I always thought Christa Ludwig was the greatest Brahms singer, but she was until I heard her sing Strauss. Again, I had to assign her a new throne. Then I heard her sing Wagner, and again I experienced the same thing. And when I heard her sing Wagner, and again I experienced the same thing. And when I heard her recently, with her incredible interpretation of the Old Lady in my musical "Candide", I had to give up. She is simply the best! (Leonard Bernstein)

Beatrice Berrut's very internalized and expressive playing interweaves wonderfully with Franz Liszt's late work, which soberly and suggestively at the same time, opened the way to modernity.

Two great artists, pianist András Schiff and composer/clarinettist Jörg Widmann, join forces for the first time on record, performing Brahms’s late masterpieces, the clarinet sonatas op. 120, written in 1894. In between the sonatas Schiff plays Widmann’s evocative Intermezzi for piano. As Jörg Widmann explains in a programme note, these are works inspired by his friendship with András Schiff and by a shared love of Brahms, to whom they pay tribute. The album was recorded at Neumarkt’s Historischer Reitstadel.

22-year-old Elisabeth Waglechner from Vienna wins not only the 1st prize but also the audience and special prize in the piano category.

Beethoven is everywhere - especially in Vienna. He composed all of his masterpieces here, 1 opera, 5 piano concertos, 9 symphonies, 32 piano sonatas, and much more and thereby cemented Vienna’s position as the musical centre of Europe. Today, Beethoven is the most frequently played composer in the world and his Ninth Symphony is the most frequently performed work worldwide. He led music of the Viennese Classical era to its highest degree of development and paved the way toward Romanticism in music.

For his 250th birthday, Bösendorfer honours this great composer with a Limited Edition Grand Piano.

„Reload“ ist ein Schmelztiegel unterschiedlicher musikalischer Identitäten, ein Schatz umfangreicher, gesammelter Lebenserfahrungen – und eines der eindrucksvollsten und emotionalsten Alben unserer Zeit.

This album is a magical realm of sound colours. With the two Frenchmen Francois Couperin and Olivier Messiaen, Louisa Imorde has chosen composers for whom the very qualities of colour in music were important. One of the most exciting piano albums of recent months.

No less than 85 minutes of pure beauty on one CD. You just can't get enough of it. (opusklassik.nl / Aart van der Wal)

"What Swiss pianist Melodie Zhao and Howard Griffiths present here is sensationally good. Spirited, virtuosic, exceedingly vividly articulated, they serve up these concertos often misunderstood as inconsequential early works." (Fono Forum 04/ 2021)