New Releases

If there's one period to which we feel specially attracted, it's the time when Ravel and Bartók wrote their sonatas and rhapsodies. Music styles from all corners of the world were blowing across the European continent, taking root as folk dances, blues rhythms and exotic melodies in the hearts of classically trained musicians. How very similar to our own situation!

We were formed by Beethoven and Schubert, but with American colleagues, Indonesian forefathers and pop and jazz musicians as close friends our musical world was equally determined by Radiohead, Brad Mehldau and Indonesian gamelan. Bartók and Ravel show us how traditional craftsmanship can be combined with the sounds of other cultures. In their music we can give full rein to our craft, the flame of our ensemble playing and our love for our instruments. At the same time, we recognize in it the groove, the catch in the voice and the raw expression, which captivate us beyond the concert hall. All these elements are brought together in masterly fashion. And so this CD is not only a homage to Ravel and Bartók, but also to the unbounded world of music, in which we both feel free and happy. Enjoy our recording!

Rosanne Philippens & Yuri van Nieuwkerk In 2001 Yuri and Rosanne met at a summer school high up in the mountains of Switzerland. Playing together, it became clear that they had much in common in their musicianship. On returning to Holland they decided to form a duo, and this has been a great success. Today they continue to play together and their musicianship - both as individuals and as a duo - is recognised increasingly. The duo was awarded the Netherlands Programming Foundation Duo Prize at the National Violin Competition, and has broadcast on Dutch classical radio and TV. At the latest Vriendenkrans/het Debuut they won Het Debuut, and with it a grant for further studies and a series of ten concerts at leading chamber music venues in Holland in 2013. The duo has also performed in Switzerland, Germany and Liechtenstein.

The first international compilation devoted to one of DG / Universal’s greatest young pianists, YUNDI.

It started back in 2000, when he won the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw and went on to record six albums as an exclusive DG artist. Now here’s a distillation of those recordings, both solo and concerto in a fascinating flow of virtuosic and dreamily romantic music.

This midprice release includes the several selections from Chopin, Liszt and Schumann, as well as from the Ravel and Prokofiev piano concertos. There is also some Scarlatti and Mozart – over 80 minutes great music and exceptional playing in a seamless sequence.

Although her time as one of the great singers of the middle part of the 20th century was relatively short, the early recordings of the Italian/American soprano Anna Moffo are still considered by many to be of a very high standard. The recordings in this 10-CD box set were made during the first six years of her growing world fame, and they demonstrate the impressive musicality and vocal perfection that launched her on her career.

Her matchless beauty and spirited sense of drama, coupled with an exceptionally voice, took Anna Moffo (1932-2006) right to the top. In the early part of her career she was particularly renowned for her performances in Mozart‘s operas and as Gilda in Rigoletto, Nanetta in Falstaff, Lucy in Lucia di Lammermoor, and Violetta in La Traviata. Sadly she paid the price for overstretching her talent at an early age undergoing a serious vocal crisis, and in later life her operatic appearances suffered as a result of this.

This release is one of three new recordings issued in 2013 by EMI & Virgin Classics in honour of Britten's 100th birthday. Ian Bostridge, the internationally acclaimed tenor whose "attention to the text always matches Britten's own scrupulous word-setting", has recorded this album of songs by Benjamin Britten accompanied by Antonio Pappano. Featured are works he has never before recorded: 'Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo', 'Hölderlin Fragments', 'Songs From the Chinese', 'Winter Words' and Four English Songs from the last cycle 'Who are These Children?'.

Italian pianist Pina Napolitano performs Schoenberg’s complete piano works, in a rendition that, fully realizing the scores in all their complexity, animates the music and makes it dance, and “conveys its real quality as music - rather than as an object of academic study” (Guy Rickards).

“A romanticism so exasperated that the usual musical indications of expressivity cannot convey it; each note is signed, tormentingly and assiduously, with indications that do nothing but speak to the insufficiency of language and of writing - of every language and every writing, even of the most absolute, the musical language - to express the idea and the thought, the sensation and the still indistinct feeling. Such a concentrated and dolorous romanticism, so essential, that it takes your breath away, a romanticism of the mind and of the heart, in which to feel and to think are not distinct.”

Antonín Dvorak’s daughter Josefa died on 21 September 1875. In response to this bereavement, Dvorak composed the initial version of his Stabat Mater – for four soloists, choir, and piano – between 19 February and 7 May 1876. He then set the work aside without orchestrating it. Soon after this, he lost his other two children in the space of a few weeks, his daughter Ružena on 13 August and his son Otokar on 8 September 1877. At this point he returned to the manuscript abandoned the previous sacred music and established him notably in Great Britain, where his reputation was to remain firm for the rest of his life.

This rarely recorded masterpiece has also inspired Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent. Along with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, they strip the work of all Romantic excess. The result is a spiritual journey from the sombre opening bars to the final Amen, underlining the universal grandeur of this major work of sacred music.

This well-known set of Suite is rarely gone about by most harpsichordist because of it’s distinctive virtuosity. Its popular title refers to only one manuscript – the one of Johann Christian Bach, who noted “fait pour les Anglois” on it. After all it’s maybe a homage or musical reply on the 1713 publication of Francois Couperin’s Premier Livre de Pieces de Clavecin.

Pascal Dubreuil, after his acclaimed recordings of the first and second parts of the Clavierubung (RAM0804 & 1001) offers us with his interpretation of these Suites an impressive reading of higheszt artistry.

Celebrating the 200th Anniversary of Wagner in 2013, David Zinman conducts the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich performing Scenes and Orchestral Pieces from “The Flying Dutchman” and “The Ring of the Nibelung”.

David Zinman is one of the world’s finest, most respected conductors, whose passion for music, dedication to furthering careers of young musicians and as an orchestral builder makes ‘music a better world’.

This CD features famous international Wagner baritone Egils Silins who can be heard as “Dutchman” and as “Wotan”.

Zinman has extended his contract with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich until 2014, where, since 1995 as conductor and music director, he has raised the standard of the orchestra to an international level.

Zinman’s previous recordings on Sony have been received with superb critical acclaim.

In January 2006, David Zinman, received the prestigious Theodore Thomas Award, presented by the Conductors Guild in New York’s Roosevelt Hotel. The award is presented biannually to a conductor, in recognition of outstanding achievement and extraordinary service to one’s colleagues in advancing the art and science of conducting, reflecting honour on the profession.