Highlights and Rarities

Yannick Nézet-Séguin

New Year's Concert 2026

For the first time, Yannick Nézet-Séguin will conduct the Vienna Philharmonic at the New Year’s Concert. The Canadian conductor, who has long had close ties with the orchestra, is music director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York and of the Philadelphia Orchestra. In the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein, alongside popular pieces such as Roses from the South and the Die Fledermaus Quadrille, he will present five novelties being performed there for the first time—including works by the American composer Florence Price (1887–1953) and by Josephine Weinlich (1848–1887), who founded the first European women’s orchestra. The New Year’s Concert is one of the largest events in classical music; it is broadcast to more than 150 countries and reaches over 150 million viewers.

Sebastian Breit & Stephanie Timoschek

The Viennese Oboe

Music lovers around the world admire the unique Viennese string sound. However, there is another distinctive sound: that of the Viennese oboe. Sebastian Breit, principal oboist of the Vienna Philharmonic, places his instrument at the center of this album. These are discoveries from the golden era of the Viennese oboe. The rarities charmingly demonstrate why the Viennese oboe is “different from the others.” Sebastian Breit presents the Viennese oboe—distinct in both construction and sound from the French oboe—within its own original repertoire. The program consists of three sonatas that express the particular characteristics of the Viennese tradition of music-making and performance in an ideal way. All of the pieces were written at the time of their composition specifically for the Viennese oboe.

Alois Mühlbacher

Broken Eyes - Bach Cantatas

The use of boys’ voices in performances of Johann Sebastian Bach’s sacred works has not only historical reasons. Even as a boy soprano, Alois Mühlbacher was an internationally renowned and exceptional phenomenon. His extraordinary boy’s voice has been preserved in numerous recordings not only in the field of Baroque music, but also in art song, where he interpreted works by Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss with remarkable musical maturity. His transition into a different vocal world, however, occurred so gently that he was able to carry much of the magic of his boy’s voice with him: its touching, fragile quality, now combined with newly developed technical vocal perfection.

Matthias Bartolomey & Ariane Haering

Hommage

In February 2001, Franz Bartolomey, principal cellist of the Vienna Philharmonic, recorded Johannes Brahms’s famous First Sonata for Piano and Cello in E minor, Op. 38, together with an early work by Richard Strauss, the youthful Sonata in F major, in the Large Broadcasting Hall of the ORF RadioKulturhaus. Twenty-five years later, and two years after the passing of his father, his son—the cellist Matthias Bartolomey—together with pianist Ariane Haering, presents the album Hommage, featuring the same program, supplemented by an arrangement of Schubert’s Moment musical No. 3.

Giovanni Antonini & Chamber Orchestra Basel

Haydn2032 V.18 - Il maestro di scuola

Throughout his life, Joseph Haydn gave instruction in singing, keyboard instruments, theory, and composition. Among his pupils were Ignaz Pleyel, Sigismund Neukomm, and the Pole Franciszek (Franz) Lessel. In October 1805, the latter received from his teacher the autograph score of Haydn’s Symphony No. 56, composed in 1774. This symphony forms a pair with Symphony No. 55, known as “The Schoolmaster,” which dates from the same year. Both works are included in this eighteenth volume of the Haydn2032 series, together with Symphony No. 29 (1765), whose Presto finale “sounds as if a swarm of mischievous children had just escaped from a strict teacher,” as Christian Moritz-Bauer writes.

Andris Nelsons & Boston Symphony Orchestra

D. Shostakovich: Symphonies & Concerts

To mark the 50th anniversary of Dmitri Shostakovich’s death, Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, of which he is music director, are releasing a collection of Shostakovich recordings in a 19-CD box set. Nelsons is a maestro of the new generation, he was born in 1978 and comes from Soviet-era Latvia. The set contains all symphonies as well as piano, violin and cello concertos (with Yuja Wang, Baiba Skride and Yo-Yo Ma as soloists) as well as the complete recording of the opera "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" from 2024.

