For the fifth instalment of the critically acclaimed Schubert+ series, Can Cakmur juxtaposes the Viennese composer with his illustrious elder Ludwig van Beethoven, for the first time in this series. After establishing his mastery of the lied genre, Schubert still had to show his full potential in the realm of piano sonatas, a quintessentially Beethovenian form. In his Sonata in A major, D 664, he abandons the traditionally oppositional nature of the sonata in favour of a melody- based narrative in which landscapes appear to change gradually, as if seen from a traveller's perspective, thus offering a conception that is as new as it is personal. Beethoven is represented here by a series of variations, a genre in which he also excelled. The 32 Variations in C minor range from tender yearning to an emotional turmoil reminiscent of the 'Appassionata' Sonata. In the Sonata in C minor, D 958, composed in 1828, the first of his towering final trilogy, Schubert staked his claim to be seen as Beethoven's successor as a writer of piano sonatas. In a work that Can Cakmur sees as a tribute to Beethoven, Schubert achieves a synthesis of the master's influence and the lyricism of his own early sonatas. Just weeks before his death, the younger composer finally sits beside the older master and converses with him on equal terms.

Learn more about the VOX Label, the Elite Recordings production team, and the reissuing of these classic Utah Symphony recordings on the Naxos Classical Spotlight Podcast!

Maurice Abravanel and the Utah Symphony Orchestra’s recordings of Tchaikovsky’s orchestral works, originally released on Vox in 1974, remain much admired to this day. These classic recordings of Symphony No. 4 and Romeo and Juliet make a welcome return to the catalogue, newly remastered in 192kHz / 24-bit high-definition.

REVIEWS:

These sonically remastered recordings are from Maurice Abravanel’s legendary Tchaikovsky Integrale. The remastering probably couldn’t make the violins sound much fuller and warmer, but the slight limitations as far as the Utah orchestra and the somewhat treble-emphasized recording, especially in the Fantasy Overture, can’t really detract from the quality of Abravanel’s delicate, spontaneous, elegant and tense interpretations. In the Fourth Symphony, Abravanel by no means overplays the darker side of the music, expressing fatum feelings as well as nostalgia.

-- Pizzicato

Although the Salt Lake Tabernacle was far from an ideal recording venue, its oval domed shape being highly reflective, the Elite Recordings team did their best to deaden the space. The end result is excellent, the orchestra sounding as though it is playing in a large hall, but nothing is blurred.

As for the performances, they are also excellent, Abravanel careful not to overplay the dramatic elements to the point where they start to sound hysterical. That is not to say the playing lacks energy, for it certainly does not. This is simply very good, straightforward, well-played, and excellently recorded Tchaikovsky. Good stuff.

-- Classical Candor (Karl Nehring)

Stefania Neonato is involved in both historical performance practice on historical instruments as well as the modern piano playing tradition. Christine Busch can be heard as a soloist and chamber musician with both the modern and baroque violin in concerts worldwide. The fortepiano used for the present recordings come from the Viennese workshop of Nannette Streicher and has the serial number 1060. Ludwig van Beethoven himself was good friends with the couple and played their instruments. The three selected sonatas on this album span a period of fourteen years, from 1798 (Op. 12/1 and 3) to 1812, the year of the composition of Op. 96 - two years before the piano used here was completed. Nannette Streicher opened her piano workshop together with her husband and her brother in Vienna at the end of the 18th century. They built well over a thousand instruments, of which only around forty fortepianos have survived to this day.

The soul of Bohemia: familiar masterpieces and little-known gems for string ensemble by the five most famous Czech composers of the 19th and 20th centuries. The affection and vigor of Dvořák’s Serenade for Strings has kept its freshness while many other works from the same era have receded into obscurity. This performance by the Ciconia Consort lends it a new lease of life: as rhythmically springy and attentive to detail as the ensembles previous, critically acclaimed explorations of the string-orchestra repertoire of France, England, the US and Germany in beautifully curated themes. Janáček’s Suite for Strings is an early work, Romantic in character and recognizably descended from the String Serenades of Dvorák and Tchaikovsky, but nonetheless characteristic of the composer’s quirky language with its adoption of Czech speech rhythms. In 1931, Martinů was also inspired by Czech folk melodies when writing his Partita as a Czech émigré in faraway Paris. However, Martinů develops these melodies in a modern style reminiscent of Béla Bartók. Without slow movements, intimacy, or a poetic character, the character of the suite as a whole is spicy, tough and extrovert: inimitably Martinů. Smetana scored his tone-picture Rybár (The Fisherman), for harmonium, harp, and strings: it is a musical ‘tableau vivant’ after Goethe’s poem Der Fischer, which describes a fisherman who is overpowered by the mysterious and magical pull of the water. The theme of Rybár and Smetana’s haunting translation into music also make it a kind of study for his evocation of the river Vltava in Ma Vlast. A little more familiar is the grave Meditation on the Hymn to St Wenceslas by Dvorák’s student and son-in-law, Josef Suk, in which the old melody is treated like a family heirloom.

