Finally: Beethoven's Piano Concertos 0 to 7 as interpreted by Michael Korstick are available on 4 albums, and once again he sets new interpretational standards. In the meantime, volumes have been filled with attempts to approach the question of an adequate interpretation of Beethoven's works, and with the indispensable elements of grandeur, drama and inwardness, the study of these works remains timelessly topical and will continue to open up new perspectives in the future. This complete recording of all the piano concertos arranges the six works that Beethoven gave an opus number in the appropriate order, leaving all the other pieces to follow on the fourth release. This project would not have been possible without the generous support of Dr. Ernst Denert. For his patronage, Michael Korstick was able to fulfil a long-cherished dream.

Clara Schumann was one of the most famous of all 19th-century piano virtuosos, admired by contemporaries such as Liszt and Thalberg. Her piano works never succumb to stereotype and the Romances anticipate the sonority of Brahms' late music for piano. Her Variations, Op. 20 entwines Robert Schumann's themes with her own in music of touching intimacy. The Preludes and Fugues reflect Clara's love of Bach. This first volume of her complete music for solo piano is performed by the distinguished French pianist, Jean-Pierre Armengaud, who has written about Robert and Clara Schumann as well as having organised a symposium devoted to them.

This captivating new release from PENTATONE celebrates the glittering world of 19th-century opera and the timeless beauty of the golden age of bel canto. Featuring music by Gaetano Donizetti, Gioacchino Rossini, Georges Bizet, Leo Delibes, and Giuseppe Verdi, the album showcases soprano Erin Morley and tenor Lawrence Brownlee two of today's most exciting voices joined by the Munchner Rundfunkorchester under the baton of conductor Ivan Repusic. Together, they bring fresh brilliance to the French and Italian repertoire with performances that balance vocal agility, lyrical finesse, and emotional power. This carefully curated collection of operatic gems highlights iconic duets and arias that continue to resonate with modern audiences through their passion, beauty, and dramatic flair. It marks an exciting PENTATONE debut for both Lawrence Brownlee and Ivan Repusic, while Erin Morley returns following her acclaimed performance in the label's recording of Handel's Alcina (2024). The Munchner Rundfunkorchester also makes a welcome return, having previously appeared on PENTATONE's release of Gordon Getty's Plump Jack (2012).

Franz Schubert's so-called "Arpeggione Sonata" owes its peculiar name to a long-forgotten string instrument that was usually referred to in Vienna in the 1820s as the "bowed guitar" or "guitar-violoncello". It was an invention of the Viennese instrument maker Georg Stauffer and was quite popular for about a decade. After that, it disappeared into the annals of history. If Schubert had not dedicated his famous sonata to the instrument, the arpeggione would have been long forgotten. But this way, the memory of the instrument was kept alive, albeit often in name only. On this album, we hear the intended instrument.

To complement the great "Arpeggione Sonata", soloist Lorenz Duftschmid has recorded five Schubert songs in instrumental versions (the poems in question are recited before the instrumental version in each case) as well as three nocturnes by an almost forgotten Romantic from the Rhineland: Friedrich Burgmüller. His "Trois Nocturnes", available in versions, sound most beautiful and full of emotion on arpeggione and guitar, the two instruments so closely related.

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).

In September 1809, the Vienna Hofburg Theatre commissioned Ludwig van Beethoven to create new incidental music for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's "Egmont". The tragedy had premiered in Mainz on January 9, 1789. It calls for incidental music, but various attempts – some commissioned by the poet himself – had remained unfinished or were unsatisfactory. The music was required in several sections of the drama, however, and the Vienna production of "Egmont" was to include it. Beethoven set to work. He made good progress, because the subject suited him: the tragedy is set in Brussels, under threat from Spanish troops, and deals with resistance against oppression and foreign rule. The Viennese theatre premiere of "Egmont" on May 24, 1810 still had to make do without music, however – the score was only finally completed by the third performance. Beethoven's incidental music was premiered on June 15, 1810.

