A collaboration between Avital's sublime mandolin playing and the ensemble for historical instruments 'Il Giardino Armonico' and conductor and founder Giovanni Antonini. A reinterpretation of three concertos for mandolin by Emanuele Barbella (1718-1777), Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816) and Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837), as well as Avital's own arrangements of concertos by J. S. Bach and Vivaldi. Avi Avital (mandolin), Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni Antonini. CD released November 2023.

50th anniversary of the death of Noel Coward commemorated with a fun disc of songs and pieces written both by him and several of his contemporaries. As well as Coward, it includes solos, duets and instrumental songs by Ned Rorem, Liza Lehmann, William Walton and Benjamin Britten. Mary Bevan (soprano), Nicky Spence (tenor), Joseph Middleton (piano). CD released November 2023.

Apparently before this album Riccardo Muti has never conducted Philip Glass. The music director of the Chicago Symphony conducts three Chicago inspired contemporary pieces on this excellent release. Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981) is the Chicago composer in residence, and has created "Hymn for Everyone" inspired by a poem of her mothers' and the emotional rollercoaster of the COVID pandemic. Very Aaron Copland in style, very American. Max Raimi, a viola player from the orchestra composed a series of songs using three settings by poet Liesel Muller. Lastly, we have the glories of Philip Glass's 11th Symphony from 2017 (Glass was a Chicago student in 1952 at the age of 15). As usual - bold and driving music, beautifully unfolding, carrying you away. It was premiered on Glass's 80th birthday, and is wonderfully recognisably Philip Glass's work. Elizabeth DeShong (mezzo), Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Riccardo Muti. CD released August 2023.

A world premiere album of a song cycle written by Muhly for American/Chinese tenor Nicholas Phan. Reflecting themes of immigration and identity it is very compelling. The album includes Muhly's Lorne Ys My Liking, a setting of the 19th Chester Mystery Play (with countertenor Reginald Mobley), and Impossible Things, a triptych of poems by the Greek poet C.P. Cavafy. Phan has a very haunting voice that well suits this repertoire. Nicholas Phan, Brooklyn Rider, The Knights, Reginald Mobley, Lisa Kaplan, Colin Jacobsen, Eric Jacobsen. CD released July 2022.

Trio Agora consists of Zilvinas Brazauskas (clarinet), Natania Hoffman (cello) and Robertas Lozinskis (piano), all who hail from Lithuania. This album showcases mostly Latin american music with Tango rhythms and constructs at their heart, although there are Tango inspired pieces by Ravel and Stravinsky included. Composers include Piazzólla, Ginastera, and several new to me such as Rosendo Mendizábal (1868-1913). I was intrigued reading the sleeve notes that Tango was originally played with guitar, violin, flute, and clarinet, respectively. This changed later, and the bandoneon advanced to become the leading instrument. I enjoy this music very much, although it has not really been included in the repertoire by European chamber groups and orchestras. I especially like the quote "it is tempting to view the genre as a way to break out of the "classical" corset for a few days and enjoy the freedoms, the sensuality, the compelling rhythms, and the improvisational facets of tango. However, we believe that the same rigor, enthusiasm, and care needed to prepare classical repertoire is a necessity when performing and recording tango. Ultimately, the aim of "Hotel Tango" is to present music that we find compelling, beautiful, and varied, in a colorful journey in which all roads lead to tango". CD released June 2023.

Luke Bedford (b. 1978) is a multi award winning British composer, with a string of prizes and awards, and a stint as Wigmore Hall Composer in Residence 2008-11. This recent CD showcases some of his most important music over the past decade and a half. It includes a selection of his orchestral and larger-scale chamber works, namely his Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra (2017), the orchestral works Instability (commissioned for the Proms in 2015), and Outblaze the Sky (2007), and In the Voices of the Living (2017-19, written for tenor Mark Padmore and the London Sinfonietta). Bedford's music is described by broadcaster Tom Service as "music of brooding expressive intensity, charged with that indefinable quality that makes a piece sound as if it was written out of sheer necessity". Of all the pieces I found Voice of the Living the most interesting and approachable, but they are all clearly very fine and well crafted contemporary works. BBC Philharmonic, Juan José Mena, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Oliver Knussen, Mark Padmore (tenor), London Sinfonietta, Geoffrey Paterson, Arcis Saxophon Quartett, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Ben Gernon. CD released November 2023.