With their founder and conductor Christophe Rousset, Les Talens Lyriques present both new revivals and established masterpieces of the Baroque and Classical eras. Among their most notable achievements is Handel's Scipione, recorded fifteen years ago. That recording was no longer available, and no other version has been recorded since. Hailed by the international music press, their Scipione boasts a superb cast including Sandrine Piau, Derek Lee Ragin, Doris Lamprechts amd Olivier Lallouette. This reissue remains the only available recording of Handel's rarely heard masterpiece.

String Quartet in D Major, String Quartet No 2 in C Major Op 36, Three Divertimenti, Miniature Suite

Benjamin Britten always enjoyed performing with small ensembles – he played the viola as well as the piano – and his natural facility in writing for strings was evident from a very early age. The programme on this disc contains several examples of those early works, including a world première recording of his Miniature Suite, composed at the age of 16. The disc opens with String Quartet No.2, the most ambitious of Britten’s three mature quartets. Composed in 1945, a few months after the première of the opera Peter Grimes, this work was part of a commemoration of the 250th anniversary of Henry Purcell’s death. Nevertheless, the connection with Purcell is only explicit in the third movement, called Chacony. In this first part of a survey of Britten’s works for string quartet, the internationally acclaimed Emperor Quartet performs the music of their compatriot.

Korngold Concerto in D Major for Violin and Orchestra Op 35, Dvarionas Pezzo elegiaco 'by the lake', Concerto in B Minor for Violin and Orchestra

Vadim Gluzman and his Stradivarius violin have enraptured listeners on several discs previously released on BIS, including his acclaimed double-bill of Tchaikovsky’s and Glazunov’s violin concertos in 2008. On his latest album, with the eminent support of the Residentie Orkest Den Haag under Neeme Järvi, Gluzman performs works for violin and orchestra composed in the three years following the end of World War II, by two composers whose fates were very different. Exiled from his native Austria, Erich Korngold became a celebrated composer of film music in Hollywood – and in his Violin Concerto in D major reused a number of themes from different films. Balys Dvarionas, on the other hand, is even today barely known outside his native Lithuania, even though his Violin Concerto in B minor was taken up by the legendary David Oistrakh. But the two men are united in their music’s heartfelt and unabashed romanticism.

Rarely appearing together on disc, William Walton’s two symphonies are separated by some 25 years. The First Symphony was composed after his dazzling early success, beginning with Façade and culminating in two scores written before Walton reached the age of thirty: the Viola Concerto and the oratorio Belshazzar’s Feast. After this, composition became more difficult, and progress on the symphony was tortuous and protracted. Nevertheless, the work has a strikingly positive tone – perhaps in celebration of the victory over the many demons and difficulties that had attended its creation. 22 years later, in 1957, the musical world was a very different place, but Walton’s response was not to seek solace in reflective nostalgia. It is rather as if he conceived the Second Symphony as a follow-up to his terse and bubbly Partita for orchestra, building on the confidence that the success of that score had given the always self-doubting composer. Owain Arwel Hughes, who conducts the present recording, first made his name with an electrifying televised performance of Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast which received a notable accolade from the composer. On this recording he brings Walton across the English Channel and conducts one of the leading French orchestras, Orchestre national de Lille, for their first appearance on the BIS label.

Bach arr Gounod Ave Maria, Bach Presto from Sonata for Solo Violin in G Minor BWV1001, Rimsky-Korsakov Flight of the Bumble-bee, Rachmaninov Vocalise, Chopin Nocturne in E Flat Major Op 9 No 2, Scriabin Prelude in B Major Op 16 No 1, Kreisler Liebesleid,

A calendar filled with orchestral concerts and chamber recitals in many of the world’s most prestigious venues has given the clarinettist Martin Fröst ample opportunity to develop a wide range of encores, for every occasion.  Known for the imaginatively themed concert programmes he devises with various musician friends, he has also explored a number of musical genres. These aspects of his artistry are both demonstrated on this constantly engaging disc, which includes immortal gems such as Rachmaninov’s Vocalise and Kreisler’s Liebeslied as well as pieces rather less usual in a classical context: Charlie Chaplin’s 'Smile' and the klezmer traditional 'Let’s Be Happy' rubbing shoulders with an improvisation over the Nat King Cole standard 'Nature Boy'. Mezzo-soprano Malena Ernman joins the clarinet in the head-long flight of not one, but two bumble-bees. Torleif Thedéen’s cello sings a heartfelt Ave Maria above the gentle accompaniment of Fröst’s clarinet, and Roland Pöntinen plays piano throughout.

Born in 1972, Sebastian Fagerlund has rapidly emerged as one of the most interesting Finnish composers of his generation. At the core of his style is a richly sonorous, swiftly flowing idiom that is multi-layered in texture but avoids modernism’s severity of tone. His rhythms are rich, sometimes clearly motoric, sometimes capriciously syncopated and more freely shaped. To counterbalance the rapid currents and rhythmic vivacity there are delicate, lyrically emotional passages. His music has often been tinged with a feeling of drama even when the forces are purely instrumental, and the move to opera, for the first time here in Döbeln, is thus completely natural. The main character of the opera is a historic figure, the Swedish General Georg Carl von Döbeln, a hero of the 1808–09 war over Finland between Russia and Sweden. The plot incorporates actual events during the war, but mixes them with fantasies and hallucinations in a many-faceted emotional mosaic.

