Leonardo Garcia Alarcon and a rising new generation of baroque performers bring intensity, passion and freshness to Dido's eternal tragedy. ‘Cappella Mediterranea sing and play with assertive Mediterranean heat...The emotional tension is incredible...If your blood doesn’t race during the opener by the madrigal master Monteverdi, see a doctor immediately.’ -The Times 2009

Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, who launched their historic Mahler series in 2001, complete the award-winning project with the composer’s atmospheric song cycles. The live recordings, taken from concerts in the orchestra’s Davies Symphony Hall, features two of America’s most lauded singers, mezzo-soprano Susan Graham in Rückert-Lieder, and baritone Thomas Hampson in Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and selections from Das Knaben Wunderhorn. The release coincides with international celebrations of Mahler’s music, as 2010 is the 150th anniversary of his birth, and 2011 marks the 100th year of his death. The Michael Tilson Thomas and SFS Mahler cycle has won seven Grammy Awards, including three for Best Classical Album. This final instalment puts the crowning touch on every collector’s CD shelf. 'The best-played and most vividly engineered recording of Mahler’s First Symphony I’ve yet heard.'
– Gramophone

One of the world’s leading flute virtuosos, Marina Piccinini presents unique transcriptions of Bach’s evergreen Flute Sonatas. Eschewing the typical piano or harpsichord accompaniment, Marina records these works as never before with a pair of guitars. And what better partners could Marina have than the Brasil Guitar Duo, whose 'maturity of musicianship and technical virtuosity … is simply outstanding' (Classical Guitar Magazine). It’s a natural combo for the Brazilian-Italian Marina, and this popular repertoire played on popular instruments serves the music exceptionally well. Rounding out the 2-CD set is Marina’s exquisite version of the Solo Partita in A minor. 'Marina Piccinini’s flute-playing is very special, her lyrical phrasing cool, exquisitely shaped and with an underlying delicate sensuality.' – Gramophone

One of the leading American composers of his generation, Jake Heggie arrives on Avie with Passing By, a gorgeous collection of new songs performed by a stunning array of international vocalists. Fresh from the success of the Dallas Opera premiere of his Moby Dick – 'a wonderful and rare reminder that new opera truly can excite people if it’s done right,' according to The Washington Post – Guggenheim Fellowship recipient Heggie describes this collection as 'songs that tell stories about now and then. Reflections of family, friends and lovers passing by. A missed or mistaken connection, a moment when everything might have been different. People who entered our lives and would be there forever, then suddenly were not there at all.' Indelibly associated with his acclaimed operas, including Dead Man Walking and The End of the Affair, Jake’s heart and soul lie in storytelling through song. With lyrics and poetry by the likes of A.E. Housman, Terrence McNally and Rilke, the songs of Passing By reflect the great American songbook tradition, replete with achingly beautiful melodies and striking observations of life’s journeys.

Think you know Italian baroque chamber music? Think again. The range, diversity – and even wackiness – is remarkable, as illustrated by Flights of Fantasy, an album of acute inventiveness by Avie stalwart Monica Huggett and the chamber soloists of her Irish Baroque Orchestra. Take Carlo Farina’s Capriccio Stravagante, which translates as 'outlandish whim', and imitates barking dogs, meowing cats and gunfire. More serious, but no less virtuosic, experimental forms occur in works by Marini, Castello, Legrenzi, and Cavalli – the Venetian best known for his operas – all heard on this album.

The Cleveland-based baroque orchestra Apollo’s Fire, together with founder and conductor Jeannette Sorrell, launched on Avie in July 2010 with a double release featuring discs of Mozart and J.S. Bach. They follow with their tribute to the 400th anniversary year of Monteverdi’s seminal Vespers of the Blessed Virgin, a signature piece for Apollo’s Fire for over ten years. 'Sorrell and her fine young choir lavish attention on every phrase and inflexion. The exhilaration and sense of discovery is utterly infectious.' – International Record Review

Robert Schumann's Fantasie in C major, Franz Liszt's Sonata in B flat minor: two singular musical creations, virtually unrivalled in the piano literature, by two very different composers who nevertheless dedicated the two works to each other. The link between the 200th anniversaries of their birth, in 2010 und 2011 respectively, is only therefore a superficial framework for the much closer connections that were key to the decision to make this new recording. A pianist of the calibre of Lars Vogt is able to put such words into action and so, with his emphatic and transparent style of playing, he reveals the composers' multi-faceted emotional lives and the structure of their music, leading the listener through unique heights and depths of Romantic style.

During their first 200 years, Johann Sebastian Bach's solo suites for cello led a curiously obscure existence. By 1720, the time of their composition, suites of their kind were already beginning to seem slightly outdated, and many of the dances which in stylized form appear in them were going out of fashion. Furthermore, the cello was generally regarded as a continuo instrument, and pieces allowing it a more prominent role were few and far between. In consequence, the suites were rarely performed – especially in their entirety – and rather treated as more suited for teaching the instrument. They were also often regarded as incomplete, and the fact that Schumann, among others, attempted to provide them with piano accompaniments serves as an illustration of how foreign the concept of solo works for the cello remained. It is Pablo Casals who is credited with the rediscovery of the cello suites: encountering them in the 1890s, he first brought them to the concert hall around the turn of the century. Soon after, in 1916, came the first published edition of the suites arranged for the viola. It is only during the past decades that they have become part of the concert and recording repertoire of international soloists on the instrument. The latest of these is the highly regarded Ukrainian-born violist Maxim Rysanov, named 2008 Young Artist of the Year by Gramophone. Rysanov's career has developed rapidly, with acclaimed recordings and high profile appearances, including the Last Night of the BBC Proms in 2010. For his first recording for BIS he has selected the first, fourth and fifth of Bach's suites – these works of which Casals once wrote: 'They are the very essence of Bach, and Bach is the essence of music.'

