Search results: Search results

595 results

Products

COMPLETE POLYDOR 78S

ELOQUENCE AUSTRALIA

$20.92 May 07, 2021

Collected for the first time - Erich Kleiber's rare recordings with the Staatskapelle Berlin and the Berliner Philharmoniker made for Polydor/Grammophon and newly remastered for this release. Erich Kleiber's appointment to the musical directorship of the Staatsoper Berlin in 1923 proved to be the making of his career. Hired on the strength of a single Fidelio, he thrilled audiences and critics with performances of unparalleled vigour and intensity. He soon began recording for the short-lived Vox company (not to be confused with the later US label) but in 1926 he agreed a contract with the Grammophon label, building on his regular season of orchestral concerts which were interspersed with opera performances. Here, newly remastered by Mark Obert-Thorn and issued complete for the first time in any format, is that Grammophon legacy of Kleiber's Berlin years with both the Staatskapelle and the celebrated Berliner Philharmoniker. Beginning modestly enough with four of Mozart's German dances - to fill two sides of a 78rpm record - the scope of the sessions expanded to take in complete symphonies by Beethoven (No. 2), Schubert (No. 8 'Unfinished') and Dvorak (No. 9 'From the New World') alongside much popular repertoire such as the incidental music to Rosamunde and A Midsummer Night's Dream and the overtures to William Tell and Die Fledermaus. Many of these recordings were not marketed or reviewed abroad despite their artistic excellence, but Kleiber's 1928 account of 'Vltava' from Ma vlast soon gained classic status. No wonder, now, when listening again to the moonlit interlude and Kleiber's gently flowing pulse, his superb balancing of parts which transcends the limitations of the technology and makes a nonsense of his apparent reluctance to record. Alternative versions of 'Vltava', as well as the second take of a side from the 'New World' Symphony which became Kleiber's final Grammophon album (recorded in May and August 1929) are also presented. Alan Sanders provides an extensive note, and Mark Obert-Thorn provides a background to the sources for these recordings.

View Full Page

COMPLETE POLYDOR 78S
ELOQUENCE AUSTRALIA May 2021
CD
$20.92

SCHUMANN & GRIEG: PIANO CONCERTOS

WARNER CLASSICS

$17.28 Jul 05, 2024

Being someone who is rather awful at dancing, the only way I can explore the medium of dance is through music making! This programme idea came about from two contrasting elements: my love of Rameau's Gavotte & Doubles and Ravel's La Valse.... Seeing as dance is often collaborative I am thrilled to have been joined by the wonderful pianist Alexandre Tharaud in some eclectic, lesser known works by Reynaldo Hahn. I am thrilled to release this project!" -Martin James Bartlett Ravel leads the dance with three works in Martin James Bartlett's enticing programme of French piano music. The perspective of La Danse extends back from the 20th century to the 18th century, also encompassing works by Rameau, Couperin, Debussy and - with the participation of guest artist Alexandre Tharaud - Reynaldo Hahn. "This programme idea came about from two contrasting elements," explains Martin James Bartlett, "my love of Rameau's Gavotte et six doubles and Ravel's La Valse. Both these French masterpieces, from different ends of the musical timeline, led to this programme of music inspired by the dance." Welcoming Martin James Bartlett's previous Warner Classics album, Rhapsody, Gramophone wrote: "This showcases an outstanding keyboard talent at the top of his game," while the Sunday Times enthused that, "Throughout, Bartlett's touch is alternately carefree and rigorous. A delight.

View Full Page

SCHUMANN & GRIEG: PIANO CONCERTOS
WARNER CLASSICS Jul 2024
CD
$17.28

150 German Folksongs / Prey, Schreier, Dresden Kreuzchor, Thomanerchor Leipzig

Capriccio

$21.99 Aug 30, 2011

A festive concert of great voices, this Volkslied-Edition offers on 5 CDs the most famous and most beloved German folksongs, performed by well known singers like Hermann Prey, Peter Schreier, and famous choirs, especially boys choirs, such as the Dresden Kreuzchor, Thomanerchor Leipzig and the Regensburger Domspatzen. A well done edition for all friends of choir music offered for a verys special price!

