This new album of two piano quartets by Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) features pianist Lars Vogt’s last recordings. Before his untimely death and between treatments, Lars Vogt was able to record a multi-award-winning album of piano chamber music works by Schubert together with Christian Tetzlaff and Tanja Tetzlaff, as well as albums of Mozart’s and Mendelssohn’s piano concertos. However, a project to record Brahms’ complete piano quartets was left unfinished after the studio recording of Piano Quartet No. 2. With the help of recording producer Christoph Franke, this recording, together with Piano Quartet No. 3 from a live concert performance in connection with the studio recording, is now available. Combined, these make up Lars Vogt’s last recordings. Violinist Christian Tetzlaff, violist Barbara Buntrock, and cellist Tanja Tetzlaff offer stellar performances in these landmark recordings and fulfill Lars Vogt’s late wish to have these performances released.

Composer Magnus Lindberg (b. 1958) is one of Europe’s leading names in contemporary music. His compositional journey has evolved from the steely,edgy modernism of his early work to the soft, sonorous sound worlds of his recent output. Lindberg’s latest compositions reflect a more emollient sound world, built on a harmonic environment rooted in pentatonic scales, and at times even evoke the influences of Debussy and Impressionism. This new album by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and its chief conductor, Nicholas Collon, features some of Lindberg’s most recent orchestral compositions, culminating in his new Viola Concerto, a substantial new work masterfully performed by Lawrence Power as soloist.

In September 2024, the music world celebrates the 200th anniversary of Anton Bruckner’s birth in 1824. To coincide with the anniversary itself, and following the release of Bruckner’s Ninth earlier in 2024, Accentus Music releases this new recording of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 2 with the Bamberg Symphony, this time under the musical direction of their conductor laureate Christoph Eschenbach. Composed in a rather restless and pessimistic state of mind, Bruckner’s Second oscillates between heartfelt prayers, desperate outbursts, helpless silence, and ecstatic dance scenes.

A production of Accentus Music in co-production with BR-KLASSIK.

The composer, pianist, and conductor Gerard Schurmann (1924 – 2020) was born in Kertosono, Java, which was then part of the Dutch East Indies. The family lived within earshot of the resident gamelan orchestras at the Sultan’s Palace, and hearing the pentatonic scales and intricate rhythms of this traditional Indonesian music made a lasting impression on the young Gerard. During the 1950s and 1960s, Schurmann was best known for his film scores, particularly The Long Arm (1956; CHAN10979) and Horrors of the Black Museum (1959; CHAN10979). Man in the Sky is a Concert Overture derived from Schurmann’s score for the eponymous film. The Piano Concerto was written for the great British pianist John Ogdon, who gave the première in November 1973. The work is laid out in two movements, the first rapid and virtuosic, the second broader and more contemplative. Romancing the Strings is a set of six short variations on an original theme which Schurmann wrote originally for a Disney feature that was eventually broadcast as Dr Syn – Alias the Scarecrow (CHAN10979). The programme concludes with Gaudiana, a set of Symphonic Studies for orchestra inspired by the work of the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, which was first performed by the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya under Rumon Gamba in December 2005.

Markus Poschner’s acclaimed recordings of Bruckner’s symphonies bring together the versions identified as having significant revisions and changes in the authoritative New Anton Bruckner Complete Edition. It reflects the latest research and the most up-to-date editorial criteria, making this 18-Disc set the definitive Bruckner symphonies cycle. From the embryonic ‘Student Symphony’ in F Minor to the glorious but incomplete Ninth, these are works filled with endless fascination and profound depths of emotion, revealing a composer solidly grounded in Austrian tradition while simultaneously looking towards infinity.

The fourth volume in this series explores a pivotal decade in Claudio Santoro’s compositions. In the 1950s, he moved from serialism towards nationalism starting with the transitional, reflective Canto de Amor e Paz (Song of Love and Peace) and continuing with Symphony No. 4 which proved to be one of his most accessible and influential works. His Symphony No. 6 of 1958 is short but original, luminous and sombre by turns. The concertante works for saxophone and violin show Santoro’s command of dance rhythms, colourful lyricism and virtuosity.

Famous for his role as the keyboard player in rock band Genesis and as a solo artist, Tony Banks was always fascinated by the idea of writing orchestral music. His success in composing for films led to the acclaimed Seven – A Suite for Orchestra. The intense orchestral sound pictures in Seven, Six, and Five rank among some of Banks’s most accomplished recordings, marrying experimentation with form and structure, and a trademark melodic character which powerfully conveys both melancholy and joy.

