Medici Arts label

"On wings of song" - Heine's words and Mendelssohn's immortal melody, sung here by the inimitable Rita Streich, perfectly encapsulate the spirit of this collection. Six of the greatest voices of the last half-century perform a range of familiar music: romantic Wagner from Gré Brouwenstijn and collectors' items such as Egk's four Italian songs from the matchless Irmgard Seefried. These were the commanding voices of their day, from Christa Ludwig's warm mezzo, to Gundula Janowitz's crystalline soprano and the dramatic brilliance of Galina Vishnevskaya, all captured in their prime.

Artur Rubinstein's charismatic personality and unique ability to connect with an audience made each of his concert appearances an event. Surprisingly, the vast majority of his recorded output - whether on record or film - was made in the recording studio.This rare film, preserved in the vaults of the Russian State television archives for nearly 50 years, shows Rubinstein at his prime playing in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.This historic concert both testifies to Rubinstein's freer and risk-taking approach when in front of an audience and allows us to share the electric atmosphere of his live appearances. BONUS: 1928 footage accompanying a silent film

Among the rediscovered treasures are recordings of three outstanding representatives of the French Piano School:Vlado Perlemuter, who worked closely with Ravel on many of his compositions, demonstrates his superb mastery of the composer's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in this Paris recording of 1966; Yvonne Lefébure, also well known for the multitude of compositions dedicated to her, goes from strength to strength with her Beethoven interpretations; Robert Casadesus proves himself yet again as an outstanding interpreter of French repertoire.

The two bonus tracks feature Hephzibah Menuhin, who studied for several years in Paris with Marcel Ciampi, and Dino Ciani who came to perfect his art under the guidance of Alfred Cortot.

The great Israeli-born violinist Itzhak Perlman has already left a huge number of sound recordings of his interpretations; but it adds an extra dimension to be able to watch him execute, for instance, the brilliant spiccato bowing in Saint-Saëns's Introduction and Rondo capriccioso.A master of the French style through his teacher Ivan Galamian, Perlman at 25 is seen in the first full flush of his talent.Ten years later, the mature soloist shows his total command of the modern Russian style of Prokofiev - at a BBC Symphony Orchestra golden jubilee concert - and the bitter-sweet romanticism of Elgar's massive, virtuosic concerto.

Murray Perahia, nominated for artist of the year in the 2008 Gramophone Awards, has often been described as an aristocrat of the piano, with good reason. His commanding vision and his supremely polished virtuosity are complemented by a luminous intelligence and a poetic sensitivity, embracing equally the lyric and the epic. His career has recently been revitalised, after many years, with the new release on Sony/BMG of Beethoven Piano Sonatas and Bach Partitas.

"Each note was characterised by a singing tone whose weight and emotional colour was individually judged yet forming part of a massively conceived and controlled structure." The Guardian

Staging, Choreography, Sets, Costumes, Lighting Design & Film by Uwe Scholz

Uwe Scholz, former director of the Leipzig Ballet, was hailed as one of the most brilliant choreographic minds of his generation and one of the most important German choreographers at the time of his untimely death in November 2004 at the age of 45. Scholz took up his first position as a choreographer with Marcia Haydée in Stuttgart when he was 22. He saw himself as a mixture between his teacher John Cranko and the influential George Balanchine, and the magically beautiful and extraordinarily musical choreographies that he created for houses such as the Opera in Vienna, La Scala, Zurich and Leipzig owe much to neoclassicism.This DVD recording focuses on the two interpretations of Le Sacre du Printemps that he created for 'his' Leipzig Ballet, the company that he led to international fame from 1991. The evening opens with a legendary solo interpretation, danced by Giovanni di Palma to Stravinsky's own adaptation for two pianos of the ‘Rite’. Often seen as Scholz's autobiographical legacy, this choreography shows a dancer's loneliness and despair in heartbreaking images.An emotive ensemble interpretation to the original orchestral version of the same piece forms the second half of the evening. Here Kiyoko Kimura takes the leading role among the 56 dancers on the stage.The staging proves the ensemble to be one of the best contemporary ballet companies worldwide. Günter Atteln's insightful documentary Soulscapes is a full-length homage to Uwe Scholz showing excerpts of his most important works.The film offers a warm and detailed account of a thoroughly fascinating life and includes some very personal interviews with a man consumed by his art until his last breath.