REVIEW:

CD Slavic Rhapsody begins at a high level and very excitingly with Dvořák’s String Serenade, which Dick van Gasteren and his Ciconia Consort, the string orchestra from The Hague, present not as a soft-boiled egg, but as a lively and energetic piece of music.

Very expressive, and rhetorically sharpened, with powerful gestures, the fast movements of the Suite for String Orchestra by Leos Janacek are also played, while the two Adagios become effective with great sensitivity.

Suk’s Wenceslas Meditation also benefits from this dynamic, its chorale possessing a moving depth.

The Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959) composed his Partita Suite in 1931. It is a neoclassical work in which the underlying folk-musical tone cannot be ignored. The Chamber Orchestra from The Hague enlivens the somewhat academic form with gripping and urgent playing.

Smetana’s short portrait of a fisherman with strings, harmonium and harp closes this CD with which the Ciconia Consort celebrates its 10th anniversary.

-- Pizzicato

The present release is a mind-blowing rendition of a contemporary classic by amazing Ukrainian pianist, past winner of Van Cliburn competition. “Recordings usually start to live their own lives after their release. However, this one happened to be very special since it acquired its very meaning long before getting to the publishing phase. Recorded in September 2021, this project survived February 24, 2022 - the date marking for me the end of a fragile balance between humanity and medieval darkness. This recording is dedicated to the people of a free and independent Ukraine, whose unshakable spirit will never be defeated.” (Vadym Kholodenko)

This series to mark the 200th birthday of Anton Bruckner in 2024 is dedicated to his symphonic works. Hansjorg Albrecht will perform all of Bruckner's symphonies in many new transcriptions for organ at important locations such as Zurich, Leipzig, Linz, Vienna and London. Bruckner's works are framed by contemporary compositions that deal with Bruckner's work in the "Bruckner Windows". Hansjorg Albrecht concludes the extensive project to commemorate Anton Bruckner with the last recording of the Study Symphony.

A selection of Lieder, however broad, focuses perforce on the German language, as dictated by the theoretical, historical, and technical definition of the word "Lied," of the genre "Lieder." What is more, this particular selection of Lieder, though broad, gravitates around a strong poetic inspiration which, entrusted here to Sara Mingardo, is oriented towards the evocation of moonlit nights, of mysterious nocturnal scents, of that contemplative solitude that quivers between the two extremes of eros and nostalgia. The Lieder of Brahms and Mahler promise cosmic dimensions in the sphere of the sublime. In these, too, the listener also moves, but in ascent or descent: (s)he "moves his (her) steps" not here and there, but into the depths which, when inverted, lead to the heights of heaven, in a sphere almost independent of time and space. At this point our reconnaissance brings us to the music presented for our enjoyment on this CD. Here again, one senses the air and the motion of the passeggiata, of an easy, informal stroll. This apparently unlikely association is prompted by the metaphorical image of music in the open air as a leisure pursuit, as entertainment. And here is the nub: this image, which implies the idea of "movement" in space and time (the brief space of a public garden, the brief space of a spring afternoon, or that between summer and autumn), takes on much broader ramifications as soon as we establish a logical connection between the democratic social and cultural function of the "Proms" and the mature self-analysis of the kind of lofty, profound music, intimately bound up with a poetic text of similar spiritual level, that was such a feature of Austro-German culture between 1860 and 1914, between the national (or even "nationalistic") undertones of the said culture and the First World War. The historical parallel is not negligible. Between the phenomenon of the provision of music in a social and urban context-typically but not exclusively British-and an inspiration that can be discerned in the work of two supreme composers who shared the same German language and culture, Brahms and Mahler, we seek to trace an element of continuity. Additionally, we might note, however, how any and every possible concert programme (including every recording and every conceivable form of electronic reproduction) is always a journey, a path; and how music, too, always and in any case, is a language that would not exist if it did not move in space and time, forwards or backwards, towards the "before" or towards the "after," up into the highest heavens or down into the unfathomable depths, emphasised on occasion by the very notion of walking, as in Musorgsky's Pictures, or driven by the desperation of a headlong flight from oneself, as in Schubert's Winterreise. And now, without further ado, let us listen!

