Hallelujah! Tony Palmer’s long-lost original portrait of Leonard Cohen on his 1972 European tour has been unearthed and painstakingly restored by Palmer himself, the celebrated British filmmaker who has worked with The Beatles, Cream, Frank Zappa, and Jimi Hendrix. Palmer lived and travelled with Leonard Cohen throughout the tour. The result is some of the most insightful, intimate footage of the man and the artist that fans will ever see.

• First time on DVD after over three decades lost
• 15 classic performances, four rare poetry readings, and revealing tour footage
• Collectors’ fold-out packaging comes with bonus iconic 1972 film poster and ‘Poet of Rock Music’ postcard
• Leonard Cohen embarks on his highly anticipated 2010 Australian tour in November

Acclaimed British Hollywood actor Ralph Fiennes reads Rudyard Kipling’s poems and excerpts from The Jungle Book, Kim, and the Just So Stories. The classic short stories and children’s favourites (including ‘Rikki-Tikki-Tavi’) were recorded in the study at Bateman’s, Kipling’s Jacobean house where he wrote many of his books. These imaginative readings are interspersed with traditional Indian music and works by Elgar, reflecting Kipling’s deep association with the country of his birth. A must-have for lovers of theatre, literature, poetry, and British classical music, to be cherished by children and adults alike. Fiennes will soon direct and star in a film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, opening in cinemas 2011. Listen to an excerpt

In many of J. S. Bach’s cantatas, passions and oratorios, the oboe – and its various relatives such as the oboe d’amore and oboe da caccia – plays a prominent role. Using it as his preferred obbligato instrument, Bach cherished the versatility of the oboe and selected it to accompany arias that deal with grief and heavenly joys, repentance and pastoral calm. It is therefore odd that no major concertante works for oboe by Bach have survived – or have they? Researchers have for a long time thought that his keyboard concertos were originally composed for other instruments, and much evidence points to certain of them being intended for the oboe, or oboe d’amore. Four such works have been gathered here, together with the Adagio from the Easter Oratorio, in performances by Alexei Ogrintchouk, one of today’s outstanding oboists. Ogrintchouk is currently principal oboist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. On his first solo disc for BIS he also directs the Swedish Chamber Orchestra himself, and is joined by dazzling young violinist Alina Ibragimova in the well-loved Double Concerto in C minor. Watch recording session footage and interviews

The long-awaited and much anticipated recording by Tasmin Little of Elgar’s Violin Concerto is released in November, 100 years after the work’s first performance. In concert Tasmin Little is closely associated with this concerto, having celebrated the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sir Edward Elgar with performances of it on her 2007 Australian tour. What makes this recording especially interesting is that she has included the cadenza used in the work’s first recording, made in 1916 with Marie Hall. For that occasion, Elgar, amongst other things, added harps to counter the sonic limitations of the acoustic recording process. For those used to hearing the standard version, also included, the result makes for fascinating listening, and the recording will prove a valuable addition to the Elgar discography. The 1916 version of the cadenza has been tracked separately. Tasmin Little: ‘I have waited a long time to record the Elgar Concerto, a work that I have been playing for twenty years and one which is so close to my heart. In the inspirational Andrew Davis and the RSNO’s commitment, I found exactly the right partnership for this monumental work.’

French pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet is a master of this repertoire. This is his second concerto recording for the label, after his survey of the complete piano concertos by Bartók (CHAN10610, Gramophone Editor's Choice) released in September. Bavouzet’s complete recording of the piano music by Debussy also scooped awards from BBC Music and Gramophone, which wrote: ‘This could well be the finest and most challenging of all Debussy piano cycles.’ On this new release, Bavouzet is accompanied by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Yan Pascal Tortelier, a conductor steeped in the French tradition and utterly at home in this repertoire. The result is a totally idiomatic performance of these French masterpieces for piano and orchestra. Ravel’s light and brilliant Piano Concerto in G major is the intriguing result of a merging of classical models with the idioms and harmonies found in the popular jazz music of his day. Also featured is Debussy’s Fantaisie for Piano and Orchestra, the rarely performed lone piano concerto by a composer regarded as one of the greatest among those who wrote for the piano. Completing the disc in a unique manner are six charming pieces for solo piano by Massenet, conjuring an atmosphere which only a Frenchman could achieve. Jean-Efflam performs with Sydney Symphony early 2011.

This new release of popular choral classics will appeal to a wide audience, a must-have for lovers of choral music. Established in the 1670s, the Choir of St John’s has a distinguished tradition of performing religious music. Its main duty is singing the daily services in the College Chapel during the University Term. During the University vacation the Choir carries out engagements in the UK and overseas, as well as undertaking a busy recording schedule. This particular release was recorded in the College Chapel in full surround-sound. The disc not only sounds spectacular, but recreates to an uncanny degree the experience of listening to the Choir perform in the chapel. The music itself represents a time span of nearly 500 years of choral music. The earliest piece dates from the first half of the sixteenth century, and the newest was composed as recently as 2007. The styles and genres are varied, but there are clear links between the works throughout. For example, several are based on texts from the psalms, and the works by Pärt, Parsons, and Rachmaninoff offer three radically different interpretations of the Ave Maria.

Tenor Mark Padmore is deftly supported by fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout in this lieder recital of Heine settings by Robert Schumann (Dichterliebe Op.48, Liederkreis Op.24) and Franz Lachner (5 songs from Sängerfahrt, Op.33). Padmore recently won the Gramophone Award for Best Solo Vocal album (Schubert Winterreise HMU907484). Lauded as 'Mozart reincarnated', fortepiano specialist Kristian Bezuidenhout tours with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra in 2011.

