The performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony by "Emperor" Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker on October 21, 1979 was broadcast live nationwide from the venue on NHK. was broadcast on FM. This recording is the first digital recording of NHK, a historic one, and was handed down as a masterpiece of the peak of both Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic. The tremendous concentration invites listeners into an overwhelming impression. This time, the world's first CD release of this famous performance has been realized! At the time of its release, the latest remastering technology that Deutsche Grammophon boasts has been used to improve the sound quality astonishingly, and it has been revived.

Homage to Austrian composers featured the renowned Brazilian pianists Cristian Budu and Gustavo Carvalho and will be released on March 31 on all digital platforms.

The eleventh volume of the complete HAYDN2032 symphony cycle moves it's focus to Paris: 'Every day one perceives more clearly, and consequently admires more, the productions of this great genius, who, in every one of his works, knows so well how to draw rich and varied developments from a single subject', wrote the Mercure de France in April 1788, adding that Haydn was 'quite different from those sterile composers who constantly move from one idea to another…'. The symphonies presented here are no.2 (the first to be published in France), no.24 (the first to be performed there) and the so-called 'Paris' symphonies nos. 87 and 82 'L'Ours', with it's references to fairground atmosphere and it's famous contredanse finale.

Both highly in demand on a worldwide scale as unique, exceptional chamber music performers, Antje Weithaas and D?nes V?rjon each ideally combine the highest degree of enthusiasm and precision: their energetic, passionate playing is the result of intense concentration. In Vol. I of their complete recording of Beethoven's violin sonatas, Weithaas and V?rjon have chosen not to follow chronological order, but to seek out thrilling contrast and fascinating variety instead - thus making Beethoven's rapid evolution as a composer all the more astounding. Volume 1, featuring Op. 12/2, Op. 23, and Op. 47, revolves around the tonal center of A major / A minor.

…bold, intelligent readings, cooler than some but none the worse for that, and superbly engineered under the watchful eye of recording producer Chris Hazell. They give you Beethoven shorn of mannerism or affection, which is fine in my book. Bronfman plays Beethoven's own cadenzas.

"I don't think I've ever heard Bronfman play better." - Gramophone

A rising star of the young generation, the Akos Quartet devotes its first album to the tutelary figure of the repertoire, Joseph Haydn, whose six op.76 quartets dedicated to Count Erdödy are among his most famous. Of an unprecedented modernity coupled with a unique freshness, these quartets also bear witness to a lyrical depth that heralded the Beethovenian era.

Thanks to recordings such as this one, the figure of Johann Wilhelm Wilms (1772-1847) is increasingly coming into focus and prominence as a notable contemporary of Beethoven who deserves better than his previous obscurity. In 1807, the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung described the Wilms as ‘one of the most ingenious, spirited, and best educated artists’ of his generation: a judgment borne out by the this trio of high-spirited chamber works.

For the arch-Protestant Bach Family – as for German musicology in the 19th and early 20th centuries – through his conversion to Catholicism and his turning to Italian opera Johann Christian Bach was considerd the “black sheep” of the family. Prior to his brilliant career as an opera composer and impresario in London, from 1757 to 1760 he held the position of organist at the Milan Cathedral. During this period he composed numerous sacred works which are least well-known among the works of the youngest Bach son. Under the direction of Gerhard Jenemann, the renowned solo quartet centered around Joanne Lunn and Thomas E. Bauer, the Süddeutsche Kammerchor and Concerto Köln bring to light a completely unknown Johann Christian Bach and they make clear why the “London Bach” was also called the “Milan Bach.”

Sigismund Neukomm (1778-1858) was one of the most remarkable characters of the music scene in the classical and early romantic era. He started as a pupil of Johann Michael Haydn, and later had close ties with his older Joseph Haydn. During his life he came into contact with almost every composer of fame. He travelled throughout Europe, but didn't stay very long at one place. It is assumed he has written about 2,000 works. Among them are 50 masses, three funeral services and four Requiems.

Teunis van der Zwart and Alexander Melnikov have chosen to pay tribute to Giovanni Punto, now unknown to most music lovers, even though he truly established the cor basse (horn focused on the low register) by devoting no less than sixteen concertos to it. It was he who inspired Beethoven's famous Sonata op.17; the pieces by Danzi and Ries also bear the mark of his legacy. This recording provides an opportunity to discover the unique sound of this instrument in four emblematic works.

The genesis of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony Number 3 in E-Flat Major, the “Eroica”, has long been brought into connection with the composer’s early admiration for Napoleon. Indeed, Beethoven had initially intended to entitle the work “Bonaparte”, but he withdrew the dedication when the Corsican, as First Consul of a military-backed republic, crowned himself emperor on 2 December 1804. Nonetheless, Beethoven did complete the composition, which is influenced by both French Revolution music and Bachian polyphony, and the first movement is indeed heroic in character. As such, we may assume that Beethoven, while torn between cosmopolitan notions and Austrian patriotism, still held fast to the revolutionary ideals of “liberty, equality, fraternity”. At the same time, the second movement, a funeral march, shows that he equally wished to commemorate the victims of conflict and war, thus giving form to the dark side of the “heroic” story.

After her studies at the « Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique », passing with a unanimous First Prize in Vlado Perlemuter’sclass, Danielle Laval fell under Arthur Rubinstein’s notice. He was dazzled by her virtuosity and her deep sensitivity.

Beethoven wrote in his diary that he wanted "to show the British what a treasure they have in God Save the King", a reference to his set of variations on the national anthem, composed in 1803. Sarah Beth Briggs recorded the virtuoso set precisely one month before the passing of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, and the recording heralds the coronation of King Charles III in May 2023. \n\nThe lesser-known Variations on an Original Theme in F major (1802) represent Beethoven the revolutionary. Uniquely, each variation was written in a different key which would have jarred the ears of the composer's contemporaries. \n\nSarah Beth Briggs' collection of Variations underlines a lineage of the genre through the classical and romantic eras. Opening the programme is 9 Variations on a Minuet by Duport by Mozart, whom Beethoven greatly admired. The work takes a theme by cellist Jean-Pierre Duport, chamber music director of the court of the Prussian King, Friedrich Wilhelm II, from whom the composer hoped to gain favour.