There are many wonderful recordings of the Eighth, surprising given its difficulties. This one, with the rich-toned Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, deserves a place with all but the very greatest. Mariss Jansons’s eye for balance and detail is prodigious: even in the grandest, loudest passages the clarity he achieves is extraordinary, perhaps above all in the last movement, where for once Bruckner’s need to crown the work with something worthy of the first three movements is satisfied. No lover of this symphony will be content with less than half a dozen recordings, and this should undoubtedly be among them. [Source]

Following on from his recent debut album for DG focused around Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, the celebrated pianist and renowned Beethoven specialist Rudolf Buchbinder rejoins the celebrations of Beethoven’s 250th anniversary that come to a climax with a breath-taking live performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with his long-time friend Christian Thielemann conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker. Recorded in 2016 the recording is also the first release on DG of Christian Thielemann and the Berliner Philharmoniker. The album is completed with a recording by Buchbinder of Beethoven’s six variations for piano op. 34.

‘Silver Age’ will include works by Scriabin, Stravinsky and Prokofiev. Recorded with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra, the album recalls a time when Russia’s composers, poets, artists, dramatists and star performers were among the most original anywhere in the world. ‘Silver Age’ illustrates the artistic audacity and brilliance of a turbulent era in the country’s history with works by three of its most pioneering composers. [Source]