London Symphony Orchestra

Retrospective on a unique moment of great music. In 1982, two immense musicians pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and conductor Sergiu Celibidache combined their talents to perform the “Concerto in G Major” by the legendary Ravel.

Krystian Zimerman joined forces with Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra last December in Beethoven’s five piano concertos. Their spellbinding performances, streamed on DG Stage from LSO St Luke’s and recorded live by Deutsche Grammophon, harvested a bumper crop of critical superlatives.

Martha Argerich has been an outstanding Chopin interpreter for decades. In celebration of her 80th birthday on June 5 we present the exceptional pianist’s Complete Chopin Recordings on DG, available as a 5-CD + 1 Blu-ray audio set, and her recordings of Chopin’s solo works and concertos as a limited and numbered 5 LP box, combining the outstanding interpretations of Argerich with the best vinyl quality.

This film captures Rattle's very first performance as Music Director; a programme in which British composers took centre-stage. The world-premiere of Helen Grime's Fanfares, which became the first movement of the work Woven Space, opened the concert before violinist Christian Tetzlaff took to the stage to perform the concerto written for him in 2010 by Harrison Birtwistle. Two more works close to Rattle's heart followed: Thomas Adès' Asyla and the pocket-sized Symphony No 3 by the late Oliver Knussen. Finally, Rattle's stunning interpretation of the Enigma Variations brought the concert to a close and then the audience to its feet, filling the Barbican Hall with rapturous applause.

The evocative music of Claude Debussy has been described as the foundation of modern music. But how did the composer come to develop his unique style? On this video, maestro Francois-Xavier Roth and the London Symphony Orchestra present the UK premiere of a previously lost work by the young Debussy, alongside some of his earliest inspirations. Debussy's newly discovered Premiére Suite gives a rare insight into the mind of a young composer on the cusp of innovation. It's a work filled with Romantic and Eastern influences and glimpses of the unexpected harmonies that came to define Debussy's work. Paired alongside the composer's role models - from Wagner's powerful intertwining motifs, the abundant Spanish influences in Lalo's rarely-heard Cello Concerto performed here by Edgar Moreau, and Massenet's majestic Le Cid - Francois-Xavier Roth gives a fresh perspective on the much-loved composer.

Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO are joined by revered French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard in a concert film that brings together music by Anton Bruckner and Olivier Messiaen: two composers as united in their devotion to the Catholic faith as they are divergent in their approaches to writing music.

This box set brings together Valery Gergiev’s acclaimed cycle of the complete Rachmaninoff symphonies, which were recorded with the Orchestra across 2008 to 2015. These masterful accounts of the composer’s complete symphonies are accompanied by his 1940 composition Symphonic Dances, while two symphonic poems by Mily Balakirev echo the luxurious textures present throughout Rachmaninoff’s music. Release date: 20 April 2018 LSO0816 | 822231181620 3 SACD Hybrid + 1 Pure Audio Blu-ray | Digibox Booklet notes in English, French and German 2.0 stereo | multi-channel 5.1 Total playing time: 3h 35m Producer: James Mallinson Engineering: Classic Sound Ltd Recorded live at the Barbican Hall, London September 2008 - February 2015

Recorded in January 2016, this beautiful programme of French music was chosen by Music Director Designate Sir Simon Rattle and features world class soloists Leonidas Kavakos and Julia Bullock.

Sir Simon Rattle is joined by virtuosic soprano Barbara Hannigan for a modernist programme that showcases the immense capabilities of the London Symphony Orchestra. At the heart of this concert is The Rite of Spring. Once decried, it is now a cornerstone of orchestral repertoire and considered by many to be the greatest work of the 20th century. Its elemental nature is best summed up by Stravinsky, who, in an unaccustomed moment of humilty, said that he didn’t feel he was the composer of the piece, but simply the vessel through which it passsed. Sir Simon Rattle says: ‘I’ve been conduting it since I was 19...it’s one of those pieces that reminds you what the shock of the new is about and it’s still one of the great challenges and one of the great thrills to perform.’

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