The American composer, conductor and producer John Williams can be called the 'king of film music' without exaggeration.

The multiple Oscar and Grammy winner celebrates his 89th birthday this year and this is a LIMITED EDITION to celebrate.

Since the 1970s, he has been one of Hollywood's best-known, most successful and most influential film composers worldwide. In the course of his unprecedented career, he has worked with many renowned and legendary directors such as Steven Spielberg (on Jaws, Indiana Jones, E.T., Schindler's List, Jurassic Park, Catch Me If You Can, among others), George Lucas (Star Wars) and Alfred Hitchcock (Family Tomb). He also composed the music for the first three films in the popular Harry Potter series.

In addition, he has repeatedly created traditional classical works that have found their way onto concert stages around the world.

PROSPERO honours the master with a lavishly designed double album: CD 1 features the well-known and extremely popular themes from Jurassic Park, Harry Potter, Star Wars and more, performed by the City Light Orchestra, which specializes in film music, and superbly captured in sound by the team at Bauer Studio in Ludwigsburg.

CD 2, on the other hand, presents soloist-influenced works by the composer, interpreted by renowned classical artists such as clarinettist Paul Meyer and trumpeter Reinhold Friedrich.

The program is conducted by Kevin Griffiths, one of the most promising conductors of the young generation. In addition to well-known compositions, there are also relatively unknowns to be heard here, such as the overture to the 1974 film The Cowboys.

'Spotlight on John Williams' is published as a limited edition. Every single copy of the hardcover book has been numbered by hand. With 64-page booklet with many images, photos and specially made illustrations.

It is an interesting program that Daniel Huppert and the Bergische Symphoniker have presented here. The 2nd Violin Concerto by Sergei Prokofiev (soloist: David Nebel), is combined with the Symphony No. 25 by Nikolai Myaskovsky. The program is completed by the arrangement of the piece "Masks" from Prokofiev's ballet "Romeo and Juliet" for violin and orchestra, made especially for this recording. David Nebel is in demand as a soloist, combining technical brilliance with mature musicality and an unmistakable tone. Highlights of past seasons include performances and recordings with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Royal Philharmonique de Liège and the Lithuanian National Philharmonic. David performed as soloist with the Baltic Sea Philharmonic under Kristjan Järvi at the Finlandia Concert Hall (Helsinki), the Mariinsky Theatre 2 (St. Petersburg) and the Estonia Concert Hall (Tallinn). With the London Symphony Orchestra, Nebel and Järvi recorded together at the famous Abbey Road Studios in London.

The present release is an innovative and sensitive encounter between poetry and music: a double album with Robert Schumann's song cycle "Dichterliebe" in an unusual arrangement for cello and guitar. Album 1 features the music, and album 2 features the music in combination with the poems by Heinrich Heine on which the composition is based, read by the well-known actor Hanns Zischler. This unique project is rounded off with the cycle "Über Liebe und Tod", four compositions by Michaela Catranis (*1985).

An exceptional piano recital recently recorded by Swiss pianist Marija Bokor: Works by Bart�k, Vaughan-Williams and Benjamin Yusupov (b. 1962). B�la Bart�k's "8 Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs" was completed in 1920. After the "15 Hungarian Peasant Songs", the "Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs" are the second work by Bart�k to bear those peasant songs in it's title. Bart�k himself later described the way in which folk melodies are confronted with refined avant-garde sounds as an "extreme limit". In terms of motives, too, he breaks up the song structures so radically that the title "Improvisations" best describes his approach to folk music. Ralph Vaughan Williams' six piano pieces from the "Charterhouse Suite" are a sequence of charming and delightful English-style dances. The music harks back to the composer's school days at England's elite Charterhouse School. The score is colorful and light-hearted, and one wonders why these pieces have not long since found their way into the standard repertoire of pianists. Benjamin Yusupov's compositions are based on both Western and Eastern musical traditions, drawing especially on musical traditions of various Jewish ethnic communities with the goal of creating a new style of Israeli music. Marija Bokor has selected the following works for her recital: Subconscious Labyrinths, Metaphor, Melancholy & Crossroads No.2. Exciting music worth discovering!

