What begins like a fairy-tale turns into a whimsical fantasy halfway between magic farce and Masonic mysticism: The Magic Flute links a love story with the great questions of the Enlightenment, juxtaposes bird-catcher charm with queenly vengeance, and bewitches the listener with music that mixes cheerful melodies, lovers’ arias, show-stopping coloraturas and mysterious chorales.

For all the lovely recordings of the Mozart Requiem, KV 626 - and there are many fine ones that run the gamut of 'authoritative/authentic' performances to richly robust and romantic versions that ring the halls with operatic grandeur - this 1995 recording with William Christie conducting Les Arts Florissantes is one that is so richly rewarding to return to for its delicate yet soulful sincerity. The instruments are in keeping with the instruments of Mozart's time, and the choral technique is more straight toned than other more modern choruses. The soloists - Anna Maria Panzarella, soprano, Nathalie Stutzmann, alto, Christoph Pregardien, tenor, and Nathan Berg, bass - are all excellent, both as individuals and in quartet and combinations.

After their acclaimed recording of Telemann’s Miriways, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin returns to PENTATONE with Joseph Haydn’s opera L’isola disabitata, together with an excellent quartet of vocalists. Officially called an azione teatrale, L’isola is a serious opera about love, loss and misunderstanding with a happy ending, set on an exotic deserted island. Special about this opera is that Haydn chose orchestral accompaniment for the entire work, with colourful and dramatic accompagnato recitatives. In Haydn’s printed score, many of the elaborate instrumental sections were deliberately cut, because he feared that they demanded too much from the players, and that some audiences may not have been cultured enough to fully appreciate them. Special about this recording is that these parts have all been reinstated, using a recent edition by Thomas Busse. The seasoned players of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, led by Bernhard Forck, play this lavish score with fervour and swing, while Anett Fritsch (Costanza), Sunhae Im (Silvia), Krystian Adam (Gernando) and André Morsch (Enrico) offer an equally virtuosic vocal delivery.

Meditation, mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca's 2014 release on Deutsche Grammophon, is an album of serene vocal and choral works that express religious feelings with an operatic touch and showcase the Latvian singer's warm and radiant voice. Choosing pieces from the early Baroque era to contemporary works, Garanca presents a soothing program that is consistent in its comforting tone and gentle treatment, though as a purely musical consideration, it tends to flow a bit too evenly and predictably. Insofar as the selections represent the Christian tradition, including settings of the Ave Maria, the Salve Regina, the Sanctus, the Agnus Dei, and the Regina Coeli, the character of the collection admits little variety, except for the general alternation between penitential and quietly ecstatic moods.

Even before Simon Rattle gave his debut concert as head of the Berliner Philharmoniker, he made headlines with another world-class orchestra: It was the cycle of nine Beethoven symphonies that he conducted with the Vienna Philharmonic in Tokyo, Berlin and - of course - Vienna. Back in May 2002, Rattle set standards with the most traditional orchestral repertoire of all. The live recording was released in March 2003. This cycle, which is now being re-released in the budget segment, is still regarded as the reference recording of the new millennium.

Even before Simon Rattle gave his debut concert as head of the Berliner Philharmoniker, he made headlines with another world-class orchestra: It was the cycle of nine Beethoven symphonies that he conducted with the Vienna Philharmonic in Tokyo, Berlin and - of course - Vienna. Back in May 2002, Rattle set standards with the most traditional orchestral repertoire of all. The live recording was released in March 2003. This cycle, which is now being re-released in the budget segment, is still regarded as the reference recording of the new millennium.

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.

Raimondi has advantages: the dark coloring of his voice, the vocal menace, the power of his bass." The three ladies - especially the Te Kanawa has become livelier, more insistent - Maazel has the singers and Mozart firmly in hand.

– Hermes Lexikon

The closing disc in London Baroque’s survey of the rise and fall of the trio sonata takes us to 18th-century Germany, and includes works by no less than two Johann Gottliebs: Johann Gottlieb Goldberg – who rose to posthumous fame by being associated with J.S. Bach’s celebrated set of variations – and his namesake Johann Gottlieb Graun, violinist and composer at the court of Frederick the Great. Next to them in the list of contents are also more familiar names, such as Graun’s colleague at the Prussian court, C.P.E. Bach, and the ubiquitous G.Ph. Telemann, here represented with an unusually scored trio for violin, gamba and basso continuo. The programme straddles the divide between late Baroque and Classical music, and several of the included works point clearly at what was to come.

Friedrich Kuhlau (1786 - 1832) lived and worked during a transitional period of classical music. A contemporary of Beethoven and Schubert, his works remain almost unknown to this day, except for some compositions for the flute.

Believed to have been composed between August 1775 and January 1777, the Concerto In E Flat Major for two pianos technically counts as being the tenth of Mozart's twenty-seven concertos, that huge and prodigious body that would set the standards for all piano concertos from Mozart's time forward. Although it is not performed with the same frequency as his later works (especially the final eight concertos, 20-27), this "Double" piano concerto, believed to have been composed by Mozart for performance by him and his sister Maria Anna ("Nannerl"), is nevertheless a fascinating experiment of Mozart's, one that requires a pair of solid keyboard virtuosos to do (and for the composer's Seventh piano concerto, you needed three soloists).

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.

Of the two oratorios Haydn wrote in his old age The Creation is the more dramatic and immediate while The Seasons is more idyllic. It’s also a good deal longer, which to some extent explains why The Creation is regularly performed while its country cousin is a comparatively rare visitor to the concert hall. There is no denying that the later work contains a lot of good music and has a more folksy character; Austrian folk music is never far away. It is also has a more leisurely pace with long stretches of admittedly beautiful but slow and restrained music. There are moments of drama also, for example the end of part II, Summer (CD1 tracks 16 – 18), where in the recitative the soloists build up the tension.

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.

Sing-Übung is the name given by Michael Massong to his debut recital on MDG, and the title contains a program: lyrical pieces, in large part especially arranged for this CD, display a vocal quality of trombone playing that is without its equal. The selection of works also holds some surprises in store: Rachmaninov's famous "Vocalise," the fine emotion of Carl Maria von Weber's "Romanze," and Franz Liszt's Romance oubliée," in which Michael Massong teases previously unheard-of vocal expressive depth out of his instrument. The prizewinning horn player Premysl Vojta performs the duo part in "Singübung," the title work by Franz Schubert, and in the four duets by Johannes Brahms.