Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

An artist of rare versatility, Angèle Dubeau has had a dazzling career in the great concert halls of the world. With a string of some 30 recordings, many concerts with renowned orchestras and as the conductor of her own ensemble, her talent, passion and musicality have won her uncommon acclaim. This collection includes virtuoso works by Paganini, Mendelssohn, Sarasate, Prokofiev and Sibelius.

‘Gautier Capuçon plays the cello with the control and wisdom of a much older musician. The lightness of his touch and the consistent clarity of his bow strokes are quite admirable in themselves, but when combined with an uncanny sweetness of tone in the higher registers they are breathtaking.’ Gramophone

A Frenchman in St Petersburg … Gautier Capuçon joins Valery Gergiev (making his Virgin Classics debut) and the Mariinsky Orchestra for works by Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev

These live performances were recorded in St Petersburg on 24th December 2008 when Gautier Capuçon was the guest of Russia’s leading maestro – and one of the world’s most prominent conductors – the protean Valery Gergiev and his Mariinsky Orchestra. This is Gergiev’s debut on Virgin Classics; Capuçon, of course, is one of the mainstays of the label and this is his third album of solo works with orchestra.

His recording of the Dvorák and Victor Herbert concertos was released in early 2009. The Sunday Telegraph reported that: “This is not the first coupling of these works, but it is perhaps the most distinguished. The works have much in common and Gautier Capuçon makes the most of the music's melodic appeal. The Dvorák receives a powerful and intense interpretation with some superb orchestral solos to match the soloist's eloquence,” while The Guardian found that, in the Herbert, Capuçon “captures the work's rhapsodic ambitions and the lyrical charm of its slow movement perfectly … this version just about has it all.”

Gautier joined his brother, violinist Renaud for a recording of the Brahms Double Concerto, released in 2007. “There's something totally compelling about this performance of the Double Concerto from the first few bars,” wrote The Guardian, “when Gautier Capuçon launches into the opening cello solo with a rhapsodic freedom and expressive abandon that seems to sweep all before it, gathering first his brother Renaud's violin playing and then the Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchestra and conductor Myung-Whun Chung into the same unstoppable flood of lyricism.”

Tchaikovsky’s Mozart-inspired Rococo Variations are a mainstay of the cello repertoire, but Prokofiev's Sinfonia Concertante features less frequently in concerts and recordings. The work was premiered in 1952 by Mstislav Rostropovich, with the equally legendary pianist Sviatoslav Richter deserting the keyboard for the conductor’s baton. Its material is drawn from the composer’s earlier cello concerto, written in the 1930s.

The first Soviet conductor of whom it can truly be said that he is a citizen of the world’ John Warrack BBC Radio 3 1978 Gennady Rozhdestvensky is a musician of catholic taste as this 10CD illustrates. His discography includes around 800 works! He is capable of freshly considered and immaculately prepared interpretations of Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Tavener, Berwald and Nielsen as well as some of the rarer names included on CD1 if this set.

However, the Russian repertoire was at the core of his musical life. Among the great recordings of Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Prokofiev and Glazunov, his interpretations of Shostakovich stand out. This set includes symphonies Nos.1, 4, 7, 9 & 10 as well as works by lesser know contemporary Soviet composers who music he championed, notably Fleischmann’s ‘Rotschild’s Violin’ completed by Shostakovich.

He is a conductor who’s podium style is undemonstrative – using only the most subtle and economic of gestures, and yet maintaining total control of the orchestra securing knife edge rhythms, sharp phrases and precision attack. He is without doubt one of the greatest conductors of our time, and Volume 1 of his recordings from Brilliant Classics allows the listener to experience the extraordinary genius of Rozhdestvensky over a characteristically wide and varied range of repertoire.

One of the great names of 20th century Russian musical life.

Four cello concertos, sonatas, trios, and other chamber works feature in this set.

Knushevitsky is accompanied by artists such as Lev Oborin, David Oistrakh, Alexander Goldenweiser (a pupil of Arensky and a friend of Tolstoy).

The recording of the Khachaturian concerto is that of the first performance.

Extensive booklet essay by Ates Orga.

Born in 1908, Knushevitsky studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Semyon Kozolupov. He was senior to Rostropovitch and Shafran, and he graduated with a gold medal the same year as Emil Gilels took the piano honours. Joining the Bolshoi Theatre orchestra in 1929, he remained their principal cello until 1943. In 1940 he co founded one of the most famous piano trios of all time with David Oistrakh and Lev Oborin. Knushevitsky’s jet-setting life style eventually (along with his alcohol dependency) to its toll, and he suffered a heart attack, which killed him, aged 55 in 1963. Gliere, Khachaturian and Miaskovsky all wrote concertos for him, and his repertoire embraced not only the mainstream , but contemporary and rarer works such as the Strauss sonata and the Reger Suites, plus an extensive array of crowd pleasing encores such as Chopin’s op.25 C sharp minor etude ‘left hand’, transcribed by Glazunov.

His style of playing was lyrical, and had great emotional depth. Had he not succumbed to drink he would have challenged Rostropovich as the pre-eminent Russian cellist of the 20th century. As it is his reputation is considerable, and this 5CD collection allows the listener to experience his remarkable music-making.

Choreographers: Lev Ivanov & Marius Petipa

The Ballet Edition is a series of 2 CD sets drawn from the catalogues of EMI Classics, presenting the best-loved and most popular ballets, performed by the world’s leading orchestras and conductors.