Saehyun Kim's recording debut will pay homage to the first European city where he ever performed, also the home city of his new label: Paris. "It was where my life changed," he says. The program is dedicated to solo piano works by Gabriel Faure and Frederic Chopin, two iconic figures in the history of the City of Light who helped shape the innovative musical landscape of the 19th and early 20th centuries. While Chopin has long been a part of the young pianist's repertoire, his interest was piqued in Faure more recently, while preparing to perform in Paris; he admires the music's mesmeric "charm and delicacy", contrasted with the riveting "poetry and drama" of his Romanticist predecessor. The program features Chopin's set of 12 Etudes, Op. 25, alongside one of his most beloved nocturnes (No. 8). From Faure's early repertoire, he has included the Barcarolle No. 1, Valse-Caprice No. 1, Impromptu No. 2, as well as his very own arrangement of "Apres un reve", part of the Trois Melodies set written for voice and piano. In a final nod, the album closes with French singer-songwriter Charles Trenet's dreamy "En Avril a Paris" (1953).

September 15th 2026 will mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of one of the most influential conductors of the 20th century: Bruno Walter (1876-1962). This comprehensive box set brings together his complete HMV and Columbia Graphophone (Columbia UK) recordings. Spanning the 78-rpm era from 1924 to 1939, this collection also features the landmark 1949 magnetic tape recording of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder featuring Kathleen Ferrier, offering the first release of two previously unpublished takes. To ensure the highest fidelity, the finest available materials have been sourced, including pristine test pressings on vinyl from original metal work and near-mint superior commercial pressings. After undergoing high-definition digitization, the recordings were meticulously restored by Art & Son Studio in Annecy, adhering to the most rigorous modern standards to provide a superlative listening experience. This collection finally sheds a truer and more precise light on the artistry and genius of Bruno Walter.

From the spirited wit of the Viennese stage to the quiet sanctuary of his most private sonatas, this collection captures the multifaceted genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Journey through the vibrant energy of The Marriage of Figaro, the ethereal dialogue of the Flute and Harp Concerto, and the heartbreaking solemnity of his final Requiem. Whether it is the playful charm of Papageno's aria or the sublime tranquility of the Piano Concerto No. 23, each track has been carefully curated to showcase a legacy that remains as vivid today as it was over two centuries ago.

DONNACHA DENNEHY: LIMINA

This collection brings together the most enduring works of the classical repertoire, chosen for their timeless beauty and cultural significance. These are essential masterpieces to own once and cherish for a lifetime.

The Danish String Quartet's love of traditional Scandinavian folk music is almost as well known as the Quartet's performances of the classical repertoire. The album "Wood Works," presents four favorite tunes from Nordic folk history, including a 400 year old fragment from Fano, also heard within a movie seen by over 50,000 viewings. - Dacapo, (translated from Danish)

Recipient of the prestigious Brahms Prize of the Schleswig-Holstein Brahms Society in 2024, Kent Nagano and the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, of which he was principal conductor from 2015 until 2025, perform the first two symphonies by the Hamburg-born composer, recorded in concert. Completed in 1876 after more than twenty years of hesitation, Brahms's First Symphony in C minor, Op. 68, bears the full weight of it's long gestation. Rooted in late Beethoven - Hans von Bulow famously called it the 'Tenth' - it traces a compelling per aspera ad astra journey: from the chromatic, drum-led opening's Faustian struggle, through a luminous slow movement and buoyant third, to a finale that breaks triumphantly into radiant C major. Critically admired but not widely loved, it remained music for connoisseurs. Composed swiftly during the summer of 1877 at the Worthersee, Brahms's Second Symphony in D major, Op. 73, stands in luminous contrast to it's brooding predecessor. Freed from the pressure of a symphonic debut, Brahms produced a work of natural ease and lyrical abundance: from the horn-launched opening movement to the enchanting third-movement minuet and the exuberant finale, it extends it's warmth - in Hanslick's words - to 'connoisseurs and laymen alike.'