View Full Page

150 German Folksongs / Prey, Schreier, Dresden Kreuzchor, Thomanerchor Leipzig
Capriccio Aug 2011
CD
$21.99

WOLF: ITALIANISCHES LIEDERBUCH

ELOQUENCE AUSTRALIA

$10.45 Sep 20, 2019

Perhaps no pair of singers on record has interpreted this cycle of 46 songs with such natural accomplishment as Irmgard Seefried and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. They made this recording near the end of the 1950s - at the height of Seefried's career and near the start of Fischer-Dieskau's, and it's qualities of both freshness and delight in response to the text and vocal beauty have stood the test of time. The singers performed the cycle together live at the 1958 Salzburg Festival to an ordering devised by the pianist for the occasion and Seefried's regular accompanist, Erik Werba. In the DG studios a few months later, however, Fischer-Dieskau was joined by his own regular instrumental partner at the time, Jorg Demus. Meanwhile the subtly different responses of both pianists - Werba fuller-toned than Demus, whose pointed articulation owes something to his work on 'period' instruments - offer food for both thought and pleasure. Without attempting to concoct a storyline, Werba's ordering allows the poetry's depictions of woman and man to contrast with and complement each other. A spirited opening group is followed by one which is predominantly lyrical, illustrating the need for love, the woman's surrender and then wavering, a manly longing for death, a farewell, and appeal to sworn fidelity. The closing section juxtaposes a declaration of love, humor, mockery, caricature, resignation and finally boasting, with the soprano's jubilant 'confession' that she has 21 lovers. All four musicians fully bring to life the emotions of elation, joy, anger and irony in Wolf's songs. Fischer-Dieskau's second recording (with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Gerald Moore for EMI) is justly famous in it's own right, but the magic of this DG recording lies in the unaffected ease of his partnership with Seefried.

View Full Page

WOLF: ITALIANISCHES LIEDERBUCH
ELOQUENCE AUSTRALIA Sep 2019
CD
$10.45

SCHUBERT TREASURES

DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON

$21.49 Jun 26, 2026

RUDOLF BUCHBINDER / SCHUBERT TREASURE On his album Schubert Treasures, Rudolf Buchbinder celebrates his 80th birthday this year by turning to a composer whose music has accompanied him for decades. On it, the legendary pianist performs Schubert's piano dances to mark this milestone in his remarkable career. These miniatures open fleeting glimpses into a mysterious cosmos, poised between the polished parquet of Vienna's ballrooms and something almost transcendent. With esprit, spontaneity and the authority of a career spanning nearly seven decades, Buchbinder brings these worlds vividly to life.

View Full Page

SCHUBERT TREASURES
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON Jun 2026
CD
$21.49

Mix & Match

J. Strauss Jr.: Die Fledermaus / Armstrong, Allen [Blu-ray]

Opus Arte

Blu-Ray

$26.99 May 27, 2008

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

3223070.az_J_STRAUSS_II_Die.html

J. STRAUSS II Die Fledermaus • Vladimir Jurowski, cond; Pamela Armstrong ( Rosalinde ); Thomas Allen ( Eisenstein ); Håkan Hagegård ( Dr. Falke ); Pär Lindskog ( Alfred ); Malena Ernman ( Prince Orlovsky ); Lyubov Petrova ( Adele ); Ragnar Ulfung ( Dr. Blind ); Artur Korn ( Frank ); Udo Samel ( Frosch ); Reneé Schüttengruber ( Ida ); Glyndebourne Ch; London PO • BBC/OPUS ARTE 7004 (Blu-ray Disc: 198:00) Live: Glyndebourne 8/17/2003

& Cast & costume galleries. The Genesis of the Waltz. The Architect Returns. Interviews. Frosch interlude

This pretty-much-perfect production of Strauss’s pretty-much-perfect operetta is an ideal specimen to demonstrate the visual and sonic virtues of the Blu-ray medium. The Glyndebourne staging is a feast to watch: the sets and costumes are lavish, the dancing accomplished. Opus Arte’s 24-bit PCM sound is way better than anything you’ve ever heard on a traditional DVD, both the stereo version and the spacious multichannel that puts the listener in the middle of the appreciative audience who experienced the real thing in Sussex back in August of 2003.

