This ranks among the most intelligent and striking recital discs of recent years. Spanish counter-tenor Xavier Sabata, along with the Italian ensemble Il Pomo d'Oro - conducted by Riccardo Minasi, explores the worlds of Handel's villains – the tyrants, hypocrites and sensualists who are integral to his dramatic and moral vision, but whose music is rarely heard outside of the theatre. The album reminds us that Handel characterises evil with the same complexity and insight with which he depicts good; and it forms a superb showcase for an exceptional singer, who's never received the attention he deserves.

"Strauss: Metamorphoses & Wind Sonatina No. 1" is the second album in a series of six that the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg will release on the Berlin Classics label until 2025. For this album, the orchestra has chosen the internationally renowned conductor Riccardo Minasi. Originally, a concert under his baton was to take place at Salzburg's "Großes Festspielhaus" in the 2020/21 season, but like so many events, it had to be canceled. Instead, the decision was made to record with repertoire whose instrumentation sizes were appropriate to the conditions: Richard Strauss "Metamorphosen" for 23 solo strings and the first Sonatina for 16 wind instruments.

After an album devoted to the final trilogy, Riccardo Minasi and Ensemble Resonanz continue their exploration of Mozart’s symphonies. These formidably expressive, incandescent interpretations give us the impression we are discovering the works for the first time. "Minasi and his expert 35-strong band (modern instruments, period ethos) play up the music’s disruptive aspects for all their worth. With lean, vibrato-light strings and assertive wind and brass, tutti textures have an abrasive clarity."

Star trumpet player Lucienne Renaudin Vary brings us four beautiful Christmas pieces: “Silent Night”, “Weihnachtsfriede” (Kollo), “Weihnachten” (Humperdinck), and “Süßer die Glocken nie klingen”​.

World premiere recording of an opera by a Neapolitan master fast gaining a first-rate modern reputation. Max Emanuel Cencic gathers around him an intoxicating mix of stratospheric countertenors, a top tenor, and an orchestra who sizzle with excitement for a performance of an opera that will appeal to all fans of Baroque music's unsung heroes.

For years, Margarita Höhenrieder was searching for the authentic sound of Frédéric Chopin's piano works. Which instrument of its time most convincingly reflected Chopin's music? Chopin himself had given the answer in 1831: "Pleyel's instruments are the nec plus ultra"! The choice for the recording therefore fell on a Pleyel fortepiano, built around 1855 in Paris and expertly restored using historical materials and methods. It is absolutely identical in construction to the instrument Chopin owned and thus represents an authentic sound testimony.

With Beethoven’s Piano Concertos no. 4 and op. 61a, the latter being the composer’s own transcription of his Violin Concerto, Gianluca Cascioli, Riccardo Minasi and Ensemble Resonanz present two milestones of the piano literature.

For the problem of ‘genuine’ and ‘spurious’ works by Pergolesi has preoccupied musicologists for centuries. Of the approximately one hundred and fifty works that circulate under his name, he probably composed only thirty or so. Most of them were attributed to him posthumously, since publishers such as Bremner hoped to drum up better business thereby.