Deluxe two CD edition. 2022 release. The most unforgettable songs from Disney's iconic films reimagined by the greatest living pianist, Lang Lang's The Disney Book tells the story of a century of magical, joyous entertainment for all. Join him on an uplifting, virtuosic journey to experience beloved songs from Disney films with collaborators from across the globe, including Andrea Bocelli, Sebastian Yatra, and Jon Batiste, performing hits from Snow White, Encanto, Beauty and the Beast, Pinocchio and many more.

2022 release. The most unforgettable songs from Disney's iconic films reimagined by the greatest living pianist, Lang Lang's The Disney Book tells the story of a century of magical, joyous entertainment for all. Join him on an uplifting, virtuosic journey to experience beloved songs from Disney films with collaborators from across the globe, including Andrea Bocelli, Sebastian Yatra, and Jon Batiste, performing hits from Snow White, Encanto, Beauty and the Beast, Pinocchio and many more.

Voces8, the internationally acclaimed British vocal ensemble, is pleased to announce the release of their new album, 'A Choral Christmas' out on November 3rd via Decca Classics and showcasing a joyful, cinematic soundscape-packed hamper of choral and orchestral treats. A Christmas musical extravaganza filled with sparkling, cinematic new arrangements of favourite carols from US composer Taylor Scott Davis. Featuring several world premiere recordings of brand new works and arrangements, including the centrepiece of the album, a major new work for choir and orchestra, Taylor Scott Davis's dazzling setting of the Magnificat, originally commissioned for Voces8's LIVE From London festival. Also includes a serene and intimate new a cappella carol The Sleeping Child from British composer Bob Chilcott written especially for Voces8. Largest scale recording of Voces8 to date - featuring the Voces8 Foundation Choir and Orchestra for the first time, instrumental soloists and conducted by Voces8's co-founder and countertenor Barnaby Smith.

Contains Delius' most essential statements. Summer Night on the River, On Hearing the First Cuckoo, Brigg Fair and the Irmelin Prelude are simply magical in their effect, and Beecham's interpretations arise out of the depths of the music itself... passages such as the introduction to Brigg Fair, seem to be outside time, one yet again wonders at the poetic rightness of every nuance, the delicately exact textural balance. His identification with the composer is so complete that one is not sure whom to credit for some features... This (collection) must surely be recognised as a gem. Sleigh Ride and the Marche Caprice are entertaining enough, but all the rest are wonderful Delius - and conducted by someone who has remained the one and only Delius interpreter. Each performance is superb. (Gramophone)

A String Quartet that can easily morph into a jazz band - New York Times, 2009 Milestones is the new album of Quatuor Ebene recorded in 2023, with the line up still featuring Rafael Merlin (violoncello)(*) - next to Pierre Colombet (violin) Gabriel Le Magadure (violin), Marie Chilemme (viola). It features several standards such as Miles Davis, Milestones - Thelonious Monk, Round Midnight - Erroll Garner, Misty - Toots Thielemans, Bluesette, A nice follow up on albums such as Fiction (2010), Brazil (2014) Eternal Stories in (2017), Milestones is a stylish and original jazz album featuring their arrangements, a talent the QE have nurtured over the years Rafael Merlin (violoncello) has left the QE after 25 years of performing, touring and recording to pursue his conducting and composer activities, the new cellist of the QE is Yuya Okamoto. Booklet text from Rafael Merlin

Following his beloved and best-selling 2018 album of music from popular films, Renaud Capucon returns to the magical world of cinema in Les Choses de la Vie - Cinema II. The violinist has dedicated this sequel to 19 titles written by French film composers or for iconic French films. This includes, among others, Michel Legrand's "The Windmills of Your Mind" featured on the 1968 soundtrack to The Thomas Crown Affair; Joseph Kosma's "Les Feuilles mortes", or "Autumn Leaves", heard in the 1946 film Les Portes de la nuit (Gates of the Night); and themes from the scores to The Shape of Water (2017) by Alexandre Desplat, Lawrence of Arabia (1962) by Maurice Jarre, Memories of Me (1988) by Georges Delerue, and Les Choses de la vie (1970) by Philippe Sarde, which inspired the project's name. "There's a great tradition of film music among French composers," explains Renaud Capucon. "Each has their own personality, their own style. The music of Alexandre Desplat or Jean-Claude Petit has nothing in common with that of Gabriel Yared or Francois de Roubaix, but all these titles have a typically French touch and charm." For this new cinematic musical experience, the French violinist has joined with the musicians of Les Siecles orchestra and conductor Duncan Ward.