This box brings together a collection of Decca recordings displaying the dynamism of Spanish conductor Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, including material previously unreleased on CD. In the generation after Ataulfo Argenta, Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos became the most prominent Spanish conductor, both at home and abroad. Just 25 when he was appointed Music Director of the Orquesta Nacional de Espana in 1962, he trained it into a formidably adaptable and accomplished ensemble. Through the 1960s, he became known to international audiences not least thanks to the Decca recordings compiled complete for the first time in this set. Of German parentage, but growing up in Burgos, Fruhbeck de Burgos had an innate sympathy with both musical traditions of his heritage, and Decca played to this strength. His Schumann (Rhenish Symphony) is impulsive and virile, his Mendelssohn (Midsummer Night's Dream) is springy and sparkling with detail. His label debut came in February 1965, as accompanist with the London Symphony Orchestra to the Romanian violinist Ion Voicu in a beautifully moulded version of the classic Mendelssohn/Bruch coupling on LP. Fruhbeck de Burgos also knew how to draw out an authentically vivid Spanish colour-palette from foreign orchestras. His 1966 version of Falla's El amor brujo (the mezzo soprano Nati Mistral) still enjoys classic status. In 1967, he recorded his own picturesque orchestration of the Suite Espanola by Albeniz, long unavailable on CD. Likewise, his collaborations with Narciso Yepes present a compelling spectrum of lesser-known guitar concertos when compiled together, from the elegantly neo-classical Concertino of Salvador Bacarisse to the more adventurous set of Tres Graficos by Maurice Ohana, which Fruhbeck de Burgos recorded in his sole album for Deutsche Grammophon. The pianist Alicia de Larrocha also found in Fruhbeck a congenial recording partner, who had a naturally idiomatic grasp of the concertos written for her by the likes of Montsalvatge and Surinach. Though she made several versions of Falla's Noches en los Jardines de Espana, her 1983 Decca recording with Fruhbeck is particularly atmospheric thanks to the conductor's grasp of the moods and feelings behind the notes. This digital-era album became his last Decca recording, included in this Original Jackets box, which includes a new essay by Peter Quantrill on the conductor's life and career.

A violinist-conductor who understood orchestras from the inside out: commanding power and Viennese warmth in the complete Decca symphonic recordings of Walter Weller. As the youngest ever leader of the Vienna Philharmonic, Walter Weller quickly established a natural rapport with orchestras at home and abroad when he swapped bow for baton in the late 1960s. Engaged as a regular conductor by the Vienna State Opera, he made his debut as a conductor in the studio with a 1970 recital of arias with the Spanish soprano Pilar Lorengar. As leader of the Weller Quartet, he was no stranger to Decca's studios, but he disbanded the quartet to focus on conducting. In Geneva with the Suisse Romande orchestra, then in London with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra, he brought his insider's knowledge of orchestral technique to bear on mostly Russian symphonies through the course of the 1970s. Critics identified Weller's total grasp of complex scores and his ability to get a rich yet transparent sound from his orchestras. The First and Ninth symphonies of Shostakovich in 1971 were followed up by equally acclaimed complete cycles of Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev. In 1974, Weller also made a compelling account of the Symphony by Paul Dukas, in this underrated work's first recording on a major label. Decca's full-frequency sound complemented the burnished gleam of string timbre which Weller elicited wherever he went. He proved a sympathetic and alert accompanist to Pascal Roge in a 1974-76 cycle of the Bartok piano concertos, and then drew on his own Czech heritage for a broad and loving traversal of Smetana's Ma vlast with the Israel Philharmonic. Near the close of his relationship with Decca (1979-82), Weller then returned to the repertoire he had grown up with as the son of a Vienna Philharmonic violinist, recording the Hungarian Dances of Brahms and the violin concertos of Mozart with the Japanese soloist Mayumi Fujikawa. This set stood out from the competition by including the two concertos published under Mozart's name after his death, later deemed spurious, but highly attractive in their own right. Accompanying this Original Jackets collection, Peter Quantrill contributes a new essay on Walter Weller's life and career, paying tribute to a true son of Vienna.

