Unquestionably one of the greatest pianists of all time is how Gramophone magazine has described Martha Argerich. Her relationship with the label goes back to 1965 and her victory at the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw. Over several decades it has produced a rich catalogue of live and studio recordings, embracing a repertoire that spans three centuries, a diversity of genres, and collaborations with such figures as Charles Dutoit, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Gidon Kremer, Mischa Maisky and Itzhak Perlman. The complete recordings for EMI Classics, Teldec, Erato and Warner Classics are featured in this box. Martha Argerich is a pianist of transcendent gifts and her special joy in musical collaboration is the key to the second part of this collection: the complete live recordings made at Switzerland's Lugano Festival between 2002 and 2016 and released by EMI Classics and Warner Classics. Argerich is heard in solo works and concertos, but above all in intimate partnership with fellow instrumentalists, performers she sees as her musical "family". This new boxset puts together in 46CDs all the recordings made by Martha Argerich for EMI Classics, Teldec, Erato and Warner Classics, from 1965 to 2020.
2 LP, Limited Edition. Luxurious 180 g heavyweight vinyl pressings from OPTIMAL. This release includes a voucher with a unique code to download the digital audio files (MP3) of the full album for free. Works by Chopin, Tan Dun, Haydn, Liszt, Schubert, Schumann. "An awesome new recording of the most spectacular recital I've ever seen" (Gregory Krischling, Entertainment Weekly)
Winter - from First Frost to Carnival Festivity A sparkling musical panorama of winter - harking back to the legendary Great Frost of 1708/09. From the beginning of the season over Christmas to a festive carnival: songs, opera scenes, instrumental as well as traditional pieces from France, Germany, and Great Britain. Music by Jean-Baptiste Lully, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Michael Praetorius, William Byrd, among others.
Maxim Emelyanychev's affinity with Mozart is well known, especially when it comes to piano works. In 2018, the conductor and keyboardist treated us to a recording that not only displayed his virtuosity and musicianship, but also revealed his remarkably close understanding of the composer's music. Today, the symphonies are the focus of his first long-term project with Il Pomo d'Oro, an ensemble he has been working with as it's conductor since 2013. As he points out, this project, aiming eventually to provide a complete set of the Mozart symphonies, is unlike anything he has recorded with the ensemble hitherto on period instruments. The approach here is original: each volume will feature an early symphony by Mozart, together with one of his great mature symphonies, which will enable the listener to perceive his many facets, revealed in the course of his development. Each volume will also include a bonus work, featuring a special guest. Inaugurating the series, Maxim Emelyanychev himself provides the hors d'œuvre with Concerto o.23 K.488, played on a fortepiano, before going on to conduct Mozart's Symphonies Nos.1 and 41.
Well established in the field of historically informed performance, the Italian ensemble Il Pomo d'Oro has recently expanded: it now includes a choir, and this is it's first solo recording. Conducted by Giuseppe Maletto, the ensemble presents here Gesualdo's fascinating first book of Sacræ Cantiones. Less well known than his madrigals, the nineteen five-part motets that make up this work explore the theme of repentance through the Liturgy of Penance and the figure of the Virgin Mary. The painfully voluptuous chromaticism and the expressive intensity and refinement of the lines make this work one of the most singular of that period. Gesualdo's interpretation of the liturgical text is intensely dramatic and highly personal. Il Pomo d'Oro renders perfectly the mysterious beauty of this music.
