NEWLY REWORKED SELECTED CLASSICS BY THE 2020 LINE-UP OF THE LEGENDARY PIONEERS OF ELECTRONICA AND AMBIENT Including "Phaedra", "Stratosfear", "Tangram" and "Yellowstone Park"

When Viktoria Tolstoy sings, it is her personal background, the things that have made her who she is, that resonate above all. Her choice of songs is rooted in her own experience, whether it be a deep attachment to her native country ("My Swedish Heart"), the quest for her Russian heritage – she is the great-great-granddaughter of Leo Tolstoy – ("My Russian Soul"), a desire to pay an affectionate tribute to Herbie Hancock ("Letters To Herbie"), or to interpret great film songs ("Meet Me At The Movies"). These thematic threads give Viktoria Tolstoy a way of singing songs which is hers and hers alone. And her voice has something truly special and individual too: there might be a hint of melodrama, or perhaps a certain sadness which is nonetheless underpinned with joy, or happiness, yet with an urgent and dramatic undertone. This innate sense of how to establish an emotional connection also helps to explain why Tolstoy has become one of the most successful singers in jazz from Scandinavia.

From shadow to light: cut off from society but willing to communicate, seeking to embrace the whole world, Beethoven’s case epitomizes a human and sensitive quest.

From shadow to light: cut off from society but willing to communicate, seeking to embrace the whole world, Beethoven’s case epitomizes a human and sensitive quest.

De l’ombre à la lumière : coupé des hommes mais voulant communiquer, cherchant à embrasser le monde entier, Beethoven personnifie une quête humaine et sensible. Le Trio « des Esprits » et celui de « l’Archiduc », sommets du genre, incarnent ses visages romantiques entre intimité et grandeur, mystère et noblesse, conflits intérieurs et paix avec l’Humanité. Piano Trio in D major, Op.70 No.1 Largo assai ed espressivo Piano Trio in D major, Op.70 No.1 Presto De l’ombre à la lumière : coupé des hommes mais voulant communiquer, cherchant à embrasser le monde entier, Beethoven personnifie une quête humaine et sensible. Le Trio « des Esprits » et celui de « l’Archiduc », sommets du genre, incarnent ses visages romantiques entre intimité et grandeur, mystère et noblesse, conflits intérieurs et paix avec l’Humanité.

Petrenko’s Tchaikovsky promises to be one of the most important orchestral releases of 2017. Universal praise from reviewers for the first volume of Symphonies 1, 2 and 5 bodes well for this eagerly-awaited release: Gramophone gave Volume One an Editor’s choice and it reigned as a top 10 UK Classical chart title for 7 weeks in 2016.

Sviatoslav Richters first North American tour in 1960 solidified his international standing as one of the 20th centurys most exciting, provocative and original Russian pianists. His Carnegie Hall debut consisted of five sold-out recitals within twelve days in October, with two recitals added in December. The complete recordings from these concerts - previously only available in two separate editions Sviatoslav Richter - The Complete Album Collection and Great Moments at Carnegie Hall - are gathered together for the first time in one collection of thirteen CDs in a slipcase box including a booklet with archival photos and a new essay by Carnegie Hall archivist Gino Francesconi.

En dix ans, avec plus de 500 concerts en dehors de l'hexagone, ce trio est devenu l'emblème du jazz français à l'étranger. Rémi Panossian, fondateur du groupe, est nommé Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres fin 2019 (!); un comble pour ce qui reste avant tout une bande de potes espiègles, oscillant sans cesse entre le deuxième et le troisième degrés à l'image la pochette de ce cinquième album, proche de l'univers de Wes Anderson.

Toots Thielemans “gave birth to musical sons like Olivier Ker Ourio” writes Michel Contat in his 2016 article published in Télérama magazine, “who continue in his legendary wake to honor the ‘mouth organ’ with emotion.”

Yuval Zorn’s debut album is a truly original and fascinating recital crossing continents from the turbulent revolutionary streets of a violent eastern Europe, to exotic birdsong in the south of France, the tense middle east, the vivid contrasts of Brazil and finally to 1732 Leipzig and the quiet contemplative world of J.S Bach’s famous Chorale Prelude transcribed by Busoni.

Beethoven's five piano concertos relate, in a sense, part of the composers life: some twenty years during which a young musician from Bonn made several revised versions of the first concerto he wrote (a springboard to Viennese success that ended up being called no.2), before becoming the familiar Emperor of music embodied by the brilliant inspiration of no.5. Two hundred and fifty years after his birth, it is with these two extremes that Kristian Bezuidenhout, Pablo Heras-Casado and the Freiburger Barockorchester have chosen to start an exciting period-instrument trilogy of the concertos that bids fair to be a landmark!

John Wilson and Sinfonia of London release their second album, following widespread and universal critical acclaim for their first recording, of Korngold’s Symphony in F sharp. This new recording explores the unique sound world of French orchestral music of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The programme juxtaposes well-known favourites, such as Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, Massenet’s ‘Méditation’ from Thaïs, with pieces far more rarely heard, for example Duruflé’s Trois Danses and Saint-Saëns’s Le Rouet d’Omphale.

After a first recording of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations acclaimed by the critics (Diapason d’Or, BBC, Guardian, Le Monde) Filippe Gorini, a student of Alfred Brendel and winner of the first Prize and Audience Prize of the Bonn Beethoven Competition in 2015, pursues a fast-growing career. Here he returns to Beethoven and tackles the perilous Sonata no 29, known as the ‘Hammerklavier’, which the composer himself said would pose a challenge for future generations, along with the Sonata no 32, which according to Thomas Mann represents the supreme accomplishment of and ‘farewell’ to sonata form.

Polish conductor and composer Paul Kletzki leads the Philharmonia Orchestra in this rousing legacy rendition of Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings. The piece was composed in 1880 and is written in standard 4-part Serenade form, with fast movements bookending slower and more romantic middle movements. Tchaikovsky intended the first movement to be an imitation of Mozart's style, and it was based on the form of the classical sonatina, with a slow introduction. The second movement, Valse, has become a popular piece in its own right.

This selection of chamber music by leading Portuguese composer Pedro Faria Gomes was written between 2007 and 2018. The works encompass themes of memory, change and waiting, with the concept of time being a central preoccupation. Though he has drawn on music from his country’s folk traditions – in Memória and in the Sonata – it is always with new harmonic insights and subtlety, creating undeniably invigorating additions to contemporary chamber music repertoire.