Director Stephen Lawless has moved the setting of Die Fledermaus ahead a few decades to around 1910, the Vienna of Sigmund Freud and Gustav Klimt. (Eisenstein’s dressing gown, in fact, is a facsimile of Klimt’s The Kiss .) This Fledermaus is clearly viewed as a play that happens to have awfully good music, and Lawless and Daniel Dooner have created new dialogue for the production. In the hands of an ensemble of terrific singing actors, the texts never impede the headlong momentum of this comic masterpiece.

What a cast! Pamela Armstrong, as Rosalinde, handles the part vocally quite well but is equally concerned with her character’s development: when she dresses up as someone else, Eisenstein’s wife discovers her “real self” (as the soprano puts it in one of the disc’s “extras”). Thomas Allen notes that the high tessitura of his role was a bit of a challenge—it sure doesn’t sound it—but his comic timing is impeccable and the man can actually dance. As Dr. Falke, Håkan Hagegård gives his character an edge: the practical joke that Eisenstein played on him months before the curtain rises for act I has deeply wounded him, and Falke is serious about getting revenge. Singing Alfred in an appropriately seductive manner is Swedish tenor Pär Lindskog who, like Allen, is obviously quite a versatile artist. You’d never know from this performance that the guy also sings Siegfried and Parsifal.

The kudos go on. Lyubov Petrova’s rendition of Adele’s big second-act aria is a showstopper and Malena Ernman is utterly convincing as the terminally bored and sexually ambiguous Orlovsky. It’s a surprise every time Ernman starts to sing and her voice jumps up an octave or two. The smaller parts—Dr. Blind, Frank, Ida, Frosch—are all covered quite well.

Vladimir Jurowski takes the music very seriously (as, the notes remind us, did Gustav Mahler) and his leadership of the LPO is spirited and knowingly inflected. To accompany the curtain calls, Jurowski conducts a rousing “Radetzky March.” Opus Arte provides subtitles in English, French, German, Spanish, and Dutch. There’s a generous supply of extras, including cast and costume “galleries” and brief featurettes on the history of the waltz and the new (in 1994) opera house at Glyndebourne, as revisited by the architect who designed it. We also get observations on Fledermaus from Armstrong, Allen, Hagegård, Jurowski, and director Lawless and, to close, some shtick, mostly about champagne, by Udo Samel, the actor who has the speaking role of the jailer Frosch.

Yes, this one’s on my Want List.

FANFARE: Andrew Quint

Picture Format: 1080i High Definition, NTSC 16:9
Sound Format: 2.0 / 5.0 PCM Audio
Region Code: 0 (All Regions)
Menu Languages: English
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch
Running Time: 198 min

View Full Page

J. Strauss Jr.: Die Fledermaus / Armstrong, Allen [Blu-ray]
Opus Arte May 2008
Blu-Ray
$26.99

Bach: Orchestral Suites

Brilliant Classics

$13.99 May 26, 2015

Can one ever tire of the dancing inspiration that animates these four portmanteau collections which have delighted both serious and casual listeners ever since Bach compiled them for use in social occasions as the 30-something Kapellmeister at the briefly enlightened court of Prince Leopold of Cöthen, exulting in the multifarious influences which he had absorbed and could place at the service of a compositional mind of unequalled intellectual brilliance yet always conscious of his music’s need to entertain, to give delight as well as accompany the sober thoughts of his congregations?

Not, at any rate, in these performances from a virtuoso German ensemble hailing from Bach’s own part of the world and masterminded by a superb trumpeter-turned-conductor who well understands the exuberant, public character of these suites, their occasional purposes, for all that in such moments as the famous Air from the G major Suite, No.3, they appear to take on a more confiding aspect, drawing the listener in before dispelling the tension with another jolly minuet or charming sarabande.

This generously filled CD presents the complete Orchestral Suites (Overtures) by J.S. Bach. Bach’s Suites count among his most popular and most frequently performed works, they are quintessential Bach: majestic, noble, tender and full of energy. They contain some of Bach’s evergreens: the Air from the 3rd Suite and the Badinerie from the 2nd Suite.