Neeme Järvi has been recording for Chandos for several decades now, especially with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, with which he has made more than 100 CDs. Many of these recordings have received tremendous critical acclaim and include several Gramophone Award Winners. This is his second Chandos recording with the Residentie Orchestra The Hague, of which he is chief conductor. The first, of Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony (CHSA5080) was released in April to great acclaim. Sydney Morning Herald's 4-star review praised the recording for its 'obsessive care...reverent precision and wonderful tonal balance’. Mahler’s Seventh is perhaps the most enigmatic of all his symphonies. It begins with a striking funeral march, which develops into a powerful allegro, though the music is at the same time full of ‘dream-like’ elements. These fantasy elements pervade the serenade movements, which are separated by an exciting central scherzo, and the symphony ends with a vigorously contrapuntal finale. Perhaps the symphony can be seen as a journey from darkness to light, from the B minor gloom of the beginning, to the blaze of C major at the end. The journey is fascinating and very rewarding.

Variations on a Slovak Theme, Variations on a Theme of Rossini

Paul Watkins is one of the world’s finest cellists, here accompanied by his brother Huw Watkins, with whom he has developed an extremely rewarding musical partnership. The three cello sonatas of the Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů span the period 1939 – 52 and are full of rewarding musical invention. The experience of his long exile was often expressed in his music, particularly here in the Third Sonata and in the Variations on a Slovak Theme. In the Second Sonata, of 1941, the composer embraced classical forms, though the first movement is typically vigorous and energetic, in the composer’s most rhythmic manner. The second movement is full of passionate longing, with a gorgeous lyrical cello line, whilst the finale uses the composer’s characteristic motor rhythms, with powerful stamping gestures suggesting Bohemian peasant dances. The Third Sonata, completed in October 1952, is the most immediately appealing of the three sonatas, full of attractive Czech melodies and offering essentially good-natured melodies and harmony – as well as humour, especially in the finale. The Variations on a Theme of Rossini (1942), dedicated to Gregor Piatigorsky, shows the composer at his most wittily light-hearted, and offers brilliance and virtuosity in spades.

Born on 18 July 1959, Jonathan Dove is one of Britain’s leading composers of opera; having written more than 20 operatic works, he is the most performed contemporary opera composer in the UK. His community opera Tobias and the Angel premiered in 1999 at Christ Church, Highbury Fields in London, was taken up in 2005 by the Young Vic / English Touring Opera. The libretto, by David Lan, is based on the Book of Tobit from the biblical Apocrypha. The colourfully biblical story of Tobit, who is blinded after daring to give a fellow Jew a proper burial, and the ensuing adventures of his son, Tobias, is vividly portrayed. Although the racial oppression and demonic possession which are part of this work are fully developed, it is undoubtedly one of Dove’s brightest, even serene, scores, possessing immense appeal and communicative power. The nine instruments of the orchestra provide plenty of colour, for example effectively evoking the Jewish elements of a klezmer band, and David Lan’s libretto does a masterly job in telling the story in an almost cinematic way. This is the work’s premiere recording.

This is the third volume in Chandos’ championing of the music of Kenneth Leighton, presenting two further premiere recordings. The previous volume, including Symphony No. 2 (Sinfonia mistica), received tremendous critical acclaim, earning a Rosette in the latest Penguin Guide to Recorded Music. It was a Critic’s Choice in the December 2009 issue of Gramophone, Andrew Achenbach writing: ‘Chandos’ most valuable exploration of Kenneth Leighton’s large-scale output continues with this exhilarating coupling… Miss at your peril.’ This latest volume includes the very successful First Symphony (1964) and the Third Piano Concerto performed by Howard Shelley.

Webern In The Summer Wind

Hot on the heels of a Gramophone Editor’s Choice for his Alpine Symphony, Bernard Haitink conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, one of the world’s greatest Strauss ensembles, in Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life) whose US première it gave in 1900. The CSO pours out a lush interpretation of Richard Strauss’s large and complex tone poem in their newest live recording. Principal Conductor Bernard Haitink leads with restraint and allows the strings and woodwinds to sing. In the famous Battle Scene, the brass and percussion roar, while concertmaster Robert Chen paints his violin solos depicting Strauss’ wife, Pauline, with tender beauty. Webern’s early tone poem Im Sommerwind is indebted to Strauss’s rhapsodic romanticism and overflows with spacious melodies. A musical force in its home city and around the world, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is consistently hailed as one of the finest international orchestras.

Apollo e Dafne (La terra e liberata) HWV122, Agrippina condotta a morire (Dunque sara pur vero) HWV110, Cuopre tal volta il cielo HWV98

For the final volume in Fabio Bonizzoni’s survey of cantatas written by Georg Friedrich Handel during his stay in Italy, the background scenery moves – like a reflection of the Grand Tour – from Rome to Naples; the troubled times in a Rome besieged by Imperial troops during the War of the Spanish Succession may have encouraged the young, itinerant Saxon musician to consider that heading down south was safer. It was a time when Handel was composing the three highly-charged cantatas heard on this disc and he would have been aware that Naples was blessed with a bass singer, Domenico Antonio Manna, possessed of a prodigious vocal range, encompassing over two and a half octaves. Joining Fabio Bonizzoni and La Risonanza for these modern-day realizations of the Baroque Italian musical world experienced by Handel are Furio Zanasi and Thomas Bauer for the bass roles, as well as soprano Roberta Invernizzi, an integral feature of this revelatory Handel series since its inception. The series has been awarded multiple Gramophone Editors Choices: ‘Nothing short of perfection…La Risonanza play with spirited elegance’ with singers in ‘sparkling form’  (praise for Vol. 2, GCD921522).