In eight previous volumes Ronald Brautigam has traversed what is often called 'The New Testament of Piano Music', namely Beethoven's 32 numbered sonatas. The present disc may be regarded as an appendix to these, as it explores the composer's first attempts in the genre. It opens with the three Kurfürsten Sonatas from 1783, in which Beethoven – at the tender age of twelve – demonstrates a remarkable maturity. The Kurfürsten Sonatas were published upon completion, whereas the remaining, later pieces on this disc remained unpublished during Beethoven's lifetime. As a whole, the pieces presented here are the earliest so far in this series, and Ronald Brautigam has consequently chosen to introduce a new instrument for his performances: a copy of a fortepiano by Johann Andreas Stein from 1788.  'Brautigam has more to say about the music than any recent cycle recorded on modern instruments… An outstanding disc of an outstanding series.' -Classic FM Magazine

With a busy international concert schedule and a number of acclaimed discs, Øystein Baadsvik has made a name for himself as one of today's finest tuba players, as well as an indefatigable and imaginative advocate for the instrument. His first disc, Tuba Carnival, was described on the website Classics Today as a 'perfectly executed recital in which humor, charm, and virtuosity combine to make the best possible case for the tuba as star of the show'.  His wide-ranging repertoire includes works by composers as diverse as Elgar, Kalevi Aho and Piazzolla, but on this new disc he still manages to surprise with his versatility. Ferry Tales combines original compositions with imaginative and unexpected arrangements of classics such as 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' and Borodin's 'Prince Igor'.

Jean Sibelius' emergence as a composer coincided with the rapid development of choral singing in Finland, at a time when new choirs were being established all over the country. The importance of the genre may be measured by the fact that one of Sibelius's most deeply felt pieces for mixed choir, Män från slätten och havet (Men from Land and Sea), received its first performance by a choir of gargantuan proportions – around 1,300 singers – gathered at a festival in the city of Vaasa in 1912.  In addition to the present collection of more than 7 hours of music for choir a cappella and with piano or organ accompaniment, there is a large number of orchestral works involving choir (included in volume 3, 'Voice and Orchestra') As a consequence of the division in Finland between Finnish- and Swedish-speakers, Sibelius set texts in both languages, and while a large majority of his solo songs use Swedish texts, in the choral music we find a much larger proportion of settings in Finnish - often, if far from always, of texts from Kalevala, the national epic poem, or its lyric counterpart Kanteletar. Like previous volumes in the SIBELIUS EDITION, the present collection includes not only the published works, but also unpublished pieces, revisions and early versions, many recorded for the first time.

Haydn's employer, Prince Esterházy, required the composer to provide music for, and conduct, the almost daily performances of operas and plays at the Prince's own opera house and marionette theatre. He must have been highly disciplined in order to be able to cope with such an enormous workload, but he also developed great skill at recycling. The three symphonies recorded here are results of this,  all featuring music which was first heard as part of stage productions and later reused in purely instrumental works. Symphony No. 60 – the only one of the three known under its theatrical name, Il Distratto ('The Distracted') – contains the incidental music to a play by the French author Jean-François Regnard. At least parts of the other two symphonies, No.12 and No.50, most probably originated in operatic works, namely Acide and Der Götterrat (the prologue to the marionette opera Philemon und Baucis).

Under Lorin Maazel, who held the position of Chief Conductor from 1993 to 2002, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra reached a new level of performance culture, precision and expressive flexibility. Like no other conductor, Maazel is capable of masterfully handling largescale works and performing music tightly packed with emotional energy. The works on this recording mark two key moments in Stravinsky’s development as a composer during the period before WWI. The ballet music for The Firebird contains many of the attributes that had made the premiere of The Rite of Spring such a scandalous avant-garde event in the Paris of 1913: unprecedented sonic colours, rapidly changing rhythms, orgiastic climaxes and an exotic subject matter. Lorin Maazel and the Bavarian Radio SO: a dream combination for Stravinsky’s sensuous and rhythmically irresistible ballet works.

Ranking 6th in Gramophone's Best Orchestras in the World list, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra has flourished under the direction of Mariss Jansons from 2003 onwards. Of Richard Strauss, Jansons has said, 'His music has been my constant companion throughout my life and has moved me very deeply time and again'. The program on this disc comprises three of Strauss’s best-known compositions, starting with the Rosenkavalier Suite and moving on to the colourful spectacle of Till Eulenspiegel and to the Four Last Songs.