Paul Wranitzky, Mozart’s masonic brother, was a favourite composer of the Viennese court for which he wrote exclusive compositions. Wranitzky was a characterful composer with a masterful sense of orchestration, but his sudden death in 1808 saw his legacy overshadowed by his contemporaries Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven. The composer’s mature Symphony in C Major is a fine example of his abilities, and the finale of the Symphony in D Major bursts into life in fine Janissary style, complete with triangle, cymbals and Turkish drum.

One special aspect of Sofia Gubaidulina’s music is that at the end of the 1970s she discovered the sound characteristics and expressive possibilities of the bayan, a button accordion that had previously been popular only as a folk music instrument in Russia; she then established it as an instrument of contemporary music through numerous inspired compositions. She was supported and accompanied in this endeavour by bayan performers such as Friedrich Lips in Moscow and the Swiss musician Elsbeth Moser, who taught in Hanover. The creation of the Triple Concerto for violin, cello and bayan can be traced back to a suggestion by Elsbeth Moser.

For the five movements of the sonata Rejoice! for violin and cello (1981), Gubaidulina chose various quotations from the writings of the Ukrainian ‘travelling philosopher’ Grigori Skoworoda (1722–1794), who called for poverty and self-deepening as a prerequisite for finding God. The composer explained: ‘The theme of my work is the metaphorical representation of the transition to another reality, expressed through the juxtaposition of normal sound and harmonics.’ Due to its clear religious references, it was not possible to premiere the work until 1988, in Finland.

This album features performances of less frequently recorded orchestral works by Igor Stravinsky. They showcase the versatility of the Russian composer, who was never a supporter of any particular genre of aesthetic expression. On the contrary, he saw composing as an intellectual game, an attempt to solve self-imposed musical problems that could be kindled equally by Italian Baroque music, by the polyphonic structures of the Renaissance, by jazz, or by Anton Webern’s serial tone complexes.

As an opera conductor, orchestra director, festival director, and author, Ingo Metzmacher is renowned for his steadfast commitment to 20th- and 21st-century music. He is a frequent guest conductor of major orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Ensemble Modern, as well as at opera houses and festivals such as the Vienna State Opera, the Opéra National de Paris, Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, the Salzburg Festival and the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.

The Symphony No. 3, ‘Scottish’ was inspired by Mendelssohn’s sightseeing visit in 1829 – it wasn’t completed until 1842 and is one of the composer’s last orchestral works. Visiting Holyrood Chapel, he wrote in a letter that ‘Everything is ruined, decayed, and the clear heavens pour in. I think I have found there the beginning of my Scottish Symphony.’ The work’s unity and cyclic structure is balanced by the stormy poetry of the writing. Romanian-born conductor Sergiu Comissiona galvanised the Baltimore Symphony turning it into an orchestra of national prominence during his tenure as Music Director from 1969 to 1984. Their previously unreleased 1977 recording of excerpts from A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a new discovery from the Vox archives.

Belgian maestro Bert Appermont has created one of the most versatile and eclectic catalogues of band music in the past twenty-five years. His repertoire includes symphonies, solo concertos, audiovisual music, operas, and musicals, all of which have gained significant prominence and are frequently performed by bands across the globe.

Appermont composed Trencadís (2022) on commission from the BMB. Inspired by Respighi’s Fontane di Roma, this work captures the essence of Barcelona through four evocative movements, depicting the city from bustling morning to the tranquil night. Featuring a stunning vocal performance by Marta Mathéu, Appermont’s score creates a colourful mosaic that celebrates Barcelona’s unique spirit and cultural heritage.

In 1985, Andrew Lloyd Webber presented his Requiem to the public, a move that generated considerable surprise. While classical musicians had occasionally ventured into the spheres of the ‘light music’, it was rare from musicals or operettas to transition into the sublime heights of sacred music.

Andrew Lloyd Webber is world-famous as the composer of the musicals Cats and The Phantom of the Opera, but his Requiem has also achieved international acclaim. Winner of a GRAMMY Award, this grand-sounding masterpiece of contemporary classical music, written in 1985, is dedicated to the memory of Webber’s late father. This live recording from the Herz-Jesu Church in Munich features the Bavarian Radio Chorus, accompanied by a select ensemble of soloists, under the baton of principal guest conductor Patrick Hahn.