From 78 to stereo, this is Sir Malcolm Sargent's Decca legacy reissued complete, including several recordings new to CD. Sargent's broad repertoire and warm rapport with audiences made him easy to underestimate. Yet Schnabel and Toscanini, among other celebrated foreign musicians, held him in the highest regard. This new Eloquence collection of the conductor's Decca recordings should help modern listeners to understand and share Schnabel's admiration. In his booklet essay, David Patmore tells the story of Sargent's early career as an organist and rapid rise as a conductor in his 20s, leading the Ballets russes, Wagner's Mastersingers and a popular series of children's concerts. Having made records since the 1920s, he was an experienced conductor in the studio by the time he began recording for Decca, directly after the war. These 78-era sessions included symphonies by Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert as well as overtures by Rossini and Suppe, several of them never reissued until now. They reveal what a direct and unmannered interpreter Sargent could be in canon repertoire, coaching orchestras to achieve the highest technical standards. He was always a dynamic conductor of English music: his Decca recordings of Holst's Planets, Elgar's Enigma Variations and Coronation Marches have lost none of their rhythmic drive and intensity. Sargent's concerto sessions with Sir Clifford Curzon (in Rawsthorne), Max Rostal (Bartok), Ida Haendel (Mendelssohn) and Ruggero Ricci (Tchaikovsky and Dvorak) bear out his reputation as a sympathetic accompanist. 'Messiah and Mikado' was how the conductor summed up his strengths in the eyes of the wider public: the box includes rare 1946 recordings of Handel arias and choruses featuring Kathleen Ferrier, as well as a live 1949 recording of Sargent accompanying her in his own orchestration of Brahms' Four Serious Songs. Having comprehensively covered the light operas of Gilbert and Sullivan for HMV, Sargent remade both Yeoman of the Guard and Princess Ida for Decca in 1964-65. These records movingly document the final chapter in the conductor's career-long affinity with G&S, now leading the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and first-rate casts which include Elizabeth Harwood and Donald Adams in the principal roles of both works. Sargent was a conductor for all seasons, and this Eloquence box takes the measure of him.

This release is the second of three major recordings featuring LPO Principal Conductor Edward Gardner during the period of marking 20 years of the Orchestra's acclaimed record label. Dvorak's Symphony No.7 was commissioned by the London Philharmonic Society in 1884. It may not be his most popular symphony, but it's arguably the best. It combines dramatic, dark and flawless structure with radiant melodies cutting through it's intensity. In contrast, Schumann's Symphony No.2 is a deeply personal work, written during the time of his struggles with depression. The melodies blend restless energy with transcendent lyricism, culminating in a cathartic finale. Captured live in concert at London's Royal Festival Hall, these recordings are a testament to the emotional depth and refined artistry of the LPO under Gardner's dynamic leadership.

Scintillating pianism in music from Mozart to Messiaen: the complete Argo and Decca recordings of John Ogdon. John Ogdon began to study at the Royal Northern College of Music in 1953, at the age of 16. Fellow students such as Alexander Goehr and Harrison Birtwistle were astonished by the speed of Ogdon's mind, matched by his facility at the keyboard. He could perform and make sense of the most complex scores, old and new, as though they were child's play. Further study elsewhere led to his triumph at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition in 1962, when he shared the gold medal with Vladimir Ashkenazy. He began to record for Decca six years later, in December 1968, with the piano cycle by Olivier Messiaen, Vingt Regards sur l'enfant-Jesus, which renewed the Lisztian tradition of pianism for a new postwar age. Over the next three years he made four further albums for Decca, three of them with his wife Brenda Lucas. The diversity of repertoire testifies to the range of Ogdon's musical talent and intellectual curiosity. More elevated but virtuosic Messiaen (the Visions de l'Amen) sits alongside freewheeling youthful concertos by Mendelssohn and Shostakovich. Almost unknown at the time that Ogdon and Lucas recorded it for Argo in 1972, the Concerto pathetique is a two-piano version, made by Liszt in 1856, of a piece which had begun life as a Grand Solo de concert in 1849. Latterly taken up by the likes of Martha Argerich, the Concerto presents a heroic contrast on record with the restraint of the Six Canons and the poetic Andante and Variations by Schumann. Ogdon's career, both in public and on record, was brought to a sudden and tragic halt by a breakdown in 1973. Struggling with mental health for the rest of his life, he nonetheless returned to the studios briefly in June 1983, to contribute to a Decca set of Mozart's complete music for solo horn, led by Barry Tuckwell. In 1784, Mozart wrote to his father Leopold that the Quintet for Piano and Winds was 'the best thing I have yet written'; Ogdon, Tuckwell and their distinguished colleagues lean into it's mellow warmth while relishing the interplay of texture in Decca's demonstration-quality sound. This 'Original Covers' Eloquence box of Ogdon's Decca and Argo albums valuably restores the Mozart Quintet (and several other recordings) to the catalogue, accompanied by a new and illuminating essay on the pianist's life and career by Mark Ainley.