A seminal moment in the arrival of Italian music on Spanish soil came in the summer of 1708 when Antonio Caldara, finding his opportunities for providing dramatic works for the opera-loving Duke of Mantua limited by the War of the Spanish Succession, headed to Barcelona to take on a commission from Archduke Charles (Carlos III), who was preparing his own wedding festivities at the court he had established to contend for the Spanish throne. For three centuries this serenata, Il più bel nome, has (like much of the hugely successful theatre music of its time written by this Baroque composern from Venice) been passed over, prompting Emilio Moreno and El Concierto Español to gather together an outstanding quintet of soloists to lead this paean of praise to St Elisabeth and, by extension, to Archduke Charles’ wife, Princess Elisabeth Christine of Wolfenbüttel. With appropriate period stylishness, María Espada, Robin Blaze, Raquel Andueza, Marianne Beate Kielland and Agustín Prunell-Friend capture the splendour of early 18th-century courtly musical culture and the seeds for the enduring operatic passion of Barcelona.

Dvorák’s opera Rusalka reaches extraordinary heights of melodic eloquence. Rusalka is also the most consciously ‘through-composed’ of Dvorák’s operas but this does not prevent Czech opera’s most famous aria, the ineffably beautiful ‘Song to the Moon’, being frequently extracted from the score and sung as a standalone aria. Sometimes thought of as a ‘one aria opera’, this is just one of many glorious arias for Rusalka, among them the moving first-act plea, ‘Your ancient wisdom everyone knows’, made to the witch Jezibaba asking her to make her human, and her desolate lament ‘Robbed of my youth’  at the start of Act 3. Rusalka is by no means a mainstay in the operatic oeuvre but this new 2009 production and recording from Glyndebourne is destined to put this much overlooked masterpiece to the forefront of romantic repertory.

Ana María Martínez’s astonishing humanity shines through in her heartrending portrayal of Rusalka, burly tenor Brandon Jovanovich is a handsome Prince, real Slavic flavour added with Mischa Schelomianski as Rusalka’s wise old father Vodnik, and Larissa Diadkova as the evil witch Ježíbaba, both giving exemplary performances, with Czech conductor Jirí Belohlávek and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. It was Belohlávek's intent 'not merely to conduct the piece but to honour it as a treasured part of his heritage' (Independent). 'With 'a cast who sing with unbridled passion, the tragic depth of Dvorák’s music is fully plumbed.’ The Times

Britten Cello Sonata in C Major Op 65, Bridge Cello Sonata in D Minor, Bax Legend Sonata for Cello and Piano

The young German cellist Johannes Moser, now an international music celebrity who recently performed with Sydney Symphony, has built his reputation in part on his exquisite chamber music performances and intriguing repertoire. He continues in this vein with a selection of English works for cello and piano. The oldest work on this CD is by Frank Bridge: The two-movement Cello Sonata in D minor dates from the years 1913 - 1917, and reflects the composer’s deep emotional response to the carnage of the First World War.

The Cello Sonata by Arnold Bax, dating from 1943 is written in an expressively late Romantic idiom and is comparable to the corresponding pieces by Rachmaninoff, as heard in the broadly lyrical 'Lento espressivo'. The friendship between Britten and Mstislav Rostropovich resulted in the composer’s Cello Sonata Opus 65 in 1961. It was the prelude to the large-scale pieces Britten wrote for the Russian cellist.

Hallé releases the live recording of its universally acclaimed performance of Wagner's Götterdämmerung, this month an Editor's Choice in Gramophone. In a landmark move the orchestra will release the opera in dual format; as both an MP3 (CDHLM7530) and standard 5 disc CD set, making the recording available to the widest possible audience. The recording was taken live at sell-out concerts, which were the showpiece of the Hallé’s 2009 artistic season. Anticipation had been high since the dates were first announced, given the superb cast (including Australian baritone Peter Coleman-Wright) and Sir Mark Elder's unrivalled reputation as one of the finest Wagner conductors in the world. The atmosphere at the concerts was electric, the critics unanimous in their praise and the audience ecstatic. This recording perfectly captures the drama and intensity of this great musical occasion, with orchestral playing of unrivalled quality and magnificent performances from the whole cast.

'The most compelling and best-cast Götterdämmerung on disc since Barenboim's from Bayreuth' -Gramophone

Gesange der Fruhe for Piano Op 133, Chaconne (Bach-Schumann)

Following his earlier album of Schumann hommages to Bach, played on the same 1837 Érard piano he uses here, Andreas Staier is now joined by violinist Daniel Sepec in a programme of considerably later works by Schumann. But these two violin sonatas and the Gesänge der Frühe of 1853 show no retreat from the composer's ideal: here too, 'the poet speaks'.

Bartok String Quartet No 4 Sy 91, Ligeti String Quartet No 1 Metamorphosis Nocturnes, Kurtag 12 Mikroludien Op 13

It is sometimes said that the essence of 'classical' music lies in the principle of variation; but when the idea of incessant transformation of the musical material irrigates scores like these quartets by three eminent Hungarian composers of the 20th century, the resulting sonic impressions are very different. The governing principle here is metamorphosis, an idea as dear to Bartók as it was to his younger compatriots, Ligeti and Kurtág.

Saint-Saëns today has become one of those composers known through only a handful of works, but his output was prodigious and there is a great deal of music waiting to be discovered beyond Carnival of the Animals. Unfortunately his long life led to him passing from fame as one of the most naturally gifted musicians ever, to someone who had become passé with the arrival of the likes of Debussy and Ravel. This probably explains the neglect of so much supremely crafted music. As a classicist Saint-Saëns was attracted to sonata form throughout his life and the two cello sonatas illustrate well the consistency of his compositional style over the 33 years that separate them, there is always a French clarity about the writing and also an irresistible forward momentum which comes from a directness in the structural plan which harks back to Mozart and Beethoven.

