Antonin Dvorak

Sono Luminus presents this uniquely engaging collection of music that embodies the American spirit in Americana, the latest release by Modern Mandolin Quartet. The package will be a 2-disc set, containing a Blu-ray™ Surround Sound disc as well as a standard CD.

Expressing their opinion on their choices of musical selections for this album, the quartet writes, “This music attracted us because of the wonderful way it sounds on our instruments, particularly the Dvorák. Since the musical character of the pieces is based on various forms of American music, it lends itself extremely well to the mandolin. While many selections for piano and string music rely on idioms and techniques that may not transpose well to the mandolin, the pieces included on this disc were chosen for their vitality and the way they jumped right off the page.”

Fanfare Magazine exclaims, “MMQ play dead-straight, spot-on, and packed with freshness and vitality of a kind that is rare in material of this type. These are not down-scaled, make-em-easy, just-for-kicks charts either - they are a Major Thing. TRIPLE MUST!”

The Modern Mandolin Quartet was formed in 1985 to give a new voice to that most American of musical instruments, the mandolin. Following the tradition of the mandolin orchestras and chamber groups from the early twentieth century, the MMQ uses the instruments of the mandolin family which correspond to the conventional string quartet (two mandolins, mandola, and mandocello). To date the Quartet has arranged and performed over 90 works originally written for orchestra, chamber ensemble, piano, guitar, and string quartet.

The reissue of this unique collection of chamber music masterpieces, ranging from Baroque to 20-century, played by the legendary David Oistrakh, with his luminous, sonorous and deeply moving tone.

Partners include Sviatoslav Richter, Lev Oborin, Alexander Goldenweiser and Vladimir Yampolski. With his supreme technique, enormous precision in rhythm as well as extensive variety in sound, David Oistrakh is one of the most celebrated violinists of the 20th century.

This 10-CD release details some of his best chamber music recordings and is filled to the brim with first-rate performances. The compilation effectively documents the development of violin music, simultaneously revealing Oistrakh’s mastering of an extensive repertoire.

Beginning with J.S. Bach, who was one of the first composers to write for the instrument independently and whose works are given an overtly romantic appraisal by the Russian maestro, it also traverses a series of Classical compositions – including Mozart’s Sonata No.3 K306 and Beethoven’s ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata Op.47. Most of the collection’s space, however, is taken up by a large assortment of 19th- and 20th-century music; this is undoubtedly where Oistrakh’s heart lies, and the violinist shows a strong commitment to pieces from his native country.

What is particularly evident from this release is that no matter how big or small, famous or little-known, each work is treated as a masterpiece. With largely forgotten names such as Catoire and Vladigerov sitting alongside some of the greatest composers in musical history, the compilation represents a musical feast that is not to be passed up.

Sviatoslav Richter (1915-97) left behind the extraordinary legacy of a highly sensitive, angst-ridden yet ultimately serene musician, a true monstre sacré, a perfectionist in search of the absolute. This duo of 'nationalist' concertos by Grieg and Dvorák featured only briefly in his repertoire. The uncharacteristic liberty of his playing and the sense of exultation is astounding, illuminating these romantic compositions based on national folklore. They form a unique, totally unprecedented combination.

The Art of Renée Fleming brings together 18 defining tracks spanning Renée’s finest Decca recordings, including favorite arias by Puccini, Handel and Gershwin and duets with Bryn Terfel and Plácido Domingo. Four special bonus tracks reflect Renée’s prominence beyond classical repertoire with two Broadway classics, Amazing Grace - which she memorably sang at the site of the World Trade Centre and a brand new version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.

The Aronowitz Ensemble’s second CD, recorded in the ideal acoustics of the Wigmore Hall, comprises three of our favourite works: Mendelssohn's ebullient second string quintet and Dvorák's incomparably radiant second piano quintet are perfectly complemented by Martin Suckling’s To See the Dark Between, which conjures brilliant, unique colours from our full septet line-up - a combination for which, to the best of our knowledge, no work existed prior to the Aronowitz Ensemble's formation. Jointly commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society and the Wigmore Hall in 2010, Martin’s work is here given its premiere recording.

Magdalena Kožená’s silken mezzo delivers definitive interpretations of this luscious and enchanting orchestral-song repertoire.

Magdalena Kožená, Sir Simon Rattle, and the Berliner Philharmoniker seduce in Ravel’s Shéhérazade, stir and awe in Dvorák’s austere Biblische Lieder, and render to the fullest the bittersweet potency of Mahler’s intricately orchestrated Rückert Lieder.

Recorded live at the Berlin Philharmonie, these performances excite with the intense musical understanding shared by this husband-and-wife musical dream-team.

This is the first in a new series of recording projects reviving the legendary partnership between DG and the Berliner Philharmoniker.

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.