For her Deutsche Grammophon debut, this rising star has chosen the Beethoven, the most musically demanding of all violin concertos, as the centrepiece. Recorded live at Vienna's prestigious Musikverein María has composed her own cadenzas for the violin concerto. The album also includes works by Kreisler, Saint-Saëns, Spohr, Wieniawski and Ysaÿe, as well as the Beethoven cadenzas by the same composers.

Eldbjørg Hemsing has been a household name in her native Norway since childhood and made her solo debut with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 11. During and after her studies in Vienna, she has absorbed repertoire ranging from Beethoven to Tan Dun, a composer she has collaborated with on several projects in both Europe and Asia. The present disc marks Eldbjørg Hemsing s first appearance on BIS, and is also her début CD. For the occasion she has chosen to highlight an all but forgotten work by a countryman, Harald Borgström. Like Grieg in the preceding generation, and indeed like many Nordic composers in the late nineteenth century, Borgström went to Germany to study. However, in contrast to Grieg who returned from Germany firmly resolved to carve out an authentic, Norwegian idiom, Borgström came back a staunch proponent of new German symphonic music.

Some ten years probably separates the composition of the Missa in honorem Beatissimae Virginis Mariae (c. 1768) from the Missa brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo (c 1777–8). Because of the virtuoso role of the organ in each work the former has become known as the ''Great Organ Mass'' and the latter as the ''Little Organ Mass''. 'Great' and 'Little' reflect both the size of the orchestras and the scale of each work. Thus the earlier of the two Masses is on an altogether grander scale than the later one. It is scored for a four-part chorus, four soloists (SATB), strings, cors anglais, horns, bassoon and obbligato organ, and in this performance additional trumpet and trombone parts found in one of the work's sources, are included as well. Doubtfully authentic timpani parts are also present.

Haydn’s late masterpiece, The Creation/Die Schöpfung has always existed in two versions, one in English and one in German. Loosely based on Milton’s Paradise Lost version of the creation story, the libretto had actually been offered to Handel, who never got around to setting it. Johann Salomon, the impresario, passed it to Haydn in 1794. Haydn was interested but apparently did not feel confident enough in his English to set the work in its original format.

Bregenzs Tales of Hoffmann is different from everything you saw before. The New York Times praised the thoughtfulness and creativity of Stefan Herheims new production, devised by the director as a search for ones own self in a sparkling drag show. A shining-toned (NYT) Hoffmann is embodied by tenor Daniel Johansson in the title role. He is supported by a fantastic cast: Rachel Frenkel is positively ideal as Muse and Niklausse (Kurier), Kerstin Avemo as Olympia is endowed with brilliant, cheekily extemporized coloraturas (Neue Zürcher Zeitung), Michael Volle sings the parts of Lindorf, Coppelius, Dr. Miracle and Dappertutto, the works four villains, with warmth and intensity (NYT) and Mandy Fredrich is a finelyphrased Antonia (Kurier).

Mischa Maisky performs with the Vienna Symphony and Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein in concertos by Haydn and Schumann. “Maisky and his players perform the Haydn with warm, polished energy. His Schumann, with a fairly restrained Bernstein, sometimes overdoes the languishing, but it's beautiful playing, and visually compelling.” (BBC Misic Magazine)

Few violinists could perform with such overwhelmingly beautiful sound, power and absolute technical security.

This 1995 release from Deutsche Grammophon combines two memorable concerto recordings by Sviatoslav Richter. Almost all of Richter's recordings are considered legendary – particularly since he did not like recording in the studio – but these are rightfully so. They were some of the first that were released widely in the west, where he was still something of a new talent in the late '50s-early '60s, although a middle-aged man by then. The Rachmaninov Concerto No. 2 with Stanislaw Wislocki and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra dates from 1959 and was met with high praise from most for its detail and the depth of Richter's knowledgable interpretation. It is not as ardent as most other pianists' readings, but its clarity speaks volumes and can still move the listener.

At the age of 27 Peter Sellars was hailed as a wunderkind of the U.S. theater and was already the general manager of the American National Theater in Washington's Kennedy Center. In his productions, Sellars brings out the timelessness and topicality of the works with such naturalness that he arouses interest around the world and stimulates lively discussions as to whether he is brilliantly modernizing the works or brutally maiming them. Besides "Don Giovanni," Sellars has also staged "Le nozze di Figaro" and "Cosi fan tutte" and moved their stories to present-day New York, whereby, however, he invented a new world for each opera.

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.

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.

The performance of the St. Matthew Passion at the 1950 International Bach Festival still carries an enormous reputation. The Wiener Singverein and the Wiener Symphoniker were conducted by Herbert von Karajan. The singers were all said to be among the best of the early postwar period, and Kathleen Ferrier was at the peak of her tragically short career. And even his detractors had to admit that in the immediate postwar period Herbert von Karajan was at his least narcissistic when he was feeling slightly chastened by having picked the losing side and slightly nervous that someone might hold his choice against him. We are gratified that „Andante“ has reissued the performance and thrilled with the excellence of the digital remastering and with the richness of their packaging.

Conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler already enjoyed a worldwide legendary standing during his lifetime - he was considered the German conductor and performances were greeted with rapturous applause. Today, more than 50 years after his death, Wilhelm Furtwangler is still an icon and his work has become an integral part ofthe music scene. But just what makes up this fascination? And what makes his recordings so special? This edition provides the answers.