It was a busy month for Carlos Simon who released not one but two albums. 

Carlos’ first album, Together, is a 10-track project that collates and celebrates the multifaceted layers of Carlos’ personality, upbringing, and musical understanding. In addition to performing on a number of tracks, Carlos has enlisted other artists to perform on the album including violinist and fellow Decca recording artist Randall Goosby and two-times GRAMMY Award-winning mezzo J’Nai Bridges.

Secondly brea(d)th, commissioned and premiered by Minnesota Orchestra and conducted by Jonathan Taylor Rush, is a landmark work written following George Floyd’s murder as a direct response to America’s unfulfilled promises and history of systematic oppression against Black Americans. 

Adding to his extensive discography with Pentatone, pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard joined forces with San Francisco Symphony and Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen this month for a recording of Bartók’s complete piano concertos.

A pianist himself, Bartók imbued his three concertos with multiple aspects of his compositional persona, ranging from complex and innovative (the First) to exuberant (the Second) and serene (the Third). The result is a fascinating slice of his musical life. This all-Bartók release marks the first Pentatone collaboration between Esa-Pekka Salonen and San Francisco Symphony, an ensemble he has reshaped through creative performance concepts and expansive new media projects.

Santtu-Matias Rouvali presented Santtu Conducts Mahler on Philharmonia Records, the second of the label’s releases, this time exploring Mahler’s Symphony No.2. Alongside soloists Mari Eriksmoen and Jennifer Johnston, the symphony was recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall.

In their debut album, Il Concerto Segreto, La Néréide presents an all-Italian programme exploring the last years of the 16^th century in the court of Ferrara, where there was an exceptional musical community dominated by a remarkable trio of female voices. This trio was nurtured by the court’s resident music master, composer Luzzasco Luzzaschi, and attendance at the concerts was by personal invitation of the Duke of Ferrara only, the repertoire was a closely guarded secret and only partially published in 1601. La Néréide’s first recording is centred around these publications, recreating the original conditions in which the works would have been performed, with the accompaniment of harpsichord, originally played by Luzzaschi himself, as well as viol, harp and luth, on which the Ladies of Ferrara would have accompanied themselves at the time. Interspersing the works of Luzzaschi are additions by Francesca Caccini, Claudio Monteverdi and Luca Marenzio.