One feels a very special emotion listening to the [violin] when it is not accompanied by others, which often adds to the emotion produced by the music itself. Though limited in size, this repertoire has no lack of masterpieces to offer, from Bach to Bartok, by way of Paganini, Ysaye and Scarlatti. -Tedi Papavrami.

Also available on Blu-ray

Perhaps no opera is closely and affectionately associated with a single house as Le nozze di Figaro is with Glyndebourne. Effortlessly witty yet shot through with pain and sadness, this deeply ambivalent life in the day of masters and servants as they scheme and outwit one another was Glyndebourne’s opening production in 1934. Michael Grandage’s staging is the seventh, set in a louche Sixties ambience. Marshalled by the ‘ideal pacing’ of Robin Ticciati, a youthful cast of principals has ‘no weak link’ and ‘looks gorgeous’ (The Sunday Times) in a production that continues Glyndebourne’s rewarding history of engagement with Mozart’s and da Ponte’s ‘day of madness’.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
LE NOZZE DI FIGARO

Countess Almaviva – Sally Matthews
Figaro – Vito Priante
Count Almaviva – Audun Iversen
Susanna – Lydia Teuscher
Cherubino – Isabel Leonard
Bartolo – Andrew Shore
Marcellina – Ann Murray
Don Basilio – Alan Oke
Antonio – Nicholas Folwell
Don Curzio – Colin Judson
Barbarina – Sarah Shafer
First Bridesmaid – Ellie Laugharne
Second Bridesmaid – Katie Bray

Glyndebourne Chorus
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Robin Ticciati, conductor

Michael Grandage, stage director

Recorded live at Glyndebourne Festival, June 2012

Bonus:
- The Greatest Opera Ever Written
- From page to stage

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Japanese, Korean
Running time: 180 mins
No. of DVDs: 2


FULL REVIEW
Despite some qualification, Glyndebourne’s new Figaro (summer 2012) is a delight. The curtain opens during the overture on the outside of a Spanish mansion—just what we might expect from an opera set on the outskirts of Seville—with shiny tiles, Moorish arches, and handsome latticework, and townsfolk bustling back and forth. It’s startling to see a circa late-1960s red sports car pull up and have the Almavivas get out: they’re coming home from somewhere or settling into their summer getaway. The Count is the very picture of not-such-great-taste, sporting a page-boy haircut and costumed in a velvet suit with bell-bottomed pants and a wide-lapelled, multi-colored shirt. He obviously is quite a swinging dude, and director Michael Grandage and his wonderful designer Christopher Oram have placed the opera in the decade of the flower children. Will this work?
We meet Figaro and Susanna, dressed more moderately (she would appear to be pregnant in a black outfit with white collar, but it’s never mentioned) and nicely familiar. She is spunky and he seems like a nice guy, and he certainly doesn’t like the fact that his boss wants to sleep with his fiancée, although she seems able to take care of herself. And why should Figaro like it? This is the 1960s or ’70s, and despite the fact that Franco is still in power, the Count’s request is not a feudal right; it’s nothing but bullying. And so Beaumarchais’ and da Ponte’s satire on class war no longer exists, and that tends to be the crux of the opera in its original setting.
Instead, we get the never-ending battle of the sexes, a look at an unhappy marriage, and a rather nasty, wealthy guy with a sense of entitlement along with a pretty good comedy peopled by what seem like real people. During “Non piu andrai”, which Figaro sings while the Count is present, the two men hang out like chums, Figaro leaning with an arm on the Count’s shoulder. Susanna never curtsies and she seems genuinely concerned with cheering up the Countess. If you’re willing to forego the pre-Revolutionary subtext, you’ll have a fine time, especially watching the cast do the twist at the wedding and during the finale. The absolutely natural stage action eschews slapstick and vulgarity and the singers seem more than happy to adapt. Vito Priante’s Figaro, shorn of class anger, is a bit mild, but his stage presence and singing are extraordinary. Rhythmically precise throughout, he eats up “Aprite un po’…” in the last act and is superb in ensembles. Lydia Teuscher’s Susanna is a rich-voiced, non-soubrette, observant Countess-in-the-making; and of course, within this context she might some day have the same social standing. Sally Matthews, if she had a trill for the end of “Dov’e sono”, would be a perfect Countess: her predicament is very clear, and you sense that she wishes she were more lighthearted, more able to adjust to the swinging attitudes going on around her. The voice itself is a gorgeous, full lyric. Audun Iversen’s Count is a sloppy, privileged tyrant, all the more frustrated because no one will pay any attention to his nastiness. His singing is the least neat of all, but he’s a powerful presence. Isabel Leonard’s Cherubino is perfect—boyish and sassy and nimble.
Class acts Ann Murray and Andrew Shore, both a bit vocally worn, are nonetheless a terrific Marzellina and Bartolo, and Alan Oke’s Basilio is snidely right-on. (Neither he nor Marzellina get their last-act arias.) Sarah Shafer is a fine Barbarina, looking to be about 14 years old. And as mentioned, Oram’s luxurious sets add to the special feel of the production. I’m somewhat stumped by Robin Ticciati’s conducting of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. The instruments are period but the approach is mid-20th century—not slow or heavy, really, but somehow lacking the zip we expect these days. The finale of Act 2 is wonderfully clear but lacks the “accidental” mania it should have. There are plenty of laughs from the Glyndebourne audience, but the whole affair is not the insane day Mozart envisioned. The preferred DVD versions are Pappano’s from Covent Garden (Opus Arte) and Jacobs’ (on BelAir); nonetheless, this new one is fresh and charming and a good bet.
-- Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