By way of encores the disc offers two versions of the famous 'Swan' from Carnival of the Animals. The first was published by the composer before he allowed the release of the rest of Carnival (only published after his death), the second is an arrangement by pianist and Saint-Saëns pupil Godowsky for violin and piano, which has here been further transcribed for cello and piano. 'These artists radiate total conviction and a life-enhancing vitality and sensitivity' -Penguin Guide

Handel Te Deum HWV278, Jubilate HWV279, Blow I Was Glad When They Said Unto Me, Boyce Lord Thou Has Been Our Refuge

This recording was made to mark the tercentenary of the formal opening in 1697 of St Paul's, rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London. It consists of four notable pieces written for the cathedral between 1697 and 1755. John Blow wrote a new anthem for the opening ceremony. 'I was glad when they said unto me' is a setting of the text which Bishop Compton took for his sermon during the service. Handel's Te Deum and Jubilate, written for the Peace of Utrecht, was first heard in the Cathedral on 5 March 1713. William Boyce's anthem 'Lord, thou hast been our refuge' was written in 1755 for the Festival of the Sons of the Clergy, the charity that raised (and still raises) funds for needy clergymen and their families. Like all the pieces recorded here, it is music that demands to be heard in the spacious acoustic of the building for which it was written.

'Invigorating and uplifting, this is a disc to raise the lowest and most jaded of spirits' -Fanfare

Lied zum Geburtstage meines guten Vaters, Pauvre Jeanette, Erster Verlust Op 99 No 1, Das Madchens Klage, Wanderlied Op 57 No 6, Minnelied, Frage Op 9 No 1

Eugene Asti’s pioneering Mendelsson Songs and Duets series, containing a large amount of first recordings and rarities, concludes with this fifth volume, a generous two CDs for the price of one. The contents range from Mendelssohn’s first extant composition of any kind – a birthday song presented to his father by the precocious ten-year-old composer – to settings of the German romantic poets Schiller, Goethe and Eichendorff,which place Mendelssohn firmly in the canon of the great Lieder composers. These works are performed by a talented group of young singers who will be familiar from other discs in the series, including the winner of the 2008 Kathleen Ferrier prize, Katherine Broderick.

The music of William Boyce has always retained a special place in the English repertory, it being written of him that, 'there is an original and sterling merit in his productions, founded as much on the study of our own old masters, as on the best models of other countries' (Burney). This recording is of the Twelve Sonatas for Two Violins with a Bass for the Violoncello or Harpsicord, published in 1747, and three unpublished Trio Sonatas newly edited from a manuscript in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. These particularly attractive works boast a wide range of stylistic features and forms and for many years held centre-stage in England as masterpieces in the genre. The performances are divided between a solo quartet and the full Parley of Instruments, so ensuring over two hours of varied and inspiring listening. 'Yet another treasurable document of England’s musical heritage.' -Gramophone

In his setting of Orlando (drawn from Tasso’s Orlando furioso) Handel offers a score of remarkable dramatic power, diversity and originality. Orlando’s mad scene and his slumber aria are among the composer’s most striking creations. Everything in the opera arouses admiration: the extremely varied scoring, the exuberant vocal writing, the rhythmic invention, and the supple melodies. Included is an essay on opera seria, or 'not so seria', by Baroque pioneer Jean-Claude Malgoire.

Litanie per la Beata Vergine, Ave Regina Coelorum, Laudate Pueri, Clamemus ante deum, O voces formindandae, Salve Regina, Magnificat

Alessandro Melani (Pistoia, 1639 – Rome, 1703) belonged to a family of musicians. His eldest brother Atto was a noted castrato and composer, while Jacopo wrote comic operas. Melani was for some years the maestro di cappella of the basilica Santa Maria Maggiore, later placed in charge of the Salve, the noble Borghese family’s private cappella inside the basilica. Melani’s will declared his intention of leaving his autograph manuscripts of music written for Salve to the basilica’s archives. These compositions, fifty-four in all, are still held today in the archives of Santa Maria Maggiore, and include numerous settings of Marian antiphons, among them two of the pieces recorded here, the Litany of the Blessed Virgin (for nine voices, the forces available to the Salve) and the Ave Regina coelorum. In addition to this Marian repertory, Melani’s output of sacred music comprises a large-scale mass for sixteen voices, two collections of motets and the Concerti spirituali. These works are almost totally unknown both to musicologists and to the public. Rinaldo Alessandrini and his Concerto Italiano has championed these Roman Baroque jewels, the works on this disc all premiere recordings.

Sonatas, Scarlatti Stabat Mater, Messa per il santissimo natale

3-CD boxed set for the price of a single disc. A less remarked upon but equally important celebration in the year of Chopin: 2010 marks the 300th anniversary of Pergolesi’s birth in 1710. Though he died aged only 26, his glorious Stabat Mater remains one of the most popular and deeply moving sacred works ever composed. This exquisite collection from Naїve includes Rinaldo Alessandrini’s classic recording of the Stabat Mater (OP30406) alongside his 2008 Pergolesi Mass (OP30461), and Fabio Biondi’s beautiful Salve Regina (OP3088). Praise for Pergolesi/Scarlatti Masses: ‘the performances are terrific. The Pergolesi especially is shattering at times, while the Scarlatti is gorgeous. Even by Alessandrini's high standards this is smashing.’ –Gramophone

Purcell Chaconne, Frescobaldi Partite Cento Sopra Passacagli, Primo Libro di Toccate, Antoine Forqueray La Buisson, Chaconne Gratieusement, Il Suite, Ligeti Hungarian Passacaglia, Muffat Passacaglia, Apparatus musico-organisticus, Fischer Chaconne, Parnas

The first album in some years to feature Rinaldo Alessandrini as solo harpsichordist rather than ensemble director, Chaconne traces the history of chaconne and passacaglia forms in an eclectic program from Frescobaldi to Ligeti. The music of Handel, Couperin and Purcell is performed alongside lesser-known works by Storace, Muffat, Forqueray, and a new piece by Alessandrini himself, Déraisonnable beauté. He appears in Melbourne October 2010.

