The Kammerakademie Potsdam (Chamber Academy Potsdam) and it's principal conductor Antonello Manacorda will complete their new Beethoven cycle with the release of all nine Symphonies in a special 5-CD boxset out on Sony Classical on May 3. As the third and final installment in the series, the release will include their new recording of Beethoven's Third, Fourth and Eighth Symphonies as well as the composer's legendary Ninth Symphony. The release coincides with the 200-year anniversary celebrations of the premiere performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in early May. The first two installments in the ensemble's Beethoven cycle recording have been released to great critical acclaim.

Vivaldi is the exceptional new recording of the much loved Vivaldi "Four Seasons" by rising Italian-Serbian-French violinist Luka Faulisi, taking on the piece with his bright, youthful energy. For this album, he collaborated with the excellent Polish baroque ensemble (oh!) Orkiestra Historyczna, directed by concert master and ensemble leader Martyna Pastuzka. The combination of Luka's romantic sound, formed in French impressionistic repertoire, and the ensemble's energetic and forceful take let the well-known masterpiece shine in a new light. Providing an additional feature, Luka has chosen three corresponding romantic pieces, sitting between the Vivaldi concertos to provide a change of perspective - the Catalan traditional Song of the birds, Lili Boulanger's Nocturne and Tchaikovsky's Autumn Song.

Classical Soul Vol. 1

In the 1980s, as the movement for historically informed performance was booming, there was a sudden flurry of attempts by period-instrument ensembles to record all of Haydn’s 106 symphonies. It was perhaps inevitable that none of them would reach the summit of this musical Everest – most made it about halfway up to this ambitious and costly undertaking.

One of these Haydn series that created a stir at the time was directed by the London-based violinist-conductor Derek Solomons. Between 1980 and 1986, he recorded 49 symphonies with his hand-picked ensemble, L’Estro Armonico. Sony Classical is now pleased to present all of these pioneering Haydn performances for the first time on CD. Included in this new collected edition of 18 newly mastered discs are several recordings never before issued in any medium.

In an interview for Gramophone, Solomons stated: “There seemed no better composer to look at than Joseph Haydn to make our recording début on original instruments – and also the début of these symphonies in this kind of performance. I’d discovered that there was a group of 14 symphonies written for Count Morzin before Haydn started working for Count Esterhazy.”

On questions such as the historically correct size of the ensemble, Solomons’s guide (and the annotator of all his Haydn symphony releases) was H.C. Robbins Landon, the doyen of Haydn scholars. Landon had determined from contemporary sources that Haydn’s “Morzin” orchestra initially comprised only three first and three second violins, one each of viola, cello and bass, with a pair of oboes, a pair of horns and a bassoon.

After recording the early “Morzin” group, Solomons turned to the ground-breaking “Sturm und Drang” symphonies that Haydn composed in the years following his move – in around 1760 – from Count Morzin’s Vienna establishment to the wealthy, influential, music-loving Hungarian court of Count Esterházy. In 1982, L’Estro Armonico began with the six earliest of this astonishing body of works. They were released by CBS, which, having taken over the project from Saga, went on to record the ensemble’s Haydn until 1986 – long enough to complete the remaining symphonies from the “Sturm und Drang” period as well as a few earlier and later ones also written for Esterházy.

Although Derek Solomons’s vision of performing all the symphonies with L’Estro Armonico would, sadly, never materialize, there was almost unanimous enthusiasm for the works that were ultimately recorded and released: “It would be hard to imagine performances of more freshness and conviction … One is impressed by the light-textured quality of the playing, its neatness and precision … The string section is small … which enables the winds – especially the splendid high horns – to be heard with absolute clarity” (Gramophone); “I find it very difficult to go back to conventional Haydn, which seems so mannered and dull in comparison” (Classical Music); “The exhilaration I feel as I rediscover Haydn’s inventiveness, underlines the fact that I will never be able to listen again to Haydn being flattened by a steamroller of a large symphony orchestra” (Music & Video Week). As recently as 2012, a BBC Music Magazine critic called these “among the most brilliant Haydn performances I’ve heard.”