Played by the Virtuosi Saxoniae conducted by trumpeter-conductor Ludwig Güttler, modern instruments in Historically Informed Performance Practice, the best of both worlds. - Brilliant Classics

View Full Page

Bach: Orchestral Suites
Brilliant Classics May 2015
CD
$13.99

WAGNER: DAS RHEINGOLD (ORIGINAL SOURCE SERIES)

DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON

Vinyl

$148.49 May 01, 2026

According to Karajan's own account, it was during the summer of 1965, while he was working on Boris Godunov, that he had a vision of the future: "I suddenly sensed a burning desire to stage and conduct Wagner in Salzburg." His dream, very much in the spirit of Wagner himself: "My baton shall teach future ages which road they have to take." The Original Source Series from Deutsche Grammophon features celebrated recordings reissued on vinyl. Remastered by the renowned Berlin-based Emil Berliner Studios using 100% pure analogue techniques to create versions of the highest possible audio quality. Produced on 180g virgin vinyl by Optimal and housed in deluxe gatefold editions, featuring additional photos and/or recording documentation. For the first time, OSS will use the original stereo master 2-track tape as source. Starting with 4-track in 2023 and expanding to 8-track in 2024, the year 2026 will see the first 2-track OSS release.

View Full Page

WAGNER: DAS RHEINGOLD (ORIGINAL SOURCE SERIES)
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON May 2026
Vinyl
$148.49

Berlin! Berlin! Berlin! - Kabarett und Exil

BIS

SACD

$21.99 Jul 03, 2026

Reflecting a society marked by profound upheaval, the music of 1920s-1940s Germany was caught between vitality and despair. The era featured a diverse blend of classical traditions, popular rhythms, and early jazz, yielding everything from energetic cabaret chansons to somber ballads. The period's signature sound, Berlin's own "Prussian swing", fused rigid marching rhythms with jazz syncopation, creating a uniquely austere yet light style that avoided authentic African-American influences. By masking melancholy and sharp political commentary behind cheerful melodies, these songs captured a nation's collective tension and rebellion. Acting as a cultural seismograph from the Weimar awakening to the collapse of the Third Reich, this music continues to resonate today as a testament to finding beauty and humor amid adversity. Renowned and versatile mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, accompanied by the Salon Orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin under the baton of Adam Benzwi, presents a recital featuring songs with plenty of lyricism, crazy nonsense, seriousness, beautiful melodies, and operetta numbers; a colourful mix enabling us to experience the underlying sadness beneath the glamour of beauty.

View Full Page

Berlin! Berlin! Berlin! - Kabarett und Exil
BIS Jul 2026
SACD
$21.99

Mix & Match

Suk: Asrael - Krejci: Serenada / Ancerl, Southwest German Radio Symphony Baden-Baden

SWR

$13.99 Feb 09, 2018

This is the only available official recording of Karel Ancerl conducting Josef Suk’s Asrael. Asrael is central to Josef Suk’s oeuvre and an outstanding work in the Czech music repertoire. The prominent standing of the conductor Karel Ancerl is due mainly to his success in establishing the Czech Philharmonic as one of the world’s most eminent and successful orchestras in only a few years’ time. Under his great predecessor Vaclav Talich, the most significant Czech conductor of the twentieth century, the orchestra was able to flourish primarily in its home country, yet under Ancerl it became, despite the restrictions of the Cold War, an orchestra that was celebrated everywhere, whose 1959 world tour went down in history as the longest and most extensive ever up to that time. A stirring intepretation of the Südwestfunk-Orchestra of Baden-Baden, digitally remastered from the SWR original tapes!

REVIEW:

Firstly, it is doubtful the orchestra was familiar with either score prior to this recording. Secondly, it appears that this was the conductor’s first engagement with them—though, unsurprisingly, he was invited back in 1969. To achieve such committed, marvellously played and eloquent performances of unfamiliar repertoire when conductor and orchestra had no prior relationship is a remarkable achievement.

The sound is pretty impressive, wearing its five decades lightly. It presents a very realistic aural picture of Ančerl’s interpretations. N,o one buying this disc will be disappointed on sonic grounds. What you will definitely get if you buy this disc is a memorable performance of a great Czech symphony. This an important release and a major addition to the Ančerl discography.

