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After their acclaimed recording of Weber’s Freischütz, the Dresdner Philharmonie and its Principal conductor Marek Janowski present yet another German opera stereo classic with Beethoven’s Fidelio. They work together with a stellar cast — well-seasoned in German opera — including Lise Davidsen (Fidelio/Leonore), Christian Elsner (Florestan), Georg Zeppenfeld (Rocco), Christina Landshamer (Marzelline), Cornel Frey (Jaquino), Johannes Martin Kränzle (Don Pizzarro) and Günther Groissböck (Don Fernando).

Penderecki’s first opera “The Devils of Loudun” had its world premiere in 1969 at the Hamburg State Opera. This film adoption, recorded in the same year shortly after the premiere, reunified the original cast of this premiere – e.g. Tatiana Troyanos with an amazing and breathtaking interpretation of the humpy non Jeanne. Because of her sexual visions a priest, who doesn’t know her, burns at the stake. The expressive music and the intensive camera shots result in a mix which is not for faint-hearted people. So it’s no surprise that film director William Friedkin used the music by Penderecki in his movie “The Exorcist”. If you like this movie, you will love this DVD!

This long awaited album was released by DUX and features two piano concertos by the outstanding Polish post-Romantic Zygmunt Stojowski, a student and friend of Ignacy Jan Paderewski. It is our great pleasure to be able to remind listeners once again of such a valuable repertoire. We are certain that this new album will bring them much joy and satisfaction!

Orpheus in the Underworld represents a quantum leap in Offenbach’s operetta output, for it would have been unthinkable to have created a stage work of such opulence and extravagance in Paris prior to that time. Strict regulations dating from the era of Napoleon I assigned to each of the city’s theatres a specific dramatic genre and a proportionate number of employees and performers. For Offenbach this meant writing for no more than three actors on stage at any one time. He openly flouted the regulations, however, ingeniously increasing his dramatic possibilities by adding puppets to his cast list and conveying what he had to say by means of banners held up by mute actors.

Maestro Marek Janowski, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and the Transylvania State Philharmonic Choir present Giuseppe Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera (1859), together with a stellar cast, headed by Freddie De Tommaso (Riccardo), Lester Lynch (Renato) and Saioa Hernández (Amelia). Un ballo in maschera is Verdi’s tragicomic masterpiece, in which the composer skilfully switches gears between the light and tragic, as well as between his earlier and more mature style. As such, it is both an entertaining and highly sophisticated work.

Antonín Dvořák's Stabat Mater, Op. 58 (B. 71), is an extended setting for vocal soloists, choir and orchestra of the 20 stanzas of the Stabat Mater sequence. Dvořák sketched the composition in 1876 and completed it in 1877. It has been characterized as a sacred cantata and as an oratorio, and consists of ten movements of which only the first and the last are thematically connected.

Johannes Brahms’ four symphonies were greeted by his contemporaries as the most promising answer to Beethoven’s legendary legacy, and they have remained at the core of the symphonic repertoire ever since. Steering clear of poetic titles and adhering to traditional forms, they are nonetheless full of drama and musical innovation. This digital boxset presents the symphonies in chronological order, performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony under the baton of Marek Janowski, one of the greatest interpreters of German Romantic repertoire.

"Czech-born Paul Wranitzky, a contemporary of Mozart, was the most important symphonist in Vienna at the turn of the 18th century. To mark the ascension to the throne of Franz II in 1792, Wranitzky wrote the grand Symphony in C major, a work of regal quality and festive exuberance. Wranitzky's mature symphonic style is on display in the Symphony in B flat major, with its expanded orchestral forces, contrasting textures and broad musical invention. Overtures from two operas offer a sampling of Wranitzky's dramatic writing for the stage."