Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

In her debut for Haenssler, the talented young soprano Juliane Banse is joined by Christoph Poppen. She has selected a highly intelligent recital including arias by Weber, Tchaikovsky, Massenet, Mozart and Puccini. She has distinguished herself not only for the beauty of her singing, but for the depth of her characterisations and deep empathy with the emotional world of the women she is portraying.

The Venezuelan Brass Ensemble came into being in 2003 from Venezuela's state youth orchestra system (FESNOJIV) under the patronage of José Antonio Abreu and Thomas Clamor. This unique, state-sponsored system comprises some 200 children's and young people's orchestras and about 100 music centres, spread all over the country. In the meantime, thanks to this work, numerous successful youth ensembles have emerged. Leading the way is the “Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela”, where most of the members of the “Venezuelan Brass Ensemble” come from.

To celebrate Placido Domingo's 70th birthday, Sony Classical release this budget priced x12 CD boxset. Each disc is packaged in vinyl replica sleeve, with original album artwork & comes in a sturdy outer box. The x12 disc set covers recital & duet recordings from 1969-1989, including some of his finest works.

Wilhelm Furtwängler, to give him his full name, was born in Berlin on 25 January 1886. His father was an archaeologist and his mother a painter. Both were cultured and enlightened people who brought up their eldest son in the beliefs of German humanism. When the young Wilhelm showed early signs of exceptional talent they decided to provide him with a private education based around the Arts. Although his artistic interests were wide it was music that eventually became his overriding passion and he started learning the piano at an early age, composing his first music at the age of seven. The idea of becoming a composer was his prime ambition, despite the failure of his early attempts at composition.

Several factors led to Furtwängler taking up the baton: the wish to conduct his own works; his increasing interest in the art of interpretation and the need to make a living, following the death of his father in 1907. His first concert as conductor was in Munich in 1906 with a programme of works by Bruckner and Beethoven as well as one of his own pieces. His rise to fame as a conductor was quite rapid and, after working in Breslau, Zurich and at the court opera in Munich, he gained his first big appointments at the Lübeck Opera (1911-1915) and in Mannheim (1915-1920). In 1920 he succeeded Richard Strauss as conductor of the Berlin Staatsoper concerts and in 1922, after the death of Nikisch, he took over the conductorship of the Leipzig Gewandhaus and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras. It was at this time that he also began a long and successful relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. But it was with the Berlin Philharmonic that Furtwängler was to remain for the rest of his career.

Throughout the 1920s and '30s Furtwängler and the Berlin Philharmonic went on a series of European tours to Scandinavia, Switzerland, Italy, Hungary and England. In 1937 Furtwängler conducted at Covent Garden as part of the Coronation celebrations and, in 1938, he was back again to conduct two cycles of the Ring. At this time, too, Furtwängler found himself inextricably involved in the politics of Germany. His liberal outlook meant that it was difficult for him to see Nazism as a serious threat to his country and he dissociated himself from it and opposed it whenever he could. He refused to give the Nazi salute, even in the presence of Adolf Hitler, and used his influence to save the lives of as many Jewish musicians as he could. In spite of this and because of his rather naive political outlook many outside Germany saw his continued residence and musical activity as a kind of collaboration. The final ten years of Furtwängler's life were dogged by controversy, not helped by the American Military Government in post-war Germany delaying his denazification process until 1947, when he was once again allowed to take up conducting.

Success in Europe quickly followed and he appeared with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras as well as local orchestras in London, Stockholm, Edinburgh, Lucerne, Milan, Salzburg and Paris. It is from this time that the superb recordings in this 20-CD set were made. Here is a special selection of some of EMI's celebrated Furtwängler recordings, some recorded live at concerts and some made in the studios. The combination of Furtwängler and EMI brought about one of the greatest collaborations in recording history and the Company is proud to be able to contribute this set to the 125th birthday celebrations of a great conductor.

Tchaikovsky’s output includes some of the most popular concertos and symphonies in the entire concert repertoire, several important operas and the three classic ballets – Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker – that are performed by every ballet company the world over. Many of his compositions such as his First Piano Concerto and his Violin Concerto were originally savaged by his musical peers but the public disagreed and they are now ranked among the most popular and best loved works of the Romantic period. His short orchestral works have also become firm favourites and no popular concert would be complete without one or other of his Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, the March Slave or the famous ‘1812’ Overture. Extracts from all of these works, as well as from his greatest symphonies and concertos, are included in this album.

This is a live recording of a concert given in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory on 1990 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the composer. The CD includes some rarely performed compositions which are on CD for the first time. The works are brilliantly performed under the baton of Svetlanov.

In another original concerto pairing, Grammy award winning violinist, Hilary Hahn, releases the world-premiere recording of Jennifer Higdon’s 2010 Pulitzer Prize winning concerto. Higdon’s masterpiece is stunningly paired with the ever popular, Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, one of the most popular romantic violin concertos in the repertoire.

“While they come from different worlds, they share a great many qualities: lyrical delicacy, a brooding gentility, energetic abandon, and a fine maturity of spirit. Placed back to back, they suggest the range of musical possibilities open to the violin in the early twenty-first century.” Hilary Hahn

On this recording, Hahn teams up with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of award winning young conductor, Vasily Petrenko. Hilary won a Grammy as “Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (with orchestra)” in 2009 and the Choc du Monde de la musique in 2008.