In this wonderfully planned programme the whimsical poetry of York Bowen’s Hans Andersen ‘fragments’—music for a fully-fledged technique, despite the fairy-tale titles—is pleasingly complemented by the bravura of the studies. Nicolas Namoradze proves more than equal to the demands of both.

Written between 1820 and 1822 at a time when Beethoven was suffering from a variety of maladies including nearly total deafness, each of these three sonatas stands alone as a great artistic achievement. Heard together in Victor Rosenbaum's magisterial performances, these works remind us of what vast new territories of the imagination Beethoven explored. Pianist Victor Rosenbaum became a member of the piano faculty at the New England Conservatory in 1967, and went on to head both the piano and chamber music departments at NEC. In addition to his long tenure at NEC, Rosenbaum was Director and President of the Longy School of Music from 1985 to 2001, where he continues as a faculty member.

For pianist Victor Rosenbaum's fourth CD on Bridge Records; the artist turns to the last three piano compositions of Johannes Brahms. Rosenbaum's Schubert disc was described as a “powerful and poignant record of human experience”, and much the same can be said of these profound readings of Brahms's late masterpieces.

Conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler already enjoyed a worldwide legendary standing during his lifetime - he was considered the German conductor and performances were greeted with rapturous applause. Today, more than 50 years after his death, Wilhelm Furtwangler is still an icon and his work has become an integral part ofthe music scene.

From the moment he first raised the baton as principal conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker in 2002, Sir Simon Rattle brought electrifying energy and a unique vision to the traditions established under his illustrious German predecessors, Karajan and Abbado. Renowned as one of the finest orchestras in the world, the Berliner Philharmoniker have thrived for 15 years under the guidance of the British maestro, its deep understanding of the great Germanic masterpieces enriched by new directions and broader musical horizons. The Rhythm & Colours box set celebrates this long and fruitful partnership with seven bestsellers and prize-winning Berlin Philharmoniker albums from the Rattle years. From monumental Mahler to the explosive rhythms of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana; from the sensual colours of Debussy to the soaring anthems of The Planets by Rattle’s countryman Gustav Holst, Rhythm & Colours showcases the very best of Rattle’s legacy in Berlin.

The protagonist of Saint-Saëns’ Proserpine, premiered at the Opéra-Comique on 14 March 1887, is no reincarnation of the ancient goddess, but a Renaissance courtesan well versed in culpable amours. According to the composer, she is ‘a damned soul for whom true love is a forbidden fruit; as soon as she approaches it, she experiences torture’. Yet for all the innocence of her rival Angiola, the unexpected happens: ‘It is the bloodthirsty beast that is admirable; the sweet creature is no more than pretty and likeable.’ Visibly enraptured by this delight in horror, Saint-Saëns indulges in unprecedented orchestral modernity, piling on the dissonances beneath his characters’ cries of rage or despair. He concluded thus: ‘Proserpine is, of all my stage works, the most advanced in the Wagnerian system.’ The least-known, too, and one which it was high time to reveal to the public, in its second version, revised in 1899.

Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata has today become part of the cello repertoire but it was originally written for the arpeggione, a form of bowed guitar invented by the Viennese maker Johann Georg Staufer in 1823. With a unique ethereal sound, this instrument reveals the true beauty of Schubert’s initial conception. The Piano Trio No. 2 was performed at the Vienna Musikverein on the first anniversary of Beethoven’s death—its extremes of urgent drama and sublime bittersweet lyricism are characteristic of Schubert’s artistic surge during his final year.

Conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler already enjoyed a worldwide legendary standing during his lifetime - he was considered the German conductor and performances were greeted with rapturous applause. Today, more than 50 years after his death, Wilhelm Furtwangler is still an icon and his work has become an integral part ofthe music scene.

The ballet Le Pavillon d’Armide opened Diaghilev’s first Paris season. The ballet had been conceived by Alexandre Benois, whose niece, daughter of the painter Albert Benois, became Tcherepnin’s wife. Benois, who had in 1901 become artistic director of the Imperial Theatres, was inspired by the novella Omphale by Théophile Gautier to propose a ballet derived from the subject. In his original proposal the Vicomte de Beaugency sets out to visit his betrothed but is caught in a storm and compelled to take refuge in a mysterious chateau.

The Austrian mezzo-soprano Klaudia Tandl, the acting legend Gabriele Jacoby and the Irish pianist Niall Kinsella present "Schubert's Women" with Schubert songs and recitations by contemporary poets with a strong connection to women and the subject "love". There are classics like Das Heidenröslein, You Don't Love Me, The Girl's Lament or Only Who Knows Longing, but also lesser known songs like Luisen's Answer, Thekla or Gretchen's Request. This is accompanied by texts by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Ludwig Rellstab, Friedrich Schiller, Ignaz Franz Castelli, and Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, which Gabriele Jacoby staged in a unique way.

Solti finds all the detail in the score not only in the very grand passages but brings tenderness to the more reflective sections which is a joy to listen too. The CSO are magnificent, the strings have that bloom that makes you think of the Vienna Philharmonic at their peak, the rest of the ensemble are no less perfect either. The Decca recording, which just predates digital sound, is full and opulent and puts you in the best seat in the concert hall and is as just as good, if not better, then many later recordings of these works.

K, a multicultural orchestra under the direction of the Italian-Brazilian conductor Simone Menezes, is bringing out its first album. Born out of the awareness that classical music was exported throughout the world and took on multiple influences in the last century, K’s project seeks to find the original accents of the works it performs. Their goal: to tell each story in its original language.

If, as Liszt himself dubbed it, Hexaméron is ‘a monster’, it’s a monster which certainly holds no terrors for Marc-André Hamelin, and the encounter between them makes for some thrilling pianism. The remainder of the recital—high-octane transformations of nineteenth-century operatic favourites—is every bit as electrifying, from a musician who never ceases to astonish whatever the repertoire.

"Rosamunde" is, simply ravishing, one exquisite melody after another, and this performance and recording do it full justice. It well deserves pride-of-place in the collection of any classical music lover.