This well-known set of suites is rarely gone about by most harpsichordists because of it's distinctive virtuosity. It's popular title refers to only one manuscript-the one of J.C. Bach, who noted "fait pour les Anglois" on it. Dubreuil offers US his interpretation of these suites-an impressive reading of highest artistry.

This double album offers a portrait of violinist Amandine Beyer drawn from recordings she has made for ZZT. The first CD highlights her chamber repertoire, including works by Jean-Fery Rebel, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Nicola Matteis, and Robert de Visee. The second is devoted to the concerto, with compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, and Arcangelo Corelli. This program is an ideal introduction to Amandine Beyer's talent and grace of music-making. It also provides an opportunity to discover one of Corelli's Concerti Grossi Op.6.

More than two centuries after its creation, the emotional pull of this supreme opera remains absolutely intact. Dmitri Therniakov duly revisits the myth and makes the seducer of Seville a “man without qualities,” a cipher whose words have a hypnotic power over women. Louis Langrée leads the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra.

Mari Kodama concludes her Beethoven sonata cycle with two of the composer’s most challenging works from both technical and interpretive standpoints. Happily, Op. 101 finds her in top pianistic and musical fettle. Following an eloquent and easily flowing first movement, Kodama navigates the Scherzo’s obsessive march rhythms, tricky balances, and difficult-to-articulate trills with impressive clarity, poise, and drama, and brings similar qualities to the knotty fugal finale.

For all of her proficient finger work in the “Hammerklavier” sonata’s first movement, Kodama tends to round off phrases, play down accents, and soften dynamic extremes. Her smooth and careful dispatch of the Scherzo Trio’s upward F major scales robs this gesture of its climactic impact. At the end of the movement the main theme briefly appears in the remote key of B minor, and by underlining it with an unsubtle ritard Kodama misjudges this effect’s sense of deadpan surprise. In Kodama’s hands the slow movement seems more of an Andante con moto than Beethoven’s Adagio sostenuto, although her nuanced handling of the right hand’s elaborate singing lines saves the day.