Described by the New York Times in 1944 as “One of the most remarkably gifted of the younger generation of American keyboard artists,” Leon Fleisher was born in San Francisco in 1928. In 1944, at age 16, he played the Brahms first Piano Concerto as soloist with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Pierre Monteux. In 1952 he won the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels. He played the Brahms and Beethoven Piano Concertos often and recorded them with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra. In 1964, he noticed that two fingers of his right hand were beginning to involuntarily curl up. He tried every therapy that existed then, but his solo career was effectively ended. He continued to teach, and conduct and in 1967 began to perform works for the left hand. In 1995 he succeeded to regain the use if his right hand and began performing and recording with two-hands. Leon Fleisher passed away in 2020 at age 92. DOREMI is proud to offer here a hitherto unreleased live recording of 16 years old Leon Fleisher playing Brahms Piano concerto No, 1 with the New York Philharmonic, with Pierre Monteux conducting.

"Almost everything that Chopin ever wrote is still played. Chopin influenced the entire last half of the nineteenth century and continues to influence composers even today. From Liszt to Wagner, from Moszkowski to the young Scriabin, or from Ernesto Nazareth to Tom Jobim, Chopin is still alive as a composer without borders in time and space who never left us and will never do so." -Marcelo Bratke

Marcelo Bratke, one of Brazil’s finest pianists, has performed in some of the world’s most renowned venues, including Carnegie Hall, the Salzburg Festival, Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Konzerthaus in Berlin and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. He started his piano studies at the age of fourteen and due to a severe visual impairment he was unable to read scores properly, developing his own method of learning music based on his auditive memory capacity. Ten months after his first piano lesson, he made his debut with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eleazar de Carvalho and was awarded the ‘Revelation Prize’ by the São Paulo Critics’ Association.

Bratke believes music is an important contribution to society and in 2008 he founded Camerata Brasil, an orchestra formed of young musicians from impoverished areas of Brazilian society, performing with them more than 300 concerts in Brazil, Argentina, Japan, United Kingdom, Serbia, South Korea, Netherlands and in the US where their concert at Carnegie Hall was highly acclaimed by both the public and the critics of The New York Times, New York Post and Concert Net USA.

Over 20 years ago, Alex Ross, the noted music critic for the New Yorker, described the atmosphere of a Martha Argerich recital in terms reminiscent of the golden age of nineteenth century piano virtuosos: “Her concerts conjure up scenes from another place and time: grown men running down the aisles clutching bouquets, world-renowned musicians pummeling the railings of the upper boxes, jaded critics breaking into foolish smiles.” The subject of these rapturous responses, has, unlike the traditional virtuoso, played relatively few solo recitals, preferring to make music with others. This set is the 8th volume of DOREMI’s special series of live performances and broadcasts featuring the artistry of the young Martha Argerich.