Arnold Schoenberg, one of the most influential musical figures of the 20th century, was born in Vienna in 1874. Sony Classical is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the great composer’s birth with the reissue of 20 CDs of recordings from CBS/American Columbia. The company was a pioneer in documenting Schoenberg’s achievements and already demonstrated that commitment during his lifetime (he died in 1951). In 1940, with the composer conducting, Columbia Masterworks produced the first recording of one of his most captivating and revolutionary works, Pierrot lunaire; and in the 1950s and 60s, the label undertook a ground-breaking multi-volume series entitled “The Music of Arnold Schoenberg”. But arguably no recordings have done more to further the cause of Schoenberg’s orchestral and vocal works than those of Pierre Boulez, while none have done more to promote his chamber music than those by the Juilliard Quartet. Sony Classical now presents all of Boulez’s Schoenberg for CBS/Columbia in a 13-CD box, and all of the Juilliard’s in a 7-disc set.

Arnold Schoenberg, one of the most influential musical figures of the 20th century, was born in Vienna in 1874. Sony Classical is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the great composer's birth with the reissue of 20 CDs of recordings from CBS/American Columbia. The company was a pioneer in documenting Schoenberg's achievements and already demonstrated that commitment during his lifetime (he died in 1951). In 1940, with the composer conducting, Columbia Masterworks produced the first recording of one of his most captivating and revolutionary works, Pierrot lunaire; and in the 1950s and 60s, the label undertook a ground-breaking multi-volume series entitled "The Music of Arnold Schoenberg." But arguably no recordings have done more to further the cause of Schoenberg's orchestral and vocal works than those of Pierre Boulez, while none have done more to promote his chamber music than those by the Juilliard Quartet. Sony Classical now presents all of Boulez's Schoenberg for CBS/Columbia in a 13-CD box, and all of the Juilliard's in a 7-disc set.

He went on to head major orchestras in Dallas and Atlanta and to guest conduct leading ensembles all over the world. But before that, Louis Lane honed his craft while working in the shadow of one of the great masters: in 1947, legendary maestro George Szell chose the young, inexperienced Texan to assist him in Cleveland - "I think you will do" was the gruff maestro's verdict, exceptional praise indeed from that notorious perfectionist.

Between 1959 and 1972 - with the full Cleveland Orchestra, the somewhat smaller Cleveland Pops and the chamber-sized Cleveland Sinfonietta - Louis Lane made a series of critically acclaimed recordings for Columbia. They display the "exceptional breadth and impeccable taste" for which this gifted but perennially undervalued conductor was lauded in a tribute by the orchestra's executive director. Sony Classical is pleased to present them now - many for the first time on CD - in a new 14-disc set.

Reviewers were effusive in their praise when these albums were originally released on LP. Here is a sampling: Pop Concert U.S.A. (1959) - music by Copland, Gershwin, Bernstein and other American composers: "If only all the pops (or, for that matter, all the classics) were as good as this!. The orchestra plays splendidly" (Gramophone). On the Town with the Cleveland Pops (1960) - selections from On the Town, My Fair Lady, Oklahoma, The King and I and other Broadway musicals: "Scintillating. Under Lane's enthusiastic direction, the Clevelanders play these familiar musical comedy excerpts with such precision and virtuosity that they emerge with glistening freshness" (High Fidelity). Music from the Films (1961) - Henry V, Louisiana Story, Bridge on the River Kwai, Gigi, Exodus and other motion pictures: "This concert of music from the movies is so superior to most issues of it's kind that it calls for special commendation. Lane has coaxed some beautiful playing from the Cleveland orchestra, and the engineers have provided him with rich and glorious sound" (High Fidelity).

The Italian tenor sings the world’s greatest Italian tenor arias, including the hit “Nessun dorma” – without question the most famous opera arias.
Verissimo meaning “very true” in Italian and is a play on the word “Verismo” – the late 19th century opera style from which these featured operas are taken. The style is known for its big passions, dramatic lyricism, lush orchestral sound and storylines about normal people in the throes of love, death, betrayal and revenge. Key composers of this style include Puccini, Mascagni, Cilea and Leoncavallo.

When William Steinberg was appointed music director of the Boston Symphony in 1969 as successor to Erich Leinsdorf, he attained the pinnacle of his career. No previous conductor had headed two top-ten US orchestras simultaneously. It was a condition of his Boston position that he could continue to work in Pittsburgh with the orchestra that he had headed since 1952.

