The celebrated violinist Francesca Dego is joined by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and her regular collaborator Dalia Stasevska for this recording of the violin concertos by Brahms and Busoni. A cornerstone of the repertoire, Brahms’s Concerto dates from 1878, a year after the Second Symphony, and was composed for (and dedicated to) the virtuoso Joseph Joachim. The Concerto takes the standard three-movement form, and as in Beethoven’s Concerto (considered by many as Brahms’s inspiration for the work) the first movement is significant in its length and its complexity.

His complete set of the Beethoven sonatas enjoyed extraordinary acclaim in the UK, culminating in the prestigious ‘Recording of the Year' award from Gramophone magazine for the fourth volume in 2008. Encouraged by what has now become a worldwide success, Paul Lewis has chosen to turn his attention to the five piano concertos with these distinguished partners.

The three works on this album were all composed between 1943 and 1953. Despite the extreme experiences and difficulties she faced during this undoubtedly most tragic time in Poland’s history, Grażyna Bacewicz managed to compose outstanding works which constitute splendid testimony to the vibrant creative potency for which she was renowned.

Sargent was a noted Sibelian. He recorded three of Sibelius’s seven symphonies for EMI and was slated to complete the cycle but the project was cancelled after Sibelius’s death. He was also honoured with the Knight Commander of the White Rose of Finland for his services to Sibelius’s music.

Public Service Broadcasting release This New Noise, the newly remixed and remastered live recording of their acclaimed 2022 BBC Proms show at London’s Royal Albert Hall, via Test Card Recordings.

For over 100 years the only opera by a woman to have been performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Der Wald
is a taut, brooding drama where the simplicity of village life comes under threat from the uncontrollable desires unleashed by the darkness of the forest.Richly orchestrated, harmonically daring, and demanding a huge expressive range from the cast, the narrative drives relentlessly forward from wedding to tragedy in a single act, observed pitilessly by the eternal spirits of the forest.John Andrews conducts the BBC Singers, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and an international cast in the first ever recording of this work, using Smyth's English version of the libretto.

Over the course of almost 10 years, Yevgeny Sudbin has been recording Sergei Rachmaninov's works for piano and orchestra. Reviewers remarked on the soloists transcendental virtuosity and kaleidoscopic keyboard colour (BBC Music Magazine) and enjoyed piano-playing with depth of tone, subtlety and richness of texture, and scintillating dynamism allied to acute lyrical sensibility (Gramophone). The grand finale of Sudbin's Rachmaninov cycle combines the two best-loved concertos No. 2 in C minor and No. 3 in D minor but it also constitutes a home-coming of a kind, as it was recorded in London, Yevgeny Sudbins base since 1997. For his partners in these monumental and almost iconic concertos, Sudbin has chosen the BBC Symphony Orchestra and its chief conductor Sakari Oramo.

One of the most versatile trumpeters in the classical world, Simon Höfele, releases a new album “Nobody Knows” together with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Geoffrey Paterson and Ilan Volkov. On his 4th album on Berlin Classics he plays the trumpet concertos by Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Christian Jost and Toshio Hosokawa, spanning an arc from the 20th to the 21st century and proves once again that the trumpet can do more than just "shine".

Two late, great Vaughan Williams symphonies: with the ‘Antartica’ and No 9, Martyn Brabbins and his BBC forces complete a cycle enthusiastically acclaimed by Radio 3 Record Review as ‘unmissable’.

After his symphonic poem Má vlast, Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, is arguably his most popular work. This recording, issued by Harmonia Mundi, is taken from a live concert performance at The Barbican in May 2011, and leaves one in no doubt as to why Jirí Belohlávek has made the Czech repertoire such a splendid calling card during his tenure as Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Miniatures and large forms.The work of a young musician of 25, the celebrated Concerto of Grieg combines the great Romantic tradition (Liszt was one of its most fervent admirers) and Norwegian folk music, with the halling and springdans of its thrilling finale. Yet the composer never wrote another, for he felt more comfortable writing in miniature forms. In 35 years he produced no fewer than 66 Lyric Pieces, every one a gem, from the truculent March of the Trolls to the poetic meditations of Homesickness and Remembrances.

The Czech maestro Jirí Belohlávek performs works by his countryman Josef Suk, conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra, with whom he is their Chief Conductor.

The exclusive Chandos artist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet is a master of this repertoire. This is his second concerto recording for the label, after his survey of the complete piano concertos by Bartók (CHAN 10610) which was released in September to high acclaim and voted ‘Orchestral Choice of the Month’ by the magazine BBC Music. Bavouzet’s complete recording of the piano music by Debussy also scooped awards from BBC Music and Gramophone, which wrote: ‘This could well be the finest and most challenging of all Debussy piano cycles.’