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In addition to his mastery of instrumental and sacred works, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the most celebrated operatic writers in music history. In Il rè pastore, a relatively early opera from the then nineteen‐year‐old composer, we see the beginnings of genius in a man who was later to become a true master of the genre.

Il rè pastore was commissioned in 1775 for the visit of Austria’s Archduke Maximilian Franz to Salzburg. Written in just six weeks, the opera is based on a libretto by Pietro Metastasio in which Alexander the Great (Alessandro) discovers that young shepherd Aminta is the rightful heir to the throne, taking it upon himself to restore the boy to power. Regardless of the composer’s youth, several moments in the opera show hints of the more mature Mozart, including the aria ‘L’amerò sarò costante’ in which rippling strings and lush orchestration are combined with a poignant, yearning vocal line. Another highlight is the glorious ensemble finale of Act II, a feature that would become a vital characteristic of Mozart’s later operas.

Musica ad Rhenum has earned a special place in the early music world, with critics describing the ensemble’s performances as ‘cutting‐edge’ and ‘exhilarating’. The group are joined by a fantastic set of vocal soloists, with Johanette Zomer assuming the role of Aminta and Alexei Gregoriev playing Alexander the Great.

The only single CD with the complete Psalm Cantatas available.

Mendelssohn’s Psalm Cantatas are small scale works for vocal soloists, choir and orchestra, based on well known psalms, expressing the general emotional content of the psalm in dramatic and romantic musical language. The writing is firmly rooted in the German choral tradition, no wonder for a composer who revived Bach’s Matthäus Passion in his time.

Single issue drawn from the set of the complete choral works by Mendelssohn performed by the Chamber Choir of Europe conducted by Nicol Matt, a set which received uniform praise in the international press, among others a prestigious “Diapason d’Or”. Booklet contains liner notes and sung texts.

These cantatas, although relatively disregarded by the overly self‐critical composer and consequently only published in the 1970s and 80s, demonstrate Mendelssohn’s ability to strike a pleasing and impressive balance between the two extremes of this debate. The pieces are certainly not ‘utility music’ intended merely to serve a specific purpose within a church service; but neither do they cast off the liturgical framework in the manner of Beethoven’s Ninth or Mendelssohn’s ‘Reformation’ Symphony. Each one succeeds in having its own captivating effect capable of transporting the listener. The Psalm Cantatas are performed here by the Chamber Choir of Europe who, among numerous other feats, have already recorded the complete sacred choral works of both Mozart and Mendelssohn. They are led by Nicol Matt, a specialist in church music who has had several releases on Brilliant Classics and sold over eight million CDs worldwide.

The composition of Alexander Borodin’s opera Prince Igor – based on the Song of Igor, a 12th‐century Russian epic – got off to a slow start, with the composer’s career as an organic chemist preventing him from making much progress.

Eventually his friends tricked him into composing certain parts of the work by inserting these numbers into a concert programme; later still, another friend, the celebrated Nikolai Rimsky‐Korsakov, suggested making the opera a joint venture, putting himself at Borodin’s disposal as a musical secretary as well as orchestrating and composing several extracts. Yet the opera remained incomplete at Borodin’s death in 1887, and it was left to Rimsky‐Korsakov and the young Alexander Glazunov to construct and finalise the work, premiering it in St Petersburg in 1890 to rave reviews. Central to the opera is the way in which the Russians are distinguished from the Polovtsians through melodic characterisation: while Borodin uses features of Russian folk music to represent his compatriots, chromaticism, melismas and appoggiaturas – among other techniques – represent their ‘heathen’ opponents. These methods were already established ways of portraying Orientalism in Russian music, with the opera intended, in part, to be an homage to Mikhail Glinka, ‘the father of Russian music’.