A unique recital on record of complementary bagatelles and sonatas from two distinct periods in Beethoven's life, in a new recording by a modern master pianist. Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy is 'a storyteller', remarked Jeremy Nicholas in his Gramophone review of the Chopin sonatas on Piano Classics. He went on to praise 'nigh-on ideal' playing in the Second Sonata: 'unforced, rhythmically buoyant [and] texturally translucent'. The German pianist now illuminates four works of Beethoven with the same qualities. The Sonata Op.31 No.3 and Bagatelles Op.33 both date from what would prove to be a transitional point in Beethoven's career, around the year 1802, as he was stretching his wings and his capabilities. They achieve striking and often sudden contrasts of expression within both expansive sonata-form structures and the miniature sketch-form of the bagatelle, which Beethoven effectively invented from scratch with this set. 'Schmitt-Leonardy's superb technical and musical command holds unflagging interest' through the variation sets of Brahms, according to Jed Distler in another Gramophone review. Such command is a prerequisite for addressing the late masterpieces of Beethoven, so often recorded, and to which Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy brings his own, individual musical intelligence. Twenty years elapsed between those earlier pieces and the Sonata Op.110, during which time Beethoven's thinking inevitably underwent a sea-change. By this point he was striving ever more keenly to achieve the expression of transcendence in music, and the Sonata's ineffable opening phrase seems to distil that search into an unforgettable gesture. The Sonata is also marked by the composer's intensifying preoccupation with Baroque-era counterpoint, which gives the most haunting life to the finale's semi-autobiographical narrative of vitality lost and regained. The Bagatelles Op.126 are trifles in name only, contemporary with the Ninth Symphony, sharing the Olympian humour of it's Scherzo and the span of the Diabelli Variations. Each one captures a mood as intense as it is fleeting. They are perhaps comparable in this way with the sonatas of Scarlatti, such as those played by Schmitt-Leonardy on another Piano Classics album: 'one the most intelligently programmed and distinctively played Scarlatti collections to cross my reviewer's desk in years.' (Gramophone)

In this debut album, baritone Jonas Muller and the Tomasi Musso Guitar Duo have recorded Schubert's Winterreise. The arrangement for two guitars creates a special new three-dimensional chamber music constellation, which certainly demands a different approach to singing from the singer, who must now internalise what the piano used to bring out. This is particularly in keeping with the idea that Winterreise is not simply a collection of songs composed by a travelling French horn player, but that the existential encounter between the stranger and the hurdy-gurdy man gives rise to new songs that have never been heard before and can only be sung together.

The year 1810 is not only the birth year of Frédéric Chopin and Robert Schumann, but also of Norbert Burgmüller and Ludwig Schuncke. All four composers knew and appreciated each other in the form of artistic inspiration as well as friendly affection. While Schumann and Chopin later achieved world fame with their works, Norbert Burgmüller and Ludwig Schuncke, however, died in their youth and left behind only a small œuvre that is hardly known today. This recording brings together early compositions by Chopin and Schumann with selected virtuoso works by Burgmüller and Schuncke. All the works represent an expression of these young geniuses that is still youthful, sparkling and seeking orientation, yet already manifest due to their precociousness.

Learn more about this recording on the Naxos Classical Spotlight podcast!

Much has been written about Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio, formerly Leonore. Beethoven worked on it on and off for almost a decade. During that time the four different overtures included on this recording were composed. They are substantially different, not only in length but also in themes, while the Fidelio overture is composed in a different key and uses no material from the opera itself. The Ruins of Athens is a set of incidental music pieces composed for the opening of the Deutsches Theater in today’s Budapest. Even though only the Turkish March is often heard today, many listeners may be familiar rather with Liszt’s fantasia for piano and orchestra on themes of this score.

Stanislaw Skrowaczewski began to play the piano and the violin at the age of four, composed his first symphonic work at seven, gave his first public piano recital when he was eleven and went on to become one of the best known conductors in the world. He conducted several Polish orchestras before emigrating to the US where he was chief conductor of many leading orchestras. On the present recording he leads the GRAMMY Award-winning Minnesota Orchestra. The recordings of American orchestras produced for VOX by the legendary Elite Recordings team of Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz are considered by audiophiles to be among the very finest sounding orchestral recordings ever made.

Past praise of the recordings included on this remastered CD release:

‘The sound is by and large excellent, the beautiful clarity and simplicity of the sonics show modern American analog recordings at its best, just as the performances show the non-slick, musical/expressive side of music making in this country at its lively best.

-- Stereo Review, (11/1981)

It’s not all that uncommon to collect all of Beethoven’s dramatic incidental music and overtures in one set, but it’s quite possible that it’s never been done as well as this before.

-- Buffalo Evening News, (06/1981)

The overall sonic qualities of this venture are extraordinary.

-- Los Angeles Times, )04/1981)

The recorded sound is amazing. The performances are nothing short of a revelation. This record shows that the Minnesota Orchestra is one of the finest on the continent.

