Kiev Chamber Choir & Mykola Hobdytsch      Valentin Silvestrov: Sacred Works
4763316                    CD                                 ECM NEW SERIES                     £!2.30

This album of sacred a cappella works from recent years - haunting beauty, characterised in turns by calm introspectionserene lightness - offers a fascinating addition to the wide works by Valentin Silvestrov on ECM New Series. The imprint, named ‘Label of the Year’ in the 2009 Gramophone Awards, championed the Ukrainian master (born 1937) since 2001,Works represents a new development by the composer. Silvestrov’s compositions for chamber choir have a uniquely transparent sound with otherwordly shifting harmonies and free timing.

Rolf Lislevand Ensemble                                                                  Diminuito
4763317             CD                                     ECM NEW SERIES                      £12.30

Following his highly successful ECM debut with Nuove Musiche in 2006, the new CD by Norwegian lutenist Rolf Lislevand and his group of international early music virtuosi is an album of melodic beauty and rhythmic energy that transcends the genres and is likely to appeal to listeners from different Lislevand is one of the most charismatic figures in today's early music scene and an outstanding lute virtuoso.

András Schiff     Bach: Six Partitas, BWV 825-830        4766991       CD2     ECM NEW SERIES     18.90
Following last year’s completion of his highly-praised Beethoven cycle, András Schiff returns to Bach with a superb interpretation of the six Partitas, recorded live in September 2007 at Neumarkt Reitstadl, one of the best piano music venues in Europe. 
TWO CD SET    “András Schiff is probably the most ingenious and resourceful performer of Bach on the modern piano around today” said the San Francisco Chronicle. Schiff’s playing on stage combines spontaneity and intellectual depth, ravishing sound with flawless technical finish, and his new live recording of Bach’s Partitas has very considerable sales potential after his hugely successful Goldberg Variations released in 2003.

Thomas Zehetmair       Paganini: 24 Capricci for solo violin       4763318        CD     ECM NEW SERIES      £!2.30
One of today’s most versatile violinists presents a new account of Paganini’s Caprices – an unsurpassed compendium of technical difficulties – played as “improvised character pieces”.  Zehetmair reveals extraordinary technical perfection coupled with uniquely imaginative insight and a sense of musical drama.

Kim Kashkashian - Neharót  Betty Olivero, Tigran Mansurian, Eitan Steinberg
4763281         CD     ECM NEW SERIES      £13.00
An album like an intense journey, tied together by Kim Kashkashian’s outstanding musical personality, this is a perfect addition to her wide-ranging ECM discography, highlighting the most touching vocal qualities of the viola in intriguing works by Olivero, Steinberg and Mansurian.

Carolin Widmann & Simon Lepper          Feldman, Zimmermann, Schoenberg, Xenakis
4763310 CD      ECM NEW SERIES  £13.00  
The young German violinist, Carolin Widmann, resident in Britain, follows up her romantic Schumann debut on ECM – nominated for a Gramophone Award this month  – with ‘Phantasy of Spring’, a very different recording of four uncompromising 20th century pieces – performances of which she has a deserved international reputation.

Christian Gerharer & Rosamunde Quartet    Othmar Schoek: Notturno
4766995  CD       ECM NEW SERIES  £13.00 
The outstanding German baritone Christian Gerhaher, winner of a BBC Music Magazine Award earlier this year and rapidly becoming one of the most sought-after interpreters of Lieder today, makes his ECM debut with the Rosamunde Quartet in the very personal, romantic Notturno by Othmar Schoeck (1886–1957).  

4763260                     György Kurtág jr., László Hortobágyi  & Miklós Lengyelf                
                                     Kurtágonals                                                                                       CD £12.30      
The son of one of today’s greatest composers György Kurtág, also named György, has long been developing his own electronic music – and his themes are incorporated into the synthesized arrangements of fellow Hungarian composer László Hortobágy. This trio is an intriguing addition to ECM’s growing catalogue of electronica for discerning listeners.