Catherine Mackintosh and Geoffrey Govier formed Duo Amadè in order to perform the charming and intimate works for keyboard and violin by Mozart in concert, often with readings from his family letters. In 2006 Duo Amadè performed the whole cycle at the Royal College of Music. Catherine Mackintosh in particular has long been recognised as a pioneering early music spirit and in recording the complete cycle of duo sonatas is fulfilling the ambition of a lifetime. Praise for Volume 2 (CHAN0764): ‘I’ve been enjoying the infectiously enthusiastic music-making on Duo Amadè’s second volume of Mozart sonatas. In these wonderful works, Geoffrey Govier and Catherine Mackintosh give the instrumental dialogue the wit and verve of a spirited operatic exchange’ (Gramophone).

In this third collection of sonatas Duo Amadè once again offers performances finely crafted with spirit and style. Govier plays a fortepiano made by Christopher Clarke in Cluny, after an instrument by Anton Walter, while Catherine Mackintosh plays a violin by Giovanni Grancino, dating from 1703. These instruments bring a lightness and freshness of articulation to these delightful works, entirely in keeping with the spirit of enlightenment in which the sonatas were written.

Most famous for his lushly romantic film scores, Erich Wolfgang Korngold wrote a quantity of music for the concert hall, the stage, as well as three highly individual string quartets between the years 1920 and 1945. Korngold was one of the great prodigies in the history of classical music, and by the time he started work on his First String Quartet (completed 1923), he had already written what many consider to be his magnum opus, the opera Die tote Stadt. The three quartets range widely in style and are all very appealing. The First is notable for its strikingly adventurous harmony, the Second (1933) for its sheer wealth of melodic appeal, whilst the Third (1945) uses material from his film scores, and is as varied and dramatic as many of the films which he scored. The Doric String Quartet is now firmly established as one of the outstanding quartets of its generation, scheduled to perform in New Zealand and Australia in October 2010.

One of the most famous violin virtuosos of the last century, David Oistrakh (1908–1974) made many recordings and was the dedicatee of numerous works for violin. Among the many violin virtuosi of the younger generation whom he inspired is Lydia Mordkovitch, one of his star pupils. In this CD she pays tribute to her great teacher. Her style of playing has many of the hallmarks of Oistrakh’s: incredible virtuosity, rich colouring, and above all a passion which is totally Russian in spirit. In this collection Lydia brings together pieces for which Oistrakh was best known. The programme ranges widely, from newly recorded music by Locatelli to a classic version of Chausson’s gorgeous Poème. Of course, Shostakovich is represented – a composer very closely associated with Oistrakh – Lydia Mordkovitch giving his Violin Sonata a superbly nuanced performance. Rachmaninov has to be included too and Daises is a particularly lovely piece of music. Oistrakh gave sparkling performances of the technically challenging music of Ysaÿe, and Lydia Mordkovitch here proves that she can meet these challenges with equal brilliance.

Appearances in opera, concert, and recital by the Grammy Award-winning American soprano Christine Brewer are marked by her unique timbre, at once warm and brilliant, combined with a vibrant personality and emotional honesty reminiscent of the great sopranos of the past. Her range, golden tone, boundless power, and control make her a favourite of the stage as well as a sought-after recording artist. On the opera stage, she has made a speciality of the late romantic repertoire and of Richard Strauss in particular. The title role in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos is one of her most famous roles, even her ‘signature’ role, which she has taken to The Metropolitan Opera, English National Opera and beyond. First performed in 1912, Ariadne auf Naxos was Strauss’s first chamber opera, written consciously in emulation of classical style. In the prologue, singers and dancers hired to entertain a rich man’s guests are told that they have to combine their performances so that the evening’s firework display will not be delayed. This prologue introduces the ‘composer’ of Ariadne, one of the great comic roles in a Strauss opera, as well as the overweening Major-Domo, overseeing proceedings, played to perfection in this recording by Stephen Fry! This is the first time that Christine Brewer has recorded her superb interpretation of the part in a complete recording of the opera, and the first time that this opera has been recorded sung in English.

The Czech maestro Jiří Bělohlávek performs works by his countryman Josef Suk, conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra, with whom he is Chief Conductor. As a composer, Suk followed in the tradition of Smetana and Dvořák, the latter of whom was not only his professor at the Prague Conservatory, but also became his father-in-law. Like Novák – another key Dvořák pupil – Suk fully embraced his national background, composing in a late romantic style imbued with his individual approach to impressionism and native folk culture. Following the success of his Serenade in E flat, Suk wished to take up the challenge of writing a symphony, influenced as he was by the contributions to the genre of his own teacher, and of Brahms. This new CD provides an excellent opportunity to hear the rarely recorded early work in all its fresh melodic appeal and inventive orchestration. Ripening is one of the composer’s masterpieces, a highly colourful and superbly sustained symphonic poem, brilliantly orchestrated, with a chorus making its wordless contribution at the work’s emotional highpoint.

