This 13-disc set brings together, for the first time, all the recordings that the French violinist Christian Ferras made for HMV and Telefunken including several first releases on CD. Amongst his musical partners featured in the set are Yehudi Menuhin, Paul Tortelier, Georges Pr�tre, Constantin Silvestri and others.

LIVE FROM COVENT GARDEN

Sergiu Celibidache considered 'Bruckner's existence as God's greatest gift'. He was also renowned for his dedication to exceptional and life-altering experiences for his audiences through a perfect balancing of sonic and spatial considerations. Thanks to the use of Overtone Reconstruction technology, which has widened the sampling frequency range and thus significantly increased the harmonic richness, fluidity and naturalness of the sound, these recordings are released for the first time on Hybrid SACDs, a collection that does full justice to Celibidache's characteristic breadth and spirituality in Bruckner's works. These performances are unique in their breadth, attention to detail and almost hypnotic control of the musical line. Gramophone Magazine, 2019

CAMILLE & JULIE

Vinyl LP pressing. His third album 'Retronyms' sees Carlos Cipa bring together his background as a classically trained pianist and composer with his interest for experimental forms and pop music. After numerous live performances throughout the years, a slew of collaborations and, amongst others, works for film and theatre performances, he invited different musicians to his Munich studio to record the eight pieces. On 'Retronyms', improvisation goes hand in hand with the high art of composition while acoustic (and partly unusual) instruments like the celesta meet with electronic production methods or analogue synthesizers. Between the avant-garde aesthetics of the opener 'Fanfare' to the orchestral 'Senna's joy' and the closing improvisational piece 'Paon', Cipa proves to have radically expanded his approach as a composer. Each note on this album is meticulously thought through and yet 'Retronyms' radiates with visceral liveliness.

Violinist Augustin Hadelich embarks on an American Road Trip, travelling the musical highways and by ways of his adoptive homeland in the company of pianist Orion Weiss. The duo perform works by a melting pot of American composers, writing in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries and drawing on a diversity of idioms, influences and inspirations... from European Romanticism to revivalist hymns; from blues and jazz to bluegrass; from the banjo and ukulele to Jimi Hendrix's guitar, and from a little Mexican star to exquisite Japanese carvings. Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Charles Ives and John Adams take their place beside Amy Beach, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Eddie South, Howdy Forrester, Manuel M. Ponce and - flying the flag for today's composers along with Adams - Daniel Bernard Roumain and Stephen Hartke. Augustin Hadelich, born in Italy to German parents, moved to the USA at the age of 19 to study at New York's Juilliard School and became an American citizen in 2014. In the words of The Strad magazine, "Hadelich's playing brings together the best qualities of both American and European playing: passion, Polish and coherence, but also thoughtfulness, expressivity and nuance."

This 31CD-box brings together all the operatic recordings that the German conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-2013) made in the years from 1956 to 1993 for EMI Classics and Electrola (now Warner Classics). Aged 11, Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-2013) heard a performance of Humperdinck's fairytale opera H�nsel und Gretel in his native Munich and, there and then, decided that he wanted to be the man in the orchestra pit who waved his arms and made things happen. It took him a while - war service as a radio operator and a spell as a prisoner of war delayed the inevitable - but by his late 20s he was conducting opera at Augsburg (starting with H�nsel und Gretel) and he had barely turned 30 when at Aachen he became the youngest Generalmusikdirektor in Germany. Opera recordings followed and his 1957 version of Richard Strauss's Capriccio is still regarded as the benchmark. Also in this box, along with more Strauss, perhaps the finest achievements of Sawallisch's other operatic hero, Wagner.

The great Italian conductor Carlo Maria Giulini (1914-2005) was acclaimed for his interpretations of the Romantic and early 20th-century repertoire. He recorded a lot for EMI Classics, including landmark versions of Mozart's Don Giovanni, Verdi's Messa da Requiem, Brahms' 4th Symphony, Rossini's Overtures, or the Debussy's masterpieces which are featured on this vinyl. Known for his profound musical insight and sensitivity, Giulini's conducting style emphasized clarity and emotional depth. His recordings, particularly of works by Mozart, Beethoven, and Verdi, are regarded as definitive interpretations. Giulini's legacy endures through his masterful performances and enduring influence on generations of musicians. "La Mer was a Giulini signature piece, and this is his finest recording of it, capturing the music's capricious sense of flow, perfect in transitions, and with climaxes that preserve the music's clarity and balance without ever sounding excessively restrained. " CLASSICSTODAY. COM

