. The youthful String Trio in B minor and the related String Trio in C minor are edited by Luca Incerti based on the manuscript held at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich (Mus. Ms. 21366). The first trio is divided into three movements: Allegro, Larghetto and Scherzo (Allegro vivace). The second trio reuses the opening Allegro (raised to C minor) and Larghetto, adding a different ending in two new movements: Scherzo: Allegro molto and Adagio molto. The String Trio in A minor (Op.32) is divided into three movements - Allegro moderato, Pastorale (Andante tranquillo) and Allegro - and was written in 1945, during the composer's mature period. The String Quartet in A minor was composed in 1894 and has also been edited by Luca Incerti, based on another manuscript held in Munich (Mus. Ms. 23144-2). It comprises four movements: Allegro moderato, Adagio non troppo, Allegro vivacissimo and Allegro assai. The String Quartet in E minor is likewise split into four movements - Allegro, Andante cantabile, Capriccio (Allegro pesante) and Allegro - but it's date of composition is unknown. However, by contrast it certainly stems from Wolf-Ferrari's later years, when all the composer's unique artistic traits came to the fore. As this quartet makes clear, in the context of the early 20th-century avant-garde, Wolf-Ferrari provided an alluring return to Classicism, but it was his own personal interpretation of the style, rather than an attempt to restore it. His neoclassicism appears more modern today than it would have done to his contemporaries. The String Quintet (2 violas) in C is recorded from another Luca Incerti edition, based on individual parts published by Thomi-Berg. It was written in 1942 and therefore belongs to the composer's mature period. It has four movements: Allegro assai quasi presto, Larghetto, Prestissimo, and Molto mosso alla breve.

First time collaboration between the Zemlinsky Quartet and Paolo Giacometti. A must for anyone interested in the great tradition of Mitteleuropa chamber music. A unique coupling of two beautiful works rarely recorded and underrated by discography. The two Quintets were composed within a ten year span (1904-1914), a period of fantastic musical flourishing. Zemlinsky Quartet belongs to the glorious�tradition of Centre-European string quartets, characterized by nobility and spontaneity�of expression, flawless technique, lack of mannersisms, profound�and humble insight of the score.