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It would have been better, of course, if this 1984 production of Donizetti's Anna Bolena, or at least its title role, had been filmed 20 years earlier, when Joan Sutherland's voice was in its spectacular prime. But like her Canadian Opera Norma, dating from 1981, this is a better-late-than-never documentation of one of the most remarkable voices of the 20th century. --Joe McLellan

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Kit Armstrong, musicien britannique d'origine taïwanaise, est un génie. Âgé de 19 ans aujourd'hui, il s'est révélé, dès l'enfance, pianiste, compositeur, mathématicien et philosophe surdoué. Sa rencontre à 14 ans, en 2006, avec Alfred Brendel, qui avait déjà décidé de mettre fin à sa carrière, a fait naître une magnifique alchimie. L'immense pianiste a alors dérogé à sa propre règle et accepté le jeune prodige comme disciple. Sous la caméra de Mark Kidel, déjà auteur de deux documentaires sur Alfred Brendel, la légende du piano transmet à son émule son art du clavier, "son" Mozart et "son" Bach. On assiste aux répétitions de Kit à Leipzig avec Riccardo Chailly et le Gewandhausorchester, puis au concert d'adieux donné par Brendel au Festival de Plush (Dorset). Le réalisateur, en les suivant sur deux années consécutives, 2008 et 2009, signe, selon The Independent, "l'un des documentaires les plus fascinants jamais réalisés sur le monde du piano".

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Kanstantsin Yaskou is a belarusian composer of mostly chamber and piano works that have been performed in Europe. K. Yaskou studied composition with Viktor A. Voytik and conducting with Nikolay Kolyadko at the Belarusian Academy of Music in Minsk from 2001–06, where he graduated with a diploma. He then had post-graduate studies in composition there with Viktor A. Voytik from 2006–08. In addition, he studied composition with Aleksander Lasoń at the Academy of Music in Katowice in 2008, on a grant from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Polish government.

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"Née en 1461 et morte en 1522, durant sa vie elle connut quatre rois: Louis XI, Charles VIII, Louis XII et François Ier. On l'appelait aussi "Madame la Grant" parce qu'elle assura par deux fois la régence du royaume de France, lors de la minórité de son frère, le futur Charles VIII, de 1483 à 1491, et lors de l'absence du roi pendant la première guerre d'Italie, en 1494 - 1495."

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Since the film was first screened ECM has been deluged with requests for a soundtrack album, so we are making this available simultaneously. Where the film shows the process of music-making, "Sounds and Silence: Music for a Film" includes the music in its completed/produced form. There are two exciting exceptions - tracks from Eleni Karaindrou and orchestra live in concert in Frankfurt with Jan Garbarek and Kim Kashkashian as guests - these pieces have not previously been available on CD.

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"Le Moyen Age n'est pas mort puisque, çà et là encore, et surtout dans les cultures populaires, vivent toujours certains de ses rituels."

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What does it say that of the six available videos of this opera, the two best were made in 1958 and 1978? Something about the Verdian style and grand Verdi voices, I'm sure, but I'll leave the details to you. The Price/Giacomini performance from the Met is a pretty boring affair, the Urmana/Giordani perfectly acceptable but thrill-free, and the Gorchakova/Gergiev/St. Petersburg original version is both in another class and not particularly idiomatic. Both Hardy DVDs--the '58 from Naples with Tebaldi and Corelli, and this one, from La Scala in 1978, present the opera as the "real thing".. --Robert Levine

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Vivaldi's operas were virtually unknown until the late decades of the 20th century, but by the early years of the 21st more and more were coming to light, on recordings if not to the same extent on-stage, and some have been recorded multiple times, thanks to the dedicated research of early music specialists and the emergence of a spate of first-rate counter tenors. Such is the case with Farnace, which receives its second recording on the Virgin Classics label with counter tenor Max Emanuel Cencic leading an extraordinary cast of soloists. Diego Fasolis conducts the period instrument orchestra I Barocchisti and Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera, Lugano, in a vibrant reading of the score. Review by Stephen Eddins

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The artistry of Holliger (b.1939) prompted Evelyn Rothwell (Lady Barbirolli) to call him 'The Paganini of the oboe' Holliger's mastery of the oboe ranges over a vast expanse of repertoire, from the baroque to contemporary. Holliger has done much to champion the oboe music of composers such as Zelenka and Krommer, and has also had over 100 works composed for him by composers including Berio, Carter, Henze, Ligeti, Lutoslawski, Penderecki and Stockhausen.