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.

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.

This album is a Rachmaninoff piano duo album by Miku Omine, who has made Rachmaninoff his life's work and whose performances and album are highly acclaimed, and Takako Takahashi, who won 5th place at the 12th International Chopin Piano Competition. In a live recording held at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan on October 20, 2023, two suites by Rachmaninoff, which can be said to be the pinnacle of two-piano works, and a suite of Tchaikovsky's "Sleeping Beauty" arranged by Rachmaninoff for duet were recorded.

The 1989 premiere of Hans Rott's Symphony No. 1 in E major (it was written more than 100 years earlier) introduced the international music world to a composer who had remained unknown, or known by name only, even among experts. His colleagues and friends included the younger composers Gustav Mahler and Hugo Wolf. Besides Wagner, Bruckner was the most important model for Rott’s first symphonic work. Written when he was barely twenty years old, the work stands as his magnum opus, his only completed major work, a synthesis of what he had written to date, and a proclamation of what might have been yet to come.

A native of Bergen, Edvard Grieg almost single-handedly brought the riches of Norwegian national style to worldwide attention during the 19th century with the use of folk music in his compositions. The ambitiously scaled Symphonic Dances features a compelling selection of regional melodies and jaunty rhythms to brilliant effect. Music from the eloquent drama of Sigurd Jorsalfar and the Two Elegiac Melodies are also included along with the Bridal Procession and the ever-popular Lyric Suite. These classic Vox recordings by Maurice Abravanel and the Utah Symphony Orchestra were originally issued in 1976 and have been newly remastered from the original tapes.

Amongst a pantheon of great Czech composers it is Bedrich Smetana who is revered as the musical personification of his country’s national spirit and the founder of its modern musical character. Composed after the onset of Smetana’s incurable deafness, Má vlast (My Fatherland) is an unprecedented cycle of six related symphonic poems that evoke ancient Czech legends and celebrate the majestic beauty of the country’s landscapes. Acclaimed with ‘unending storms of applause’ at its 1882 premiere, Má vlast reflects the unique characteristics that form the living heart and soul of the Czech nation.

"Nicholas Harnoncourt's venture into the late 19th-century repertory tends to provoke ideologically-motivated reactions, either for or against, "historically-informed" performance practice. I think it's more rewarding to approach his outstanding recording of the Bruckner 7th symphony, done with the Vienna Philharmonic, as stemming from a strong interpretive vision of the 7th, one that is allied to some of the performance practices that Harnoncourt has advocated in his career."

American pianist and academic Michael Kaykov follows his first Odradek release, Liszt: Unrivalled, with Unrivalled Volume 2, an album devoted to the composer's extraordinary late piano works.

Chopin's Etudes Op. 10-3, Lullaby, Nocturne No. 2, No. 7, Waltz No. 2-15, No. 19, No. 18, Cello Sonata (w/Tortellier), etc. Recorded in 1957-1968.

New recordings of late Beethoven at his most heroic and visionary.

The figures of Auguste Dupont and Peter Benoit may be little known outside their native Belgium, yet both enjoyed pianistic and pedagogical success in their lifetimes. Benoit’s symphonic poem is a piano concerto in all but name, ending with a spiritedly Mephistophelean ‘fantastical hunt’.

If the warmly Romantic bloom on these concertos suggests the spirit of an earlier generation—both works date from the 1880s—the music of Stéphan Elmas retains its own distinctive voice, a voice heard to best advantage in Howard Shelley's persuasive accounts.

During Vladimir Jurowski’s tenure as Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Stravinsky’s music was often a focus of his concert programming. This culminated in a year-long festival, ‘Changing Faces’, in 2018, which traced Stravinsky’s metamorphosis as a composer progressively evolving his musical language, making him a key figure in 20th-century music. Pulcinella marked the beginning of the composer’s middle ‘neoclassical’ period and, like the Symphony in C, demonstrated his playful updating of Classical forms. Jurowski takes listeners on Stravinsky’s exploration of serialism, to his last substantial work, the Requiem Canticles: sometimes spare in texture and austere in expression, yet a movingly sincere restatement of Stravinsky’s Christian faith.

Stéphane Tétreault and Olivier Hébert-Bouchard present Images retrouvées, the second volume of works by Claude Debussy transcribed for cello and piano. The series was inaugurated in 2023 with the first volume, Images oubliées.

Sebastian Bohren's world-premiere recording of "In Evening Light", the second violin concerto by Peteris Vasks, comes 25 years after the celebrated Latvian composer's first, "Distant Light", one of the most successful, oft-performed and recorded concertos by a living a composer. "In Evening Light" seems certain to follow in its forebearer's footsteps, destined to become another modern classic.