Born in Odessa, pianist and conductor Boris Bloch has long been regarded as one of the most important interpreters of classical and romantic piano music. His large and ever expanding repertoire extends from Scarlatti and Bach, the Viennese Classicists, Chopin and Liszt, the German and Russian Romantics, and the most important composers of the 20th c. This new six-disc edition of Bloch live Liszt recordings contains the complete Annees de Pelerinage I-III, the Harmonies poetiques et religieuses, paraphrases on opera themes, as well as polonaises, concerto etudes and other piano pieces.

‘I am an EU singer’, Hermann Prey always said about himself. However, by that he did not mean so much his citizenship of a European Union country as the fact that he felt at home in the fields of ‘E’ and ‘U’, i.e. in ‘serious’ and entertainment music alike. For Prey, this distinction never existed, but only the issue of the quality of music, and he found this not only in opera and Lied, but also in operetta, the musical and the well-made hit. For forty-six years Prey convinced audiences; this five-disc collection reveals his fascinatingly wide-ranging repertoire and interpretative skill.

The one hundredth anniversary marking the death of Max Reger (1873-1916) is to be commemorated in 2016. In response to this occasion, OehmsClassics has presented and will continue to present yearly a single four-disc box set of Reger's extensive output of organ music during the years 2013-2016 in a co-production with the Bavarian Broadcasting Company (BR Klassik) in order to pay tribute to this magnificent Bavarian composer. Bernhard Buttmann, director of church music at Nürnberg's St. Sebald cathedral knows and plays the works of Reger to a degree paralleled by few contemporary organists.

Following a chance meeting at a European gambling hall, the separate lives of Daniel Deronda and Gwendolen Harleth are immediately intertwined. Daniel, an Englishman of uncertain parentage, becomes Gwendolen's redeemer as she, trapped in a loveless marriage, finds herself drawn to his spiritual and altruistic nature. But Daniel's path is set when he rescues a young Jewish woman from suicide... Daniel Deronda, George Eliot's final novel, is a remarkable work, encompassing themes of religion, imperialism and gender within it's broad scope. Juliet Stevenson is one of the UK's leading actresses, her film credits including Truly, Madly, Deeply and Emma. For Naxos AudioBooks she has recorded Lady Windermere's Fan, Sense and Sensibility, To the Lighthouse, Middlemarch and many more.

Also available on Blu-ray

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Anton Bruckner expanded the concept of the symphonic form in ways that have never been witnessed before or since. Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin follow the harmonic development of Bruckner’s Symphonies Nos. 4-9, revealing the breathtaking musical panorama of these exceptional masterpieces. According to Der Tagesspiegel, this unforgettable Bruckner cycle sets new standards and guarantees the Staatskapelle Berlin and their principal conductor “a place in the Bruckner pantheon.”

Anton Bruckner
THE MATURE SYMPHONIES
(6-DVD Box Set)

Symphony No. 4 in E-Flat Major, WAB 104, “Romantic” (1881 version, ed. R. Haas)
Symphony No. 5 in B-Flat Major, WAB 105 (1878 version, ed. L. Nowak)
Symphony No. 6 in A Major, WAB 106 (ed. L. Nowak)
Symphony No. 7 in E Major, WAB 107 (1885 version, ed. L. Nowak)
Symphony No. 8 in C Minor, WAB 108 (ed. R. Haas from 1887 and 1890 versions)
Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, WAB 109

Berlin Staatskapelle
Daniel Barenboim, conductor

Recorded live at the Berlin Philharmonie, 20–27 June 2010

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 7 hrs 8 mins
No. of DVDs: 6 (DVD 9)

Outstanding singers, conductors and directors come together in five diverse but compelling operas by Benjamin Britten. The turbulent, inward fishing community of Peter Grimes is transposed to a merciless 1980s society in Richard Jones' production. An 'outstanding' Sarah Connolly (Guardian) stars in The Rape of Lucretia, navigating the difficult tale with superb poise. Billy Budd is grippingly staged aboard the claustrophobic MS Indomitable, with Jacques Imbrailo portraying the troubled sailor in the 2010 Glyndebourne Festival Opera production by Michael Grandage. More light-hearted is the Royal Opera House staging of Gloriana, penned by Britten to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and featuring Susan Bullock as the monarch. Finally, Edward Gardner conducts the English National Opera in Deborah Warner's highly acclaimed production of Death in Venice, In which John Graham-Hall stars as the ageing Gustav von Aschenbach. These productions from some of the world's best opera houses offer five masterful performances that are an ideal way to experience Benjamin Britten's music. Filmed in High Definition and recorded in true Surround Sound.