Heinz Holliger, C. Richter, D. Várjon,  Romancendres                      4763225     CD             £12.30
SWR Choir & Orch.  (Heinz Holliger & Clara Schumann)    
Two important pieces by Swiss composer Heinz Holliger, who celebrates his 70th birthday on 21 May, both inspired by Robert Schumann, are combined with a chamber work by Clara Schumann. Personnel: Christoph Richter (violoncello), Dénes Várjon (piano), SWR Vokalensemble, Sinfonieorchester des SWR, Heinz Holliger (conductor)

Carmina Quartet, Ensemble Aequator, Aria Quartet
             Alfred Zimmerlin: String Quartets 1 & 2 & 4763261                 CD                   £12.30
This ECM debut album introduces Swiss maverick-composer Alfred Zimmerlin to the international public with excellent performances from three leading Swiss chamber groups. Personnel: Ensemble Aequator, Aria Quartet, Carmina Quartet.

ELENI KARAINDROU                        Dust of Time (film score)      4766766  CD             £12.30
“Greece’s most eloquent living composer” (Time), Eleni Karaindrou has written the best-selling music for many films by legendary director Theo Angelopoulos, playing a crucial role in shaping their emotional climate. None more so than for his new movie Dust of Time, starring Willem Dafoe, Irène Jacob and Bruno Ganz, where Karaindrou’s music has a special, gentle and intimate character. This CD is released simultaneously with the live DVD Elegy of the Uprooting (177 2713), a concert of her greatest hits for stage and screen.

AMBROSE FIELD / JOHN POTTER                Being Dufay         4766948               CD      £12.30
A most unusual, imaginative and attractive juxtaposition of Renaissance composition and current-day technology is presented by tenor John Potter and prize-winning electronic composer Ambrose Field: in seven interconnected pieces, vocal fragments from the songs and sacred works of Guillaume Dufay (1397-1474) soar beautifully above Field’s vast and multi-faceted soundscapes. .     

TILL FELLNER    Bach: Inventions/Sinfonias/French Suite V    4766355    CD      £12.30
Eagerly awaited new Bach recording by Austrian pianist and Alfred Brendel protégé  Till Fellner whose Well-Tempered Clavier I (released by ECM in 2004) won him many fans worldwide. The album follows an almost 20-year-period of study and performance of these accessible and popular pieces and it shows Bach on the modern piano at its best: warm and glowing but transparent playing of highest sophistication.

ARVO PÄRT                    In Principio                           4766990                       CD           £13.85
This eagerly-awaited recording is released to coincide with the 25-year jubilee of ECM’s New Series that was launched with Arvo Pärt’s Tabula Rasa - the disc which put the composer on the map internationally - in 1984. Six touching compositions for choir and orchestra, or orchestra alone,  in turns powerful, tender, elemental, hypnotic, and lively, are given exemplary performances by some of Pärt’s most committed musical partners, and all are either world premiere recordings or first recordings of new versions.

D. RUSSELL DAVIES/Dresdner Philharmonie
                 A. Schnittke: Symphony No 9 (premiere)            4766994        CD               £13.85
Alfred Schnittke’s posthumous last work, the large-scale, expressive Symphony No 9 – a triumph of creative powers over physical debilitation – was reconstructed and completed at his widow’s behest by fellow Russian composer Alexander Raskatov who also added his own memorial: Nunc dimittis for mezzo-soprano, vocal quartet and orchestra. Both pieces were premiered in Dresden in 2007 by the exceptional musicians on this world première recording.

JOHN HOLLOWAY /J ter Linden / L U Mortensen     Jean-Marie Leclair: Sonatas     CD 4766280                         £13.00
Foremost English baroque violinist John Holloway joins forces with his excellent partners Dutch cellist Jaap ter Linden and Danish harpsichordist Lars Ulrik Mortensen for an album of strikingly beautiful, yet little known chamber music from the baroque era: a selection from the Troisième Livre de Sonates, op 5 by Jean-Marie Leclair who laid the foundations for the French violin school and was murdered in Paris in 1764.

