Sibelius: Symphonies 1 7 Berliner Philharmoniker & Sir Simon Rattle

Éclairs sur l’au-delà… is the latest great work composer by Olivier Messiaen. Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for its anniversary, this astounding masterpiece could never be heard by its creator, who died a few months before the premiere. Involving a giant orchestra, this piece could rarely be recorded, though it encapsulates Messiaen’s aesthetics, with its mystical visions and evocative sense of color. Simon Rattle’s hypnotic rendition is undoubtedly one of the greatest.

Simon Rattle has been principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra since 2002, and this recording is their 10th anniversary present to one another. It is also timed to coincide with performances of the opera in Salzburg with Rattle and exactly the same cast of singers. At the Easter festival the Berliners joined them in the pit for their final hurrah before they controversially relocate their Easter operatic business to Baden-Baden. For performances of the Salzburg production this summer the Vienna Philharmonic take over.

There is hardly a better way to approach Ludwig van Beethoven than through his piano concertos. Beethoven’s own instrument was the piano, and in his improvisations – which made him the darling of the Viennese salons – he merged virtuosity and unbridled expression. The piano concertos give a clear idea of these performances. At the same time, they are prime examples of Beethoven’s ability to create large orchestral works with seemingly endless arcs of tension.

In November 2017, the Berlin Philharmonic gave a series of concerts in Hong Kong, China, South Korea and Japan. It was the last tour of Asia that Rattle would undertake as the orchestra's chief conductor, and their performances are thoroughly documented on these discs. Four of the discs are derived from the final pair of concerts, which were given in Tokyo's magnificent Suntory Hall, while the other, a performance of Ravel's G Major Piano Concerto with the winner of the 2015 Warsaw Chopin competition as soloist, was recorded in the Berlin Philharmonie before the tour began. he recordings are astonishingly vivid, and the whole set provides a very impressive showcase of the Berlin Phil's current condition as it nears the end of Rattle's reign.

The year 1812 was a busy year for the well-known but deaf composer Ludwig van Beethoven. At last, Beethoven got the chance to meet that other famous German, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, but Goethe’s personality proved a disappointed to Beethoven.

For Simon Rattle, Robert Schumann is "the echt Romantic". And in fact, the exuberance of the period, its passion and its melancholy can be heard with unique intensity in Schumann's music to this day. For the Berliner Philharmoniker, Schumann's symphonies have always been part of their core repertoire. The 1953 Wilhelm Furtwängler recording in particular has attained cult status. And so it only stands to reason that the Berliner Philharmoniker should launch their Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings label with a cycle of the four Schumann symphonies.

Recordings of all the Beethoven symphonies with their chief conductor are always a milestone in the artistic work of the Berliner Philharmoniker. So it was with Herbert von Karajan and Claudio Abbado, and expectations are correspondingly high for this cycle conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. Where does the special status of these symphonies come from? Simon Rattle has an explanation: “One of the things Beethoven does is to give you a mirror into yourself – where you are now as a musician.” In fact, this music contains such a wealth of extreme emotions and brilliant compositional ideas that reveal the qualities of the orchestra and its conductor as if under a magnifying glass.

Sir Simon Rattle’s last Asia tour as chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker was a triumph, and is documented here in selected audio and video recordings. At the heart of this edition are audio recordings of the two final concerts at the legendary Suntory Hall in Tokyo – the musical and emotional highlight of the tour. “The quality of the orchestra delighted audiences,” said one critic. “It was a virtuoso display of ensemble playing that is simply indescribable.”

Anton Bruckner is a composer with an unmistakable musical language: darkly glowing, overwhelmingly beautiful, but also energetic and innovative. For the Berliner Philharmoniker, this music has been part of their artistic identity for over a hundred years. The orchestra now presents Bruckner’s symphonies in an exclusive edition, recorded over the last ten years together with some of the foremost Bruckner interpreters of our time.