Following the success of her albums of Romantic and Late Romantic repertoire, Vilde Frang has recorded Mozart's Concertos Nos. 1 and 5 Turkish and the Sinfonia Concertante K364, enabling music lovers to hear the Norwegian violinist perform Classical repertoire on disc for the first time. The impetus for this album was a 2012 orchestral tour of Asia conducted by Jonathan Cohen in which Vilde performed Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5. The vibrancy of their musical collaboration was something both artists were keen to repeat and commit to disc. Vilde Frang is joined by Jonathan's Cohen's chamber orchestra, Arcangelo, and by violist Maxim Rysanov in the Sinfonia Concertante.

2016 three CD collection that features beloved arias from Bellini's "Norma;" Puccini's "La Boheme," "Madame Butterfly" and "Gianno Schicchi;" Verdi's "La Traviata" and "Aida;" Bizet's "Carmen" and much more! Opera singers come and go, but just a few - the legends - live on. And Maria Callas was the great-est legend of them all, though not just for the wonder of her voice. She changed the way people thought about opera, but she also became famous as the glamorous celebrity who fell in love with Aristotle Onassis, leaving her elderly husband to live with him on his yacht Christina and enjoy the high life with the international jet set. Of course it ended badly. She lived her life like one of her own tragic heroines who (as women tend to do in opera) sing, suffer and die. And her own death came at just 53, after a dazzling but short career that took in heavy roles alongside decorative, nightingale-like ones - ignoring the established rules of vocal health and probably explaining why her voice finally gave out as it did. But in that time she did extraordinary things, using the muscle of those heavy heroines to em-power the nightingales with strength and depth of feeling nobody had thought to offer them be-fore. She gave them credibility as drama. Her performances were absolute and self-exposing: she held nothing back. And she was even tougher on herself than she could be on others - which is why her voice was never quite the flawless instrument singers are meant to cultivate. Her personality was far too volatile and too self-sacrificing in it's love affair with risk. In the mythology of opera, though, that's what the audience demands. We want the diva to be both a goddess and a slave: to give her life for art. We thrill to the dimension of that sacrifice. And Callas dutifully obliged.

One of the most famous recordings of Polish-British-Canadian violinist Ida Haendel, who passed away last year. After performing the Sibelius concerto in Helsinki in 1949, broadcasted on radio, Ida Haendel received a letter from the composer: "Please accept my most cordial thanks for your excellent performance of my Violin Concerto. You played it masterfully in every respect. I congratulate you upon the great success. But above all, I congratulate myself that my Concerto has found an interpreter of your standard." This 1975 recording was made under the baton of Sibelius specialist Paavo Berglund.

Chopin is reserved, visionary and mysterious," says Beatrice Rana. "There are many layers to his music. It's pleasing to the ear and sincere in it's communication, but the deeper you go, the more you find..." For this album, Rana pairs Chopin's 12 op 25 etudes with his four scherzi, focusing on two musical genres that the composer, combining intellect and imagination, transformed into something new. "It was Chopin who invented the 'concert study'," explains Rana. "To me, the etudes seem implicitly connected, joined by a single line of expression, as if they are taking you on a journey. The scherzi are evocative pieces, full of contrasts... They represent three distinct stages of Chopin's life and creativity and it is easy to read stories into them." When Beatrice Rana played the op 25 etudes for her New York recital debut in 2019, the New York Times wrote: "If you can play Chopin's etudes comfortably, you can probably play anything written for the piano... and the best performances convey their musical riches. In that regard, Beatrice Rana set a new standard... She didn't just surmount the technical challenges; she made the pieces sound as poetic and colorful as anything Chopin ever wrote.

GLORIA & MAGNIFICAT

Two CDs. Mozart & Flute in Paris brings together nine captivating works, all with their origins in Paris, which feature a solo flute. Emmanuel Pahud is joined by his colleagues from 'wind supergroup' Les Vents Francais - oboist Francois Leleux (here also conducting the Orchestre de chambre de Paris), clarinettist Paul Meyer, bassoonist Gilbert Audin and horn-player Radovan Vlatkovic - and by Belgian harpist Anneleen Lenaerts. "The pieces on this album represent different golden ages of the flute," says Pahud. The earliest, dating from 1778 are two concertante works that Mozart wrote while visiting Paris. The newest, premiered in 2014 by Pahud and the Orchestre de chambre de Paris, is Dreamtime by Philippe Hersant. The intervening period is represented by pieces by Saint-Saens, Faure, Chaminade and Poulenc, composers whose music embodies France's special relationship with the flute.