Joseph Marx was a master of lyrical atmospheric music. He has often been compared to Hugo Wolf, who was twenty years his senior, because song was the foundation on which their respective creative oeuvres rested. While Wolf was a bold, stormy innovator, Marx was a Dionysian who both expanded and maintained and precisely in his song oeuvre turned more to the blending of contemporary trends with the past in splendid new attire than to an imponderable future. Angelika Kirchschlager, one of today’s most renowned lied singers, is absolutely captivated by the lyrical charm and the incredibly multifaceted expressive power of Marx’s songs, selected a epresentative sampling together with her piano partner Anthony Spiri, and produced an exemplary recording for cpo. The songs from the Italienisches Liederbuch of 1912, for example, display all sorts of different moods (dramatic, delightful, gloomy, humorous), and one quickly understands why Marx’s compositions were so popular during his lifetime: for every atmosphere or mood he perfected and uniquely shaped a musical whole.

Alessandro Scarlatti was born in Naples in 1660 and worked mainly in the city of his birth and in Rome. As fate would have it, Scarlatti, who in his time was famous more as an opera composer, is highly esteemed today as a master of sacred music. Although his sacred repertoire plays a relatively minor role in his oeuvre, he nevertheless composed sacred music throughout his life, even when he was not in the employ of ecclesiastical institutions. It is only gradually that recordings are now beginning to draw attention to the great variety of his sacred oeuvre. His liturgical compositions display a wide stylistic breadth ranging from stile antico to very modern works departing from the traditions of his times. This selection features the gorgeous voices of Gemma Bertagnolli and Sara Mingardo, the winning duo who have recorded Pergolesi and Scarlatti sacred works together on Naive (OP30490).

In the essay prefacing his Le Nuove Musiche(1602), Giulio Caccini proposed a new relationship between music and text that could be summed up with the term sprezzatura, whereby the text moves to a primary position of importance. In combination with the emerging basso continuo, Caccini thus sowed the seed for the startling developments in vocal genres that flourished for decades to come. This recording presents various facets of the new vocal art, beginning with works by Caccini himself, moving through exquisite works by Frescobaldi and the madrigalian miracles of d’India to exhilarating music by the poet-composer Benedetto Ferrari, active in Venice and Vienna in the middle of the 17th century. Rosa Domínguez places special emphasis on the text, stressing the ‘I’ of these poetic creations, generally the subject of sweet amorous torment.

During the early medieval period, the Benedictine monastery of Saint Gall (Sankt Gallen), situated near Lake Constance, served as a creative centre for the development of music and poetry concerned with the liturgy. To be found there were the oldest named composer-poets from the West, especially monks such as Ratpert (d. 890), Notker (d. 912) and Tuotilo (d. 913). They expanded the scope of existing liturgical chants with additions whose melodic and poetic inventiveness still elicit admiration today. Such tropes and sequences were brought together in the 10th century in Sankt Gallen’s codices 484 and 381, with a precise notation in neumes which is unique to the Abbey. Across a range of important recordings, musicologist Wulf Arlt and Dominique Vellard along with his Ensemble Gilles Binchois have revived broad areas of medieval music. This re-issued collection of works from Sankt Gallen occupies a distinguished position, presenting the first music of Western culture which can be ascribed to individual creators. The recording itself was made in one of the most beautiful Romanesque churches in Switzerland in Romainmôtier.

Colin Matthews is Composer-in-Association of Hallé and this release presents the culmination of his orchestratiting all 24 Debussy Préludes for Hallé. The orchestra's previous release of Colin Matthews’ original compositions Alphabicycle and Horn Concerto (CD HLL 7515) were highly praised: 'as a showcase for Matthews' and the Hallé's stylistic versatility, the two works on this disc... couldn't be bettered.' (BBC Website)

This set includes the recordings of Colin Mathews' stunning orchestrations of the Debussy Préludes, along with a Postlude written by the composer for this project, presented together for the first time at a special price. Matthews has been lauded for the success with which he has taken the inspiration of the piano masterpieces and skilfully created orchestral works of great variety, beauty and drama.

Philippe Graffin's voyage of discovery researching little-known works for the violin by well-known masters has already seen a particularly well-received disc of Rare French Works for violin and orchestra, and now we have a disc of works for violin and piano that also emerged from his investigations. These pieces have been uncovered in private collections and various libraries, including the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. These are fascinating transcriptions by Saint-Saëns, one of the most celebrated pianists of his time, and the equally celebrated violinist Ysaÿe. Having assisted in bringing them to light, Graffin performs them with his customary virtuosity and grace, accompanied by the equally deft French pianist, Pascal Devoyon, on a disc that will educate, delight and amaze.

The blind English composer John Stanley stands out among his contemporaries as a composer of ‘grand concertos’ in that he used Handel’s Op 6 concertos of 1739 as a model. Most concerto composers in London at the time looked either directly to Corelli or to Geminiani, Corelli’s chief disciple in London, whose influential Opp 2 and 3 sets of 1732 use an updated Corelli style, with more brilliant solo parts and with a viola in the concertino as well as the ripieno. Stanley can be Corellian at times, as in the fine opening sequence of Op 2 No 1, but in general he follows Handel in using a more varied style.
'An attractive record' (Gramophone), 'The players are technically superb, but also play with a grace and lightness which are wholly uplifting' (BBC Music Magazine Top 1000 CDs Guide).

In 1931 the pianist and muse Harriet Cohen invited all her principal composer friends each to make an arrangement of a work by J S Bach for inclusion in an album to be published by Oxford University Press. Published as A Bach Book for Harriet Cohen, it is recorded here for the first time by virtuoso pianist Jonathan Plowright. The disc is completed by eight other 20th-century British Bach transcriptions.

