Ludwig van Beethoven

Many of these recordings have never been available on CD. Melodiya’s aim is to demonstrate the panorama and range of Cliburn’s performances. They have selected from their archive, those recordings with the best technical and artistic merit. Included are works by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Grieg and Debussy.

Bryn Terfel, a gentle man in real life, recruits a gang of “bad boy” characters from opera and musicals to serenade us with tunes from the sinister side of the bass clef. Thoroughly convincing as villains you would not want to meet alone in the dark, Bryn Terfel wields a full, wide ranging bass-baritone ever in service to dramatic instincts rare in any era Bad Boys delivers an original concept sure to seduce the media, wow the classical crowd and exert powerful mass appeal. No singer morphs from Don Giovanni to Mack the Knife to Sweeney Todd with Terfel’s devilish ease – Bad Boys is a delightful box of mixed (dark) musical bonbons

Extensive booklet with notes on each work by Ate?s Orga.

A must-have for lovers of chamber music.

‘Oistrakh plays with the authority we know so well, Knushevitsky, who has a part of predominant importance and sometimes of great difficulty, mostly plays beautifully, and Oborin is excellent. The ensemble of the soloists is superbly good.’ Gramophone reviewing the Beethoven Triple Concerto conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent in 1959

For a quarter of a century from its foundation in 1940, the Oistrakh Trio was the premiere ensemble of its kind in the Soviet Union. All three members were close friends, having trained and studied together during the Stalin years.

They blossomed in the comparatively more relaxed Khrushchev period, championing the great Austro-German and Slavonic repertoire for piano trio.

Never afraid to speak out against injustices in the USSR, they championed composers who were suffering under the oppressive regime – hence the movement from Shebalin’s Trio included on this set. The recordings date from 1947 to 1958, and capture this extraordinary group of musicians at the top of their game.

5 SACDs for the price of 2

BIS is pleased to release the boxed set of their critically-acclaimed Beethoven Symphonies Cycle.

‘Vänskä's Beethoven looks set to be a front-runner among the historically unprejudiced cycles now available.’ ‘…a Beethoven reforged for today's world’ Gramophone

The brand new series celebrates EMI - The Home of Opera with Klemperer's legendary recording of Fidelio with Christa Ludwig and Gottlob Frick. Includes complete libretto and synopsis on a bonus CD ROM.

Every four years, the Van Cliburn Competition offers the opportunity for a select group of outstanding young musicians to showcase their talent while challenging themselves to reach new standards of artistic excellence.This year's three winners raise the bar once again. 20-year-old Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii claimed the Gold Medal. Already known in his home country for his refined and effortless playing, a webcast of his spellbinding performances at the 2009 Cliburn brought Tsujii to the attention of hundreds of countless new fans throughout the world, while raising his status in Japan to superstar. Blind since birth,Tsujii states his firm belief that, "there are no barriers in the field of music."

The youngest participant in the competition, 19-year-old joint-Gold Medalist Haochen Zhang gave his debut recital at the Shanghai Music Hall at the age of five. He moved to the United States at 15 to attend the Curtis Institute of Music where he is pursing a Bachelor of Music degree. 23-year-old Silver Medalist Yeol Eum Son is considered among the most important artists of her generation in South Korea. She has been a featured soloist with the New York Philharmonic on several occasions, most recently as part of the orchestra's historic visit to Seoul.

"Tsujii kept the audience spellbound from start to completion." FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM

The artist writes “I feel the French word ”Voyageurs” best covers, in a single word, the many facets of the traveler…….. Making these various aspects of traveling in the broadest sense of the word, audible is the goal of my selection of these works.” Recorded live at the Vienna Musikverein.

Paul Lewis performed all the Beethoven piano sonatas on tour in the USA and Europe between the 2005 and 2007 seasons, in parallel with this complete recording of the cycle for harmonia mundi, now available as a boxed set for the first time.

(Volume 4 of the Sonatas received two Gramophone Awards in 2008 for Recording of the Year and Best Instrumental Recording.)

"one of the most highly prized recording marathons of recent years…an unmissable benchmark."Gramophone

Grammy Award-winning conductor Paavo Järvi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen continue their spectacular Beethoven cycle on RCA Red Seal with the release of Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 6 and 2. The cycle will be completed in January 2010 with the release of Symphony No.9.

Järvi’s conducting career is going from strength to strength; as well as being Artistic Director of the Deutsch Kammerphilharmonie Bremen; Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, he is also the newly-named Music Director of L’Orchestre de Paris (beginning in 2010).