George Bernard Shaw once said that “England and America are two countries separated by the same language!” As an American living in London when these recordings were made, I can attest to that sentiment! Perhaps my own grappling with the ever witty Bernard Shaw is found on this set of recordings, with pieces from the UK and the USA that span nearly 122 years of musical history. While many of the musical materials used by these 5 composers are similar, with an emphasis on folk music, classical idioms, and a generally warm and Romantic sensibility, they could not be more different from each other.

“Everything works to illuminate the music," wrote The Times of Love and Death, Martin James Bartlett’s debut recital on Warner Classics. The young British pianist has now recorded two celebrated rhapsodies for piano and orchestra, both from the ‘art deco’ period of the 20th century: Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. His partners are the London Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Joshua Weilerstein. The album is completed by seven shorter Gershwin and Rachmaninoff pieces for solo piano – as written by the composers themselves or as arranged by the American virtuoso Earl Wild.

Danish composer Martin Stauning writes intense and evocative music. His works always have an immediate and sensuous quality demonstrating Stauning’s distinctive, personal lyrical expression. His Harp Concerto was composed during two Corona shutdowns in 2020 and 2021. According to Stauning, there are several elements in the Harp Concerto that are inspired by the special situation during the shutdowns: 'Originally, I saw the soloist as a kind of puppet master. Every time he pulls the strings, there is a reaction in the orchestra, so in a way, it becomes his puppet. Gradually, it became apparent to me that the strings were acting like "bars" under which the harpist was trapped and tries to escape from.'

When Tora Augestad releases a musical portrait together with the Oslo Philharmonic, there’s nothing less than Kurt Weill, Marcus Paus, and Charles Ives on the menu. Augestad's repertoire for “Portraying Passion” takes the musical qualities of modernist, individualistic composers and places them squarely within the context of the 21st century.

Viola player Eivind Holtsmark Ringstad is the latest talent to emerge from a new, golden generation of Scandinavian musicians. He made his debut with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra with conductor Eivind Aadland in 2013, and has since been travelling all around the world, performing in prestigious festivals and concert venues; he is a national favourite.