k 219

After her last two albums of completely new compositions, “Silfra” and “In 27 Pieces – The Hilary Hahn Encores”, Hilary returns with classic-romantic repertoire. Two-times Grammy Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn now combines Mozart’s beloved Concerto in A, K 219 – with its fiery “Turkish” episode – with the rich, virtuosic romanticism of Vieuxtemps’ Violin Concerto No. 4.

Admirers of Sir Yehudi Menuhin will be pleased to have this compilation of his early stereo recordings of the major violin concertos. I have always enjoyed his version of the Bach Double Concerto with Christian Ferras; it rightly dominated the catalogue throughout the 1960s, and the spirited baroque vitality of the performance, plus a beautifully judged central Largo, give great satisfaction. Moreover, it demonstrates what a good sound balance Peter Andry and Neville Boyling could achieve in London's Kingsway Hall in 1959.

10 CD box set comprised of all the classic's by the masters of strings; Yehudi Menuhin, Bronislaw Heberman, George Enescu, Joseph Szigeti, Nathan Milstein, Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, Ida Haendel, David Oistrakh & Isaac Stern.

Deutsche Grammophon's Simply Anne-Sophie is touted as "a unique collection of Anne-Sophie Mutter's incomparable Deutsche Grammophon recordings," it is simply one of several – Mutter Modern, Romance, and The Great Violin Concertos are among others Deutsche Grammophon has compiled from its extensive Mutter holdings from over the years. Simply Anne-Sophie has a greater chronological range than its predecessors as its earliest entries date from 1992 recordings made for the hit disc Carmen-Fantaisie and stretches through to some selections from Mutter Mozart: Violin Concertos, recorded at Abbey Road in 2005.

Chicago-based violinist Rachel Barton Pine bounced back from a devastating accident (she was dragged for several hundred feet by a commuter train after her case strap was snared in the automated doors) and has delivered innovative programs in recordings for Chicago's Cedille label and, increasingly, for major labels. Here she tackles mainstays of the violin concerto repertory, the five Mozart violin concertos and the Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola, and orchestra, K. 364. It's often a charming set, not only because of Barton Pine's efforts, but also because of the nature of her interaction with the conductor, 90-year-old Neville Marriner, leading the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

From the notes: 'In his later years Monteux came to resent being labeled "a French conductor" and being asked to program mostly French music. (His favorite composer was Brahms, followed by Wagner.) As he told Ross Parmenter of The New York Times, "… Debussy didn't exist when I was educated. Neither did Ravel. I was brought up on Haydn, Mozart, and a little Brahms. I have learned the French since. But I am not a French conductor. I'm just a conductor". Yet his rapport with Debussy was very great. He said that Debussy had little patience for those who performed his music in an overly delicate and perfumed manner Debussy rehected the term "impressionism" as applied to his music, and said, according to Monteux, "When I write forte, I mean forte". In the three Images and Jeux Monteux takes the composer at his word, and achieves great transparency of textures without undue delicacy…'

As a conductor, Sergiu Celibidache influenced as no other the musical life of Berlin, a metropolis still scarred by the war. The sound documents of this edition, most of which have not been previously released, for the first time paint a comprehensive picture of the conductor during the period between 1945 and 1957. These historic documents, providing new impressions of the legendary conductor, were revealed after intensive research.

50 Best is a series of 3-CD sets which feature genres of music ranging from symphonies, concertos and solo instrumental works to chamber music, songs and operas.