THOMAS ZEHETMAIR / THOMAS DEMENGA /        
Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Canto di Speranza     CD 4766885      £13.00
WDR Symphony Orchestra / HEINZ HOLLIGER    
Three key figures from ECM’s contemporary music roster – Heinz Holliger, Thomas Zehetmair, and Thomas Demenga – team up for an exceptional recording of three major works by  leading German post-war composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann. Under Holliger’s baton, his highly expressive music is superbly played by Zehetmair in the Violin Concerto and Demenga in the cello concerto, Canto di Speranza, while Andreas Schmidt sings the bass solo in Zimmermann’s bizarre oratorio Ich wandte mich und sah an alles Unrecht, das geschah unter der Sonne, completed a few days before his suicide in 1970.

ANDRÁS SCHIFF                Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Vol 8 (opp. 199,110,111)               
CD 4766192                     £13.00
András Schiff’s outstanding Beethoven Piano Sonata cycle concludes this autumn with Volumes 7 & 8. This final CD consists of the last three of the so-called “late” sonatas written between 1814 and 1822 - Schiff’s live performances of these have been acclaimed by the press, especially for his structural awareness and revealing insights - and it includes a fascinating note by the pianist about his personal approach to and experiences with Beethoven.

ANDRÁS SCHIFF             
Beethoven: The Piano Sonatas VoIume VII -                                CD     4766189              £13.00                 
opp. 90, 101, 106 ‘Hammerklavier’   
András Schiff’s remarkable live Beethoven Piano Sonata cycle, recorded at the Zurich Tonhalle, concludes this autumn with the final two volumes. The penultimate disc includes the first three of the so-called “late” sonatas written between 1814 and 1822, the highlight of which is the long “Hammerklavier” Sonata. Schiff’s live performances of the work were acclaimed by the press, especially his structural awareness, individual approach and outstanding sonic control.

STATE HERMITAGE ORCHESTRA / LEGE ARTIS CHOIR / IVAN MONIGHETTI
Alexander Knaifel: Blazhenstva (The Beatitudes  & Lamento)        CD             4766767             £13.00
Alexander Knaifel’s “exquisitely refined” and “beautiful” music is featured on a third ECM recording, again pairing world premieres. Two strikingly different compositions are inspirationally linked through the late Mstislav Rostropovich: Lamento is an expressive piece for solo cello while the radiant choral work Blazhenstva (The Beatitudes) was written as a birthday present for the cellist in 1996.

CAROLIN WIDMANN / DÉNES VÁRJON    
Schumann: The Sonatas for Violin and Piano          CD 4766744                  £13.00
Extraordinary young duo of German violinist Carolin Widmann and Hungarian pianist Dénes Várjon makes its ECM debut with bravura performances of Schumann’s three late violin sonatas, music full of passion, humour and exuberance. These emotionally gripping interpretations reveal the psychological drama behind Schumann’s scores and feature what should become a benchmark reading of the rarely-recorded third sonata.

MONIKA MAUCH/ NIGEL NORTH                        
Musical Banquet                        CD 4766397                                              £13.00
Robert Dowland, son of famous English composer John Dowland, published the collection of lute songs, A Musicall Banquet in London in 1610. Here two exceptional interpreters, German soprano Monika Mauch and British lutenist Nigel North perform its songs, and also virtuoso lute solos.
 

NETHERLANDS CH CHOIR / RASCHÈR  SAXOPHONE QUARTET /         
RUSTAVI CHOIR etc      Giya Kancheli:  Little Imber                  CD           4766394                       £13.00
ECM’s tenth release of the music of the great Georgian composer Giya Kancheli couples two recent choral works, one inspired by the lost village of Imber on Salisbury Plain, evacuated in 1943 for military manoeuvres and closed to the public ever since. The moving Little Imber was written for performance in its ancient church on the one day each year the former villagers are allowed to return, an Artangel project filmed for a captivating BBC documentary.

