This is the first of four releases that feature the SWR recordings of Friedrich Gulda. All recordings on this album are being released here for the first time. The recording of the "Inner Circle" on album 7 is to date the only one of Guldas jazz ensemble. The series contains, among solo repertoire and concerts, also compositions by Freidrich Gulda himself. The whole series is thus an extensive documentation of Guldas music universe. Friedrich Gulda began his career in music studying at the Vienna Music Academy. He went on to win first prize at the 1946 Geneva International Music Competition, and made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1950. While most renowned for his Mozart and Beethoven interpretations, he is also remembered for his free improvisation and jazz interests.

"Mozart: Piano Classical Music" is a collaborative compilation album featuring pianists Katya Kramer-Lapin, Mikhail Mordvinov, and Vladislav Mikhalchuk performing timeless solo piano compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

This new album, which continues DG’s archival series, features a previously unreleased live recording from the legendary Munich Klaviersommer. It captures Martha Argerich and Nicolas Economou together at the keyboard at the height of their powers in 1982. They play Mozart’s sparkling Sonata for Piano Four Hands in D major, K. 381, in a performance that reveals the two performers – close friends both on and off the concert platform – at their most imaginative and spontaneous. This early document of their collaboration – cut short by Economou’s tragic death in 1993 – represents an exciting and valuable addition to the pianists' small shared discography.

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s complete recording, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras, is a pioneering interpretation of Beethoven’s symphonies thanks to its original approach: it was the first to use Jonathan del Mar’s critical edition, now regarded as the definitive text by performers. Mackerras also infused it with a very distinctive spirit, inspired by early music performance practices but played on modern instruments: brisk tempos, lively articulation. Several symphonies are now available in digital format for the first time!

Domenico Cimarosa was the most famous and popular Italian composer of the second half of the eighteenth century. In the course of a brilliantly successful career he composed more than 65 operas, as well as a significant body of instrumental music and works for the church. His operas were performed all over Europe, both in Italian and in translation. A number of Cimarosa’s operas continued to enjoy occasional stagings during the nineteenth century, and his most famous work, Il matrimonio segreto, is one of only a handful of operas of the period never to have left the repertory. Cimarosa’s overtures are remarkable for their melodic invention, assured handling of the orchestra and sheer vitality.

For her first solo album with BIS Records, Alina Ibragimova, together with Cédric Tiberghien, embarks on recording Beethoven’s entire violin sonatas. As one might expect, the first violinist of the Chiaroscuro Quartet presents these chamber music masterpieces on period instruments. While she plays a gut-stringed instrument, Tiberghien plays a fortepiano, a copy of a Viennese instrument from 1794.

Quatuor Diotima presents an album of Beethoven’s late string quartets, bringing renewed clarity and passion to some of the most profound works in the chamber repertoire. Written in the final years of his life, these late quartets unfold as deeply expressive explorations of form, counterpoint and human emotion. From the solemn majesty of Op. 127 to the transcendent variations of Op. 132 and the taut and spirited finale of Op. 135, Beethoven’s vision is at once intimate and vast, weaving intricate textures and soaring lyricism into a continuous, compelling musical narrative. Quatuor Diotima’s interpretations illuminate every nuance, revealing the inventive brilliance and emotional depth that make these works enduring masterpieces.

The Harmoniemesse, Haydn’s last major sacred work, combines liturgical solemnity with dazzling orchestral writing empowered by his masterly use of the winds. In contrast, the intimate, luminous Missa brevis ‘St John of God’, reveals a more contemplative faith. Directing Les Arts Florissants, William Christie illuminates these two sides of the composer with authority and poetic sensitivity, well served by a top-flight quartet of soloists.

One of Mozart’s most colourful and delightful scores, The Seraglio is stylishly sung here in a performance that includes the spoken dialogue. Gardiner’s orchestral forces are on tip-top form, and the sound is warm and fresh.

The Berlin public of the mid-Eighteenth Century was fascinated by the ‘original genius’ of C. P. E. Bach and never tired of listening to his concertos. These works call for a talented soloist capable of mastering the multiple facets of an original and finely worked musical texture: a challenge taken up with panache (and on a period instrument) by the oboist Xenia Löffler, surrounded by her distinguished colleagues of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.

The Sei concerti per il cembalo concertato were the outcome of a period of intensive work between 1770 and 1772, shortly after Carl Philipp Emanuel arrived in Hamburg. Introducing one of his most exciting recording ventures, Andreas Staier talks about the incredible diversity of these works, their unusual publication history and construction in a lucid and entertaining essay in the booklet.

Eugene Istomin (1925–2003), one of America’s most respected pianists, was highly esteemed by audiences and colleagues alike for his mindful virtuosity and unusually wide-ranging repertoire. 2015 marks Istomin’s 90th birthday year, a milestone that Sony Classical celebrates with the first-ever release of his complete Columbia Masterworks concerto and solo recordings in a limited original-jacket collection including 10 previously unreleased studio recordings. Many of these performances appear in their first authorized CD editions, including the 19-year-old pianist’s recorded debut in Bach’s D minor Concerto led by Adolf Busch; his youthful concerto collaborations with Pablo Casals; Chopin’s complete Nocturnes; Brahms’s Handel Variations; Schubert’s D major D 850 Sonata, plus the long-out-of-print Rachmaninoff 2nd, Tchaikovsky 1st, Brahms 2nd, and Beethoven 4th and 5th (“Emperor”) Concertos with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Newly remastered from the original analogue tapes, the discs are presented in facsimile sleeves and labels corresponding to the original LP releases. An enclosed booklet offers full discographical information, an essay by Jed Distler, and a photographic retrospective.

Though Mönkemeyer’s playing has an evident sense of period, he’s not performance practice, he’s not hidebound by the imperatives of the time-honoured treatises. He revels in Paganini’s honeyed lyricism, and brings a finely-honed intensity to interpolated cadenzas…L’arte del mondo directed by Werner Ehrhardt prove spirited companions.

In November 2007, Daniel Barenboim completed a cycle of Beethoven's piano concertos. Recorded live at the prestigious Klavier-Festival Ruhr in May 2007, this DVD recording reflects both a very individual and special reading of Beethoven’s music and the artist’s life-long dedication to the composer. Daniel Barenboim is one of the most prolific and high-profile artists performing on international stages today and Beethoven’s masterpieces have been a key part of his repertoire throughout his career, both as conductor and as pianist. Beethoven himself was a keyboard virtuoso of almost awesome abilities who created a sensation wherever he played. It is no wonder, therefore, that the piano was central to Beethoven’s overall output.

This compilation covers 20 years of live recordings made by conductor Yevgeny Mravinsky and the then-named Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra for Erato. Mravinsky led that orchestra for nearly 50 years, from 1938 until his death. His last recording was that of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 12, made in 1984, found on Disc 3 here. His interpretations of Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky were highly regarded, so it's not surprising that several of their symphonies are here. There are also symphonies by Mozart and Beethoven in this set; tone poems by Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky; and orchestral excerpts from operas by Wagner, Glinka, and Glazunov. The final disc contains a rare recording of a rehearsal led by Mravinsky, something few outsiders were ever allowed to witness. Even though he was an elder statesman of Russian music at the time of these recordings, there is still precision and energy in his interpretations.