M Wagner

'Stupendous brilliance, breathless virtuosity. Anne-Sophie Mutter's Virtuosi thrilled at the Vienna Musikverein' (Die Presse). In June 2023, star violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter gave an impressive concert in Vienna with her Virtuosi ensemble. Based on this, a varied album has now been created, with music by Antonio Vivaldi, J. S. Bach, Joseph Bologne, André Previn and John Williams.

Tenor Kristian Benedikt began his career as a lyric tenor in his native Lithuania, but has since blossomed into one of the opera world’s finest dramatic tenors in challenging roles like Otello. His immensely powerful and dark-hued voice enables him to shine in several of Wagner’s “Heldentenor” roles as well; yet he remains a highly versatile singer who also continues to excel in lyric and spinto roles.In this, Kristian’s debut recording, he proves his wide-ranging artistry in a highly varied program of mostly well-known arias by composers including Verdi, Puccini, Saint-Saëns, Massenet, Tchaikovsky and Wagner (among others).

We propose a toast, as our Spatburgunder anniversary compilation brings you velvety elegance and distinctive, symphonic sounds of the orchestra, led by esteemed conductors such as Marek Janowski and Lawrence Foster. The music on our celebration of orchestral music is a hand-picked selection of classical gems from the likes of Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Bruckner, played by orchestras including Akademie fur Alte Musik, the WDR, and Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestras, bringing you a chance to reminisce and enjoy some old favourites.

As Richard Wagner penned in Das Rheingold, "Traulich und treu ist's nur in der Tiefe" (Tender and true 'tis but in the depths). This recording is a truly sensational debut full of dizzying depths, presented by the up-and-coming bass trombonist Lisa Hochwimmer on her debut Genuin recording together with the Kiel Philharmonic Orchestra. The program features fascinating compositions for the lustrous golden low-pitched instrument, which is rarely heard as a solo instrument with an orchestra. Lisa Hochwimmer embarks on wide-ranging musical expeditions, taking on powerful original repertoire by Derek Bourgeois, Alexej Lebedev, and Chris Brubeck, as well as imaginative arrangements of opera arias by Peter Tchaikovsky, Giuseppe Verdi, and Richard Wagner. And with this smoothness and depth, some of Walhalla's gods are guaranteed to be green with envy.

The aptly named 4 Hands offers 18 tracks, each just a few minutes in length, each featuring Tharaud sharing a piano keyboard with a different partner. The repertoire ranges wide - from Bach to Glass by way of such composers as Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Fauré, Satie, Debussy, Ravel, Rachmaninov, Ravel and Piazzolla.

As a musician as loved as he was admired, Nicholas Angelich died in Paris in April 2022 at the age of 51. He was a modest, thoughtful man who brought tremendous authenticity,

Those who still think of Wagner’s Tristan as quintessentially erotic music should definitely reconsider: in the list drawn by The Most Erotic Classical Music of All Time, an album with a provocative cover featuring a woman’s derriere and suspenders, in good company with an obvious Bolero and a punctual isottesque finale and a less-obvious Moonlight Sonata or a Good Friday Spell (all by the German from Leipzig), one finds the Centone di Sonate for violin and guitar by Niccolò Paganini (Genoa 1782 – Nice 1840) and precisely with the opening movement of the Sonata in A minor placed in the opening of the present collection.

Born in London of Italian-French parents, Sir John Barbirolli (1899–1970) trained as a cellist and played in theatre and café orchestras before joining the Queen’s Hall Orchestra under Sir Henry Wood in 1916.

Pentatone presents a new album full of world-premiere recordings of orchestral songs by Hans Sommer, sung by an excellent quartet of soloists – Mojca Erdmann, Anke Vondung, Mauro Peter and Benjamin Appl – together with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under the baton of Guillermo García Calvo.

Ravel’s Ma mère l’oye and Fauré’s Dolly are two of the highlights in this bewitching programme of music often associated with childhood—works which amply reward the care lavished on them by Paul Lewis and Steven Osborne in these exquisite accounts.