A BRITTEN COLLECTION
(7-DVD Box Set)

PETER GRIMES

Peter Grimes - John Graham Hall

Boy - Francesco Malvuccio
Ellen Orford - Susan Gritton
Captain Balstrode - Christopher Purves
Auntie - Felicity Palmer
First Niece - Ida Falk Winland
Second Niece - Simona Mihai
Bob Boles - Peter Hoare
Swallow - Daniel Okulitch
Mrs. Sedley - Catherine Wyn-Rogers
Rev. Horace Adams - Christopher Gillett
Ned Keene - George von Bergen

Milan La Scala Chorus and Orchestra
Robin Ticciati, conductor
Richard Jones, stage director

Recorded live at the Teatro alla Scala, June 2012

THE RAPE OF LUCRETIA

Lucretia - Sarah Connolly
Tarquinius - Christopher Maltman
Bianca - Catherine Wyn-Rogers
Lucia - Mary Nelson
Junius - Leigh Melrose
Collatinus - Clive Bayley
Female Chorus - Orla Boylan
Male Chorus - John Mark Ainsley

English National Opera Orchestra
Paul Daniel, conductor

David McVicar, stage director

Recorded live at the Aldeburgh Festival, The Maltings, Snape, 2001

BILLY BUDD

Captain Vere - John Mark Ainsley
Billy Budd - Jacques Imbrailo
Claggart - Phillip Ens
Mr. Redburn - Iain Paterson
Mr. Flint - Matthew Rose
Lieutenant Ratcliffe - Darren Jeffery
Red Whiskers - Alasdair Elliott
Donald - John Moore
Dansker - Jeremy White
Novice - Ben Johnson
Squeak - Colin Judson
Bosun - Richard Mosley-Evans

Glyndebourne Chorus
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Mark Elder, conductor
Michael Grandage, stage director

Recorded live at the Glyndebourne Opera House, 8 and 11 June 2010

GLORIANA

Queen Elizabeth I - Susan Bullock
Earl of Essex - Toby Spence
Countess of Essex - Patricia Bardon
Lord Mountjoy - Mark Stone
Lady Rich - Kate Royal
Sir Robert Cecil - Jeremy Carpenter
Sir Walter Raleigh - Clive Bayley
Ballad Singer - Brindley Sherratt

Royal Opera Chorus
Royal Opera House Orchestra
Paul Daniel, conductor
Richard Jones, stage director

Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, June 2013

DEATH IN VENICE

Gustav von Aschenbach - John Graham Hall
Traveller / Elderly Fop / Gondolier / Barber / Hotel Manger / Player / Dionysus - Andrew Shore
Apollo - Tim Mead
Tadzio - Sam Zaldivar
The Polish Mother - Laura Caldow
Two Daughters - Mia Angelina Mather / Xhuliana Shehu
The Governess - Joyce Henderson
Jaschiu - Marcio Teixeira

English National Opera Chorus and Orchestra
Edward Gardner, conductor
Deborah Warner, stage director

Recorded live at the London Coliseum, June 2013

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Bonus:
- Cast gallery (all)
- Introduction to the opera (Billy Budd, Gloriana)
- Introduction to the designs (Billy Budd)
- Interviews with the cast and crew (Peter Grimes)
- Comments from the director (The Rape of Lucretia)
- Britten’s Aldeburgh (Gloriana)

