Sir Neville Marriner Rivaled only by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Neville Marriner was one of the most important of the early figures who spearheaded the reawakening of modern interest in Baroque and early Classical music. In the 1950s, he founded Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the first British early music ensemble to find a large international audience. Marriner has since become one of the most popular conductors in the world, acclaimed for his interpretations of composers from Bach to Britten. Marriner was first taught the violin as a child, by his father, and attended the Royal College of Music, beginning at age thirteen.

Mstislav Rostropovich One of the great cellists as well as one of the leading conductors of the 20th century, Mstislav Rostropovich's passionate and virtuosic performance style sometimes seemed to reflect the turbulent events in his life, including his exile from his native Soviet Union. In addition to his ability to project with notable fullness in all registers of his instrument, he had complete command of the styles of all the musical eras and national schools in the standard cello repertoire of the time. A strong supporter of new works, he premiered over 100 pieces as a performer, including Sergey Prokofiev's Cello Sonata in C, Op. 119 in 1950, which was composed for him. In 1959 and 1966, respectively, Dmitry Shostakovich's first and second cello concertos were written for and premiered by the esteemed cellist. In the meantime, he made his conducting debut in Gorky in 1962, and five years later, he made his Bolshoi premiere conducting Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. In 1970, Rostropovich's open letter in support of dissident writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn led to canceled concerts and, eventually, his exile from the Soviet Union. His citizenship was revoked while abroad in 1974.

Berliner Philharmoniker One of the elite orchestras on the world stage, the Berliner Philharmoniker – also widely known as the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra – was founded in Imperial Germany in 1882. Hans von Bülow took over as conductor in 1887, raising the prestige of the organization, as did subsequent guest conductors, including Johannes Brahms, Edvard Grieg, Gustav Mahler, and Richard Strauss. In the 20th century, they survived the loss of their venue and their conductor during World War II and went on to thrive under conductor Herbert von Karajan, who led the group from 1956 to 1989. During his tenure, the orchestra won Grammy Awards for both opera and orchestral recordings. Claudio Abbado took over for Karajan from 1989 to 2002, during which time they collected five more Grammys, including one for Best Orchestral Recording for a 1979 performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 9 with Leonard Bernstein that was issued in 1992. In 2008, under the leadership of Simon Rattle, the Berlin Philharmonic established a Digital Concert Hall, which allowed audiences around the world to stream concerts either live or on demand. Kirill Petrenko became the Philharmoniker's tenth principal conductor in 2019. The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra's 50 founding members came together in 1882 after leaving a Benjamin Bilse-led group due to low pay and poor travel conditions.

Orfeo in Gluck’s opera Orfeo & Euridice has become a signature role for Jakub Józef Orliński on stages around the world. Now the countertenor embodies the mythical Greek bard in a recording that for him is the realisation of a dream. Made in his native Warsaw, it is conducted by the dynamic Stefan Plewniak and the instrumentalists and chorus are drawn from his ensemble Il Giardino d’Amore. The roles of Orfeo’s wife Euridice and the god Amore are taken by two further rising stars of the opera and concert stage: the sopranos Elsa Dreisig and Fatma Said. Orliński has acted as producer, casting director, and, with Stefan Plewniak, joint artistic director of the recording. “One of my great dreams as a student was to sing the role of Orfeo,” says Orliński, “and now I’ve been lucky enough to perform Orfeo & Euridice in different settings … Working on those different versions I achieved my very own interpretation. I knew that I would love to create my own personal version of the piece, to record my dream role, expressing myself in the way I wanted … I had a clear vision of what I wanted to do with it and how. The most important thing for me as a musician is to have great collaborators, and I couldn’t imagine a better team. Everyone was so willing to make the most of every single take during our long recording sessions. I am really grateful that I can work with people with so much passion … And now I invite you to follow Orfeo on his journey and listen to what the power of love can do.”

