Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 15 in F major, K533/494

Beautiful performances of Mozart’s late piano sonatas by the world renowned Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires. The recordings originally appeared on the Denon label in the 1970s and are now available from Regis at super-budget price.

'Pires has always been something of a Mozart specialist, and her playing is tasteful and cleanly articulated, the lyrical melodies sensitively shaped, the passage work fluent and even. Nothing she does is ever harsh or graceless.' Gramophone

Fortepiano phenomenon Kristian Bezuidenhout begins his multi-volume traversal of Mozart’s music for solo keyboard.

Volume 1 features an instrument by Derek Adlam modeled on an original by Gabriel Anton Walter of the type Mozart owned in Vienna. Kristian Bezuidenhout studied with Rebecca Penneys, Malcolm Bilson and Paul O’Dette. He first gained international recognition at the age of 21 after winning the prestigious first prize as well as the audience prize in the Bruges Fortepiano Competition (2001), a double honour, this being only the third time the former prize has been awarded in the history of the competition. Bezuidenhout is a frequent guest artist with the world’s leading ensembles and he now has a standing duo with the baroque violinist Petra Müllejans, artistic director of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra; their first CD, a disc of Mozart Violin Sonatas, was released on harmonia mundi USA in the Spring of 2009. Highlights of past seasons have included a complete cycle of the late Mozart Piano Concertos and the Beethoven Piano Concertos (Amsterdam Concertgebouw) with the Orchestra of the 18th Century under Frans Bruggen. Plans for the future include concerts with the Orchestre des Champs Elysées under Philippe Herreweghe; a Mendelssohn project with the Freiburger Baroque Orchestra and Gottfried von der Goltz; a tour with Les Arts Florissants; trio concerts with Viktoria Mullova & Pieter Wispelwey and more recordings for harmonia mundi.

Originally released on Calico Classics (CCCR101), it has been out of print for some time and is now reissued on the Diversions imprint – at mid price.

Jill Crossland is from West Yorkshire and studied at Chethams School of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music with Ryszard Bakst and in Vienna with Paul Badura-Skoda and Sally Sargeant and now pursues an active concert and recording career.

Jill has played regularly on the South Bank and at the Wigmore Hall in London; her appearances have also included Bridgewater Hall, St George’s Bristol, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Vienna Musikverein, Vienna Konzerthaus, Sage Gateshead and the National Concert Hall, Dublin. She has been a member of the Arts Council England Musicians in Residence scheme.

Jill’s recordings include works by Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, Mozart and Beethoven for the Divine Art and Diversions labels, as well as the Bach Goldberg Variations and the complete Bach Well-tempered Clavier for Signum. Her recordings have received high critical praise on both sides of the Atlantic. Among many critical plaudits, her Bach has been described “among the most satisfying recent releases of [his] keyboard music” (Rob Cowan BBC Radio 3) and “rank[ing] with the finest previous versions, altogether a remarkable achievement” (Penguin Guide to CDs) and her Beethoven as “magnetic” and “delightful” by American Record Guide.

Jill has appeared on radio and TV, including live and recorded broadcasts on BBC Radios 3 and 4 and has featured in the Classic FM Hall of Fame.

"I salute my listeners and offer them a warm and grateful farewell." Alfred Brendel

Alfred Brendel has for many years been among the world's greatest pianists; in concert, recital and on many best-selling recordings. Here, in his last CD release, recorded in the year of his retirement (2008), he gives his final public performances in solo recital and in concert - revealing a master musician in total command of his art

This 2CD digipak souvenir set captures these two memorable occasions, and is presented at the price of 2 for 1.5.

Recorded live in Hanover, Brendel's farewell recital featured composers with whom he is most closely associated throughout his career - with a set of variations by Haydn, and sonatas by Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert.

It is fitting that Alfred Brendel's final public performance should be in Vienna's beautiful Musikverein, with the Wiener Philharmoniker - an orchestra with whom he has enjoyed a long and fruitful collaboration. The concert was conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras, marking the end of an exceptional partnership between pianist and conductor.

The concert featured Alfred Brendel as soloist in Mozart's concerto in E flat major K271, known as the 'Jeunehomme', after the young woman pianist for whom it was composed in 1777.

The booklet includes Brendel's own notes on the recital repertoire, and tributes from Sir Charles Mackerras and Prof. Dr. Clemens Hellberg of the Vienna Philharmonic - as well as a farewell statement from Alfred Brendel himself.

"Exquisite thrills as a titan bids farewell" Daily Telegraph, London

"The end of my concert career in December 2008, after sixty years on stage, was planned well in advance. I enjoyed looking forward to challenges of a different kind, and calmly anticipated my final performances." Alfred Brendel

"After so many years with Alfred at the top of his profession it is hard to imagine musical life without his unique presence." Sir Charles Mackerras

“Rampe’s historically informed approach, his complementary embellishments in the style of the period and improvised ornamentations in the repetitions, and the employment of instruments from Mozart’s time lend this recording its special appeal – and the overall sound impression is also convincing“ (Pforzheimer Zeitung).

This recording of Mozart's Piano Sonatas was the esteemed pianist Andreas Haefliger's first for Avie. Hailing from one of Europe’s musically elite families, Haefliger’s music background has firmly steeped him in the Austro-Germanic tradition. His intellectual interpretations of the music of Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann have been noted for his acute sensitivity and breathtaking technical precision.

Dutch pianist Stanley Hoogland was a pioneer in the research and performance of the fortepiano in the early 1970’s. Since then he has become a frequent concert performer and currently teaches at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague and Amsterdam.

The Canadian musician Glenn Gould was undoubtedly one of the greatest pianists of all time. To mark the 75th anniversary of his birth, and the 25th anniversary of his death, Sony BMG Masterworks presents this seminal artist’s vinyl recordings as re-mastered CDs, designed to replicate the exact artwork of the original gramophone records in miniaturised form. Already issued as part of an 80-CD box set (88697130942), these albums are now being made available individually.