Beethoven’s monumental contribution to Western classical music is celebrated here in this definitive collection marking the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Surveying the totality of his career and achievement, the Complete Edition spans orchestral, concerto, keyboard, chamber, music for the stage, choral and vocal works, encompassing his most familiar and iconic masterpieces, alongside rarities and recently reconstructed fragments and sketches in world premiere recordings. The roster of artists and ensembles includes some of Beethoven’s greatest contemporary exponents, in performances that have won critical acclaim worldwide.

Jennifer Vyvyan was one of the most revered sopranos of her generation. Her career was particularly associated with Britten operas, for which she premiered many roles. But the scope of her talent was particularly wide, and she also excelled in early music and sacred works. In this recording from her prime of Beethoven’s Mass in C she teams up with Richard Lewis, Monica Sinclair and Marian Nowakowski.

Wild is a 'larger than life' pianist, one who can spin out a lyrical line and use romantic gestures without ever sounding self-conscious. His balance of excitement and control, and, indeed, his gorgeous sound, are a constant marvel.

Beethoven reputedly wasn't Beecham's favorite composer, but you wouldn't know it from this performance; it's exceedingly well conceived, highly energetic, and has that unique Beecham sparkle to it. The fillers also are delightful. All recorded in Ascona, Switzerland in 1957.

Menuhin - as is well known - recorded the Elgar Violin Concerto with the composer conducting. In many respects these recordings of the Symphonies sound as if Elgar was still standing at Menuhin's side. No other recordings come closer to the spirit and style of Elgar's own conducting of these works. But this is not mere imitation. Menhuin was a musician of the very first rank - with a remarkable ear and attention to detail. The phrasing is always beautiful and the rhythm alert and alive. These is nothing pompous about these performances - everything is full of vigour and feeling. Playing and recording are excellent.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra teams up with a host of celebrities for Disney Goes Classical, a brand new album evoking the colour, emotion and pure joy of Disney music on a whole new scale, writes Nick Benson.

On this, the largest set ever compiled of one of the last century's most popular composers, we may not only renew our familiarity with the Concierto de Aranjuez, or perhaps with one of the other ever-melodious guitar concertos that sustain his reputation with audiences, but also discover chamber, instrumental, choral and especially vocal works which testify to a creative imagination confident in the formation of its style but never satisfied with repetition, one which responded directly to poetic and lyric inspiration, and transformed its ideas with unfailing skill and respect for the idiom under consideration.

The complete Works for Piano and Orchestra, with Rafael Orozco playing the extraordinarily demanding piano score, which Serge; with his huge, slender, nimble fingers tended to compose to impress people and make many back away, is more than merely admirable when combined with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, under the Direction of Edo De Waart.

Yuri Temirkanov's Royal Philharmonic recording has been around for a long time; it was recorded in 1986 and has been in the catalog ever since – for good reason. Temirkanov is always sensitive to the exotic nature of these scores, particularly Spartacus, and he brings excitement to the varied colorful dances of both ballets. His recording is more full-bodied than the Bolshoi CD; no under-staffed orchestra here, and their rich sounds have been superbly captured by EMI's engineers.

The Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27, is a symphony by the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, written in 1906–07. The premiere was conducted by the composer himself in Saint Petersburg on 8 February 1908. Its duration is approximately 60 minutes when performed uncut; cut performances can be as short as 35 minutes. The score is dedicated to Sergei Taneyev, a Russian composer, teacher, theorist, author, and pupil of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Alongside his Piano Concerto No. 2 and Piano Concerto No. 3, this symphony remains one of the composer's best known compositions.

The final volume of the complete Sibelius Symphonies from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Owain Arwel Hughes contains the ever popular 5th coupled with the beautiful less well known 6th, and the ground breaking single movement 7th, the composer's final word on the symphony. His 8th, apparently completed, was consigned to the fire by Sibelius. The first volume in this cycle was made a Gramophone Editors Choice and was praised for the performances, interpretation and the recorded sound.

The final volume of the complete Sibelius Symphonies from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Owain Arwel Hughes contains the ever popular 5th coupled with the beautiful less well known 6th, and the ground breaking single movement 7th, the composer’s final word on the symphony. His 8th, apparently completed, was consigned to the fire by Sibelius.

Guillaume Tell was the composer’s last and longest opera. I do not think I would go on to say that it was also necessarily his best, but it is certainly an amazing work full of life. It is, in many ways, both a summation of his operatic genius and a tantalizing glimpse of what might have been had he continued to write for the stage. Like his other last operas it was written for Paris and in its scale and mixture of public and private events is a clear forerunner of such works as Les Huguenots and Don Carlos. At the same time it can be regarded as essentially classical, but with that style subtly transfigured into one that is just as essentially romantic. It represents a turning point in the history of opera, so that the obvious question arises as to why it is so seldom encountered on the stage, and why many music-lovers know it solely by its undoubtedly magnificent overture.