Alban Berg Quartett Le premier quatuor à cordes viennois en tant que tel, constitué en 1970, s'est révélé l'un des ensembles de musique de chambre les plus novateurs de son temps. Formé par quatre professeurs de l'Académie de musique de Vienne, le Quatuor Alban Berg reçoit jusqu'en juin 1971 l'enseignement à Cincinnati (États-Unis), de Walter Levin (Quatuor LaSalle) et donne son premier concert le 5 octobre de la même année dans la Mozartsaal du Konzerthaus de Vienne, après avoir reçu par la veuve du compositeur Alban Berg (1885-1935), Helen Berg,

Benjamin Luxon This British baritone enjoyed an international career propelled by a handsome instrument and a musical intelligence that allowed equal space for warmth of feeling. Against the attractiveness of vocal timbre, however, was the presence of a strong vibrato that frequently reached the point of intrusiveness, especially at higher volume. Nonetheless, Benjamin Luxon forged many memorable performances, a number of them preserved on disc. His Mussorgsky recital was warmly praised by the critical press and won the endorsement of native Russian-speaking listeners as well. In addition to opera and concert performances, he is appreciated for his work in restoring respect in parlor songs of the late 19th and early 20th century. As a student at London's Guildhall School of Music, Luxon studied with Walther Grünner. After finding himself a prizewinner at Munich's International Voice Competition, he soon launched upon a career. Luxon became a member of the English Opera Group in 1963, accompanying the troupe to the Soviet Union during his first season. After success in such roles as Tarquinius in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia and Sid in Albert Herring, Britten called upon Luxon to sing the role of Owen Wingrave for that opera's 1971 television production premiere. Also during 1971, he appeared with the English Opera Group at the San Francisco Opera.

With his Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Ton Koopman recorded all three of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Passions – after St John, St Matthew, and lesser-known St Mark, whose score has been largely lost but who has been reconstructed from excerpts of various cantatas. This album focuses on the choruses and chorales, sung by the Amsterdam Baroque Choir and the Choir of the Dutch Bach Association, with the help of the boys’ chorus from the Sacrament Choir of Breda. A compilation of arias, still by Ton Koopman, will be released on Good Friday, March 29th.

Daniel Barenboim is a conductor and pianist of top international stature, known for an extraordinarily large orchestral and operatic repertoire. He is the general music director and chief conductor for life of the Staatsoper Berlin in Germany.
Barenboim was born in Buenos Aires on November 15, 1942, into a family of Ukrainian Jewish descent. His mother was his first piano teacher. He later studied with his father, Enrique Barenboim, who was an eminent music professor.

Pro Cantione Antiqua is among the most honored and long-established vocal groups in the early music movement. The 1960s were a period when pioneering singers followed the lead of instrumentalists (primarily in Britain, Austria and Germany, and Holland) to create ensembles devoted to researching and performing the long-forgotten treasure of Western music composed before the time of Bach and Handel, and it was in the middle of that decade that three British musicians and scholars founded Pro Cantione Antiqua in the mid-1960s. They were tenor James Griffett, countertenor Paul Esswood, and conductor Mark Brown, who were joined by conductor and musicologist Bruno Turner early on.

Manon Lescaut, from the eponymous Puccini opera, is a difficult character to grasp, evolving from a naïve young girl to a venal and manipulative femme fatale, and finally a despaired woman weeping over her miserable end. Maria Callas never performed the role on stage but left this milestone recorded version in 1957, forming with Giuseppe Di Stefano (as Des Grieux) one of the most iconic couples of the whole Puccini discography.

Named after the Greek goddess of hunting and the wilderness, The Artemis Quartett was formed in 1989 in Lübeck, Germany. They are recognized for their chamber music repertoire, most notably Beethoven’s string quartets and are considered to be one of the foremost string quartets in the world. Originally founded by four students of chamber music at Lübeck Conservatory, they came to international prominence when they won first prize at the ARD Wettbewerb in 1996, followed by another first prize at the Premio Borciani six months later.

Argentian-born Ingrid Fliter is best known for her incisive interpretations of the piano works of Chopin and Beethoven. Little known until 2006, she has emerged as one of the more prominent pianists on the international scene, with a major recording contract, a half-dozen or so recordings since that year, and a busy schedule of concerts and recitals at major venues across the globe. Fliter has been especially busy in the US making appearances with the major orchestras of Cleveland, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis and others.

Conductor Seiji Ozawa was best known for his long tenure as the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, at 29 years one of the most durable in the history of the American orchestral scene. Ozawa was noted for his advocacy of contemporary music, even early in his career, when such a thing was rare among American orchestra conductors of the top rank.

The Alban Berg Quartet was founded in 1971 and within a decade was established as one of the finest string quartets in the world. It was known for its large recorded sets of the complete quartets of many masters of the genre. Its founding members were all part of a Viennese chamber orchestra, who, while getting together to play chamber music, discovered the musical rapport essential to founding a great quartet.

Claudio Arrau (1903-1991) is a pianist fully deserving of the epithet ‘legendary’. His rigorous intellect and sense of the sublime found expression in his transcendent technique and sumptuous, yet lucid sonorities.