The fame and legacy of Maria Callas are nearly unsurpassed in the modern history of opera. Her fame has transcended the usual boundaries of classical music, and she has been the inspiration for several movies as well as the successful Broadway play "Master Class." Her extensive catalogue of recordings remains among the most coveted and controversial for both her fans and detractors. Though American by birth, Callas (born Maria Anne Sofia Cecilia Kalogeropoulos) was born of Greek parents, and at age 13 her mother took her back to Greece because of financial difficulties caused by the Great Depression.

The character of Gioconda is one of the most tragic in the whole history of Italian opera: an altruistic cantatrice who sacrifices everything, to the death, to secure the escape of the man she loves with her rival. Who was better suited than Maria Callas to assume such a role? La Gioconda, the only opera by Ponchielli that has not fallen into neglect, is a stunning transitional work between Verdian romanticism and verismo. La Divina particularly liked this opera.

Sarah Jégou-Sageman se forme à Paris puis à Berlin auprès de Boris Garlitsky et Philippe Graffin. Dès octobre 2022, grâce au soutien de la Fondation Safran et de la Fondation Gautier Capuçon, elle poursuit sa formation dans la classe de Mihaela Martin au sein de la prestigieuse Kronberg Akademie.Lauréate de plusieurs concours internationaux – dont le deuxième prix du concours Ginette Neveu en 2017 – elle reçoit les conseils de musiciens de renom, notamment Daniel Barenboïm et Leonidas Kavakos. Elle se produit régulièrement en France et en Europe dans des salles prestigieuses, notamment à la Fondation Louis Vuitton à Paris et au Victoria Hall de Genève en quatuor avec l’académie Seji Ozawa.

Dong Hyek Lim arrived on the scene at just 18 years old ‘in a blaze of pianistic glory’ (Gramophone) with a debut album championed by his mentor Martha Argerich. The South Korean virtuoso went on to take third prize in the 15th International Chopin Piano Competition. Ten years later, following studies with Emmanuel Ax at the Juilliard School in New York, his artistry has matured and deepened for this long-awaited recital of the 24 Preludes and other works by Chopin – a composer who remains especially close to his heart.

Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre was a virtuoso harpsichordist, as well as the author of many pioneering works. She left an abundant output of cantatas, both secular and sacred. Here the soprano Maïlys de Villoutreys, Héloise Gaillard and her Ensemble Amarillis pay tribute to her with the cantatas Judith and Sémélé, inspired by two women, who embody virtue and courage on the one hand, temerity and pride on the other. Whether intimate or more operatic, both works highlight the composer’s innate sense of drama.

Soprano Fatma Said racked up prestigious prizes during her training years and became the first Egyptian singer to perform at Italy's La Scala opera house. She was signed to the major Warner Classics label in 2019. Said was born in Cairo in 1991. Her father, Ahmed Hassan Said, was an Egyptian opposition politician. Said attended a German school operated by the Sisters of Mercy of St. Borromeo, a Catholic organization, and then she began taking voice lessons with Neveen Allouba at the Cairo Opera House and immediately showed talent, appearing at a Christmas concert just three months later.

Fresko aus Vogelgesang und Orgelregistern: Pianist Bertrand Chamayou spielt Messiaens Vingt Regards ein „Es ist wie ein gigantisches Fresko, eine Art Odyssee. Wie ich finde, umfasst das Werk – mehr noch als irgendein anderes von ihm – den unermesslichen Reichtum seiner musikalischen Sprache“, beschreibt Bertrand Chamayou das Klavierwerk Vingt Regards sur lʼEnfant-Jésus von Olivier Messiaen. Der Pianist ehrt die Komposition dieses französischen Klangmystikers nun, indem er sie ins Zentrum seines neuen Albums stellt, umrahmt von musikalischen Hommagen anderer Komponisten, darunter Tombeau de Messiaen von Jonathan Harvey und das doppelbödig kristallreine Cloches d’adieu, et un sourire… in memoriam Olivier Messiaen von Tristan Murail.