A quarter-century of postwar Bayreuth recordings, made live at the Festspielhaus by Decca, DG and Philips: this is an absorbing history in sound of Wagner interpretation featuring several albums of timeless authority. This survey of Wagner's mature operas, excluding the Ring, takes the listener from Parsifal in 1951 under Hans Knappertsbusch, through to Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg under Silvio Varviso in 1974. Both the 1951 Parsifal and Lohengrin from two years later, under Joseph Keilberth, were captured in 'ffrr' mono by the legendary Decca team of engineers under the supervision of John Culshaw. Decca continued to work at Bayreuth until 1955, capturing Der Fliegende Hollander, also under Keilberth, in a superb example of Decca's early stereo sound. The casts were often youthful, but coached by the Festival co-director Wieland Wagner into an intense engagement with text and music. Performances here by Wolfgang Windgassen, Hermann Uhde, Ludwig Weber, Birgit Nilsson and others reach a special level of long-breathed intensity almost impossible to sustain under studio conditions. None of the conductors involved had worked at Bayreuth before the war. Keilberth, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Karl Bohm all engaged with Wieland in finding a new, flowing but dramatically inflected style in Wagner. Something of this New Bayreuth style also infuses Knappertsbusch's 1962 Parsifal with a unique combination of mystery and rapture. The set includes a previously unpublished radio interview with Irene Dalis and George London, the Kundry and Amfortas in that performance. Like Knappertsbusch's Parsifal, the Tristan und Isolde under Bohm in 1966 was rapidly recognized as a classic of the gramophone and has hardly been out of print since then, but it is reissued here with the rehearsal sequence included on the final LP of the original set. This 'Original Covers' box also includes a booklet essay by Peter Quantrill which explores the history of post-war Bayreuth and the circumstances of each recording.

RCO Live label releases Gustav Mahler - The Chief Conductor Edition featuring Willem Mengelberg, Eduard van Beinum, Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Chailly, Mariss Jansons and Daniele Gatti in live radio recordings from the Amsterdam Concertgebouw of all Mahler's symphonies including Das Lied von der Erde and Deryck Cooke's realization of the Tenth Symphony. Most recordings appear for the first time on CD and the Third and Fourth Symphony are presented in new remasters. This box set will be available in a limited edition.

A gallery of Mozart performances from the mid-1950s, including many forgotten and newly remastered recordings. Deutsche Grammophon marked the 200th anniversary of Mozart's birth in 1956 with a 6LP 'Jubilee Edition'. Three 'evenings' of orchestral, chamber and vocal music drew on DG's most experienced and dynamic Mozartians, from Ferenc Fricsay and Clara Haskil to Maria Stader and Igor Markevitch. This is now republished complete for the first time, and expanded to three times it's original length, including many other fine Mozart recordings made at the time such as the pianists Mieczyslaw Horszowski and Helmut Roloff in concertos; Bernhard Paumgartner in one of Mozart's most substantial Salzburg divertimenti; Fritz Lehmann conducting early symphonies and opera overtures; and much more. While DG was commemorating Mozart in grand style, it's sister label Archiv released many new recordings of the composer which broke new ground either in terms of repertoire or performance style. The Piano Concerto K.414 and the Sonata K.331 were played on rare fortepianos from Mozart's own time. The Vocal Canons - illustrating the composer's ribald humor as well as his family's use of music as a private means of communication - were recorded by the choir of North German radio. Mozart's treasury of song was also documented for the first time, and in delicious performances featuring the soprano Margot Guilleaume and the fortepianist Fritz Neumeyer. In 1956 itself, Archiv released a live performance of the Requiem which had been given at the Stephansdom in December the previous year, on the date of his death, by Eugen Jochum. Issued as a liturgical reconstruction of what the composer's own funeral might have sounded like, this conveys a powerful mood of commemoration thanks to the conducting of Eugen Jochum and a line-up of soloists led by Irmgard Seefried. Many of these Archiv albums have never been reissued in the digital era, until now. They bring valuable context to a gallery of Mozart as he was seen and heard, two centuries after his birth. Drawing on ideas and recollections from several of the artists represented in the box, such as Irmgard Seefried and Wolfgang Paumgartner, the booklet essay by Peter Quantrill is complemented by a range of photographs as well as Original Cover artwork which evokes the mid-1950s.