Quatuor Ebene welcomes a favourite colleague, viola player Antoine Tamestit, for two of Mozart's six string quintets - No 3 in C major, K 515 and No 4 in G minor, K 516. Their last joint album, 'Round Midnight, won a 2022 Gramophone Award for it's thrilling exploration of diverse strands of 20th century music. .When a fifth member joins the ensemble it is always cause for celebration," explains Pierre Colombet, first violinist of Quatuor Ebene,.especially if it's an additional viola to bring further roundness and warmth to the middle voices: the sound grows in substance and vibrancy - the quartet gains a marvellous complement. And a musician like Antoine always brings new ideas and wisdom to refresh or expand our vision of a work." Colombet describes K 515 as.radiant and energetic, exuding elegance and grace," a work in the life-affirming vein of Die Zauberflote, while K 516 offers.perfection in it's counterpoint and the dialogue between the five instruments... already Romantic in spirit, tragic and sometimes sceptical. We all see it as a peak of achievement in chamber music."

.. this young musketeer of the bow has been captivating all of his audiences. He is the rising star of the French cello. -LE FIGARO Recorded with Luzerner Sinfonie Orchester and conducted by Michael Sanderling, Edgar's new album features a key piece in the cello repertoire: Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations. The short pieces with piano, here played with the brilliant David Kadouch, give opportunities to release multiple tracks on DSP's and multiply chances to get playlisted. Telerama wrote about the artists: "Both known as outstanding soloists, David Kadouch and Edgar Moreau also form a close-knit, well-balanced chamber duo, playing with passion and commitment.". Moreau was awarded at the Victoires de la Musique Classique in 2013 and 2015, and was named an ECHO Rising Star in 2017. He has been a Cello Professor at the Paris Conservatoire National Superieur since fall 2023. He plays on a David Tecchler cello from 1711.

Lovers of Moliere are often deprived of an essential dimension of his output: the music! Several of his masterpieces, written in collaboration with Lully or Charpentier, regain their full meaning and profundity when heard with the original scores. In this respect, William Christie and Les Arts Florissants have been true pioneers for over forty years now: to accompany such legendary achievements as Le Malade imaginaire, they have recorded other, equally emblematic pieces from Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, George Dandin and Monsieur de Pourceaugnac specially for this new album.

This set assembles for the first time the Beethoven legacy of the Trio Wanderer. The group's superb interpretation of the Triple Concerto is now presented alongside it's masterly recording of the composer's complete original works for piano trio, a genre inherited from Haydn and Mozart in which Beethoven opened out new horizon.

The great popularity of the piano trio enabled Haydn to explore countless formal and harmonic experiments; while the keyboard remains the central element in the musical structure, the strings give the discourse a subtle colouration, and the violin is often assigned independent musical ideas. This elegant three-way dialogue, conducted here by the Trio Wanderer, is as impressive for its originality as for its supreme stylistic virtuosity. Haydn was a past master at this little game, and still remains so centuries later!

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REVIEW:

These are beautifully played performances. There is enough clarity around each instrument to make every line audible, the sparer textures of the Classical trio style help greatly in this respect. It’s a treat to hear Haydn trios played with such care for their sound and texture.

– Gramophone

In themselves, Beethoven's quartets represent an odyssey, a round-the-world voyage," says Quatuor Ebene. The French ensemble is marking the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth with a global tour of 21 countries. In the course of their Beethoven Around the World tour, the Ebene will make live recordings in seven different cities: Vienna, Philadelphia, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Melbourne, Nairobi and Paris. This first release, recorded at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, comprises the first two 'Razumovsky' Quartets, op 59 No 1 and op 59 No 2.

