Bach, J S: Cantata BWV147 'Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben': Jesu, bleibet meine Freude (Jesu, joy of man's desiring)

Martin Stadtfeld performs Mendelssohn, Schumann & Bach, with the renowned Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, under its founder, Sir Neville Marriner. This is the first Mendelssohn (1809-1847) disc from acclaimed, award winning German pianist Stadtfeld, who caused a stir in 2002, becoming the first German to win the 'International Bach Competition' in Leipzig. There are two CD's, with disc one being a x13 piece body of Mendelssohns work & then a bonus disc two containing x4 pieces of work, covering Schumann & Bach.

After attracting attention at the French "Victoires de la Musique Classique" Awards in 2012, the contralto and conductor Nathalie Stutzmann is back with her Orfeo 55 ensemble.

For her new album, Nathalie Stutzmann has imagined an "ideal" cantata based on the most beautiful music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach: her imaginary cantata includes vocal arias of course, but also instrumental pieces and even chorales.

From Bach's immense, magnificent repertoire, Nathalie Stutzmann wanted to "pick a bouquet of its most beautiful flowers."

Arias of gallantry or tenderness, anger, love, fear or despair... every register of expression comes together in Nathalie Stutzmann's "Cantate imaginaire", giving birth to an entirely work with an album constructed in a single, continuous breath.

Arthur Fiedler took great pride in bringing classical music to the world at large. While Leonard Bernstein was busy with his Young People’s Concerts with the New York Philharmonic, Fiedler and his Boston Pops Orchestra (most of the members drawn from the Boston Symphony) gave concerts of popular classics that became a fixture on America’s musical calendar. They made several recordings for Polydor / Deutsche Grammophon and the ever-popular Christmas disc is here reissued with built-in bonus tracks by Bach, Humperdinck and Tchaikovsky, in a sleigh ride, taking the listener from a delightful pot-pourri of carols (‘A Christmas Festival’) arranged by Leroy Anderson to Baroque hits in lush orchestrations to high-energy American Christmas songs – all arranged sumptuously for orchestra.

For a half-century he had the reputation of the trumpet soloist: Maurice André, who died in 2012. The best examples of his radiant tone are the recordings he made with different organists – a brilliant stroll through the golden world of Baroque music.

Karl Münchinger recorded all the major orchestral and choral pieces by Bach for Decca, and over a period of some 30 years (from the Mono to the Digital eras), five of the Cantatas. All boast remarkable soloists from their eras. Suzanne Danco sings the two solo cantatas, BWV 51 and 202, recorded in 1953 and released on CD for the first time. Elly Ameling and Helen Watts are soloists in the early cantata, BWV 10. And the digital recordings of Ein feste Burg and Wachet auf feature Julia Hamari and Tom Krause. The collection is rounded off with two of the most popular orchestral arrangements from the Bach cantata repertoire – Jesu, joy of man’s desiring and Sheep may safely graze.

Everyone attaches particular importance to the music for their wedding ceremony. It is, after all, the key ingredient essential for intensifying the emotional level of a very special day which is to be shared not only by the happy couple but also with all their guests. Choosing the music for one’s wedding is an intimate thing, a second declaration of love between bride and groom. But it is also a bid to express and convey to the young couple’s nearest and dearest, who will be present with them at the wedding, all those feelings of joy and love which cannot be expressed by a mere exchange of "I do’s" and of rings.

And so, whatever your musical tastes and temperament and no matter how you choose to say "I love you" or "I do", you’ll find music to suit you on this double album: from favourite classics to rare gems of the repertoire, from music for festive occasions to more intimate, soulful and reflective melodies, this compilation brings together the most beautiful masterpieces to help you make your wedding an occasion of pure emotion and shared happiness and ensure that you never forget the most beautiful day of your life.

Britain’s Finest Hour – and six years of cataclysm, stoicism and heroism – are recalled by this richly varied collection of music associated with the Second World War.

From Forces’ Sweetheart Vera Lynn to the National Gallery’s pianist, Dame Myra Hess, and from the cinematic sweep of William Walton and Richard Addinsell to the dapper sophistication of Eric Coates and restrained sentiment of Noël Coward, this treasury of hits from the blitz salutes an era never to be forgotten.

This musical portrait of Britain at war takes off with the Spitfire and lands with the Lancasters of 617 Squadron – the Dam Busters. In between are many of the best-loved melodies that helped unite all ranks and classes in the conflict.

The collection’s still centre is the serene slow movement of Vaughan Williams’s Fifth Symphony, a work whose 1943 première was sensed as a harbinger of piece.

Either side are marches, popular film scores, light-music hits and – impossible without – Dame Vera Lynn.

The favourite marches include Colonel Bogey, the RAF March Past and (as well as the Dam Busters) Coates’s Knightsbridge.

The film scores lead with Walton’s First of the Few and take in his celebrated music for Olivier’s Henry V as well as the romantic mini-concertos for Dangerous Moonlight (‘Warsaw Concerto’) and Love Story.

Among the vintage recordings, Sir Noël Coward stirs our ‘London Pride’, the crooner Al Bowlly (killed in the Blitz) bids ‘Goodnight, Sweetheart’, and – just before the final flypast and busting of dams – Dame Myra Hess reminds us of the legendary National Gallery concerts with her own arrangement of ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’.

Kempff's Baroque pedigree stemmed from the influence of his father, also named Wilhelm Kempff, and his grandfather Cantor Friedrick Kempff, both of whom were organists, and who taught the budding prodigy much of the organ's core repertoire. In fact, Kempff's youthful debut as an organist took place before his first recital as a pianist in 1907. With help from the great German violinist Joseph Joachim, the nine-year-old Kempff was awarded two scholarships at the Berlin Hochschule: one in composition with Robert Kahn, the other studying piano with Heinrich Barth, who also taught Arthur Rubinstein.

While most of Wilhelm Kempff's recordings were made for Deutsche Grammophon, his early Decca LPs and EPs are collector's items. Here issued internationally on CD for the first time is the LP of his Bach recital coupled with a delicious record of miniatures by Couperin, Rameau and Beethoven, including the latter's ubiquitous Fur Elise. In his liner notes, Jed Distler compares Kempff's arrangements of Bach with those of Busoni, and his performances with those of Hess and others. 'Fur Elise gently soars from Kempff's fingers in full-throated, legato arcs that might convince you that the piano has lungs in addition to hammers and strings,' he writes, and concludes, 'The warm, naturally balanced and timbrally true sonic image typical of Decca's piano recordings of this vintage only enhance Kempff's singular artistry. Whatever one makes of his style, his spirit defines authenticity.'

"...excellently recorded programme of arrangements made by Kempff himself..." Gramophone.