‘Pastoral 21’ is a contemporary exploration on what the concept of ‘Pastoral’ means to us in this time of climate crisis.It features classical string sextet alongside field recordings, electronic bass and angular beats, cantered around Gabriel Prokofiev’s contemporary response to Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony.The album opens with the original first movement of Beethoven’s famous symphony (arranged for sextet), reminding listeners of our less troubled relationship with nature in Beethoven’s time, before moving on to the modern beats of Prokofiev’s recent composition ‘Breaking Screens’, which explores ideas of consumerism, digital life and impending crisis.The programme climaxes with the five-movement ‘Pastoral Reflections’, which echoes Beethoven’s symphonic narrative, but from a contemporary perspective.

Clarinetist Julian Bliss is a versatile player who has performed concertos, chamber music with various top players, and jazz with his Julian Bliss Septet. He is also the designer of the Bliss Clarinet, marketed by the Leblanc line of the Conn-Selmer instrument maker. Bliss was born in St. Albans or Harpenden (the two towns are adjacent) in England's Hertfordshire region in 1989. He was a child prodigy. Bliss' family was not musical, but when he was four, his parents took him to a music shop, and he immediately settled on the clarinet; he was given a Lyons C clarinet made for children. By five, he was already appearing on television, and at six, he was invited to play at Buckingham Palace.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Noel Coward,celebrated musicians and regular Signum artists Mary Bevan, Nicky Spence and Joseph Middleton join forces for this album of works by Noel Cowardand his contemporaries.Featuring songs such as ‘Parisian Pierrot’ and ‘The Man I Love’, the album comprises of a collection ofsolos, duets and instrumental songs by composerssuch as Ned Rorem, Liza Lehmann, William Walton and Benjamin Britten.

This album features the second half of Brescianello’s Opus 1; works 1 - 6 were released as ‘Behind Closed Doors’ in 2022. La Serenissima passionately believe that Brescianello is a composer who deserves greater recognition with the result that many of his works have been included in releases dating from 2019, our first release on Signum. Solo concertos for violin alternate with Sinphonias for strings and continuo; both forms illustrate Brescianello’s talent for fusing virtuosity with the sweetest of melodies. Also included on the album is an orchestral suite in A major that finishes with a rousing Giga.

With sympathetic chants by composers spanning a full three hundred years, this programme finds the choir of St John's on top form and offers a masterclass in the genre.

Apart from a short period (1717-1719) spent in Mantua under the patronage of Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt, Vivaldi never held a full-time post in church or at court; for a composer of Vivaldi’s talent and standing, this was most unusual. That said, he was employed for significant periods by the Ospedale della Pietài, a Venetian institution (founded c.1340) that cared for unwanted children, often illegitimate or physically disadvantagedii. The Pietà’s performers were taken from a group of women known as the figlie di coro, who sang and played the violin, violin in tromba marina, viola, viola d’amore, cello, violone, viol, double bass, theorbo, mandolin, harpsichord, organ, oboe, flute, recorder, chalumeau and clarinet. The Pietà developed a strong reputation for its musical performances, engaging the finest composers and teachers of the day. It was important to ensure that the standards were high; after all, these entertainments were most popular with Venetians and visitors alike whose donations provided a welcome extra source of revenue.

The conductor and harpsichordist Bridget Cunningham brings back to life Handel’s pasticcio opera, Caio Fabbricio first performed in London in 1733 and based on an earlier opera by Johann Adolf Hasse (1732). Caio Fabbricio is London Early Opera’s eighth album in the prestigious Handel Series with Signum Records and is a pasticcio opera, a brilliant and well-considered collection of some of the finest 18th century Neapolitan arias by different composers, including Leonardo Vinci and Leonardo Leo, selected and arranged by Handel who composed his own dramatic recitatives.

Oliver Davis's seventh album "Air" with Signum brings together a stellar array of performers, including violinists Benjamin Baker and Kerenza Peacock, soprano Grace Davidson and tenor Jeremy Budd, alongside German ensemble the Hanke Brothers and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Paul Bateman.Oliver Davis graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 1994 and has since composed numerous concertos, ballet scores, albums, soundtracks and television scores working with many of the major London orchestras. Davis’ debut album "Flight", recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra with soloist Kerenza Peacock, was released in March 2015 and quickly rose to number 2 in the UK Specialist Classical Charts. In addition it was chosen as "Featured Album of the Week" on Classic FM and was broadcast daily on the station. Several pieces from the album "Flight" have been used for a ballet choreographed by Ma Cong for the Tulsa Ballet Company in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

This album contains the earliest three of Schubert's piano sonatas Llŷr Williams included in his Cardiff series (there are eight earlier works in the genre—in varying states of completion). All three remained unpublished until after the composer's death, and together they mark Schubert's journey into composing maturity.

Throughout her life French pianist Elizabeth Sombart has sought to share classical music with the widest possible audience and with people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Here she continues her series of recordings with the RPO and conductor Pierre Vallet, inaugurating a new cycle of Beethoven Piano Concertos, works she will be performing with the orchestra during the course of 2020.

Gustavo Díaz-Jerez is one of the leading composers and pianists in Spain. Here he deploys his unique brand of naturalistic tonal painting over the course of seven extended symphonic poems to evoke the very being of the Canary Islands: tapestries of 'emergent' harmony—albeit harmony not always immediately apparent—of which Caliban would doubtless have approved.

Alessio Bax plays an Italian-inspired programme, picking his favourite pieces taken from a rich history of music from one of the most romantic countries in the world.  He opens the programme with a J.S. Bach transcription of an oboe concerto by Venetian composer Alessandro Marcello, which reveals a deep insight into Bach’s mind.

Coupling powerful interpretations with path-breaking scholarship, Contrapunctus presents music by the best known composers as well as unfamiliar masterpieces. The group’s repertoire is drawn from England, the Low Countries, Spain, Portugal and Germany, particularly in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The scholarly facet of the group’s work – including the discovery of long-lost music and reconstructions of original performing contexts – allows audiences to experience the first performances of many works in modern times.

After the success of their debut disc, ‘Voyages’, Mary Bevan and Joseph Middleton present their second recital disc exploring Lieder in German and Italian by Schubert, Haydn and Wolf. The programme is woven around songs inspired by the ‘muses’ of the day, both mythological and divine.

The Choir of the West is the premier choral ensemble of the Department of Music at Pacific Lutheran University, located in Tacoma, Washington. The choir was founded in 1926 and was the third Lutheran college choir to tour extensively throughout the United States.