The music itself makes it clear that this commission was close to Beethoven's heart - it far exceeds the level of incidental music common at that time. That applies not only to the compositional demands but also to the relationship of the music to the drama. Eschewing mere illustration, Beethoven provided an interpretation and therefore an additional level of meaning. The well-known Egmont Overture, the most dramatically dense part of the incidental music, anticipates the action and introduces the characters. A clear reference to the drama is made in the ending, which corresponds exactly to the symphony of victory called for by Goethe at the end of the tragedy. The finale - a clear reference to the drama - corresponds exactly to the “symphony of victory” called for by Goethe at the end of the tragedy.

Onda Sonora is a production that aims to show how a group of passionate and committed young people can perform a mature and eclectic repertoire. They range from monumental classical pieces to more contemporary and popular music. When you listen, you can hardly tell the difference between the performances of these young musicians and those of professional orchestras. The orchestra started in October 2012 with a concert in the Parco della Musica in Rome. Angela Colucci, Michele D'Auria and Nicola de Giacomo supervising rehearsals to improve performances. They participated in the Giffoni Film Festival, releasing CDs titled "Tachisax" and "Sonora Junior sax in the district." They were the first Italian orchestra selected for and won first place in their category at the SummaCumLaude competition in Vienna in 2016. In 2023, they won second place and gained recognition from the audience and judges. They performed at renowned venues like Musikverein, Muth, and Konzerthaus. Sonora Junior Sax aims to educate young people about music, teaching them respect for their roles and the importance of working together. They also focus on developing emotional intelligence through music study and practice from childhood. Their group environment encourages healthy competition, respect, and meritocracy. They welcome diversity, using music to integrate and educate.

Oliver Schnyder (piano), and Andreas Jahnke (violin) and Benjamin Nyffenegger (cello) perform Smetana's Piano Trio in G Minor and the famous "Dumky"-Trio by Antonín Dvořák. The Oliver Schnyder Trio made their debut at the Zürich Tonhalle in 2012. Their recording of Schubert’s Piano Trios was hailed “a new benchmark recording” by the magazine Die Bühne and was chosen as “Switzerland’s Best Classical Album of the Year” by the Aargauer Zeitung. This immediate success was confirmed by the recording of Brahms’ complete Piano Trios, which also received great critical acclaim and was given a “Milestone” from Musik & Theater. Past and present concert appearances and festival residences include the SWR Schlossfestspiele Ettlingen, WDR Funkhaus Köln, Liederhalle Stuttgart, Festspiele Baden-Baden, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Schloss Elmau, Meisterzyklus Bern, Ittinger Pfingstkonzerte, Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw, Musikdorf Ernen, the Hirzenberg Festival and the festival Universum Beethoven, where they took part in a complete cycle of Beethoven’s Piano Trios at Boswil and Muri, alongside the Trio Jean Paul and the Wanderer Trio.

Kubelík’s star began to wane in the years before World War I. Some felt he had gone off the boil but it was more a question of his public turning to new idols, Elman and Vecsey. In 1915 he retired to take composition seriously, not resuming his concert career until 1920. He toured Britain 20 times from 1900 to 1934 (packing the Royal Albert Hall with 7,000 people in 1926) and the U.S. many times up to 1938 (6,000 heard him at the New York Hippodrome in 1920-21). He commanded a wide range of music and in Central Europe he is remembered as a great musician. He died in Prague on 5 December 1940. The main fruits of Kubelík’s five-year break were his first three Violin Concertos, published in Prague in 1920. Of the eventual series of six, Pavel Šporcl says: ‘They are technically very demanding and musically extremely interesting.’ The First Concerto in C major, which he plays here, is a melodious Late Romantic work, well tailored to a front-line virtuoso’s strengths, and it should not have fallen out of the repertoire. Kubelík emerged from his purdah to première it at the Grosse Musikvereinssaal in Vienna on 29 January 1917, Nedbal conducting the Tonkünstler Orchestra.

