This disc is a sampler of Vivaldi discs released by France's Naïve label, and it's highly recommended to listeners who haven't yet given these recordings a try. The group of performers is pan-European, with French singers and Italian instrumentalists especially strongly represented, but a compilation like this brings home how well this label has done at forging a unified artistic vision. Its Vivaldi indeed tends toward "furious," as the title proclaims; it is also garish, energetic, dynamically extreme, and in every way devoted to making Vivaldi out as a rebel in his time.

Vivaldi, the Venetian, master of the whole palette of human emotions. From the church to the opera house, from tragedy to joy, the immediately-recognisable sensibility, the expressiveness, the inimitable colours and an unbeatable talent to say so much in just a few notes.

A musical journey through Renaissance Europe via pieces that were highly popular and whose melodies were reused and varied by some of the best composers of the time.

During Vladimir Jurowski’s tenure as Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Stravinsky’s music was often a focus of his concert programming. This culminated in a year-long festival, ‘Changing Faces’, in 2018, which traced Stravinsky’s metamorphosis as a composer progressively evolving his musical language, making him a key figure in 20th-century music. Pulcinella marked the beginning of the composer’s middle ‘neoclassical’ period and, like the Symphony in C, demonstrated his playful updating of Classical forms. Jurowski takes listeners on Stravinsky’s exploration of serialism, to his last substantial work, the Requiem Canticles: sometimes spare in texture and austere in expression, yet a movingly sincere restatement of Stravinsky’s Christian faith.

Poulenc the miniaturist par excellence burst into public view, fully-formed in his late teens, emerging flamboyantly into the artistic swirl of 1920s Paris. His fabulously inventive, quirky and colourful approach to writing for chamber ensemble and voice comes vividly to life in this set of early works which capture all of his youthful elegance, wit, and occasionally sardonic humour.

This program focuses on the Missa pro defunctis by the composer Charles d'Argentil. Recorded for the first time here, it is one of only a dozen musical settings of the liturgy of the dead written before 1550 to have survived to this day. Little-known today, Charles d'Argentil, who worked in the prestigious Papal Chapel in Rome, was a key figure in the French Renaissance, as well as in the establishment of musical settings of the Requiem for papal ceremonies. His setting sits alongside the three Lamentations du samedi saint by Claudin de Sermisy, composer to the French royal chapel and Jehan Barra's Salve Regina. The Gilles Binchois ensemble here sheds light on an all-too-often overlooked part of musical history, through the generation that directly followed Josquin des Prez. The art of these three composers bears witness to the high level of mastery attained by that productive and talented generation.

The Dream of Gerontius by Edward Elgar is a two-part work for voices and orchestra composed in 1900 to text by John Henry Newman. Widely regarded as Elgar’s finest choral work, and by some his masterpiece, Gabrieli’s first-class performance, and McCreesh’s superb interpretation demonstrate why their recordings are seen as some of the best in classical music today.

Massenet was not only the composer of Manon and Werther. In the shadow of his stage works slumber many mélodies decked out in subtle and delicate orchestrations, which we are delighted to revive here. These previously unrecorded works have been entrusted to a team of first-rate artists, most of them fervent champions of French poetry and its musical settings.

During the Carnival of Venice in 1637, a play ‘rappresentata in musica’ was opened to the public for the first time – a success. Opera was born and spread like wildfire. Venice had the largest number of theatres in the world. In 1677, the Teatro Sant’Angelo opened its doors on the campo of the same name. Tiny, chaotic, cheap and extremely productive, it was renowned for its musicians and its sets. This effervescence owes much to the figure of Vivaldi who, from 1705 onwards, regularly premiered his operas there and acted (with his father) as impresario.

Hailed by the international music press and highly praised by music connoisseurs, the recordings of Bach’s entire body of vocal music made by the Bach Collegium Japan (BCJ), its conductor Masaaki Suzuki and numerous prestigious soloists, many of whom have remained remarkably loyal to the undertaking from the outset, are here brought together to form the only complete set of these works in high-resolution format.

Soprano Francesca Aspromonte and violinist Boris Begelman present an all-Handel programme exploring the vicissitudes of love, together with Arsenale Sonoro. On Un'alma innamorata, Aspromonte urges us to take ownership of our amorous infatuations, rather than blaming it on Cupid's arrows. The programme consists of several worldly cantatas with violino concertante - including the famous Mi palpita il cor and a world premiere recording of S'un di m'appaga la mia crudele - interspersed with instrumental sonatas. The overall chamber-musical approach of Un'alma innamorata increases the emotional impact of the tragic heroines depicted by Aspromonte.Francesca Aspromonte presents her third Pentatone album, after having released Prologue (2018) and Maria & Maddalena (2021). Boris Begelman featured on the latter album, whereas Arsenale Sonoro makes its Pentatone debut.

After the success of his stunning album ‘Otello’, revered tenor Jonas Kaufmann returns with the sensational new album ‘Selige Stunde’. ‘Selige Stunde’ is the first recital in a small series of recordings that Jonas has made during the Covid-19 crisis. This stunning album includes a varied and heart-felt selection of songs that cover the most prominent Lieder composers. All tracks are short and are often performed as encores. The theme of the lyrics centre around love, longing, peacefulness and farewell. Kaufmann is considered one of the greatest tenors of this generation. He has performed at the world’s most prestigious concert venues including the Royal Opera House in London and the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Kaufmann has won numerous prestigious awards including Gramophone Awards and Echo Klassik Awards.