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These sonatas belong to the lesser known and less often performed violin sonatas of Johann Sebastian Bach.

1 SACD + DVD

"Try to imagine the whole universe beginning to ring and resound. There are no more human voices, only planets and suns revolving in their orbits," wrote Gustav Mahler to his friend, Willem Mengelberg, on 18 August 1906. The day before, he had completed the sketches of the Eighth Symphony in little more than three weeks, and that after a very hectic season.

The legendary relationship between Gustav Mahler, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Willem Mengelberg has established a firm tradition of playing Mahler in Amsterdam. During the 1960s the orchestra and Bernard Haitink started recording a Mahler discography that still remains one of the cornerstones of any Mahlerian's collection. Ricccardo Chailly's tenure as chief conductor yielded another brilliant Mahler cycle and now Mariss Jansons is steadily building his tribute to the composer.

Recorded during the same Mahler cycle as the recently released Symphonies Nos. 2 and 3 – part of the full Mahler cycle that the orchestra performed in the 2009-2011 seasons to celebrate the composer's 150th birthday and 100th anniversary of his death - Mariss Jansons's interpretation of the Eight Symphony is one more jewel in the crown of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; with a star-studded cast and excellent choral forces, this 'Symphony of a Thousand' left a lasting impression on the audience.

The liturgical year with Johann Sebastian Bach: Rondeau Production is publishing a ten-part CD series which presents a selection of cantatas for the liturgical year. In Leipzig, music for the liturgical year has an especially well kept tradition: up to the present day the Thomanerchor Leipzig (St Thomas’s Boys Choir) and the Gewandhausorchester (Gewandhaus Orchestra) join forces each week in the performance of one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s cantatas at the church of St Thomas.

The current disc in the series turns to feasts for the Blessed Virgin Mary: the cantata “Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin” was composed in 1725 for the feast of Mary’s Purification, and Johann Sebastian Bach wrote “Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern” for the feast of the Annunciation in the same year. The famous chorale “Jesus bleibet meine Freude” forms part of the cantata “Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben”. This composition originally set a different text, and was intended for the fourth Sunday of Advent. After a number of modifications to the text, the cantata was performed in Leipzig on the feast of the Visitation also in 1725. The cantata’s opening chorus gains its particularly festive character through the initial trumpet motif.

The current cantor at St Thomas, Georg Christoph Biller, is fortunate to have boys from the choir’s own ranks performing the soprano and alto solos; a hallmark of the new recording’s unique level of artistry.

SFZ MUSIC, the independent label for HIS MAJESTYS SAGBUTTS & CORNETTS, are pleased to announce their latest release, the first recording on the label by the stellar young viola da gambist, Claire Bracher.

As well as being greatly in demand throughout Europe as a soloist and ensemble player, Claire teaches at the Royal College of Music in London, where she has founded an annual International Festival of Viols. She has also founded and edits the new early music magazine Musica Antiqua.

This collection of sonatas by the baroque master of the instrument, Georg Philipp Telemann, is the perfect showcase for Claire’s talents. Her playing is laden with the charm, wit and elegance so necessary for Telemann’s music, yet simultaneously infused with a rigorous intellectual and historically informed approach. Ensemble Labyrinthe consists of some of the best instrumentalists working in the UK and adds a great variety of colour and texture to this enchanting recording.

Sony Classical celebrates the 85th anniversary of pianist Leon Fleisher with the release of ‘The Complete Album Collection’.

Leon Fleisher is considered a living legend among the coterie of distinguished American pianists who emerged in the late forties and early fifties. Students consider Fleisher the “Obi-Wan Kenobi of the piano,” and travel from all over the globe come to work with him or even just sit on his master classes.

On the podium, Fleisher championed a wide range of new music, starting with the Washington DC-based Theater Chamber Players, and later as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s associate conductor. Fleisher also introduced innovative curriculum ideas during his respective artistic director tenures at the Tanglewood and Aspen music centers.

However, it was the piano that brought Fleisher into the public eye. A child prodigy who became Artur Schnabel’s youngest student at age ten, Fleisher went on to win first prize at the 1952 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, launching a major international career on the concert platform and recording studio.

In the mid-sixties, the onset of what was later diagnosed as focal dystonia in the right hand forced Fleisher to curtail his playing. As Fleisher sought a variety of remedies, he resumed concertizing with repertoire for left hand.