Walter Braunfels’ music died twice: first, when the Nazis declared it ‘degenerate art’; and again when post-war Germany had little use for the various schools of tonal music. This was the period when arbiters of taste considered any form of romantic music – which meant practically the whole pre-war aesthetic – to be tainted. We now reach the 10th volume in Capriccio’s Braunfels Edition, which features one of his most popular operas. What makes Jeanne d’Arc such an uncommonly effective music drama is not only the frequently sumptuous, post-romantic musical language, but also the libretto, which was assembled by Braunfels himself. The central thread of Joan of Arc’s story is known well enough: her vision, her contribution to the liberation of Orléans and the coronation of the Dauphin, and her subsequent arrest, trial, and burning at the stake. Braunfels somehow managed to put together a libretto from the original 15th-century French and Latin documentation of Joan of Arc’s trial, a snippet from George Bernard Shaw’s play Saint Joan, and his own writing, which together make this story and its characters – in many ways so far removed from a modern audience’s sensibilities and experience – relatable to listeners today.

Tenor Charles Castronovo celebrates his first Delos solo album with an all Verdi programme which showcases the composer’s spellbinding use of theatrical devices. Noble Renegades offers a collection of complete scenes from operas such as Don Carlos, Luisa Miller, and I Lombardi which encompass the emotional arc the protagonists experience as the story unfolds, very much epitomizing Verdi’s vision of opera as a true ‘operatic theatre’. This album shows Verdi’s profound influence on Charles’s career, featuring roles he has performed all over the world. He is accompanied by ‘the singer’s dream collaborator’ Constantine Orbelian and his Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra. Distinguished singers Kristin Sampson, Tomas Pavilionis, and Tadas Girininkas, along with the Kaunas State Choir, also join in.

Mandy Fredrich’s album brings together a series of art songs that create coherent arcs and extended storylines, like a kind of mini-opera. The composers’ songs were used to put together four stories about lovers, all of which revolve around the theme of dreamy happiness in all its different facets!

After her breakthrough in the role of the Queen of the Night at the Salzburg Festival under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, engagements followed at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and the New National Theatre in Tokyo, the Zürich Opera House, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the State Operas in Munich and Hamburg, and at the Bregenz Festival. Matthias Samuil has been Mandy Fredrich's accompanist for many years.

Steal a Pencil for Me by composer Gerald Cohen and librettist Deborah Brevoort, is an opera in two acts about one of the Holocaust’s most poignant love stories. It depicts the relationship between Jaap Polak, a Dutch accountant, and Ina Soep, the daughter of a wealthy diamond manufacturer, who fell in love while imprisoned in the Westerbork and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. Inspired by their published love letters, Steal a Pencil for Me explores themes of the indomitable human spirit and the power to endure adversity.

Gerald Cohen, who knew Jaap and Ina for over 25 years, was deeply moved by their story and letters. He and Deborah Brevoort met with the couple many times during the libretto’s creation. Jaap and Ina attended the first workshop of the opera, which celebrated Jaap’s 100th and Ina’s 90th birthdays. Steal a Pencil for Me was given its premiere production in 2018 by Opera Colorado.

The album, recorded in Denver in 2022, features most of the central performers of the Opera Colorado production, with Ari Pelto as conductor, and (in the principal vocal roles) Gideon Dabi as Jaap, Inna Dukach as Ina, and Adriana Zabala as Manja.

Vagn Holmboe (1909–96) stands as one of the greatest 20th-century composers of string quartets, with a monumental series of 21 quartets demonstrating his distinctive metamorphosis method. Holmboe’s vibrant and organic quartet works are profoundly rooted in a Buddhist inspired perspective on life, an outlook which, though he kept it private, led him to view all manifestations of life as part of a cosmic whole. Equally essential is the influence from folk music. This third volume of the acclaimed Nightingale String Quartet series captures Holmboe at the peak of his creativity, with his musical metamorphosis practice fully flourishing.

Guitarp Duo has impressed and enchanted the press and audiences alike with their conceptually designed concerts during the last twenty years. Its newest programme, Miroirs d’Espagne, weaves together mysterious Andalusian melodies, sensual habaneras and vivacious flamenco rhythms all in one. Homenaje, Manuel de Falla’s masterpiece for the guitar which is dedicated to Claude Debussy, has inspired this program.

The meticulous transcription of the original piano works by Manuel de Falla, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel are rich with Arabic, Jewish and Gitano traditions in which the Guitarp Duo interpretations highlight new sound shadings in the works of these impressionistic masters.

