Following his acclaimed recording of sonatas by contemporaries of Beethoven, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet further celebrates the great composer’s anniversary year with this set of the complete Piano Concertos.

Swedish soprano Miah Persson, on her first solo disc with orchestra, has collected a number of Mozartian gems (including Exsultate, jubilate – actually composed for Venanzio Rauzzini, the star castrato of the Teatro Regio Ducale in Milan.) Purity, sweetness and impeccable grace are words that have been used by reviewers to describe Miah Persson’s voice, and with such qualities it is no wonder that her reputation as a Mozart singer is growing.

On the final disc of a complete cycle, Thomas Dausgaard and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra offer us their readings of Franz Schubert's first two symphonies.

For some years, Thomas Dausgaard and his Swedish Chamber Orchestra have been developing their project ‘Opening Doors’, performing symphonies and other orchestral works from the Romantic era with the smaller-than-usual forces of a modern-day chamber orchestra. It has been possible to sample the results of this approach in various music centres around the world during the team’s extensive tours, as well as on disc. The present disc is the fourth of their Opening Doors recordings and at the same time the closing disc of a ‘series within a series’ – a triptych featuring Schumann’s complete symphonies.

Following a series of acclaimed recordings of 19th-century music including complete cycles of the symphonies by Schubert and Schumann, Thomas Dausgaard and his Swedish Chamber Orchestra turn to Felix Mendelssohn.

Following his acclaimed recording of solo sonatas by contemporaries of Beethoven, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet releases the complete Beethoven Piano Concertos as pianist and director with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. Directing the Swedish Chamber Orchestra from the keyboard, Jean-Efflam writes: ​"For the pianist there is also the delight of appearing face to face with the entire orchestra, in direct visual communication, the musicians perhaps more likely to take personal initiatives, thus multiplying the pleasure of a genuine participation, dialogue, and musical exchange". The cadenzas used in this recording are all Beethoven’s, from the set that he wrote out in 1809, and so are contemporaneous with the Fifth Concerto. The recording includes the Quintet for Piano and Winds, Op. 16.

On Synergy, flautist Sharon Bezaly and her musician friends demonstrate that one plus one can be much greater than two. Featuring works that celebrate the coming together of like-minded musicians, this project is a reminder, after more than two years of a pandemic that has affected all of us, that true musical synergy can only be achieved 'face-to-face’, rather than ‘remotely’.

It was only after his death that Franz Schubert’s symphonic works made an impact in music history. In fact, the first public performance of any of Schubert’s symphonies took place at a memorial concert held a few weeks after the composer had passed away, on 19th November 1828. The work that was heard at that occasion was Symphony No.6, D589, the ‘Little C major’, while the two undisputed master works of the series – the ‘Great C major’ and the ‘Unfinished’ – had to wait until 1838 and 1865, respectively, before being performed.

Having begun their collaboration in 1997, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and its conductor laureate Thomas Dausgaard have developed an unusually tight partnership. Nowhere is this demonstrated more clearly than in their cycles of the symphonies of Schumann, Schubert and, most recently, Brahms – performances which have been characterized by reviewers as variously ‘fresh’, ‘vivid’, ‘transparent’ and ‘invigorating’.

The links between Breguet and classical music are as strong as they are long established. The composers Giovanni Paisiello, Gioachino Rossini and Serge Rachmaninoff and the pianist Arthur Rubinstein, to mention only a few notable personalities, were all the happy owners of timepieces whose faces bore the signature of Breguet. Hence musical patronage has quite naturally become one of the key facets of the social and cultural activities of Montres Breguet.

Along with Vivaldi’s ‘Seasons’ or Beethoven’s ‘Fifth’, Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos belong to those works that are so well-known that we risk taking them for granted. In order to (re-)discover the special qualities that can inspire us today, in 2001 Thomas Dausgaard and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra decided to contact six contemporary composer, asking each of them to compose a companion piece to one of the concertos.