The most famous, the most performed, the most thrilling, and the most recorded opera cycle in music history. Filmed at the world-famous Metropolitan Opera House in New York, in high definition – the award winning Robert Lepage production. Featuring Bryn Terfel as Wotan – universally recognized as the finest bass-baritone – and Wotan – of his generation. Also starring Deborah Voigt as Brunnhilde, and star tenor Jonas Kaufmann as Siegmund.

The works on this recording range from Danzig (now Gdansk) by way of Güstrow, Hamburg and Gottorf to Copenhagen and Stockholm. Born in the early 17th century, the choirmasters and Kapellmeisters of the Lutheran churches and courts of the North had ideal working conditions. They were greatly indebted to a composer from the preceding generation, Heinrich Schütz. His activities as a teacher, and the sheer volume of his published works, exercised a decisive influence upon his students and emulators. From the beginning, singing meant language and life, religion and emotion for Beat Duddeck. Through singing on concert tours all over the world and more than 100 CD productions with various early music ensembles, he found not only his profession, but also family and friends. This CD, too, is intended to reflect this to some extent, and its intimacy is a matter close to my heart.

M.​ Hengelbrock in KLASSIK heute: "Es ist dieser Facettenreichtum, den Hermann Max in jeder seiner Tele- mann-Einspielungen gut herausarbeitet.​ Seine Inter- pretationen meiden jedwede Plakativität, ohne undeut- lich oder gar indifferent zu sein.​"

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.

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.

"Never was there a more complete triumph - never a more thorough and speedy recognition of a great work of art." This was the response of the critic in the London Times to the wildly successful premiere of Felix Mendelssohn's Elias in 1846. Hans-Christoph Rademann began his tenure as Principal Conductor of the RIAS Chamber Choir with this groundbreaking oratorio. After eight productive and successful years, his final concert in July 2015 also featured the work.

Gregor Werner (1695-1766) began directing the fortunes of the Esterházy court band, the Hofkapelle, on 10 May 1728. He was an industrious man. Forty Masses, three Requiems, three Te Deums, four Offertories, twelve Vespers, twelve Good Friday oratorios, approximately eighteen oratorios, a hundred and thirty-three antiphons and a multitude of instrumental pieces and minor works testify to his fertile creative spirit.

Barthold Heinrich Brockes’ text for the passion oratorio, later named after him, is among the best-known Passion librettos of the early 18th century. This version is the first recording on CD of the work based on the copy made by J S Bach himself. It is distinguished from the better-known version by a different text for the opening chorus.

Richard Wagner began composing his Wesendonck Lieder during a stay in Zurich between November and December 1857. Originally conceived for female voice and piano alone, the five songs were later orchestrated, first by the Austrian conductor and composer Felix Mottl in 1893, and then later in 1976 by the German composer Hans Werner Henze, in a chamber setting. In fact Wagner had already orchestrated a version of "Träume” to be performed by chamber orchestra (with violin playing the voice part) on the occasion of his wife Minna’s birthday in 1857. Later, in 1870, for his second wife Cosima’s 33rd birthday, he enacted a similar gesture. Mixing new motifs with themes from his Ring cycle, he composed the Siegfried Idyll and had it performed by a small orchestra as a birthday surprise.

Blutengel (German: Blood Angel) (stylized as BlutEngel) are a German futurepop musical group formed by singer Chris Pohl (also of the groups Terminal Choice, Tumor, and Miss Construction and the owner of the Fear Section label) after he had to leave Seelenkrank due to contractual and legal problems…

This production of Richard Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” was recorded during the Deutsche Oper Berlin’s great tour to Japan in 1993. Directed by Götz Friedrich and conducted by Jiří Kout, this interpretation of the adulterous love between the Cornish knight Tristan and the Irish princess Isolde was a great success. Wagner’s composition of “Tristan und Isolde” was inspired by his love affair with Mathilde Wesendonck and the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer.

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.