The young French cellist Edgar Moreau, an established Erato artist, is joined by his siblings - the violinists Raphaelle and David and the pianist Jeremie - for Dvorak's five Bagatelles op 47 and Korngold's Suite op 23. As David points out, works for the combination of two violins, cello and piano are unusual: "These are wonderful pieces that are rarely played, so this is an opportunity to shine a spotlight on them." When it comes to playing as a family, Edgar feels that "There's something that works almost instinctively," while Raphaelle explains that "We don't need to look at each other, and we breathe together in a certain way. There's something very strong about it." Completing the programme are transcriptions of much-loved operatic arias from Dvorak's Rusalka and Korngold's Die tote Stadt, performed by Edgar and Jeremie

Beethoven's 16 string quartets occupy a place of honour in the chamber repertoire and, like his nine symphonies and 32 piano sonatas, trace his progression through his creative life. 2020 marks the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth, and Quatuor Ebene is recognising this with an extensive tour, entitled Beethoven Around the World, which runs from Spring 2019 to December 2020. Over that period the French ensemble will give over 120 concerts in a total of 21 countries on six continents, focusing on complete cycles of the quartets from February 2020. Beethoven Around the World encompasses live recordings for Erato, building a complete cycle, made in seven of the world's great cities: Vienna (at the Konzerthaus); Philadelphia (Kimmel Center); Tokyo (Suntory Hall); Sao Paulo (Sala Sao Paulo); Melbourne (Melbourne Recital Centre); Nairobi, and, with the support of UNESCO, Paris (Philharmonie de Paris). Speaking of the ongoing tour, the members of Quatuor Ebene say: "This is where Beethoven goes global. The quartets are 16 masterpieces that form an eternally modern artistic canon of unparalleled breadth and depth - they translate the purest humanity into music. In themselves they represent an odyssey, a round-the-world voyage." The players believe that the composer's music "transcends all linguistic, geographical and political borders... Both modern and timeless, it is universal. It cannot be readily classified as Classical or Romantic, as German, or even as Western, but it is music that expresses itself freely and which addresses the audiences of the future rather than it's own time... It can seem complex at first, but everything becomes clear as it's essence emerges." The ensemble also emphasises that: "The quartet as a genre gives individual players the chance to shine, yet is simultaneously predicated on collaboration and Concord: it shows democracy in action. It's emotional and intellectual power is considerable, yet it is also universally accessible as it embodies underlying ideals - enlightenment, fraternity and humanism, as typified by Goethe and by Schiller in his Ode to Joy [the inspiration for the final movement of Beethoven's 9th Symphony]. At the same time it is informed by Kant's ideas on morality, goodwill and the categorical imperative, all of which were gaining currency in Beethoven's time. It also reflects the German philosopher's view of our relationship with the natural world, which has such resonance for the environmental issues of today." Appropriately, the tour will be associated with a carbon offset programme devoted to reforestation.

Angela Hewitt's notes for this important new album describe a teenager's moment of revelation when she first came to appreciate the epic masterpiece that is the Liszt Piano Sonata. Here we have a heart-felt recording where this palpable sense of wonder is manifest alongside Hewitt's enthralling technical facility at the keyboard. The program is completed by the second half of Liszt's dazzling second Annee de pelerinage collection: The three Petrarch Sonnets and the noble Dante Sonata, the latter composed as a fund-raiser for the Bonn Beethoven monument in 1839.

Vikingur Olafsson / CONTINUUM As he continues his epic tour of J.S. Bach's equally epic Goldberg Variations, Vikingur Olafsson presents a series of six new Bach singles. Recorded at Reykjavik's Harpa concert hall in January 2024, the tracks feature piano arrangements of sacred pieces by Bach, four of which have been realized by Olafsson himself. 12" EP, 45 RPM.

Wiener Philharmoniker - "Deluxe Edition Vol. 2" / This luxurious hardback boxset provides a fascinating cross-section of the 170-year history of one of the world's greatest orchestras: the Wiener Philharmoniker. A lavishly illustrated 100-page hardcover coffee table book houses 20 CDs of recordings with 19 conductors spanning the past 70 years. Collectors will once again love the premium quality of this set and it's authority and comprehensive approach to this beloved orchestra. [20 CD Boxset]