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Universal Music celebrates twelve wins at OPUS KLASSIK 2026 - Martha Argerich receives Lifetime Achievement Award

Berlin, 11 October 2026. Artists from Deutsche Grammophon, Decca Classics and DG partner labels CAvi-music, ECM and Myrios received twelve awards across eleven categories at OPUS KLASSIK 2026. Martha Argerich was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award, celebrating her extraordinary contribution to classical music. The gala at Konzerthaus Berlin featured performances by Alice Sara Ott, Andr&egrave; Schuen, Katharina Konradi and Sarah Willis with her band, The Sarahbanda. D&eacute;sir&eacute;e Nosbusch hosted the ceremony, accompanied by the Konzerthausorchester Berlin conducted by Anna Rakitina. The ceremony was televised by German public broadcaster ZDF.
The awards recognise a remarkable range of artists, repertoire and recording projects. Anna Lucia Richter was named Female Singer of the Year for <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/mahler-songs-of-fate-anna-lucia-richter-14171">Mahler &ndash; Songs of Fate</a>, while Andr&egrave; Schuen received the Male Singer of the Year award for <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/mozart-andre-schuen-13743">Mozart</a>. Sarah Willis, for<a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/cuban-christmas-sarah-willis-the-sarahbanda-14085"> Cuban Christmas</a>, and Yunchan Lim, for his recording of Bach&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/bach-goldberg-variations-yunchan-lim-14306">Goldberg Variations</a> live from Carnegie Hall, were honoured as Instrumentalists of the Year.
Andris Nelsons was named Conductor of the Year for <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/mendelssohn-oratorios-symphonies-andris-nelsons-14271">Mendelssohn: Symphonies &amp; Oratorios</a> with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla received the Symphonic Recording of the Year award for <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/back-to-nature-mirga-grazinyte-tyla-14009">Back to Nature: Čiurlionis &amp; Gražinis</a>. Alice Sara Ott won in the New Classic/Neoclassic category for <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/johannsson-piano-works-alice-sara-ott-13864">J&oacute;hann J&oacute;hannsson &ndash; Piano Works</a>, featuring world premiere recordings of piano transcriptions. Katharina Konradi and Daniel Heide received the award for Vocal Solo Recording of the Year for <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/liszt-songs-vol-iii-un-cycle-imaginaire-daniel-heide-katharina-konradi-14130">Franz Liszt: Un Cycle Imaginaire</a>.
Producer Rainer Maillard received the Innovative Listening Experience of the Year award for Mikhail Pletnev&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/chopin-scriabin-preludes-mikhail-pletnev-14043">Chopin &amp; Scriabin: Pr&eacute;ludes</a>, DG&rsquo;s first entirely analogue new recording since the 1980s. The Chamber Music Recording of the Year award went to <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/pur-ti-miro-wu-wei-14258">Pur ti miro</a> by Wu Wei, Martin Stegner and Janne Saksala, which brings together the sheng, a Chinese mouth organ, with viola and double bass. Lang Lang received the Bestseller of the Year award for <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/piano-book-2-lang-lang-13779">Piano Book 2</a>, spanning music by Bach, Chopin and Liszt alongside film, anime and gaming music.
Argerich&rsquo;s Lifetime Achievement Award recognises a career that has inspired generations of musicians and listeners. Over almost six decades, she has built an exceptional discography at Deutsche Grammophon. At 85, she continues to perform worldwide and champion young musicians.
The gala brought several of the award-winning artists to the stage. Alice Sara Ott performed a nocturne from her DG recording <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/field-complete-nocturnes-alice-sara-ott-13665">John Field &middot; Complete Nocturnes</a>, while Andr&egrave; Schuen sang &ldquo;Non pi&ugrave; andrai&rdquo; from Mozart&rsquo;s Le nozze di Figaro. Sarah Willis and The Sarahbanda performed an arrangement of Mozart&rsquo;s Eine kleine Nachtmusik with vocals, followed by &ldquo;Horn Extravaganza&rdquo;. Katharina Konradi joined Jonas Kaufmann for &ldquo;Tanzen m&ouml;cht ich&rdquo; from Emmerich K&aacute;lm&aacute;n&rsquo;s Die Cs&aacute;rd&aacute;sf&uuml;rstin.
&ldquo;Our artists represent different generations, cultures and musical voices. From great classical works and Cuban rhythms to anime and gaming music, they bring fresh perspectives and create new ways for audiences to connect with classical music. This diversity keeps classical music alive &ndash; and we are proud to support our artists on their artistic journeys,&rdquo; says Kleopatra Sofroniou, General Manager Classics, Deutsche Grammophon.
Frank Briegmann, Chairman &amp; CEO Universal Music Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada &amp; Deutsche Grammophon: &ldquo;Twelve OPUS KLASSIK awards are a tremendous recognition of our artists and, at the same time, a powerful testament to the creative vitality of classical music. Martha Argerich has inspired generations for decades, while other artists are opening up new perspectives on great works today. That is precisely what makes classical music so special: the pursuit of the highest artistic standards, an enduring spirit of curiosity, and the courage to bring fresh perspectives to timeless works. I would like to extend my warmest congratulations to all the award winners. My sincere thanks also go to ZDF, the media partner of OPUS KLASSIK, for providing these exceptional artists and their music with such an outstanding platform.&rdquo;
OPUS KLASSIK honours outstanding classical artists and productions. The winners are selected by an independent, eleven-member expert jury from the music and media industry.