ARIANNA SAVALL/NYYD ENSEMBLE/ELTS              
Helena Tulve: Lijnen                       CD    4766389                    £13.00
The first ECM disc from the only composition pupil to date of Erkki-Sven Tüür, gifted young Estonian Helena Tulve, whose work speaks in its own unique language through a variety of chamber music settings and with a fluid approach to form, sound and sonority. It includes four premiere recordings amongst her six played by the celebrated NYYD Ensemble under outstanding conductor Olari Elts, the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet and the Silesian String Quartet.

HILLIARD ENSEMBLE   English Renaissance Music: Tallis/Tye/Sheppard   CD  4766353         £13.00
After the enormous success last year of their recording of Bach Motets, Britain’s pre-eminent vocal group, The Hilliard Ensemble return with English Renaissance Music.

JULIANE BANSE/ MURIEL CANTOREGGI / GERMAN RADIO PHIL ORCH/ C POPPEN
Frank Martin: Maria-Triptychon for soprano, violin & orchestra / Polyptique / Passacaille    CD 1733930            £13.00       
Swiss composer Frank Martin’s exceptional symphonic works are finally given the recordings they deserve on this debut ECM album by the new German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra under Christoph Poppen. Violinist Muriel Cantoreggi soars over two string orchestras on the radiant Polyptique and answers the beautiful soprano of Juliane Banse on the moving Maria-Tripytchon.  

GARTH KNOX/ AGNÈS VESTERMANN             D'Amore (music for viola d'amore & cello)         CD 4766369             £13.00
Former viola player of the famous Arditti Quartet, Irish-Scot Garth Knox makes his solo debut on ECM – on the wonderfully resonant baroque instrument, the viola d’amore. A huge emotional and atmospheric spectrum is shown in entertaining repertoire from Tobias Hume (early 17th century) and Marin Marais to commissioned contemporary compositions, plus Celtic folk music and a gripping piece by Knox himself, based on Ockeghem’s Malor me bat. 

VALENTIN SILVESTROV / ALEXEI LUBIMOV /  MUNICH CHAMBER ORCH    / C POPPEN
Silvestrov: Bagatellen und Serenaden                          CD 4766178                              £13.00
Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov in style with an album of almost otherworldly beauty featuring shimmering, ravishing playing from Russian pianist Alexei Lubimov and the strings of the Munich Chamber Orchestra. 

GIDON KREMER /  KREMERATA BALTICA      
Mahler: Adagio / Shostakovich: Symphony 14        CD      4766177         £13.00
Gidon Kremer’s emotionally-engaged performing style is transferred to an orchestral scale as he leads and directs his award-winning Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra – playing with unrivalled energy and refinement – in a pair of central works of 20th century symphonic repertoire: Mahler’s swansong, the Adagio from the unfinished Symphony No 10 in a new arrangement for strings, and Shostakovich’s dramatic, moving Symphony No 14.

HEINRICH SCHIFF/ NRCO/ PETER EÖTVÖS
Cerha: Cello Concerto/Schreker: C Symphony              CD             4763098         £13.00
Master cellist Heinrich Schiff gives the premiere of the Cello Concerto – an intense, brilliantly scored work coloured variously by soprano sax, bongos, congas, and organ as well as banks of strings – written for him by Friedrich Cerha, at 81 widely considered Austria’s greatest living composer. It is paired with Franz Schreker’s Chamber Symphony, and both are superbly interpreted by conductor Peter Eötvös and the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra.

PAUL GIGER / MARIE-LOUISE DÄHLER Towards Silence
(J S Bach & improvisation)                  CD            4766180      £13.00
For his sixth ECM album, violinist Paul Giger – equally at home as a composer or improviser – includes classical compositions for the first time: music by J S Bach is interspersed between the free playing and original pieces by Giger and fellow Swiss, harpsichordist Marie-Louise Dähler. This modern listening adventure, meditative, playful and thought-provoking, should appeal to fans of Baroque music and jazz listeners alike.

