Formed in 2001, Meta4 is one of the most internationally successful of Finnish string quartets, having won first prize in the 2004 Int’l Shostakovich Quartet Competition in Moscow, and also awarded a special prize for best Shostakovich interpretation. In 2007 the quartet won first prize in the Int’l Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition in Vienna. Meta4 was selected as a BBC New Generation Artist for 2008–10. This follow up to their successful 2011 Shostakovich quartet recording features two more 20th c. chamber music masterpieces, Béla Bartók’s first and fifth string quartets.

Classical Music

Tchaikovsky composed songs throughout his entire career. The diversity of the genres and themes that he explored in musical form in them can be viewed as a lyrical diary mirroring his life as a composer. In the Russian language his songs are referred to as "Romances". From a stylistic point of view, they are similar to the so-called urban romances, which were very much in fashion at the time. Tchaikovsky's aim in his Romances was to express emotions directly and simply and to make them accessible to all listeners. He allowed his own very personal feelings to provide the backdrop to his songs, by concentrating on one dominating psychological motif in the lyric template, which provided him with the suitable musical intonation. German soprano Julia Sukmanova initially studied piano and composition. Later she studied singing, first as a private pupil with the Russian dramatic tenor Donat. She has been decisively influenced by teachers and singers like Montserrat Caball�, Brigitte Fassbaender and Margreet Honig and has attended the master classes of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Pianist Elena Sukmanova lives in Hamburg. She trained as concert pianist with Prof. Leonid Sintsev at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St Petersburg.

A program of Serenades and Symphonies from Mozart's Salzburg period has been chosen for this latest henssler CLASSIC'S release. His Salzburg years being centered on orchestral music, this is, altogether, a delightful sampling of some of Mozart's most extrovert and joyous music!

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

For the ninth installment in haenssler CLASSIC's new budget series "Premium Composers", we've assembled a collection of Beethoven's most beautiful and popular piano sonatas. Included is the timeless "Moonlight" Sonata, the "Pathetique" and the witty "Les Adieux". This collection is an exceptional value, making available selections from Gerhard Oppitz's critically acclaimed complete edition at a budget price for the very first time.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Includes World Premiere recordings + Transcriptions of lesser-known organ works by JS Bach.

Classical Music

This album of Bach transcriptions for piano is the fifth recording of its kind featuring the pianist Angelika Nebel. This recording of twelve transcriptions is the second of two releases that will collectively run through each and every key in the same pattern as The Well Tempered Clavier and thus form a kind of opus magnum. The artist once again presents transcriptions by arrangers from Germany and elsewhere. This is Nebel’s way of paying a global tribute to the great Thomaskantor. The German pianist, Angelika Nebel, studied at the colleges of music in Stuttgart and Hannover, where she was educated by the famous teachers Jürgen Uhde and Hans Leygraf and finished her studies with the concert examination. Angelika Nebel's repertoire includes pieces of solo-, chamber music and Orchestra music from the 18th to the 21st century, which she presented as a guest at several festivals: Alte Oper Frankfurt, Schumann-Festival Düsseldorf, Semperoper Dresden, Darmstädter Tage for contemporary music and monastery San Domenic, Pistoia, Italy. She has given concerts in different European countries as well as in South-Korea. She also performs regularly with her chamber music partner delian::quartet.