Nocturnes, Scherzos, Sonata in B Flat Minor

The French-Canadian pianist Louis Lortie is recognised as one of the finest interpreters of Chopin’s music and in this Chopin anniversary year he celebrates with a disc of Nocturnes and Scherzos, concluding with the B flat minor Sonata which includes the famous Funeral March. Lortie comments on this recording: 'In the era of the great romantic pianists, it used to be the fashion at piano recitals to offer an improvisation in the same key as that of the piece that was scheduled to follow, in order to get the audience “in the mood”. To compensate for this lost art, I have thought of always playing one of the nocturnes before a major piano composition by Chopin. It makes these nocturnes appear more like an improvisation to serve as counterweight to the very dense content of the Ballades, Scherzos, and Sonatas. This practice transfers smoothly the logic of the piano recital to a CD and makes more sense by allowing the listener to enjoy the contents in one stretch.’ Lortie recently performed with Sydney Symphony on his March 2010 Australian tour. He first recorded Chopin's Études for Chandos over 20 years ago and it has been named as one of the '50 great performances by superlative pianists' by BBC Music Magazine.

Vlieger (arranger) Parsifal An Orchestral Quest, Overture and Venusberg Ballet Scene from Tannhauser, Prelude to Act 3 of Lohengrin

Neeme Jarvi conducts the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in the second of four albums featuring the bold arrangements of Wagner by Henk de Vlieger. Of the first album (The Ring: An Orchestral Adventure CHSA5060), Classic FM magazine wrote, 'Dutch composer Henk de Vlieger builds a penetrating symphonic poem that reflects the dramatic depths of The Ring.’ In Parsifal, an orchestral quest, commissioned by the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and dedicated to the musicians of this orchestra, Henk de Vlieger has compiled the musical and emotional highlights of Wagner’s opera, and whenever necessary he has stitched these into a new context whilst keeping the outline of the story intact. This arrangement is coupled with Wagner’s Overture and Venusberg Ballet Scene from Tannhauser and his concert version of Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin. A must for those who like Wagner without the singing!

Frederic Chopin’s Piano Sonatas No2 (Funeral March) and No3 are the product of the composer’s maturity and boundless invention.Here they receive incandescent performances by the 2001 Cliburn Competition gold medalist Olga Kern, whose previous Chopin release (HMU907402) was praised as 'an excellent opportunity to sample Ms Kern’s impressive musicianship while revisiting one of the Romantic masters’ (Keyboard magazine). One of the most riveting new offerings for the Chopin bicentenary year.

Piano Sonatas in C Sharp Minor Op 27 No 2 'Moonlight', C Minor Op 13 'Pathetique', G Major Op 79, C Major Op 53 'Waldstein'

Steven Osborne has been performing Beethoven live in concert for many years, always to great acclaim. Now for the first time he has committed these extraordinary performances to disc. It is clear from listening to the opening movement of the ‘Moonlight’ that this release will establish him firmly as one of the great Beethoven pianists of today. Performances of such passionate humility, such musical intelligence, such subtlety and yet such instinctive understanding of the music are rare indeed. This disc features three of Beethoven’s most celebrated sonatas and the miniature Op 79.

The first release in Valery Gergiev's Rachmaninov Symphony cycle features a magnificent performance of the Second Symphony, recorded in September 2008 at the Barbican. Rachmaninov's vast Second Symphony was composed when he was at the pinnacle of his careers as composer, pianist and conductor. Filled with emotion and brimming with beautiful melodies, it is a masterpiece and the epitome of the Romantic symphony. 'A performance of edge-of-the-seat eshilaration...Rachmaninov's Symphony No.2 brought out Gergiev's magisterial best' (The Guardian).

RV493, 495, 477, 488, 503, 471, 484

It is an understatement to identify Vivaldi as the most significant composer ever of bassoon concertos. Even within Vivaldi's own oeuvre, the thirty-nine bassoon concertos (two of them incomplete) form an impressive group. The composer had a particular affinity with deeper instruments (the cello as well as the bassoon) which brought out especially vividly the melancholy, reflective side of his temperament. Morever, the bassoon concertos are all mature works with incomparable rhythmic variety, boldness of form and attention to detail. Bassoonist Sergio Azzolini is the real discovery of this recording, in which his playing demonstrates great energy and sensitive musicality. Accompanied by L'Aura Soave Cremona on period instruments for the 39th volume in the sprawling achivement of Naive's acclaimed Vivaldi Edition, this is the bassoon as you have never heard it before! For more information on the Vivaldi Edition and to listen to the sumptuous music, visit http://www.antonio-vivaldi.eu/index.php

Michael Leslie is an Australian pianist Australians ought to know more about. Resident in Germany, his trips here are intermittent, but this disc of Beethoven's two most monumental works for the piano  - the Hammerklavier Sonata in B flat, opus 106, and the Diabelli Variations, Opus 120 - reveals him as one of this country's finest players of Beethoven...Those who follow the score will be engaged by how he achieves interest and weight through punctilious attention to every marked change of dynamic, speed or articulation. The Hammerklavier Sonata burst from Beethoven's pen in 1818 after a relatively unproductive period and returns to a four-movement style of sonata that would have seemed conservative but for its scale and expressive ambition. Leslie makes great pillars of the outer movements and his performance of the ground-breaking fugue in the finale is an outstanding display of control and mastery.' -Sydney Morning Herald