Pianist Alexander Lonquich, alongside the Muncih Chamber Orchestra, rises to the challenge of performing the entirety of Beethoven’s piano concertos, programmed in chronological order.

Kurt Masur's achievement is defined above all by his relationships with two orchestras exemplifying vastly different traditions. Having spent some 20 years as Kapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, which traces it's roots to the 15th century, he became the transformational music director of the New York Philharmonic, an embodiment of the New World. Through all this, his musical integrity remained consistent. As the New York Times wrote: "He brought to the podium the ardent conviction that music-making was a moral act that could heal the world." Masur himself put things more simply: "My goal is meaningful playing... What counts is to be able to communicate the composer's meaning to the audience... When I conduct Beethoven, I wouldn't like to replace Beethoven. He should be in your mind, not me." This 70CD set consolidates the entirety of the catalogues that Masur built for EMI and Teldec between 1974 and 2009.

DANIEL BARENBOIM - MOZART: COMPLETE PIANO SONATAS & PIANO VARIATIONS - WARNER CLASSICS - panning the length of his mature career and documenting stylistic reinvention as well as emotional change, Mozart's piano sonatas and variations occupy a fundamental position within the keyboard repertory. Here they are performed by one of the composer's best-known interpreters; crisp in detail and wide-ranging in mood, Daniel Barenboim's readings are among the most lauded in recording history.

2021 release. "The album's title Adela comes from a song by Rodrigo which constitutes the emotional culmination of our duo's programme. What counts is not the name, but the person we love and long for. Everyone certainly has such a person, and so we hope that each listener will find on our CD something close to his or her heart. The piano and classical guitar virtually never collaborate in music. However, after our first joint performance with Lukasz Kuropaczewski we immediately realised that we could create intriguing music worlds together. We followed the same line of thinking in our choice of programme, which derives from both the piano and guitar repertoires, though the spirit of the South that influences most of that music is more typically associated with the guitar tradition. In my arrangements of classical works, I strove to represent the sonic qualities of both instruments, their unique expression, and cultural associations. I reworked Domenico Scarlatti's famous "Sonata in D Minor (Toccata)" K. 141 so as to bring out it's Spanish roots. Titled "Domingo" on our album, it features distinctive flamenco qualities and an improvised layer. The "Aranjuez Concerto BWV 1056" is, as it's very name suggests, a fusion of the world's most famous piece for guitar and orchestra, Joaquin Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez", with Johann Sebastian Bach's "Keyboard Concerto in F Minor" BWV 1056. Themes from the second, slow movements of both concertos interlink here as in the film cross-cutting technique, and we swap roles, Lukasz leading the Bach theme while I take up Rodrigo's."

The first complete Schumann symphony cycle on disc, this set was recorded in Tel Aviv in 1956 by one of the most highly respected conductors of the post-war period. Paul Kletzki (1900-1973) brings out the fundamental strangeness and feverish excitement of Schumann's orchestral writing. His readings of these iconic works are key to understanding the path they have travelled towards the recognition they enjoy today.

Classical Music

Orchestral Collection (The)

Leningrad Chamber Concertos by Edward Serov and Leningrad Chamber Orchestra Continuing Northern Flowers's ground-breaking 'Leningrad Music' series with 20th century Concertos with Chamber Orchestra. More New Music from Soviet Russia

This powerful new recording from Michael Tilson-Thomas and the Grammy Award winning San Francisco Symphony and Chorus pairs Beethoven's colossal Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II with his playful, upbeat Symphony No. 2. Rarely performed or recorded, Beethoven's gripping and profoundly moving funeral cantata proved a revelation during the Symphony's May 2013 Beethoven Project concert series. The recording features a glorious solo quartet - soprano Sally Matthews, mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford, tenor Barry Banks and bass-baritone Andrew Foster-Williams. Presented as a premium quality hybrid multi-channel SACD, this album is the latest addition to the San Francisco Symphony's ongoing series of Beethoven recordings.

SYMPHONY 7

First issue on CD of three varied works, one a heart-breaking song-cycle, then a 'Broadway' pastiche, and a touching choral cycle praising the environment.

RITE OF SPRING / FIREBIRD SUITE EXCERPTS

SYMPHONY NO. 3

As seen on PBS, the San Francisco Symphony's ongoing series, Keeping Score, explores Berlioz's romantic masterpiece, Smymphonie Fantastique. This orchestral sonic spectacular, written to win the heart of a beautiful actress, demanded sacrifice from it's author and his audience. From romantic daydreams to displays of devotion, the symphony relates an "episode in the life of an artist," that artist being the love-obsessed composer himself. This DVD includes as a bonus a full-length concert performance of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.

SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE

SYMPHONY 5 / PIANO CONCERTO 4

Nine CD set containing all recordings of the Bruckner cycle that were made between 2017 and 2019 in the monastery of St. Florian, the composers final resting place.

Directed by Gary Halvorson, David Kennard, Joan Saffa. Starring Michael Tilson Thomas.

Directed by Gary Halvorson, David Kennard, Joan Saffa. Starring San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas.

CARMINA BURANA

The focus here is on symphonic music, yet the term seems inadequate for Silvestrov's delicately realized compositions played with extraordinary restraint and fluidity by Alexei Lubimov with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under Dennis Russell Davies.

PAUL HINDEMITH; ALFRED SCHNITTKE

WARTIME MUSIC 4 - G. POPOV - SYMPHONY

WARTIME 1: NIKOLAI Y. MIASKOVSKY - SYMPHONY

TANEYEV: PIANO QUARTET VIOLIN SONATA