12 Ensemble RESURRECTION

The 12 ensemble continue their remarkable rise on the international classical music scene with their stunning debut album Resurrection. Featuring a new work from the acclaimed composer & guitarist of band The National Bryce Dessner, a commission from boundary-pushing UK composer Kate Whitley and works by Lutoslawski and Woolrich, the record is a powerful collection of four works for strings that reflect the ensemble’s spirit of bringing new energy and exploration to established sounds and ideas. 

Always performing without a conductor, the ensemble have developed a reputation across Europe as one of the UK’s leading string orchestras. This debut recording highlights the group’s commitment to intimate music-making that lives and breathes, performed with dazzling energy and an astonishing sound, all based on the principle of putting the music in charge.

Giorgio Koukl / Virginia Rossetti LUTOSŁAWSKI Complete Piano Music

Witold Lutosławski’s few surviving apprentice works are suffused with the elegance of Ravel and the lush effusiveness of Szymanowski, and this is particularly true of the early Piano Sonata, heard here in Giorgio Koukl’s new and corrected edition based on the original manuscript. Further premières include the wistful A Kiss of Roxanne and the technically complex Invention. Including all of the folk-music tinted pedagogical miniatures, works for piano four hands and other occasional pieces, this is the most comprehensive edition of Lutosławski’s works for solo piano ever recorded.

Wang Tao / Akimi Fukuhara SPIN

He is the first musician in China to receive a master's degree in clarinet from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, a top music school in the country. 

Wang has released 12 albums that are being used as teaching material at the conservatory. He also won the best instrumental-album award at the Golden Melody Awards in Taiwan. 

As the husband of former Olympic gymnastics champion Liu Xuan, he is used to being pursued by the media. 

But last year, when he sent producers some 40 music samples from his new record company, Universal Music, the feedback he got caught him off guard. 

While the young musician had expected positive reactions, he was told the samples were "interesting" or "disastrous". 

"It's something I have never experienced before," says Wang, 37, who was considered gifted since his childhood. "I didn't feel depressed. Instead, I was excited because I knew that it's time for me to change."