Mark van de Wiel has teamed up with Soloists from the Philharmonia to record Strange Loops – Clarinet Quintets by Anna Clyne, Ruth Gipps & Carl Maria von Weber. While the Weber needs little introduction, this is the premiere recording of Anna Clyne’s riotous contribution to the genre, and Mark has included the Gipps Rhapsody ‘simply because it’s so gorgeous’. Much to enjoy, and the album comes to us from Signum Classics.

Crack American low-voice ensemble Cantus’s latest album on Signum is entitled The secret letter, an exploration of those private loves which society has conventionally eschewed. Music by composers as varied as Abbie Betinis, Consuelo Velázquez, Francis Poulenc and Leoš Janáček enfolds extracts from letters by Marcus Aurelius, Emily Dickinson and more in a programme of mesmerizing effect.

Two new albums from Decca Classics this month bring us Mujer Fatal – Portrait of a Woman from the velvet mezzo of Aigul Akhmetshina—a programme redefining the ‘femme fatale’ across Spanish, French, Russian and English songs and with luxurious piano accompaniment from Sir Antonio Pappano— and, from no less a team than the Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor Gustavo Dudamel, Life is a dream – Music composed by Sir Anthony Hopkins, an album of an unsurprisingly filmic exuberance.

Through the powerful darkness … is an impressive new set from The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, Fifth Avenue, New York and conductor-organist Jeremy Filsell on the Signum label. The programme includes several intriguing rarities, and second half is given over to an imaginative pairing of Masses, the choral rigour of the Missa Sancti Thomae offset by the organ pyrotechnics of the instrumental Missa de Gloria. Performances throughout are of the very highest quality.

Mark van de Wiel has teamed up with Soloists from the Philharmonia to record Strange Loops – Clarinet Quintets by Anna Clyne, Ruth Gipps & Carl Maria von Weber. While the Weber needs little introduction, this is the premiere recording of Anna Clyne’s riotous contribution to the genre, and Mark has included the Gipps Rhapsody ‘simply because it’s so gorgeous’. Much to enjoy, and the album comes to us from Signum Classics.

Crack American low-voice ensemble Cantus’s latest album on Signum is entitled The secret letter, an exploration of those private loves which society has conventionally eschewed. Music by composers as varied as Abbie Betinis, Consuelo Velázquez, Francis Poulenc and Leoš Janáček enfolds extracts from letters by Marcus Aurelius, Emily Dickinson and more in a programme of mesmerizing effect.

Two new albums from Decca Classics this month bring us Mujer Fatal – Portrait of a Woman from the velvet mezzo of Aigul Akhmetshina—a programme redefining the ‘femme fatale’ across Spanish, French, Russian and English songs and with luxurious piano accompaniment from Sir Antonio Pappano— and, from no less a team than the Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor Gustavo Dudamel, Life is a dream – Music composed by Sir Anthony Hopkins, an album of an unsurprisingly filmic exuberance.

Through the powerful darkness … is an impressive new set from The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, Fifth Avenue, New York and conductor-organist Jeremy Filsell on the Signum label. The programme includes several intriguing rarities, and second half is given over to an imaginative pairing of Masses, the choral rigour of the Missa Sancti Thomae offset by the organ pyrotechnics of the instrumental Missa de Gloria. Performances throughout are of the very highest quality.

Mark van de Wiel has teamed up with Soloists from the Philharmonia to record Strange Loops – Clarinet Quintets by Anna Clyne, Ruth Gipps & Carl Maria von Weber. While the Weber needs little introduction, this is the premiere recording of Anna Clyne’s riotous contribution to the genre, and Mark has included the Gipps Rhapsody ‘simply because it’s so gorgeous’. Much to enjoy, and the album comes to us from Signum Classics.

Crack American low-voice ensemble Cantus’s latest album on Signum is entitled The secret letter, an exploration of those private loves which society has conventionally eschewed. Music by composers as varied as Abbie Betinis, Consuelo Velázquez, Francis Poulenc and Leoš Janáček enfolds extracts from letters by Marcus Aurelius, Emily Dickinson and more in a programme of mesmerizing effect.

Two new albums from Decca Classics this month bring us Mujer Fatal – Portrait of a Woman from the velvet mezzo of Aigul Akhmetshina—a programme redefining the ‘femme fatale’ across Spanish, French, Russian and English songs and with luxurious piano accompaniment from Sir Antonio Pappano— and, from no less a team than the Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor Gustavo Dudamel, Life is a dream – Music composed by Sir Anthony Hopkins, an album of an unsurprisingly filmic exuberance.

Through the powerful darkness … is an impressive new set from The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, Fifth Avenue, New York and conductor-organist Jeremy Filsell on the Signum label. The programme includes several intriguing rarities, and second half is given over to an imaginative pairing of Masses, the choral rigour of the Missa Sancti Thomae offset by the organ pyrotechnics of the instrumental Missa de Gloria. Performances throughout are of the very highest quality.