Sinfonia concertante for violin viola and orchestra in E Flat K364

Select is proud to announce Australian classical buyers can purchase this disc locally one month before the rest of the world, with an advance release date exclusive to Australia! Destined to be one of the most popular and accessible classical albums by any Australian artist this year (and an ARIA Award shoe-in), this is the Australian Chamber Orchestra's much-anticipated first album dedicated solely to Mozart. The violin concertante works are amongst Mozart's most beautiful, and Richard Tognetti as soloist plays them on one of the world's finest violins (the extraordinary 10-million-dollar Carrodus crafted by Guarneri in 1743) with rare insight, passion and poetry. This is surely the must-have classical album of 2010.
Watch footage from the recording sessions, interviews with Tognetti and more.

Peter Philips was, after William Byrd, the most published English composer of the Elizabethan-Jacobean Age. Born in 1560 or 1561, he trained as a choirboy at St Paul’s Cathedral in London and may have studied keyboard playing with Byrd. In 1582 he fled England to avoid persecution as a Roman Catholic, making his way to Rome and eventually settling in Antwerp in 1591. In 1593 he was accused of plotting against Elizabeth I and arrested, but was eventually exonerated. He joined the court chapel of Archduke Albert, Viceroy of The Netherlands, as organist in 1597 and remained there until his death in 1628. The years spent in Rome were crucial for the formation of Philips’s musical style. The early 1580s were years of rapid development in that city’s music, particularly in writing for multiple choirs. Philips wrote some double-choir music and the antiphonal principle underlies much of the music on this recording, even if written for a single choir of five voices: two sopranos, alto, tenor and bass – a texture that gives an overall brightness, often heightened by close spacing between the two sopranos. Richard Marlow conducts the mixed Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Using the tuning that research suggests Bach himself advocated, Richard Egarr completes his acclaimed project with this inspired reading of The Well-Tempered Clavier Book II. Praise for Egarr’s Book 1 (HMU90743132): ‘to hear these miraculous preludes and fugues played with absolute clarity and rhythmic flexibility by Egarr is a special treat…one of the finest recordings of this work now available’ – Classic FM Magazine

‘Uninhibited virtuosity… This is playing of real stature. Richard Egarr is the doyen of English harpsichordists’ – Gramophone

Fretwork illuminates the mysteries of the Art of Fugue on this re-issued classic recording, available at a special price and packaged with the complete 2010 Harmonia Mundi printed catalogue. Vividly performed on viols, Bach’s culminating musical achievement springs to life, complete and unencumbered by posthumous additions. ‘Fretwork remain the world’ leading viol consort!’ – The Independent

Lemady, She's like the swallow, Songs and Proverbs of William Blake Op 74, Um Mitternacht, A Poison Tree, David of the White Rock, The Deaf Woman's Courtship, Bird Scarer's Song, Greensleeves

The unbeatable, multi-award-winning partnership of Gerald Finley and Julius Drake turn to the composer Benjamin Britten for their latest Hyperion release. Although Britten is particularly celebrated for the substantial body of music he composed for the tenor voice, the composer also left an important legacy of music for baritone. Characteristically, Britten’s output for low voice was also inspired by the talents of specific performers with whom he was closely associated, among them Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and John Shirley-Quirk. This disc contains Britten’s two important song cycles for baritone: Tit for Tat, setting the poems of Walter de la Mare, and the more substantial and challenging Songs and Proverbs of William Blake. The latter was written for Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau; designed to showcase his unique blend of intense lyricism and dramatic characterization, qualities which are undoubtedly also exhibited by Gerald Finley. Also featured are some of Britten’s popular folksong settings (including 'Greensleves' and 'I Wonder as I Wander'), and a selection of later songs, which received exposure and publication only after the composer’s death in December 1976.

