Henri Dutilleux's work has been gaining attention through a number of significant recent recordings. Esa-Pekka Salonen recorded his Correspondances with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and Ludovic Morlot has recorded both his symphonies, as well as other works, as the new conductor of the Seattle Symphony. This opportunity to experience and appraise his work casts him as among the most significant French composers of the late twentieth century.

American born conductor James Gaffigan is the Chief Conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, and the Principal Guest Conductor of the ensemble featured here, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. The natural ease of his conducting and his compelling insight have brought him attention internationally. This is the second release in James Gaffigan’s projected Prokofiev symphony cycle, a series that suddenly finds itself one among many. It has many fine qualities even if the poised, somewhat cautious music-making eschews Soviet-era rawness.

Since 1894, Tchaikovsky‘s Piano Concerto No. 1 has been published and performed in a version containing numerous unauthorized editorial alterations that were added posthumously. This is the first recording using the new scholarly edition by the Tchaikovsky Archive and Museum in Moscow of the 1879 version of the Piano Concerto - the version that was approved and conducted by Tchaikovsky until his last public appearance in 1893.

Vivid testimony to the multifaceted partnership of James Gaffigan and the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, their latest release invites us to explore the conductor’s American roots, from the most mischievous (Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story) to the spiritual (Charles Ives’ Symphony No.3, based on his works for solo organ).

After acclaimed recordings of the great Romantic violin concertos by Brahms, Bruch and Tchaikovsky, Vadim Gluzman takes on the work that in the beginning of the 19th century mapped out a new course for the genre: Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61.