The Sofia National Opera Chorus has garnered acclaim the world over, and here it is accompanied by the Sofia Festival Orchestra, which has performed throughout Europe as well as further afield with distinguished soloists such as Nicolai Gedda and Mirella Freni, to name but a few. The recording also boasts a wealth of celebrated vocalists, including Boris Martinovich and Stefka Evstatieva.

An attractive programme of rarely recorded chamber music by Michael Glinka, the “Father of Russian music”.

In the first half of the 19th century Glinka gave a distinctive national character and flavour to Russian music, mainly in his vocal and operatic works. These chamber music works however smell of chic 19th century salons, written in brilliant “divertimento”‐style, for a variety of instruments: violin, harp, bassoon, piano, cello, double bass: high class entertainment.

Beautifully performed by Russian instrumental soloists from the elite Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra. Booklet contains extensive liner notes and artist biographies.

The first Russian composer to gain real national recognition within his own country, and often regarded as ‘the father of Russian music’, Mikhail Glinka is best known for his rousing operas A Life for the Tsar and Ruslan and Ludmila. Growing up amid a family of landed gentry, however – a setting in which domestic music‐making was a muchrespected occupation – much of his early work was of a very different nature, namely chamber music intended for performance in more modest settings. It is this lesser‐known and equally compelling part of the composer’s output that is explored here. Nevertheless, the pieces in this collection span a considerable stretch of Glinka’s life. They range from the Variations on a Theme by Mozart, written when the composer was just eighteen and already demonstrating the skill with which he would repeatedly and creatively re‐work the musical motifs of others’ works; via the Viola Sonata, an unfinished and yet unintentionally rich contribution to the scant repertory of a beautiful instrument, later completed by violist Vadim Borisovsky; to the Serenade on Themes from Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, an intriguing and unusual arrangement for a selection of deep‐timbred instruments that nonetheless succeeds in bringing out the individual melodic voice of each one. This varied selection is performed by an accomplished and acclaimed ensemble, the Bolshoi Theatre Soloists, each of whom leads their specific section of the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra. They are conducted by Alexander Lazarev, who has been their principal conductor for 25 years. The Bolshoi Theatre Soloists have toured throughout Europe and the USA.

By 1901 Nikolai Rimsky‐Korsakov had already been a professor at the St Petersburg Conservatory for thirty years and had achieved considerable renown as a composer. Having written eleven operas of varying subject matter, his interest in folklore led him to Yevgeny Petrovsky’s libretto – based on the tales of the evil genie Kashchey – which would become the topic of his next stage work.

The opera’s story – in which the malevolent Kashchey holds Princess Tsarevna captive – has been perceived as having an allegorical meaning, with Kashchey representing a tyrannical power and the eventual triumph over him a warning of political upheaval. Indeed, one memorable performance of the work took place in St Petersburg in the aftermath of Bloody Sunday (1905), with proceeds intended for families of the victims of the tragic event, and cries of ‘Down with autocracy!’ after the performance led police to evacuate the hall. The opera is written on a small scale, with just five characters, and the realm of the supernatural is emphasised through artificial modes. Further musical characterisation can also be found in the chromaticism and altered harmonies given to Kashchey, and the heroic lyricism of Prince Ivan Korolovitch. This recording features five acclaimed soloists who have all enjoyed successful careers in their native Russia. They are accompanied by the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra and led by the late Andrey Chistiakov, the Orchestra’s conductor for twelve years.

In 2013, a Reger “Anniversary Year”, Brilliant Classics is proud to release a substantial Collection on 11 CD’s of this great and unjustly neglected composer.

This set presents Reger’s best known works: the glorious orchestral Böcklin Suite, the Mozart‐, Beethoven‐ and Hiller Variations, the mighty piano concerto and violin concerto, the beautiful clarinet quintet (not in the least inferior to Brahms’ masterpiece), the complete Chorale Fantasias for organ (Reger, organist himself, wrote extensively and superbly for his instrument) and a fine selection of choral works.