Hyperion proudly presents the Complete Haydn String Quartets on period instruments in one 20-CD box set. These acclaimed performances from the London Haydn Quartet combine historically informed performance practice with performing editions published during Haydn's own lifetime. The release celebrates the 25th anniversary of the formation of the London Haydn Quartet.

'Karajan's producer' on the podium - the complete recordings of Otto Gerdes for Deutsche Grammophon, including previously unpublished material and displaying some of the most thrilling versions of orchestral masterpieces to be recorded. Reviews for these recordings reached for superlatives: "a stunning disc from first moment to last" (Brahms 4); "Luminous sound" (Eugene Onegin); "rather sweeps the field" (Dvorak 9); "silence[s] all criticism" (Tannhauser); "Trenchant interpretation" (Wagner Symphony in C). The 1961-62 cycle of Beethoven symphonies conducted by Herbert von Karajan is still celebrated for it's technical as well as musical excellence. The recording producer was Otto Gerdes, who had joined DG in 1956 after working as a producer for Eterna in the former East Germany. He had trained as a conductor under Hermann Abendroth in his home city of Cologne and continued to conduct opera and concerts in Germany and Italy through the 1950s and 60s. A notorious confrontation with Karajan led to Gerdes resuming his full-time career as a conductor, which led to a complete recording of Wagner's Tannhauser for DG, and the first stereo version of the composer's early Symphony in C. Tannhauser was cast with singers in their prime - Birgit Nilsson, Wolfgang Windgassen and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau - and German-language highlights of Eugene Onegin and Otello featured Fritz Wunderlich (as Lensky) and Fischer-Dieskau (as Otello). In the early 1960s, Gerdes made three 'test recordings' with the Berlin Philharmonic: The Fourth Symphony of Brahms, the 'New World' by Dvorak and a collection of Wagner preludes. When released on LP, the symphonies were enthusiastically received for their old-school ebb and flow and Romantic intensity of expression. The Wagner recordings show Gerdes in full command of 'Karajan's orchestra'. The complete album of Hugo Wolf's orchestral music is released on CD in it's entirety for this first time, recorded live at the Musikverein in Vienna in 1968. This features Thomas Stewart and Evelyn Lear in the composer's own orchestrations of his Lieder, as well as the Italian Serenade, and the rarely heard but enthralling tone-poem Penthesilea which shows Wolf at his most passionately inspired. Additionally, there is a whole disc of previously unpublished material - overtures, ballet music and intermezzi. Compiled together for the first time in an 'Original Jackets' box, the DG recordings of Otto Gerdes pay tribute to a forgotten but significant figure in the recording world of the 1960s. The eventful story of Gerdes's career is told in a new essay by Peter Quantrill, and all the recordings have been newly remastered.

Claudio Abbado's 1977 recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 4 with the Wiener Philharmoniker at the Vienna Musikverein, captivates listeners with it's warm, transparent sound and great attention to detail. The orchestra's characteristic sound and Frederica von Stade's sensitive solo voice in the final movement lend the work a special lightness. Abbado's sometimes unusual tempos open new expressive spaces and give the interpretation a special depth that makes this recording unique and highly regarded. For the first time, this recording has been remastered from the original 1-inch, 8-track tapes. The Original Source Series from Deutsche Grammophon features celebrated recordings reissued on vinyl. Remastered by the renowned Berlin-based Emil Berliner Studios using 100% pure analogue techniques to create versions of the highest possible audio quality. Produced on 180g virgin vinyl by Optimal and housed in deluxe gatefold editions, featuring additional photos and/or recording documentation.