View Full Page

Suk: Asrael - Krejci: Serenada / Ancerl, Southwest German Radio Symphony Baden-Baden
SWR Feb 2018
CD
$13.99

Deutsche Volkslieder fur Sopran, Bariton und Gitarre

Prospero Classical

$20.99 Aug 21, 2026

Brahms' folk-song settings rank among the most poetic miniatures of his oeuvre. Poised between artful simplicity and Romantic inwardness, they preserve the inflection and narrative candour of oral tradition while elevating it into the realm of Kunstlied. By replacing the piano with guitar, this recording moves the songs closer to their vernacular roots: the texture becomes transparent, the timbre warmer, the expressive gesture more immediate. Sopranist Theresa Pilsl and baritone Jonas Muller approach these songs with idiomatic diction, stylistic acuity and compelling narrative presence - tender and lyrical, playfully dialogic and disarmingly direct. Leonard Becker shapes the guitar part with a refined ear for color and resonance. His playing unites rhythmic precision with cantabile phrasing, creating a breathing acoustic space in which the voices unfold naturally.

View Full Page

Deutsche Volkslieder fur Sopran, Bariton und Gitarre
Prospero Classical Aug 2026
CD
$20.99

Mix & Match

MOZART JUBILEE EDITION / VARIOUS

ELOQUENCE AUSTRALIA

$97.49 Oct 10, 2025

A gallery of Mozart performances from the mid-1950s, including many forgotten and newly remastered recordings. Deutsche Grammophon marked the 200th anniversary of Mozart's birth in 1956 with a 6LP 'Jubilee Edition'. Three 'evenings' of orchestral, chamber and vocal music drew on DG's most experienced and dynamic Mozartians, from Ferenc Fricsay and Clara Haskil to Maria Stader and Igor Markevitch. This is now republished complete for the first time, and expanded to three times it's original length, including many other fine Mozart recordings made at the time such as the pianists Mieczyslaw Horszowski and Helmut Roloff in concertos; Bernhard Paumgartner in one of Mozart's most substantial Salzburg divertimenti; Fritz Lehmann conducting early symphonies and opera overtures; and much more. While DG was commemorating Mozart in grand style, it's sister label Archiv released many new recordings of the composer which broke new ground either in terms of repertoire or performance style. The Piano Concerto K.414 and the Sonata K.331 were played on rare fortepianos from Mozart's own time. The Vocal Canons - illustrating the composer's ribald humor as well as his family's use of music as a private means of communication - were recorded by the choir of North German radio. Mozart's treasury of song was also documented for the first time, and in delicious performances featuring the soprano Margot Guilleaume and the fortepianist Fritz Neumeyer. In 1956 itself, Archiv released a live performance of the Requiem which had been given at the Stephansdom in December the previous year, on the date of his death, by Eugen Jochum. Issued as a liturgical reconstruction of what the composer's own funeral might have sounded like, this conveys a powerful mood of commemoration thanks to the conducting of Eugen Jochum and a line-up of soloists led by Irmgard Seefried. Many of these Archiv albums have never been reissued in the digital era, until now. They bring valuable context to a gallery of Mozart as he was seen and heard, two centuries after his birth. Drawing on ideas and recollections from several of the artists represented in the box, such as Irmgard Seefried and Wolfgang Paumgartner, the booklet essay by Peter Quantrill is complemented by a range of photographs as well as Original Cover artwork which evokes the mid-1950s.

View Full Page

MOZART JUBILEE EDITION / VARIOUS
ELOQUENCE AUSTRALIA Oct 2025
CD
$97.49

WINTERREISE

DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON

$16.60 May 24, 2024

Andre Schuen/Daniel Heide - "Schubert: Winterreise" / With this album, baritone Andre Schuen and longstanding accompanist Daniel Heide complete Schubert's three big song cycles, among which Winterreise holds a special place for the singer. "Almost everyone would agree with me when I say that it is the first work that comes to mind when you talk about Lieder. The feeling that you're always at the beginning with this work never goes away." - Andre Schuen. CD Digipak.

