I’m completely bewildered by the fact that these charming romantic miniatures for piano by Manuel Ponce are so under represented in the catalog, especially given how attractive and immediately appealing they are. With the exception of a couple of the more popular tunes, and another few...

Nostalgia – Lyrical Finnish Music for Strings is an exceptionally beautiful new release from Alba Records performed by the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra under Juha Kangas. Offering compositions by a mix of familiar names along with some that are little known, the music comes from about...

Comparisons of music by German composer Robert Kahn (1865-1951) to that of Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) are unavoidable. Brahms was a traditionalist who sought to retain techniques and structures from the Baroque and Classical periods and apply to them the new freedoms of Romanticism. A...

Naxos brings us this beautifully performed and recorded CD of two works that are highly deserving of better representation in the catalog: Eugen d’Albert’s Symphony in F major, Op. 4 and the Symphonic Prologue to the Opera ‘Tiefland’, Op. 34. Jun Märkl leads the MDR...

Musiques Suisses presents a second CD dedicated to the chamber music of Hans Huber (1852-1921). The previous one (MSS 6257) gave us the Quartet for Piano & Strings and the Quintet for Piano & Strings. This new release, also of chamber music with piano, offers the composer’s...

Finnish composer Erkki Melartin (1875-1937) was ten years the junior of Jean Sibelius, and although they were working at the same time and were very close friends, there is little evident influence by the more celebrated composer on Melartin’s music. This Delta Classics two CD set of his...

The north-German composer Felix Woyrsch (1860-1944) came from humble beginnings. His family was underprivileged and financially insecure due to the premature death of his father. As the story goes, Woyrsch’s musical talents were first discovered when he appeared at a fun fair as a...

Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919 – 1996) wrote the piano works on this album following his move to Moscow in 1943. There he established a close and mutually respectful friendship with Shostakovich, who at the time was working on piano pieces for his young daughter to play. Weinberg’s Children’s...

My first introduction to the music of Paul Juon was through a Challenge Classics set of his music for piano trio (CHL 72002). This was a good ten or more years ago and while I couldn’t hum any of the tunes, I do recall clearly that I enjoyed the music immensely. So when this new cpo disc of...

If you are drawn to works for string orchestra, and especially if you don’t mind venturing into some of the more challenging music of the 20th century, you’ll likely enjoy this cpo album of Heinrich Kaminsky’s Work for String Orchestra. The music is originally Kaminsky’s String Quintet...

The pieces for violin and orchestra or string orchestra on this Naxos CD titled “Nordic Violin Favourites” all come from a narrow band of time and place. Each work was written in the first half of the 20th century and is by a composer of Nordic descent. It’s possible to loosely...

It was not a quick and easy decision to add this recording of Röntgen (1855 – 1932) symphonies to my blog. I’ve listened to the recording many times. The problem has been that there are some sections of music that seemed to lag in terms of effectiveness. But there is so much here that is...