Deutsche Grammophon honoured at the 2026 Gramophone Awards

Berlin/London, 8 October 2026. Deutsche Grammophon recordings and partners have been honoured with two major wins at the 2026 Gramophone Classical Music Awards. Kaija Saariaho&rsquo;s Adriana Mater has won the Opera Award, while the Bamberg Symphony has been named Orchestra of the Year.
The Opera Award went to the world premiere recording of Kaija Saariaho&rsquo;s Adriana Mater, performed by the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus under Esa-Pekka Salonen. Recorded at Davies Symphony Hall in June 2023, the performance was captured only days after Saariaho&rsquo;s death. The production was directed by Peter Sellars and features Fleur Barron in the title role, alongside Axelle Fanyo, Nicholas Phan and Christopher Purves. Released by Deutsche Grammophon shortly after, Adriana Mater went on to win the 2025 GRAMMY&reg; Award for Best Opera Recording.
The Bamberg Symphony, meanwhile, has been voted Orchestra of the Year as it celebrates its 80th anniversary and a decade of Jakub Hrů&scaron;a as Chief Conductor. Its latest Deutsche Grammophon releases include Bomsori's second solo album, featuring the Bruch and Korngold violin concertos, and the critically acclaimed Bohuslav Martinů &ndash; The Symphonies, presenting the composer's complete six-symphony cycle and reflecting the orchestra's distinctive Bohemian sound and close artistic partnership with Hrů&scaron;a.
&ldquo;We are delighted to see Deutsche Grammophon recordings and partners recognised once again by Gramophone,&rdquo; says Dr Clemens Trautmann, President Deutsche Grammophon and New Business Strategy Global Classics. &ldquo;Adriana Mater is a profoundly moving testament to Kaija Saariaho&rsquo;s singular voice, while the Bamberg Symphony&rsquo;s Orchestra of the Year award recognises the exceptional artistry of the ensemble and its remarkable partnership with Jakub Hrů&scaron;a. My warmest congratulations to all involved.&rdquo;

Antje Weithaas, Marie-Elisabeth Hecker and Dénes Várjon perform Robert Schumann's complete works for piano trio