View Full Page

WINTERREISE
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON May 2024
CD
$16.60

Schutz: Complete Recordings, Vol. 2 / Rademann, Dresden Chamber Choir

Carus

$74.99 Oct 06, 2017

The first part of the Heinrich Schutz Complete Recording with the Dresdner Kammerchor under Hans-Christoph Rademann has set new artistic and editorial standards. Now the second of three album sets is being released. It encompasses Volumes 9 to 14 of the Complete Recording, including the St John Passion. This work, representative of the high standard of the whole series, was awarded the German Record Critics’ Award in 2016. Once again, top performers such as Hille Perl, Lee Santana, Dorothee Mields, Harry van der Kamp, and many others join the ensemble. Vol. 9 Auferstehungshistorie (The Resurrection) (album 12) Vol. 10 Weihnachtshistorie (Christmas History) (album 13) Vol. 11 Matthäuspassion (St Matthew Passion) (CD 14) Vol. 12 Symphoniae Sacrae III (CD 15–16) Vol. 13 Johannespassion (St John Passion) (album 17) Vol. 14 Symphoniae Sacrae I (albums 18–19).

View Full Page

Schutz: Complete Recordings, Vol. 2 / Rademann, Dresden Chamber Choir
Carus Oct 2017
CD
$74.99

Balanchine's Jewels / Paris National Opera Ballet [Blu-ray]

Opus Arte

Blu-Ray

$39.99 Oct 28, 2008

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

In 2000, seventeen years after George Balanchine’s death, a rare and precious ballet arrived at the Paris Opéra: Jewels, a work first performed by the New York City Ballet in 1967. This alluring, abstract ballet, a triptych in which each piece sparkles with the brilliance of a precious stone, is a lyric tribute to women and to the capital cities of the great dance schools. Couturier, painter and craftsman Christian Lacroix created the glorious costumes and sets which, together with the outstanding performances of the dancers and the sensitive musical direction of Paul Connelly, results in a celebration of sumptuous splendour. Aurélie Dupont, Marie-Agnès Gillot, Agnès Letestu, Clairemarie Osta, Laëtitia Pujol, Jean-Guillaume Bart, Kader Belarbi, Mathieu Ganio

Ballet de L’Opéra national de Paris
Orchestre de L’Opéra national de Paris

Choreography: George Balanchine
Musical Director: Paul Connelly
Set & costume design: Christian Lacroix

Recorded live at the Opéra national de Paris, October & November 2005.

Repertoire:
Gabriel Fauré - Pelléas and Mélisande and Shylock
Igor Stravinsky - Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Symphony No.3 in D major

Plus:
George Balanchine forever - A film by Reiner E. Moritz

Reviews:
"For Rubies nothing but delight. Aurélie Dupont, Marie-Agnes Gillot, Alessio Carbonne were electric, super charged, at the head of a fizzing cast, hard edged, hard driven, hard to beat." -- Financial Times

"A gem of dazzling brilliance." -- The Independent

Region code: 0 (all regions)
Picture: 1080i
Sound: 2.0 & 5.0 PCM Audio
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian

View Full Page

Balanchine's Jewels / Paris National Opera Ballet [Blu-ray]
Opus Arte Oct 2008
Blu-Ray
$39.99

Brahms: German Requiem; Schutz / Fuge, Brook, Gardiner

SDG

$20.99 Mar 27, 2012

Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem is presented along pieces by Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) which might have inspired its composition, giving the listener a new insight into the composer’s mind and music making. Deeply moving, profound, and powerful, the Requiem is central to our understanding of Brahms’ compositional personality and inner spiritual life. Behind its dramatic gestures and 19th century grandeur, it reveals Brahms’ obsessions with folk-songs and the music of the past. The libretto, assembled by Brahms himself based on the Lutheran Bible, makes it a definitive personal statement of his position in matters of religion. The booklet includes a note by composer Hugh Wood, explaining how the pieces relate to each other and giving a moving account of Brahms as a composer and as a man.