-- FM Guide Toronto, (04/1981)

Described by the New York Times in 1944 as “One of the most remarkably gifted of the younger generation of American keyboard artists”. Leon Fleisher was born in San Francisco in 1928. In 1944, at age 16, he played the Brahms first Piano Concerto as soloist with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Pierre Monteux. In 1952 he won the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels. He played the Brahms and Beethoven Piano Concertos often and recorded them with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra. In 1964, he noticed that two fingers of his right hand were beginning to involuntarily curl up. He tried every therapy that existed then, but his solo career was effectively ended. He continued to teach, and conduct and in 1967 began to perform works for the left hand. In 1995 he succeeded to regain the use if his right hand and began performing and recording with two-hands. Leon Fleisher passed away in 2020 at age 92.

DOREMI is proud to offer here a hitherto unreleased live recording of Beethoven First and third Piano Concertos with George Szell and the New York Philharmonic and Frederic Waldman and Musica Aeterna Orchestra of New York.

As winner of the international conducting competition "Guido Cantelli", Eliahu Inbal was already in demand as a guest conductor with the world's leading orchestras at the age of 26. Over the years, he has been principal conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra del Teatro la Fenice, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI Turino, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. The present album contains recordings from 1971 and 2012.

Soprano Karine Babajanyan presents Sentimenti, her second album with OehmsClassics. She has put together a selection of works by Italian composers and poets from the 16th to 20th century. In addition to Respighi, Tosti and Cesti, the only exception is Liszt, who drew lasting artistic inspiration from the Italian arts during his pilgrimage to Italy. This is how the Tre Sonetti di Petrarca were created between 1842 and 1846. She sang the leading role in Mascagni's opera Iris. She is accompanied by Alessandro Amoretti.

Sony Classical is pleased to present a special edition of Leonard Bernstein’s American Columbia recordings from the 1950s and 1960s. Some of the conductor-composer’s most celebrated interpretations and works are collected here on these carefully chosen 10 original albums on 11 CDs. 

There is, of course, the still-astonishing album that launched Leonard Bernstein’s international reputation as the most dynamic and charismatic conductor of his era, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring recorded in January 1958 – two months after his appointment as the youngest music director in the New York Philharmonic’s history. Reviewing a 2013 reissue, ClassicsToday.com declared: “It has an excitement, spontaneity, and primal fury that no other version quite matches.” 

The Bernstein recording that launched the “Mahler Renaissance” in the 1960s is also here: his Third Symphony with the New York Philharmonic, which has arguably never been surpassed. And while we’re talking about Third Symphonies, Bernstein’s “Eroica” still sounds “wonderfully vibrant” (Gramophone) a half century after its first release. There is also his reading of Dvořák’s most popular symphony – “There’s no such thing as a ‘definitive’ recording [of the “New World”], but if there were, this one would come close to that imagined ideal” (ClassicsToday) – and two from Haydn’s magnificent “Paris” set: “It’s debatable whether there have been better performances” (ClassicalNet).  

Bernstein himself conducts and plays Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (“The one indispensable recording of this familiar work, paired with an equally fine American in Paris” – New York Times). Bernstein the pianist also accompanies Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, at the peak of his matchless career, in an acclaimed album of Mahler lieder. The ballets Rodeo and Billy the Kid by Bernstein’s mentor and friend Aaron Copland are included: “Even the composer couldn't make [them] dance the way Bernstein does” (New York Times).  

Bernstein the composer is also generously represented. The original Broadway cast recording of Candide from 1956 is included, as is the definitive version of his most famous work: the original Broadway cast recording of West Side Story from 1957. 

The re-masterings in this new collection are the best ever issued of these thrilling recordings by one of the last century’s greatest musicians, selected from the Grammy® award-winning Leonard Bernstein – The Composer and the Leonard Bernstein – Remastered editions. Sony Classical’s new 11-CD Leonard Bernstein box set is the perfect introduction to the work of this American genius.

Past praise of previously released recordings included in this set:

Mahler: Symphony No. 3 / Lipton, Bernstein, NYP

This was the finest performance of Mahler’s Third when it was first issued back in 1962, and in some ways it has never been surpassed. Bernstein catches the riotous vulgarity of the first movement march music like no other conductor–not even his own digital remake reaches the level of sheer abandon he whips up here, and he also has the best of all fifth movements (bright and cheery, with dazzlingly prominent percussion).