Born as Hans Wilhelm Steinberg in Cologne on 1 August 1899, he studied at the local conservatory with the conductor Hermann Abendroth and the pianist Lazzaro Uzielli, a Clara Schumann pupil. On graduating in 1920 he became Otto Klemperer’s assistant at the Cologne opera house. In 1929 he was appointed music director in Frankfurt. Relieved of his post by the Nazis in 1933, he conducted concerts in Frankfurt and Berlin under the auspices of the Jewish Cultural League before emigrating to Palestine in 1936 to take over the Palestine Orchestra (now Israel Philharmonic Orchestra). At Toscanini’s invitation he went to the United States in 1938 to assist in forming and training the new NBC Symphony Orchestra. In 1945, he assumed the music directorship of the Buffalo Philharmonic, where he liked to refer to himself as “Buffalo Bill”.

The Steinberg/Boston collaboration with RCA was unfortunately ill-fated and short-lived. Not because of the repertoire, but plummeting sales and spiraling costs plaguing the American recording industry in general persuaded RCA to let its contract with the Boston Symphony lapse after 52 years’ association. Gramophone magazine’s Peter Quantrill claimed in 2018 that Steinberg was “the most under-recorded of great conductors in the second half of the last century.”

In 2004, the critic Richard Freed wrote of the Schubert Ninth (CD 1) and Bruckner Sixth (CD 2) Symphonies: “Both [are] vital and inspiring performances, free of the monumentalizing all too often inflicted on such music: they are among the best entries in his discography and among the finest recordings of the works.” According to John L. Holmes in Conductors on Record, they were also Steinberg’s favorites among his own recordings. Mendelssohn’s own orchestration of the Scherzo from his Octet and Stravinsky’s Scherzo fantastique and Scherzo à la russe, coupled on CD 3 with formidable virtuoso renderings of orchestral showpieces by Dukas, Richard Strauss and Saint-Saëns, were originally prepared for release on LP LSC-3155 but remained unpublished – until now.

This survey of RCA Boston Symphony recordings during the Steinberg era is rounded off with 1970 tapings of Dvorák’s “New World” Symphony and Carnival Overture (CD 4) from the same recording period by Arthur Fiedler, former BSO violinist and longstanding conductor of the Boston Pops. His recordings of mainly light repertoire for RCA generated total sales of well over 50 million. Nevertheless, it was his ambition to record a major symphony, and here RCA belatedly granted his wish, placing the full Boston Symphony Orchestra at his disposal for the first and only time.

All recordings in the set have been newly transferred and remastered from the 3-track (CD 1), 4-track (CDs 2, 3 [1-6], 4) and 2-track (CD 3 [7-9]) analog tapes using 24 bit / 192 kHz technology.

For his latest release on Sony Classical, pianist Lucas Debargue turns to one of the unsung treasuries of the piano repertoire: the works of Gabriel Fauré.

In a remarkable undertaking, Debargue has recorded every note of his compatriot’s piano music, all on a newly designed piano rarely heard on record until now. Throughout each recording, he retraced Fauré's musical path, from his earliest works to his final compositions. "Recording it," says the pianist, has "transformed my life both as a person and as a musician."

Debargue’s recording of Fauré’s complete piano works is a major recording event of the Fauré anniversary, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the composer’s death in 1924. A comprehensive set of sleeve notes notes includes the pianist’s own commentary on each piece, an analysis of Fauré’s approach to writing for the piano, and full details of the Paulello Opus 102 instrument he plays on the recordings.

Anastasia Kobekina’s first album on Sony Classical - ‘Venice’ - showcases many facets of her artistry; her imagination and energy in creating musical worlds, her natural ability for communication and connection across genres and styles, and her ultimate command of both baroque and modern instruments. With ‘Venice’ Kobekina creates a Venice album without all the usual cliches. This isn’t powdered wigs and carnival masks. It is an album that explores our relationship to places, a conversation between history and present, and an entirely personal and modern take on what Venice represents to the artist. This plays out in an eclectic range of music, from the Renaissance with Monteverdi and Dowland, to the present with Caroline Shaw and ambient music pioneer Brian Eno. A kaleidoscope of histories, memories, fantasies, the real and the imagined, and a portrait of a city that exists both in tangible stone and solely in the artist’s mind.

Igor Levit releases a new album as his personal artistic reaction to the October 7 attacks on Israel and the current rise in anti-Semitism worldwide. The album contains his selection of “Songs without Words” by Felix Mendelssohn and concludes with one Prelude by French Romantic composer Charles-Valentin Alkan. Igor Levit and his team have given their time pro-bono and his proceeds will be donated to two German organizations fighting anti-Semitism - OFEK Advice Center for Anti-Semitic Violence and Discrimination and the Kreuzberg Initiative Against Anti-Semitism.