PABLO MÁRQUEZ (guitar)                     
Luys de Narváez:  Música del Delphin                CD                   4765878                        £13.00
For his ECM debut Argentinean guitarist Pablo Márquez has chosen 17 pieces from the 40 contained in the diverse collection that Luys de Narváez published in Valladolid in 1538, Los seys libros del Delphin de musica de cifra para tañer vihuela. They include the Spanish composer’s best-known work, an adaptation of the beautiful song by Josquin, Mille Regretz.

ANDRÁS SCHIFF          Beethoven: The Piano Sonatas    Vol 4       CD         4765875                         £13.00
The fourth release (including the popular ‘Moonlight’ Sonata) in András Schiff’s Beethoven sonata cycle of live recordings from Zürich Tonhalle follows consistent critical praise for the first three volumes: “This will be one of the great Beethoven sonata sets” (Fanfare); “An outstanding cycle” (The Observer). His immediate performances in the UK are of Bartók at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall from 5-10 June.

HERBERT HENCK          
Trepulka:  Piano Pieces  / von Hannenheim: Sonatas        CD       4765276                             £13.00
German pianist Herbert Henck, nonpareil interpreter of modern music, has discovered the absorbing work of Johann Ludwig Trepulka and Norbert von Hannenheim, two virtually unknown composers who adopted different manifestations of the twelve-note system in the 1920s, and presents all their surviving piano works on this intriguing disc.

VALENTIN SILVESTROV Symphony No 6
                 SWR Stuttgart Radio S O / Andrey Borekyo                    CD            4765715                     £13.00
The sixth release in ECM’s ongoing recordings of the Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov, 70 this year and one of the most individual voices from the former Soviet Union, is a defining work: a massive “late Romantic” symphony with a ravishingly beautiful Mahlerian slow movement that concludes the series of great orchestral works he wrote in the 1980s and ‘90s.

ERKKI-SVEN TÜÜR Oxymoron
                        Estonian National Symhony Orch./ Olari Elts etc        CD          4765778                     £13.00
ECM presents a fourth disc devoted exclusively to leading Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür, whose output is characterized by a rare sense of architecture and musical dramaturgy. It features four diverse works for different vocal and instrumental line-ups, from a marimba concerto to the title piece Oxymoron, inspired by the Alps.

ZEHETMAIR QUARTET     
Bartok - Quartet No.5 & Hindemith - Quartet No.4      CD 4765779         £13.55
To follow their hugely impressive Schumann Gramophone ‘Record of the Year’ Award of 2003, the charismatic Zehetmair Quartet couple Bartók’s masterly Quartet No 5 and Hindemith’s neo-classical Quartet No 4: landmarks of 20th century chamber music in inter-pretations of analytical clarity, emotional intensity and flair, promoted via four UK concerts.

THE HILLIARD ENSEMBLE
J S Bach - Motets, BWV 250-230                             CD 4765776           £13.55
The Hilliard Ensemble, one of the great vocal groups of the age, present their a-cappella readings of J S Bach‘s wonderful set of six motets, fascinating us once again with their seamless blend of sound and unique intonation. Especially for this recording, the Hilliards (whose previous Bach disc, Morimur, is still a best-seller) are enhanced by four additional voices to form a soloist double choir.

VLADIMIR GODÁR: Mater IBittová/Valent/Choir/Solamente Naturali CD 4765689 £13.55

Unanimous critical praise - including a double 5-star BBC Music Magazine review - to date for remarkable Czech singer Iva Bittová, the warm expressive soloist, in this unforgettable suite on the subject of motherhood for female voice, mixed choir and baroque string orchestra by Slovak composer, Vladimír Godár: a Yiddish folksong, a dramatic setting of the Magnificat, Slovak lullabies, a cheerful Regina Coeli and Joyce’s Ecce puer set to music of stunning beauty.

