As the title of one of his most famous songs states, Lucio Dalla was born on March 4, 1943, and became one of the most important, as well as most popular, figures in Italian pop music of the second half of the 20th century. Dalla's career was a fascinating musical rollercoaster through several distinct periods.

Michala Petri war und ist das weibliche Gesicht der Blockflötenrenaissance. Die sympathische Dänin brillierte nicht nur virtuos im barocken Hit-Repertoire, wie ihre furiose Version von Vivaldis "Vier Jahreszeiten" eindrucksvoll belegt. Ihr unverwechselbarer, warmer Klang machte auch weniger bekannte Bach- und Händel-Sonaten mit Jazz-Legende Keith Jarrett zu einem Hörereignis. Auf diesen insgesamt 17 CDs, die zwischen 1987 und 2001 entstanden sind und die hier erstmals komplett erscheinen, zeigt sich das Können der ECHO Klassik-Preisträgerin bei einem immensen Repertoire von Bach und Telemann bis zu Raritäten von Grieg, zeitgenössischen, melodiösen Kompositionen, einem faszinierenden Weihnachtsalbum und herrlich-nostalgischen Piecen von Fritz Kreisler.

James Galway is universally regarded as the supreme interpreter of the classical flute repertoire as well as a consummate entertainer whose appeal crosses all musical boundaries. Now for the first time ever, all of Sir James's recordings for RCA Red Seal are being issued together in a single box set.
With The Man with the Golden Flute performing the whole spectrum of classics from Baroque to modern, including virtually every important concerto and other solo music composed for his instrument, plus flute transcriptions from every corner of the repertoire and the globe the range and comprehensiveness of this set is staggering. Sir James s list of collaborators is a musical Who's Who in its own right: names like Martha Argerich, Cleo Laine, Andr Previn, Neville Marriner, Lorin Maazel and Michael Tilson Thomas as well as Galway s wife and fellow flautist Jeanne Galway, the Canadian Brass, Tokyo String Quartet and, needless to say, The Chieftains.

Van Cliburn’s legendary 1958 performance of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto no.1 with Kirill Kondrashin conducting the RCA Symphony Orchestra (New York Philharmonic Orchestra?) still remains remarkably fresh as if it had only just recently been recorded live in concert. This was his first recording on returning to the US from winning the first Moscow Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in March 1958 and it became the first classical record ever to sell over a million copies.

Granting a long-held wish of many record collectors, Sony Classical is issuing the complete monaural American Columbia discography of Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra in a vast box set of 120 CDs, all in new remasterings. Almost all of this material will be appearing for the first time on CD on Sony Classical. Indeed, 152 of these recordings have never been released at all on CD before now.

In a few years this will be a mere curiosity, not the abomination of marketing that it now seems. David Helfgott, one hopes, will be happily retired on the earnings from his 15 minutes of fame, and the movie Shine which documented his mental illness and aborted an attempt at a professional pianist career will be consigned to the video rental shelves. But for now, unfortunately, we have before us a document of a pianist whose fingers and imagination have not developed singly nor in the amalgam necessary to be considered an artist.

This isn't James Galway's most virtuosic CD, but it is still absolutely beautiful and magic…about .1% percent of the time it's a little dull, but the other 99.9% is truly beautiful. I think my favorite thing about this CD is its utter peacefulness and the fluttery, angelic sound of the flute. The Irish classics on this CD don't just have flute accompaniment; there are many other instruments that combine to really make this an "Irish" album. In particular, I really enjoyed the drums, the pipes (can't get enough of them!!!) and the alto flute (slightly more mellow-sounding than the usual flute).

Cançó d'amor i de guerra (en español «Canción de amor y de guerra») es una zarzuela en catalán escrita en dos actos, que se estrenó el 16 de abril de 1926 en el Teatre Nou de Barcelona. Se convirtió en el primer gran éxito del compositor valenciano Rafael Martínez Valls, con texto de Lluís Capdevila y Víctor Mora.

Vivaldi is greatly over-rated - a dull fellow who would compose the same form over many times. Such is the opinion of one of the great composers on the music of another great composer. Given the evidence of the present newly re-released complete Vivaldi cello concertos incredulity can be the only response to this assessment. But then Stravinsky was a man who voiced strong, often acerbic and sometimes outrageous opinions on virtually anything suggested to him. He had probably heard few, if any, of these cello concertos and irrespective would it have made any difference?

Like his father, Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi is an internationally renowned classical music conductor of Estonian heritage with a deep catalog of recordings. Born on December 30, 1962, in Tallinn, Estonia, he and his family moved to the United States in 1980. His education includes studies at the Tallinn School of Music, the Curtis Institute of Music, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. For a decade he served as music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra prior to being named music director of the Orchestre de Paris.

Fans of great violin playing naturally will want to hear this outstanding sampling of the art of the young Itzhak Perlman, most of which has never been released on CD. The violinist blasts through Paganini's Caprices Nos. 1, 16, and (of course) 24 with scrupulous technique and a total lack of inhibition. In the remaining works he's well partnered by pianist David Garvey, best known for his work with soprano Leontyne Price.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the world premiere of Elgar’s Violin Concerto which took place on 10 November 1910 and was conducted by the composer himself, celebrated Danish violinist Nikolaj Znaider has recorded the concerto on the very same instrument that Kreisler performed the premiere: this is the first account on disc using this very special violin, a 1741 Guarneri del Gesu. Znaider will also tour the work globally throughout 2010 and will perform the Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Colin Davis on 10 November 2010 at London’s Barbican Concert Hall – the anniversary to the day of the world premiere.

With the best will in the world, anyone listening to a disc entitled Bravo! Virtuoso Romantic Encores for Violin is all too likely to succumb to terminal ennui. After all, the ephemeral thrills of encores are not supposed to last an hour, and unless the performer is a very great artist, the listener may die of boredom long before the disc ends. Violinist Nikolai Znaider is nearly a very great artist. He has a graceful tone, an elegant technique, and a virtuoso's temperament. His performances are truly virtuoso and his interpretations truly romantic, but with the best will in the world, anyone listening will still succumb to terminal ennui halfway through the disc.

Sony Classical is proud to announce an unparalleled reissue of Pierre Monteux’s RCA Victor recordings. They are being issued together for the first time in a single original jacket collection of 40 CDs. Each and every recording in this new 40-CD set comes from the best source, including previous Living Stereo, SACD and XRCD reissues. Many others have been newly remastered from the original 78-rpm matrices or tapes.

Sony Classical presents a new reissue of all the recordings that Charles Munch, one of the most dynamic and charismatic conductors of the 20th century, made for RCA Victor while in Boston conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Munch turned the BSO into arguably the greatest French orchestra in the world while preserving its sovereignty in the American, Austro-German, central European and Russian repertoires. An 86-CD box set, The Complete Album Collection marks the first time that this cornerstone of the classical catalogue has been available in a single box with 16 works new to CD and 29 works newly remastered from the original analogue tapes.