Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

170 CD + CD-ROM

Our first Complete Mozart Edition, released in 2006, was an international hit, winning plaudits from critics and customers alike for the quality of the music making and representing great value for money.

Why, then, have we chosen not to rest on our laurels but to improve upon this successful product? Here are some of the reasons:

The interpretation of Mozart's music continues to evolve and, four years on from the original release, Brilliant Classics' Complete Mozart Edition has evolved with it. We have included new recordings by prominent Mozart performers such as Guiliano Carmignola (violin concertos) and Oficina Musicum (La Betulia Liberata). Several of the recordings have already won the coveted Diapason d'or.

The Enhanced Contents - Brilliant Classics' Complete Mozart Edition contains:

- 170 CDs representing the entirety of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's oeuvre in historically informed performances. This includes all the concertos, chamber music, divertimenti, sonatas and of course the operas.

- 1 CD-ROM containing liner notes and performers' biographies in English, librettos and sung texts, complete 2010 Brilliant Classics catalogue.

The Packaging: Our new, redesigned packaging means CDs in slipcases and the complete set neatly displayable in a single, attractive space-saving box.

For reasons of completeness, pure musical enjoyment, scholarly research, attractive, space-saving design and price, you cannot afford to be without Brilliant Classics' improved Complete Mozart Edition.

These works are not heard very often and these recordings were made in the Moscow Conservatory in 1986. Eliso Virsaldze is an outstanding Georgian and Russian pianist.

Lugansky enjoys an international career.

Studio recording, 1985

Listening now to this album one regrets that Sir John Barbirolli’s appearances in the opera house were so few. After all, though he himself was born in London his family was steeped in the Italian operatic tradition: before leaving Italy both his father and grandfather had been members of the orchestra at La Scala, Milan (along with a young cellist named Arturo Toscanini), and in 1887 they had played in the premiere of Verdi’s Otello. By the age of 25 he was appearing at the head of his own orchestra. His potential was quickly recognised by Frederic Austin of the British National Opera Company, who engaged him on the spot. Over the next seven years, either for BNOC or at Covent Garden (where he first appeared in 1928) Barbirolli conducted Aida, Falstaff, Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, La bohème, Tosca, Turandot, Madama Butterfly, Gianni Schicchi, The Barber of Seville, Romeo and Juliet, Hansel and Gretel, Don Giovanni, The Bartered Bride, Die Fledermaus, Die Meistersinger, Der Rosenkavalier and The Wreckers.

The Barbirolli years after 1933 were filled by orchestral appointments and it was not until 1951 that he was able to return to Covent Garden. Over the next three seasons he was prominent there conducting old favourites such as Turandot, Aida, La bohème and Madama Butterfly, and adding to them Tristan und Isolde and Orpheus and Eurydice. At the time it was widely thought that Barbirolli might take over at Covent Garden, but his orchestral responsibilities had become all-consuming and in fact after the 1953-4 season he never appeared there again. His love of operatic music remained as strong as ever, though, and found its outlet in concert performances of complete operas and evenings of operatic excerpts. Such events became popular and, on account of Barbirolli’s prestige, would draw huge crowds. Some of these carried into the recording studio: the present album is a fine souvenir of his devoted approach to his beloved Puccini. But he was not now seen in any opera house. Only in his last decade did he find time to conduct Aida in Rome, and to make commercial recordings of Madama Butterfly, Otello and Dido and Aeneas.

Noted for her expressive power and poetic insight, combined with effortless technical ability, Japanese pianist Mami Shikimori has been exciting audiences since first appearing on stage in 1996.

Her playing has been described as 'electrifying' and 'a dazzling revelation' by the critics and she has performed at venues including New York's Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, London's St John's Smith Square and Queen Elizabeth Hall. She also gave a highly-acclaimed solo recital at Tokyo's Suntory Hall.

This Claudio debut CD culminates in Ravel's fiendishly difficult La Valse, a transcription by the composer himself.