Excertps from Donizetti Ugo conte di Parigi, Parisina, Rossini Ricciardo e Zoraide, Ermione, Meyerbeer Dinorah, Margherita d'Anjou

The disc, featuring some of Opera Rara’s finest singers, is dedicated to Sir Peter Moores and the Peter Moores Foundation in recognition of their invaluable support over the years. Since its foundation four decades ago, Opera Rara has enriched the lives of generations of opera lovers and has altered perceptions through its dedication to exploring and reviving rare works from the Italian bel canto period and from the middle decades of the 19th-century French tradition.

By far the majority of Opera Rara recordings have been world premiere recordings. In many cases, the work itself will have been rediscovered by Opera Rara after decades (and, in some cases, more than a century) of total neglect. This compilation features excerpts from the works of the most significant composers who are at the centre of Opera Rara’s output: Donizetti, Rossini, Mercadante, Meyerbeer, Pacini and Offenbach. The excerpts are taken from the first Opera Rara recording by each composer and from the most recent. Opera Rara shines the spotlight on as many as possible of the greatest stars who have recorded for the label over the years, including Australian soprano Yvonne Kenny.

Recorded live at Bayreuth Festival Germany 2008

Recorded live at the Bayreuth Festival in 2008, this is the second part of Wagner’s epic Ring Cycle. Christian Thielemann, one of the most sought-after conductors in the world, takes the baton with the Bayreuth Festival Chorus and Orchestra.

'Thielemann’s conducting again creates the opera’s unique mystery…The first scene between Sieglinde, Siegmund and Hunding is really dramatic with Eva-Maria Westbroek’s vividly sung Sieglinde, Kwangchul Youn’s fine Hunding and Endrik Wottrich’s Seigmund now dramatically developed. …the wholeness of music, performance and human joy and suffering leaves the audience deeply moved and passionately enthusiastic.' -The Stage

Vesti La Giubba, The Floral Dance, Rhapsody in Blue, Gypsy Rondo, Prelude in C Sharp Minor, Your Tiny Hand is Frozen, Salut D'Amour, Heroic Polonaise

Hear a classical treasure-chest that unlocks to reveal 42 of the most priceless gems of the 78 era, truly a golden age of great artists. Opening with the record that effectively started the whole record industry: Caruso’s 'Vesti la giubba', all the best-loved singers are here, through Australian Peter Dawson, John McCormack, Beniamino Gigli, Paul Robeson, Heddle Nash, Richard Tauber and many others, finally to close with Björling’s 'Nessun dorma'. All the greatest instrumentalists too play their party pieces: Casals, Landowska, Segovia, Heiftz, Schnabel, Rubinstein, Brain, and so many more. In addition Kreisler plays Kreisler, Rachmaninov plays Rachmaninov, Grainger plays Grainger, Elgar conducts Elgar, Coates conducts Coates, and Gershwin plays his own Rhapsody in Blue. But perhaps the most nostalgic quintessentials, and the purest diamonds in the treasure-chest, are Master Ernest Lough singing 'O for the Wings of a Dove', and that immortal gathering of 250 Manchester schoolchildren on 24th June 1929 singing 'Nymphs and Shepherds' – voices 'that will never grow old'.

Arias from La Semiramide Riconosciuta, Ezio, La Clemenza di Tito, Antigono, Telemaco, Il Re Pastore, Orfeo ed Euridice, Alceste, Paride ed Elena, Iphigenie en Aulide

The Classical Opera Company, directed by Ian Page, take on an chronological assortment of arias and recitatives from Gluck’s opera, with the vocal contributions of Ailish Tynan and Sophie Bevan (sopranos) and Anna Stephany (mezzo-soprano). The Classical Opera Company was founded in 1997 by conductor Ian Page. It specialises in the music of Mozart and his contemporaries, performing with its own period-instrument orchestra, and is emerging as one of Britain’s most exciting and highly regarded young arts organisations. It has attracted considerable critical and public acclaim, not only for the high quality of its performances but also for its imaginative programming and, in particular, its ability to discover and nurture outstanding young singers.

'My personal pick for giving this year is the Classical Opera Company's glorious The A-Z of Mozart Opera, which is fresh, diverse, insightful and illuminating (everything that such recital anthologies usually fail to be).' David Vickers, Gramophone

Verdi’s musical comedy Falstaff in a brilliant studio recording from the early years of television. Otto Edelmann’s comic Falstaff is one of the authoritative interpretations of the role in both musical and dramatic terms. The cast of Hellmuth Matiasek’s production includes Elisabeth Höngen, Melitta Muszely and Graziella Sciutti, and the Viennese Symphony Orchestra is directed by the legendary conductor Nello Santi. A document of operatic and film history, this restored recording is available for the first time on DVD.

As one of the most beautiful open-air venues in Europe, the Berlin Waldbühne draws more than twenty thousand people each year to enjoy popular classical music performed by the world-renowned Berlin Philharmonic under the beguiling canopy of a summer night’s sky. While some of the most famous conductors have already taken the podium at these concerts, repeated performances have most notably been given by the Italian maestro Claudio Abbado. The programme of Abbado’s 1996 'Italian Night' at the Waldbühne presented highlights from operas by the Italian composers Verdi, Rossini and the master of bel canto: Bellini. Claudio Abbado and the BPO were once again accompanied by outstanding luminaries from the international opera scene: the Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu, whose beauty is surpassed only by that sublime voice, and the Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, one of the most sought-after opera and oratorio singers in the world. Australian concert-goers will revel in the Berlin Philharmonic's thrilling power late 2010 for the orchestra's high-profile tour.