Their last album with works by Robert Schumann, Edvard Grieg and Tonu Korvits saw the Gazzana sisters Natascia and Raffaella "achieve the highest levels of instinctive expression", according to the French daily paper Le Monde, and one could argue that this holds even more true for their new recording with music by Sergei Prokofiev, Arvo Part and Alfred Schnittke. The duo's reading of Prokofiev's Sonata No. 1, op. 80 opens the proceedings with urgency, true to the composer's intention (Prokofiev famously declared that a particular passage "should sound in such a way that people should jump in their seat..."), but also with lyrical serenity, casting the work's third movement in a spellbinding light. His Five Melodies op. 35a are interpreted with equal conviction, while Part's Spiegel i'm Spiegel, performed with poise and humility, serves as a thoughtful respite. Concluding the programme is Schnittke's Gratulationsrondo - a celebratory piece that finds the composer circumventing his usual polystylistic ways and instead excelling in a more traditional approach to the classical idiom. Recorded at the Reitstadel, Neumarkt in February 2025, the album was produced by Manfred Eicher.

In the early 1970s, Pinchas Zukerman and Daniel Barenboim were regarded as two of the most exciting young musicians of their generation. Their joint recording of Sibelius's Violin Concerto, Op. 47, and Beethoven's Romances for Violin and Orchestra Nos. 1 and 2 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, captures the extraordinary artistic energy of that time in exemplary fashion. The two works were newly remastered and cut for this release for the first time from the original ? inch, 4-track tapes. The Original Source Series from Deutsche Grammophon features celebrated recordings reissued on vinyl. Remastered by the renowned Berlin-based Emil Berliner Studios using 100% pure analogue techniques to create versions of the highest possible audio quality. Produced on 180g virgin vinyl by Optimal and housed in deluxe gatefold editions, featuring additional photos and/or recording documentation.

Zehetmair Quartett, Johannes Brahms - Streichquartette Op. 51

CONDUCTS (REICH: DESERT MUSIC / HISAISHI: END OF)

MERREGNON: HEART OF ICE

Puccini's opera Turandot premiered on April 25, 1926 and Decca Classics is proud to celebrate this centenary with the third in a series of brand-new, limited edition deluxe presentations of Pavarotti-Puccini reissues. Pavarotti's links to this opera are inextricable, and although he rarely sang the role of Calaf on stage, the character's aria Nessun Dorma became his signature song when the 1972 recording was used by the BBC as the theme to it's coverage of Italia 90, the FIFA World Cup tournament. It was released as a single and peaked at #2 on the UK singles chart. To this date, it is the most streamed opera aria of all time and has been linked to sporting success ever since. The 1972 recording is widely regarded as the definitive version of this opera, now newly-mastered from the original 1972 master tapes in 24-bit/192 kHz definition. 3-LP set in cloth slipcase.

Takemitsu: Quatrain; A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden Avantgarde Series Limited Edition / Boston Symphony Orchestra/Seiji Ozawa - Toru Takemitsu's Quatrain (1975) and A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden (1977) exemplify his synthesis of Western avant-garde techniques and Japanese aesthetics. In Quatrain, scored for clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and orchestra, Takemitsu evokes the Japanese concept of ma (the space between things) through fluid shifts of timbre and atmosphere. He likened the work to an emaki, a picture scroll unfolding scene by scene, where each musical idea is independent yet interwoven. Both pieces merge modernist innovation with deeply rooted Japanese sensibility. By embracing his cultural heritage within the structures of Western art music, Takemitsu reshaped the avant-garde, bridging modernism and postmodernism, and offering works that still sound strikingly fresh and timeless today. Avantgarde Series features original artwork and a newly designed, beautifully crafted collector's sleeve with new liner notes by Bradford Bailey. Limited, numbered and pressed on 180grAm vinyl.