Johann Sebastian Bach

Following the Brandenbrug Concertos, another Bach treasury from the Astrée repertoire: a milestone in the history of Jordi Savall and Le Concert des Nations.

These Four Orchestral Suites are an essential addition to the recently released Brandenburg Concertos.

SACD remastering enables us to fully enjoy the hearty, colourful and cheerful performance by Le Concert des Nations and Jordi Savall.

As usual, the digipak is lavishly illustrated and documented, with a 180pp booklet in six languages.

The best-known Baroque keyboard work in an interpretation that lands precisely on the narrow line dividing intellect from pianistic virtuosity, and also demonstrates immense stylistic variety.

Jacqueline du Pre’s career, though tragically brief, coincided with a golden age of recording.

This 17-disc treasury unites her entire EMI Classics legacy and includes – for the first time on CD – two Bach sonata movements from her 1962 debut recital for the label.

Interpretations long recognised as classic are joined by further rarities, among them the Lalo Cello Concerto, recorded with Daniel Barenboim and the Cleveland Orchestra in 1973, and, from 1968, Strauss’s Don Quixote under Sir Adrian Boult.

This collection includes the very latest Abbey Road remasters of Du Pré’s recordings in one definitive boxed set and offers the listener the ultimate listening experience with a fantastic clarity of sound and dynamic range.

The collection includes a full-colour 32-page booklet detailing the life and art of Du Pré in both words and pictures as well as a timeline overview of her career.

Jacqueline du Pré brought such searing intensity and radiant joy to her cello playing that her impact endures, despite a career that was radically and tragically curtailed by illness before she turned 30.

She was born in Oxford on 26 January 1945 into a middle-class family in which music was important: her mother was a fine pianist and a gifted teacher. Just before her fifth birthday, when she was already showing musical promise, she heard the sound of a cello on the radio and the course of her life was set. She studied at Herbert Walenn’s London Violoncello School and at ten became a pupil of William Pleeth, who had himself studied with Julius Klengel. In 1956 she was awarded the Suggia Gift; in 1959 she gave her first public performance of the Elgar Concerto; in 1960 she won the Queen’s Prize and in 1961 she made a successful London recital début. She studied briefly with Casals in Switzerland, Tortelier in Paris and Rostropovich in Moscow and gradually consolidated her reputation at home. She began recording for EMI in 1962 and by 1965, when her famous disc of the Elgar Concerto was made, she was a star. That year she made her American début and in 1967 she married the pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim.

In July 1971, when she should have been at her peak, she began suffering seriously from a mysterious ailment which had already intermittently affected her playing. Eventually multiple sclerosis was diagnosed and, after a cruel series of remissions and relapses typical of that illness, in 1973 she retired. Gradually her health deteriorated, and she died in London on 19 October 1987.

Thirty years on from their acclaimed recording for Erato, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir return to the Bach Motets in a new SDG recording, taken from a concert in London last year at the end of a tour which saw performances in Italy, France, The Netherlands and Germany.

The Motets can be seen as some of Bach’s most perfect and hypnotic compositions. Through their extraordinary complexity and density, they require exceptional virtuosity and sensitivity of all the performers.

Each of them is endlessly fascinating, and each inhabits its own sound world, Bach's masterful use of canon, fugue and counterpoint, the brilliant exploitation of double-choir sonorities are perfectly matched by the Monteverdi Choir's virtuosity.

The album is packaged in a hard back book similar to our other releases. It contains 44 pages booklet with original notes by John Eliot Gardiner and texts in German, English and French.

recorded: 1981

The best-known Baroque keyboard work in an interpretation that lands precisely on the narrow line dividing intellect from pianistic virtuosity, and also demonstrates immense stylistic variety.

For many years now, the name Eric Ericson is regularly mentioned in connection with Johann Sebastian Bach's choral works. With his chamber choir, the Swedish conductor has set new standards in terms of vocal power and thrilling precision. Audiences and critics alike are delighted.

DVD & bonus CD

Marking the centenary of Kathleen Ferrier's birth, Diane Perelsztejn's specially-extended feature-length film traces the remarkable life - and tragically brief career - of one of the greatest singers of all time. Drawing on recently-discovered material, and supported by a companion CD featuring unreleased live recordings from new York, the film is both a stirring portrait of an extraordinary woman and a tribute to a glorious voice that enthralled the world.