Sergiu Celibidache was without question one of the most important and original conductors in recent memory. He was a perfectionist who disliked what he perceived to be the synthetic sounds created in the modern recording studio, preferring the immediacy of the concert platform and the interaction with a live audience. This Bruckner recording celebrates the extraordinary legacy of his collaboration with the Munchner Philharmoniker, from which he was Musical Director between 1979 and his death in 1996. "One of the greatest Bruckner performances I have ever heard - a truly towering act of the re-creative imagination (...). [This performance] is centred in string playing of astonishing depth, eloquence and homogeneity. As with Giulini, it is the viola and cello sections which seem to harbour the very soul of the music. The viola cantilenas in the slow movement (...) are things of rare beauty." Gramophone

Don Giovanni's special amalgam of dark drama and sparkling comedy is captured with startling immediacy by Carlo Maria Giulini. The Viennese baritone Eberhard Wachter faces a particularly formidable pair of noble ladies: Donna Anna in the form of Joan Sutherland (in one of her rare recordings for a label other than Decca) and the Donna Elvira of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.

BRITTEN KORNGOLD VIOLIN CONCERTOS

Mahler: Kindertotenlieder / Kathleen Ferrier Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) Henry Purcell, George Frideric Handel, Christoph W. Gluck, Maurice Greene, Performer: Isobel Baillie, Gerald Moore (Piano), Conductor: Charles Bruck, Bruno Walter, Number of Discs: 1

SOUND OF ARVO PART

The Home of Opera series offers treasures from the world's greatest opera catalogue, presenting some of the most important and admired recordings of complete operas produced by Warner Classics/EMI Classics over the last 60 years.

The German-born conductor Otto Klemperer, a towering figure in the musical history of the 20th century, died at the age of 88 on July 8th 1973, so 2023 will mark the 50th anniversary of his death. His complete recordings on Warner Classics catalogue are being made available for the first time in 2 huge separate boxes; the first volume with the Symphonic Works, Concertos & Lieder (95CD) will be released in June 2023. All recordings are remastered in HD 192/24 from original sources. One month before the release of the first box, we are releasing on vinyl and digital HD + Dolby Atmos one of his most famous album. The epic Symphony No. 2 brought Gustav Mahler and Otto Klemperer together in 1905, when the 20-year-old conductor took charge of the off-stage band for a performance in Berlin. Mahler, impressed, subsequently recommended him for appointments in Prague and Hamburg. In this recording Klemperer rewards the composer's faith with an interpretation of granite-like strength, drawing magnificent performances from orchestra, chorus and soloists.

Vinyl LP pressing. Holst's Planets is a hi-fi test piece par excellence. The music explores every nuance and dynamic of which a modern symphony orchestra is capable. When reproduced at a realistic volume level with full frequency range, the music has a stunning emotional impact - at times savage - at other times beguiling. The piece has been recorded many times since it's 1918 debut under Sir Boult's baton but it's colours never glowed more brilliantly than in this performance.

Nigel Kennedy's recording was released on 25th September 1989 and went on to become one of the best-selling classical albums of all-time, selling over three million copies around the world. Originally recorded in November 1986 in the Church of St John-at-Hackney, London, it was a recording that would achieve unprecedented public and media attention and change the course of music history. Vivaldi's work, 12 movements in short three-minute bursts, was tailor-made for commercial radio. It was the first time that commercial pop marketing techniques had been used in the classical world and the first time that Nigel was unleashed on the media. It was a phenomenon waiting to happen. Nigel Kennedy's recording of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons sold over three million copies around the world. It topped the UK classical chart for over a year and entered the Guinness Book of Records as the bestselling classical recording ever. In 1989, the classical music industry came to terms with life after Herbert von Karajan. His death on 16 July marked the passing from the world of maestros to that of megastars. Pundits had predicted a classical music boom, courtesy of the new digital sound carrier, the compact disc, but no one could foresee a world in which Three Tenors, glamorous violinists and Welsh mezzo-sopranos would dominate the pop charts. And then there was Nigel Kennedy, a pupil of the Yehudi Menuhin School whose star was about to rise. He left the hothouse environment at Stoke d'Abernon with his individuality intact and came to the notice of Simon Foster, the A&R manager at EMI's budget classical label, Classics for Pleasure. It was Foster who championed Nigel's recording of Elgar's Violin Concerto, made at a fortnight's notice in 1984. Gramophone magazine gave it the 'Record of the Year' Award, and it received a gong from the early years of the Brit Awards for 'Best Classical Recording'. On 24 April 1986, Kennedy stepped up from the mid-price Eminence label to sign an exclusive contract with EMI Records UK, albeit in the face of some scepticism from the internal International Classical Division. It was suggested by one senior executive that no one called Nigel would ever make it. 'What? Like Adrian?' came the reply from another executive, and the objection was not raised again. The Wogan Show and other TV appearances introduced Nigel to a wider audience. Six months later, Nigel began recording this CD. Wider fame arrived with a concert in aid of The Prince's Trust in July 1989 attended by Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Nigel played the last movement of 'Summer' with the CBSO conducted by Sir George Martin, one-time producer to The Beatles. After the concert, the BBC Radio 1 presenter Annie Nightingale introduced Nigel to the attending Royals and asked if Nigel should teach the violin to William and Harry. Diana smiled. 'I wouldn't let you within a million miles of them.' Nigel, unperturbed, replied: 'Shocking, your Royal Monstrette.'

