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Bach’s Six Partitas are much-played masterpieces of the keyboard repertoire, and have been interpreted by countless outstanding performers. The listener assumes that a musician will only take the courage to make this two-and-a-half hour recording if he or she not only has a complete command of the music, but also has something unique to say about it. And Martin Helmchen, famously at home on modern pianos and in 19th century German piano literature, fullfils this expectation and plays the historic instrument and Bach’s music with impressive confidence and sensitivity.

The young Turkish pianist Can Çakmur has been awarded in the Solo Instrument category of this year’s ICMA Awards for his successful BIS-labelled CD recording of Schubert’s and Krenek’s solo pieces. In addition to giving concerts from China and Japan to England, Can Çakmur, who has been running from success to success in his career recently, has released Schubert recordings with BIS, all of which have made a great impression. He thus achieves a rare success in the history of ICMA: having received the Young Artist of the Year Award in 2021 and the Solo Instrument of the Year Award for his first CD recording in 2020, Çakmur now wins the ICMA Awards jury’s appreciation for the third time in five years with his third recording from the Schubert+ series.

John Adams masterfully connected his interest in composing for large symphonic forces with the American culture of the mid-20th century. The jazzy inspiration for City Noir comes from Kevin Starr’s books, and for Fearful Symmetries from the poem The Tyger by William Blake. Lola Montez Does the Spider Dance was created for and dedicated to Marin Alsop to celebrate her 25 years of activity at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz. The music is most effective in Marin Alsop’s outstanding interpretations, and the Vienna RSO once again does its best to play this music brilliantly and excitingly.

It's never easy to revisit the approach to great musical masterpieces marked by so many scenic and musical traditions! But this video of the Bavarian State Opera’s production of Johann Strauss's famous Die Fledermaus revisits this operetta scenically and musically. This production is yet another example of the artistic success of the Bavarian State Opera under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski.

Since his complete recording of all Haydn symphonies with the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra, Adam Fischer has been considered a renowned Haydn expert. Yet, in his new Naxos recording of the late symphonies with the Danish Chamber Orchestra he surpasses all expectations. With an exceptional degree of rhetoric and a refined sense of humour, Adam Fischer pushes Haydn’s mischievousness to its peak now and then, and produces some aftershocks. This is exactly what one would ideally imagine a Haydn performance, indescribably well done, and absolutely essential!