Raphaël Pichon - Pygmalion

J.S. Bach: Mass in B-Minor

The Mass in B minor is one of the highest peaks in Johann Sebastian Bach’s oeuvre and the visionary synthesis of the art of a composer who, here more than anywhere else, gives meaning to the world in which he lives and reveals something of the afterlife to us. Raphaël Pichon and his ensemble Pygmalion explore this cosmos, which gives expression to the mystery of incarnation and death.

SWR Kultur: "With Pichon, the Sanctus is not a distant heavenly apparition, but exudes warmth and cohesion. Nothing here is designed to overwhelm. The music goes from heart to heart, it swells and ebbs like a round dance. We hook ourselves underneath. The sacred is not decreed from above, it arises as a grassroots movement from below. And so everything ends in perfect happiness."

Leif Ove Andsnes

F. Liszt: Via Crucis

The pianist explores the internalized beauty of Liszt’s "Consolations" and the spirituality of "Via Crucis" on his album with the Norwegian Soloists Choir under the direction of Grete Pedersen, to be released in 2025.

With "Liszt: Via Crucis & Solo Piano Works", the Norwegian pianist shows the often neglected side of the famous virtuoso Franz Liszt – the sacred music that paints a more intimate picture of the man and his deep faith. Together with the renowned Norwegian Soloists Choir, Andsnes has recorded Liszt’s late work "Via Crucis" (The Way of the Cross) for choir and piano. The program is rounded off with solo works such as "Consolations" and two movements from Liszt’s "Harmonies poétiques et religieuses".

John Elliot Gardiner & Concertgebouw Orchestra

J. Brahms: Symphonies

Deutsche Grammophon presents a new recording by John Eliot Gardiner and one of the world’s most renowned orchestras: the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra from Amsterdam. Recorded in 2022 and 2023, all four symphonies by Johannes Brahms can be heard on three CDs.

Johannes Brahms composed his symphonies throughout his life, allowing the individual works to unfold very different soundscapes – one of the reasons why they still inspire audiences and artists worldwide today. For John Eliot Gardiner, this diversity means a new challenge with every interpretation, which makes each performance unique. He recorded the symphonies with his Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique on original instruments 18 years ago.

Christian Gerhaher

J. Brahms: Lieder

With their new Brahms album on Sony Classical, Christian Gerhaher and his pianist Gerold Huber are back as the leading Lied interpreters of our time. On their new album "Brahms: Lieder", recorded live at the Reitstadel Neumarkt, Christian Gerhaher and his long-standing duo partner Gerold Huber are not tackling the lied oeuvre of the great Romantic composer for the first time – their debut album in 2002 already includes the "Vier ernste Gesänge" op. 121, and their version of the "Romanzen aus L. Tieck’s Magelone" op. 33 was released in 2017.

For the first time, however, they focus on individual songs and cycles that bear witness to Johannes Brahms' intensive efforts to create a new "folk tone". Embedded in the social developments of the 19th century, Brahms attempted here to establish the art song as a reflection of its imagined history, as a memory and image of a naturalness that was disappearing – very similar to the ambivalence between tradition and progress that can be felt in his instrumental works.

Lise Davidsen & Gerald Finley

R. Wagner: The Flying Dutchman

Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen won the prestigious Operalia competition in 2015 and subsequently took the world of classical music by storm. Now her first full-length opera recording is being released by Decca Classics: Richard Wagner’s "The Flying Dutchman", recorded at her Home opera in Oslo. The concert marked the inauguration of Edward Gardner as the new music director at the Oslo Opera House, and Gerald Finley plays the Dutchman, a role for which he has won international acclaim for his superb internationally for his outstanding acting and songful vocal finesse. For Davidsen, this live performance was the only time she sang the role of Senta – making this album an important milestone in her illustrious career.

