Mendelssohn's songs with words are bound to invite comparison with his Songs Without. Those 48 elegant piano pieces have often been viewed as being a little lacking in variety and as being a walk on the mild side. This disc contains 24 songs carolled by Margaret Price to a tasteful accompaniment from Graham Johnson. The performers take us back to the familiar world of the Lieder Ohne Worte, and rightly so. The songs range from the composer's teens to late in his brief career, and to my ears the numbers selected improve in general as they go along, and the performances improve along with them.

The Grosses Festpielhaus in Salzburg has been the scene of countless memorable musical events - operas, concerts and recitals - for 50 years. Here is a unique chance to celebrate the glories of this distinguished era. In an exceptional collaboration with the Salzburg Festival, we have prepared a 25-CD box set - 5 complete operas, 10 concerts and 2 recitals - featuring many of the world's greatest artists, in recordings with classical status and others that are appearing on CD for the first time. Concerts (five out of ten are first-time releases): with Abbado, Bernstein, B hm, Boulez, Karajan, Levine, Mehta, Muti, Solti.