Bonus - Pierre-Laurent Aimard in conversation with Jan Schmidt-Garre.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard was born in Lyon in 1957 and studied in Paris with Yvonne Loriod, wife of Olivier Messiaen, to whose music he is particularly close. Pierre Boulez appointed him as solo pianist to the Ensemble InterContemporain when he was 19 and he worked closely with Györgi Ligeti, who chose him to record his entire piano works. This extensive portrait-cum-concert DVD features Pierre-Laurent Aimard in conversation with renowned music filmmaker Jan Schmidt-Garre under the telling title Not Just One Truth. Recorded live at the Akademie der Schönen Künste in Munich in spring 2008, the concert includes important and influential piano music from the Art of the Fugue and Beethoven's second last Piano Sonata No.31, written in 1822, along with works by the grand seigneur of American composers, Elliott Carter (*1908) and of George Benjamin (*1960), who studied under Olivier Messiaen. In the introductory portrait, scholar Christoph Wolff and composer Elliott Carter speak about music and Aimard's readings of it.Thus, the viewer is truly immersed in Pierre-Laurent Aimard's art of piano playing and comes to know one of the greatest contemporary pianists in concert, interview and documentary portrait.

"His technical facility is astonishing…Mr.Aimard's performance was lucid, subtle and delicate." New York Times

The Semperoper caused a sensation in November 2007 when it visited Japan for the first time in 26 years.The demand for tickets and the audience's enthusiam were unprecedented, not least because the company was staging a piece that is performed more authentically in Dresden than anywhere else in the world: Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier, which received its first performance in Dresden in 1911. Leading the ensemble was the radiant-voiced Anne Schwanewilms, recently heard in Elektra at Covent Garden, a singer described by the Independent as "one of the greatest singers on the operatic stage today."

"Ms. Schwanewilms is an elegantly lovely woman. But more important, she is a very fine soprano with a clear, dusky-toned and focused voice. Her soft sustained high notes, delivered with scant vibrato and true pitch, were ravishing." The New York Times

"As Baron Ochs, the Austrian bass Kurt Rydl, a superb singing actor who makes words leap off the stage, conveyed the aggressive crudeness of this pathetically comic aristocrat." The New York Times

The Goldberg Variations, which was printed in 1741 as 'Clavierübung IV. Teil' was later named after Bach's 14-year-old pupil, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg. Evgenij Koroliov was even younger when he discovered Bach - he heard Glenn Gould in Moscow in 1957 and was influenced by the legendary Russian pianists Maria Judina and Sviatoslav Richter. In the 1960s and '70s he won important piano competitions ranging from the Van Cliburn to the Grand Prix Clara Haskil. In cooperation with the Bachfest Leipzig, EuroArts was able to convince the reclusive pianist - who is still only known in specialist circles - to produce this recording of an exiting recital in summer 2008.

"… but if I am allowed only one musical work on my desert island, then I should choose Koroliov's Bach, because forsaken, starving and dying of thirst, I would listen to it right up to my last breath." György Ligeti

This legendary quartet has been the authority on Russian string quartet repertoire for more than 60 years. Founded in 1945 and renamed in 1955 after Russian chamber music composer Alexander Borodin, the quartet was so sought after, that even in its early career, it played at Stalin's and Prokofiev's funerals on the same day in 1953! The quartet had a close working relationship with Dmitri Shostakovich, who personally consulted with them on each of his quartets. In this two-hour programme - recorded in 1987 - the quartet presents his string quartets Nos. 3 and 8, written in 1946 and 1960, respectively.These are juxtaposed by two of the three string quartets of Tchaikovsky, works that unjustifiably belong to the less frequently played part of the composer's oeuvre. As one of the longest lasting string quartets, the Borodin Quartet shine with clarity, unity and beauty of sound, whenever and wherever they perform.This DVD provides the opportunity for a close study of important chamber music by their most illustrious interpreters.