Jonathan Dove’s beautiful choral works have made him into a household name among professional and amateur singers alike. His writing is eminently approachable yet highly original. His music appears on cathedral music lists frequently around the UK, his distinctive voice and imaginative choice of texts creating inspirational works suitable for many different liturgical occasions. The Missa brevis is the most recent work to be recorded here and was commissioned by the Cathedral Organists’ Association for their conference in Wells Cathedral in May 2009 and first performed by the cathedral choir under Matthew Owens’ direction. The same forces have recorded it here along with a delectable selection of Dove’s anthems. Also available: Dove's opera Tobias and the Angel (Chandos CHAN10606).

The relatively novel instrumental combination which Mozart used for his string quintets (employing two violas) seems to have been inspired by a work by his friend and colleague Michael Haydn. Throughout his life Mozart loved the dusky sonority of the viola, always his instrument of choice when he played chamber music with friends. Beyond that, prompted by Michael Haydn’s charming, lightweight Notturno, he was evidently eager to explore a medium that enabled him to indulge his fondness for dark, saturated textures and rich inner-part writing. The complete String Quintets is an enchanting body of chamber music, recorded here in a 3-disc set by the peerless Nash Ensemble.

Schumann’s songs are among the greatest musical achievements of the 19th century, and this is the perfect release with which to mark the composer’s 200th birthday. This marvellous collection comprises Schumann’s complete songs, presented for the first time in their chronological sequence of composition, with complete song texts, and a chronology of Schumann’s life and songs by Graham Johnson. Johnson is, of course, also the curator and unifying musical force of this series, accompanying his hand-picked selection of singers – some of the greatest lieder performers of today, and indeed of tomorrow – with utter sensitivity.

Gramophone Award-winning artist Davitt Moroney has spent more than fifteen years planning this momentous project and Hyperion are proud to be able to bring Davitt’s wealth of expertise and musicianship to the label. As an authentic complete survey of this music, six different instruments have been used for the recording – two different harpsichords, muselar virginal, clavichord, chamber organ, and the Ahrend organ at L’Église-Musée des Augustins, Toulouse, France (where the huge and high nave creates an echo that lasts for nearly fifteen seconds, not unlike the acoustic at Lincoln Cathedral where Byrd was the organist and master of the choristers). According to ancient legend, the phoenix (an image Byrd used in his first publication in 1575) is reborn from the centre of a blazing fire every five hundred years. Byrd, indeed, had to wait nearly as long before modern editions, concerts and recordings have been able to bring his music back to life. Davitt Moroney is the perfect musician for the job.

Verdi’s Requiem is a work of white-hot dramatic intensity, infused with his lifetime of composing opera. His approach to religion is explosive, emotional, and full of temperament and fear, the latter being wonderfully conveyed by López-Cobos in this concert performance. All forces give thrilling performances and the electrifying Dies Irae is a barnstorming triumph. The quartet of soloists delivers moments of calm prayer, for example the exquisite Recordare for soprano and mezzo duet, though all in all this is music to lift the spirit and raise the pulse.

This recording is a story of several musical links, from Paris to New York City.  Polish-born Alexandre Tansman started his career of pianist and composer in Paris in the 1920s. He worked with Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Milhaud and… Gershwin.  In 1927, Tansman toured the USA with Ravel. On December 28th, in Boston, he gave the first performance of his own Second Piano Concerto, a work full of colors and built on several major musical influences including jazz. This is the first recording of Tansman's lively concerto ever released on disc. At the time of its composition, Gershwin was taking the world by storm. His 'Jazz Concerto' commissioned by Paul Whitman in 1924, Rhapsody in Blue,had already experienced worldwide success. To complete this program based on the links between Europe and America, David Greilsammer chose to record a work recently rediscovered: Nadia Boulanger’s Fantaisie pour piano et orchestre. An internationally renowned pedagogue, Boulanger taught young composers from all over the world in Paris, particularly Americans. She met with Tansman in 1919 and with Gershwin in 1925 and 1928.

The German pianist Walter Gieseking was born in Lyon in 1895, and died in London in 1956. Trained in Naples and Hanover, he served in the First World War, then resumed his career touring Europe and gained a reputation as one of the most remarkable pianists of his generation. His performances became famous for their refinement and exquisite command of nuance. His repertoire ranged from the Austro-German greats to the French impressionists, especially the music of Debussy. Gieseking was also a champion of new music, and was blessed with a photographic memory of scores. In 1950, to mark the 200th anniversary of Bach’s death, he made many recordings for Saar Radio, which included all of Bach’s keyboard music. ‘His tone is attractive (warmed by a little pedal) and subtly nuanced, his phrasing is musicianly, he gives the fugues (often long, in this book) control and cohesion; there is gentleness in the E flat major Prelude and lightness in that in G major; and stylistically there are some informed features – double-dotting in the F sharp major Fugue, inegale treatment of the quaver pairs in the D major Prelude.’ -Gramophone

The Polish pianist Adam Harasiewicz was born in 1932, and enjoyed a meteoric rise to fame when he was awarded First Prize at the Fifth International Chopin Competition in Warsaw. Although his name may be unfamiliar to many today, other names at that competition in 1955 included Fou Ts’ong and Vladimir Ashkenazy. Harasiewicz has been mentioned by aficionados in the same breath as Argerich, Rubinstein, Zimmerman and Cortot as one of the leading interpreters of Chopin. Harasiewicz signed to a major record label in the late 1950s and ’60s and among the notable recordings he made during this period were the complete sonatas, scherzos and ballades included on these two CDs.

