Antje Weithaas probes every detail in the musical text, charged with energy and with her compelling musical intelligence and unrivaled command of technique. Her charisma and stage presence are gripping but never force their way in front of the work. And we therefore are happy that this internationally top-ranking violinist is now interpreting the Violin Concerto by Robert Schumann and the Double Concerto by Johannes Brahms for cpo with Maximilian Hornung, a cellist who in every way is her equal.

Following their award-winning Mendelssohn cycle, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the London Symphony Orchestra embark on a new journey through the symphonies of Robert Schumann. Gardiner feels the Schumann symphonies are criticised unfairly and with these recordings he is on a mission to dispel the cobweb of myths around these symphonic masterpieces.

Recordings of Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, are abundant, and even the pairing with the rarer Robert Schumann Violin Concerto, WoO 23, of 1853 are not as infrequent as they used to be. The thorny Schumann concerto has undergone a reevaluation upward, and plenty of players now concur with the judgment of Yehudi Menuhin: "This concerto is the historically missing link of the violin literature; it is the bridge between the Beethoven and the Brahms concertos, though leaning more towards Brahms." Violinist Carolin Widmann who (like the ECM label on which the album appears) has focused mostly on contemporary music, takes up the challenge of providing something new here, and she meets it. The central fact of the recording is that Widmann conducts the Chamber Orchestra of Europe from the violin. Others have done this before, but few have pursued the implications of the technique as far as Widmann has: the performances are unusually light and transparent, and they are perhaps thus in accord with the sounds an orchestra of the middle 19th century might have produced. Sample the unusually lively, sprightly reading of the Mendelssohn concerto's finale.

The peerless Takacs Quartet recently nominated for a Gramophone award for their second disc of Brahms's string quartets, continue their exploration of the Romantic chamber music tradition with this disc of Schumann. The Piano Quintet is by far Schumann's most popular chamber work and one of the most beloved works in the genre. Schumann was the first romantic composer to pair the piano with the string quartet. Schumann studied the string quartets of Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn and his quartet Op. 41 No. 3 demonstrates these influences. However, it contains many highly original strokes, particularly the casting of the scherzo as a set of variations. The Takacs Quartet are joined by Marc-Andre Hamelin in an invigorating partnership that has already been widely acclaimed on the concert platform.

Four-time Grammy winner Renee Fleming presents her first full-length Lieder album in almost two decades, featuring a selection of favorite songs from Brahms, Schumann, and Mahler, including Brahm's "Lullaby" and a breathtaking performance of Mahler's Rückert Lieder with Christian Thielemann and the Munich Philharmonic.

The German bass-baritone brings near-Wagnerian intensity to Schumann's two great cycles of 1840, yet he and Andsnes are at their most spellbinding in the introspective songs.

Maria João Pires “shapes and colours every phrase, and with immaculate taste, and she makes sure the phrases end as eloquently as they begin,” wrote Gramophone in 1974. “She conveys not just the details but the relevance of every note to the whole … Best of all, she communicates everything she has discovered about the music, and it is worth having.” This Portuguese pupil of Wilhelm Kempff, Pires was one of the artists who defined the Erato label in the 1970s and 1980s. This 5-CD box gathers together the recordings she made over the period from 1976 to 1985 and it reflects the consistent focus of her repertoire, with its special emphasis on Austro-German composers of the Classical and early-Romantic periods. Embracing solo works, piano duets and concertos, it contains works by Mozart, Schumann, Beethoven, but also by Bach and Chopin.

Markus Maskuniittys debut recording together with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra together with its chief conductor Sakari Oramo, showcases four concertante works for horn and orchestra covering a period of one hundred years (from 1849 to 1951). Robert Schumann described the horn as the soul of the orchestra and he had a profound affinity with the instrument. The most substantial of Schumanns works featuring the horn is the Konzertstück for four horns and orchestra, Op. 86. Schumann considered the work as one of his best achievements as a composer. During 1849, Schumann wrote a total of three works featuring the valve horn.

What matters is not what he can do, for this is only the beginning. What matters is how many ideas occur to him and how much he can demand of the music and of himself. In short, he is an artist who must be taken seriously, a hugely talented pianist who radiates an extraordinary fascination. In a word, he is exciting.

When Schumann was offered the post of music director in Düsseldorf in 1850, his first main project was to perform the St. John Passion, which had never been presented there, in April 1851: “It is much bolder, more powerful, and more poetic than the St. Matthew. This one seems to me not to be free of diffuseness and to be exceedingly long, but the other – how compact, how thoroughly genial, and of what art!” Robert Schumann

A violinist in a class of his own, Renaud Capuçon shows why he is 'Le Violon Roi'; (The Violin King) in this 3-CD collection. As the leading French violinist of his generation, Capucon records exclusively for Virgin Classics and has a rich discography. The set brings together not only some of his best and most popular performances as a soloist but as a collaborator.

Masters of Classical Music is an informative and captivating guide to twenty of the most important works in music history. Outtakes from the original scores within the documentaries, assist the viewer by making it easier to follow the music and to overall comprehend the structure of the works. The viewer will travel back in time to experience the birth places of these compositions and will thereby gain insight into the lives of the composers whilst receiving a thorough introduction to the works.

Since his first release for Virgin Classics, Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations in 2000, Polish pianist Piotr Anderszewski’s has produced a catalogue which ranges from Bach and Mozart, through more Beethoven to Chopin, Szymanowski and Webern, and which includes several prizewinning recordings.

Peter Davison has composed music scores for Indie Features, the History Channel, A+E, Biography, PBS, Warner Bros., Disney, Universal, Discovery, Gaiam (Yoga/Relaxation music) and others. Over 30 CDs of his music are on Universal/Higher Octave, Gaiam, Davisounds and TSR/Baja. His CDs “Meditate” and “Exhale” were both in the Billboard Top 10 New Age Albums.

This is a very fine sampler of Horowitz's Schumann - surely one of the great interpretative acts of the last century? It is at least one of the greatest - probably the greatest - performance(s) of Kinderszenen around; Horowitz's almost frightening ability to give life to these pieces is inimitable, and the poetic depths and shadows of various nuances he brings to the more reflective pieces is peerless. It is, quite simply, an almost perfect performance. He is no less impressive in the other works either; the Fantasie is beautifully shaped and wonderfully played.