Gardens is more than just an album title for the Harp Trio Chagall; it’s a testament to their resilience and artistic vision. Born out of the isolation and uncertainty of the pandemic, this recording project celebrates rebirth and the enduring power of music. The album explores the rich history of chamber music, drawing inspiration from iconic composers like Claude Debussy, Tōru Takemitsu, André Jolivet, Kaija Saariaho, and Sofia Gubaidulina. Each piece offers a unique sonic journey, transporting listeners to different eras and emotional landscapes. Concluding the trio’s exploration is Garten von Freuden und Traurigkeiten, a piece that uniquely and thought-provokingly blends Eastern and Western musical traditions. This composition represents a journey through contrasting cultural influences, showcasing the beauty and complexity of both worlds.

A luminary of the Parisian musical establishment as composer, pianist and teacher, Louise Farrenc won the admiration of her contemporaries, not least Robert Schumann. Her Rondos were composed within the period of a decade and are delicious examples of her art – graceful, elegant and expressive.

Some of them are based on operatic themes or on songs, while others are simpler and intended for younger performers. ‘Maria Stratigou has a full mastery of Farrenc’s romantic style and a technique to match’, wrote American Record Guide of the first volume in this acclaimed series (GP912-13).

When Danish composer Carl Nielsen completed his Third Symphony, he described the first movement as ‘a gust of energy and life-affirmation blown out into the wide world’ and referred to the finale as ‘a hymn to work and the healthy activity of everyday life’ – a rare sense of optimism for us in the 21st century! Before the advent of mechanical recordings, four-hand arrangements served both as a delightful social activity and as an invaluable means of making large-scale works accessible to gifted amateurs who might not otherwise have the opportunity to hear them in concert. These arrangements also helped promote the works to conductors and concert programmers.

This world premiere recording album features two works from Nielsen’s opera Saul & David, arranged by Nielsen himself for piano duet, and is brilliantly performed by Rikke Sandberg and Kristoffer Hyldig.

This captivating monographic recording is dedicated to Federico Bufaletti, a once-forgotten artist and a key figure in the Neapolitan piano school who relocated to Turin at the end of the nineteenth century. The album offers an in-depth exploration of Bufaletti’s dual role as both composer and pianist. It features his complete piano works, as well as rare early twentieth-century recordings of Bufaletti performing pieces by Scarlatti, Debussy, Mozart, Liszt, and others. The album also includes works dedicated to Bufaletti by notable Italian piano school such as Alessandro Longo, Costantino Palumbo, Gaetano Foschini, and Pietro Floridia. Pianist Massimiliano Génot, known for his acclaimed recording on Giuseppe Unia’s piano works (TC812101), interprets Bufaletti’s music on this recording.

Johann Strauß’s Die Fledermaus (The Bat) has been part of the Bayerische Staatsoper’s repertoire since 1895 and has always been performed there by star-studded casts. In December 2023, the curtain rose on a spectacular new production of this piece. Director Barrie Kosky gave the ‘operetta of all operettas’ a new look: a society, an entire city dances towards the abyss in a colourful, lavish set (stage design: Rebecca Ringst, costumes: Klaus Bruns). The setting is Vienna, the city of the golden operetta era, where Die Fledermaus premiered in 1874. The people celebrate while they still can, true to the motto: ‘Happy is the one who forgets…’ General Music Director Vladimir Jurowski – in his third new Munich production together with Barrie Kosky – brings new aspects of the score to the fore. Diana Damrau makes her role debut as Rosalinde, Georg Nigl interprets her husband Gabriel von Eisenstein, Katharina Konradi appears as Adele, and Martin Winkler as Frank; other roles feature Markus Brück (Dr. Falke), Sean Panikkar (Alfred), Kevin Conners (Dr. Blind), and Miriam Neumaier (Ida). The actor Franz Josef Strohmeier and the tap dancer Max Pollak, among others, play the six-fold frog.

Special concerts reserved for subscribers offer exceptional quality and, due to their limited availability, have an average waiting time of more than 10 years. With this series, these very special concerts are made available for the first time audiovisually to a wider audience worldwide. For this subscription concert, the Wiener Philharmoniker invited a long-time artistic partner to take the podium: Christian Thielemann, who has a deep connection with the traditional Viennese orchestra through more than 140 concerts and a multitude of celebrated recordings. The live recording of his debut on the podium at the Vienna Musikverein almost 23 years ago promptly became a reference recording. On the programme then as now: Richard Strauss’ monumental Eine Alpensinfonie (‘An Alpine Symphony’). This work, often regarded as the final and climax of the ‘symphonic poem’ genre, is juxtaposed with Arnold Schönberg’s probably most famous tonal composition, the orchestral version of the string sextet Verklärte Nacht (‘Transfigured Night’). Composed in 1899, this highly expressive work by the 25-year-old Schönberg reads, in retrospect, like a swan song to the 19th century.

