Are the songs on this new double album musical letters between the genius composer siblings Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn? Through their joint musical training, the children of a pianist and a respected Jewish banker were musically kindred spirits; music was their soul language. Later they exchanged many entertaining and poetic letters about their compositions. The sister, three years older, was the closest advisor to the "child prodigy" Felix throughout his life. According to those who knew her, she was his equal as a pianist and composer.

Christopher Glynn continues his series of Schubert in English releases with a new recording of ‘The Fair Maid of the Mill’ (Die schöne Müllerin) with acclaimed Scottish tenor Nicky Spence. Set to a new translation by writer and director Jeremy Sams, Willhelm Müller’s direct and emotionally-charged poetry became the basis of Schubert’s first cycle to tell a complete story over the course of its 20 songs.

This three SACD set contains Richard Strauss' opera "Der Rosenkavalier" performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan, and the Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor, led by Helmut Froschauer. Sung in German. This reissue series of classical music masterpieces by Esoteric has attracted a lot of attention, both for its uncompromising commitment to recreating the original master sound. This series marks the first hybrid SACD release of historical recording selections that have been mainstays of the catalog since their initial release.

The US composer Stanley Grill was strongly influenced in his writing by his passion for music of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. He already has a long-standing collaboration with the original sound ensemble Pandolfis Consort, and many of his works have been dedicated to the orchestra founded by violist Elzbieta Sajka-Bachler; the Pandolfis Consort's album "Und das Lied bleibt schön" now presents several works by the composer, who was born in New York in 1954.

Following the tradition of Arnold Schönberg (1874–1951) and his society for private musical performances, all the pieces in this production were completely redesigned and masterfully arranged by the principal horn player of the Vienna Philharmonic, Josef Reif, in order to make them performable in a reduced formation and in smaller venues.

After a relatively quick turnaround, German metal masters Rammstein added another highlight to their discography with eighth album Zeit…

Christian Gerhaher's exemplary lied interpretations with Gerold Huber set standards – their recordings have repeatedly been highly acclaimed. The lied duo appears on the stages of major international recital venues, for instance at the Wigmore Hall in London, in the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Cologne and Berlin Philharmonie, the Konzerthaus and the Musikverein in Vienna. This album is a great introduction to the deeply absorbing world of Schubert's songs. It features a very personal collection of Schubert songs chosen by Christian Gerhaher, who has performed these songs for many years and has a profound connection to them. The album includes a detailed booklet text with a separate paragraph detailing each song.

There is good reason that romantic music (because it would be a gross over-simplification to say that this style refers solely to the 19th century) is considered by musicologists to be the style that best embodies the spirit of romanticism, which blossoms with varying intensity throughout the history of European cultural development.

I am too cowardly to be a proper composer, Hugo Wolf confessed to a Viennese friend when he was barely 28 years old. And the result of his introspection was not so wrong: everything in his life, not only composing, proceeded in explosive spurts. He wandered through the deepest emotional valleys, suddenly flew up into the highest regions, suffered agonies when he couldn't think of anything to say, shouted his enthusiasm about a successful piece to the whole world and still managed to produce a respectable, albeit fragmentary oeuvre, from which the early poem Penthesilea after Heinrich von Kleist's tragedy of the same name stands out as a symphonic masterpiece.

Delving into black magic and folk culture, Weber created with Der Freischütz a new aesthetic that was to nourish the imaginative world of a whole generation of composers. René Jacobs has gone back to the sources of the initial project and here offers us a completely new reading of the very first German Romantic opera: the prologue initially conceived by the librettist is restored to its original place, giving due symbolic and structural weight to the character of the Hermit. A fascinating rediscovery!

Record-breaking, award-winning, Grammy-nominated RAMMSTEIN - one of rock's most individual and successful names - are returning with their new album "Zeit" (English: Time) on 4/29/22.

After the overwhelming success of last years 1971-74 box set release, containing the first four studio albums and for the first time ever this lost 'last' album recording, 'Punkt' gets a deserved and necessary stand alone release to the relief of fans and collectors and the undoubted future gratification of those yet to experience the magic in these recordings.