View Full Page

Brahms: German Requiem; Schutz / Fuge, Brook, Gardiner
SDG Mar 2012
CD
$20.99

An der schönen blauen Donau: Walzer und Polkas der Strauss-F
Berlin Classics Apr 2008
CD
$10.99

Barbetta: Lute Music

Brilliant Classics

$12.99 Feb 27, 2026

Including many world-premiere recordings, the first-ever album dedicated to the music of a 16th-century lutenist-composer from Padova: a sequence of virtuosic, restlessly inventive fantasias and dances. The music on this album is drawn from a 1582 collection, Novae tabulae musicae testudinariae hexachordae et heptachordae. The frontispiece shows a figure, likely Barbetta himself, casting a broken lute into the fire, beneath which reads a defiant inscription: 'I shall never willingly entrust the lute to the ignorant or the envious, but to one born of flame shall I commit it - for neither ignorance nor envy shall ever be able to achieve what he can.' Beyond the collection itself, little is known about it's author, Cecilio Cesare Barbetta (c. 1540-c. 1623). Living and working in the university city of Padova, Barbetta was evidently exposed to German cultural models through the members of the German nobility who passed through the city. Many of his 14 Fantasias are intricate four-part contrapuntal works, requiring both technical mastery and a deep understanding of musical structure from the performer. By contrast, Barbetta also wrote (or elaborated) not only traditional Italian dances like the Saltarello but also pieces with exotic character, such as the Moresca, a traditional Moorish dance from North Africa. This album has been a labour of love for the Japanese lutenist Mikiya Kaisho, whose booklet essay details his work in transcribing Barbetta's music from facsimiles of the original tablatures. 'My hope was to craft a musical narrative,' he writes, 'carefully designed to allow anyone to enjoy the lute's delicate and intimate resonance in daily life, on a journey through a vibrant and multifaceted sound world.'

View Full Page

Barbetta: Lute Music
Brilliant Classics Feb 2026
CD
$12.99

Mix & Match

Pfitzner: Das dunkle Reich, Op. 38
CPO Jan 1900
CD
$18.99

Strauss: Eine Nacht In Venedig / Clear, Singer, Schorkhuber, Irosch

Videoland

DVD

$32.99 Nov 11, 2014

Featuring: Marc Clear; Gideon Singer; Evelyn Schorkhuber; Anton Steingruber; Mirjana Irosch; Wilhelm Gartner; Ingrid Habermann; Christian Baumgartel; Markus Heinrich; Christine Bath; Chor und Statisterie der Seefestspiele Morbisch; Ballett der Seefestspiele Morbisch

Live performance from 1999
Language: German
Subtitles: English
Run Time: 126 minutes

View Full Page

Strauss: Eine Nacht In Venedig / Clear, Singer, Schorkhuber, Irosch
Videoland Nov 2014
DVD
$32.99

Brahms: Symphonies, Piano Concertos & Serenades / Rosbaud, Southwest German Radio Symphony

SWR

$45.99 Mar 08, 2019

This is a new installment of SWR CLASSIC-series dedicated to Hans Rosbaud. It contains all the recordings the Austrian conductor made for the SWR, some of them being for the first time released on modern recording technology. The recordings were made shortly (days!) before his death. Both Piano Concertos are interpreted by famous pianists of the 20th century: Walter Gieseking and Géza Anda, Gramophone recently remarked that Rosbaud "was one of the unsung heroes of mid-20th-century music, who ... gave thoroughly rehearsed and assimilated performances and premieres of the widest possible range of music". In Fanfare, Peter J. Rabinowitz pointed to range of his sympathies, claiming it was "greater than that of just about any of his contemporaries except perhaps Bernstein, Scherchen, and Stokowski. Rosbaud is best remembered, probably, for his Mahler, his Bruckner, his work with the Second Vienna School ... and especially his commitment to the post-war avant-garde…”

View Full Page

Brahms: Symphonies, Piano Concertos & Serenades / Rosbaud, Southwest German Radio Symphony
SWR Mar 2019
CD
$45.99

MAAZEL: THE COMPLETE EARLY RECORDINGS ON DEUTSCHE

DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON

$86.99 Feb 17, 2015

18 CDs, cap box. For the first time, DG brings together all of it's celebrated early Maazel recordings. Iconic stuff in a handsome, limited-edition box, offered at an attractive price, with gorgeous original cover art. Highlights include Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6, Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 2-6 & 8 "Unfinished," "Romeo & Juliet" by Berlioz, Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, Prokofiev: "Peter and the Wolf" & more.

