The Calidore Quartet begin their new cycle of Beethoven's complete String Quartets with the Late Quartets, a 3-volume set of Opp. 127, 130, 131, 132, 133 & 135. Performances of the Calidore String Quartet are renowned for their “deep reserves of virtuosity and irrepressible dramatic instinct” (New York Times). Their unique “balance of intellect and expression” (Los Angeles Times) is complemented by the feeling that “four more individual musicians are unimaginable, yet these speak, breathe, think and feel as one” (Washington Post). After over a decade of performances and residencies in the world’s most esteemed venues and festivals, the release of numerous critically acclaimed recordings and lauded with significant awards, the Calidore String Quartet is recognized as one of the world’s foremost interpreters of a vast repertory; from the cycles of quartets by Beethoven and Mendelssohn to works of celebrated contemporary voices like Grygory Kurtag, Jörg Widmann and Caroline Shaw.

The preserved “miraculous harp:” 475 years of orchestra history – and a whole century is there to be listened to. This CD box is an invitation to a musical journey through time with one of the world’s best orchestras! Not only that, it is one of the world’s oldest, founded in 1548 and active without a break ever since. The former Hofkapelle, the court orchestra of Saxony, now proudly bears the name Sachsische Staatskapelle Dresden. “Kapellkonzerte“ since the beginning of sound recordings under conductors like: Fritz Busch, Richard Strauss, Karl Böhm, Joseph Keilberth, Kurt Sanderling, Otmar Suitner, Herbert Blomstedt, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Bernard Haitink, Fabio Luisi, Christian Thielemann and many more

Beethoven Symphony No. 2 in D major Op. 36 was written in 1802 the same year of the Heilegenstadt Testament, the letter never sanded to all his brothers, where the Magister self confessed with deep soul and pain his inability in having normal relationship with the people and the society due to his deafness. even the Symphony No. 2 has been mainly composed in Heiligenstadt it did not represent a close correspondence between the art and life of the german composer. Symphony No. 2 has a more contradictory character to Symphony No. 1 and for this fact some musical researchers consider it as a"Transition work". But nevertheless its thematic richness it is the most remarkable representation less conventional and formal than the previous Symphony; to a more profound analysis we could say thay Beetohven in this Second Symphony had tired to give unity and harmony to different and heterogeneous music elements. The themes and the ideas which came out from the music are now heroics now gallant and all are expressed by an orchestral language rich of syncopation, “sforzando” and frenetical interplay among micro music motives. With this peculiar inhomogeneity Symphonu No. 2 is work already looking toward the Future without reaching it or synthesize it in a formal and expressive vision well defined as Beethoven realized in Symphony No. 3 The Eroic Op. 55.

IDIS in its serie Karajan Spectacular is presenting all Beethoven Symphonies in a serie of live recordings made by the Great German director between Fifties and Seventies XX Century. In this release the recording of Second Symphony in D major is rare and almost unobtainable performed 10th April 1953 with Torino RAI Symphony Orchestra with Karajan well known soloist. As album ending and amazing performance of Concert in D major for violin and orchestra op 61 live recorded in Lucerne in 1954 where Karajan conducts one of the most soloist of these times Wolfgang Schneiderhan a real expert of this Beethoven Concert.

In September 1809, the Vienna Hofburg Theatre commissioned Ludwig van Beethoven to create new incidental music for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's "Egmont". The tragedy had premiered in Mainz on January 9, 1789. It calls for incidental music, but various attempts – some commissioned by the poet himself – had remained unfinished or were unsatisfactory. The music was required in several sections of the drama, however, and the Vienna production of "Egmont" was to include it. Beethoven set to work. He made good progress, because the subject suited him: the tragedy is set in Brussels, under threat from Spanish troops, and deals with resistance against oppression and foreign rule. The Viennese theatre premiere of "Egmont" on May 24, 1810 still had to make do without music, however – the score was only finally completed by the third performance. Beethoven's incidental music was premiered on June 15, 1810.

The music itself makes it clear that this commission was close to Beethoven's heart - it far exceeds the level of incidental music common at that time. That applies not only to the compositional demands but also to the relationship of the music to the drama. Eschewing mere illustration, Beethoven provided an interpretation and therefore an additional level of meaning. The well-known Egmont Overture, the most dramatically dense part of the incidental music, anticipates the action and introduces the characters. A clear reference to the drama is made in the ending, which corresponds exactly to the symphony of victory called for by Goethe at the end of the tragedy. The finale - a clear reference to the drama - corresponds exactly to the “symphony of victory” called for by Goethe at the end of the tragedy.

On his second album with Signum Records, internationally acclaimed violinist Charlie Siem is joined by the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Oleg Caetani to perform works by Beethoven.

Charlie Siem is one of today’s foremost young violinists, with such a wide-ranging diversity of cross-cultural appeal as to have played a large part in defining what it means to be a true artist of the 21st century. Siem has appeared with many of the world’s finest orchestras and chamber ensembles, including: the Bergen Philharmonic, the Camerata Salzburg, the Czech National Symphony, the Israel Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the Moscow Philharmonic, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

The Philharmonia is a world-class symphony orchestra for the 21st century, based in London at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, resident in cities and at festivals across England, and streaming online.