Since its opening in January 2017, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg has been the cultural landmark of the city. The Latvian organist Iveta Apkalna has made her her new musical home, as Apkalna regularly performs in the Elbphilharmonie as titular organist and knows the spectacular Klais organ in the Great Hall like no other artist. Berlin Classics now presents the world premiere recording of a solo program on the Elbphilharmonie organ with titular organist Iveta Apkalna: "Light & Dark".

Conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, this performance of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) was recorded at concerts in Munich's Herkulessaal on January 25 and 26, 2018, and features Magdalena Kožená and Stuart Skelton. The work is subtitled 'A symphony for tenor, alto (or baritone) voice and orchestra'. It examines the border between two different genres: the Lied, in its extended form as a song cycle, and the symphony.

“the wind blows” is the title of this album with choral music by the rather unique Norwegian composer Alfred Janson. We are talking contemporary music here, but not the gritty kind. Here beautiful melodies blend with modern means of expression; music that has its root in the Norwegian folk music treasure. The composer himself participates with his well-loved melodica and there are several instrumental soloists as well. This is a worthy continuation of the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir’s contribution to the recording of worthwhile music.

'I am not superstitious… Nevertheless, when I started collecting repertoire for this album, which is dedicated to Schubert's 220th anniversary, some works on the disc accidentally appeared to be connected. Schubert's 5th symphony was recorded in Riga just about 200 years after it was composed. Franz was 20 years old when he wrote it. Leonid Desyatnikov's 'Wie der alte Leiermann', for violin and orchestra, which I decided to arrange for the viola especially for this project, was composed 20 years ago for Schubert's 200th anniversary. Spooky…

Philip Glass's 20 Etudes combine the composer's iconic poetics with the demanding pianistic writing which is proper of the virtuoso repertoire. Each Etude possesses its own particular character to interpret as the expression of a particular feeling: a moment in the day or an atmosphere.

Following his first album of North American piano music of 2014 (AUDITE92702), Ulrich Roman Murtfeld now presents a second CD showcasing the boundless wealth of this repertoire. The pieces presented here span 150 years, ranging from sonatas by the British-born American composer Alexander Reinagle, written in 1790, to works by Roger Sessions (written around 1940), one of the most significant representatives of academic American modernism.

Jonathan Nott's exceptional recordings of Gustav Mahler's symphonies are among the most impressive in the hybrid SACD format, and the 2011 release of the Symphony No. 3 in D minor follows suit. This is the longest of Mahler's symphonies, and for many years, recordings of it had been somewhat rare in the marketplace and hit or miss in execution, sometimes succeeding in conveying Mahler's mystical vision, though often succumbing to the difficulties of making such a sprawling work cohere.

For more than 50 years, Mahler's Fifth confounded its listeners. In five disparate movements arranged in three disjunct parts, the Fifth moves from grief to anger to energy to love to joy. The Fifth rushes into climaxes, collapses into silences, hurtles into abysses, and soars into spaces with such unrestrained strength and unreserved emotion that making sense of it all seemed impossible for decades. But once they got it, audiences embraced the Fifth and now, a century after its composition, the Fifth is not only one of Mahler's most popular symphonies, it is one of the most popular of all symphonies.

The release of their critically acclaimed second album 'Night Hours' in 2016 cemented Jimmy Aldridge and Sid Goldsmith's reputation as two of the most exciting musicians and social commentators on the British folk scene. Songs have always taken centre stage with Jimmy and Sid and on 'Many A Thousand' we see the duo flexing not only their vocal and instrumentation skills, but also their talent as composers. Part of what makes this compelling duo tick is a love of traditional folksong and a mutual passion for the history that is carried in the music.

Jonathan Nott continues his very successful Mahler series with Symphony No.2. The soloists are Anne Schwanewilms soprano and Lioba Braun contralto. BBC Music Magazine described Nott’s recording of Mahler’s Symphony No.9 as “a fine achievement in a towering symphony.”

Musicien exceptionnel et compositeur hors pair, le pianiste Jean-Pierre Como contribue avec ardeur au dynamisme de la scène jazz actuelle. Sa nouvelle création Infinite a été conçue comme un dialogue permanent avec ses partenaires.

The trio formed around saxophonist Simon Spiess is celebrating its ten year anniversary with the release of their seventh album „Towards Sun“. Over the past decade the band has developed a unique musical interaction based on the members distinctive individua sound moulded in to one homogeneous entity. The compositions are tailored to the individual personalities of the band members resulting in an invigorating mixture of conceptual work and spontaneity.