‘Adam Harasiewicz is a splendid player of Chopin. Whether because of his Polish blood or of a natural sensibility, he seems to have a special affinity with the quieter and more lyrical moments of the music, especially in their rhythmic shaping. Yet turn the page and there is no lack of sparkle in the more brilliant passages or address in the more thundering.’ -Gramophone

Music has always played a pivotal role in the coronation of British monarchs. The 20th century saw major works composed for the occasion by Parry for Edward VII in 1902, Elgar for George V in 1911, Walton for George VI in 1937, and most recently Walton for Elizabeth II in 1953. Handel was commissioned to supply four new works to be performed with music by Purcell, Tallis, Blow and Gibbons for George II’s coronation in 1727. Of these works, one still forms part of the modern ceremony. Zadok the Priest, the shortest

of the anthems, still has the power to surprise and thrill the listener, and must have had an electrifying effect upon those gathered in Westminster Abbey on 11 October 1727. ‘This is a most elegant version of these stirring works. The chorus, clear-set against the orchestra, moves with the same precision as the players, and Marriner’s control of the rhythmic groupings is a delight.’ -Gramophone, November 1985

After Haydn became vice-Kapellmeister to the Esterházy family in 1761, he soon realised that he had at his disposal some remarkable musicians in the orchestra at the court. In his Symphonies 6, 7 and 8 he had given the principal musicians significant solo parts. Although he didn’t repeat this in later symphonies, he produced a series of concertos for violinist Luigi Tomasini, cellist Joseph Weigl and others. These works lay dormant throughout the 19th century, and only came to light in the first part of the 20th – in fact the famous D major Cello Concerto (now one of the most popular of Haydn’s works and one of the ‘great’ cello concertos) wasn’t discovered until the early 1950s.

Berg’s Three Orchestral Pieces of 1913–15 rank along side Stravinsky’s Petrushka and The Rite of Spring as one of the most remarkable and explosive largescale orchestral works of the early 20th century. The sound world, although Mahler-esque in places, embodies Berg’s unique voice: highly chromatic, dark, brooding, wistfully melancholic, often romantic. Schoenberg, his teacher, recognised Berg’s natural gift for melody and colour, and that these required a broad canvas and full orchestra to be effective. The Violin Concerto composed 20 years later at the time when the Nazi party condemned his opera Wozzeck as ‘degenerate’. Berg was working on his second opera Lulu when news reached him that Manon, the teenage daughter of Mahler’s widow Alma and Walter Gropius, close friends of Berg, had died after a long illness. The concerto is one of the most personal and emotional utterances by any composer. It has also come to light that Berg makes reference to Mizzi, a 17-year-old housemaid with whom he had a passionate affair and a daughter. ‘Kremer gives a beautifully tender account of the first movement of the Concerto, aided by a markedly slower opening tempo than usual and by a really hushed pianissimo at the outset. The result is that the change of mood and tempo when the music moves from andante to allegretto are immediately perceptible: the allegretto has not been pre-empted by earlier accelerations, as can easily happen.’ (Gramophone, July 1985)

These two popular concertos have for many years been coupled on LP and CD, and ever since their initial release in 1972, the performances on this disc have been highly rated.

This recording is one of a few to have achieved true classic status, of the stature of Jacqueline du Pre’s Elgar Cello Concerto, and Michelangeli’s Ravel G major and Rachmaninov Fourth Piano Concertos. The young Stephen Bishop (now known as Stephen Kovacevich) was at the height of his considerable powers, and these performances of two of the best-loved piano concertos have hardly been equalled ever since they were made almost 40 years ago. ‘His acute sensibility and the mellifluous playing of all orchestral solo passages show us Grieg the nature-poet. And this feeling for mood, for the undertones of reverie, gives the essence of Schumann as Romantic, and in both concertos conductor and soloist are in perfect rapport – and the recording engineers have missed nothing.’ Gramophone, March 1972

A new recording of the virtuoso Sibelius Violin Concerto featuring German star violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann as soloist. This work remains one of the most popular late Romantic concertos in the catalog. Zimmermann’s hallmark on this recording is his electrifying approach to the dazzling finale; few performers manage to reach Sibelius’s demanding tempo marking for this movement, which critics have described as an ‘invocation’ filled with ‘demonic passion’. The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra under chief conductor John Storgårds also performs two powerful rarities by the same composer, the symphonic poems The Bard and The Wood Nymph. The orchestra has unique credentials in performing Sibelius’s music, having premiered these tone poems a century ago, conducted by Sibelius himself.

