JS Bach's St John Passion is an intensely personal experience, bringing to life the humanity of the passion story. Combining raw viscerality with moments of exquisite intimacy, it was written soon after Bach’s arrival as Kantor at Leipzig’s Thomasschule. Keen to impress a new congregation, Bach produced a setting of the age-old passion story which overshadowed almost every piece of liturgical music the world had previously known. Our recording aims to capture the authenticity and vivacity of the very first Good Friday performance at Leipzig’s Nikolaikirche.

Pianist Llyr Williams explores Wagner s rich and evocative sound-world from a less well-known angle. Featuring insightful arrangements of Richard Wagner s operas by Franz Liszt and Glenn Gould (as well as Williams own arrangement of music from 'Parsifal'), at the centre of the programme is a selection of Wagner s own piano pieces many of which were written earlier in his compositional career, hinting at the grand operatic masterworks which were yet to come.

With the participation of: Denis Pascal, François Leleux, Victor Julien-Laferrière, Gordan Nikolitch, Lise Berthaud, Paul Meyer, Christophe Coin, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Frank Braley, François Salque, Bruno Schneider, Daishin Kashimoto, Antoine Tamestit

‘Symphony No. 49 is of dramatic inspiration, as is the finale of the 39th (with four horns!) in a fairly “Gluckist” style. We are at the beginnings of Sturm und Drang.

The Brentano Quartet delivers the third volume of Beethoven's Late Quartets for Aeon, this disc featuring Opp. 130 and 133. The relation between form and language seems to haunt all the writing of his Quartet in B flat major. Indeed, the composer struggles with the enigmatic question of our intimate experience in relation to music and the sense of musical composition. On the other hand, in the Grosse Fuge, op.133, Beethoven the visionary proclaims his unshakeable faith in a world like a will facing menace and chaos.

Lady Gaga's debut album, released in October 2008, reinvigorated the music industry by racking up worldwide sales of over 15 million copies, earning six Grammy Award nominations with one win and spawning three top five singles. Among the Grammy nominations was her first of three in a row for Album of the Year, a feat not seen since the Beatles. This edition includes the bonus track Disco Heaven.