César Auguste Franck

Chen Reiss’s debut album 'Liaisons' was internationally acclaimed for both the repertoire selection and the sheer brilliance of the musicianship displayed by Reiss.

Gramophone magazine called her performances of arias by Haydn, Mozart, Salieri and Cimarosa "standard-setting" and BBC Music magazine called it "top-drawer".

For her second ONYX CD Chen Reiss and pianist Charles Spencer have assembled a wonderful collection of songs on the subject of 'The Nightingale and the Rose' – songs that convey the magic of being in love, the heartbreak of love lost, the memories, the fun, the fantasies all associated with that strange, mysterious, dangerous and all-powerful condition –

love.

In repertoire that ranges from Purcell to Krenek, Hahn to Meyerbeer and Rimsky-Korsakov, and ends in Berkeley Square in London, this is a programme tailor-made for Chen Reiss’s remarkable voice and it will seduce you.

All 40 CDs are mono

Otto Klemperer was born on 14th May 1885 in Breslau, Silesia (now Wroclaw, Poland) and died on 6th July 1973 in Zurich and hence next year we mark 40 years since his passing. Although disfigured by a stroke suffered whilst a brain tumour was being removed he became a world-renowned conductor whose recordings became and remain touchstones for the EMI catalogue.

Having completed the highly successful series of Beethoven recordings it was natural for EMI to seek further Romantic symphonies from Otto Klemperer. In addition to those of Brahms, Bruckner and Mahler which appear in their own specific boxes, Klemperer recorded three by Schubert, two by Mendelssohn as well as the Hebrides Overture and Midsummer Night’s Dream Incidental music, all four by Schumann as well as three Overtures, the last three by Tchaikovsky as well as Berlioz Symphonie fantastique, Franck’s D minor and Dvorák’s “From the New World”. This set also contains three Overtures by Weber and Johann Strauss’s Overture Die Fledermaus and two favourite Waltzes.

Although clearly not a Symphony the charming Incidental music to a Midsummer Night’s Dream by Mendelssohn is included as Klemperer held it in the greatest affection and performed it on many occasions throughout his career.

With the exception of the Franck and three of the Schumann Symphonies all recordings are with the Philharmonia Orchestra and therefore predate 1964.

These studio recordings are taken from the period 1941-1961 and feature Jascha Heifitz performing with the Music Art Quartet (Chausson Concerto for violin, piano and String Quartet), the RCA Symphony Orchestra conducted by Itzler Soloman (Chausson Poëme for violin and orchestra) and his own quartet performing Cesar Franck’s Quintet in F minor.

Decca Records/Universal Music brings you the ‘Voice from Assisi’: Friar Alessandro.

Alessandro Brustenghi – from the original friary founded by Saint Francis of Assisi, the Porziuncola in Assisi – made the headlines earlier this year when he became the first Friar in the history of music to land a major record deal. The legendary Mike Hedges (U2, The Cure, Manic Street Preachers) and his manager discovered Alessandro whilst in Italy, after years of searching for “the next Italian Tenor”.

Friar Alessandro has been singing all his life. Although music was always his passion, Alessandro received his ‘calling’ as a teenager, and at the age of 21 decided to become a friar. Mike Hedges made the record at the famous Abbey Road Studios, and when Friar Alessandro flew over for the sessions it was the first time he had ever been on a plane.

The album is a heavenly mix of traditional and modern sacred songs, including an original track by Royal Wedding and Christmas No.1 composer Paul Mealor, set to a prayer written by St Francis of Assisi, "Le Lodi Dio Altissimo". Also on the album is a song written by ‘60s singer-songwriter Donovon, "Fratello Sole, Sorella Luna", from the famous biopic of St Francis (called Brother Sun, Sister Moon), as well as a recently discovered sacred area by the Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini (who died in 1835), "Tantum Ergo Sacramentum", here recorded for the first time.

To complete the collection are enchanting versions of "The Lord’s Prayer (Pater Noster)", Schubert’s "Ave Maria", the popular Sancta Maria from Cavalleria Rusticana as well as the nation’s favourite hymn, "Make Me a Channel of Your Peace" – another prayer attributed to St Francis of Assisi. By day, the Friar works in the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli, welcoming many of the six million visitors to Assisi every year. In his spare time he works as a carpenter, restoring furniture and making wooden lecterns. Having taken a personal vow of poverty, Friar Alessandro will not accept any money from sales of his album and his day to day life will not change. Proceeds will go directly to the Order of Friars Minor for its charitable work.

