CD + DVD (Digipack)
This release – set for March 2017 – is a piece of history: it is a combination of unreleased and historic audio and visuals. It allows a unique view of the enigmatic maestro Grigory Sokolov’s life because it offers an opportunity to hear authentic performances from over ten and even twenty years ago accompanied by a brand-new film by Nadia Zhdanova.
The legendary pianist, who no longer performs with orchestras, has finally agreed to release two stunning concerto recordings from his extraordinary past: Mozart K488 with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra under Trevor Pinnock (recorded live in Salzburg 2005) Rachmaninov's Concerto for Piano Orchestra No. 3 with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under Yan Pascal Tortelier (recorded live in London 1995).
Commenting on that very performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto K 488, the Salzburger Nachrichten noted that “Such is his intensity that Sokolov sweeps everything and everyone along with him”.
The Independent described his reading of Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto as “ecstatic” and as “an outstanding performance”, while The Times wrote that “Sokolov swept through the concerto like a hurricane”.
These historic performances, will be published in combination with a unique documentary, which looks back on both Sokolov’s artistic and private biography. Whilst Sokolov is well known for being reclusive and rarely giving interviews, filmmaker Nadya Zhdanova achieved the impossible: She spoke with his friends, with colleagues and eventually was allowed to use private material from Sokolov’s archives.
She discovered rare and unreleased video footage (i.e. including Sokolov winning the Tchaikovsky competition in 1966), which offers an intimate insight into the life of Grigory Sokolov. The documentary is dedicated to Inna Sokolova the late wife of the artist. Both documentary and the booklet will feature poems by Inna Sokolova in four languages.

Daniil Trifonov presents a coupling of Rachmaninov's 'Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 3' including Trifonov's own transcriptions of Rachmaninov's famous, beloved, heart-rending 'Vocalise' and virtuosic 'The Silver Sleigh Bells'. The Grammy and Gramophone winning pianist follows in the composer's footsteps to record with the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

This is the third volume in the Chandos series devoted to the music of the Polish composer Witold Lutosławski. It brings together his first surviving orchestral piece (The Symphonic Variations) and his last symphony, as well as two works for piano and orchestra – an early work originally written for two pianos (The ‘Paganini’ Variations), and his very last concerto. The works are performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Edward Gardner, described by Gramophone as a veritable ‘Dream Team’ in Vol. 1. They are joined in this recording by Louis Lortie, the award-winning pianist and exclusive Chandos artist.
Lutosławski composed his Symphonic Variations while he was studying with Witold Maliszewski at the Warsaw Conservatory. When he showed the work to his teacher, he was told in no uncertain terms: ‘For me your work is ugly.’ A rather disheartening response to be sure, but perhaps also proof that here was a work that was well ahead of its time. Today it fits in easily with the European tradition of variation form, and is considered a prime example of the lush, but edgy harmonies of the composer, and of his vivid ear for instrumental colour and virtuosity.
Less than three years later, Poland was invaded by Germany, and normal music life disappeared. In its place, musical cafés emerged as places where light music as well as mainstream repertoire was performed. Lutosławski made his living in these cafés by playing a repertoire of light music, arranged by himself and his piano-duet partner, Andrzej Panufnik. All but one of these works were destroyed during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. The sole survivor was the Variations on a Theme of Paganini. The version recorded here is Lutosławski’s orchestration for piano and orchestra, of the original version for two pianos.
Also on this disc is the Piano Concerto, the last of Lutosławski’s concertante works, as well as Symphony No. 4, which Lutosławski composed over four years (1988 – 92), conducting its premiere in Los Angeles, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, in 1993, just a year before his death.
The Polish series is supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.

Grammy winner Daniil Trifonov presents a cycle of Sergei Rachmaninov’s highly virtuosic Piano Concertos.
Recorded with Yannick Nezet-Seguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra, the orchestra most closely associated with the composer with which Rachmaninov himself famously recorded the set of concerti over 80 years ago.
The two-part “Journey with Rachmaninov” begins with DESTINATION RACHMANINOV - DEPARTURE, including the great Piano Concerto No. 2, probably Rachmaninov’s best-loved work, paired with the equally beautiful and rarely performed 4th Concerto. These voluminous works are contrasted with a taste of Rachmaninov the master miniaturist, with solo piano transcriptions of Bach's Partita in E Major.

“This was a performance of a lifetime” LA Times
A "dream team" trio of interpreters for these deeply emotional masterpieces of Russian Romanticism.
Gidon Kremer is celebrating his 70th birthday on (February 27th, 2017) with a special chamber music program together with outstanding young pianist Daniil Trifonov and renowned cellist Giedrė Dirvanauskaitė, both of whom he personally chose for this recording.
It is an album full of correlations and a clear underlying conception. Neither Gidon Kremer nor his musical confederates care about brilliant effects; their concern is always to unveil the truths and messages hidden in the music. “To me”, Kremer explains, “being an artist has always been a calling”. But, he emphasizes, “I don’t want this by any means to sound emotive, because I don’t consider myself important. The music is a source from which I draw energy. I try to convey this energy – with notes, with my repertoire, with my choice of musicians. I also try to go my own way and to find companions – interlocutors – who can help me, and with whom I can converse in the language of music”
He found such companions in Daniil Trifonov and Giedrė Dirvanauskaitė: All three are connected by deep bonds of friendship and an intensive partnership on the concert stage.
For Daniil Trifonov this is another discographic chapter, which he dedicates to his illustrious pianist-composer idol, Rachmaninov, while honouring his friend and mentor, Gidon Kremer. Dirvanauskaitė is a renowned solo cellist in the field of chamber music and has performed with Kremer numerous times as principal cellist of the Kremerata Baltica.
Rachmaninov's two Piano Trios, both bearing the subtitle "Elegiaque" (elegiac), are dark, passionate works, composed under the influence of Tchaikovsky; the first is a short, one-movement piece rich in typically Slavic sentimentality, the second was written as a personal memorial to Tchaikovsky himself, alternately celebrating the life and grieving the loss of the great Russian composer of whom Rachmaninov said "Of all the people and artists whom I have had occasion to meet, Tchaikovsky was the most enchanting. His delicacy of spirit was unique."
Included as a special bonus: Preghiera (Prayer), Fritz Kreisler's touching transcription for violin and piano of the famous theme from Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto.

Grigory Lipmanovich Sokolov born April 18, 1950, is a Russian concert pianist. He is among the most esteemed of living pianists, his repertoire spanning composers from the Baroque period such as Bach, Couperin or Rameau up to Schoenberg and Arapov. He regularly tours Europe, and resides in Italy.

Born less than 20 years apart, Rachmaninov and Prokofiev were two of the greatest composer-pianists of the 20th Century and their instrument played a central role in many of their greatest works. In this recording, virtuoso pianist Denis Matsuev contrasts their second piano concertos, pieces that are both formidable and unmistakably Russian in their own way.
Composed between 1900 and 1901, Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor marked a resurgence in his creative powers after a disastrous premiere to his First Symphony in 1897. Its mix of virtuosity and lyricism has made it one his most celebrated works, and it is often described as the greatest piano concerto ever written.
Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 is a tour de force among piano concertos, and even the composer himself battled anxiety when performing it. The music demands amazing technical prowess, evident in the frenetic scherzo, in which both hands play almost 1500 semiquavers in unison and without a moments pause.