CPE BACH: FLUTE CONCERTOS

Few personalities of our time unite so many diverse talents with such passion, generosity and charisma as the immensely gifted American composer, pianist, conductor and music communicator Leonard Bernstein, world citizen and all-round star. His death in October 1990 did nothing to diminish his legacy, still deeply felt to this day. Lenny, as he loved to be known, shaped the musical culture of America. His boundless energy and talent was his gift to the world, despite moments of self-doubt and ambivalence. The spectrum of his creative activity ranges from the famous musical West Side Story with it's pulsating Broadway rhythms to grave, complex works that embrace his Jewish faith or political sensitivity. He once framed his convictions thus: "What have we artists got to do with oil and commerce, with survival and honour? The answer is everything."

Johanna Martzy (1924-1979) became a figure on the basis of a handful of recordings. The meteoric career of this distinguished ambassadress of the Hungarian violin school in no way foretold her posthumous idolisation. Her historic recordings of the Bach Sonatas and Partitas and stunning readings of Schubert's complete works for violin and piano, together with a few first-class concerto discs, make up a legacy. At last, it is available and remastered in high definition from the original tapes.

A singer of passion, elegance and dynamism, excelling equally in Italian and French opera, Roberto Alagna has numbered among the world's leading tenors for more than 30 years. His idiomatic phrasing and diction have consistently attracted praise. His recorded catalogue is substantial. In the judgement of the authoritative Grove Book of Opera Singers his recordings document "the plangent lyricism of Alagna's tone and the appealing ardor and inner fire of his style". Referring to his interpretation of the title role of Verdi's Don Carlos, in the recording conducted by Antonio Pappano, the New York Times wrote, "His intensely lyrical yet refined singing was a genuine revelation"

This 33CD box contains complete operas - by Bizet, Donizetti, Gounod, Massenet, Offenbach, Puccini, and Verdi - recorded between 1992 and 2017 and originally released by EMI Classics, Virgin Classics, Warner Classics, and Erato. The box notably documents Alagna's productive artistic partnerships with soprano Angela Gheorghiu (his wife from 1996 to 2013) and conductor Antonio Pappano.

The young Dutch violinist Noa Wildschut has been described as "a miracle of musicality", while Anne-Sophie Mutter has singled her out as "undoubtedly one of the musical hopes of her generation". For her debut as a Warner Classics recording artist, Noa has chosen a programme of Mozart that combines concertante and chamber works. As she says: "I'm showing two sides of Mozart - and also two sides of myself." Noa Wildschut, the young Dutch violinist, turned 16 in March 2017, but was just 15 when she signed an exclusive agreement with Warner Classics and recorded her debut album for the label. It is entirely devoted to Mozart: the Violin Concerto No 5 and the Adagio K.261 (with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra under the leadership of Gordan Nikolic), and the Violin Sonata in B flat major, K.454 (with prizewinning pianist and festival director Yoram Ish-Hurwitz - Noa's uncle). "Mozart's music has such a feeling of purity, " Noa says. "and the Fifth Violin Concerto is so gorgeous. Of all his violin concertos, this is the one that contains the most humour. It's almost like a kind of opera, with all those different characters, really, a story is being told." Noa herself composed the cadenzas she plays in the concerto, with some help from Dutch composer Max Knigge. "Max came up with the concept, and I invented some things around it... it really became something by us together. It has been written in a way that does justice to Mozart, including lots of little jokes." The album release coincides with the release date of the documentary 'Zusjes' (Sisters), about Noa and her family, which will run in cinemas in Holland in autumn 2017. Worldwide release of the documentary is planned for early 2018. Noa has been a member of 'Mutter Virtuosi' since 2014, a string ensemble led by Anne-Sophie Mutter, and since May 2015 Noa has held an official scholarship from the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation - their youngest ever member

GERMAN REPERTOIRE FOR WINDS 1

Gramophone states, "A unique statement, one that can't fail to make an impression. Recorded in the sumptuous acoustic of the Jesuitenkirche in Vienna, there's a detectable flavor of southern European oratorio, ebulliently theatrical, immediate and free-breathing (...). This is the most culturally alert reading in years and a truly original and illuminating experience." This recording won a Grammy Award of Best Choral Performance and a Diapason d'or de l'ann�e in 2001, and it's one of the 100 Greatest Recordings from Gramophone: an absolute landmark of Bach's masterpiece, the Saint Matthew Passion.