On the occasion of Murray Perahia's 40th anniversary with Sony Classical in January 2013, we celebrate the fantastic pianist with this limited-edition set of all 67 CDs of his Sony Classical discography in original jacket facsimiles plus 5 DVDs and a 180-page book with new liner notes, rare photographs and complete discography - in deluxe box packaging. Explore the comprehensive overview of this extraordinary artist's recordings on Sony Classical.

67 CD + 5 DVD-set; DVDs packed separately in special rigid coverpak edition

* Size: L 28.8 cm x W 20.8 cm x H 17 cm

* Weight: 4.47 kg

* Audio playing time: 55 hours, 27 mins

* Includes a 5-DVD set

* 3 performances for the first time on DVD

* 2 BBC TV-programs previously unreleased

* 3 "first time on CD" releases

* All analogue and early digital recordings remastered

John Ogdon was born on 27th January, 1937 in Mansfield Woodhouse in Nottinghamshire and died on 1st August, 1989 in London. His first serious study of the piano was at the Royal Manchester College of Music where his contemporaries were Alexander Goehr, Harrison Birtwistle and Peter Maxwell Davies; he also studied composition with Richard Hall, all of whom have music recorded in this collection. His prowess was noticed when he replaced an indisposed soloist in Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto in Liverpool and played almost at sight. At the age of 21 he made his London debut at the Proms in 1958 with Busoni’s Concerto (which he recorded in 1967).

In 1961 he was awarded the Liszt Prize in Budapest and the following year shared the coveted first prize at the Moscow Tchaikovsky competition with Vladimir Ashkenazy; this achievement launched his international career. His recordings from this time not only attest to his remarkable virtuosity and intense musicianship but also his determination to explore both rarer and modern repertoire and give them the performances that show them to their best advantage.

This collection therefore contains not merely the classics – concertos by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Schumann and Grieg and solos by Liszt and Chopin – but rarer concertos by Mendelssohn, Glazunov Bartók as well as the aforementioned Busoni. The major contribution to the catalogue of recorded music must be the solo piano works by the 20th century composers: Sir Michael Tippett, Alan Rawsthorne, Alun Hoddinott, Christopher Headington, David Blake, Robert Sherlaw Johnson and his teacher and colleagues from his days in Mancheser: Richard Hall and the previously mentioned Goehr, Birtwistle and Maxwell Davies as well as works by himself. One further work requires especial mention: Ronald Stevenson’s Passacaglia on DSCH, the composer’s tribute to Dmitri Shostakovich.

At over 85 minutes duration it has to be split across two CDs and the work together with Ogdon’s support of it yielded the highest praise.

It is 30 years since legendary British pianist Clifford Curzon died (1 September 1982). Over the course of his career, during a long and almost exclusive association with Decca, Clifford Curzon established a pre-eminence unrivalled by any other British pianist of his generation.

For the first time this collection brings together absolutely every recording he ever made for Decca which has survived [in the days of fragile 78rpm shellac discs one or two items were given to the artist as unique-copy test-pressings and these have not survived], including several which have never been published on CD ( or even LP) by Decca [Falla: Noches en los jardines de España (recorded in September 1945); Liszt: Mephisto Waltz No.1 and Liebestraum No.3 – recorded in September 1947, Liszt: Sonetto 104 del Petrarca recorded in1942].

Published for the first-time ever in any format are 8 pieces including a Medtner Fairy Tale, Chopin C sharp minor nocturne, Beethoven’s “Rage over a lost penny”, and 5 pieces by Brahms. These recordings survived as 78rpm test-pressings in Clifford Curzon’s private collection and have been made available for publication through his family.

Also herewith alongside 23 CDs is a famous DVD programme made by the BBC. It includes Curzon performing solo works by Schumann and Brahms [filmed in 1959, black & white] and Schubert – including a complete performance of the Piano Sonata in B flat, D960, filmed in 1968 [colour].

Celibidache focused very much on concert performances rather than recordings.

He aimed to make his concerts “transcendental experiences”.

Everyone attaches particular importance to the music for their wedding ceremony. It is, after all, the key ingredient essential for intensifying the emotional level of a very special day which is to be shared not only by the happy couple but also with all their guests. Choosing the music for one’s wedding is an intimate thing, a second declaration of love between bride and groom. But it is also a bid to express and convey to the young couple’s nearest and dearest, who will be present with them at the wedding, all those feelings of joy and love which cannot be expressed by a mere exchange of "I do’s" and of rings.

And so, whatever your musical tastes and temperament and no matter how you choose to say "I love you" or "I do", you’ll find music to suit you on this double album: from favourite classics to rare gems of the repertoire, from music for festive occasions to more intimate, soulful and reflective melodies, this compilation brings together the most beautiful masterpieces to help you make your wedding an occasion of pure emotion and shared happiness and ensure that you never forget the most beautiful day of your life.