Brilliant Classics

When, nearly 30 years since its release, a review of a reissue of Karajan's recording of Der Rosenkavalier opens with the words 'It really does triumph over them all -- even the outstanding 1969 Solti/Decca...' (Gramophone, 1988) you know that you are about to listen to something extraordinary. Central to this recording's enduring success is...

Beethoven's piano concertos are cornerstones of the keyboard repertoire, and yet in their time they formed the subject of much cynical debate: the sounds that we are today adjusted to were difficult for the ears of concert-goers then, and any unexpected turns in the music were deemed whimsical and purposefully audacious. Today we appreciate them as...

The most famous scion of a musical family which stretched across at least ten generations, Johann Sebastian Bach had a very strong sense of history, tradition, and his evolving place in it, and was instrumental in curating and adding to the library of the music of the Bachs, which was known as the Altbachisches Archiv. This archive mostly comprises...

The music of late-romantic Viennese composer Franz Schreker was largely forgotten by the end of World War Two, but there has recently been a revival in interest in his work. Fundamentally a theatre composer, he is most famous for his operas, but he composed in other genres and this 2-CD set shows his fine capabilities in orchestral and vocal...

Giacomo Carissimi may not exactly be a household name, but during his time he was one of the most respected musicians in Europe. Born in 1605, he avoided becoming a cooper, unlike the rest of his family, cultivating his musical talent first as a singer, then organist, and eventually chapel master. He enjoyed a succession of positions at various...

Norbert Burgmüller may have died at the tender age of 26, but during his short life he authored a significant number of works that have earned him a place among the foremost composers of the early 1800s. Among his admirers were Schumann and Mendelssohn, the former commenting on how, 'following Franz Schubert's death premature death, nothing could...