In the fourth movement’s opening Largo, Kodama imposes a gratuitous and dramatically ineffective ritard in the brief G-sharp minor contrapuntal outburst, and she begins the gradually accelerating syncopated chords leading into the fugue too quickly. The fugue itself begins in a crisp, characterfully light manner, yet Kodama’s basic tempo slightly decreases over time and her articulation becomes more generalized as the music grows in textural complexity (a tendency with most pianists in this movement, to be fair). In other words, more daring, leonine “Hammerklavier” performances of recent vintage by Georg Friedrich Schenck and Stewart Goodyear hold stronger appeal. No question, however, that Kodama’s outstanding Op. 101 is one of her cycle’s high points, and the sonics (in both multi-channel and conventional stereo playback modes) match the superb consistency distinguishing this series’ eight previous volumes.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Praised by the New York Times for her 'clear articulation... unequivocal phrasing... [and] expressivity', Ingrid Jacoby has established herself as one of the most poetic and admired pianists of her generation. She began her piano studies with Larisa Gorodecka, herself a pupil of Heinrich Neuhaus. Graduating at sixteen with highest honours from the St Louis Conservatory of Music, Ingrid Jacoby went on to win the National Baldwin Piano Competition, the Concert Artists Guild International Piano Competition and the Steinway Hall Artists Prize. In America, the National Society of Arts and Letters awarded to her (in 1994) one of it's highest distinctions, the Lifetime Achievement Award. Her discography includes the world premiere recording of Korngold's solo piano pieces, works by Gershwin and Bernstein, and a recording of the Shostakovich and Ustvolskaya piano concertos with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras, which earned the highest commendation from the American Record Guide. This is the third release from Ingrid Jacoby's critically acclaimed Beethoven cycle, featuring Concertos Nos. 1 & 3. The booklet contains notes by Richard Wigmore in addition to personal insights by Ingrid Jacoby on Beethoven interpretation. Her first disc in the series, featuring Beethoven's Concertos Nos. 2 & 4, received the following review: 'Utterly compelling... here is a performance of Beethoven that is well-nigh flawless in every regard' (International Record Review). Her recording of Beethoven's 'Emperor' Concerto was equally praised: 'It's one hell of a performance! Jacoby brings a vitality and drive to the first movement that is compelling and fresh, vividly accompanied' (Colin Anderson in Classical Source).

This material represents some of the earliest televised concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and three of their eminent music directors, Charles Munch, Erich Leinsdorf and William Steinberg. This historical footage has been restored using the greatest care and state-of-the-art techniques. It is of exceptional musical interest and historical value, and has been described by critics as a "rare treat" (Gramophone) and "welcome documentations" (BBC Music Magazine).

Picture format: NTSC 4:3 Sound format: LPCM Mono (DVD 1) / LPCM Stereo (DVD 2) / Enhanced Mono (DVD 3, 4, 5) Region code: 0 (worldwide) Menu language: English Running time: 6 hours 14 mins No. of DVDs: 5

This set contains the following 5 DVDs:

CHARLES MUNCH
RAVEL Ma Mère l’Oye – Suite; DEBUSSY Ibéria, La Mer (1958 & 1961)

ERICH LEINSDORF
SCHUBERT Symphony No. 9 "Great"; SCHUMANN Symphony No. 4; WAGNER Parsifal – Good Friday Music (1962, 1963 & 1964)

BEETHOVEN Egmont Overture; TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5; MOZART Serenade No.9 "Posthorn" – Minuet I (1963 & 1969)

WILLIAM STEINBERG
HAYDN Symphony No. 55; BEETHOVEN Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8 (1962, 1969 & 1970)

BRUCKNER Symphony No. 8 (2nd revised edition) (1962)

MOZART Le nozze di Figaro & • Sylvain Cambreling, cond; Peter Mattei (Count Almaviva); Lorenzo Regazzo (Figaro); Heidi Grant Murphy (Susanna); Christine Schäfer (Cherubino); Roland Bracht (Dr. Bartolo); Burkhard Ulrich (Don Basilio); Helene Schneiderman (Marcellina); Eberhard Francesco Lorenz (Don Curzio); Cassandra Berthon (Barbarina); Jürg Kienberger (Recitativist); Op National de Paris O & Ch • OPUS ARTE 6004 (2 DVDs: 250:00 + 59:43) Live: Paris 2006

& Bonus: A Day of Real Madness, documentary by Reiner E. Moritz

This splendid performance of Le nozze di Figaro was originally issued on DVD in 2006, and is here making its reappearance in Opus Arte’s “Essential Opera Collection.” As in the case of the Rigoletto from 2001, reviewed elsewhere, this designation is well deserved. Since this disc was fully reviewed by Christopher Williams in these pages when it was first released, I won’t retread the excellent detail of his review but only make some observations of my own.

