Highlights and Rarities
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.
Price: 2-CD: €29.00
Daniil Trifonov - Sergei Babayan
Rachmaninoff for Two
Daniil Trifonov and his mentor and friend Sergei Babayan are releasing a double album of Rachmaninoff’s piano duets. Rachmaninoff for Two presents the Russian composer’s two suites for two pianos and his Symphonic Dances in an arrangement for two pianos, as well as the poignant slow movement of the Second Symphony, which Trifonov transcribed for two pianos. The album is a tribute to the great pianist and composer in honor of his 150th birthday.
Price: 2-CD: €29.00
Elina Garanča
When Night Falls...
Elīna Garanča’s new album "When Night Falls…" will be released just in time for World Sleep Day on March 15, 2024 and conveys a feeling "for that time of day when you retreat from the world, come home, close the door and devote yourself entirely to your own private life in a protected setting." Accordingly, it is a very personal album, with Garanča highlighting her homeland for the first time in her discography to date. "My Latvian identity should definitely be part of such an intimate, personal program," says the artist. Latvian composers such as Raimonds Pauls, Alfrēds Kalniņš and Jānis Zālīts can be heard on this album.
Price: CD: €22.00
Rudolf Buchbinder
Brahms-Lieder
Rudolf Buchbinder, one of the great pianists of our time, presents the rarely recorded Max Reger arrangements of Brahms lieder on his new album for Deutsche Grammophon. Reger greatly admired Johannes Brahms and this admiration can be heard in his arrangements. Rudolf Buchbinder writes about the arrangements: "When I came across the treasure trove of Brahms songs that Max Reger arranged for piano, I was immediately hooked. It touched me deeply to immerse myself in these gems, to walk in them as if in a world of my own, to let myself be carried away by the pull of the words poured into music."
Price: CD: €22.00
Bryn Terfel
Sea Songs
Wolfgang Muthspiel
Dance of the Elders
Wolfgang Muthspiel and his trio with Scott Colley on bass and Brian Blade on drums reach a new creative peak on "Dance of the Elders".
On the follow-up to the much-praised "Angular Blues", which The Times described as a "gently impressive album", Wolfgang once again demonstrates a fine knack for a particularly lively exchange with his trio colleagues and brings his unique compositional signature to the fore. The guitarist’s special jazz idiom is influenced by both folk and classical music – both aspects are clearly emphasized on the album.
Price: LP: €39.00
Víkingur Ólafsson
J.S. Bach: Goldberg-Variationen
Following his outstandingly successful album "Johann Sebastian Bach" (2018), which won an Opus Klassik Award, Víkingur Ólafsson has now recorded the composer’s monumental Goldberg Variations. The album is released with an extensive essay in which the pianist talks about the work and its history. To this end, he reflects on his interpretive choices for a recording he dreamed of making for 25 years, "…for me, the genius of the Goldberg Variations lies not in the general, but in the particular," Ólafsson says. "As each variation unfolds, you have to be completely gripped by its specific drama and emotion, drawn into its wonderful little microcosm and filled with the joy of discovering it."
Price: 2-LP (Crystal Clear Vynil, limited edition): €69.00
Anton Bruckner
11 Symphonies
The box set, featuring the composer’s nine numbered symphonies, his ‘Study Symphony’ and his ‘Nullified’ symphony, incorporates 11 CDs and a 172-page booklet. This release constitutes the first complete recording of the Austrian composer’s symphonies from the orchestra under a single conductor. Christian Thielemann enjoys a strong rapport with the Vienna Philharmonic and has established himself as one of his generation’s most esteemed interpreter of the Romantic Austro-German repertoire.
11-CDs: €79.00
Hildur Guðnadóttir
TÁR
Deutsche Grammophon presents the exciting new film project by multi-award-winning (Oscar, 2 Grammys, Golden Globe, Emmy, BAFTA and more) Icelandic composer and cellist Hildur Guðnadóttir (Joker, Chernobyl, Battlefield 2042 and more) – a groundbreaking concept album for Todd Field’s new film TÁR starring Cate Blanchett as conductor Lydia Tár.