Igor Levit explains, “I made this recording out of a very, very strong inner necessity. I spent the first four or five weeks after the attack on October 7th in a mixture of speechlessness and total paralysis. And at some point, it became clear that I had no other tools than to react as an artist. I have the piano. I have my music. And so, the idea came to me to record these works, the “Songs without Words” and to donate my proceeds from this recording to two wonderful organizations that work in my hometown here in Berlin to help people who experience anti-Semitism and to help young people avoid falling into the clutches of anti-Semitism. It is my artistic reaction, as a person, as a musician, as a Jew, to what I have felt in the last few weeks and months. Or to put it more precisely, it is one of many reactions that came to mind.”

REVIEWS:

Aside from altruistic reasons, one should buy this disc for Levit’s exceptional pianism and fresh insights.

He addresses Mendelssohn’s E minor Op. 102 No. 1’s agitato directive without the usual tendency to push and pull the composer’s basic Andante tempo. On the other hand, he takes the famous E major Op. 19 No. 1’s con moto on faith, yet keeping the long melodic phrases afloat. The E minor Funeral March stands out for Levit’s impeccably balanced chords, plus a sense of split-second timing that takes both notes and rests into equal account.

Levit’s hypnotic, long-lined legato and subtle dynamic gradations justify his measured pacing of three Venetian Gondola Songs, while his linear independence in the A-flat Duetto is akin to Ignaz Friedman’s, albeit by stricter, more modern-day standards. It may be rather cheeky to end a Mendelssohn Songs Without Words recital with Alkan’s Op. 31 No. 8 Prelude, but the music’s inherent sadness and gripping slow-motion trajectory in the piano’s high register makes a profound effect in Levit’s remarkable hands. Hear for yourself.

-- ClassicsToday (Jed Distler, 10/10)

Stellar cast and musicians includes Jonas Kaufmann, Ludovic Tézier, Elina Garanca and Wolfgang Koch, as well as Wagner-specialist Philippe Jordan conducting the Vienna State Opera orchestra and chorus. This was recorded live in April 2021 during the run of the Vienna State Opera's hit new production of Wagner's late - and arguably greatest - opera Parsifal. Deluxe, four CD-set with a 300 page booklet includes texts & Libretto in 3 different languages (DE, EN, FR).

REVIEWS:

Kaufmann’s performance in the title role will doubtless be regarded as its main selling point...but it’s Elīna Garanča as Kundry, in her first Wagnerian role, whose performance is perhaps the most extraordinary...the orchestral playing is as intense as anyone could want, and the closing pages are suitably transcendent.

-- The Guardian (U.K.)

Happily, most of the singing is marvelous...Kaufmann’s finest stretches as Parsifal comes in later acts, when his passions fly, top notes ping, and dark timbres shake the rafters, alongside strong competition from Garanča’s bloodcurdling screams…. Jordan is a masterful Wagnerian who knows instinctively when to move forward or how long to pause, sometimes more than Wagner himself.

-- The Times (U.K.)

Stunning new recording of Bach’s popular Violin Concertos by one of the world’s greatest violinists.

The legendary English organist E. Power Biggs became a household name when his Sunday morning CBS broadcasts introduced radio listeners all over North America to the sound of historic pipe organs and the classical organ repertoire from every period. In a lifelong search for authenticity, the indefatigable Biggs visited places in Holland, North Germany, England, France, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland where some of the great organist-composers of the Renaissance and Baroque had lived and worked. Between 1961 and 1970, Columbia recorded him in a “Historic Organs of Europe” series, performing music by Bach, Buxtehude, Couperin, Dunstable, Frescobaldi, Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli, Purcell, Soler, Sweelinck, Tallis and many others.

In his original notes to this ambitious project, which Sony Classical is now reissuing complete in a collection of 6 CDs, Biggs wrote: “It is fascinating to play a composer’s music on the organ he played. You feel that you have touched the lifeline of history… Beethoven’s orchestra, Bach’s choir are all gone, but the same organs on which great musicians played are still available.”

When these famous recordings were released on LP, Gramophone’s reviewer wrote that “the commanding sweep of the whole panorama makes compulsive listening… The enthusiasm of Mr. Power Biggs for his subjects makes him the ideal guide: he can turn his hand to any organ and make a neat job of the music, however recalcitrant the actions may be. His performances are sumptuously recorded.” Organ aficionados will relish this new opportunity to experience these musical milestones in this new box set.