Kiri Te Kanawa

A Celebration

On the occasion of Dame Kiri te Kanawa’s 80th birthday, this 23-CD set with her complete recordings for Decca and Philips is being released, supplemented by numerous recordings of sacred music and operas that she recorded for these labels as well as for Deutsche Grammophon. As an outstanding Mozart and Richard Strauss interpreter, her music theater repertoire ranges from Verdi to Puccini and Johann Strauss to Bernstein’s "Westside Story". Accompanied by Jeffrey Tate and the English Chamber Orchestra, Kiri te Kanawa sang the Chants d’Auvergne by Joseph Canteloube as captivatingly as if they had been written for her. We experience the singer with sacred music, together with St. Paul’s Cathedral Choir and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, as well as in a collection of sacred works from Bach to Karl Jenkins.

André Schuen

Die Winterreise

Andrè Schuen and Daniel Heide now complete their trilogy of Schubert’s great song cycles with a moving reading of Winterreise. For many, Winterreise is the crowning glory of the lieder repertoire. "It’s the first work that comes to mind when you talk about song," says Andrè Schuen, referring to the alternation between movement and stasis in the songs: "There are images in which time seems to stand still completely, states of mind in harmony with the frozen winter nature. Then again it drifts on and on".

Marek Janowksy

R. Schumann: Symphonies Nr. 1 - 4

An energetic and triumphant interpretation of Schumann’s complete symphonies
Marek Janowski presents Schumann: Complete Symphonies, a comprehensive collection recorded together with the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra. After a fruitful decade as a composer for piano and voice, Schumann began writing symphonic works, marking a new phase in his lifeMarek Janowksy

M. Haselböck & Wiener Akademie Orchestra

Beethoven: Violin Concerto

Beethoven’s D major concerto, one of the greatest violin concertos of the 19th century, did not get off to a good start. The soloist Franz Clement barely had time to rehearse it, and perhaps the time was not yet ripe in 1806. It took almost 40 years before it was finally recognized as a masterpiece thanks to Felix Mendelssohn and Joseph Joachim. As an admirer of Beethoven, Franz Liszt orchestrated the Andante cantabile from the "Archduke Trio" for the erection of the Beethoven memorial in Bonn, thus demonstrating his great talent. The Wiener Akademie Orchestra and Martin Haselböck continue their sound journey together with violinist Benjamin Schmid.

Yuja Wang

The Vienna Recital

The pianist Yuja Wang has become an integral part of the world’s major stages and inspires young and old alike. Her playing is characterized by technical brilliance and an almost infinite range of emotions. The piano recital at the Wiener Konzerthaus gives her the opportunity to showcase her fiery virtuosity as well as her mature musicality and imagination with an eclectic, personally selected program. It brings together masterpieces ranging from famous works by Ludwig van Beethoven and Alexander Scriabin to lesser-known compositions by György Ligeti and Nikolai Kapustin, including sublime musical miniatures by Christoph Willibald Gluck and Philip Glass. A historic milestone not to be missed! "The hall went wild!" (Der Standard)

Lang Lang

Saint-Saëns

Lang Lang presents a veritable treasure trove of musical discoveries on his new album. At the heart of the recording are Saint-Saëns' Carnival of the Animals and his virtuoso Piano Concerto No. 2, recorded with a star line-up: the Gewandhaus Orchestra and Andris Nelsons. For Lang Lang, this concerto is a true romantic masterpiece that can compete with the famous piano concertos by Rachmaninoff or Liszt. The combination with the Carnival of the Animals not only offered another chance to get young people excited about classical music, but also a wonderful opportunity to work together with his wife, pianist Gina Alice. "Many of us remember the famous Carnival of the Animals from our childhood. There are a lot of clever ideas behind all the fun," says Lang Lang. These two works are complemented by some popular classics for piano solo and four hands by Ravel, Fauré and Debussy, as well as arrangements such as the famous "Flower Duet" from the opera Lakmé.