There have been a number of outstanding recordings of the Dvorák Concerto since this DG record was made, but none to match it for the warmth of lyrical feeling, the sheer strength of personality of the cello playing and the distinction of the partnership between Karajan and Rostropovich. Any moments of romantic licence from the latter, who's obviously deeply in love with the music, are set against Karajan's overall grip on the proceedings. The orchestral playing is superb.

Wow! This is music making on a cosmic scale. You may hear some jaded critic offer up the following generic comment about this release: "These three players, gathered together for only the second time, naturally can't equal the subtle give and take of more established chamber ensembles." Bull. All three artists rank among the most inspirational and experienced chamber players of our time, and here they set the notes on fire in performances of shattering intensity, improvisational spontaneity, and (in the Tchaikovsky) Herculean grandeur. Argerich's performance of the concerto-like piano part of the Tchaikovsky Trio is especially impressive; she seems to know instinctively when to dominate the proceedings and when to let her partners take over; and the final "Theme and Variations"–a huge movement half an hour in length–seldom has sounded so cohesive and meaningful. As to the Shostakovich, well, what can I say? This is one of the most profoundly moving experiences in music, and how well this trio knows it! The three players find the perfect tempo for the third movement Passacaglia, then build the tragic finale as inexorably as fate itself.

Eugene Istomin (1925–2003), one of America’s most respected pianists, was highly esteemed by audiences and colleagues alike for his mindful virtuosity and unusually wide-ranging repertoire. 2015 marks Istomin’s 90th birthday year, a milestone that Sony Classical celebrates with the first-ever release of his complete Columbia Masterworks concerto and solo recordings in a limited original-jacket collection including 10 previously unreleased studio recordings. Many of these performances appear in their first authorized CD editions, including the 19-year-old pianist’s recorded debut in Bach’s D minor Concerto led by Adolf Busch; his youthful concerto collaborations with Pablo Casals; Chopin’s complete Nocturnes; Brahms’s Handel Variations; Schubert’s D major D 850 Sonata, plus the long-out-of-print Rachmaninoff 2nd, Tchaikovsky 1st, Brahms 2nd, and Beethoven 4th and 5th (“Emperor”) Concertos with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Newly remastered from the original analogue tapes, the discs are presented in facsimile sleeves and labels corresponding to the original LP releases. An enclosed booklet offers full discographical information, an essay by Jed Distler, and a photographic retrospective.

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.

This compilation covers 20 years of live recordings made by conductor Yevgeny Mravinsky and the then-named Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra for Erato. Mravinsky led that orchestra for nearly 50 years, from 1938 until his death. His last recording was that of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 12, made in 1984, found on Disc 3 here. His interpretations of Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky were highly regarded, so it's not surprising that several of their symphonies are here. There are also symphonies by Mozart and Beethoven in this set; tone poems by Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky; and orchestral excerpts from operas by Wagner, Glinka, and Glazunov. The final disc contains a rare recording of a rehearsal led by Mravinsky, something few outsiders were ever allowed to witness. Even though he was an elder statesman of Russian music at the time of these recordings, there is still precision and energy in his interpretations.

A superstar in her homeland and in high demand worldwide as a soloist, South Korean violinist, Bomsori Kim, presents her solo debut on Deutsche Grammophon. Violin On Stage includes works written for or inspired by opera and ballet. Recorded in December 2020 at the state-of-the-art National Forum of Music in Wroclaw and performed with the NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic and its music director, Giancarlo Guerrero, the album captures the close bond Bomsori feels with Poland, its music, and musicians.

There are few rivals to match the dizzying ambition of Hyperon’s Romantic Piano Concerto series—in fact, few rivals in classical recording’s entire history. The ambition—to unearth, record and present the great romantic piano concertos of yesteryear—was vast, almost gothic in scale. The series runs to 235 works, 185 of them classified as piano concertos. For dedication, contributions to scholarship and enterprise it breaks all bounds.

This fabulous five disc set is replete with some of those old Stokowski warhorses all recorded in absolutely mind boggling Phase 4 sound, overblown perhaps but astounding for its time. Decca's remastering is absolutely magnificent and the discs are jam packed with almost six hours of music. This is another fine memorial to a great conductor who remained astonishingly vital until the very end of his life.

Diese CD bietet eine breite Palette russischer Komponisten, die in der Tradition orthodoxer Kirchenmusik komponierten. Sie reicht von Michail Glinka, Peter Tschaikowsky, Sergej Tanejew und Sergej Rachmaninoff bis zu Alfred Schnittke und Sofia Gubaidulina, von romantisch-expressiven Vertonungen bis zu den expressiven Klängen der beiden neueren Komponisten.

Blind Japanese star pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii announces his upcoming second DG album, on which he dedicates himself to the most emotionally powerful soundscapes of Russian Romanticism.

Star-pianist Daniil Trifonov releases his new album Tchaikovsky. On it, he presents a beautiful selection of the iconic composer’s solo works that reflect him at his most intimate and private.

Shortly after recording these three ballet suites in 1978, Mstislav Rostropovich likened conducting the Berlin Philharmonic to driving a locomotive. You get on, and you go where it takes you, he said–but in this case, the orchestra went where he wanted it to go. The playing is magnificent, but it is the characterization, the things Rostropovich gets the players to do that they wouldn't otherwise have done, that makes these accounts so memorable. As you listen, you are transported to a different world, for no conductor understands Tchaikovsky's soul better than Rostropovich. The delicacy is amazing, the power overwhelming; the analog recording captures it all in outstanding fashion.

This is the debut album of Benjamin Bernheim, signed to the Deutsche Grammophon after several sensational appearances with major opera companies. Like many other debuts, it mixes French and Italian arias, with an odd Tchaikovsky item thrown in, but pay attention, and it will be apparent that Bernheim is a cut above. Raised in Switzerland, he has perhaps a natural way with both French and Italian music. You get the feeling, though, that Bernheim could sing almost anything and make it convincing. His voice is not big, but it has many shades, and he falls easily into the grooves of Massenet and Verdi without seeming to shift gears in any way.

That Martha Argerich is a powerhouse with heart is not a problem, it's a delight; that she can occasionally be rambunctious and a bit careless, on the other hand, can be a problem. On this recording, happily, the pluses are very much in evidence and the minuses nonexistent. She plays the Tchaikovsky with absolute abandon joined with a technical assuredness that is thrilling, and the fact that she gets through it almost error-free makes the breakneck experience all the more rewarding. The Schumann Concerto is hardly in the same league as the Tchaikovsky, but Argerich makes a superb case for it.

The combination of Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 50, with Anton Arensky's Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 32, is a common one, for the two works were both written as memorials to instrumentalists. Good recordings in the stereo era go back to one recorded by Yefim Bronfman, Cho-Liang Lin, and Gary Hoffman on Sony some years ago, but the present release can stand with such classics. The two trios share an unusual mix of passionate virtuosity and elegiac quality, as if to remember the powers of the deceased player. Tchaikovsky's trio is a massive work, clocking in at well over 40 minutes even at the brisk tempos at which it is taken here.