'Appalachian Spring' and 'El Salón Mexicó' are archetypical of what many people consider to be the sound of American music, evoking the vast landscapes, cowboys and pioneer spirit. Yet, in the 20th century perhaps only Stravinsky was as adept in as many styles as Aaron Copland [1900-1990]. His Piano Concerto, first performed by Serge Koussevitsky, is a good example of Copland the modernist but he also wrote chamber music, ballets, operas and film scores, as well as teaching, writing and latterly conducting.

Igor Markevitch's Tchaikovsky performances have been among the best since the early '60s. He turned the unruly London Symphony Orchestra into a first-rate Tchaikovsky ensemble, in which a finely disciplined approach to rhythm provides the perfect foundation for some highly expressive music-making. Five decades after the completion of this legendary cycle, Decca proudly presents it at the highest-possible resolution, at 24-bit. Mastered from original analogue tapes, this hi-resolution digital set enables music to be heard as the studio engineers intended.

State-of-the-art audio reproduction at the beginning of the 21st century may be the finest ever achieved, but the increasing reissues of historic audiophile recordings provide ample evidence that the search for spectacular sound has been going on for many years. In 1960, Eugene Goossens and the London Symphony Orchestra recorded Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps on 35mm three-track magnetic film, and the quality of the recording is so close-up and realistic that the term "almost palpable" is not an exaggeration…

Sir Antonio Pappano leads the London Symphony Orchestra in a pair of symphonies by Ralph Vaughan Williams that span the build-up and aftermath of the Second World War.

The Signature Collection is a brand new series from EMI Classics featuring the finest catalog recordings released for the first time ever in high resolution format. The expert engineers at Abbey Road Studios who remastered the original EMI recordings for Hybrid Super Audio CD series have breathed new life into these iconic catalog recordings. Each title in the Signature Collection is beautifully presented in a full-color illustrated hardback book. The liner notes explore mot only the rich music but also the story behind original LP covers. Also included are never before seen photographs of the original master tapes.

Recorded live at the Barbican Centre in November 2007, Richard Hickox conducts Carl Orff’s immensely popular dramatic cantata Carmina Burana with the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and soloists, Barry Banks, Laura Claycomb and Christopher Maltman. The score’s combination of gloriously infectious vulgarity interspersed with moments of genuine beauty has assured it an unquestionable position as one of the most popular of all twentieth-century choral works.

Sea Symphony is Vaughan Williams’s response to Walt Whitman’s inspirational, visionary verse. It is recorded here from the June 2006 highly-praised performance by London Symphony Orchestra and Symphony Chorus with soloists Gerald Finley and Susan Gritton, and Richard Hickox at the helm. The symphony is coupled with his much-loved overture to The Wasps and the dynamism of the concert performance is preserved in high-resolution audio.

Celebrating the union of classical and jazz, LSO Live’s latest release encapsulates the very best of the two genres with an irresistible selection of works by Bernstein, Stravinsky and Golijov, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.