Future releases

The challenge of the etude has intrigued and inspired composers from Bach and Chopin on: can music designed to improve technique hold its own aesthetic value? Pianist Christina Bjørkøe has an inspired answer to that question. She commissioned twelve sets of animal etudes, each from a different composer and here presents the charming, evocative and very useful musical menagerie that resulted. From flea to hippo, beginner to professional, there is something for everyone.

Friedrich Kuhlau is known as Beethoven’s strongest advocate in Denmark and the man who wrote Elverhøj. But Kuhlau was first and foremost a pianist, one whose works for the instrument have a depth and character of their own. In the first of a new series, Marie-Luise Bodendorff reassesses Kuhlau’s contribution to the piano literature with fresh, muscular performances of music including the previously unrecorded Divertissement, Op. 37.

Singing Secrets is a thoughtful and profoundly lyrical album which is both a strikingly original statement and a splendid addition to Dacapo Records' extensive Nørgård catalogue. The programme demonstrates the range of Nørgård's compositions, with chamber and vocal pieces illustrating some of the distinctive steps of his musical journey.