‘Bull’s eye,’ Carl Maria von Weber triumphantly wrote to his librettist Friedrich Kind after the enthusiastically received world premiere of Der Freischütz in 1821 in Berlin. With its emotional and gripping music, it soon became the epitome of German Romantic opera. As one of the most popular operas in the German-speaking world, Der Freischütz has now been staged on the Seebühne for the first time under the lead of director and stage designer Philipp Stölzl and conductor-in-residence Enrique Mazzola. The two teamed up again in Bregenz following their phenomenal success with Verdi’s Rigoletto. ‘The staging is overwhelming’ (Süddeutsche Zeitung). ‘A small theatre miracle is taking place in Bregenz’ (Der Tagesspiegel).

In 1835, Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor made its triumphant debut at the San Carlo in Naples. For its Parisian appearance four years later as Lucie de Lammermoor, the composer went much further than merely Gallicising the heroine’s first name, he subjected the opera to a condensation in which Lucie became the only woman in the entire cast. Donizetti’s orchestration remains largely the same but the French influence is audible in new recitatives. This later version is no surrogate or mere abridgement, but, perhaps because of its greater concision, is more brutal and emotional than the original.

Country boy Nemorino is determined to win the haughty Adina’s heart, but she refuses to give him the time of day. Can Doctor Dulcamara’s so-called ‘elixir of love’ work its magic?

Conductor Sesto Quatrini makes his house debut, as does soprano Nadine Sierra in the role of Adina. She is joined by Liparit Avetisyan, Boris Pinkhasovich and the incomparable Bryn Terfel as the genial wheeler-dealer Doctor Dulcamara.

John Singer Sargent is known as the greatest portrait artist of his era. What made his ‘swagger’ portraits remarkable was his power over his sitters, what they wore and how they were presented to the audience. Through interviews with curators, contemporary fashionistas and style influencers, Exhibition on Screen’s film will examine how Sargent’s unique practice has influenced modern art, culture and fashion.

Filmed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tate Britain, London, the exhibition reveals Sargent’s power to express distinctive personalities, power dynamics and gender identities during this fascinating period of cultural reinvention. Alongside 50 paintings by Sargent, sit stunning items of clothing and accessories worn by his subjects, drawing the audience into the artist’s studio. Sargent’s sitters were often wealthy, their clothes costly, but what happens when you turn yourself over to the hands of a great artist? The manufacture of public identity is as controversial and contested today as it was at the turn of the 20th century, but somehow Sargent’s work transcends the social noise and captures an alluring truth with each brush stroke.

Xavier Pagès-Corella showcases his inventive approach in Variacions Grotesques, a composition that delves into various dance forms. This work is based on a harmonic progression derived from his own comic opera, Bruna de nit. Through Variacions Grotesques, Pagès-Corella explores the variation technique, creating a continuous and dynamic flow. The piece is structured around eleven interconnected variations that build up to a climax with a sustained trill in the high register, though the original theme remains elusive in its entirety.

Commissioned by the Orfeó Català Foundation – Palau de la Música in 2005, this composition exemplifies Pagès-Corella’s ability to transform traditional dance forms into a modern narrative. His work reflects a deep engagement with both historical and contemporary musical languages, offering a fresh perspective on the dance genre.

With Adaptations, The Firebirds – Banke, Filipsen & Pasborg, a critically acclaimed Danish trio – carve out a musical realm where genres intertwine and strict fidelity takes on a fluid form. Departing from convention, the trio ignites a sequence of improvisations that evolve into fresh string quartets, composed by a variety of contemporary classical composers and performed by the Nordic String Quartet, ultimately morphing into new arrangements, creating an ever-changing musical landscape.

Roll up, roll up! All aboard the 19th century ZRI celebration cruise from Vienna to Odessa! Our legendary house band are as stylishly up to the moment as ever, reimagining the latest hits by Herren Rossini, Strauss, Schubert and even Dr Brahms with an intoxicating Romani twist!

60 years have passed since the release of a recording that would change Swedish jazz forever. Bill Evans, with his incredible touch and mastery of harmony has made an undeniable imprint on jazz musicians all over the world – and through his collaboration with Monica Zetterlund on Waltz for Debby in 1964, a new era for Scandinavian music was born.

Impressions of Evans is an effort to pay tribute to this – a gesture of gratitude for making pine trees and 5th Avenue come together in a remarkably seamless, beautiful way and for being the perfect example of how one plus one sometimes equals three.