Cleopatra (scene lyrique)

A full-blooded and luxurious performance of Berlioz’s magnum opus led by Sydney Symphony’s favourite guest conductor, young French-Canadian Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Features seductive soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci in the role of Cléopâtre. 

Schumann Sonata No 2, Etudes symphoniques, Chopin Sonatas Nos 2-3, Brahms Sonata No 3, Debussy, Bach, Grieg, Liszt, Scott, Grainger

This release is a tribute to the pianism of Percy Grainger who died 50 years ago in February 1961. Grainger was the most reluctant of virtuosos, always wishing that he would be remembered primarily as a composer, yet his fame as an executant and the large number of recordings he made attest to his greatness as a pianist. Very few of Grainger’s recordings are currently available, and indeed many have never been transferred to CD before, so this set is a discographic landmark which finally reveals the true glory of Grainger the performer.

Beloved Australian composer Percy Grainger is honoured with Chandos Records’ reissue (at last!) of its Grainger Edition volumes 1—19, collected together in a lavish box. Many of the discs are no longer available separately. The set demonstrates the extraordinary range of Grainger’s compositional styles, including works for orchestra, wind orchestra, chorus and orchestra, chamber ensemble, solo songs, and solo piano, the latter performed by Australian pianist Penelope Thwaites, who edited The New Percy Grainger Companion.

Japanese Suite Op 33, Beni Mora Op 29 No 1

Initiated by Richard Hickox before his untimely death in 2008, Chandos’ best-selling Holst series has been taken over by distinguished conductor Sir Andrew Davis. ‘Richard Hickox’s final project, reviving little-known Holst works, is a triumph’ –Gramophone (Vol.1 CHSA5069).

Overture to Das Liebesverbot, Overture to Die Feen

The third of four Chandos albums featuring Henk de Vlieger’s bold orchestral arrangements of operas by Wagner. This richly romantic symphonic poem is perfect for listeners who love Wagner…without the singing!

Part Spiegel im Spiegel, Saint-Saens Sonate Op 167, Poulenc Sonata S184, Finzi Five Bagatelles Op 23, Reade Suite From 'The Victorian Kitchen Garden', Burgmuller Duo Op 15, Baermann Adagio arr from Clarinet Quintet No 3 Op 23

Michael’s previous album, Virtuoso Clarinet (CHAN10615), was an ABC Classic FM CD of the Week in October 2010. ‘An absolute charmer… difficult to imagine a finer performance than that given here.’ –International Record Review.

Cantata 'Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut' BWV199, Arias from Cantatas BWV31, 57, 105, 84, 51 'Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen'

A BBC New Generation Artist, this velvet-voiced British soprano won the illustrious Kathleen Ferrier Award in 2006, and the Cardiff Singer of the World’s Rosenblatt Song Prize in 2007. Elizabeth Watts makes her harmonia mundi début in a luminous programme of Bach cantatas and arias, deftly supported by The English Concert led by Harry Bicket. 'Watts is a terrific  communicator, her demeanour as engaging as her vocalism. (…) Dazzling aplomb.' -The Evening Standard (UK)

After two widely acclaimed Haydn releases, the Jerusalem Quartet now logically turns to an exploration of Mozart and three distinct periods in his creative life. Haydn is not totally absent from this recording, since the central quartet belongs to the glorious group of six which Mozart, now firmly established in Vienna, dedicated to his elder in 1785. Twelve years earlier, the teenage composer was still amusing himself with the Sammartinian model in the third of his 'Milanese Quartets'. And four years after the 'Haydn' set, Mozart abandoned the divertimento style once and for all, presenting in the second of the 'Prussian' Quartets a score that radically renewed the practice of chamber music.

Etudes and early works, Major original compositions, Dances marches transcriptions of Liszt's own works, Pieces on National Themes, Operatic fantasies, transcriptions and paraphrases, Concert transcriptions, Beethoven and Schubert transcriptions, Rare wor

In February 2011, Hyperion and Australian pianist Leslie Howard celebrate the bicentenary of Liszt’s birth with their mind-bogglingly exhaustive series of Liszt piano albums in a milestone 99-CD boxed set. Available together for the first time, these recordings represent the finest and most comprehensive survey of the great Romantic’s oeuvre, and the Guinness World Record-recognised largest recording project ever undertaken by any solo pianist. Remarkable as much for its musicological research and scholarly rigour as for Howard’s Herculean piano playing, this collection is invaluable to serious lovers of Liszt. Every known note of Liszt’s piano music has been recorded and is included here: Leslie Howard’s 57 original volumes plus the further 3 supplements. Total duration: 7253 minutes.

De lamentatione Jeremiae prophetae, Incipit lamentatio Jeremiae prophetae, Palestrina Cantantibus organis, Anerio Salve regina, Palestrina, Stabile, Soriano, Dragoni, Giovannelli, Santini, Mancini Missa Cantantibus organis

The Cardinall’s Musick finished 2010 in a blaze of glory with their Gramophone Recording of the Year award for the last volume of their Byrd Edition. Only the second time in thirty years that an Early Music recording has received this prestigious accolade, it is a fitting tribute to the soaring artistry of the group and their director, Andrew Carwood. Their eagerly-awaited next disc features music from late 16th century Rome and ranges from Allegri’s Miserere, surely the best-known and best-loved work of this period, to a rarely-performed or recorded oddity. Seven Roman musicians came together (or were brought together) to write a Mass-setting where they each contributed different sections. The resulting work, the twelve-voice Missa Cantantibus organis, is a tribute both to Cecilia (the patron saint of music) and to Palestrina. The seven composers each take themes found in Palestrina’s motet of the same name and use them as the starting point for their new compositions. Palestrina himself is among the seven, with Giovanni Andrea Dragoni, Ruggiero Giovannelli, Curzio Mancini, Prospero Santini, Francesco Soriano and Annibale Stabile being the other six. All seven composers were prominent maestri in Rome and most appear to have had contact with Palestrina either as choristers or pupils.

