Ludwig van Beethoven

This latest release from the multi-award-winning partnership of Gerald Finley and Julius Drake features a literary and musical form which inspired the greatest voices of German Romanticism. The foremost poets and composers of the age saw the ballad as a direct link to the folk-minstrels of the past. Frequently ghoulish and sensational in character, ballads satisfied the popular taste for the Gothic. This disc contains some of the greatest examples of the form, including Schubert’s Erlkönig, as well as some fascinating and lesser-known works. The disc also includes selections from the ever popular English ballad tradition.

Gerald Finley’s unrivalled gift for characterization and story-telling, honed both on the stages of opera houses around the world and through his extraordinary Lieder recordings, makes him the ideal performer of these works. This is a genuinely entertaining and original disc.

The new release features the third volume of the integral edition of Beethoven’s symphonies live recordings performed by Otto Klemperer with his Philharmonia Orchestra in Vienna during the spring 1960. The extraordinary cast features Wilma Lipp and Fritz Wunderlich amongst others. The CD is completed by an exciting performance of the Overture from the Ballet “The creatures of Prometheus op.47”.

Vladimir Jurowski conducts Beethoven gathers the lesser known Symphony No. 4 - composed when Beethoven was enjoying one of the most peaceful time of his life - with the celebrated Symphony No. 7 and the Coriolan Overture.

For this performance filmed live at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Vladimir Jurowski chose to collaborate with the musicians of the world famous Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment who perform on period instruments, shedding a radically different light on works that we are so accustomed to hear on modern instruments.

As the youngster of today’s classical music scene, Jurowski already gained international stardom in conducting.

“Vladimir Jurowski, more medium than conductor, produces ever more faultlessly gorgeous, languid sounds." Robert Thicknesse, The Times

Picture format: 1080i Full HD - 16:9

Sounds formats: PCM 2.0 PCM 5.1

Region code: All

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 89 mins

FSK: 0

The reputation of the great German conductor Fritz Busch has soared in recent years, largely due to the increase in issues of his legendary recordings, in which Guild Historical has played a major role. We are particularly proud to announce this new release which covers much of Busch's career on disc, from his very earliest recordings (dating from circa 1919) to some of the last he made before his sudden death in 1951. The range of repertoire is vast, from delightful little German Dances by Mozart to Brahms's Second Symphony, released here for the first time in the full broadcast version with announcements and applause. The data accompanying this issue is very finely detailed and contributes much to the appeal for collectors and lovers of great conducting of the past. A most important issue in the Fritz Busch discography.

SFZ MUSIC are pleased to announce their latest release, a ground-breaking collaboration between two leading experts in historical performance: Jane Booth, one of the finest players of the chalameau and early clarinet, teams up with John Irving, Director of the Institute of Musical Research at the University of London, to present a programme of exceptional grace, beauty, and depth. Clarinets by Arrangement offers an unusual perspective on some familiar chamber works from the late 18th & early 19th centuries, along with some less familiar repertoire that is well worth discovering. Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet K589 and Beethoven’s Horn Sonata Op.17 are presented here in arrangements made around the turn of the 19th-century for clarinet, or basset horn and piano.

Underlying Clarinets by Arrangement is a belief – drawing on a range of contemporary documents including treatises, composers’ letters and contemporary reviews – that ‘the music is not the score’ and that a fundamental aspect of music from the later 18th-century is the sheer provisional quality of its musical texts: not so much the end of a compositional process as part of the ongoing journey to be continued by the performers.