2 CDs for the price of 1. 2010 is the year we bid farewell to Dame Joan Sutherland, and also the year in which we mark the 50th anniversary of her debut in the role of Elvira. This young and extraordinary bel canto talent is the heroine in the 1960 Glyndebourne production. She has a beauty of tone, her voice fluent and eloquent, the intimate confines of the Glyndebourne opera house allowing the warm glowing colour in Sutherland’s voice to radiate. So acclaimed was this production that it was selected for Glyndebourne’s return to the Edinburgh Festival after a 4 year absence and Sutherland, so in love with her Glyndebourne costumes, borrowed them from the production for her performances as Elvira at the Gran Teatro del Liceo in Barcelona in December 1960.

With his magnificent voice and magnetic stage personality, the Swedish baritone Peter Mattei delights audiences at the Metropolitan in New York, La Scala in Milan, and Covent Garden in London, performing roles such as the Count in The Marriage of Figaro and the title roles in Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin and The Barber of Seville. He made his first recording for BIS in 1991, while still a student at the Stockholm University College of Opera, and this was soon followed by further projects, often with Mattei as a soloist with various choirs. The present disc is an anthology of highlights from fifteen years of recordings, taking in classic Swedish and international Christmas carols as well as Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. A colourful and kaleidoscopic mixture of sacred and profane, new and old, vivid comedy and the most profound solemnity – all performed by a singer who has been described as ‘so fine an actor that one hardly notices how brilliantly he is singing’.

The fifth exquisite Schubert Lieder recording for harmonia mundi from German baritone Matthias Goerne, a protégé of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. ‘Matthias Goerne is fast becoming the Fischer-Dieskau auf his generation, the standard-setting singer of the central lieder repertoire.’ (International Record Review). ‘In such repertoire Goerne’s mellow, darkly rounded timbre, expressive diction and care for a true, “bound” line are well nigh ideal.’ (Gramophone). ‘Even the lesser Schubert Lieder become gems from Goerne’s velvet baritone.’ (The Times).

Since Bach was more than cryptic in indicating the instrumentation of what is often regarded as his musical testament, The Art of Fugue has been subjected to an infinite variety of arrangements for all sorts of instruments. This recording follows a series of performances in which the musicians of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin tested a highly unusual concept: rather than play uniformly one after the other the contrapuncti and canons Bach left us, they have made great efforts to diversify both the instrumentarium and the macrostructure - to the point where we end up, to our delight, experiencing their interpretation as an exciting musical game for several players!

Acclaimed duo partners Jon Manasse and Jon Nakamatsu turn their focus on American composers in this jazz-inflected program of clarinet and piano music by Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, and, in premiere recordings, John Novacek and Paquito D'Rivera. 'A brilliant, if unusual, clarinet-and-piano team'. 'Jon Manasse's beautiful legato and Jon Nakamatsu's incisive pianism are a delight' -The Sunday Times.

'Satie’s music constitutes the foundation for what Mathias Regg calls 'Reflections on ...'. What we have here is a pendant to Stravinsky’s Pulcinella... thoroughly independent compositions using a musical x-ray of the original as their point of departure. According to Satie’s intention there is no sticking to the original and no psychological interpretation. The cycle represents a musical environment commenting on the composer Satie, and objectifies what in the original music is so amazing and charming. 'Jazz is screaming its sorrow into our faces and we don’t give a damn about it,' wrote Satie. 'That is what makes it so beautiful, so real.' — H.K. Grube

The second release in Valery Gergiev’s Shostakovich Symphony cycle features Symphonies Nos 2 and 11. As with the first release in the series, which featured Symphonies Nos 1 & 15 (MAR0502) and was nominated for two Grammy Awards, Gergiev conducts works from opposite ends of Shostakovich’s career. The Second and Eleventh symphonies are both inspired by Russian revolutions. The Eleventh Symphony, subtitled 'The Year 1905' marks the bloody revolution of that year. It is an astonishingly atmospheric symphony, of cinematic breadth, especially in second movement which depicts the Bloody Sunday massacre in St Petersburg. Symphony No 2 was written to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution. At less than 20 minutes, it is a much shorter work than the Eleventh symphony yet no less dramatic. Although dismissed by the composer later in his career as an experiment, it remains an important step in the development of one of the greatest symphonists and both works receive definitive performances from the Mariinsky Orchestra and Chorus.

This new release includes 2 works by Russian giants, the second Violin Concerto of Prokofiev and the Symphonic Dances by Rachmaninov.  Every season since 2005, Tugan Sokhiev has confirmed his status as a conductor of international renown. He has just been appointed Music Director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and will take up his duties for the 2012-13 season. The Prokofiev recording features Geneviève Laurenceau, a principal violinist for the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse with a promising solo career rapidly developing. In 2011, Sokhiev and the orchestra release Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony and Shostakovich’s Festive Overture in a new recording.