In a certain sense, the present complete collection of Fleisher’s recordings for Sony Classical and its predecessors (Epic and Columbia Masterworks) demarcates the personal and musical twists and turns of his career journey.

We hear Fleisher soon after his Brussels victory, followed by his now iconic Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Schumann and Grieg concerto collaborations with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra, along with highly acclaimed solo recordings.

Two discs represent Fleisher at the peak of his later career playing concertos and recitals for the left hand.

Lastly, Fleisher’s formidable gifts as a Mozart player as revealed in his C major K 503 concerto recording yielded further bounty with his two-handed return a half-century later in the K 242, K 414 and K 488 concertos featured on the collection’s most recent release.

As long as one can access recordings, the very sound of Fleisher’s musical legacy will continue to stand the test of time, and continue to enliven and stimulate music lovers and budding pianists.

This album is a musical path through Baroque music in Northern Italy. It is amazing to discover how much of the landscape and of the territory is present in these pieces; the same landscape and the same territory represented by Guercino and all the painters around him. The music recalls the art and viceversa creating a strong connection between the sound and the sight that in this album is able to let us relive an era. Again, featuring Alena Dantcheva: listen to the Monteverdi…

This project is a collaboration between the two organists Margherita Gianola and Silvio Celeghin with Francesco Fanna, conductor and director at the Istituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice, in which large part of Vivaldi’s manuscripts and scores are archived. The CD is a collection of Concertos where the organ is the absolute protagonist as soloist and in an interesting interaction with string instruments. The title of the release is inspired by the two organs of the XVIII century in the Basilica dei Frari in Venice which are exceptionally appropriate for playing Vivaldi’s music. The Callido (1795) is very versatile and enhances the whole sound, while the Piaggia (1732), the only organ in Venice made while Vivaldi was still alive, is elegant, light and full of verve.

A homage to Julian Bream for his 80th birthday and to the music that was created for him. The CD collects some of the most important pieces for guitar of the 20th century performed by Stefano Grondona, who plays three legendary guitars (one of which belonged to Julian Bream himself) made by Jose Romanillos, who has also turned 80. All the compositions have been important milestones in Stefano Grondona’s career and he shows this in his astonishing interpretations. This album contains one of the best versions of Benjamin Britten’s 'Nocturnal' ever recorded. Benjamin Britten was born 100 years ago and 'Nocturnal after John Dowland' was written 50 years ago: this CD is a perpetual celebration.

Recorded at the Martinek Studio, Prague, on November 26, 27, 29 and 30, and December 17–19, 2012. The sixth part of the Bedřich Smetana complete piano works series presents pieces composed in the 1840s, the time of the composer’s intensive studies and the outset of his independent artistic career. Dedicated to various persons (including Kateřina Kolařova, Smetana’s great love and future wife) are the Stammbuchblatter, lovely commemorative album leaves. Some of the pieces (Romance in B flat major, Woodland Feelings and Impressions) were published immediately; others were revised by Smetana and published later. Also dating from this period are the composer’s first larger virtuoso pieces (Allegro capriccioso, Caprice in G minor) and major work, the cycle Six morceaux caracteristiques, Op. 1. Smetana sent the autograph to Franz Liszt, who accepted the dedication with pleasure. The nimble hands of the pianist Jitka Čechova make ring the sheer virtuosity and engrossing poetics of the young Smetana’s piano works.

To mark Libor Pešek’s eightieth birthday, Supraphon presents a representative selection of large orchestral recordings he made from 1981 to 1989. Compositions by Josef Suk, who has occupied a privileged position in Pešek’s career, are featured alongside paramount Impressionist pieces – Debussy’s La mer and Ravel’s Suites from the ballet Daphnis et Chloé. Pešek’s recording of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 and Suk’s lesser-known suite Under the Apple Tree are being released on CD for the very first time.

The album also includes recordings of two concertos – Elgar’s Cello Concerto, with Michaela Fukačová, and Scriabin’s Piano Concerto, with Garrick Ohlsson. Within the illustrious career of Libor Pešek, a great and groundbreaking figure among Czech conductors, the period documented on this CD represents one of his peaks, the time of his most intensive collaboration with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, preceding his assuming the post of music director of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. These digitally remastered recordings bear witness to Pešek’s remarkably nuanced work with the orchestral sound and sense for the great lines of Romantic orchestral scores. A living portrait of a major Czech conductor.