On 5 January 2006 the great pianist Alfred Brendel celebrates his 75th birthday and more than 35 years as an exclusive Philips recording artist.
During this time he has recorded a substantial and highly-acclaimed discography which includes most of the piano works of the composers he has performed throughout his career: Beethoven, Mozart, and Schubert. In addition Brendel has recorded many of the Haydn Sonatas, works by Liszt, Schumann, Brahms and many other composers.
This new Schubert compilation is one of four 2-CD sets of music and composers closely identified with Alfred Brendel. The series has the overall title “Artist's choice” and the selection of repertory and specific recordings has been personally chosen by Alfred Brendel himself.

Claudio Arrau (piano), Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SDR, Südwestfunk Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden, Eliahu Inbal, Ernest Bour, Gary Bertini

Released to celebrate the 70th birthday of Maria João Pires , this 20CD edition contains all her solo recordings made for DG. The edition includes outstanding interpretations of Bach, Beethoven and Schubert as well as Mozart’s complete piano sonatas and Chopin’s Nocturnes. This is the first out of three editions dedicated to the work of Pires.