Picture format: NTSC 16:9 anamorphic
Sound format: DTS 5.1 (all) / + LPCM 2.0 (The Rape of Lucretia, Billy Budd, Gloriana) / + Dolby Digital 2.0 (Peter Grimes, Death in Venice)
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Audio Language: English
Menu Language: English
Subtitles: English, French, German (all) + Japanese (Peter Grimes, The Rape of Lucretia, Gloriana) + Korean (Death in Venice) / + Spanish (Billy Budd)
Running time: 13 hrs 10 mins (opera) + 27 mins (bonus)
No. of DVDs: 7 (DVD 9)

The violist and conductor, Rudolf Barshai is considered one of the great Russian musicians of the 20th century and his emigration to the West allowed for greater global exposure and marked a second chapter to his creative life. On the occasion of the 5th anniversary of his death, this monumental 20 CD box set is a unique homage to the legacy of Barshai featuring never-before-published radio and studio recordings along with live concerts from 1951 to 2012, many of his viola recordings along with his famous Mahler Symphony Nr. 10 with an ending scored by Barshai, and much much more. Also including a 49 page booklet of rare photographs and accompanying essays.

An extraordinary 4 DVD box set that brings together three of America's most lauded contemporary opera productions that collectively are a brilliant introduction to the astonishing diversity of 20th-century opera : John Adams' Dr. Atomic directed by librettist Peter Sellars, a riveting morality drama about the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer. Philip Glass', The Perfect American, like the book from which it is based, seeks to reveal an unvarnished Walt Disney, based on an imagined series of reflections and memories that might have occurred during the icon's dying months; and finally the 2001 cinematic film version of Trouble in Tahiti, Leonard Bernstein's satire on American suburban married life, with the characteristically jubilant conjoining of jazz and musical comedy; lyric art with popular entertainment. A marvelous collection of consummate direction, compelling designs, a collection of inspired musical performances by the Netherlands Philharmonic, Madrid's Orquesta de Teatro Real and City of London Sinfonia along with brilliant casting and stand-out performances - among them Gerald Finley's Oppenheimer and Christopher Purves' Walt Disney. Filmed in High Definition and recorded in true Surround Sound.

Designed to be the follow up to the best-selling 2012 'Ballets for Children' box set, Fairytale Ballets collects performances from the Paris Opera Ballet and Dutch National Ballet troupes of some of the most popular ballets in the repertory: Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Cinderella and Coppélia. With a handsomely bound box and individual slipcases for each ballet featuring a specially-commissioned cover illustration from the artist that designs the covers for the top-selling Terry Pratchett fantasy novels. Intended to specifically appeal to the 10-16 age group, but all fans of these immortal ballets will find much to be compelled by with this budget priced box set.

Also available on Blu-ray

Shakespeare provided lifelong inspiration for the towering operatic genius that was Giuseppe Verdi, but just three of the Bard’s plays ever emerged fully-fledged from the composer’s pen. This trio of landmark productions, featuring a veritable constellation of singers, conductors and directors, are united here under the banner of Verdi’s Shakepeare Operas: Macbeth, which lifted the young composer out of his hard-working ‘galley years’, propelling him to international fame and universal acclaim, and Otello and Falstaff, his final two crowning operatic achievements. Simon Keenlyside and Liudmyla Monastyrska are imposing as the Thane and his Lady in Phyllida Lloyd’s sumptuous production of The Scottish Play for The Royal Opera, conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano, while José Cura interprets the Moor in a profound, intense staging by Willy Decker at Barcelona’s Liceu. By the end of his dramatic opera career, Verdi claimed he had ‘earned at last the right to laugh a little’, and Richard Jones’s Glyndebourne Festival production of Falstaff radiates humour, tinged with bitterness and wisdom and brought to life by an international ensemble cast with Christopher Purves in the title role under the inspiring baton of Vladimir Jurowski.

Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Catalan (Otello), Japanese (Macbeth)

Running time: 170 Minutes (Macbeth), 23 Minutes (Bonus), 151 Minutes (Otello), 136 Minutes (Falstaff)

Sound format: 2.0LPCM + 5.1(5.0) DTS

When his ship is wrecked in a storm, Robinson Crusoe finds himself stranded on a desert island with no one to help him and no chance of rescue. Scared and alone, he tries to make a life for himself, building shelters, hunting food, taming animals, crafting boats and making clothes. But just as his life appears to be settled, he sees someone else's footprint on the beach and a different struggle for survival begins, this time against cannibals and pirates. Published in 1719, the novel was an immediate success and continue to fascinate new generations.

This live recording of Wagner’s great opera Tristan und Isolde was recorded in August of 1958.; Wolfgang Windgassen, who champions the role of Tristan, was known for his powerful voice and successful performances in Wagner operas. He is often considered the most accomplished Wagner tenor of the twentieth century.; Swedish soprano Birgit Nilsson was also a Wagner specialist, along with works from Strauss. Her voice is remembered for its force and brilliance in the upper register.

Classical Music

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD
This incredible box set presents the best of Russian opera. Included in the set are Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Pique Dame, Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh, and Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Recorded in renowned opera houses such as Teatro Regio, Torino, and De Nederlandse Opera, these performances are not to be missed.

Sound Format: 2.0LPCM + 5.1(5.0) DTS
Subtitles: EN, FR, DE, IT, ES, NE
Running Time: 919 mins

Also available on DVD

This incredible box set presents the best of Russian opera. Included in the set are Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Pique Dame, Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh, and Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Recorded in renowned opera houses such as Teatro Regio, Torino, and De Nederlandse Opera, these performances are not to be missed.

Also available on Blu-ray

Featuring some of the earliest operas in existence, this box set features Baroque Opera Classics. The set contains Handel’s Deidamia, Cavalli’s La Didone, and Ercole Amante,Pergolesi’s Adriano in Siria, Rameau’s Zoroastre, and Scarlatti’s Dove e Amore e Gelosia. These recordings from De Nederlandse Opera, Le Theatre de Caen, Pergolesi Spring Festival, Jesi, Ancona, and DNO are not to be missed.

Gregory Doran directs King and Country: Shakespeare's Great Cycle of Kings- the complete cycle of Richard II, Henry IV, Pts. 1 & 2, and Henry V. David Tennant plays the title role in Richard II, with Antony Sher and Jasper Britton as Falstaff and Henry IV respectively in Henry IV, Pts. 1 & 2. Alex Hassell follows his performance as Prince Hal in Henry IV, Pts. 1 & 2 as Henry V in the final play in the tetralogy.

"A definitive production of a great play" - Daily Mail on Richard II

"Gregory Doran's productions are a triumphant achievement." - Times on Henry IV, Pts. 1 & 2 Sound Format: 2.0LPCM, 5.1 DTS
Subtitles: EN/FR/GE (Except Henry V with EN only)
Region: 0 (Worldwide)
Running Time: 663 mins

When Sony Classicals new complete Brahms cycle with Zubin Mehta conducting the Israel Philharmonic was first released, the Baltimore Sun reviewer referred to a marriage of passion performances fine enough to recommend to any listener who wants his Brahms in a single collection. The Symphony No. 1 receives a heroic, turbulent performance in which Mehta and the fine orchestra of which he was long ago appointed music-director-for-life keep raising the thermostat until in the final movement they all but blow the roof off. The Symphony No. 2, which receives a similarly passionate performance, may be even better. Nos. 3 and 4, the reviewer goes on to say, are also beautiful. This major new reissue also contains the Haydn Variations and Tragic Overture.

This release continues Carlo Grante's series of Domenico Scarlatti's complete keyboard works. This series is the only one ever recorded with the same pianist playing all of the works.