Funereal variations, wild or melancholic waltzes, Hungarian dances with Romani accents: this is an anthology of Brahmsian aesthetics that beautifully concludes the complete chamber music of the composer on B Records. Théo Fouchenneret and Éric Le Sage give all its colors and contrasts to the too often underestimated repertoire of the four-hand piano. Théo Fouchenneret won First Prize at the Geneva International Competition in November 2018 before being named ‘Instrumental Solo Discovery’ of the year at the Victoires de la Musique Classique. The sensitivity and poetry of his touch but also the maturity of his interpretations are unanimously agreed to distinguish this young French pianist from other performers of his generation. Eric Le Sage is recognized as a musician of rare musical sensitivity, and is established as one of the leading pianists of his generation. He is a highly acclaimed performer of Robert Schumann’s piano music and of chamber music in general, and his deep interest in unknown works has earned him a catalogue of over 50 concertos.

In 19th-century Vienna (where Brahms spent much of his professional life), the practice of writing “music for the home” (which should in no way be pejoratively construed as a retreat into carefree seclusion) experienced a boom that reached as far as the imperial court of Franz Joseph I. The music-making in many Viennese households was on a par with public performances and boasted enormous variety. Special reference to this recording: on the evening of May 11, 1895, Johannes Brahms played this very CD-programme at the Vienna home of the culture-loving Fellinger family, with whom he was very well acquainted, having received from Simrock the galley proofs of the rearranged versions of the op. 120 sonatas for violin and piano. His partner for this soirée was the violin virtuoso Marie Soldat-Roeger, who was one of the eminent female musical figures of the 19th century, on a par with the likes of Clara Schumann, Fanny Hensel (née Mendelssohn), Pauline Viardot-García and others. Soldat-Roeger was the first Austrian woman to gain prominence in European concert halls. So Brahms had made just the right choice for the domestic context of this soirée, as have the two performers on this release: in making this recording, they have brought a piece of historical performance practice from the salons of the 19th century into the living rooms of our time.

Justin Taylor has a passion for early keyboards and is always keen to match the works he tackles with the most appropriate historical instruments. Justin has always been fascinated by the music of Frederic Chopin, whose intimate musical world is presented here. We know that Chopin composed some of his preludes during his stay with George Sand in Mallorca, where he used a very special instrument. This was a Pleyel pianino - a small upright piano of six and a half octaves that was only made between 1835 and 1842 - with a beautiful natural resonance and a velvety timbre. Taylor has recorded the preludes composed on this Pleyel pianino along with a selection of etudes, nocturnes and mazurkas, all of which suit the sound of the instrument perfectly. A moving transcription of Bellini's Casta diva, an aria that Chopin much admired, is also included here.

Orchestral music played a key role in the output of César Franck throughout his career. He accorded an important and innovative place to the symphonic poem, a new genre of the Romantic era: Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne actually dates from 1846, two years before Franz Liszt’s composition of the same name! As a virtuoso pianist himself, Franck also produced a number of concertante works, from early pieces written for his own performance – a few brilliant sets of variations and a youthful concerto – to the famous Symphonic Variations (1885). The Symphony in D minor of 1887 was one of the cornerstones of the renewal of the genre in France, coming between Saint-Saëns’s Third Symphony (1886) and Chausson’s Symphony (1899). The Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège presents here the first genuinely complete survey of this orchestral and concertante repertory, assembling recordings from recent years and some new productions.

REVIEW:

The year 2022 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of César Franck. His orchestral music is not so often heard these days, so this comprehensive collection of performances from his home-town orchestra is quite timely. It would, however, have proved very welcome at any date for the Liège players not only play very well but also deliver the scores idiomatically and with real conviction. This box set usefully and enjoyably reminds us that there is plenty of pleasurable listening to be explored beyond the D minor symphony.

-- MusicWeb International

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.