Excellent performances by the finest German forces of the Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig, Staatkapelle Berlin and Dresden, and conductors like Franz Konwitchny, Günther Herbig and Otmar Suitner.

Inspired to follow a career in music after attending a performance of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, celebrated composer Max Reger began his musical endeavours as an organist. His compositional style gradually developed, and today his name is synonymous with the schools of Brahms and Beethoven, his two greatest influences.

This extensive collection provides a showcase of Reger’s finest music. Although the composer generally avoided large‐scale works such as the symphony, some of his Variations nevertheless have a symphonic feel: the J.A. Hiller Variations, which enjoyed much popularity during the composer’s lifetime; the resplendent Fugue finale of the Beethoven Variations; and the Mozart Variations, long considered a masterpiece. The selection also includes his Concertos, both of which have a distinctly Brahmsian quality, his magnificent Chorale Preludes for organ, as well as music for voice – including the renowned Lied To Hope, reminiscent of Wagner’s Tristan, the Hymn of Love and several sacred songs. Reger further proved his versatility by writing A Ballet Suite, something so unlike anything else he had written that the composer himself said of it: ‘[this] could be by any other composer, just not by me.’ The collection boasts a wealth of acclaimed conductors, soloists and orchestras including, among others, violinist Walter Hartwich, organist Wouter van den Broek, and conductors Heinz Rögner and Otmar Suitner.

One of the greatest and most revolutionary composers of the nineteenth century, Richard Wagner transformed the realm of musical drama. Years before his towering successes of the Ring Cycle, Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, he wrote the now lesser‐performed The Flying Dutchman, an opera that marks the beginning of Wagner’s mature works.

The opera – premiered in Dresden in 1843 – is based on Heinrich Heine’s telling of the legend in which the captain of a ghostly vessel, The Flying Dutchman, is doomed to roam the seas for all eternity until he wins the love of a woman. The fate of the Dutchman is said to have struck Wagner as a mirror image of his own disastrous fate in Paris; having expected the city to hail him as a genius, he was left bitterly disappointed. From the outset, the overture depicts the vast expanse of the rolling sea and hints at the despair that is to come, while weaving together other leitmotifs that will reoccur later in the work.

Other highlights include Senta’s heartfelt ballad from Act II, the Dutchman’s soliloquy ‘Die Frist ist um’ and the raucous shanty that is the Sailors’ Chorus. The role of the Dutchman is sung by legendary lyric baritone Dietrich Fischer‐ Dieskau, described by The Guardian as ‘the most influential singer of the 20th century’. Playing his love interest, Senta, is Marianne Schech, while Gottlob Frick takes the role of her father. The soloists are supported by the Chor der deutschen Staatsoper Berlin and the Staatskapelle Berlin, conducted by Franz Konwitschny.

The star of the young Hungarian violinist Kristóf Baráti is quickly rising. Having won several important international competitions (the most recent first prize at the prestigious Paganini Competition in Moscow) he plays with important orchestras and conductors, like Charles Dutoit, Kurt Masur, Iván Fischer, Yuri Temirkanov and Marek Janowski.

His recent recording of Beethoven’s complete violin sonatas with Klára Würtz received rave reviews: “5 stars…a great duo, comparable with Perlman/Ashkenazy, Grumiaux/Haskil, Ferras/Barbizet’ (Diapason), “A talent that comes along once in a decade, perhaps once in a generation, I don’t say it lightly, but once you’ve heard Baráti and Würtz you’ll never listen to anyone else again” (Fanfare).

This recording of the great solo Bach was issued on Berlin Classics in 2009, and shows the sovereign command over the matter, and a deep understanding of the spirit of these masterworks.