The multi-faceted album presents music from the film as well as music inspired by the film, including a series of haunting new pieces by Hildur Guðnadóttir, as well as excerpts from great works by Elgar and Mahler. It complements the film’s intriguing plot by presenting fully realized, real-life versions of the music that fictional protagonist Lydia Tár is already working on in the film. One goal of the album is to convey to the listener something of the complexity of the musical rehearsal and recording process.
Price: CD: €22.00
Alban Berg & Gustav Mahler
Sehnsucht
Collective longing
Longing is a central concept of the Viennese fin-de-siècle. During the pandemic, a collective longing emerged, both among the artists and the audience. Barbara Hannigan and her musical collaborators have decided to release the recording of a concert made in the empty concert hall of De Doelen as an album. Two song cycles by Alban Berg are explored, written shortly after Gustav Mahler’s 4th Symphony, also recorded here. All of the featured works are presented in special arrangements for chamber ensemble.
Price: CD: €22.00
Seong-Jin Cho
The Handel Project
George Friderich Handel’s suites for keyboard instrument are foreign to most concert pianists. With his album "The Handel Project," 28-year-old South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho wants to shed new light on these soulful works of Baroque music. Recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, he has chosen his three favorites from Handel’s first collection of "Suites de pièces pour le clavecin": the suites HWV 427, 430 and 433. After years of studying music from later eras, Handel’s keyboard works came into his focus, not least because of their wealth of musical ideas and melodic invention. "For me, Handel’s music comes from the heart, people can easily follow it," Cho says, eschewing the right pedal as much as possible in his interpretation, but modifying some of the dynamic markings to exploit the potential of the modern grand piano. But Cho was also interested in Handel’s influence on later composers, so he decided to record Johannes Brahms' creative response to Handel’s music as well: Brahms' put his virtuosic "Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Handel" on paper within a few weeks in September 1861. For Cho, these are "the finest variations ever written." The album closes with two single movements by Handel: the Sarabande in B flat major, HWV 440 and the Minuet in G minor – the latter in a magical arrangement by Wilhelm Kempff.
Price: CD: €22.00
Jonas Kaufmann
The Sound of Movies
Unforgettable movie songs from almost a whole century
Great songs from classic films have always been a passion of Jonas Kaufmann, and his new album celebrates this with unforgettable film songs from nearly a century – music that has thrilled audiences worldwide.
"The Sound of Movies" features hits from great film classics such as West Side Story, Gladiator, Cinema Paradiso, The Sound of Music, Les Misérables, The Mission, The Great Caruso, Singin' in the Rain, Once upon a Time in America, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and many more! The album was recorded with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and Choir specializing in film music, conducted by Jochen Rieder, a spectacular sound experience is guaranteed. On three tracks Jonas Kaufmann is accompanied by the well-known guitarist Miloš Karadaglić. A world premiere can also be heard on the album, the theme from the film "The Cider House Rules" by Oscar-winning composer Rachel Portman.
Price: CD: €25.00
Keith Jarrett
Bordeaux Concert
Two concerts from Keith Jarrett’s last European tour a few years ago were released as live recordings and received enthusiastic acclaim. The improvised performances of the legendary jazz pianist always have their unique flair.
Now, with "Bordeaux Concert," the third album of the 2016 concert tour is released. It once again showcases Keith Jarrett in an outstanding playing mood and even prompted the French press to compare it to the great achievements of "The Köln Concert" and "Bremen-Lausanne."