In Roma fairy tales, it is usually the devil who imbues Gypsy music with its inimitable vivacity. And when listening to Cigánski diabli (Gypsy Devils), one cannot help but believe it. The popularity of this cimbalom ensemble has crossed the borders of their native Slovakia to travel much further afield. A traditional cimbalom band? Well, yes and no. They have many more strings to their bow: folk music (ranging from Slovak to Jewish), on occasions walking a tightrope between pop and jazz, at other times performing Haydn together with a classical pianist or a symphony orchestra. And since Brahms, Liszt and Dvořák were inspired by the Gypsy style, why not turn things on their head and play their music the Gypsy way? With their characteristic virtuosity and vivacity, Gypsy Devilshave entered the rarefied domain of classical music – yet in a manner entirely of their own and with arrangements transcending the borders of genres. But what’s the use of borders when it comes to music of such splendour?

In November 1981 Herbert von Karajan allowed Tennstedt to deputise for him. Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony was replaced by the Eighth; this would easily have filled the evening on its own, but the planned opening piece, Bach’s E major Violin Concerto, was kept in the programme. Tennstedt had now firmly taken his place among the international élite of conductors, praised for the 'full-bodied expressiveness' he drew from the orchestra.

Being the typically 'Berliner' events they are, the annual summer concerts of the Berlin Philharmonic at the Berlin Waldbühne far surpass the usual in open-air shows and are generally sold out months in advance. The unique atmosphere of the Waldbühne – one of the most attractive amphitheatres in Europe – is irresistibly appealing and has long been the Mecca of many classical music fans. French Night delivers an exceptional program of French favorites under the baton of Georges Prêtre. The concert begins with Berlioz‘s Roman Carnival Overture, Ravel‘s Concerto for the Left Hand with soloist Leon Fleisher follows, alongside Debussy‘s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Bizet’s Carmen-Suite and finally Ravel’s climactic Bolero.

After Prague, Madrid and London, in 1994 it was the turn of Meiningen to host the European Concert, an annual concert celebrating the founding of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra on 1 May 1882. The German pianist and conductor, Hans von Bülow (1830-1894) - the centenary of whose death the concert also commemorates - was engaged as a conductor in Meiningen before being appointed the first Principal Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. Meiningen, situated at the centre of a Germany no longer divided by the Iron Curtain, can look back on a great musical past. During the course of the last century, the town developed into a theatre and music centre. The 1994 European Concert opens with Beethoven‘s Fifth Piano Concerto ('Emperor'), a majestic, virtuoso work which never fails to enthrall. The concert concludes with Brahms' Second Symphony.

The Berlin Philharmonic gave its 1993 European Concert in the impressive setting of the Royal Albert Hall with Tchaikovsky‘s fantasy overture to Romeo and Juliet. The performance demonstrates the mastery of world-renowned violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann in Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3, K216, described by Alfred Einstein as 'a miracle'. Under Bernard Haitink‘s baton, the Berlin Philharmonic demonstrate their discipline and sophistication in the reduced classical instrumentation, before the full orchestra put on a show after the with Stravinsky‘s 'Rite'.

Born in Bombay in 1936, Zubin Mehta is one of the greatest conductors to emerg in the 20th century.  'I have been conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker longer than many of its musicians have been members. I began in 1961 and since then have not missed a single season. During all those years I have been able to observe continually that the Berliner Philharmoniker sets standards for outstanding orchestral achievements‘, he says.

The theme of Mehta's St. Petersburg Night at the Berlin Waldbühne is, of course, a Russian affair. The centrepiece is one of Tchaikovsky‘s most frequently played and beloved compositions: his Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, with the incomparable Daniel Barenboim as soloist. The program is completed with Tchaikovsky‘s Swan Lake and Rimsky-Korsakov‘s orchestral scherzo‚ The Flight of the Bumblebee.

The Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado applauded by an ecstatic Japanese audience, with a programme of Russian favourites: Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Cui, Borodin and Balakirev formed the 'mighty handful', later known as 'The Five'. This group of Russian composers saw it as their mission to dedicate their compositional efforts wholly to national Russian music based on folk songs. The Firebird Suite is one of Stravinsky‘s most successful compositions, existing in three versions. The second version (1919), heard in the present recording, calls for a mid-sized orchestra (including percussion, harp and piano). Tchaikovsky's 4th and 5th Symphonies were written ten years apart during a period in which Tchaikovsky found himself at the pinnacle of his popularity but also during a period of inner turmoil and self-doubt. Although the premiere in Moscow in 1888, which he himself conducted, was only moderately successful, these glorious symphonies count among Tchaikovsky's most beloved compositions.

The Berliner Philharmonic as guest performers at the State Opera Unter den Linden. Daniel Barenboim, as the host and the conductor of the concert, invited the ensemble to perform in the historically distinguished setting of the opera. The varied programme begins with Beethoven‘s Eighth Symphony, followed by a rare gem of Romantic music: the concert piece for four horns and orchestra Op. 86 by Robert Schumann, in which the solo quartet interacts with the orchestra as a concertino group. This imaginatively arranged three-part concert piece - brimming with vitality, catchy melodies and wit - was composed in 1849, seven years before Schumann‘s death. As performing the piece calls for consummate skill in all of the instrument‘s manifold techniques, it is regarded as a daunting and highly complex task among horn players. Liszt's symphonic poem Les Preludes and Wagner‘s thrilling Ride of the Valkyries round out this unmissable experience.

