Anthony de Mare’s landmark commissioning project, Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano, reaches Volume II with a roll call of contemporary composers from the worlds of classical, jazz, film, indie, pop and musical theatre, including Jon Batiste, Stephen Hough, Meredith Monk, Max Richter, Conrad Tao, and de Mare himself. Sondheim, the ever-eloquent wordsmith, proclaimed he was “thrilled” with the music …

The theme for the latest album from the prolific virtuoso pianist-composer and polymath Sir Stephen Hough is nostalgia. This album centers the premiere recording of his first piano concerto, recorded by the composer with The Hallé under Sir Mark Elder. Its subtitle “The world of yesterday” deliberately places the work in a broader context of the pianist-virtuosi of yesteryear who …