Price: 2 LPs: €39.00
Bohuslav Martinů
The Greek Passion
The Greek Passion became for Bohuslav Martinu (8.12.1890 – 18. 8.1959) an opera epilogue whose humanistic message surpasses that of all the others owing to the sheer power of the faith and emotion. Martinu liked experimenting with opera – from setting folk texts, legends and commedie dell’arte through new formations for radio and television to opera-film, opera ballet and opera-dream. Nikos Kazantzakis’s novel Christ Recrucified captivated the composer with the fate of refugees amid an unconcerned, indifferent world. Martinů himself was a refugee. In the libretto, which he prepared on the basis of the novel’s English translation, he captured in an effective stage contraction the transformations of the characters and the reversions of the action. Applying remarkable technique and groundbreaking compositional invention, he depicted a world of church, genuine faith and life in the Greek countryside. He interconnected the ideational and musical content with musical motifs of the Cross and compassionate love. The Greek Passion was first staged almost two years after the composer’s death, in Zurich on 9 June 1961. In the autumn of 1981, the independent preparations for this gramophone recording courageously strove to bring the Czech text closer to the original deep spiritual sense of this extraordinary work for the first time.
Price: CD: €22.00
Michael Heltau
Lyrics
Expressive language on a double album celebrating Michael Heltau’s 90th birthday
In the 2014/15 season, Michael Heltau organized a cycle of four recital evenings at the Vienna Musikverein under the motto "In the beginning was the word". The third of these evenings was devoted to texts of chansons, hits, songs, operetta songs and was entitled "Lyrics". The evening was extremely successful. Since then there was a desire to record this program. In the fall of 2022, Michael Heltau finally complied with this urge and went into the recording studio with it. The Viennese theater musicians recorded short musical quotations to accompany the lyrics. Heltau, in his inimitable manner as a linguistic musician, masterfully staged these lyrics.
Price: CD: €29.00
Evgeny Kissin
The Salzburg Recital
In August 2021, as the Salzburg Festival once again filled with visitors after meticulous planning, Evgeny Kissin stood in the city’s sold-out Grosses Festspielhaus. His program included the unusual, works by Berg, Chopin, Gershwin and – to the surprise of some – Khrennikov. There was also a rich selection of encores: Mendelssohn and Debussy, more Chopin and one of Kissin’s own compositions. "I’m simply more inspired in front of an audience," the pianist explained, demonstrating his artistry in a performance that, despite its duration of nearly two hours, made a special impression with its "deep intensity and concentration" (Bachtrack).
The Salzburg Recital spans the sound world of Chopin in the 19th century to works by three early 20th century composers who emerged from very different traditions: Austrian, American and Soviet.
Price: CD: €29.00
Fabio Luisi & Danish National Symphony Orchestra
Carl Nielsen - Symphonies
The symphonies of Danish composer Carl Nielsen, deeply rooted in the Danish landscape and culture yet with universal appeal, are among the great works of the symphonic repertoire. Deutsche Grammophon is pleased to include Nielsen’s complete symphonies in its catalog – and to do so with an orchestra closely associated with the composer and a conductor open to new ideas and inspiration.
This 3-CD digipack edition of the six symphonies offers a true listening experience, introducing listeners to Nielsen’s very own direct, vibrant, heartfelt musical language. And unquestionably, the DNSO is well acquainted with their special characteristics.
Price: CD: €39.00
The unreleased masters
Jessye Norman
A peerless and towering personality on stage and in the studio, Jessye Norman was unquestionably one of the preeminent sopranos of all time. Following her death in September 2019, which robbed the world of an unmistakable shining light, legions of fans, including celebrities, civil rights activists, and art world leaders, shared the impact she had on their lives and revived the discussion in articles, blogs, and fan groups about "unreleased recordings." At the beginning of 2023, Decca, with the support of her family and estate, presents a collection of six unreleased Philips recordings of works by Britten, Haydn, Berlioz, R. Strauss and Wagner. It was Ms. Norman’s perfectionism, the sense that the music was often better than any performer could do it justice, that led her to withhold the recordings that now see the light of day. Now that the original tapes have been lovingly restored and remastered, Jessie’s countless admirers who have long longed to hear these important documents of one of the greatest singers ever recorded. All of the works in this impressive new collection are essentially love poems in one form or another, and represent Jessye Norman’s final "farewell" to the recording world. The release includes a 68-page booklet with new essays (in E/F/G) by Cyrus Meher-Homji (who did a lot of detective work to uncover the stories behind these recordings), Costa Pilavachi and George Hall, Sun lyrics in the original language with English translations, and many beautiful photos.
Price: CD: € 39.00