Brahms, Dvorak, Liszt, J and R Strauss, Smetana, Enescu, Von Suppe

Based on the amphitheatre in the ancient Greek city of Epidaurus, and nestled in a natural valley, the Waldbühne theatre seats 22,000 in leafy comfort and remains one of Berlin‘s favourite open-air concert venues, with magnificent views of the stage. World class conductors lead the Berlin Philharmonic in evening concerts of popular favourites.

At the Waldbühnen concert in 1994, the Berlin Philharmonic presented 'A Night of Dances and Rhapsodies‘ exploring the works of central European composers. Dance and folk favourites of the 19th century were performed under the baton of Mariss Jansons. Australian concert-goers will revel in the Berlin Philharmonic's thrilling power late 2010 for the orchestra's high-profile tour.

Strauss R, Wagner

Led by celebrated American conductor James Levine, the 1999 Waldbühne concert presented by the Berlin Philharmonic features music by Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner. The orchestra is joined by Canadian tenor Ben Heppner, who is renowned for his electrifying Wagner performances.

Verdi, Schubert, Wagner, Berlioz

We are in an historical place: the monastery El Escorial, north-west of Madrid, which King Philip II had built between 1563 and 1584 in honour of St. Lawrence, on whose saint day the battle of San Quintin was won. This European Concert, which annually celebrates the founding of the Berlin Philharmonic on 1st May 1882, was performed in this venue on the World Heritage List of the UNESCO. The orchestra was conducted by Daniel Barenboim. The soloist on this evening was the star tenor Plácido Domingo.

Mozart

The Berlin Philharmonic performs a European Concert annually to celebrate its founding on 1st May 1882. These jubilee concerts have taken the ensemble to music centres such as London and Florence. The performance series staged its premiere in 1991 in Prague: the Czech capital is historically one of Europe's most vibrant musical cities. In the Mozart bicentenary year 1991, the Berlin Philharmonic, under the baton of Claudio Abbado, naturally introduced the concert cycle with an all-Mozart programme.

Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Verdi

Stockholm‘s Vasa Museum harbours an extraordinary historical attraction: a large, fully intact sailing ship from the 17th Century, the 'Vasa'. Built in 1626, she capsized and sank before she had even sailed out of port for her maiden voyage, not to be recovered from a depth of 32 metres until 1953. Today, the huge exhibition hall of the Vasa Museum is home to the ancient ship, which at a keel-to-mast height of some 52 metres protrudes through the museum‘s roof. These unusual surroundings formed the venue for the Berlin Philharmonic‘s thrilling 1998 European Concert in Sweden, which was conducted by Claudio Abbado and featured works by Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Debussy and Verdi.

Mozart, Chopin, Schumann

With Krakow‘s glorious St. Mary Church as the setting, the world-acclaimed Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra performs a concert to commemorate the orchestra‘s 1882 founding. Featuring Bernard Haitink as guest conductor, the concert‘s repertoire includes soprano Christine Schäfer performing two pieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the brilliant Allelujah from the motet Exsultate, jubilate followed by the richly introspective 'Et incarnatus est' from the C minor Mass. Also featured is renowned pianist Emanuel Ax, who performs the Second Concerto by Poland‘s most beloved native composer, Frédéric Chopin. The concert concludes with the Berlin Philharmonic‘s performance of Robert Schumann‘s radiant Spring Symphony.

The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, Coronation Anthems Let thy hand be strengthened and The King shall rejoice, Excerpts from Semele, Organ Concerto in F Major Op 4 No 4 Original Version

Handel's Coronation Anthems have delighted audiences ever since their first performance in 1727. They appear in all their glory in this celebratory Prom concert interspersed with a selection of Handel favourites. Harry Christophers and The Sixteen have long been celebrated for their interpretations of Handel's great masterpieces, winning a Gramophone Award for their disc of Coronation Anthems in 2009 (COR16066). In this BBC Prom from the Royal Albert Hall they capture some of the composer's most ebullient moments in concert performance, from the ever popular Arrival of the Queen of Sheba to the ubiquitous sounds of Zadok the Priest. All Four Coronation Anthems feature on this DVD as well as virtuosic excerpts from the oratorio Semele sung by Carolyn Sampson, and the Organ Concerto in F major performed by Alastair Ross in its original version which finishes with a rousing 'Alleluia' chorus.

Bonus features include two works not shown in the BBC Two broadcast - Coronation Anthem My heart is inditing and Salve Regina.

Set against the magnificent backdrop of Lake Constance, every production at the Bregenz Festival faces strong natural competitors. But with this first-ever production of Verdi’s Aida (in an abridged version) on the lakeside stage, it is easy to overlook the beauty of the surrounding nature. Stage director Graham Vick and set designer Paul Brown conjure an 'open-air spectacle of superlatives' (Die Zeit) that throws a bridge between ancient Egypt and America today. The stage effects are stunning: ruins of the Statue of Liberty pieced together with the help of giant cranes, boats carrying priestesses and prisoners – parts of the opera even take place in the lake itself! - and in the Grand March a golden elephant comes sailing into view on a barge. Under Carlo Rizzi, the Vienna Symphony brilliantly support the chorus and soloists, among whom Iano Tamar (Amneris) and Tatiana Serjan (Aida) stand out. Drawing capacity crowds of over 200,000 spectators in just one season, Aida is the festival’s most successful opera to date, even more so than the Tosca production shown in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace.

Ravel Valses nobles et sentimentales, Bartok Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No 1 Sz83, Stravinsky Firebird

Pierre Boulez, Daniel Barenboim and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra play 20th-century classics in this concert from the Salzburg Festival opening night. 'Boulez at his most responsive and insightful in all three works. And a grandiose orchestra – the Vienna Philharmonic in top form.'

