Already a star in Japan, piano-wonder (Hamburger Abendblatt) Alice Sara Ott introduces herself to the entire world of music with her International Deutsche Grammophon debut album--the complete Chopin Waltzes. Ott, though barely out of her teens, continually impresses critics and audiences alike with her recitals throughout Europe and Japan. She will make her US orchestral debut in Cincinnati with the Liszt Piano Concerto no. 1. The young pianist is surely a rising star to watch, and this recital of Chopin gems is the perfect introduction to her artistry.

Eugen Cicero 出生在罗马尼亚的美国人。1940－1997 爵士钢琴大师。四岁开始学习钢琴。六岁和乐队合作演出了莫扎特钢琴协奏曲。18岁就组成了自己的爵士乐队。他以用爵士和摇摆舞即兴方式演奏巴赫，莫扎特，肖邦，舒伯特的音乐而文明于世。 Eugen Cicero 用他精湛的技艺，用爵士乐将古典乐玩弄于鼓掌，他的演奏让人感受到的就是一种慵懒和华丽吧！

Evgeny Kissin releases Beethoven album to launch new exclusive collaboration with Deutsche Grammophon after 25 years. Evgeny Kissin skyrocketed to international fame as a piano sensation in the 1980s. He entranced international audiences with captivating interpretations of Romantic masterworks during his teens, and has since flourished as one of the world’s most charismatic and visionary performers. Today he is a living legend, one of the most iconic names and magnetic personalities in all of music.. Kissin’s discography so far contains landmark recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, critically acclaimed collaborations with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan and Claudio Abbado among them. Selected by the artist himself, this luxurious Beethoven double album represents Kissin's personal journey with the composer's solo work over the last decade and includes some of Beethoven's greatest and best-loved solo piano works such as the "Moonlight" Sonata or the "Appassionata" - most of them never released before. This album is a first in a series of releases renewing the relationship between Kissin and Deutsche Grammophon.

The brand new album from Max Richter DGs best-selling artist/composer with music crafted from 2015s outstanding ballet production Woolf Works, a critically-acclaimed ballet triptych by choreographer Wayne McGregor, inspired by the life and works of English novelist Virginia Woolf. Featuring powerful, compelling, emotional music, encompassing electronic textures and soundscapes, as well as orchestral episodes. Following the success of SLEEP, this album showcases different sides of Max Richters vast palette of sounds, including upbeat, Arpeggiator pieces Three Worlds: Music from Woolf Works shows Maxs passion for both lavish string and piano melodies, but also his virtuoso electronic side. The first track on the album features spoken words by Virginia Woolf herself, reading the essay Craftsmanship from a BBC recording of 1937. The original ballet was met with outstanding critical acclaim on its premiere in 2015, winning the Critics Circle Award for Best Classical Choreography and the Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production. The Observer described it as a compellingly moving experience; for The Independent it glows with ambition... a brave, thoughtful work; The Guardian called it a haunting meditation on memory, madness and time and lavishly atmospheric score. Each of the three acts springs from one of Woolfs landmark novels: Mrs Dalloway, Orlando and The Waves enmeshed with elements from her letters, essays and diaries. What a brilliant creative human being Virginia Woolf was. Its been extraordinary to have the chance to be submerged in the matters that troubled her, the questions she wrestled with and the visionary quality of the answers she discovered Max Richter

Alt-classical composer/pianist Ludovico Einaudi returns with a brand new album ‘Elements’ released on 16th October on the Decca label. With that in mind Music-News.com caught up with Ludovico Einaudi at Decca HQ in London to find out more. Check out our exclusive interview below. Einaudi has quietly become one of the most successful musicians on the planet. His hauntingly beautiful and evocative music tops the classical charts worldwide, particularly here in the UK and in his home country Italy) and he has sold over 1.5 million records. He is the biggest streamed classical artist in the UK with over 130 million streams – that’s more than Pavarotti and Bocelli, and neck a neck with current chart stars Years & Years. ‘Elements’ was recorded this year at his studio in the Italian countryside. It is inspired by the world around him: nature’s elements (earth, water, air, and fire) as well as the lines of the grass and hills, mathematical and scientific elements, musical form and works of arts including those by Paul Klee and Gustav Klimt. Einaudi created the album’s cover artwork himself – drawing a variety of different symbols and illustrations, which combine to stunning effect. Einaudi’s music has been heard by millions worldwide – especially through adverts, trailers, film scores and TV soundtracks. He has provided music for more than 20 films including Shane Meadows’ ‘This Is England’ film and the TV sequel ‘This Is England ‘86’, for which he earned a BAFTA nomination, as well as ‘Black Swan’ (starring Oscar winner Natalie Portman) and Ricky Gervais’ TV series ‘Derek’. Einaudi has performed to huge crowds at venues around the world and has even achieved a Top 40 pop hit thanks to a BBC Radio 1 campaign by DJ Greg James. His recent UK dates include sell-out performances at Blenheim Palace, Hammersmith Apollo, Barbican and headlining the iTunes festival at the Roundhouse. His music has been described as minimalist, alt-classical, ambient and contemporary, but it defies easy classification. He sums it up best: “There is something in it that comes from classical, but I have influences from different music I have experienced in my life, from African music to folk and rock.” This latest album brings together a musical alchemy that draws on elements of electronicam, world, rock and classical music – reflecting Einaudi’s unique position on the international music scene.

Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations are considered a magnum opus of the piano repertoire, a towering contribution to the genre and an entire encyclopaedia of pianism. Following his monumental exploration of the 32 Sonatas, András Schiff has recorded - on two period instruments - remarkable, contrasting versions of the Diabelli Variations alongside major late works with intrinsic ties to them. The Sonata Op. 111 and the Diabelli Variations (CD 1) are played on an original Bechstein grand from 1921, and the second reading of the Diabelli Variations (paired with the Six Bagatelles, Op. 126 on CD 2) on a Hammerflügel fortepiano from Beethoven’s own day. This gives listeners a unique opportunity to compare the rich range of these highly contrasting sonic universes, a world apart from modern day instruments. The first is a studio recording from Lugano in December 2012, while the fortepiano version was recorded at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn in July of the same year. In his liner note András Schiff acknowledges the value of having been able to consult the previously unknown original manuscript of the Variations which provided invaluable insight into Beethoven’s compositional process - with his penmanship and writing speed offering subtle hints as to crescendos, tempos and arcs of tension - and intentions.

On February 2nd 2018, Poppy Ackroyd releases her first full-length album with One Little Indian Records, Resolve. A classically trained pianist, violinist, producer, and composer, Ackroyd turned heads in the neo-classical world with her previous works Escapement and Feathers, as well as her involvement in Hidden Orchestra (Tru Thoughts). Having played alongside giants of the genre, Hauschka and Nils Frahm, the unique musician has returned, fresh off the back of a mini-album Sketches, and set to release her brand new self-produced full-length record - her most ambitious and progressive piece of work to date. Ackroyd plays a combination of both upright and grand piano, and even plays the inside of the instrument using fingers, drumsticks and plectrums – and then arranges and multi-tracks the resulting sounds. The artist employed the same technique to record herself playing violin, pianino, harmonium and spinet, as well as record other musicians who played cello, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet and hang. Although a keen collaborator outside of her solo work – having created soundtracks for film, dance, physical theatre and radio – this is the first record for which Poppy has written for and employed other players, including Manu Delago (Bjork, Cinematic Orchestra, Anoushka Shankar) playing hang, Mike Lesirge (Bonobo, Andreya Triana) playing clarinets and flute, and Jo Quail on cello. Through studying contemporary classical piano works and listening to electronic music, Ackroyd quickly developed her signature compositional style on previous albums, using contemporary pianistic ideas whilst also inhabiting the world of sound beyond the keyboard, using extended techniques to 'play' other parts of the instruments as well. The intelligent artist works by recording improvised contemporary classical piano motifs and then rearranging and manipulating these sounds digitally. The result is a fantastic fusion of acoustic and electronic in a post-classical setting.

伊莲·格里莫，法国女钢琴家；1969年生于法国普罗旺斯地区的艾克斯。13岁即被巴黎的法国音乐学院接收为学生，在此她获得了1985年度的雅克 鲁维耶古典音乐比赛首奖。后又随桑多尔和弗莱舍尔深造。 1987年，她参加了戛纳国际音像博览会和拉罗克－当特朗国际钢琴节，还在巴黎举办了她的第一次钢琴独奏音乐会，由巴伦勃伊姆指挥的法国乐团伴奏。 此后她曾与许多知名的乐团有过合作，如柏林爱乐乐团、伦敦交响乐团、莱比锡布业大厦乐团、欧洲室内乐团、皇家爱乐乐团、哥德堡交响乐团、圣彼德堡爱乐乐团、东京NHK 交响乐团，以及北美的波士顿、旧金山、多伦多、纽约等交响乐团。曾经合作过的指挥家，除巴伦勃伊姆外，还有阿巴多、布卢姆斯泰特、贝奇科夫、康伦、迪图瓦、贾维、津曼等。 《Reflection》是法国女钢琴家Helene Grimaud （海伦 格里莫）在DG发行的第二张专辑。演奏的6部钢琴作品分别是罗伯特．舒曼的A小调钢琴协奏曲、勃拉姆斯的第一和第二钢琴狂想曲、第一大提琴奏鸣曲，以及两首舒曼妻子克拉拉．舒曼的艺术歌曲。 唱片中请来和格里莫一起演奏第一大提琴奏鸣曲的是著名的大提琴演奏家Truls Mork，他获得过第44届格莱美奖最佳室内乐表演奖。负责演唱克拉拉两首艺术歌曲的是Anne Sofie Von Otter，她是一位蜚声国际音乐界的瑞典藉次女高音歌唱家。这张唱片的音乐主题都是围绕舒曼及其妻子以及他们的朋友勃拉姆斯之间的浪漫亲情与友情，其中的《A小调钢琴协奏曲》就是舒曼作品中最辉煌的一部，是舒曼向妻子克拉拉表达无限爱意的作品，格里莫的演奏理性中不失抒情和激情，声音生动而细腻，让人感受到女性的温柔气质的同时，也体会男性的力量和刚毅。还有值得一提的是唱片的录音非常出色，是DG的一流水平。

Two of today's most passionate and inspirational artists join forces in the recital programme that brought audiences to their feet at the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad in Summer 2011. The chemistry between Hélène Grimaud and Sol Gabetta left critics and audiences nothing short of euphoric and this first duo recording captures the revelatory magic of their collaboration The album reprises the same programme the duo performed in Gstaad: Robert Schumann’s Fantasiestücke, Claude Debussy’s Sonata for Cello and Piano in D minor, Johannes Brahms Sonata for Cello and Piano No.1 in E minor and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Sonata for Cello and Piano. Hélène’s recordings have been best-sellers on the Yellow Label with more than 800,000 units sold altogether to date. Sol is also a best-selling, chart-storming artist, who is regarded as one of the great cellists of our day.

Japanese only SHM-CD (Super High Material CD - playable on all CD players) pressing. Universal. 2008.