Palestrina, Lotti, Victoria, Monteverdi, Cavalli, Gabrieli

Written for use exclusively by the papal choir, this music owes its popularity to the young Mozart, who having heard it once, copied the work from memory, bringing it to the outside world. Radical thought, as so often in history, was a punishable offence in the 16th century. Those who called for church reform were often dealt with brutally, paying with their lives for exposing the machinations and wrongdoings of Popes, bishops, priests and clerics. It was in such a climate that Palestrina, Monteverdi, Victoria and others produced their greatest religious music. This CD makes a soundtrack to the great theatre that was Roman worship in the 16th and 17th centuries, while also providing nearly 50 minutes of uplifting and spiritual music. This edition comes at budget price with the Newton Classics printed catalogue.

UNIKO features the Grammy-winning sensations of Kronos Quartet - a highlight of this year's Sydney Festival - together with a Finnish duo, accordion adventurer Kimmo Pohjonen and sampling guru Samuli Kosminen. Produced by Iceland’s Valgeir Sigurðsson, known for his collaboration with Björk, this album has been recorded at Avatar Studios in NYC. UNIKO was commissioned by Kronos in 2003 and premièred live at the Helsinki Festival in 2004. It has subsequently drawn sellout audiences in Moscow, Molde (Norway), and New York at the 2007 BAM NEXT WAVE Festival. UNIKO is highlighted by Pohjonen’s electrified and MIDI-fied accordion with Kosminen’s electronic percussion devices which reproduce his own accordion samples and those of Kronos’ instruments. These samples, together with live strings and electric accordion plus effects and manipulations create a new, multi-dimensional sound world.

This live concert recording made history as the UK’s first classical ‘on the night’ recording, available for the audience to take home after the concert. This is the first time it’s been made available outside the exclusive concert, and the first Mozart release on Gardiner's own label. 'These performances are full of John Eliot Gardiner’s customary drive and energy and his ear for clarity, as well as his attention to detail and textual accuracy. This is fresh, exciting Mozart.’ – International Record Review.

BONUS 'Inside the Infernal Comedy'

John Malkovich’s long-awaited Sydney Festival performance of The Giacomo Variations has been one of the most talked-about events of the season. He takes on the role of that most infamous seducer, Casanova, in an ‘opera play’ written by Michael Sturminger and conducted by Martin Haselböck. The three collaborators also worked on a similar project fusing classical music and brooding theatrical monologues: The Infernal Comedy, in which the womanising anti-hero is quite a different beast. Compelling viewing for Barry Kosky fans, this opera play – for baroque orchestra, two sopranos and actor – is based on the shocking real-life story of Jack Unterweger, a convicted murderer who wrote poetry, short stories, plays, and memoirs in prison. Austrian intellectuals championed his cause and he served only 15 years of a life-sentence, winning instant fame as a poster-boy for criminal rehabilitation. Unterweger went on to murder six prostitutes in the first year of his release, hanging himself after being found guilty. Malkovich delivers a haunting portrayal of his complex psychological subject, accompanied by music from Glück’s Don Juan and by Boccherini, Vivaldi, Handel, Weber, Haydn and Mozart. View the trailer.

Symphony No 35 in D Major K385 'Haffner', Symphony No 36 in C Major K425 'Linz', Horn Concerto No 1 in D Major K412 + BONUS A Cultural Portrait of Prague

The Europa-Konzert from Prague features detailed shots of Daniel Barenboim and the Berlin Philharmonic in an all-Mozart live concert. Barenboim leads the Piano Concerto No. 22, K.482 from the keyboard, along with conducting the Symphony No. 36 and the First Horn Concerto. Barenboim´s deep, ringing tone is heard to fine effect, and viewers get a rare moment of classical humor when he cues the first violins with a wink and grin at the end of the concerto´s first movement.” -Time Out Chicago.

excerpts from It's Gonna Rain, Piano Phase, Pendulum, Clapping Music, Music for Pieces of Wood, Music for 18 Musicians, Tehillim, Sextet, Different Trains, The Cave, Proverb, 2 x 5, BONUS Talks in Tokyo with Steve Reich, A Brief History of Music by Steve

The most striking and original of the minimalists, Steve Reich celebrates his 75th birthday in 2011. In Phase to Face we follow Reich from Normandy to Rome, Tokyo, New York and Manchester for the world premiere of 2x5, which will be performed at the Perth International Arts Festival in March.

Marius Petipa’s exotic ballet, set in legendary India, is a story of love, death and vengeful judgement. Natalia Makarova’s sumptuous recreation of Petipa’s choreography, with atmospheric sets by Pier Luigi Samaritini and beautiful costumes by Yolanda Sonnabend, stars Tamara Rojo as the Bayadère (temple dancer) Nikiya, Carlos Acosta as Solor, and Marianela Nuñez as Gamzatti whose alluring presence challenges Solor’s love for Nikiya. Filmed in High Definition and recorded in true surround sound.

Monteverdi’s seminal first opera tells the dramatic story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses of the descent of Orfeo (Georg Nigl) into the Underworld to recover his beloved wife Euridice (Roberta Invernizzi), who has died from a snake bite. In a new production for La  Scala,  based  on  a  painting  by  Titian  and  directed  by  Robert Wilson,  the  opera receives  a  powerful  and  inspiring  performance  from  a  fine  cast,  the  Orchestra  of Teatro alla Scala and Concerto  Italiano under  the much-admired  Italian early music specialist,  Rinaldo  Alessandrini.  Filmed  in  High  Definition  and  recorded  in  true surround sound.