 'John Sebastian Bach‘s Matthew Passion has deeply moved me. Bach‘s musical incarnation of the Passion in both its general and personal aspects created the need in me to find a choreographic equivalent. I am both Christian and a dancer. My whole life, all my thought and feeling are the dance, and choreography is my real language. That is why I have attempted to express my own religious convictions and experiences in choreographic terms and to organise them in artistic form. In my entire career as a choreographer, I have never known a period in which I enjoyed such complete harmony with the dancers, as I have enjoyed throughout the creation of the St. Matthew Passion. It was a period of learning from one another, of experiencing instinctively together the emotion of text and music, of positive cooperation and concentration. Even if this ballet had never got beyond rehearsals and had never been performed, the process of its creation will remain the most profound experience of my working life.' -John Neumeier

This inspiring danced setting of Bach's entire St Matthew Passion is enriched by multi-angle viewing options.

Richard Wagner’s early opera Rienzi is stylistically closer to Meyerbeer and bel canto than to Wagner’s later masterworks. Yet even this early work – especially as presented in this recording – is 'so fantastically beautiful that it takes one’s breath away' (Berliner Times). And in this staging by Philipp Stölzl, who condensed the five-act opera into a little over two hours, Rienzi becomes a startlingly powerful and timeless parable of power and its abuse. Though the story of the rise and fall of a charismatic leader and his totalitarian regime takes place in 14th-century Rome, Stölzl sets it somewhere in the recent past. The topic 'anticipates the history of the 20th-century in a visionary way', says Stölzl, adding that 'one can make surprising analogies to many despots of this time: Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, Ceausescu…' Since cinema was a central propaganda tool of 20th-century totalitarian systems, Stölzl uses film projections to make the tribune Rienzi tower above the masses. It is, after all, with films that Stölzl began his career: directing video clips for Rammstein and Madonna before staging operas at the Salzburg Festival. Tenor Torsten Kerl, who has visibly studied the gestures of the 20th century’s major dictators, gives a brilliant and eloquent Rienzi.

Between 1844 and 1859 Robert Schumann lived in Dresden, where he composed a third of his complete oeuvre. This concert marks the 200th anniversary of Schumann‘s birth and offers a welcome opportunity for Daniel Harding and the Staatskapelle Dresden to present three of the most impressive but now too rarely performed works from Schumann's Dresden period (Overture to Genoveva, Requiem für Mignon and Nachtlied).

Particular highlights - which will come as a surprise even to connoisseurs of his works - are a first performance and a world premiere of rediscovered and reconstructed symphonic movements dating from the composer‘s legendary 'symphony year' of 1841.

Christian Thielemann has crafted a performance that places him among the finest interpreters of this work, such as Maazel, Furtwängler, Karajan, Klemperer; a deeply moving German Requiem enriched by the voices of soloists Christine Schäfer and Christian Gerhaher. 'Under Christian Thielemann´s guidance, the Munich Philharmonic sounds terrific.' -New York Times

The first Haydn Il Mondo della Luna on DVD and Blu-ray! Nikolaus Harnoncourt crafted a performance in which Haydn's work can be seen as a veritable gem of opera literature. Renowned actor and director Tobias Moretti relates the story as a light-footed, magical fairy tale infused with slapstick, witty details and fantasy costumes. The whimsical story of a man who believes he has been sent to the moon is one of Haydn's most charming operatic creations.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is one of the 20th Century's greatest interpreters of art song and lieder. Just in time for the Schumann bicentenary: a recital from one of the great Schumann singers. This first release in a DVD series of Fischer-Dieskau in recitals from Baden-Baden comes with a bonus CD of the legendary baritone performing 19th-century ballads.

The Blu-ray Experience Vol 2 includes opera, ballet and theatre highlights from the Opus Arte catalogue, and gives viewers the opportunity to experience the greatest art forms in the stunning quality of High Definition picture and sound, at an extremely competitive price.  Including world-class artists such Carlos Acosta, Darcey Bussell, Sarah Connolly, Miyako Yoshida, Diana Damrau, Joyce DiDonato, Adetomiwa Edun, Gerald Finley, this is a must-have collection.

Shakespeare's Globe productions of As You Like It, Love's Labour's Lost and Romeo & Juliet are offered in this exclusive limited edition box set. Thea Sharrock’s irresistible new production of Shakespeare’s popular romantic comedy As You Like It stirs wit, sentiment, intrigue and love into a charming confection which challenges the traditional rules of romance.  Using every kind of verbal gymnastics to poke fun, Shakespeare’s most intellectual comedy Love’s Labour’s Lost is brought to hilarious life in Dominic Dromgoole’s highly entertaining production, rich in visual humour and sexual innuendo. Dromgoole’s production of Romeo & Juliet brings refreshing clarity to one of Shakespeare’s most famous and best-loved tragedies. Ellie Kendrick, a truly youthful Juliet, and Adetomiwa Edun, a boyish Romeo, head an excellent cast whose period costumes point to the timelessness of parental disapproval, adolescent temperament, rivalry and violence. The acclaimed series from the Bard's own Globe Theatre is currently airing on STVDIO.