A towering figure in French music of the later 19th century, C�sar Franck created a distinctive fusion of German Romanticism and French Classicism, enriching the symphonic, chamber, instrumental, vocal and sacred repertoires. As a teacher and mentor he gained admiration for his modesty and generosity while exercising a powerful influence on younger disciples such as Vincent d'Indy, Henri Duparc and Ernest Chausson. The C�sar Franck Edition gathers together all his masterworks - among them the Symphony in D, Violin Sonata, Pr�lude, Fugue et Variation and, of course, 'Panis Angelicus' - in enthralling performances by musicians of the first rank. Running to 16 CDs, the collection includes a CD of transcriptions and arrangements, proving their fascination for a still greater diversity of interpreters than Franck might have imagined. The five CDs of historical recordings - dating back as far as 1907 - testify to the continuing growth of his reputation after his death in 1890, and to the vibrant performing tradition engendered by his genius.

This album presents the core of the violin repertoire - Beethoven's Violin Concerto and Kreutzer Sonata," says Nemanja Radulovic. While these Beethoven masterpieces have been recorded countless times, Radulovic's approach to each of them has an element of innovation. For the concerto, he has expanded Double Sens, the chamber ensemble he founded in 2008. "I wanted to retain the special character of Double Sens as an ensemble which plays without a conductor and explores new ways of interpretation... In our recording of the concerto, we wanted to convey a range of emotions - courage, risk, joy, love, rage, sadness, nostalgia, and magical serenity and tenderness." Rather than playing the grandly scaled Kreutzer Sonata in partnership with a pianist, he performs it here in his own arrangement for solo violin and five-part string ensemble. "While remaining faithful to Beethoven, I allowed myself to exercise my imagination.

Probably the best recent version available of Aida with the finest possible cast of singers and a wonderful conductor. It was previously available in deluxe casebound 3CD original version (0825646106639) which was too expensive to remanufacture. In addition the total number of CDs was reduced from 3 to 2 by combining the first two which were short. The original cover remains unchanged, but the rest of the artwork is designed according to the Home of Opera Series. 'Who needs elephants when the music sounds this good?' declared The Times of this milestone recording event in Rome with it's 'luxurious, surely never-to-be-repeated cast'. Once again proving his mastery of Italian opera, Sir Antonio Pappano moves between sumptuous grandeur and touching intimacy.

This is as fine a recorded account... as I've heard for some time, both in terms of Lahav Shani's conception of the music and it's realisation on the orchestra. It's a performance that grows movement by movement, stable of pulse, yet flexible and free-flowing within the boundaries of the larger whole." Gramophone was full of praise for the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra's recording, released in 2023, of Bruckner's epic Symphony No 7. Now the Dutch orchestra and it's chief conductor have recorded Bruckner's Symphony No 5. As Lahav Shani told Gramophone in an interview devoted to Bruckner: "His music has a sense not only of looking back and encompassing the history of music, but also very much looking forward and seeing the future... One can talk about Bruckner's relationship with religion, with God, and with spirituality - and perhaps this has the most influence on the atmosphere of the music - but there are also beautiful melodic lines and a sense of cantabile and continuation... I never try to impose a specific interpretation... I much prefer to let the music flow and develop and change... There is no right or wrong. Bruckner is not here for us to ask if he meant this or if he meant something else. He wrote music that is so much beyond these things, music that conveys such deep human emotion.

Maxence Cyrin's second album for Warner Classics, presenting piano compositions with synthetic layers on some tracks. Contemplative, imaginative, an invitation to travel - this album is inspired by a trip Maxence made to the south of Portugal. The pieces refer to the sea (Faro Bay, Varech, The Island) as well as to the passing of time (Dust, Seasons, Antica).

Lars Vogt (1970-2022) early recordings collected here provide a document of an artist who always remained authentic, both to himself and to music. Lars Vogt never sought absolute truth, but truthfulness instead meant all the more to him. The man and the artist were always very close, never currying favour and never detached from the world. He was, instead, open and natural. "It's incredibly gratifying when you notice that you can perhaps light a little spark, a little flame for music in people, and when music helps you to find the path to your own soul."