French pianist Kim Barbier does not see herself to be a person or an artist who is restricted by borders, be they linguistic, cultural or geographical. On the contrary, despite training at the Paris Conservatoire, which gave her a special familiarity with French composers such as Debussy, Dutilleux, Faur� and Poulenc, her career has been marked by a variety of emphases without being limited to specific preferences. Within the framework of classical music, she feels no commitment to any particular style, epoch or work, and would find it difficult to name any out-standing composers who did not interest her. This is one reason given as to why she has lived in Berlin for a many years. She appreciates the quality, internationality and openness of it's musical world, where she has found so many opportunities for creative expression and further development. This is particularly true of a long- standing collaboration with musicians from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. She remains closely connected to the local music scene through these colleagues, especially in the field of chamber music, while at the same time pursuing wide- ranging international concert activities beyond Berlin. The present selection of piano pieces represents the versatility of Kim Barbier's skills, experience and interests across a broad musical spectrum. In some cases, these have shaped her biography and are associated with key experiences in her life and career. At the same time, the sequence of compositions represents stations in the development of European music history from the Baroque to the Classical Modern periods. The juxtaposition creates a dialogue that reveals both connections and influences, while resulting in a sovereign musical narrative that is neither strictly nor formally bound.

Famous musical personalities are often associated with certain places: Bach with Köthen and Leipzig, Handel with Halle and London, Mozart with Salzburg and Vienna, Beethoven with Bonn and Vienna, or Brahms with Hamburg and Vienna. "And Vienna" often occurs, but "and Göttingen" almost never. Johannes Brahms is an exception. The Göttingen Symphony Orchestra under its principal conductor Nicholas Milton honors the great Romantic with a complete recording of his symphonies as well as the "Academic Festival Overture" based on musical material that Brahms heard for the first time in Göttingen.

Something new by Haydn? Yes and no... None of the works presented here has ever been heard in this form in our time. Michael Dücker, director and spiritus rector of nuovo aspetto, has searched in libraries and archives and has found Haydn works that are ideally suited for the chamber-musical instrumentation of the ensemble nuovo aspetto. Michael Dücker has carefully re-edited the originals and adapted them to today's musical requirements. The result is a fascinating project with amazingly contemporary-sounding chamber music versions of various Haydn works.

'A Song in the Wood' takes the listener on a journey through the most diverse aspects of love, loss and loneliness. For this journey, the young Swiss tenor Remy Burnens and his piano accompanist Clemence Hirt have immersed themselves in the, for many, unknown world of songs by British composers in the early 20th century.

It was a matter of concern for the artists not only to record music that they personally like very much and that is close to their hearts, but also to bring composers who have unfortunately fallen into oblivion, such as Roger Quilter (1877-1953), back into the musical consciousness and thus also onto the current programs of the recitals and lieder evenings.

Violist Marc Sabbah and pianist Eliane Reyes explore the beauty of the viola and piano repertoire together and have recorded their first album together, "Appassionalto". The theme is "The Romantic Era of the Viola". They recorded works by Robert Schumann, Manuel de Falla, Henri Vieuxtemps, and Frank Bridge. Eliane Reyes, born in Vervier, Belgium, is currently professor of piano at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels and at the famous Paris Conservatory. Her concerts have taken her to stages in Europe, Latin America and Asia. Her unique tone, technical ease and lively musicality have enabled her to collaborate with some of the most renowned artists and writers of our time. With numerous recordings, awards and the French Medal of Honour for Culture, Eliane Reyes is one of the most exciting pianists of her generation. Marc Sabbah, born in New York City, USA, has been soloist of the Belgian National Orchestra since 2012 and professor of viola at the Royal Conservatory of Mons, Belgium since 2017. Winner of numerous 1st prizes, he has performed on stages such as Carnegie Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Paris Philharmonie and many others. As a soloist and chamber musician, Marc performs on stages throughout Europe, gives master classes and organizes a chamber music festival in a historic Belgian castle. His musical elegance and mastery of the viola leave the listener amazed and at ease at the same time.

