Franz Liszt was without doubt one of the greatest (if not The Greatest) pianists of all time, as well as an innovating and visionary composer, in one word…a Genius!

This is the 21st album by this orchestra on Pentatone, most of which have received the highest critical acclaim. In particular, the recordings of Russian repertoire conducted by Russian conductors are artistically and commercially successful.

In 1998 an article appeared in The Times claiming the non-existence of talent. Just as the eminent psychologist R.D. Laing explained that ‘schizophrenia’ was a fabricated term for an analysable condition, so the Times writer stressed that talent was a fancy description for hard work. For him the success of a musical star – he took the violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter as his example – had more to do with perspiration than inspiration.

The incredible artistic pathway of Markus Klinko: from studying harp at the Paris Conservatoire with Lily Laskine to photographing the greatest pop stars and models on the planet. Markus has produced iconic shots of David Bowie or Beyoncé, but have you ever listened to the beautiful albums he recorded for EMI? Before his hand injury forced him to redirect his career, he gave two exquisite recitals dedicated to French Romantic and modern music, praised by the critics. The first one includes solo pieces by Fauré, Roussel or Saint-Saëns and transcriptions of piano works by Debussy and Satie.

The two piano quintets, composed seven years before and seven years after 1900, point to two special features in Huber’s development as a composer. If in the earlier quintet he was still endeavoring to find his place in the European music world in keeping with the best of his times, then in the later quintet he self-confidently went his own way as a Swiss composer who did not hesitate even to incorporate native folk songs into his music. The fact that the earlier quintet was first performed some eight years after its composition possibly had to do with Huber’s recognition that during his earlier years he had much too thoughtlessly published compositions that had proven to be not quite finished.

Lahav Shani and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra bring a superb recording of Bruckner's 5th Symphony.

SOMM Recordings is proud to announce a recital disc from cellist Adrian Bradbury and pianist Andrew West titled The Pre-Raphaelite Cello – at once ground-breaking and celebratory, and rich with first recordings. The curiosity piqued by the album’s unusual name will be amply rewarded with the fascinating story of the artistic threads this programme weaves together and their relevance to important commemorations being observed this year.

Henri Herz was a phenomenon in 1830s Paris and 1840s America, but today his music is mostly forgotten. He wrote eight piano concertos, one of which was lost. Concertos 1, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 appear across two previous volumes of the Romantic Piano Concertos series. Here, Howard Shelley and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra put on their finest dancing shoes to complete the cycle with Piano Concerto No. 2 (the one with which Herz conquered America in 1846) and three extended fantasies.

The program presented on this CD, featuring songs and ballads by Carl Loewe along with texts and poems by Heinrich Heine, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Max Frisch, and Ingeborg Bachmann, reflects the human relationship with the sea in various ways. Carl Loewe, who as cantor and organist was an important figure in Stettin in the mid 1800s, was so inspired by the sea during his travels that he wrote many songs and ballads that thematise the sea. This live recording of a song recital is one of the programs where the art forms of song interpretation and recitation complement each other to create a comprehensive dramaturgy. Nina Röder‘s paintings also inspire the listener visually, expanding the horizons of the program. The viewer is led to enchanted places in the works from her series „Über das Verschwinden” (About Disappearance) and encounters mysterious beings. This visual yet poetic perspective completes the circle by confronting the transience of humanity and nature – a theme more relevant than ever in times of climate change and rising sea levels.

Now regarded as one of the greatest violin concertos of the nineteenth century, Beethoven’s Concerto in D major did not enjoy the success it deserved during the composer’s lifetime. It was not until almost forty years later, with the rediscovery of the work by Felix Mendelssohn and the exceptional virtuoso Joseph Joachim, that it was finally recognised as a masterpiece. An admirer of Beethoven, Franz Liszt, who made many fine transcriptions of other composers’ music during his career, orchestrated the Andante cantabile from the “Archduke” Trio, which he incorporated into a Cantata for the inauguration of the Beethoven Monument in Bonn. In recording these superb pieces, the Orchester Wiener Akademie and Martin Haselböck continue their “Resound” adventure in the company of violinist Benjamin Schmid.

Paganini’s string quartets with guitar are amongst his very finest chamber compositions. Written for friends and private performances they reveal the care he took in their construction. The dialogues in Quartet No. 6 are conversational but Nos. 11 and 13 are more advanced – here formal ingenuity and melodic creativity are fused with great character. Paganini’s feel for aria-like lyricism, for operatic richness, conveyed with a variety of musical ideas, is at its zenith in these works.

The genre of the mélodie accompanied Fauré like a kind of personal journal. This music voluptuously – and sometimes vehemently – encompasses the meanderings of the soul: dreams, nostalgia, reflections or mirages . . . Stéphane Degout and Alain Planès take advantage of the iridescent tones of an 1892 Pleyel in their interpretation of some of his finest song cycles, including the testamentary L’Horizon chimérique.

A new collection of Cecilia Bartoli’s finest recordings, including two unreleased arias from Handel’s Alcina. Featuring beloved arias and duets stretching from Handel and Porpora, through Gluck and Mozart, to the Three Kings of 19th-century Italian song: Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti. Featuring guest appearances from Sir Bryn Terfel, Alessandro Corbelli, Sumi Jo, Juan Diego Florez and Luciano Pavarotti.

Baritone Andrè Schuen began his Deutsche Grammophon career in 2020 with a critically acclaimed reading of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, recorded with his duo partner Daniel Heide. In 2022, the pair added Schwanengesang to their discography, a recording that went on to win the Solo Song category in the 2023 Opus Klassik Awards. Now they complete their trilogy of Schubert’s major song cycles with a thoughtful and moving interpretation of the 24 inward-looking songs that make up the composer’s Winterreise.