-- ClassicsToday.com (10/10; David Hurwitz)

Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 / Bernstein, NYP

There’s no such thing as a “definitive” recording, but if there were, this one would come close to that imagined ideal. Its special qualities haven’t dimmed a bit in decades since it was recorded, and every interpretive decision comes across with the inevitability of fate itself. First, you get the first-movement exposition repeat (very unusual for its time), then there’s the very slow (but still very flowing) Largo, gorgeously played and far from the trudge-fest that Bernstein would make of for DG. The scherzo goes like the wind, the fastest ever, and the finale offers simply the last word in excitement. If you don’t own this performance in some form, then you don’t know the “New World”.

-- ClassicsToday.com (10/10; David Hurwitz)

Hans Sitt (1850–1928) was an extremely important personality in the transition between the 19th and 20th centuries, and also a remarkably prolific composer. Among all this activity, he found the time to transcribe all (!) of Beethoven's nine Symphonies, among others. 

His decision to transcribe them for violin and piano instead of for two piano so common in hus era, allows him to make the violin a part among parts, to immerse it in the (very rich) piano fabric, sometimes giving it a thematic role and sometimes not. 

His transcription of the Ninth ends up revealing many aspects of the original score of which one had never been aware. In addition to being splendid to listen to, if only in that obvious sense of the formidable challenge it poses to the performers, it becomes an important and unexpected tool for delving deeper into the structure of the Beethovenian masterpiece. And for this we shall forever have to thank him.

REVIEW:

Sitt has succeeded magnificently in distilling the original material, but it also presents a great technical challenge for the two performers, which Loguercio and Piemonti meet with bravura. But it is not only the virtuoso that they rise to, for their playing is musically satisfying as well, especially in the slow movement, where they make the music effective with subtle moods.

-- Pizzicato

A New Yorker review about Rudolf Serkin from 2017 states: “his performances… reflect his sense of titanic struggle to realize the ideas and emotions that he found in the words that he played. He bypassed the surface sheen of ingratiating sounds to render the beauty of that struggle; his piano tone is itself the sound of struggle filled with the meeting of metal and wood and evoking spiritual exaltation through physical and intellectual exertion.” Rudolf Serkin was born in 1903 Bohemia. His musical gifts emerged early, and he made his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic at 12. His European career extended throughout the 20s and 30s. He first played in the United States in 1933, and three years later appeared with the New York Philharmonic under Toscanini, eventually performing with them over 100 times. Rudolf Serkin became one of the most admired pianists of the 20th century. He performed and recorded extensively with the top international orchestras and conductors. This is the second volume in our Rudolf Serkin Live series.

First released in 2006, Julia Fischer’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, alongside other gems by this composer has proven to be a reference recording. It not only highlights Fischer’s exceptional skill, but also her unique congeniality with the late Yakov Kreizberg, who leads the Russian National Orchestra and accompanies her on the piano on Souvenir d’un lieu cher. After having been re-released in 2016, as well as on vinyl in 2019, this legendary recording now returns in a more affordable Stereo version. One of the world's leading violinists, Julia Fischer is a versatile musician also known for her extraordinary abilities as a concert pianist, a chamber musician and a violin teacher. Julia Fischer holds numerous awards including the Federal Cross of Merit, the Bavarian Maximilian Order, the Gramophone Award and the German Culture Prize. She plays a violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini (1742) as well as an instrument made by Phillipp Augustin (2018).

In occasion of it's 200th season opening, Teatro Real presents a spectacular new production of Gounod's Faust, directed by �lex Oll� (La Fura dels Baus). Set in a futuristic laboratory, Goethe's timeless themes of knowledge, desire, and redemption are reimagined through the lens of artificial intelligence and human emotion. Star singers including Piotr Beczala, Marina Rebeka, and Luca Pisaroni lead the cast in this gripping drama. Under the baton of Dan Ettinger, the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Real deliver a thrilling performance that, as Bachtrack wrote, "takes it's cue from Goethe but doesn't shy away from theatrical imagination." // "Beczala's voice was brilliant, dark and even powerful with ringing high notes as he proved with his ringing high C in Salut demeure chaste et pure." (Operawire)

Friedrich Wührer was appointed Professor at the Vienna Academy of Music at the age of 28 but he did not confine his activities to teaching. He soon became increasingly active as a concert pianist. His concert tours led him to most countries in Europe, and earned him the reputation as one of the finest keyboard artists of his time.

