Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) started learning piano at the age of three and began composing two years later. What is less widely known is that he was also an accomplished violinist.

Pinchas Zukerman & Marc Neikrug recorded Mozart’s sonatas for violin and piano in 1990. Now, for the first time, the cycle is available in a complete edition. As a bonus to this 6CD set, a duo sonata by Mozart’s son, Franz Xaver, is included. (Franz Xaver was born on 26 July 1791, just five months before his father died).

Pinchas Zukerman (b. 1948) has remained a phenomenon in the world of music for over four decades. His musical genius, prodigious technique and unwavering artistic standards are a marvel to audiences and critics alike. Devoted to the next generation of musicians, he has continued to inspire younger artists with his talent and passion for the music.

Herbert von Karajan (1908–1989) was one of the greatest conductors of the twentieth century. Born in Salzburg, he made his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic in 1934. In 1946 Karajan gave his first post-war concert in Vienna with that orchestra, and in 1949 he became artistic director of the city’s Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. He also conducted at La Scala in Milan, but his most prominent activity at this time was recording with the newly formed Philharmonia Orchestra in London, helping to build them into one of the world’s finest.

In 1955 he was appointed music director for life of the Berlin Philharmonic as successor to Wilhelm Furtwängler. From 1957 to 1964 he was artistic director of the Vienna State Opera. Karajan was closely involved with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Salzburg Festival. He continued to perform, conduct and record prolifically until his death in 1989, mainly with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic.

This 2CD set preserves the exact concert that took place at the Royal Festival Hall on 6 April 1962, including the British and Austrian national anthems.

It is sourced from the Music Preserved archive.

The combination of Karajan and the Vienna Philharmonic playing Mozart and Bruckner drew a ‘packed and raving audience’ according to Neville Cardus in The Guardian.

The Bruckner Symphony No.7 received great acclaim from the Daily Telegraph, with a review headlined ‘Noble Height in Bruckner: Vibrant Vienna Philharmonic’, and the critic Donald Mitchell writing ‘London has not heard a Bruckner performance of this quality for years’. Mitchell went on to add that the music-making was ‘undoubtedly touched by interpretative genius’.

In his booklet essay, Richard Osborne notes that ‘the performances of both Mozart and Bruckner are quicker here than any of Karajan’s studio performances … they are also freer in places and given to a number of astonishing build-ups of power’.

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920–1995) was born in Brescia, Italy. He began music lessons at the age of three and at ten he entered the Milan Conservatory. In 1939, he won first prize in the Geneva International Piano Competition, where he was acclaimed as ‘a new Liszt’ by pianist Alfred Cortot, a member of the judging panel.

His repertoire was strikingly small for a concert pianist of such stature, concentrating only on specific works. Owing to this obsessive perfectionism, relatively few recordings were officially released during Michelangeli’s lifetime. Debussy and Ravel as well as Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Beethoven featured in his limited concert schedule. His recordings of Ravel and Debussy were considered essential for any collection.

Michelangeli was a connoisseur of the mechanics of the piano and he insisted that his concert instruments be in perfect condition. Whenever possible he took his own Steinway piano with him on tour. His last concert (all Debussy) took place on 7 May 1993 in Hamburg, Germany.

Any recording featuring Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli is an important event because he recorded very little in the studio, leaving the field open for many unauthorised versions to be released on the market. This authorised live SWR recording from the Ludwigsburg Festival in 1956 shows a Mozart style far removed from that presented today. These are full-blooded interpretations and show Michelangeli with a very strong forward drive, well supported by Antoine de Bavier, a pupil of Furtwängler.

The recording made by SWR is of excellent quality, showcasing Michelangeli’s superb playing. These two concertos (Michelangeli only played around five Mozart concertos) were performed throughout Michelangeli’s career, but the recording here was made when he was thirty-six years old and at the peak of his powers.

This 8-CD box set is released to commemorate the death of Wolfgang Sawallisch who died on February 22nd 2013.

It features performances of music by Mozart, Schubert, Haydn, Mendelssohn and Orff.

Wolfgang Sawallisch performed extensively with the Berlin Philharmonic and held posts at the Bayreuth Festival, the Hamburg State Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Bavarian State Opera.

Sawallisch here performs with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and world-class soloists.

One of the supreme musical geniuses and most loved composers of all time, Mozart wrote prolifically and excelled in every genre to which he turned his hand. His symphonies are among his greatest achievements, a consummate blend of dazzling invention and tender lyricism. This collection spans his entire compositional career from symphonies written at the age of eight to those written in Vienna during the last three years of his life.

The first international compilation devoted to one of DG / Universal’s greatest young pianists, YUNDI.

It started back in 2000, when he won the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw and went on to record six albums as an exclusive DG artist. Now here’s a distillation of those recordings, both solo and concerto in a fascinating flow of virtuosic and dreamily romantic music.

This midprice release includes the several selections from Chopin, Liszt and Schumann, as well as from the Ravel and Prokofiev piano concertos. There is also some Scarlatti and Mozart – over 80 minutes great music and exceptional playing in a seamless sequence.