This new release features poignant soul music for moments of contemplation. Stabat Mater is a 13th-century Catholic hymn to Mary's suffering as Jesus Christ's mother at his crucifixion and has been set to music by many Western composers. This 4 album box presents timeless interpretations of the most important compositions of Stabat Mater. Soloists featured on the release include Margot Guilleaume, Ingeborg Danz, Marta Benackova, Elisabeth Höngen, James Taylor, Thomas Quasthoff and many more.

Leonard Bernstein conducted regularly in Munich from the 1980s onwards. It was then that he learned to appreciate and love the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in particular. In October 1976, Bernstein had appeared with an all-Beethoven programme, and in 1983 he began a series of annual concerts with the orchestra. This CD from BR-KLASSIK presents the live recording of the Beethoven concert on October 17, 1976, in which Bernstein conducted Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and the Leonore Overture No. 3. The programme of the Munich concert in October 1976 included Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which can be seen as stroke of liberation in the sense of "per aspera ad astra" ("through hardships to the stars" or "through darkness to light") and also a symphonic piece that he had written for his only opera "Fidelio": the Third Leonore Overture, with it's lone trumpet signal announcing the arrival of the minister Don Fernando - and thus the rescue of Florestan from arbitrary violence and imprisonment. Joachim Kaiser, Munich's leading music critic at the time, said: "Bernstein demonstrated to a spellbound Munich audience how much he is filled with Beethoven, the man is full of a freedom and fire that can be produced and reproduced. Even if Bernstein's leaps, crouches and crescendos may seem violent to anxious listeners, the inner rightness of the music - which sounds natural, powerful, wonderful and relaxed - is overwhelming." The live recording was made on October 17, 1976 at the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

Baritone Florian Boesch and pianist Malcolm Martineau continue their successful collaboration on Linn with a recital pairing two geniuses who hated each other. Exploring the rivalry between Johannes Brahms and Hugo Wolf, the album showcases some of their most compelling songs which express deep emotion and philosophical themes. Brahms's Vier ernste Gesange, written in memory of Clara Schumann, contrasts melancholy with transcendence, whilst lieder like Sehnsucht and Die Trauernde evoke poignant pain and unresolved longing. Wolf, in his Goethe and Michelangelo songs, captures profound existential reflections, contrasting fame with love and weaving harmonies that echo the complexities of human emotion. The album concludes with Wolf's Prometheus, a tour-de-force of maximum power befitting Florian and Malcolm, two giants of the lieder scene.

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.

Christopher Glynn continues his series of Schubert in English releases with a new recording of ‘The Fair Maid of the Mill’ (Die schöne Müllerin) with acclaimed Scottish tenor Nicky Spence. Set to a new translation by writer and director Jeremy Sams, Willhelm Müller’s direct and emotionally-charged poetry became the basis of Schubert’s first cycle to tell a complete story over the course of its 20 songs. Nicky Spence is one of Scotland’s proudest sons and his unique skills as a singing actor and the rare honesty of his musicianship have earned him a place at the top of the classical music profession. Nicky won a record contract with Decca records while still studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and then took a place as an inaugural Harewood Artist at the ENO. Christopher Glynn is a Grammy award-winning pianist, praised for his ‘breathtaking sensitivity’ (Gramophone), ‘irrepressible energy, wit and finesse’ (The Guardian) and ‘perfect fusion of voice and piano’ (BBC Music Magazine). He is also Artistic Director of the Ryedale Festival, where he has been praised as a ‘visionary’ and ‘inspired programmer’ (The Times).

REVIEWS

"The Fair Maid of the Mill [is] extraordinary: For the first time, as a native English speaker, I found myself understanding this song cycle on a more intimate and revelatory level...The meticulousness of word-for-word accuracy is traded for emotional accuracy. Playwright and director Jeremy Sams was commissioned to write this new translation, and his background in both opera and musical theater lends itself well to finding the right words to convey poetic, emotional, and dramatic honesty.