A New Yorker review about Rudolf Serkin from 2017 states: “his performances… reflect his sense of titanic struggle to realize the ideas and emotions that he found in the words that he played. He bypassed the surface sheen of ingratiating sounds to render the beauty of that struggle; his piano tone is itself the sound of struggle filled with the meeting of metal and wood and evoking spiritual exaltation through physical and intellectual exertion.” Rudolf Serkin was born in 1903 Bohemia. His musical gifts emerged early. amd he made his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic at 12. His European career extended throughout the 20s and 30s. He first played in the United States in 1933, and three years later appeared with the New York Philharmonic under Toscanini, eventually performing with them over 100 times. Rudolf Serkin became one of the most admired pianists of the 20th century. He performed and recorded extensively witg the top international orchestras and conductors. This album contains live performances the two Brahms' piano concertos with Leonard Bernstein and George Szell, and excerpts from a 1974 solo recital in Toronto.

In occasion of it's 200th season opening, Teatro Real presents a spectacular new production of Gounod's Faust, directed by �lex Oll� (La Fura dels Baus). Set in a futuristic laboratory, Goethe's timeless themes of knowledge, desire, and redemption are reimagined through the lens of artificial intelligence and human emotion. Star singers including Piotr Beczala, Marina Rebeka, and Luca Pisaroni lead the cast in this gripping drama. Under the baton of Dan Ettinger, the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Real deliver a thrilling performance that, as Bachtrack wrote, "takes it's cue from Goethe but doesn't shy away from theatrical imagination." // "Beczala's voice was brilliant, dark and even powerful with ringing high notes as he proved with his ringing high C in Salut demeure chaste et pure." (Operawire)

During the 200th anniversary of the first performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, in 2024, IBA is releasing a commemorative limited edition on LP, Idil Biret's performance of the symphony as transcribed for piano by Franz Liszt, originally recorded for EMI and published in a box set of 6LPs with all nine symphonies in 1986. The Choral Fantasy for Piano, Orchestra and Chorus, considered a precursor to the 9th Symphony, is also included in the set.

Described by the New York Times in 1944 as “One of the most remarkably gifted of the younger generation of American keyboard artists,” Leon Fleisher was born in San Francisco in 1928. In 1944, at age 16, he played the Brahms first Piano Concerto as soloist with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Pierre Monteux. In 1952 he won the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels. He played the Brahms and Beethoven Piano Concertos often and recorded them with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra. DOREMI is proud to offer here a hitherto unreleased live recording of Brahms First Piano Concerto with Pierre Monteux and the Concertgebouw Orchestra. In 1964, he noticed that two fingers of his right hand were beginning to involuntarily curl up. He tried every therapy that existed then, but his solo career was effectively ended. He continued to teach, and conduct and in 1967 began to perform works for the left hand. In 1995 he succeeded to regain the use if his right hand and began performing and recording with two-hands. Leon Fleisher passed away in 2020 at age 92.

Evil Penguin is proud to present the first recording by Joshua Brown, Second Prize at Queen Elizabeth Competion 2024. Joshua Brown chose a Schumann programme for his debut: the two Sonatas and the rare and tricky late Fantasie. A perfect match was established between him and the much experienced and great piano partner Paolo Giacometti

Hakan Hardenberger and Roland Pontinen have enjoyed a fruitful artistic relationship for over forty years. They have played, toured and recorded together and have devoted much time and energy to repertoire ideas. 'For us to create a new programme is an exciting, stimulating and fun process', says Pontinen. 'A process that often mirrors our mutual interest in jazz, film and other art forms. The idea of juxtaposing works of contrasting characters, or composed centuries apart, can often shed new light on the music itself.' We are treated here to recently composed works, arrangements, favourites of both musicians and standards from the Great American Songbook. The centrepiece of the programme is Three Autumns by Staffan Storm, atmospherically connected to Anna Akhmatova's poetry, a reflection on elegiac autumn moods. Among contemporary composers, Mark-Anthony Turnage and HK Gruber, who have provided Hardenberger with more works than any other composers, are also represented. Roland Pontinen contributes two pieces, one of them a meditative work inspired by the simplicity and mood of Thomas Newman's masterful film scores. Legende by George Enescu reflects the impressionistic style of the composer's teachers. The recital is also interspersed with shorter pieces, arrangements and reinterpretations of classic American songs, and includes legendary jazzman Ornette Coleman's Chanting, a favourite encore in Hardenberger/Pontinen programmes - always improvised, every time different.