Vienna was in the grip of serious political unrest that forced many Jewish artists into exile when Erich Wolfgang Korngold composed his Second String Quartet in 1933, first performed the following year in the Austrian capital. In it he celebrated, before it faded away, the vitality of a musical school of which Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had been one of the …

GRAMMY Award-winning Pacifica Quartet presents a landmark recording featuring the Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s complete string quartets and rarely heard chamber works. The album traces the composer’s remarkable evolution from a prodigy of post-imperial Vienna to a pioneering film composer in Hollywood. “It’s amazing to see how well the music is written,” says Pacifica Quartet cellist Brandon Vamos. “It has emotion …

The three composers featured on this recording, remarkable for expressiveness and virtuosity, were all deeply rooted in fin-de-siècle Vienna. They were banned by the dictatorships of the 1930s, then blacklisted in the aftermath of the Second World War by the young European avant-garde. Only in recent years has the beauty of their works been newly appreciated. Vienna-born conductor Sascha Goetzel …

This tribute album from baritone Benjamin Appl and pianist James Baillieu honors Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s centenary. “The first time I heard his voice was at school when I was twelve,” says Appl. “In 2009, I applied for his master class at the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg which was the start of a long and transformative relationship. I was fortunate to work with …

Soprano Chen Reiss, conductor Daniel Grossmann, and the Jewish Chamber Orchestra Munich explore the music from Vienna at the turn of the 20th century, at the cutting edge of artistic and musical creativity with a sizable and flourishing Jewish artistic community. The works on this album bring together some of the composers of this age, including lesser-known names such as …

Chicago audiences have had a chance to experience Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen’s artistry, with the countertenor having made debuts with the Newberry Consort, Music of the Baroque, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Uncharted ventures outside typical countertenor territory into 19th and 20th century lieder. Austro-Germanic lieder was the countertenor’s first musical love and on Uncharted, he indulges in music by Erich …

This two-CD album presents, for the first time ever, a recording of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Symphony in F-sharp performed by the composer himself, an incredibly special historical recording from the Korngold Family Archives. The new release also presents a 1997 live performance by the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana conducted by John Mauceri, whose research into the symphony included his exclusive …

Challenging traditional perceptions of classical music, Ray Chen’s new album with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Cristian Mǎcelaru juxtaposes Erich Korngold’s perennial favorite Violin Concerto with music from video games, television, Anime, and film. By transforming simple 8-bit game tunes into lush symphonic arrangements, Chen believes he can tap into the nostalgia of Generation X and Millennials who grew …