Despite having languished for so long in the shadow of her male peers, Emilie Mayer’s compositions bear witness to an indomitable personality. The musicians of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin have resolved to do her justice by presenting a series of recordings dedicated to her symphonic works. Performed on period instruments, volume one features the Overture in D minor, …

Pianist Alexander Melnikov new album is dedicated to music of Sergei Rachmaninoff, centering his Variations on a Theme by Chopin. Melkinov traveled to Villa Senar, Rachmaninoff’s Bauhaus summer home on Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, to record on the composers’s own grand piano, a birthday gift from Frederik Steinway. The album also features the luminous soprano Julia Lezhneva who joins Melkinov …