Adagio Ma Non Troppo, by Ryoko Sekiguchi

The century was only twenty-one years old, and so was Ernst Krenek, when his Serenade op. 4 was premièred on 31 July 1921 at the newly launched “Donaueschingen Chamber Music Performances for the advancement of contemporary music.” The event soon came to be known as Donaueschingen Festival, now one of the oldest specialized music festivals worldwide: Krenek’s music has occasionally been heard there since then – albeit as a series of utterly contrasting works one would hardly ascribe to the same composer.

Sony Classical is pleased to present Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma's Beethoven for Three: Symphony No. 4 and Op. 97 “Archduke," which will be released March 15, 2024.

Cedille Records want the world to know about two of Mozart's less-familiar contemporaries, Chevalier J.J.O. de Meude-Monpas and Chevalier de Saint-Georges, as well as later composers Joseph White and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. All were men of mixed African and European descent who made important contributions to European music in the 1700s and 1800s. Celebrities in their day, they've been all but forgotten in our era.

American pianist Adam Neiman performs two of Beethoven's epic masterpieces: the "Hammerklavier" Sonata Op. 106 and the Diabelli Variations, Op. 120.