With Roots, his first Warner Classics album, violinist Nemanja Radulovic draws on a diversity of cultures in a musical tour of the world. Roots has it's roots in the pandemic. "Throughout this period I had the time to think profoundly about music... When the lockdown started I tried to create music, tried to practise, but I couldn't." As a listener, the music that really made Serbian-born Nemanja feel alive - in addition to Mozart - was music that reflected the traditions of it's place of origin. "I realised how much music could connect people, through it's sheer joy," he says. "I realised that there was one thing I could offer to a world that lockdowns had forced behind new borders. And that was to reconnect it all through music... through world music, which is the basis of classical music." He takes his journey in the company of his own ensemble, Double Sens, whose members come from both France and the Balkans. "The pieces selected for this album are very personal. My wish is that each of you discovers a world without borders through this music."

P�ques � Notre-Dame is an album of choral music for Easter, performed by members of the Ma�trise Notre-Dame de Paris, which offers training and performance opportunities to talented children, teenagers and adults. Spanning six centuries and the musical cultures of France, Italy and Germany, the album includes the last polyphonic work to be performed at Notre-Dame before fire devastated the great cathedral amidst preparations for Easter in 2019. The conductor is Henri Chalet, director of the Ma�trise, and the organist is Yves Castagnet, who also composed three of the works on the programme, recorded in the basilica of Sainte-Clotilde, another major church in Paris. As Henri Chalet says: "We know that Notre-Dame will rise again."

AUGUSTIN HADELICH / RECUERDOS - wARNER CLASSICS - A subtle and profound Spanish theme runs through Recuerdos - 'Memories'. Violinist Augustin Hadelich has conceived an album that unites three works for violin and orchestra and a piece originally written for solo guitar. For Britten's Violin Concerto, Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No 2 and Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy he is joined by the WDR Sinfonieorchester and it's Chief Conductor, Cristian Macelaru; he remains alone for Ruggero Ricci's arrangement of T�rrega's shimmering Recuerdos de la Alhambra. "For years, I've been thinking about how to tell the story of the Britten violin concerto," says Hadelich. Written in 1938, the work expresses the pacifist composer's anguish at the Spanish Civil War, which broke out just months after Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No 2 was premiered in Madrid.

A singer who inspired the greatest admiration and affection, Victoria de los Ángeles was, in the words of Opera magazine, "one of the supreme vocal artists of the 20th century". In the opera house, the recital hall and on recordings, she captured her audience's heart with a voice of beauty and warmth and interpretations of grace and sincerity. This 59CD box unites all the recordings in her Warner Classics catalogue, made between 1948 and 1977, and encompasses complete operas, collections of arias and a rich treasury of song, above all from the soprano's native Spain. "Communication should be the most important motivation for a singer," she said, "My only goal is to 'talk' to people through my singing so we can all enjoy the music together."

Piotr Anderszewski TITLE: Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 25 & 27 This pairing of concertos Nos 25 and 27, recorded with Chamber Orchestra of Europe, is Piotr Anderszewski's third Warner Classics album of Mozart concertos. "In Mozart I tend to prefer to direct from the keyboard," he explains, "His concertos are like chamber works... The piano is in dialogue with the orchestra, conversing and interacting all the time. The two works are very different... No 25 is very grand, complex and sophisticated; No 27, Mozart's final piano concerto, is in a major key, but underneath it I sense an incredible sadness... It always amazes me how deep this music is."

The Japanese-born pianist Kenji Miura, winner of the 2019 Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition in Paris, ponders on the issue of identity, combining music of the French school with two pieces by Toru Takemitsu, a Japanese composer strongly influenced by French composers and by the Second Viennese School. The main works on the album are Franck's Pr�lude, Fugue et Variation, Ravel's Valses nobles et sentimentales and Debussy's Six �pigraphes antiques. Born in Kobe in 1993, Kenji Miura studied in the UK and in Berlin, where he is now based. "This album is a reflection of my own personal struggle with identity," he writes. "We live in an increasingly multi-ethnic and multicultural society - my torn-between-worlds feeling is shared by many around the world. This is my small musical letter to all those struggling with the many aspects of identity - a concept that should help us embrace who we are and our complicated, beautiful lives."

Kyung Wha Chung - Beau Soir (Faur�, Franck, Debussy, Elgar, works for violin & piano) The centrepiece of this French-themed recital by Kyung Wha Chung and Kevin Kenner is the splendid violin sonata by C�sar Franck. It is a work long associated with Chung, described by the Financial Times as "one of the greatest violinists of the last half-century". Newer to Chung's repertoire is Faur�'s Sonata No 1. As she told Strings magazine, each of the works constitutes "a whole portrait of life itself," and she drew a comparison with Monet's paintings: "The reflection of light has endless possibility. The same thing applies to the texture and the sound when you're playing. There are millions of sounds."