The good the bad and the ugly, Once upon a time in the west, A fistful of dynamite, Once upon a time in America, Cinema paradiso, The mission

Available in Australia for the first time, this must-have DVD for film buffs and music lovers celebrates Ennio Morricone's award of the 2010 Polar Music Prize ('the Nobel Prize of music') which the composer shared with Icelandic singer Björk. The program contains a representative sample of his rich creative output and features a selection of his most famous film music including The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, Cinema Paradiso, Once Upon A Time in America, The Mission, The Untouchables, A Fistful of Dynamite and more.

Shostakovich Festive Overture Op 96, Ravel Piano Concerto in G Major, Prokofiev Suite No 1, Suite No 2 'Romeo and Juliet'

As part of the official Nobel Week, the world’s most renowned artists gather each year to pay tribute to the Nobel Laureates, an event of world-class stature and performances of highest international standard. A very special highlight was this year’s soloist, the charismatic Martha Argerich, performing Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major under Yuri Temirkanov leading the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. The program also includes Prokofiev’s Suite from Romeo and Juliet. Born in Buenos Aires in 1941, Martha Argerich had her performing debut at the age of eight. Her breakthrough came in 1965, when she won the prestigious Chopin Competition in Warsaw.

Mahler Symphony No 1 in D Major, Prokofiev Piano Concerto No 3 in C Major

Like a cry of Nature' - the expression mark that opens Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony – and the programme of the Festival 2009 which takes up Nature as its guiding theme. Mahler, in the First Symphony, shaped the cry of nature into a musical vision of an entire human life in four stages – from a spring-like upsurge of feelings through desire and suffering, to the end of earthly existence and the entrance into Paradise. The opening treats listeners to a spectacular début as the 22-year-old Chinese pianist Yuja Wang plays Sergei Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto. A Gramophone Award-winner whose latest album is CD of the Month in the respected magazine, in her Lucerne appearances she displays the full range of her artistry as Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto demands not only lyricism and intimacy but brilliance and virtuosity. Claudio Abbado is undeniably a supreme Mahler conductor and his best-selling recordings with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra – symphonies No. 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 9 already been released on EuroArts DVD – have set new standards in interpretation of works by the great composer, whose sesquicentenary we celebrate in 2010.

Strauss Metamorphosen, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Ravel Piano Concerto in D Major

This programme captures the musical encounter between one of the most talented conductors of his generation and some of the finest chamber orchestra musicians performing today. They are joined by renowned French pianist Hélène Grimaud in a programme featuring Strauss and Ravel, a perfect combination of familiar repertoire and works that deserve to be discovered. Vladimir Jurowski surprises viewers with his fresh style and approach. With the charming and incisive Grimaud, he invites us to get caught up in this extraordinary performance. The award-winning Hélène Grimaud presents a lively rendition of Ravel’s concerto. Together with the orchestra, its lyricism and sonorous harmonies are expertly teased out.

Berg’s masterful and thought-provoking opera tells the gripping story of the rise and fall of an alluring, destructive but vulnerable woman, culminating in her death at the hands of Jack the Ripper. Christof Loy’s austere, minimalist production allows the complexities of the drama to unfold through the sumptuous, taut beauty of the score. Agneta Eichenholz and Michael Volle lead an all-star cast under Antonio Pappano. Philip Langridge took the role of the Prince, in his last stage appearance before his death earlier this year. Recorded in High Definition and true surround sound. 'It is immaculately rehearsed and executed – one doesn't often see opera acted with such freedom and honesty and absence of flummery. And its unsparing analytic clarity forces one to confront the bitter truth about Lulu's inner life and the corruption and idiocy of the men who are infatuated by her. … Antonio Pappano's electrifying conducting is razor-sharp in the manner of Pierre Boulez, and the orchestral playing is magnificent. … Singing with an extraordinary grace and insouciance, Eichenholz manages to make this monster chillingly real and hauntingly beautiful.' The Telegraph

Performed by the cosmopolitan pianist Jean-Louis Steuerman, these piano pieces of the Second Viennese School are accompanied by the Expressionist black-and-white photography of Michael Ackerman who, to illustrate this musical universe, has chosen images capturing an atmosphere in which time is both unbalanced and suspended. The artist invites us to immerse ourselves in his selections as we listen to the corresponding music. Beautifully presented in a hard-back book for lovers of 20th-century music and photography alike.

In the history of piano music, there are few examples of a cycle
as vast and vibrant as Iberia, an absolute masterpiece of Franco-Spanish music, written by the composer Isaac Albéniz at the start of the 20th century in Paris. Iberia is here performed by Jean-François Heisser, specialist in this repertoire. This CD-book incorporates stunning black-and-white photography to enrich the experience of Spanish music with images of flamenco and tango, bullfighting and architecture, captured by Spanish photographer Isabel Muñoz.

Barcarolle, Fantaisie

Chopin’s two concertos date from early in his career, and the Second was actually completed before the work published as No.1. They are both supreme examples of the early-Romantic piano concerto, and the influence of Hummel and Field can be heard in many places throughout both works. That is not to say that these works are in any way derivative. Chopin developed the techniques of these keyboard masters (he performed their concertos frequently) and created his own distinct keyboard style. These concertos have often been criticised for their ‘wooden’ orchestration, but Chopin kept the involvement of the orchestra to a minimum so they could be performed with a small string ensemble – something both Hummel and Moscheles had in mind with their concertos. The 4 Ballades and the Fantaisie show Chopin at the height of his powers, and writing in the smaller forms that suited his genius perfectly, though the Fantaisie is by no means a small-scale work. In the hands of Jorge Bolet (1914–1990), Chopin’s music comes alive in a way few pianists have achieved before or since. Bolet was Cuban by birth, studied piano from the age of five, and made his debut aged nine. His teachers included Leopold Godowsky and Josef Hofmann. In the year of Bolet's death, Gramophone praised this recording for its ‘performances of indisputable love and care’.