First, the production by Christoph Marthaler is whimsical and truly funny. Back in the 1980s, I complained bitterly of Peter Sellars’s ridiculous updating and setting of this opera in a New York penthouse (like the Trump Tower) because so much of what was in the libretto—not only the stage directions, which for better or worse are very explicit because this was based on a play that had equally specific instructions, but also in the words of the recitatives and arias—was either ignored or completely contradicted by his almost consistently asinine setting. Marthaler has set nearly the entire opera in front of a marriage bureau, which has a certain relationship to the subtext of the opera (it is, after all, about marriage, fidelity, and whether or not one should ever marry for convenience or just for love), but even here there are moments, such as the riotous conclusion of act II or the final scene which is supposed to take place in the garden outside the Count’s abode, that just don’t work. Marthaler, in collaboration with conductor Cambreling, has come up with an amusing alternative to playing the secco recitatives on a harpsichord. They have invented a character called the “Recitativist,” a comedian-musician (Jürg Kienberger) who whimsically plays the recitative accompaniment on any number of instruments, including (at one point) a balloon with air escaping from it and, at another, by tooting on beer bottles that he drinks from to continually lower their pitch, sometimes humming along with them. This creates a very funny diversion to these otherwise dull moments, which is fortunate since Cambreling insisted on keeping all of them because they realized that this is where the real drama takes place, that the arias are just moments of reflection that stop the action.

As an overall production I much preferred David McVicar's contemporary staging given at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. Here, the opera was updated to 1830s post-Revolution France where “the inexorable unraveling of an old order has produced acute feelings of loss.” More to the point, the costumes are closer to the era of Beaumarchais’s play and the stage settings equally funny due to McVicar's sharp wit. The differences lie in the quality of the casts and of the recorded sound. In the Royal Opera video (Opus Arte 990), we are given strong vocal and acting performances by Erwin Schrott (Figaro), Miah Persson (Susanna), the Count (Gerald Finley), and Don Basilio (Philip Langridge). Dorothea Röschmann’s Countess is extremely well acted, but she doesn’t have the steadiest or most beautiful voice for the role, and the singing of our Cherubino (Rinat Shaham), Dr. Bartolo (Jonathan Veira), and Marcellina (Graciela Araya) is substandard. The recorded sound, however, is terrific, the microphone picking up orchestra and soloists with crisp, lifelike fidelity. In this Paris production, every single role from top to bottom is sung splendidly. Williams had a niggling complaint about the fact that Christine Schäfer, the Cherubino, is a soprano, and thus does not add variety to the ensembles but sounds a bit too much like the Susanna and Countess. This is true, but except for the very low notes in “Voi che sapete,” Schäfer sings and acts brilliantly, really looking like an adolescent, sex-drawn boy. My complaints about the cast here are small, mostly of baritone Regazzo as an almost consistently scowling, over-macho Figaro with a gorgeous voice but almost no inflection in his use of it, and of soprano Heidi Grant Murphy as Susanna, who sings beautifully but looks rather dowdy, something like Angela Lansbury in Murder, She Wrote.

More to the point, the sound recording and mix by Radio France is not consistently clear. The microphones seem to be a little high or a bit away from both soloists and orchestra, with the result that everyone sounds a little reverberant most of the time. Once in a while, the principals walk right under the microphone—it seems to have been set up a little to stage left of center—and then sound marvelous, but at moments the sonics are a little off. This is a shame, as Cambreling conducts here a shade better than Antonio Pappano on the Royal Opera DVD, the differences being in the Countess’s two arias. Having played these pieces for a soprano friend of mine many years ago, I can assure you that they are written in cut time, 2/2, and so are not to be performed as slowly as they so often are. Pappano, then, conducts them in the conventional way which is wrong; Cambreling at a brisker pace which is right. Christiane Oelze cannot match Röschmann as an actress, thus her overall presentation (visual as well as aural) is not as strong, but strictly from a singing perspective Oelse’s voice is radiant and exquisite (I have previously described her as having a voice of pure crystal) whereas Röschmann’s is plain-sounding and a bit fluttery.

What makes Marthaler’s conception work is his zany, Marx Brothers-style sense of humor, which (thankfully) is tasteful and never overdone. In brief, this is a great singing and conducting performance set to a clever but not always convincing stage production. An opera like Rossini’s La pietra del paragone benefits from this kind of surreal zaniness because it isn’t really a stage plot that one takes the least bit seriously, but Beaumarchais’s comedy of manners, though requiring some good slapstick moments, needs a bit more structure in order to make sense of it. Therefore I recommend this DVD for its many good points while still preferring the Royal Opera version as a visual representation of the work.

FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

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

Also available on standard DVD

A “touching and magnificent reunion” (Der Standard). The public and press enthusiastically celebrated the long-awaited return of Claudio Abbado to the Salzburg Festival in 2012. The conductor brought with him Mozart’s youthful Mass K. 139, the so-called Waisenhausmesse, and Schubert’s late Mass in E flat major. In a fascinating way, Abbado succeeded in merging the singers and instrumentalists into a total collaborative effort: “Seldom has one heard such a perfect balance between choir, orchestra, and vocal soloists; one has also seldom heard such a beautifully coordinated and perfectly balanced vocal ensemble” (Salzburger Nachrichten).

ABBADO CONDUCTS MASSES BY MOZART AND SCHUBERT
(Blu-ray Disc Version)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Missa solemnis in C Minor, K. 139, “Waisenhausmesse”

Franz Schubert: Mass No. 6 in E-Flat Major, D. 950

Rachel Harnisch, soprano
Roberta Invernizzi, soprano
Sara Mingardo, alto
Javier Camarena, tenor
Paolo Fanale, tenor
Alex Esposito, bass

Arnold Schoenberg Choir
Orchestra Mozart
Claudio Abbado, conductor

Recorded live from the Salzburg Festival, 2012

Picture format: 1080i Full HD
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: Latin, English, German, French, Korean
Running time: 104 mins
No. of Discs: 1

The Wilten Boys’ Choir, conductor Johannes Stecher and the ensemble he founded, the Academia Jacobus Stainer, present the Weinachtsoratorium (Christmas Oratorio), BWV 248 of J.S. Bach. Composed for the choir of St. Thomas, the work is practically tailor-made for a mixed boys’ choir like the Wilten Boys’ Choir. Paul Schweinester, tenor, and Daniel Schmutzhard, baritone, two former members of the Wilten Boys’ Choir, who are today successful singers on the international stage take on the soloist parts. Recorded at the Wilten Basilica, Innsbruck, Austria.

First release in a new four-CD series devoted to Schubert's late and greatest chamber music. Performances use period instruments, reconstructing the sound Schubert's own time. Quartet is led by Jaap Schroder, one of the legends of historical performance practice, and one of the greatest violinists of our day. Schubert's G major Quartet, D. 887, represents the high point of quartet-writing of the first three decades of the 19th century. Booklet text in English and Icelandic.

Evgeny Svetlanov's was a masterly conductor of of Russian and non-Russian composers of the late-Romantic era. The Brahms is both powerful and mellifluous, superbly played by the LSO. The Debussy has tension from the start, combining colour, sensitivity and transparency. The bonus consists of Janet Baker singing the final song from Chausson's Poeme de l'amour et de la mer. The Brahms and Debussy are previously issued. Recorded at Royal Festival London, 1975.

From the mythological setting of Idomeneo via the sparkling wit of Le nozze di Figaro and powerful tragicomedy of Don Giovanni to the fantastical workings of the late Singspiel Die Zauberflöte, Mozart’s mature operas stand among the greatest achievements of Western art, dramas that illuminate the composer’s creativity as a whole and which stood out in their own time for the new level of characterisation, wit and lessons on life and humanity they brought to the musical stage. Featuring recordings made during the last ten years from some of the world’s leading opera houses, this collection offers an acclaimed series of productions that present consummate interpretations of Mozart’s scores through striking set designs and peerless singing, paying homage to a group of masterpieces which are just as relevant today as when they were first performed.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
THE GREAT OPERAS
(13-DVD Box Set)

Idomeneo


Idomeneo - Ramón Vargas
Idamante - Magdalena Kožená
Ilia - Ekaterina Siurina
Elettra - Anja Harteros
Arbace - Jeffrey Francis


Salzburg Bach Chor
(chorus master: Alois Glassner)
Camerata Salzburg
Roger Norrington, conductor


Karl-Ernst Hermann, stage director, set and costume designer
Ursel Herman, stage director


Recorded live from the Salzburg Festival, 2006


  Die Entführung aus dem Serail


Konstanze - Laura Aikin
Belmonte - Edgaras Montvidas
Osmin - Kurt Rydl
Blonde - Mojca Erdmann
Pedrillo - Michael Smallwood
Bassa Selim - Steven Van Watermeulen


Chorus of De Nederlandse Opera
The Netherlands Chamber Orchestra
Constantinos Carydis, conductor


