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La Barcha d'Amore is an eclectic, contrasting selection of some of the most beautiful vocal and instrumental music inspired by mythology and 17th-century European love poetry. Music of time and memory, performed by Montserrat Figueras and Jordi Savall, together with Ton Koopman, Hopkinson Smith,Andrew Lawrence-King and other members of the ensemble Hespčrion XX (which in 2001 became Hespčrion XXI) and the orchestra Le Concert Des Nations, have selected recordings that they made from 1976 to 1996 for the labels Emi Electrola, Dhm,Astrée and Auvidis, and from 1998 to 2008 for Aliavox. This anthology, contains vocal pieces directly related to the theme of love, such as the innovative Airs for the recitar cantando of Giulio Caccini's Le Nuove Musiche, the evocative tonos humanos by Spanish Baroque composers Sebastián Durón, Juan del Vado and Juan Hidalgo, Monteverdi's sublime Lamento della Ninfa, the mysterious folia Yo soy la locura by Henri du Bailly, not forgetting the touching Elizabethan lullaby and the tender melody Une jeune fillette, both by anonymous authors, but equally remarkable for their great beauty and depth of emotion. The various instrumental pieces, with such evocative titles as the Gaillarde "La Barcha del mio Amore" by Giacomo de Gorzanis, Samuel Scheidt's Pavane and his "Courant dolorosa", the Elizabethan "Desperada" and the highly popular improvisation piece, "Greensleeves", as well as the great Jean-Baptiste Lully's Rondeau from Le Mariage forcé and the Chaconne from L'Amour Médecin, provide the necessary complement to the vocal pieces, resulting in a great variety of sources and contrasting characters. The Barcha d'Amore is the personal testimony of Jordi Savall's unwavering and rigorous commitment to the performance of music from the Middle Ages to the age of Classicism using 'historically informed' instruments and performance techniques, which emerged in the 1970s.Those years marked the beginning of a great revival in the performance of pre-Romantic music, a continuing revival which offers the possibility of retrieving an important cultural legacy.

The legendary Viennese pianist, Paul Badura-Skoda, has issued a new recording of five piano masterworks by Joseph Haydn, for the bicentenary of his death. Johann Schantz's fortepiano from Badura-Skoda's collection, is the most appropriate instrument available today for interpreting Haydn's music. In a letter to Marianne von Genzinger dated 4 July 1790, Haydn refers to Johann Schantz as "the best pianoforte maker". In the late '80s and early '90s Paul Badura-Skoda recorded a small collection of four single volumes on the same instrument, with Michel Bernstein and for Astrée. The booklet contains notes (in four languages) by Badura-Skoda himself. In 1945, Badura-Skoda entered the Vienna Conservatory, and two years later won a scholarship which allowed him to study with Edwin Fischer. In 1949,Wilhelm Furtwängler and Herbert von Karajan became aware of his outstanding talent and invited him to play and practically overnight he became world famous. Since then, Badura-Skoda has been a regular and celebrated guest at the most important music festivals, and a soloist with the world´s most prestigious orchestras, recording a vast repertoire: more than 200 LPs and dozens of compact discs including the complete cycles of the piano sonatas of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. He performs with equal authority on both period and modern instruments and was a pioneer in proposing the use of period pianos in perfomance.

The Choir of Christ Church Cathedral under their director Stephen Darlington, return to AVIE with their second release for the label. Recorded in the Chapel of Merton College, Oxford, it commemorates the 500th Anniversary of the coronation of King Henry VIII on June 24 1509 with music from the Eton Choirbook, one of the greatest jewels of choir music in the world.

The Eton Choirbook epitomises a style of composition which demanded extraordinary virtuosity from its performers: it is no surprise that an Italian visitor should have described the singing he heard in 1515 as 'more divine than human'. This recording brings to life some of the most glorious music in the collection, using the original forces of men and boys.

After the extremely successful and acclaimed series ‘The Rise of the North Italian Violin Concerto’ Adrian Chandler and La Serenissima return to AVIE to explore another side of Vivaldi’s compositions : The French Connection.

“The voracity with which the French devoured Italian music during the late baroque period is well documented. Vivaldi was involved in both the dissemination of the French style in Italy and that of the Italian style in France. His works achieved fashionable status there in the late 1720s thanks to his concertos Le Quattro Stagioni which became a feature at the popular Concert Spirituel (between 1728 and 1763).” Adrian Chandler

Norwegian tubaist Řystein Baadsvik presents a disc of tuba concertos including the Högberg and Sandström, which are available for the first time on disc.

Two of the works on this disc, the Concertos in F major and in E flat major, were composed soon after Bach’s move to Hamburg. The Concerto in C minor had been composed some 20 years earlier and the composer himself described it as ‘one of my showpieces’, implying that he performed it regularly. In Hamburg, Bach adapted to the strong musical traditions of the time, including a particular love for the harpsichord..

In an interesting essay in the booklet to this disc, Miklós Spányi discusses this background, explaining his reasons for performing two of the works on the tangent piano, and the third on the harpsichord. The previous installment of Spányi’s highly regarded series was described by Classic FM Magazine as ‘bubbling with life in BIS’s crisp recorded sound.’

This is the seventh disc in Mark Wigglesworth’s complete cycle of Shostakovich’s symphonies and the fourth to feature the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. This partnership has gone from strength to strength, with their Symphony No. 13 (‘Babi Yar’) described as ‘probably the most convincing to have appeared in the West’ in International Record Review, and the coupling of Symphonies Nos 9 and 12 being designated a benchmark recording in BBC Music Magazine.

They now take on this huge work – it calls for an orchestra of 125 musicians and lasts well over an hour.

When Shostakovich began working on Symphony No.4, his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk had been a sensational success and the composer was the musical golden child of the Soviet Union. However, after Stalin himself went to see the opera, the newspaper Pravda described the musician as an enemy of the state. Suddenly Shostakovich's life was turned upside down, but he remained unbowed – much later in life he is reported as having said: ‘Instead of repenting I composed my Fourth Symphony.’

Kantorow and the Tapiola Sinfonietta revisit Weber focusing on works by the young composer, before the fame that his opera Der Freischütz would bring. The two symphonies – the only works in the genre that Weber composed – were written in the space of six weeks around New Year 1808, while Weber were staying at the court of the Count of Württemberg-Öls in Carlsruhe (nowadays Pokój in Poland). The symphonies also bear witness to the period of transition from classicism to romanticism, particularly in terms of orchestral colour

Prize-winning Dutch clarinettist Lars Wouters van den Oudenweijer performs the two Sonatas, opus 49 and the Sonata No 3, opus 107 by Max Reger, accompanied by pianist Hans Eijsackers.

In 1894 Max Reger heard the clarinet sonatas that Brahms wrote for Richard Mühlfeld, a clarinettist he greatly admired, and was so taken with them that he decided to follow suit. The result was a series of thoughtful and challenging pieces. The first two works were written in 1900, and assigned the opus number 49. The third, opus 107, which is much more melodious and accessible, came about eight or nine years later.

The Dutch clarinettist Lars Wouters van den Oudenweijer studied at the Juilliard School for Music on a Fulbright International Scholarship. In 1999 he made his debut in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and since then he has performed in many of the world’s greatest concert venues including the Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, and the Konzerthaus in Vienna. Hans Eijsackers graduated at the Sweelinck Conservatory of Music in Amsterdam in 1992, where he studied with Koos Bons, Gerard van Blerk, Jan Wijn, and György Sebök. At the age of 13 he won the Rotterdam Piano-Driedaagse and Princess Christina Competition and in 1991 the European Piano Competition