"...beautifully played, and recorded, the first box in Music & Arts' series is profoundly impressive." - Jonathan Woolf, Music Web International

"Carlo Grante is one of the most astonishing artists I have ever known and worked with." - Fabio Luisi, The Metropolitan Opera's Principal Conductor

Little is known about the life of German violinist and composer Johann Jakob Walther. It is said that he was a violinist in the orchestra of Cosimo III from 1670 to 1674, and afterwards was concertmaster at the court of Dresden. Forty of Walther’s compositions are extant, and are contained in two volumes: Scherzi da Violino solo con il basso continuo, published in 1676, and Hortulus chelicus, published in 1688. This release features his Hortulus Chelicus, which scholars believe was composed between 1650 and 1688. In this collection, Walther wrote at a new, higher technical playing level for the violin. The musicians featured on this recording perform on period instruments- Baroque violin, harpsichord, and Baroque cello.

L.P. Hartley’s heartbreaking novel The Go-Between is a haunting, moving, and evocative work about social constraints and childhood innocence. The story is set during the long hot summer of 1900 and follows young Leo Colston who is invited to stay for a month at an aristocratic manor in Norfolk. While there he falls in love with his friend’s sister who commissions him to carry secret notes to her lover, the local farmer. This story has been adapted multiple times for stage and screen, most recently the BBC One TV film starring Jim Broadbent. The story is exclusively licensed to Naxos Audiobooks. Sean Barrett gives a tender and sympathetic interpretation, full of warmth and insight.

The ‘My First’ album series from Naxos is the ideal springboard for a lifelong journey through classical music. Each selection is carefully tailored for younger listeners and includes famous tracks as well as unexpected gems. The booklet is full of information on every piece of music. Unique and imaginative, these CDs will open a door to a wonderful world that children and parents can discover together.

CONTENTS:

• My First CLASSICAL MUSIC Album
• My First MOZART Album
• My First BEETHOVEN Album
• My First TCHAIKOVSKY Album
• My First PIANO Album
• My First VIOLIN Album
• My First BALLET Album
• My First LULLABY Album
• My First ORCHESTRA Album

This is the fifth release in the series The RIAS Amadeus Quartet Recordings. This installment is dedicated to nineteenth-century Romantic composers. The Amadeus Quartet included a wider repertoire in the broadcasting studio than in the recording studio. Works by Edvard Grieg and Robert Schumann interpreted by the Amadeus Quartet can be heard here for the first time. Five works in this edition represent novel repertoire that the Amadeus Quartet never recorded on LP: Dvorak’s Piano Quintet, Grieg’s String Quartet, Mendelssohn’s String Quartet, and Schumann’s String Quartet and Piano Quintet. Only half the works recorded here belong to the string quartet genre. The Amadeus Quartet enjoyed collaborating with other musicians and did so often. In the three piano quintets by Brahms, Dvorak, and Schumann, they performed together with pianist Conrad Hansen, who had appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic under Wilhelm Furtwangler in the 1940s. In the string quintets by Brahms and Bruckner, the Amadeus Quartet is joined by South African-born Cecil Aronowitz- the musician they always turned to when in need of a second violist. And in Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet we hear Heinrich Geuser, regarded as Germany’s leading clarinetist in the 1950s.

This set offers a fascinating overview of piano works by Martucci, Cilea, Busoni, Sinigaglia, Caetani, Fano, Respighi, Pizzetti, Casella, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Dallapiccola, Rota, Malipiero, Castiglioni, and Einaudi.

This release is a substantial anthology of piano music written by Italian composers in the twentieth century. In an era dominated by opera, several Italian composers chose a radically different path, concentrating on purely instrumental music, influenced by widely varying sources such as Wagner, Impressionism, Neo-Classicism and Dodecaphony. Only leading Italian pianists perform on this release, including Sandro Ivo Bartoli, Michaelangelo Carbonara, Pietro de Maria, Alessandra Ammara, and more.

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REVIEW:

To sum up, this is a most interesting and highly valuable set, one which presents the whole ambit of twentieth century Italian piano music, from romanticism through neo-classicism and serialism to popular minimalism. Everything is put across to the listener in at least good performances, with most of them excellent. The booklet notes are truncated versions from the original releases and are in many cases essential in getting to know the composers represented. Indeed this set offers the listener a real bargain. At around £2 a disc you can’t go wrong. Grab it whilst you can.

– MusicWeb International