CONTENTS:

• Bach, J S: Prelude & Fugue in B minor, BWV544
• Bach, J S: Chorale Prelude BWV691 'Wer nun den lieben Gott lässt walten'
• Bach, J S: Chorale Prelude BWV751 'In dulci jubilo'
• Perotinus: Hec dies
• Leoninus: Hec dies
• Dunstaple: Agincourt Hymn
• Paumann: Mit ganzem Willen wünsch ich dir
• Kotter, J: Präambulum in F
• Tallis: Gloria Tibi Trinitas
• Dalza: Pavana ala venetiana
• Purcell: Chaconne in F
• Raison: Passacaglia in G minor
• Couperin, F: Pièces de clavecin IV: Ordre 22ème in D major: Le Trophée
• Clérambault: Basse et Dessus de Trompette
• Anon: Sit Gloria Domini
• Anon: Orientis partibus
• Anon: Christo psallat
• Anon: Hymn to St. Magnus
• Anon: 'Estampie' Anon 13th century
• Anon: Te Deum-Verse
• Soler, A: Organ Concert No. 6 in D 'Kaiserfanfare'
• Soler, A: Keyboard Sonata No. 53 in A major 'Sonata de Clarines'
• Dandrieu, J F: Euo en cors de chasse sur la trompete
• Angles, R: Aria in D minor
• Seixas: Sonata in G minor No. 25
• Seixas: Toccata in D minor
• Cabanilles: Batalla imperial
• Pasquini, B: Partite sopra la Aria della Folia da Espagna
• Milán: Pavana VI
• Valente, A: La romanesca
• Valente, A: Lo ballo dell’intorcia
• Anon: Fabordon glosado VI de sexto tono
• Frescobaldi: Gagliarda Prima
• Frescobaldi: Gagliarda Seconda (1627)
• Frescobaldi: Gagliarda Terza (1627)
• Frescobaldi: Capriccio sopra la Battaglia (1637)
• Gesualdo: Gagliarda del Principe di Venosa
• Trabaci: Gagliarda No. 2
• Trabaci: Gagliarda ottava
• Gabrieli, G: Fuga sul IX Tono
• Pasquini, B: La Follia Variations
• Marcello, B: Psalm 19, "The heaves declare the glory of God"
• Zipoli: Sonata d'intavolatura Book I
• Gabrieli, A: Canzon ariosa
• Banchieri: Dialogo secondo
• Storace, B: Ballo della Battaglia (organ)
• Fantini: Corrente detta dello Staccoli
• Couperin, F: Fanfare
• Couperin, F: Rondeau
• Couperin, F: Offertoire sur les grands jeux
• Lebègue: Basse de trompette
• Balbastre: Joseph est bien marié
• Clérambault: Caprice sur les grands jeux
• Couperin, L: Chaconne
• Couperin, L: Chaconne in D minor, G. 55
• Couperin, L: Chacone in G minor
• Dandrieu, J F: Or nous dites Marie
• Dandrieu, P: Quand le Sauveur Jesus-Christ fut ne de Marie
• Handel: Aylesford Pieces
• Stanley, J: Voluntary Op. 7 No. 6 in F major
• Stanley, J: Voluntary Op. 6 No. 5 in D major: Andante
• Dunstaple: Agincourt Hymn
• Dunstaple: Compositions on a Plainsong
• Aston, H: A Hornepype
• Preston, T: Upon La Mi Re
• Tallis: Gloria Tibi Trinitas
• Tallis: Iste confessor Domini sacratus
• Tye: Point
• Byrd: A Gigg, BK22
• Dowland: The King of Denmark, His Galliard
• Holborne: Allemande
• Purcell: Ground in Gamut
• Clarke, Jeremiah: An Ayre T452
• Anon: Ritornell
• Anon: Packington's Pound
• Bach, J S: Chorale Prelude BWV676 'Allein Gott in der Höh' sei Ehr'
• Scronx: Echo in F
• Scronx: Echo in G
• Telemann: Aria dell’ Omphale
• Sweelinck: Fantasia met bindigen, D8
• Sweelinck: Fantasia Contraria in G Dorico
• Buxtehude: Ihr lieben Christen, freut euch nun BuxWV 51: Sinfonia
• Buxtehude: Lob Gott, ihr christen, allzugleich BuxWV 202
• Paumann: Mit ganzem Willen wünsch ich dir
• Cornet: Courantes
• Koetsier: Partia für Englischhorn und Orgel Nr. 1 Op. 41