Tenor Nicky Spence’s own sense of crossover theatricality heightens the immediacy and intimacy of the cycle and Sams’s new texts with a verdant tenor that blooms and contracts in emotional fits and starts. (These beats are both offset and at times juxtaposed by pianist Christopher Glynn...) As the journeyman’s dream begins to collapse on itself...Spence spits out his pleas in a fit of jealousy and panic. The clarity with which he delivers the words makes it easy to slip into the language of Schubert’s work and tap into the small details that render the story so devastating at the end—try listening to him sing of how his love 'loves hunting green' without your throat catching a bit. It’s these small details that make this English Müllerin so rich and compulsively listenable.

--Van Magazine (Olivia Giovetti)

This is the third in the Signum label’s sequence of Schubert song cycles using an English version of the texts by Jeremy Sams. His is in no sense a literal translation and is never in the least archly “poetic”, but is instead couched in relatively, plain, direct English which captures the spirit and directness of the original German while jettisoning any faux-Romantic or medieval archaisms such as “fain would I”. The translation is vernacular and quotidian but not modish or vulgar – and Sams does a fine job of reproducing the rhyming, strophic form of some songs, finding workable rhymes which do not sound forced, so in “Mine” we hear “sound, round, resound” and “found”, and “shine, wine, intertwine, combine” and “mine” sequentially to reproduce the effect of the German. The freedom of the English into which some songs are rendered might initially take the listener aback but a moment’s reflection will confirm the aptness and fidelity of Sams’ rendering; hence, the opening song begins “A miller loves to sit and dream of somewhere” rather than “To wander is the miller’s delight, to wander” or some such precious transliteration – and I know which I prefer. Sometimes the translation is both felicitous and amusing, as when in “Impatience” (Ungeduld) Sams picks up on the German: “ich möcht es sän auf jedes frische Beet/ Mit Kressensamen” (I’d like to sow it in every fresh bed with cress seeds) and translates that colloquially as “I want to sow the words in watercress” so that it rhymes with “happiness” in the next line, and in “The Hunter” the miller girl’s cabbage patch (Kohlgarten) is transformed into a “strawberry bed” so that “fruit” rhymes conveniently with “shoot”. Certain lines impress themselves immediately upon the mind of the listener by their memorability, such as the alliterative “The sound of rushing water has mesmerised my mind” in the second song.

Nicky Spence’s diction is so pellucid as to render the provision of the English texts almost superfluous but such thoughtfulness on the part of the label remains a welcome gesture. [Spence's] beautiful, flexible, easily-produced sound...never falters; his tone encompasses both sweetness and power as required and his knack of placing just the right emphasis or applying a momentary pause in the words without unduly disrupting the vocal line is apparent throughout. I particularly like the way he can introduce a desperate sighing note into his timbre without it turning mawkish. Christopher Glynn supports him with some of the most subtle and sensitive pianism I have even heard applied to this work; his playing is by turns as fluid, sparkling and turbulent as rushing water. He and Spence make an ideally matched partnership – fresh and immediate, presenting it in a manner which could easily win new adherents to this miraculous song cycle but, in Glynn’s words, is also capable of 'offering a new perspective to those who know it well.'

--MusicWeb International (Ralph Moore)

To mark the 150th anniversary of Bizet's death and the premiere of his immensely popular Carmen, Alpha Classics and Le Palazzetto Bru Zane now pay tribute to Celestine Galli-Marie, the singer who created the title role. A remarkable actress and singer, she created sixteen roles in fifteen years at the Opera-Comique, including Ambroise Thomas' iconic Mignon and Jacques Offenbach's Fantasio. Eva Zaicik is delighted to take on the roles created by such a colourful artist: 'Celestine embodied a certain idea of artistic and feminine rebellion. Her voice, charisma and unique theatrical approach brought to life characters who were free, complex and often struggled with the norms of their time.' Supported superbly by Pierre Dumoussaud and the Orchestre National de Lille, the French mezzo not only brilliantly embodies characters created by Bizet, Massenet, Offenbach and Thomas but also breathes new life into arias by Paladilhe, Poise, Deffes, Masse, Guiraud, Cohen and Grisar.