J S BACH: Sonatas & Partitas for Solo Violin     
John Holloway (baroque violin)   2CD    4763152       £21.25
A year after Gidon Kremer’s “superb account” on ECM, a very different but no less riveting reading of Bach’s inexhaustible solo masterworks is given by distinguished British baroque violinist John Holloway. With outstanding recorded sound from Austria’s St Gerold monastery, combining immediacy with spaciousness, it’s likely to establish a future benchmark.

BEETHOVEN:             The Piano Sonatas Vol 3             András Schiff         CD                4763155             £13.55
The third instalment of András Schiff’s complete Beethoven sonatas in live recordings from the Zürich Tonhalle follows consistent critical praise for the first two issues, released last October and in March: “This will be one of the great Beethoven sonata sets” (Fanfare); “An outstanding Beethoven interpreter” (Die Zeit). He gives more Beethoven recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall (29 November), St George’s, Bristol (1 December) and Symphony Hall, Birmingham (3 December).

VLADIMIR GODÁR:  Mater        
Iva Bittová/Valent/Choir/Solamente Naturali        CD          4763156      £13.55
Remarkable Czech singer Iva Bittová is the warm, tender and expressive soloist in an unforgettable hour-long suite on the subject of motherhood composed for female voice, mixed choir and Baroque string orchestra by Slovak composer, Vladimír Godár. A traditional Yiddish folksong, a dramatic setting of the Magnificat, a collection of Slovak lullabies, a cheerful Regina Coeli and James Joyce’s Ecce puer are all set to music of stunning beauty.

Frank-Peter Zimmermann / Heinrich Schiff
Honegger, Martinu, Bach, Pintscher, Ravel                     CD  4763150                                       £14.35
German violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann and Austrian cellist Heinrich Schiff have collaborated for over 20 years and have long wanted to do a pure duo recital disc. ECM has given them that chance and the resulting debut album, a major event, is a dazzling recital encompassing Bach, Ravel’s Sonata, Martinů, Honegger’s Sonatine, and a new piece by Matthias Pintscher.

THOMAS LARCHER - IXXU 
Rosamunde Quartet / Poppen / Demenga / Brown         CD 4763156                                         £14.35
Austrian composer Thomas Larcher, who is in residence at Oxford Chamber Music Festival from 27-30 September, is regarded as an increasingly important voice in contemporary European music as this disc of four world premieres demonstrates. Two string quartets, Ixxu and Cold Farmer are played by the Rosamunde Quartet with fierce intensity, and Larcher himself, on piano, is amongst the other committed musicians.    

ELENI KARAINDROU  Elegy of the Uprooting              2CD   4765278                                          £22.80
An extraordinary concert recording of the music of Eleni Karaindrou - her first live set for ECM - recorded in her hometown of Athens last year, Elegy of the Uprooting is effectively an anthology of her greatest music for stage and screen, performed by 130 musicians. It’s an epic journey in colours, sounds and rhythms, shedding light on the themes of uprooting, exodus, exile and homecoming – themes that recur in Karaindrou’s haunting work.

PART/ SILVESTROV / USTVOLSKAYA
                     Misterioso (Alexei Lubimov etc)               CD    4763108                                        £14.35
Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s reworking for clarinet and piano of his hugely popular Spiegel im Spiegel is one of two world premieres on this important disc tracing the growth of ‘post-Soviet’ music. One of the great pianists of our time, Alexei Lubimov, leads a new violin-clarinet-piano trio in sensitive performances of music by Ukrainian Valentin Silvestrov and Russian Galina Ustvolskaya.

SHOSTAKOVICH:        24 Preludes & Fugues               Keith Jarrett         
2CD                  4371892          
£18.00
The centenary of the birth of Dmitri Shostakovich is celebrated by ECM with the reissue, with new packaging, of Keith Jarrett’s remarkable account of the 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op 87 for piano. “The Shostakovich is, quite simply, one of the touchstones of the keyboard literature, and the value of Jarrett’s committed advocacy of this piece cannot be overestimated. He really has done an outstanding job: listening to him is simply a joy.”- Fanfare.  

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