Brahms Symphony N.4

The classical decoder! Clément Lebrun is a born pedagogue: in just a few words, this inspired all-rounder makes the greatest works of classical music accessible… In this programme intended for all ears, he tells the story of Brahms’s Fourth Symphony, movement by movement, with the enthusiastic participation of the Orchestre de Paris (conducted by Fabien Gabel), which is also heard performing the work in its entirety under the direction of Simone Young. Just listen to the Fourth and you too will love Brahms…

Once celebrated as 'Beethoven's Tenth', Brahms' first attempt at the symphonic genre was generally greeted as the most promising answer to Beethoven's legendary legacy, and solidified his musical reputation. For Blomstedt, bringing these Brahms pieces into the world in the strange year of 2020 has a special significance, as Robert Schumann, Brahms' close friend and mentor, once pointed out that it is the musician's mission 'to bring light into the depths of the human soul'. The euphoric finale of Brahms' 'First Symphony', evidently inspired by Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy', fully conveys this message of hope and Blomstedt's unshakable belief in the imperishable power of the human spirit.

This Sony-made 30CD classical music collection covers almost all classical music, from the early Baroque period represented by Bach to the schools of classical music by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms represent romantic, national and even modern musical schools led by Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, etc. representative, everything wonderful and vivid.

The Italian conductor Claudio Abbado is one of the most outstanding conductors of the 20th century. It was his unique ability to make sound and music shine (Deutschlandfunk Kultur), for which he was celebrated internationally by both the press and the audience. In addition to his long-standing relationship with the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Vienna Philharmonic, he has also been chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra for many years (1979 to 1986), with which he has recorded a rich discography over the years.

Composers develop their own voice and personality; singers develop their own vocal character and colour. This beautiful and unusual recital disc by Bill Barnewitz, principal horn of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, explores the voice of a special instrument and of a particular musician. Bill offers chamber works which feature the horn either as a solo personality or integrated into an ensemble. There are songs in which the horn is included, in its own right, as a partner to the voice. Bill also performs two of his own transcriptions in which the horn replaces the singer, taking on both the original voice part and the text. Throughout, Bill, like an operatic interpreter, assumes a variety of roles and uses the full expressive resources of his instrument to bring a variety of personalities to life.

All the great conductors on Deutsche Grammophon from the 1930s to the 2000s in one essential box set! A 40-CD original-jacket collection! Several recordings are new to CD, or have their first international CD release. Iconic recordings alongside rarer gems. 112-page booklet with new liner notes by Julian Haylock. The ideal cornerstone for any library of orchestral music.

Even as he is most closely associated with the music of Wagner and Beethoven, conductor Georg Solti enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with the orchestral music of Johannes Brahms. Solti's own personal preferences in terms of Brahms, judging based on his performance history, were slanted toward the Haydn Variations, German Requiem, and the concerti, but in the late '70s he undertook a cycle of the symphonies with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Decca London that some expert listeners feel have never been bettered since.

The Szell/Cleveland Recordings Complete! In the heyday of George Szell s tenure as its chief conductor, declared Gramophone, The Cleveland Orchestra had few if any peers among the world s great orchestras. Coinciding with the orchestra s centenary in 2018, Sony Classical is excited to announce one of the most ambitious reissue projects of recent times, a comprehensive collection of the Clevelanders recordings made under the baton of their iconic fourth music director. These span the period between 1947 a year after Szell (born in Budapest in 1897) inherited a fine provincial orchestra from Erich Leinsdorf and began transforming it into the elite ensemble it remains to this day and 1969, a year before his sudden death shocked the musical world. Szell's dream was to create an ensemble that combined the Americans purity and beauty of sound and their virtuosity of execution with the European sense of tradition, warmth of expression and sense of style, in the words of his biographer Michael Charry.