View Full Page

MAAZEL: THE COMPLETE EARLY RECORDINGS ON DEUTSCHE
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON Feb 2015
CD
$86.99

MARRINER CONDUCTS BEETHOVEN

DECCA

$77.27 May 31, 2024

Verve Label Group - Marriner Conducts Beethoven - Sir Neville Marriner - 15 April 2024 marks the centenary of the birth of Sir Neville Marriner, widely considered to have the most extensive discography of any single musician. He recorded for most of Decca's imprints - L'Oiseau-Lyre, Decca, Argo, and by acquisition, Philips Classics. He also recorded extensively for EMI and, in the final chapter of his discographical history, Hanssler Classics. - Known and celebrated for his recordings of Baroque music and of Mozart, Marriner also made highly-desired recordings of Beethoven with 'his' Academy of St. Martin in the Fields - a chapter in his recorded history being gathered together for the first time. - In September 1970 he set down recordings of Beethoven's first two symphonies for Philips. These were first included in a 4-LP set entitled 'The Rise of the Symphony' (6707 013). One more symphony, No. 4, coupled with a string-orchestra transcription of the 'Grosse Fuge' was set down in December 1974. Perhaps a complete Beethoven symphony cycle was never envisaged at the time, for it wasn't until the 1980s that recordings of Beethoven symphonies gathered momentum, starting with the 'Eroica' in 1982 and concluding with the Ninth in April 1989. - Two recordings of the Violin Concerto were also made: with long-standing leader of the Academy, Iona Brown (herself also a conductor) in January 1980 for Argo, and quite surprisingly, again in December that year with Gidon Kremer for Philips, who incorporated two of the Schnittke cadenzas into his performance. These were rounded out with a disc of a selection of charming Minuets, German Dances and Contredanses, also for Philips, in 1978.

View Full Page

MARRINER CONDUCTS BEETHOVEN
DECCA May 2024
CD
$77.27

Malin Bystrom - German Opera Scenes & Arias

BIS

SACD

$21.99 Apr 17, 2026

Swedish soprano Malin Bystrom, hailed as one of today's leading singing actors, presents a captivating journey through her celebrated German repertoire. Renowned for her perfect vocal technique, Bystrom brings to life arias and scenes that have enthralled audiences on stage and in concert, accompanied by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under Thomas Sondergard. The album features excerpts from two 19th-century German operas among her favorites: Beethoven's Fidelio and Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischutz. It also spotlights Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Die Tote Stadt, a lushly orchestrated work that, despite today's relative obscurity, was one of the greatest hits of the 1920s. However, it is Richard Strauss who takes center stage, a composer whose genius for the female voice is unmatched. Bystrom's voice, described by critics as "radiant," "sparkling," and "silvery," soars through the opulence of Die agyptische Helena, the timeless lyricism of Capriccio, and the dramatic intensity of Salome's final scene. This album is a testament to her artistry, showcasing her mastery across the breadth of German operatic tradition.

View Full Page

Malin Bystrom - German Opera Scenes & Arias
BIS Apr 2026
SACD
$21.99

Mix & Match

Variations on Silbermann

Querstand

$19.99 Sep 18, 2026

The CD program Variations on Silbermann is a homage to this late-period gem of Silbermann's craft, consecrated in the chapel of eastern Thuringia Schloss Burgk in 1743, and to music of the 17th- and 18th-century composers who either hailed from Central Germany or were active there. A broader musical horizon is suggested by the inclusion of the Neapolitan Alessandro Scarlatti, whose groundbreaking contributions to keyboard music have all too often been eclipsed by the fame of his son Domenico Scarlatti. The program features variation works from the time of the Burgk Silbermann organ's construction while presenting the entire spectrum of Baroque structural and tonal possibilities on a single-manual instrument. Daniel Beilschmidt, today University Organist in Leipzig and Castle Organist in Altenburg, grew up not far away from Schloss Burgk and knows very well the instrument and it's sound possibilities.

View Full Page

Variations on Silbermann
Querstand Sep 2026
CD
$19.99