This album pays homage to the concept of the Schubertiad-the intimate gatherings held during the life of the "fourth Viennese classic," where the composer himself would sit at the piano, joined by the finest musicians, to perform Schubert's chamber works in the salons of wealthy friends. Much like these legendary soir�es, the album presents Schubert's most celebrated compositions from the final years of his life, brought to life by a group of exceptional young artists handpicked by Andrzej Pikul. The program features two expansive songs, enhanced by a wind instrument, which frame Schubert's iconic Sonata in A minor, written for the then-novel arpeggione, a unique instrument that, unfortunately, enjoyed a brief lifespan of less than fifty years. The album also includes Schubert's monumental Fantasy in F minor for Piano Four Hands. The centerpiece is a poignant miniature that evokes the melancholic yet beloved nature of Schubert-the composer who, despite his public charm, was often tormented by personal struggles. A unifying thread throughout the album is the piano, which, under the skilled hands of acclaimed chamber musician Andrzej Pikul, transports the listener into a world of musical camaraderie and enduring friendships.

Chopin shaped his two extended cycles of études into a pianistic cosmos that has a unique place in the literature for piano. The études for solo piano feature many technical possibilities composed with an accomplished sense of style. However, the main focus in each of the compositions is musical expression. Mechanical passages are nowhere to be found. The rich timbres of Chopin’s virtuosity thus emerge as the basis for a nuanced tonal world blending Romantic sensibility with a manneristic stylistic approach. All in all: Chopin's études constitute a separate musical domain. They go beyond their own limits, reflecting on numerous other works by the composer in order to establish themselves as “stylistically anchored pillars” within his piano aesthetics. Chopin redefined the genre. Without his pianistic and tonal innovations, the originality of later études – one need only think of Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Debussy and Ligeti – would probably be unimaginable.

Schumann’s studies into counterpoint during 1845 climaxed in what he described as a ‘Fugenpassion’, with the resulting character pieces becoming a significant cornerstone of the organ repertoire. They are performed here by Tom Winpenny, who has also written the booklet notes, on the historic and recently restored Furtwängler organ in Gronau, Germany.

Emanuel Gruber and Arnon Erez's classic account of Beethoven's music for cello and piano has been remastered for this 2-CD release. The Jerusalem Post called Gruber "one of our great artists" citing "his extraordinary capacity for projecting the deepest meaning of the music". Gruber was awarded the Pablo Casals prize by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Arnon Erez has been the head of the Chamber Music Department at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University for nearly two decades. With Emanuel Gruber, Erez has recorded the complete cello and piano Sonatas by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Brahms.

For her fourth recital on Alpha Classics, mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey has chosen to record two cycles, Schumann's well-known Frauenliebe und Leben and Faure's La Chanson d'eve, a much more unfamiliar work. What the two cycles have in common is that a woman is their protagonist: "both works deal with innocence, discovery, joy, sorrow and ultimately a deeper understanding of life that only experience can offer", says Kate Lindsey, who has named this new album Samsara, a Sanskrit word that evokes the cycle of life, from birth to death. Eric Le Sage, a great specialist in the music of Faure and Schumann, is the ideal partner for this introspective journey, which also features extracts from Schumann's sublime Myrthen as well as Faure's famed Clair de lune and Chanson d'amour.

Within the realm of Romantic piano music, where new discoveries are constantly just around the corner, the contribution of Robert Schumann has always played a major part. True, he cannot rival the aura of Chopin’s works, of which Ignaz Friedman asserted that not only had Chopin opened the piano with them, he had closed it again. (Schumann paid his own tribute in his reverent review of Chopin’s op. 2 of 1831, the Variations on Mozart’s “Reich mir die Hand, mein Leben”). Nor did Schumann embed in the history of piano playing such milestones of technical mastery and manual dexterity as Liszt who – inspired by Paganini’s concerts and enabled by the double-escapement action developed by Sébastien Erard in 1821 – had practically reinvented the instrument by the time he wrote his Etudes d’exécution transcendante in 1837. And neither the sprightliness of Felix Mendelssohn’s keyboard idiom nor Charles-Valentin Alkan’s exaltation of virtuosity are characteristic of Schumann’s piano music, even if he proves in his Abegg Variations op. 1 (1830) and his Toccata op. 7 (1832) that he brilliantly commanded both approaches to the instrument.