Johan Simons, stage director


Recorded live at Het Musiektheater, Amsterdam on 2, 7 and 19 February 2008

Le nozze di Figaro


Il Conte di Almaviva - Peter Mattei
La Contessa di Alamviva - Christiane Oelze
Susanna - Heidi Grant Murphy
Figaro - Lorenzo Regazzo
Cherubino - Christine Schäfer
Marcellina - Helene Schneiderman
Bartolo - Roland Bracht
Don Basilio - Burkhard Ulrich
Don Curzio - Eberhard Francesco Lorenz
Barbarina - Cassandre Berthon
Antonio - Frederic Caton


Paris National Opera Chorus and Orchestra
(chorus master: Peter Burian)
Sylvain Cambreling, conductor


Christoph Marthaler, stage director
Anna Viebrock, set and costume designer
Olaf Winter, lighting designer
Thomas Stache, choreographer


Recorded live at the Palais Garnier, Paris, 2006

Don Giovanni


Don Giovanni - Carlos Álvarez
Commendatore - Alfred Reiter
Donna Anna - María Bayo
Don Ottavio - José Bros
Donna Elvira - Sonia Ganassi
Leporello - Lorenzo Regazzo
Masetto - José Antonio López
Zerlina - María José Moreno


Madrid Teatro Real Chorus and Orchestra
(chorus master: Jordi Casas Bayer)
Victor Pablo Pérez, conductor


Lluis Pasqual, stage director
Ezio Frigerio, set designer
Franca Squarciapino, costume designer
Wolfgang von Zoubek, lighting designer
Nuria Castejón, choreographer


Recorded live at the Teatro Real de Madrid, 8, 10 and 12 October 2005

Cosi fan tutte


Ferrando - Topi Lehtipuu
Guglielmo - Luca Pisaroni
Don Alfonso - Nicolas Rivenq
Fiordiligi - Miah Persson
Dorabella - Anke Vondung
Despina - Ainhoa Garmendia


The Glyndebourne Chorus
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Iván Fischer , Conductor


Nicholas Hytner, Stage Director


Recorded live at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in June and July 2006

La Clemenza di Tito


Sesto - Susan Graham
Annio - Hannah Esther Minutillo
Vitellia - Catherine Naglestad
Servilia - Ekaterina Siurina
Publio - Roland Bracht
Tito - Christoph Prégardien


Paris National Opera Chorus and Orchestra
(chorus master: Peter Burian)
Sylvain Cambreling, conductor


Ursel Herrmann, stage director
Karl-Ernst Herrmann, stage director


Recorded live at the Palais Garnier, Paris, May and June 2005

Die Zauberflöte


Sarastro - Günther Groissböck
Tamino - Saimir Pirgu
Queen of the Night - Albina Shagimuratova
Pamina - Genia Kühmeier
Papagena - Ailish Tynan
Papageno - Alex Esposito
Monostatos - Peter Bronder


Milan La Scala Chorus and Orchestra
Roland Böer, conductor


William Kentridge, stage director


Recorded live at La Teatro alla Scala, 20 March 2011


Bonus:
- Overview of The Magic Flute
- Illustrated synopsis

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Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian + Chinese (Idomeneo) / Dutch (Serail)
Running time: 24 hours 20 mins
No. of DVDs: 13

"Ottorino Respighi’s Sonata was completed in 1917 and by Respighi himself the following year. Many years later, Jascha Heifetz included this Sonata in his repertoire. Respighi's work remains firmly within the boundaries of romanticism. Although Schumann later entirely rewrote the stylistically diffuse FAE Sonata, the recording presented here is of the original triple-composed, Joachim-dedicated work."

"Klemperer’s debut with the KRSO took place on 8 February 1954 with Mozart’s Symphony No.29, a conductor favourite. Following the successful debut, he was invited back later that month to conduct Beethoven’s First Symphony. The broadcast of the Bach Suite No. 3, another conductor favourite, followed in October 1955, almost a year after he recorded Bach’s four Orchestral Suites with the Philharmonia. These WDR broadcasts, of very high technical quality, have never been issued before."

" In 2014, Fuga Libera celebrates the 25th anniversary of the baroque orchestra Il Fondamento. Founded in Belgium by the oboist Paul Dombrecht - renowned for his interpretations of baroque music -, the ensemble has gained an international interpretation, cand opposing less-known works with masterpieces. This set of three recordings by Johann Heinrich Fasch, Albinoni, and Bach were all highly acclaimed by the international press (Diapason d’or, R10 Classica, Supersonic pizzicato…)!"

