Future Releases

A brand new choral album of a carefully-selected and researched hymns programme.

In their first complete disc for DG, the incomparable Rundfunkchor Berlin impresses with astonishing clarity and beauty.

Morgenlicht features the famous ‘Morning Has Broken’, arranged by John Rutter and sung in German

Two new choral arrangements have been especially written for this CD: ‘Bewahre uns Gott’ and ‘Ich lobe meinen Gott’.

The Rundfunkchor is accompanied by harpist Maria Todtenhaupt and organist Jörg Strodthoff under the baton of charismatic conductor, Simon Halsey.

CD/DVD

Sting’s stunning Dowland album, the most intriguing classical disc of 2006, sold nearly 800,000 copies.

In this year of the 450th anniversary of John Dowland’s birth, DG presents a special edition, bringing together for the first time all of the audio recordings and video material in a single package.

THE CD comprises the original album along with live versions of several of the songs performed at the St. Luke’s concert in London in 2007, plus the celebrated renditions of “Fields of Gold”, “Message In A Bottle” and “Hellhound On My Trail” that brought the house down.

THE DVD “The Journey and the Labyrinth”, an original television special, weaves captivating performances, interviews, historical information and readings of Dowland’s personal correspondence that serve as a soundtrack to the composer’s life. It also includes live material from St. Luke’s Church in London, where Sting performs selection from the original album, as well as adaptations of his most famous hits.

DVD BONUS FEATURES:

• Behind the scenes rehearsal from St. Luke’s performance, including “Message In A Bottle”

• St. Luke’s concerette including “Fields Of Gold”

• Edin Karamazov solo

DELUXE ARTWORK & PACKAGING

• Based on the original album artwork, the rigid slipcase encloses two mintpacks whose design emphasizes the labyrinth motif

• The 40-page booklet in English includes Sting’s original album notes plus a newly commissioned article by English journalist Adam Sweeting

Between 1970 and 1979, Herbert von Karajan recorded the incredible amount of 82 CDs worth of orchestral and choral music for DG. This was the period that saw Karajan delve deeply into important repertoire that he never really tackled before or after – from Vivaldi to Mahler, to Berg, Schoenberg and Webern as well as Orff. Not to forget Christmas Concertos, National Anthems and Prussian Marches!

The box contains the core of Karajan’s repertoire as an orchestral conductor:

• Full symphony cycles of Beethoven, Brahms and Tchaikovsky, as well as Mendelssohn and Schumann

• The famed Mozart and Beethoven recordings that helped then teen wunderkind Anne-Sophie Mutter to become a worldwide phenomenon

• Bruckner Symphonies 4-9 and the Te Deum, recordings that are still regarded as the pinnacle of Bruckner interpretation

• Individual master recordings of 20th-century classics by Schoenberg, Berg, Webern and Orff (the world-première recording of De temporum fine comoedia)

• Mahler Symphonies 4-6 & 9, as well as Das Lied von der Erde, Rückert-Lieder & Kindertotenlieder featuring Christa Ludwig

• Karajan’s major Bach interpretations – among them the Brandenburg Concertos, the Mass in B minor and the St. Matthew Passion

• Fascinating forays into “rarer” repertoire, such as Baroque Christmas concertos, a collection of European national anthems as well as Prussian and Austrian marches for wind orchestra

• Delightful recordings of “light repertoire” by Borodin, Offenbach, Ponchielli, Weber…

• Plus major choral works from Mozart’s Requiem, to Brahms’ German Requiem and Verdi’s Messa da Requiem

…It’s all there, 82 CDs of the original LPs, in their original cover art, most of them in their original couplings, arranged in four snug compartments.

THE BOOK

As before, the new box offers a hefty tome as accompaniment:

• 200+ pages, containing three newly commissioned articles,

one by famed Karajan biographer Richard Osborne (non-final version of text attached);

one by Karajan biographer Peter Uehling, tackling Karajan as a worldwide phenomenon;

one by Klaus Stoll, who has been playing double bass with the Berlin Philharmonic since 1965;

• PLUS a new, exclusive interview with Anne-Sophie Mutter, in which she relates the story of her discovery by Karajan and sheds light upon his defining role as her mentor.

• In addition, the book will contain a Karajan timeline, a tracklist with full recording details, a discography of Karajan’s 1970s opera recordings, and many photos of the maestro at work as well as at leisure.

FACSIMILES

An admired bonus feature of the 1960s release were the reproduction of original recording protocols, revealing what was going on when and where from some of the most famous recordings. Five significant “schedules” are also included in the present set.