Hagen Quartett Hagen Quartett: Haydn

For sheer finesse the Hagen is up there with its fellow Austrian ensemble the Alban Berg Quartet. The players' collective sonority - aptly slimmed down for Mozart - is elegantly honed, their ensemble and internal balance impeccable. No subtlety of Mozart's part-writing escapes them. The first two quartets of the Haydn set come off specially well.

MOZART 111 combines the best of the Austrian master's music with the best of Deutsche Grammophon's Mozart recordings, bringing together a total of 111 works, while retaining, as far as possible, the original album releases with their cover art. There's enough of everything here to stock a shop, as they say, in performances that have stood the test of time and performances that make you sit up and listen to Mozart afresh the perfect way to discover, rediscover and savor the incomparable genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Beethoven is undoubtedly one of the most influential and important composers of all time. This album features the landmark symphonies, concertos, chamber music and solo piano music from this giant of music, all performed by the greatest interpreters – Claudio Abbado, Martha Argerich, Wilhelm Kempff, Carlos Kleiber, Rafael Kubelik and many others.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a prolific and influential composer of the classical era.