The first thing you notice is the vibrant sound, the ensemble's immediacy and depth, giving a realistic spatial and sonic picture of the array of musicians and instruments performing in a very complementary acoustic. Then you have to appreciate the robust rhythmic character and clean articulation in the opening March K. 189, the companion piece to the following Serenade K. 185. Indeed, throughout the program you get the sure impression that these performers know and love Mozart, putting sufficient energy into each movement of each piece, granting each the appropriate character of Menuet or March, Andante grazioso or Allegro. The orchestra's gentle way with the thematic rhythms in the Serenade's Andante grazioso and the subtlety with which the players (and conductor) highlight this movement's slight but important mood shifts is a pure pleasure to hear.

Violinist/director Alexander Janiczek asks for tempos that neither blaze nor plod nor obscure the happy spirit of these primarily youthful works. As a soloist in the two Rondos and the lovely Adagio K. 261 Janiczek also provides tasteful cadenzas that highlight his expertly executed, personable, open-hearted style. And who can fail to be impressed with the Divertimento K. 113, a remarkably "mature" piece of orchestral writing that shows a 15-year-old composer already in control of techniques and thematic devices that would reappear in later, more famous, more extensively developed forms. This is a very well-played, thoughtfully programmed recording of works that are all too often ruined by casual, matter-of-fact treatment; if its primary purpose is entertainment, which it should be, then it succeeds admirably.

– ClassicsToday

"•Intensive studies of the autographs of Mozart's works have influenced the Vienna-born violinist Daniel Auner in his interpretation of Mozart’s chamber music. • With the pianist Robin Green, Auner performs research on the operatic element in this really ‘absolute’ music: special libretti were written for the individual sonatas, stories and situations related and arias sung, resulting in a recording focusing on the dialogue between the musicians and the dialogue with Mozart."

"•On her latest CD, with the Sonatas No. 32 in C minor op. 111 by Ludwig van Beethoven and the one in B flat major D 960 by Franz Schubert, Dora Deliyska combines both composers' respective last piano sonatas. In them, the young Bulgarian pianist fathoms profound emotions and explores the compositions as interactions between the creative paths of the composers with the unknown dimension - death. With her interpretation, Dora Deliyska offers the listener the opportunity to experience unknown and alien spheres as the fulfilment of our human course and to immerse himself in the light of music. Part of this edition includes a bonus CD with videos of Dora Deliyska from Schönburg Palace in Vienna with works by Beethoven, Wagner/Liszt and Verdi/Liszt. • Dora Deliyska began piano lessons at the age of five. Surrounded by music in her family, she held her first concert at the age of nine. After musical training in her Bulgarian home, she moved to the University of Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna, where she received instruction from the Professors Jürg von Vintschger and Stefan Vladar. In 2010, she graduated there with an M.A. in Prof. Noel Flores' class. The same year, she obtained her postgraduate diploma at the Oxana Yablonskaya Piano Institute in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, Italy. • Her artistic development has been strongly influenced by master classes and private lessons with respected musicians such as Dmitri Alexejew, Mikhail Voskresensky, Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, Boris Bloch and others. Dora Deliyska is considered one of the most important Liszt interpreters of the young generation. Her discography comprises CD recordings with piano works by Franz Liszt (2008), by Liszt and Chopin (2010), transcriptions of Franz Schubert songs by Franz Liszt (2011) as well as by Franz Schubert (2013)."

Quite possibly the most melodically gifted composer to have ever lived, Franz Schubert’s uniqueness extends as well to his individual works notoriety, some of which is universal, as in the Trout Quintet, much of which remains in the shadows, even unfinished, as is the beautiful Notturno or the F major quartet, D487. Consistent throughout however is the composer’s grace, elegance and Biedermeyer charm, firmly in evidence on this recording.

This 5-disc set features four outstanding 20th century conductors, William Steinberg (1899-1978), Dimitri Mitropoulos (1896-1960), Igor Markevitch (1912-83) and Gennadi Rozhdestvensky (b. 1931) thrillingly directing several Great Choral Classics of the 19th century, including Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and Verdi’s Requiem. Sopranos Galina Vishnevskaya and Dame Janet Baker, among other stellar singers, feature prominently in these performances.