Even at the age of 82, the Swiss oboist, composer and conductor Heinz Holliger is still bursting with verve, curiosity and the desire to make music. His latest album is called "Les Roseaux Chantants" ("The Singing Reed Flutes"), an allusion to the double reed with which the notes on the oboe and English horn are made to sound. Works were chosen that were composed for the unusual combination of two oboes plus English horn. A tonally delightful sound and musical experience, as the works by Beethoven, Wranitzky, the Swiss composer Rudolph Ganz and, last but not least, Heinz Holliger himself, impressively demonstrate.

The woodwind quintet Reeds in Motion is a special ensemble in many aspects. The exclusive instrumentation alone - oboe, saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet and bassoon - is not commonplace. They are all instruments that are made to sound with a single or double reed and thus form an extremely homogeneous and changeable body of sound. For their debut album on Prospero Classical, the five young musicians have chosen original arrangements of Francophone composers: Works by Debussy, Fauré, Hahn, Poulenc, Ravel and Satie. The five musicians, who met during their studies at the Basel Music Academy and came together in 2017 with Reeds in Motion, are all sought-after soloists, chamber and orchestral musicians, thus enriching the ensemble each in its uniqueness. Reeds in Motion has performed at festivals such as Lauvaux Classique and Klangbasel festivals, as well as in Paris for a live broadcast on France Musique and in Armenia at the International Wind Festival 2019 in Yerevan.

Singer Sarah Brady on the genesis of the album: "We grasped the idea of an album entitled "Matters of the Heart" in the spring of 2020, at the time of the first lockdown during the Covid 19 pandemic. Stephen made the suggestion to put together a concert program for future performances. Women's Love and Life had been on my mind earlier, as I had wanted to work on this cycle since college. So it was soon clear that we both wanted to rehearse these Schumann songs. But what should we add? Stephen initially thought of a combination of several composers in the sense of a crossover album - including songs by the Beatles, for example! We came up with several program ideas and ultimately thought songs by Richard Strauss were best suited to expand on the emotional themes of the Schumann songs."

A veritable discovery from the Italian High Baroque. The flute sonatas by Domenico Maria Dreyer (ca. 1680 - ca. 1740), a contemporary of Antonio Vivaldi. The Swiss recorder player with an Indian background Isaac Makhdoomi will interpret them together with Sebastian Bausch on the harpsichord. In this integral compilation, the works are recorded on an album for the first time. Very little information has survived about Domenico Maria Dreyer. His life is closely linked to that of his younger brother, Giovanni Filippo Dreyer, a castrato, impresario and composer of operas. The two were active for a long time at the courts of Moscow and St. Petersburg, and later in Italy. Only six oboe sonatas and two recorder sonatas have survived from Dreyer's oeuvre. The oboe sonatas are excellently suited for adaptation on the alto or soprano recorder. This was quite common in the Baroque period, when works for wind instruments were repeatedly performed on the violin or on instruments from the same family. Dreyer's sonatas are of great musical beauty and stylistically belong to the Venetian High Baroque. They are believed to have been composed around 1725. Dreyer's teacher could be Ludovico Erdmann, a famous oboist who was active in Florence and Venice and who also maintained contact with Antonio Vivaldi there. This in turn suggests that Dreyer knew the works of the Italian and even consciously adopted Vivaldi's idiom in his sonatas. In addition, it can certainly be assumed that Dreyer also had contact with the greatest oboist of the time, Giuseppe Sammartini, and that Sammartini's music also left its mark on Dreyer's works.