The release of Don Giovanni will complete the exceptional 4-year Mozart project Sony Classical has undertaken to studio-record the 3 Da Ponte Operas with Teodor Currentzis and his orchestra and choir MusicAeterna ("The next revolutionary sensation of classical music" - The Independent). Now finally comes Currentzis’ take on the cornerstone of the Da Ponte trilogy – which everybody has been waiting for. Mozart’s mighty and dark magnum opus – Don Giovanni. It promises to follow in the same vein as the previous two outstandingly received recordings Figaro and Così. In addition, BRMI are creating an new 50-min documentary titled “The Archetype of Myself – The Conductor Teodor Currentzis” which followed the conductor over several months following his artistic and private endeavours with MusicAeterna last year. This recording of ‘Don Giovanni’ forms the focal point of this documentary.

“Extremes and superlatives reigned in the Great Hall of the Mozarteum” (Der Tagesspiegel). Critics were left gasping for breath, or at least adjectives, after Teodor Currentzis and his orchestra musicAeterna performed a complete cycle of Beethoven’s symphonies at the 2018 Salzburg Festival. Demand for tickets vastly outstripped supply, much as it did when the ensemble made its debut at the BBC Proms in London later in July under its founder-director, Teodor Currentzis. That night they performed the Second and Fifth Symphonies to more glowing reviews. “Playing of an intensity that makes the music seem somehow Beethoven-plus; more Beethoven than ever before.” (The Guardian)
Directly after the Prom, musicAeterna and Teodor Currentzis travelled to Vienna, where they recorded the Fifth and Seventh Symphonies at the Konzerthaus over the course of a week. Sony Classical now presents the recordings as a defining contribution to the celebrations marking Beethoven’s 250th anniversary. These two masterworks will be released separately. For Currentzis each symphony is similar to a novel, and two novels would never be combined into one book.
Sony Classical will release Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony on CD and digital platforms on April 03, 2020. The Seventh Symphony will follow in the autumn of 2020. The recordings have been made possible by VTB Bank’s support.

Stage direction and set design: Dmitri Tcherniakov
In 2010, for the first time in its history, the Bolshoi Opera presented Alban Berg’s masterpiece 'Wozzeck'. Dmitri Tcherniakov’s truly historic production is now available in this DVD. The Russian director’s aim with this bold, sensitive transposition was “to highlight the hidden sorrows of a late 20th-century man dwelling in a megalopolis.” The redoubtably complex title role was entrusted to Austrian baritone Georg Nigl. Nigl studied with Kammersängerin Hilde Zadek. Over the last few years he has worked with, among others, Thomas Hengelbrock and his Baltasar Neumann Ensemble, Jordi Savall and his Hesperion XXI Ensemble, and Giovanni Antonini and Luca Pianca and their Il Giardino Armonico.
American soprano Mardi Byers plays Marie. A native of Colorado, she made her international debut as 'Tosca' in Lübeck and Elisabetta in 'Don Carlos' in Wiesbaden and Basel. She has also sung Donna Anna and Suor Angelica at the New York City Opera, as well as Elisabeth in 'Tannhäuser' and Ariadne. The Proms audience saw her in Mahler 8 in 2010 with Jiri Belohlavek.
Greek conductor Teodor Currentzis directs the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra and Chorus. Artistic director of the Perm Opera and founder and musical director of the Musica Aeterna ensemble, Currentzis is now to be seen in the world’s leading venues: the Opéra de Paris, Opernhaus Zurich, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Teatro Real in Madrid.

This box gives you a chance to admire some of the most glittering jewels left to us by the Baroque era. Its fifteen discs outline an exciting panorama of musical Europe during that period, an inspired heritage performed by the finest soloists and ensembles: Vivaldi’s Gloria by Le Concert Spirituel and Hervé Niquet and his Four Seasons by Gli Incogniti and Amandine Beyer; Bach’s B minor Mass by Pygmalion and Raphael Pichon, the Solo Cello Suites by Bruno Cocset, the Brandenburg Concertos by Café Zimmermann and the Goldberg Variations by Céline Frisch; Charpentier’s Te Deum by Le Poème Harmonique and Vincent Dumestre; Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas by MusicAeterna and Teodor Currentzis; Rameau harpsichord pieces by Blandine Rannou; Albinoni sonatas by Ensemble 415 and Chiara Banchini; and much else. A veritable treasure trove containing the indispensable works of the Baroque by today’s leading artists.

Henry Purcell was an English composer of Baroque music. Purcell's musical style was uniquely English, although it incorporated Italian and French elements.