'He was an amazing musician. There can be very few conductors who can manage stylistically the breadth that he did. But I think my favourite contribution from him was bringing Czech music to the West.' This is opera star Renée Fleming’s glowing tribute to Sir Charles Mackerras, whose long and incredibly fruitful conducting career and life ended this July. Indeed, over the past few decades Czech music has not had a more ardent, tireless champion: 'I am a great fan of Dvořák’s music because it always seemed to me that, apart from Mozart, Dvořák is the greatest composer... He wrote these symphonies, he wrote tone poems, he wrote operas, he wrote chamber music, he wrote songs, he wrote religious music, everything... He’s just the greatest composer, except Mozart perhaps'. Supraphon had the truly great honour of working with this superlative Australian conductor for over three decades until the very end. The albums featuring his beloved Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in particular have captured Mackerras’s vision of works by the four greatest Czech composers. These award-winning recordings, across 6 CDs, present a rich musical legacy.

Throughout the music world, Mackerras’s name is synonymous with Czech music itself – Janáček in particular. Sir Charles fatefully encountered Janáček during the very first days of his studies with Václav Talich in Prague. Subsequently, he introduced Janáček to the wider world. 'Nobody needs me to say that Mozart and Handel are great composers, whereas they did need somebody to say that Janáček is a great composer too, and that’s what I did. If I have achieved anything in my life, it is the propagation of Janáček'. Sir Charles Mackerras – the conductor who brought Czech music to the wider world. His complete non-operatic recordings for Supraphon on two boxed sets, including a DVD of the Glagolitic Mass and other works in live performance.

Wagner would have loved the hi-tech, acrobatic  spectacle of La Fura dels Baus' breathtaking Ring Cycle, a true embodiment of the idealof the Gesamtkunswerk. Cirque du Soleil meets Blade Runner in this 'the Ring of the 21st century'!The specially priced 8-DVD boxed set contains all four operas in a Hardcover Slipcase. La Fura del Baus, famous for their opening ceremony of the Olympic games in Barcelona and opera stagings in Salzburg, present Valencia's landmark first complete Ring Cycle, conducted by Zubin Mehta with a cast of world-class Wagnerian singers including Salminen, Kapellmann, Mayer, Schnitzer and promising young talents like Jennifer Wilson (Brünnhilde), John Daszak (Loge) and Juha Uusitalo (Wotan). Running Time Total: 1056 minutes. 'It looks like a landmark Ring cycle, it is outstanding.' BBC Music Magazine. View the trailer

The intimate documentary film La Danse provided insight into the world of dancers from the Paris Opera Ballet. Now see them in action: three complete ballets by three great choreographers, danced by the Paris Opera Ballet and presented on DVD in a specially priced box set. The collection features Le Parc (Angelin Preljocaj) Signs (Carolyn Carlson) and Proust (Roland Petit); over five hours of sumptuous ballet from the French company whose 2009 Australian tour was a resounding success. See the trailer for Proust

Anna Caterina Antonacci is now acknowledged as a major artist, and her extraordinary vocal timbre and acting skills have enabled her to perform a vast and varied repertoire in the world’s most important theatres. She made her Covent Garden debut in the new Zambello production of Carmen in 2008 with Antonio Pappano and embodies the sultry heroine, now her signature role.  John Eliot Gardiner is one of the most versatile conductors of our time. Acknowledged as a key figure in the early music revival, he is the founder and artistic director of the Monteverdi Choir, the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. The extent of his repertoire is illustrated in over 250 recordings which have received numerous international awards. Over the years Gardiner has won more Gramophone awards than any other artist. Probably the most francophile of English conductors, John Eliot Gardiner returned to the Opéra Comique, Paris for a much aclaimed production of Carmen last year. It was broadcast live to 50 theatres in Europe and also recorded for TV. Bonus features include the return of Carmen to the Opéra Comique, Interviews with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Jérôme Deschamps and Agnès Terrier. Running time 191 mins.

Conducted by Christian Thielemann, this performance was the sensation of the 2010 Baden-Baden Festival. A one-act masterpiece inspired by Greek mythology, it is a dense, jagged cry for justice and vengeance. With its powerfully expressive chords, spooky waltz rhythms and mad dance of triumph, it shakes the audience to the core. Herbert Wernicke’s legendary production for the Bayerische Staatsoper stands out for its clear lines, classical structural elements and striking colour contrasts. Linda Watson, one of the great Wagnerian sopranos of today, superbly masters her role debut as Elektra, one of opera’s most demanding roles.

Ostensibly Richard Wagner's opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg tells a humorous tale about artistically inclined craftsmen. Goldsmith Veit Pogner promises his daughter Eva's hand in marriage to the winner of a song contest, to which three men are potentially eligible. But upon closer inspection, what is at first glance a harmless farce in a middle-class setting emerges as a profound social analysis. Wagner uses his protagonists to show how a community deals with tradition and those who break with it and just how much innovation and deviation from the norm it can tolerate – as well as to examine what value society places, and should place, on art. This 2-DVD set is part of a new Opus Arte series from the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, Wagner's own theatre.