Deux symphonies datant des turbulentes années 1930 sont juxtaposées dans la deuxième publication de Lahav Shani chez Warner Classics en tant que chef d'orchestre principal de l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Rotterdam. Lahav Shani décrit la Symphonie n° 2 de Kurt Weill, créée par Bruno Walter à Amsterdam en 1933, comme "l'une de mes pièces préférées à diriger… C'est une musique tonale, très mélodique, très théâtrale, qui n'est en réalité comparable à rien d'autre". La puissante Symphonie n° 5 de Chostakovitch, avec son jeu énigmatique de sincérité et d'ironie, avait été choisie par Shani pour conclure son concert inaugural en tant que directeur musical à Rotterdam en 2018.

A fierce advocate of contemporary British music, John Barbirolli was close to Ralph Vaughan Williams, who dedicated him some of his compositions. We can hear in this digital premiere the famous Greensleeves Fantasia and the rare variations on the folk tune Dives and Lazarus, that Vaughan Williams collected and arranged as part of his ethnomusicological activities.

"The Austrian conductor Karl Böhm is one of the towering conductors of the 20th Century. As the embodiment of the long Austro-German musical tradition, he helped to write musical history. This 19-CD set assembles all the extant recordings he conducted for EMI (notably its German Electrola label) over the period 1935 to 1949 in Dresden, Berlin, Vienna and London includes a number of rarities and the world premiere release of a version of Mozart’s Serenata notturna recorded in Vienna in 1947. It was during these years that Böhm cemented his reputation as a major conductor of Austro-German repertoire. Collectors will also be pleased to know that this set contains all the recordings that featured in the now-iconic series of Dresden-themed LP boxes released by EMI to mark Böhm’s 85th birthday in 1979. "

The insert-note here relates the remarkable story that Barbirolli, stepping off the boat-train at 11 o'clock one morning in 1935 after a visit abroad, was told that at 2 o'clock he was to record Vieuxtemps's Concerto No. 4 a work he had never even heard, let alone seen with Heifetz. Using a score "so yellow with age that the pages crumbled" as they were turned, the work was nevertheless recorded in a single session a tribute not only to Barbirolli's professionalism and skill but also to Heifetz's confidence in the conductor (then aged 36, two years older than himself), having already recorded concertos by Glazunov and Mozart with him, as the most able of accompanists.

Carlo Maria Giulini was born in Barletta, Southern Italy in May 1914 with what appears to have been an instinctive love of music. As the town band rehearsed he could be seen peering through the ironwork of the balcony of his parents’ home, immovable and intent. The itinerant fiddlers who roamed the countryside during the lean years of the First World War also caught his ear. In 1919, the family moved to the South Tyrol, where the five-year-old Carlo asked his parents for "one of those things the street musicians play". Signor Giulini acquired a three-quarter size violin, setting in train a process which would take his son from private lessons with a kindly nun to violin studies with Remy Principe at Rome’s Academy of St Cecilia at the age of 16.

The album features two string quartets which thematically deal with the subject of death. Schubert’s Death and the Maiden, No. 14 in D Minor, a key piece in chamber music repertoire, dates from 1824. Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 6 in F Minor, Op. 80 was composed in 1847. He composed the piece as an homage to his beloved sister Fanny who had died on 17 May 1847 and it bore the title "Requiem for Fanny". vision string quartet have won awards in numerous competitions, have studied with members of the Artemis Quartet and the Alban Berg Quartet. They are known for their excellent interpretations AND for their innovative concert formats, working with choreographers, light designers, etc.

The first album of our new collaboration with ONTC, Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse, and their Ossetian musical director, Tugan Sokhiev, features Shostakovich’s 8th symphony: an “opera for the Orchestra” composed with an unheard dramatic power. ONTC world famous for their work on French repertoire, is opening up to new horizons under the influence of their Ossetian chief conductor, Tugan Sokhiev. The 15 symphonies of the soviet composer are a major common theme throughout the seasons for the ONTC & Tugan Sokhiev. Tugan Sokhiev was one of the lasts students of the conductor and excellent pedagogue, Ilya Musin, who was one of the first conductors to conduct Symphony n° 7 « Leningrad » ( Ilya Musin also trained a generation of Russian chefs like Valery Gergiev, Teodor Currentzis, Yuri Terminakov).

Legendary Italian conductor Carlo Maria Giulini leads the Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus in this stunning performance of Verdi's late and contemplatvie work, "Four Sacred Peaces".