The music of Brahms held an important place in Sir John Barbirolli's repertoire, and these recordings of the symphonies, made with the Vienna Philharmonic in 1966 and 1967, stand as one of the peaks of his discography. Barbirolli's relationship with this music is rooted in his time as an orchestral cellist, and these performances are notable for their rich, ripe sonorities and expansive warmth. The two mighty Piano Concertos were also recorded in 1967 in distinguished versions with Daniel Barenboim. Playing the violin concerto here, Fritz Kreisler as a young man had been part of Brahms's outer circle in Vienna and drew his approach to this music straight from the source. Last but not least is the Double Concerto, of which Geraint Lewis wrote in Gramophone, "The great underestimated Alfredo Campoli showed what a rich tone and innate musicality he had at his command alongside an equally eloquent Andre Navarra."

Vinyl LP pressing.

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'annee in 2001, and it's one of the 100 Greatest Recordings from Gramophone: an absolute landmark of Bach's masterpiece, the Saint Matthew Passion.

Vinyl LP pressing. In Perlman's words, Tchaikovsky "wears his heart on his sleeve" and his violin concerto is a work of "unabashed Romanticism". While bringing sensitivity and substance to his interpretation, Perlman never slips into sentimentality, and he leads an exhilarating dance in the finale. This concerto more than any other has accompanied him throughout his career. Indeed, Perlman's often claimed that he could play it virtually in his sleep. It could even be seen as emblematic of his style, given both the prodigiously virtuosic demands it makes on the performer and it's charismatic warmth.

Renowned as a great interpreter of Brahms, Jacqueline du Pre, here at the peak of her art and technical abilities, delivers the latest version recorded with her husband Daniel Barenboim in May-August 1968. A pillar of the cello repertoire, the Two Sonatas benefit from a new remastering in 192kHz/24-bit from original tapes by Art & Son Studio, Annecy.

The 2-LP set includes highlights from Bach's greatest masterpieces performed by first-class musicians: Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Mstislav Rostropovich, Ton Koopman, Alexandre Tharaud, David Fray, Sir Neville Marriner, Fabio Biondi, Emmanuel Pahud, Beatrice Rana, Sigiswald Kuijken

Klaus Tennstedt's studio recordings for EMI Classics, primarily with his cherished London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), are celebrated as a towering achievement, cementing his reputation as one of the great conductors of the late 20th century. His landmark studio cycle of Mahler's Symphonies is the monumental centerpiece of this legacy, alongside the live Mahler recordings he did. Tennstedt's Mahler is universally praised for it's sheer emotional commitment and deep feeling. This cycle, often cited for it's thrilling climaxes and masterful shaping of Mahler's vast canvases, is universally recognized as one of the finest surveys of the composer's symphonies. Tennstedt's interpretations of the Central European repertoire, which also included magnificent recordings of Brahms and Wagner included in this box, favour an unfailingly beautiful orchestral tone and a massive solidity. These recordings are a lasting testament to Tennstedt's profound artistry and his extraordinary musical partnership with the LPO (which represent two-thirds of the recordings in this box).

Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra made many highly praised recordings together. Corigliano's Symphony No. 1 is arguably one of the most significant recordings of his tenure; Barenboim's live world-premiere recording winning two Grammy Awards (Best Orchestral Performance and Best Contemporary Composition). His Erato recordings of the complete Brahms Symphonies and Beethoven's Missa solemnis are a milestone too of this era. Barenboim is also a celebrated Wagnerian, and his Teldec discs of overtures and preludes are frequently cited as the pinnacle of the CSO's "brass-and-silk" capabilities. Barenboim frequently collaborated with superstars like Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma to make outstanding albums: Brahms' Double Concerto with both; the Mendelssohn, Prokofiev No. 2 and Stravinsky with Perlman. He also recorded the Brahms and Sibelius concertos with the then-young superstar Maxim Vengerov. Critics at the time were stunned by the electrifying chemistry between the fiery Vengerov and the more seasoned, philosophical Barenboim.

A vast and atmospheric piece of electronic minimalism, Mirage encompasses the changing states of the eponymous ballet - a ritual for 16 dancers conceived by choreographer Damien Jalet and contemporary artist Kohei Nawa. Delivering a statement that feels both radical and accessible, attuned to the elements, Thomas Bangalter takes a sculptural approach to sound and music in the lineage of Iannis Xenakis. The cofounder of Daft Punk continues to carve a personal path grounded by experimentation as a mode of performance and the pleasure of collaboration.

Classical Music