If Handel's arias illustrate on their own the entire range of possibilities offered by the voices of his time. In a debut recital on harmonia mundi, Bejun Mehta has chosen most of the ‘hits' on this CD from the repertoire of the famous castrato Senesino. From shadow (‘Ombra cara') to light (‘Sento la gioia'), who better than René Jacobs to accompany him in his programme? Bonus DVD: The Making of the Recording, with interviews and recording session footage. View an excerpt here.

Angela Hewitt has earned a richly deserved reputation for her interpretations of Bach and the Baroque, and something of that characteristic clarity illuminates her Schumann performances. Her first disc of this repertoire was praised for its ‘seemingly effortless but always adventurous interpretations … her poise and amplitude lending it an unearthly beauty’ and this second volume - including the universally beloved Scenes of Childhood and some of the composer’s most bewitchingly beautiful music - should be no less lauded.

Schubert is unusual and indeed unique among composers in that some of his greatest works are written for piano duet. He wrote as much music for duet as for solo piano, and reaches emotional depths which take this repertoire far away from its domestic origins. The most celebrated of these pieces, the Fantasie in F minor, with its austere yet heartbreaking opening melody and dramatic double fugue, is one of the great piano achievements of the early 19th century. The rest of the works on this disc are much less well known but equally fascinating. Who better to commit these works to disc than two of the brightest stars in the British piano scene, Paul Lewis and Steven Osborne? As well as their individual achievements, they also have a long-standing friendship and performing relationship which you will hear reflected in their magisterial performances on this marvellous disc. Paul Lewis has just won a Gramophone for his previous Schubert disc, Winterreise, with tenor Mark Padmore (HMU907484).

Midori has yet to celebrate her 40th birthday, but has been performing in public at the highest level for over 30 years. This remarkable recording was made when she was just 13 years old, and has been one of the benchmark versions of this concerto ever since. Paganini’s First Concerto is given in its complete version, and is the most popular of his six violin concertos, displaying not only his extraordinary virtuosity, but also his great gift for melody. ‘A splendid new version of Paganini’s Violin Concerto in D, the most famous, because of the enticing lyrical theme of the first movement. Midori, an astonishingly accomplished 13-year-old, is fully equal to the work’s formidable technical demands and one is never made to feel uncomfortable when she is dealing with the pyrotechnics of the upper tessitura … Midori offers good performances of two Tchaikovsky morceaux de concert, producing some ravishingly melancholy timbre in the Sérénade mélancolique.’ Gramophone,1998.

This landmark recording of Messiah dates from 1961, and was Boult’s second for Decca – the first made in 1954. Both versions use Julian Herbage’s revised edition which erased many of the 19th-century accretions and bad habits that had clung to this famous score like barnacles to a ship’s hull. Today, ‘period practice’ – the pioneering work of musicologists trying to strip away centuries of ‘improvement’ to get at the composer’s original ideas and intention – is the norm for such music. When first released, the recording claimed to use ‘authentic orchestration’. Although modern instruments were used, the number of players involved would approximate to the number used by Handel – although the string section is rather big! It is worth remembering that Handel, ever the showman, would use vast forces if at all possible. The excellent solo cast includes the late, great Dame Joan Sutherland. ‘The chorus, firm in tone and clear in its runs throughout, emerges well from a rehearing of this set; and behind everything lies the sensibility of Boult, who brings to the performance a spiritual conviction that helps one overlook incidental weaknesses.’ Gramophone, NOVEMBER 1978

This new Chopin disc was featured in the printed programmes of Glemser’s performances with Sydney Symphony in September. In Glemser’s Australian recital, his Chopin was praised as ‘buoyant and brilliant’, with ‘a natural feeling for musical line and shape’ (Sydney Morning Herald)

The ballades and scherzi are among Chopin’s most ambitious and beloved works - a wonderful conclusion to the Chopin bicentenary year.

2 SACDs for the price of 1, plus a bonus DVD of the complete work filmed live in concert. The Royal Concertgebouw was declared ‘No.1 orchestra in the world’ in Gramophone’s list of Top 20 orchestras, and here continues its acclaimed Mahler cycle under the superb direction of Mariss Jansons.

‘This music is so rich that I hope I can bring audiences closer to heaven with it. I will have succeeded if listeners go home with the feeling of having been in another world for two hours.’ –Mariss Jansons

One of the world’s foremost classical guitarists, John Williams took his first eclectic steps into the popular realm in the 1970s, and it’s from that historic decade that these recordings are drawn. For the first time, Salvo presents every track from John’s three Fly/Cube albums – Changes, The Height Below, and Travelling – on one collection, plus a previously unreleased session take of his signature tune, 'Cavatina'. Handsomely packaged with a 24-page booklet and a new interview with John, original artwork and memorabilia. This collection of classics from an Australian music legend includes 'The Swagman' (‘Waltzing Matilda’).

100 minutes of the most stunning visual and musical highlights of this pioneering production by La Fura dels Baus, conducted by Zubin Mehta. Foxtel’s arts channel STVDIO has devoted an entire day to airing this complete 'Ring of the future' in all its glory. Experience the thrilling power of these performances, distilled in a highlights DVD at a budget price. It's the perfect collection of 'hits' to prepare Australian opera lovers for Melbourne's 2013 Ring Cycle. View the trailer.