Scheiden und Meiden Op 19 No 2, In Der Ferne Op 19 No 3, Von ewiger Liebe Op 43 No 1, Salome Op 69 No 8, Och Moder ich well en Ding han WoO33 No 3

Graham Johnson’s complete Schubert and Schumann songs series for Hyperion are landmarks in the history of recorded music. Now this indefatigable performer and scholar turns to the songs and vocal works of Brahms. Each disc of this new Hyperion edition takes a journey through Brahms’s career. The songs are not quite presented in chronological order but they do appear here in the order that the songs were presented to the world. Each recital represents a different journey through the repertoire (and thus through Brahms’s life). In a number of these Hyperion recitals an opus number will be presented in its entirety (in the case of this disc, Op 48). The folksongs of 1894 will be shared between all the singers in the series. Praise for the first volume's celebrated Austrian mezzo-soprano in a Brahms recital: ‘Ms Kirchschlager has a rich, dusky-toned penetrating sound’ –New York Times

On The Beautiful Blue Danube, The Emperor Waltz, Voices Of Spring Waltz, Morning Journal Waltz, Funiculi Funicula, Tulips From Amsterdam, Souvenirs De Paris, Auld Lang Syne

Australia’s most successful chart-busting musician of the last decade is now available from Select! The Magic of André Rieu presents two hours of The Waltz King’s hits in a 2-CD boxed set. CD 1 consists of studio recordings, while the second disc captures the thrill of André Rieu live in concert. The collection combines three albums originally released by Delta Germany and now available worldwide for the first time. Includes the ‘Blue Danube’, ‘Auld Lang Syne’, buoyant operetta medleys and more.

Ballades Nos 1 in G Minor Op 23, 2 in F Major Op 38, 3 in A Flat Major Op 47, 4 in F Minor Op 52

Brilliant young prodigy Lise de la Salle's new project is one of the major event releases of the Chopin bicentenary. The recording couples the famous four Ballades for solo piano with the second Piano Concerto, performed with the Staatskapelle Dresden and conductor Fabio Luisi. In December 2008, the Staatskapelle was selected by Gramophone as one of the world's top ten orchestras, a long-held reputation.

Bellini I Puritani, I Capuleti E I Montecchi, Verdi Rigoletto, Luisa Miller, Massenet Manon, Puccini La Boheme

These live performances of six complete bel canto operas (originally on the Opera d’Oro label) were recorded in Italy early in Pavarotti’s meteoric rise to fame, with stellar casts including Montserrat Caballe, Mirella Freni and Renata Scotto and conductors Abbado, Giulini and Muti. The boxed set follows the success of the Pavarotti ‘Signature Collection’ (RNCDBOX001) at the same great price. Hear the young Pavarotti in fine voice singing the Italian repertoire with which he captivated generations of music lovers.

Ach ich sehe itzt da ich zur Hochzeit gehe BWV162, Ich geh und suche mit Verlangen BWV49, Schmucke dich o liebe Seele BWV109, Ich glaube lieber Herr hilf meinem Unglauben BWV109, Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir BWV38, Was Gott tut das ist wohlgetan BWV9

Cantatas for the twentieth and twenty-first Sunday after Trinity. These live concert recordings from John Eliot Gardiner's monumental Bach Pilgrimate capture a performance of three little-known secular–imaged cantatas in the stunning Gothic cathedral of San Lorenzo. The soloists are internationally acclaimed and include Magdalena Kožená, Sara Mingardo, Christoph Genz and Peter Harvey. The concert opens with the solemn BWV 162 Ach! ich sehe, itzt, da ich zur Hochzeit gehe (Ah! I see, now, that I have gone to the feast), a cantata brought to life by Salomo Franck’s strongly worded libretto.  Bach thrives upon Franck’s love of poetic compounds and polar opposites.  Nowhere is this more apparent than in the opening bass aria where we hear references to life and death, rays of heaven and fires of hell. There then follows BWV 49 Ich geh und suche mit Verlangen (I go and seek with longing), a dialogue cantata geared towards creating an atmosphere depicting the beauty of the soul.  In his booklet notes, Gardiner states that the best movement is the fourth which he believes to be 'a kind of early version of Bernstein’s "I feel pretty."'

Thea Sharrock’s irresistible new production of Shakespeare’s popular romantic comedy stirs wit, sentiment, intrigue and love into a charming confection which challenges the traditional rules of romance. At its heart, a feisty but feminine Rosalind (Naomi Frederick), in love with the endearingly naïve Orlando (Jack Laskey), uses her disguise as Ganymede to counsel him playfully in the art of wooing. Distraction is provided by Dominic Rowan, a remarkably funny Touchstone, and Tim McMullan, whose sonorous tones are perfectly suited to the lugubrious wit of Jaques. Filmed in High Definition and true surround sound as part of a series dedicated to new Shakespeare productions at the Bard's own Globe Theatre, for that authentic historical touch.