Haydn Dmitri Babanov

A decade after its debut performance of the Chamber Symphony Op. 110a by Dmitri Shostakovich (after whom the group is named), The Dmitri Ensemble under Graham Ross performs the composer's String Quartets Nos. 1, 8 and 10, re-worked as thrilling "Chamber Symphonies" for string orchestra by his pupil and advocate, Rudolf Barshai.

Two of the biggest names in opera join forces for a live performance from historic Red Square in the heart of Moscow, captured in stunning sound and vision with 18 high definition cameras and 5.1 cinema surround sound. Recorded at a superb live concert on 19 June 2013, Anna Netrebko and Dmitri Hvorostovsky return to their native Russia, singing a brilliant programme of popular arias and duets from some of the world’s best-loved operas, including Tosca, Eugene Onegin, and, celebrating Verdi's bicentenary, Il trovatore.

Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years. During the Nazi era, he debuted at the Salzburg Festival, with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, and during World War II he conducted at the Berlin State Opera. Generally regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, he was a controversial but dominant figure in European classical music from the mid-1950s until his death. Part of the reason for this was the large number of recordings he made and their prominence during his lifetime. By one estimate, he was the top-selling classical music recording artist of all time, having sold an estimated 200 million records.

Richard Wagner and Pyotr Ill'yich Tchaikovsky: these two composers seem to represent two musical extremes on the one CD, with their only connection being the orchestra and the conductor who here perform their works. Wagner had proclaimed himself as the saviour of German Romantic music, the master who would raise opera and its performance to a higher level; Tchaikovsky was a tormented Russian Romantic composer who was considered to be too focused on Italian music to be truly Russian and yet whose music was regarded as being too Russian to ever sound truly European…

Shostakovich: The Symphonies (complete) - Dmitri Kitajenko
Classical | EAC (ape, image), cue, no log | 3.1 GB, RS
Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Dmitri Kitajenko, conductor
Label: Capriccio | 12 CDs | September, 2005

Capriccio label presents all 15 symphonies by Dmitri Shostakovich. This ambitious project was realised between 2002 and 2004 with the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln under Dmitri Kitajenko. No other conductor is as capable as Dmitri Kitajenko of perpetuating the authentic performance tradition of Shostakovich's music in the present. With the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Kitajenko had an ensemble which combines brilliance and virtuosity with enthusiasm and passion. The result is a complete benchmark recording in which the use of multi-channel technology brings Shostakovich's tonal visions to life for the first time ever.

Nobody is better suited to undertake such a challenge than Valery Gergiev and his Mariinsky Orchestra. Over a period of a year all 15 Symphonies and 6 Concertos have been recorded at Salle Pleyel in Paris. What an adventure for the artists and the big production team! Never before in the history of television has something like this been undertaken including the very first “Ring” for television at Bayreuth…

Icelandic music of the last half century is the focus of this recording by the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, led by its conductor, Graham Ross. Born from his close collaboration with the native composers of the “Land of Fire and Ice,” this programme sets out to explore and highlight their hypnotic soundworld, instinctively leaning towards contemplation. A prime example is the touchingly beautiful Requiem by Sigurður Sævarsson, which here receives its world premiere recording.