Chamber Orchestra of Europe

Recorded with a stellar cast, one of the brightest and most insightful conductors of our day and a specialist handpicked orchestra playing at their best in the stunning venue of Festspielhaus Baden-Baden (July 2015), Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s “completely gripping, high-contrast” Figaro is “a brilliant triumph”, wrote Badische Zeitung of the July 2015 concert performance recorded here, while heaping praise on Luca Pisaroni’s “thrilling” Figaro, Thomas Hampson’s Count “illuminating every word”, Sonya Yoncheva’s Countess “recalling Callas’s vocal colours”, Angela Brower’s “fascinatingly delicate, sensitive” Cherubino and Anne Sofie von Otter’s “wonderfully perceptive, charming Marcellina”, all in a performance “crowned” by Christiane Karg’s “enchanting” Susanna and Rolando Villazón as Basilio, who “had the audience at his feet”.

Arguably the greatest opera ever written, the Mozart/Da Ponte depiction of the last twenty-four hours of the legendary libertine is performed here in the standard version combining the two versions Mozart prepared. Abbado offers modern instruments with certain nods to period performance practice–many appoggiaturas, comparatively fleet tempos, and some modest ornamentation.

This release celebrates the partnership of the distinguished conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1929-2016) directing the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (COE) in a memorable cycle of the complete Schubert Symphonies at the Styriarte Festival in Graz, Austria during July 1988. Harnoncourt was a notable and perhaps controversial Schubertian who, with his favourite orchestra, set about examining everything afresh. The players he worked with in 1988 talk about the way he changed their perceptions, of discovering Schubert’s work for themselves, ignoring the accretions of previous performance tradition.

The second of DG’s series of seven Mozart operas conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and initiated by Rolando Villazón. This Così fan tutte enchanted the Baden-Baden Festspielhaus audience when recorded in concert in 2012, with Nézet-Séguin inspiring his stellar cast to feats of vocal derring-do.

The Chamber Orchestra of Europe performs Stravinsky's Apollon Musagète and Pulcinella Suite, repertoire that demands the fresh and energetic delivery for which the COE is renowned. The COE deliver the 'wonderful freshness' Stravinsky himself envisioned in Apollon Musagète with their bright and spirited performance. The Guardian commented: 'In Stravinsky's Apollon Musagète each and every player contributed to the distinctive, rich-toned sonority.'

After the outstanding critical acclaim of her previous album of Tchaikovsky & Sibelius Violin Concertos with Staatskapelle Berlin and Daniel Barenboim, Lisa Batiashvili presents a masterful version of Prokofiev's two violin concertos, in another first-class musical partnership, with Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Deutsche Grammophon’s landmark cycle of Mozart’s mature operas reaches its sixth title with The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte). Set for international release on August 2 via Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music Canada, the country’s leading music company, the live recording continues the Yellow Label’s special collaboration with the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. It boasts a stellar cast, headed by the project’s initiator, Rolando Villazón, as Papageno, together with Klaus Florian Vogt as Tamino, Christiane Karg as Pamina, Regula Mühlemann as Papagena, Albina Shagimuratova as the Queen of the Night, and Franz-Josef Selig as Sarastro.

This pairing of concertos Nos 25 and 27, recorded with Chamber Orchestra of Europe, is Piotr Anderszewski’s third Warner Classics album of Mozart concertos. “In Mozart I tend to prefer to direct from the keyboard,” he explains, “His concertos are like chamber works…The piano is in dialogue with the orchestra, conversing and interacting all the time. The two works are very different …No 25 is very grand, complex and sophisticated; No 27, Mozart’s final piano concerto, is in a major key, but underneath it I sense an incredible sadness … It always amazes me how deep this music is.”"

This album presents works for string orchestra by Lithuanian composer Algirdas Martinaitis (b. 1950) from his early breakthrough work Birds of Eden (1981) to a recent Valse triste (2020), giving a very broad vision of this composer. This programme is performed by Lithuanian musicians of the St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra conducted by Modestas Barkauskas and featuring violinist Rūta Lipinaitytė and soprano Asta Krikščiūnaitė.

Jeremy Denk is joined by The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for two Mozart concertos—No. 25 in C Major, K. 503 and No. 20 in D minor, K. 466—bookending the composer’s solo Rondo in A minor, K. 511.