For his debut on Warner Classics, Samoan tenor Pene Pati matches favourite showpiece arias with rarer operatic gems in a programme of Verdi, Rossini, Donizetti, Meyerbeer, Gounod and Benjamin Godard. Pati has been called "a revelation... stunning for his generosity of voice, top notes of apparently invincible power, and alluring timbre, " (Forum Op�ra) and praised for his "gleaming, sensuous stream of sound" (San Francisco Chronicle). A singer of glowing lyricism who establishes an immediate rapport with his audience, Pati hopes that the album will leave listeners with a sense of "warmth, tenderness, and the sincerity of storytelling. To me, this is the essence of opera and the reason why I sing." He is joined by conductor Emmanuel Villaume and the Orchestre national Bordeaux Aquitaine.

BEETHOVEN: FIDELIO

Bliss is a state of being where fear does not exist. Bliss is perfect happiness and joy. To record this album, I wanted to place myself in this state, physically and mentally. I meditated daily. Silence, nature, beauty and peace help me to alter my state of consciousness, to escape from daily reality and express myself through music. That is my vision of Bliss.

Maria Ioudenitch presents her debut album with Warner Classics, a collection of short pieces of Russian and German repertoire. The Daily Journal calls it "phenomenally musical". In 2021, Maria Ioudenitch won the prestigious International Joseph Joachim Violin Competition and the Warner Classics prize associated with it.

The King's Singers celebrate the hundredth anniversary of Disney with When you wish upon a star, a joyful album of twenty-five hit songs drawn from the soundtrack of the past century. They are joined by mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and a host of guest artists in a programme comprising virtuoso close-harmony arrangements freshly commissioned from an international line-up of composers, including John Rutter, Nico Muhly, Alexander L'Estrange, Toby Young, Jim Clements and Jamey Ray. The tracklist embraces songs from nine decades of Disney animation, spanning everything from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) to Coco (2017) to evoke memories of childhood for listeners of all ages.

KALEIDOSCOPE

The idea behind Carlos Cipa's new album is easy to describe: one room, one piano, one pianist/composer. Taking one's time. Approaching with the greatest possible impartiality. Simply improvising, at first only from, for, and with oneself. But what at first might seem a simple concept becomes more complex at a closer look. With it's quiet, contemplative solo-piano sounds, Ourselves, as we are, is a "deeply vulnerable collection. In the age of fake authenticity, remakes... this approach is perhaps one of the few remaining ways to create art: to reveal our true selves. Radically personal. Radically intimate. Radically honest. Ourselves, as we are.

BACH: SONATAS & PARTITAS FOR SOLO VIOLIN

WAGNER / LOHENGRIN RUDOLF KEMPE Composer: Richard Wagner Other participants: Jess Thomas * Elisabeth Gr�mmer * Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau * Christa Ludwig * Gottlob Frick * Otto Wiener *Wiener Staatsopernchor * Wiener Philharmoniker * Rudolf Kempe, Director

KEILBERTH ICON (50TH ANNIVERSARY OF DEATH JULY)

Vilde Frang : "I have wanted to record this concerto for a long time, and Elgar actually has been a very late discovery for me, the Violin Concerto. But it didn't take me a long time to become a very passionate ambassador for this piece. And I really feel that the format of this piece is such a vast piece of music and it's more on the symphonic scale than a violin concerto to me, which is why I take immense pleasure in playing this concerto." The reviews of Vilde's recent Elgar concert performances have been outstanding, media writing about a 'remarkable performance bringing out Elgar's extraordinary beauty'.

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, 100 years after his birth. He was the epitome of a universal musical genius: Leonard Bernstein - conductor, composer, pianist and music educator, a crossover artist in the purest sense of the word. Maestro of a vast repertoire from classical to jazz, from songs to symphonies, he gave America it's musical voice. With the global success of West Side Story and many other works he tore down genre barriers, and with his books and legendary televised appearances opened people's ears and hearts to music from Bach and Beethoven to modern times. Featuring performances by great international classical musicians, 'The Sound of Bernstein' brings together his most famous works to commemorate 100 years since his birth on 25 August 2018.