Teeming with comedy, wit and an abundance of bravura choreography, Carlos Acosta's production brings the Spanish heat and romance of Miguel de Cervantes' classic novel Don Quixote to life. Often regarded as the first modern novel, Cervantes' epic regales the chivalrous adventures of the eccentric nobleman Don Quixote (Gary Avis) and his faithful squire Sancho Panza (Liam Boswell). The ballet focuses on one of their adventures, where they help to bring a vivacious young couple, Kitri (Mayara Magri) and Basilio (Matthew Ball), together.

The Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra enjoyed a long and intensive artistic collaboration, which came to an abrupt end with Haitink's death in October 2021. BRKLASSIK now presents outstanding and previously unreleased live recordings of their concerts from past years. This recording of Dvorak's Seventh Symphony documents a concert given in March 1981 in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz. The "Scherzo capriccioso" is a studio recording, also from March 1981. Following the success of Antonin Dvorak's first visit to London in 1884, the London Philharmonic Society asked him to return the following year and to compose a new symphony for the occasion. It was an honourable request - after all, the London Philharmonic Society had commissioned Beethoven's Ninth Symphony six decades earlier! When Dvorak began sketching out the symphony on December 13, 1884, he was well aware of the high expectations involved - both his own and those of others. Most music critics and Dvorak biographers, however, have struggled with the interpretation of this exceptional piece. For example, it has been interpreted "politically" against the background of the growing German-Czech tensions of those years. But the existential power of the D minor Symphony - it's anger, it's expansive pessimism, i.e. it's confessional character - may also derive from the biography and personality of it's composer, which were probably far more complex, painful and problematic than any "Bohemian idyll" we might assume. Even in Dvorak's Eighth Symphony, which is considered to be more cheerful, and in his last symphony, "From the New World", one can still detect a more or less latent tendency towards tragic longing. The world premiere of the Seventh Symphony took place on April 22, 1885 in London, with the composer conducting. It became one of Dvorak's greatest successes. Dvorak's Scherzo capriccioso of 1883 is certainly more than just a filler on this CD. The fact that it is more dramatic and passionate than it's playful title suggests is probably due to the fact that it was written at a time of crisis in the composer's life. The work is an elaborate composition of convincing craftsmanship

On six albums, this new release features great musical moments for all admirers of Brahms and fans of choral singing at its very best! The program leads the listener through Brahms´ essential vocal works and a splendid set or artists grant highest quality of interpretation. The recordings included are taken from the Haenssler catalog and were recorded over the course of the last few decades. Featured artists include Donna Brown, Ingeborn Danz, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Lioba Braun, Gilles Cachemaille, Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, Kammerchor Stuttgart, and more.

SET CONTENT HIGHLIGHTS:

• Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem), Op. 45 • Liebeslieder Waltzes (18), Op. 52 • Neue Liebeslieder Waltzes (15), Op. 65 • Vier Ernste Gesänge (4 Serious Songs), Op. 121 • Deutsche Volkslieder (49), WoO 33 (excerpts)

Every pianist makes a piece their own, adding flourishes and signature accents, but Marta Brankovich takes artistic interpretation to a new level. Leveraging her passion and irreplicable touch on the piano, the black swan of piano conjures an unforgettable storm on MARTA, THE TEMPEST. This long-awaited exploratory deep-dive into the classical canon delivers fresh interpretations of works by Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Kaufman, Jirásek, and Webber, complete with a solo piano composition by Brankovich herself that offers an inside look into her artistic emergence. Weaving themes of adversity, opposing forces, and oneness with a profoundly emotive approach, Brankovich delivers a powerful program in this Navona Records release.