Scherzo Op 4, Klavierstucke Op 76

The two Brahms piano concertos stand like bookends to his career. The First had a long and difficult gestation, starting life as a symphony. The Second is a vast work in four movements, imbued with the autumnal warmth of late Brahms. Although not without moments of great drama and another deeply emotional slow movement, it is a supremely confident work from a composer at the peak of his career. Both concertos require a titanic pianistic technique and wrists of steel. Stephen Kovacevich’s first recordings of these two works were highly praised when first issued. They are appropriately and generously coupled with solo works roughly contemporaneous to each concerto. Kovacevich has gone on to make other fine recordings of this repertoire, but these show him at the height of his considerable powers.

‘The performance combines poetic feeling and intellectual strength in no small measure, and it is one to which I am sure I will want to return. There is an unforced, natural eloquence that I much admire; the first movement unfolds without any false urgency and momentum; it is spacious, autumnal, reflective as well as majestic.’ -Gramophone

Fantasia Baetica, Three-Cornered Hat, El amor brujo Suites

‘‘What to say of Alicia de Larrocha in music such as this? Only, I think, that one cannot imagine it more idiomatically and imaginatively played … In Spanish music her playing has all the rhythmic verve, and the control, of Rubinstein at his best, and I cannot hear enough of her.’ -Gramophone, April 1975

Praise for these recordings:
‘Six very different musical worlds illuminated with laser-like precision – and with a few quirky gestures added for effect. A major addition to the Bartók quartet discography.’

‘Both the Fifth and Sixth Quartets are packed full of the most delicate ideas, shimmering, self-communing music with occasional bursts of unchecked passion (No.6’s Marcia) or humour (the close of No.5’s finale and No.6’s Burletta).’ -Gramophone

Dein ist mein Herz, Ungeduld, Mein, Des Baches Wiegenlied, Die schone Mullerin

Gérard Souzay (1918–2004) was born into a musical family – his father was a cellist, and his two brothers and his sister all singers. Souzay chose to study philosophy at university, and it was only after a meeting with Pierre Bernac in Paris in 1942 that he was persuaded to enter the Paris Conservatoire to study singing. He entered the concert circuit shortly after the end of the Second World War, and soon displayed the qualities that would make him one of the great voices of the 20th century – a love of words and a superb technique that combined a fine tone with a natural gift for expression. He was keen not to be pigeonholed as a singer of French repertoire, and this 2 CD set vividly illustrates his mastery of Schubert’s lieder. The coupling of the composer’s most beloved song cycle, Die schöne Müllerin, with a generous selection of other, universally known lieder, is sure to have wide appeal beyond historical enthusiasts: the recordings are in excellent stereo.

'At all times one is aware of a carefully thought-out presentation, an expressive treatment of the words and a sensitive response to the changing moods. The many strophic songs have plenty of nuance, and Souzay holds the interest through the five verses of “Des Baches Wiegenlied”.’ -Gramophone, June 1965

Rite of Spring, Petrushka, Firebird, Apollon musagete, Le chant du Rossignol, Dumbarton Oaks, Danses concertantes, Symphonies of Wind Instruments, Concerto in D

The three great Stravinsky ballets plus major works such as the Symphonies of Wind Instruments, ‘Dumbarton Oaks’, Apollon musagète, and Le Chant du Rossignol in performances under the baton of Charles Dutoit, recognised as one of the greatest interpreters of this repertoire. These 4 CDs provide a superb introduction to one of the greatest 20th-century composers in critically acclaimed recordings.

‘The first big advantage of this new Dutoit version of the complete Firebird is that it provides substantial and very apt couplings, over an hour’s music in all, ravishingly played and superbly recorded.’ Gramophone review of Firebird, Scherzo fantastique, Feu d’artifice, October 1986

Simone Young’s work as music director of the Hamburg Philharmonic and general manager of the Hamburg State Opera has met with a great deal of excitement – both at the opera house as well as in the Laeiszhalle, where symphony concerts are held. One of her major focuses has been the performance of Bruckner symphonies in their original versions – a series to be documented by OehmsClassics. The live recording of her March 2006 concert of Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 2 in the original version from 1872 is now available. Listening to this performance, it is amazing how much impetuousness and originality, in the formal sense, Bruckner’s music lost in later 'toned down' revisions. The original version of the Second, published by William Carragan in 2005, shows the immense creative energy of a symphonic composer who set out to conquer the musical world.

More analytical than her role-model Daniel Barenboim, but more impulsive than the unforgettable Günter Wand, Simone Young awakes the works of Bruckner’s early years to orchestral life.' -Kultur

Now, following the success of the first CD in Simone Young's Bruckner series comes Volume 2 with the Third Symphony as a live recording, also in its original version (1873), with the superb acoustics of the Hamburger Musikhalle. Simone returns to Australia in August to conduct Sydney Symphony in a program of Bruckner and Wagner.

Simone Young’s Hamburg Bruckner project has met with critical acclaim. Following the release of the second and third symphonies, the edition’s third volume is now being released, again as a live recording from Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle. The principle behind this series is presenting the first versions of each of Bruckner’s monumental symphonies.

Simone Young and the Philharmoniker Hamburg trace the original form of Bruckner’s symphonies. The original versions of Symphonies 2, 3 and 4 have already been published, and now the cycle continues with the 2-SACD set of the Eighth in its original 1887 version.

This production opens a new Ring Cycle in Hamburg. The extensive booklet includes color photos of various scenes to give the listener a visual impression of the Hamburg production, and the complete libretto in German and English. Simone returns to Australia in August to conduct Sydney Symphony in a program of Bruckner and Wagner.

The second in Simone Young's recordings of Wagner's Ring Cycle, Die Walküre features the acclaimed Australian tenor Stuart Skelton.