SOMM RECORDINGS announces the first release of never before available performances by one of the defining partnerships of modern American music in the specially priced two-CD set George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra: The Forgotten Recordings. Long considered one of Americas Big Five orchestras, the Cleveland Orchestra entered its second century in 2018 and earlier this year was hailed by The New York Times as Americas finest [orchestra] still. The Forgotten Recordings features eight historic performances made for the Book-of-the-Month Club in 1954 and 1955 seven of which are first releases that have been restored and remastered by the multi-awardwinning audio restoration engineer Lani Spahr, who also provides extensive and informative booklet notes.

On this album Danny Driver brings his impeccable pianism, consummate style and imagination to Schumann's Novelletten and Nachtstucke, less wellknown sets from his extraordinary output for the piano. Schumann wrote Nachtstucke upon the death of his brother, and would have entitled it Corpse Fantasia were it not for Clara's intervention. The eight pieces of the Novelletten form what is at once the largest and the least known among Schumann's major piano cycles.

The founding of the Berliner Philharmoniker on the first of May in 1882, is annually celebrated with a concert in a European city of cultural significance. For this newly released EUROPAKONZERT Blu-ray Disc all recordings were lovingly restored and converted to High Definition video. The Berliner Philharmoniker are joined for Mozart’s Motet and Mass on this recording by Christine Schäfer, whose unique timbre and performing style has more than once been likened to those of other vocal greats such as Irmgard Seefried and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. This round of exceptional musicians is completed by Emanuel Ax, winner the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, as the soloist for the works of Chopin and Schumann.

The French division of the massive EMI corporation has released a compendium called Les Introuvables de Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (EMI 68509, six CDs), and it contains so much outstanding material that one feels churlish complaining about what it lacks. But here we go. These six discs contain more than 125 lieder, ballads, cantatas and songs – primarily in German, but also in French, Italian, Latin and English – recorded mostly in the 1950s and '60s when Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's voice was one of the wonders of the musical universe.

Anticipating the 50th anniversary of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in 2022, we present their complete recordings on DG. The intriguing sound culture of Orpheus, especially of the string section, is often explained as a result of the cooperative mindset of the orchestra and its artistic process of rehearsing.

"Frage" is the new album by sensational baritone Christian Gerhaher. This new album is the first of many highly anticipated projects to record all of Robert Schumann’s songs. This project will be the first time since the 1970s where a singer has devoted themselves to comprehensively perform and record Robert Schumann’s complete lieder output. Frage is produced by the Bayerischer Rundfunk and the Deutsches Liedzentrum Heidelberg. Also featured in the project are fellow singers: Wiebke Lehmkuhl, Sybilla Rubens, Camilla Tilling, Julia Kleiter and Martin Mitterutzner as well as pianist Gerold Huber. Christian Gerhaher is set to perform at the prestigious Wigmore Hall in London on January 16 2019. He has won many awards including the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera and the Midem Special Prize.

Philippe Herreweghe and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra explore the tormented world of Robert Schumann. Symphonies Nos. 2 and 4 plunge us into the psychological tangles of the composer's mind, reflecting his relentless struggle with melancholy and depression. In these two seminal works, a slow and somber introduction unveils the main motifs that will unfold throughout, before culminating in an emphatic and optimistic finale. The director from Ghent (and former psychiatrist) pHilippe Herreweghe manages to grasp the full complexity of this cathartic process leading us from darkness into light. He delivers a lively and urgent interpretation of these romantic masterpieces, confirming his reputation as an unrivalled performer of the German repertoire.

This is the Schumann's Bicentennial year. There are many symphonic cycles to celebrate that, but very seldom we can find a truly great one along the whole of the 4 symphonies. Haitink's is one of these. Those are brilliant, solid and thrilling performances that show the mastery of maestro Haitink. Concertgebouw orchestra plays heavenly and sound by Philips is, one more time, a matter of admiration. Among cycles in modern and digital sound, this is one of the best choices.

Simon Keenlyside has the instrument, the technique, and the intelligence required of great lieder singers. His burnished baritone is large, but he can deploy it with tenderness, as well as power, and he has the flexibility to bring a broad array of colors to the songs' varied moods. This is especially impressive in Schumann's Dichterliebe, where the songs have an emotional arc with an implied narrative, and Keenlyside captures the mercurial shifts with passion and integrity. Even in a song as brief as "Ich grolle nicht," the subtlety of the lover's evolving feelings come across honestly and with precision.

Although there have been several fine recordings of Schumann's String Quartets, Op. 41 – those of the Gabrieli and Lark Quartet immediately come to mind – and several superb classic recordings of the works – those of the Juilliard and the Drolc and of course the magisterial Budapest immediately come to mind – but hands down, far and away, and absolutely without question the best recording of Schumann's String Quartets, Op. 41, is this one by the Quatuor Ysaÿe.

The young German baritone Konstantin Krimmel won the prestigious Preis des Deutschen Musikwettbewerbs in 2019, in addition to the Helmut Deutsch Prize. He joins Alpha for a number of recordings, starting with this programme of lieder conceived with his longstanding partner, the pianist Doriana Tchakarova. This lover of words, a particularly expressive performer in concert, wanted to tell a story for his first album: he chose to record a selection of ballads, because they are genuine operas in just a few minutes… mini-sagas that permit great interpretative freedom. Among the great poets present here are Schiller, Goethe and Heinrich Heine.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt The Complete Sony Recordings brings together for the first time Harnoncourt s complete recordings from 2002-2015 with his Concentus Musicus Wien, the Wiener Philharmonike, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Symphonieorchester des Bayrischen Rundfunks. The Sony Classical edition features his famous symphony recordings of Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Bruckner, alongside his celebrated performances of great choral works such as the Verdi, Brahms and Mozart Requiems and Haydn's Die Schöpfung, as well as Mozart's opera Zaide, Haydn's Orlando paladino and Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. Also included are previously authorized but unreleased recordings of J. S. Bach s Cantatas Nos. 26 & 36, Beethoven's Christus am Ölberge and Dvorák's Stabat Mater.

To this day, Maurizio Pollini, who won 1st place at the prestigious Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 1960, remains one of the most extraordinary pianists of our century. With this release, Deutsche Grammophon continues the series of collections dedicated to him.