Berg / Saint-Saens / Foo / Wass / Hutter / Woroch - ConNotations - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Johannes Brahms' Liebeslieder-Walzer (1869 & 1875), Op. 52 and Op. 65, are a cheerful, short, witty set of songs full of anger, joy and rejection. These part-songs are accompanied by one piano, with four hands and any number of voices can perform any selection. These enchanting works are performed as part of Barbara Hannigan's Momentum project, which teams up new talent with more established performers. Here, tenor Nicky Spence, soprano Mary Bevan and pianist Joseph Middleton are joined by three rising stars (mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron, bass William Thomas and pianist Dylan Perez) in these love songs said to have been motivated by Brahms's unrequited love for Clara Schumann.

Armand-Louis Couperin - François Couperin was his father's cousin - was regarded as one of the finest musicians of his time, and his compositions, though little known today, provide us with precious evidence of the brilliance of the French harpsichord school and the skills of one of it's most virtuosic representatives. This is the first ever recording of Armand-Louis Couperin's sensuous and very original Pièces de clavecin, op. 1. Playing on a period instrument by Jean-Claude Goujon, now in the Musée de la Musique in Paris, Christophe Rousset brings out all the unique flavor of this music.

ICA holds a veritable treasure trove of historical recordings, the Cologne Broadcasts especially honing in on a rich period of performance in Germany. This stellar 1956 Berlioz Requiem is conducted by maestro Dimitri Mitropoulos, an exceptional musical mind and predecessor of Leonard Bernstein as music director of the New York Philharmonic. As added interest, this features a young Nicolai Gedda as the tenor soloist in the Sanctus.