This recording commemorates the 50th anniversary of Joaquín Achúcarro’s debut with the London Symphony Orchestra after winning the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic International Competition in 1959. Recorded at Jerwood Hall, St Luke’s, London, with Britain’s eminent conductor Colin Davis at the helm, Achúcarro delivers a consummate performance that brilliantly expresses his delicate and passionate style. Extra features include a substantial documentary about Achúcarro’s career and performances of solo piano pieces by Brahms, Chopin, Scriabin and Albéniz filmed in the beautiful setting of the Prado museum, Madrid.

Brahms – Piano Concerto No.2 in B-flat major

Joaquín Achúcarro
London Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Colin Davis

Recorded live at Jerwood Hall, St Luke’s, London, May 2009.

Lotfi Mansouri’s spectacular last production as General Director of San Francisco Opera with Yvonne Kenny making her debut in the title role, new dialogue specially commissioned from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Wendy Wasserstein, and an original ballet to set the scene ‘Chez Maxim’s’, bringing fresh insight into Lehár’s classic operetta.

Anna Glawari: Yvonne Kenny
Count Danilo Danilovitch: Bo Skovhus
Valencienne: Angelika Kirchschlager
Camille de Rosillon: Gregory Turay
Baron Mirko Zeta: Carlo Hartmann
Vicomte Cascada: Curtis Sullivan
Raoul de St. Brioche: Jonathan Boyd
Kromow: Bob Amaral
Olga: Marnie Breckenridge
Pritschitch: William Saetre
Praskowia: Jayne Taini
Bogdanovitch: Peter Strummer
Sylviane: Colleen McGrath
Njegus: Elijah Chester
Zozo: Janice Lynde
Maître d’hôtel: Matt Logan

San Francisco Opera Orchestra
San Francisco Opera Chorus and Ballet
Stage Director: Lotfi Mansouri
Conductor: Erich Kunzel

Recorded live at the War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco on 8 December 2001.

This recording commemorates the 50th anniversary of Joaquín Achúcarro’s debut with the London Symphony Orchestra after winning the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic International Competition in 1959. Recorded at Jerwood Hall, St Luke’s, London, with Britain’s eminent conductor Colin Davis at the helm, Achúcarro delivers a consummate performance that brilliantly expresses his delicate and passionate style. Extra features include a substantial documentary about Achúcarro’s career and performances of solo piano pieces by Brahms, Chopin, Scriabin and Albéniz filmed in the beautiful setting of the Prado museum.

Brahms – Piano Concerto No.2 in B-flat major

Joaquín Achúcarro
London Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Colin Davis

Recorded live at Jerwood Hall, St Luke’s, London, May 2009.

In 2002, Nicholas Maw’s opera Sophie’s Choice, based on the novel by William Styron, was given its premiere at the Royal Opera House. The subject had struck Maw when he had first watched the film several years previously, and he immediately felt it would be ‘the most extraordinary basis for an opera’. Commissioned by the Royal Opera House and BBC Radio 3, Maw embarked on an adaptation of Styron’s book, which took six years to complete. Conducted by Simon Rattle, a long-term enthusiast of Nicholas Maw’s music, and with a wonderful cast led by Angelika Kirchschlager, Rod Gilfry, Dale Duesing and Gordon Gietz, the work won international acclaim and was later restaged in Washington, Berlin and Vienna. The Royal Opera House celebrates the work of this British composer, who died in 2009, with the release on DVD of the BBC transmission, as broadcast live in December 2002.

Narrator: Dale Duesing
Stingo: Gordon Gietz
Sophie: Angelika Kirchschlager
Nathan: Rod Gilfry
Librarian: Adrian Clarke
Yetta Zimmerman: Frances McCafferty
Zbigniew Bieganski: Stafford Dean
Wanda: Stephanie Friede
Eva: Abigail Browne
Jan: Billy Clerkin
Old woman on train: Gillian Knight
Young man on train: Neil Gillespie
Rudolph Franz Höss: Jorma Silvasti
Doctor: Alan Opie
Bartender: Darren Jeffery
Larry Landau: Quentin Hayes

Royal Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Conductor: Simon Rattle
Stage Director: Trevor Nunn

Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, on 21st December 2002.

The inspirational Vladimir Jurowski conducts Verdi’s last opera, his only true comic opera. An international cast is led by Christopher Purves in the larger-than-life role of the corpulent Falstaff, whose profligacy both outrages and inspires the citizens of Windsor. Richard Jones’s production brings out the humour, bitterness and anger – mixed with tenderness and wisdom – embodied in the Shakespeare plays on which the libretto is based. Filmed in High Definition and recorded in true surround sound.

Dr Caius: Peter Hall
Sir John Falstaff: Christopher Purves
Bardolph: Alasdair Elliott
Pistol: Paolo Battaglia
Mrs Page (Meg): Jennifer Holloway
Mrs Ford (Alice): Dina Kuznetsova
Mistress Quickly: Marie-Nicolre Lemieux
Nannetta: Adriana Kucerova
Fenton: Bulent Bezduz
Ford: Tassis Christoyannis 

London Philharmonic Orchestra
The Glyndebourne Chorus
Conductor: Vladimir Jurowski
Director: Richard Jones

Recorded live at Glyndebourne Opera House, Lewes, East Sussex, June 2009.