Bach may well be one of the most widely acknowledged master composers of all time, but that only serves to make each performer’s interpretation of his work all the more challenging and distinctive: each musician must both do justice to the composer’s intention, making a decision as to the best way of conveying that within the music which is not fixed, and at the same time leave their own mark on the performance. This is especially true for these Sonatas and Partitas given the variety of styles in which such Baroque masterworks have been performed, ranging from the freely romantic to the strictly precise, and the technical challenge posed by these complex pieces for a single instrument. The works in this collection are something of an enigma, not only because of the uncertainty surrounding the circumstances and date of their composition, but, more crucially, because of the way in which they stretch the capacity for polyphony of a single violin beyond its physical limit. It is as though Bach had written for a full ensemble of instruments – but on a single staff. Modern musicians have even speculated as to the possible existence of a special bow with which an exact performance of the music might have been achieved in Bach’s day. The music is no less rich for all of this, however: on the contrary, the harmonic complexity of these pieces is at once captivating and beautiful; the implied but absent notes are thrillingly suggestive; and the multiplicity of voices leaves the listener marvelling at Bach’s compositional vision and the performer’s ability.

This accomplished musical feat is performed by Kristóf Baráti, a Hungarian violinist who has worked with an astonishing number of world‐famous orchestras and conductors. Baráti plays a 1703 Stradivarius violin, and one can sense this echo of the era of the pieces as much as one can his intense emotional involvement with the music.

“…The set is a document of considerable worth. Jochum’s dedication to Bruckner’s music throughout a long and distinguished career has been exemplary; he loves the music deeply and communicates that love with fervour.” (Gramophone).

The complete Bruckner symphonies (including “Die Nullte”) , the classic and authorative recording of the glorious Staatskapelle Dresden conducted by Bruckner veteran Eugen Jochum, a gem from the EMI catalogue, never having lost any of its grandeur, lucidity and spirituality.

Extensive liner notes on each symphony in the booklet.

The collection also includes Bruckner’s Symphony No. 0 – a work that is something of a phenomenon in music history, given that it was never assigned a number by its composer. Due to Bruckner’s evident unhappiness with the piece and its subsequent exclusion from the cycle, the work is rarely performed, but nevertheless its rich harmonic language and polyphonic character are wholly characteristic of the composer’s symphonic style – one which increases in length as the cycle progresses.

The influence of Wagner, Bruckner’s idol who he worshipped with an almost neurotic obsession, permeates throughout – there are echoes of Siegfried and Parsifal among other operas – and then of course there are the Adagios: sublime, timeless works of art in their own right. Joining the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski (Symphony No. 0) is the acclaimed Staatskapelle Dresden, directed by eminent German conductor.

This 3‐disc collection showcases Russian piano trios from the mid‐nineteenth to early‐twentieth centuries. Piano trios were unheard of for Russian composers until Mikhail Glinka wrote one in 1832; it earned the epithet ‘Pathétique’ as it seemed to be a reflection of Glinka’s general sadness at the time of writing, the piece alternating between caustic tension and attempts at light‐hearted optimism.

A mournful, melancholic influence then became characteristic of the Russian piano trio: Tchaikovsky unknowingly created a tradition when he composed his offering in 1882 – one of his greatest chamber works and which he dedicated to his recently deceased and much‐missed friend Nikolay Rubinstein. On several subsequent occasions, piano trios were written as memorials. The collection also includes the mathematically‐governed trio of Sergey Taneyev, who had gained a reputation as a cerebral composer, and the trio of Rimsky‐ Korsakov, whose mastery of opera and vocal writing can be seen in the final movement as each instrument takes on its own ‘voice’ and emotion – thus resembling an interaction between characters. Alexander Borodin used the Classical model for his trio, although it contains surprising chromaticism as well as dramatic changes of temperament, including the tragic hymn in the second movement. Anton Arensky’s take on the genre completes the collection. The Moscow Piano Trio was formed in 1976 and has achieved huge success in international competitions, notably winning the Maurice Ravel Gold Medal at the Bordeaux ‘Mai Musical’. The trio is comprised of pianist Alexander Bonduriansky, violinist Vladimir Ivanov and cellist Mikhail Utkin.