The new album brings together Schumann's three piano trios and the Fantasiest&uuml;cke, Op. 88
Deutsche Grammophon presents Schumann's complete works for piano trio: the Piano Trios, Opp. 63, 80 and 110, together with the Fantasiest&uuml;cke, Op. 88.
The album will be released on 30 October 2026 as a 2-CD set and digitally.
"You have to be willing to embrace darkness and, with Schumann, be able to leap from heaven to hell in a tenth of a second." Antje Weithaas
Violinist Antje Weithaas, cellist Marie-Elisabeth Hecker and pianist D&eacute;nes V&aacute;rjon devote their new album to Robert Schumann's complete works for piano trio. Robert Schumann: Complete Works for Piano Trio brings together the three piano trios (No. 1 in D minor, Op. 63, No. 2 in F major, Op. 80, and No. 3 in G minor, Op. 110), alongside the Fantasiest&uuml;cke, Op. 88. These compositions move between intimacy and passion, lyrical tenderness and restless energy. The three internationally acclaimed musicians combine established solo careers with many years of chamber-music experience. Their shared musical language, developed in rehearsal, concert and the studio, responds to Schumann's abrupt shifts of mood and brings the layered dialogue between the three instruments to the fore. The album was recorded over seven intensive days in February and March 2025 at the Deutschlandfunk Kammermusiksaal in Cologne; Christoph Franke was responsible for recording, editing, mixing and mastering.
Schumann's music can change its emotional temperature within a few bars. Bright lyrical moments turn into nervous agitation, dark energy gives way to unexpected calm, and seemingly stable forms begin to shift. For Antje Weithaas, this is precisely what makes these works both challenging and compelling. As she puts it, they demand the courage to embrace darkness and the ability, in Schumann, to leap from heaven to hell in a tenth of a second. D&eacute;nes V&aacute;rjon describes the music as personal as a diary - powerful and vulnerable at once. The album is released in the year in which Antje Weithaas celebrates her 60th birthday.
The Fantasiest&uuml;cke, Op. 88, occupy a special place in this overall picture. Schumann began them in December 1842 as his first work for piano trio and revised them before their publication in 1850. The four movements combine song-like and march-like characters with formal freedom and intricate dialogues. Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 63, was written in 1847 and may be understood as a tribute to Mendelssohn. Canonic structures, triplets and syncopations drive the first movement, where dark energy and lyrical brightness rapidly alternate.
Piano Trio No. 2 in F major, Op. 80, was composed between 1847 and 1849 as a more melodic, sunnier companion to the first trio. Motifs from the Eichendorff song Dein Bildnis wunderselig run through the first two movements; in the lilting third movement and capricious finale, the interplay of the three voices unfolds further. Piano Trio No. 3 in G minor, Op. 110, dates from 1851. Its tense, at times sombre atmosphere is driven by unrelenting rhythmic restlessness; its later movements introduce unusual harmonies that already point towards the music of the future.
Taken together, the four works reveal how Schumann repeatedly reimagined the piano trio: as a tightly woven dialogue between equal voices, a space for extreme shifts of feeling and a realm of poetic ambiguity. For the three performers, recording this repertoire was a long-held ambition. Weithaas, Hecker and V&aacute;rjon approach Schumann's unusual notation and hidden musical ideas with great precision, without smoothing away the spontaneity and sense of risk in this music. The result is a multifaceted portrait of a composer whose chamber music remains at once powerful, sensitive and disconcertingly modern.
The three artists are in demand internationally both as soloists and chamber musicians. Antje Weithaas was named Instrumentalist of the Year at the 2025 OPUS KLASSIK Awards; Antje Weithaas and D&eacute;nes V&aacute;rjon received the 2024 annual prize from the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik for their Beethoven recordings released by CAvi. Marie-Elisabeth Hecker won the Rostropovich Competition in 2005, while D&eacute;nes V&aacute;rjon is a winner of the G&eacute;za Anda Competition and a recipient of the Kossuth Prize. In Schumann's piano trios, they find music that brings together their different experiences while giving each instrument its own distinctive space.
The album Robert Schumann: Complete Works for Piano Trio will be released on 30 October 2026 as a 2-CD set and digitally in SD and HD. The third movement of the Fantasiest&uuml;cke, Op. 88, Duett. Langsam und mit Ausdruck, will be available to stream and download from 16 October 2026.

RIAS Kammerchor Berlin and Justin Doyle Present Winter Tales - The Britten Christmas Album

To mark the 50th anniversary of Benjamin Britten's death on 4 December, the album combines much-loved Christmas music with rarely heard choral works
With the exception of&nbsp;The Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard&nbsp;the entire programme is new to the Deutsche Grammophon catalogue
The album will be released on CD and digitally in stereo and Dolby Atmos on 16 October 2026
&ldquo;A Ceremony of Carols&nbsp;is well known and loved, but the rest of the repertoire will probably be less familiar. The album is conceived as a kind of &lsquo;Christmas stocking&rsquo; of discoveries.&rdquo; Justin Doyle
The&nbsp;RIAS Kammerchor Berlin&nbsp;and its Chief Conductor and Artistic Director&nbsp;Justin Doyle&nbsp;turn to Benjamin Britten's choral music for their new album.&nbsp;Winter Tales - The Britten Christmas Album&nbsp;will be released digitally and on CD on 16 October 2026, the year marking the 50th anniversary of the composer's death. At its heart are&nbsp;A Ceremony of Carols,&nbsp;A Boy was Born&nbsp;and&nbsp;Missa brevis in D, complemented by&nbsp;A Hymn of St. Columba&nbsp;and&nbsp;The Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard. With the exception of&nbsp;The Ballad, the entire programme is new to the&nbsp;Deutsche Grammophon&nbsp;catalogue. The recording also features the boys of the Staats- und Domchor Berlin, harpist Anna Viechtl, organist Marcel Andreas Ober and pianist Philip Mayers.
The album is conceived as a Christmas release but follows no conventional festive arc. Britten's familiar Christmas music is set alongside works heard far less often, opening up different facets of his choral writing. For Doyle, this repertoire is closely bound up with his own biography. A former chorister at Westminster Cathedral, he encountered several of these works as a boy. For the new recording, he also worked from scores containing Britten's handwritten annotations, gaining insights into the composer's sound world and performance practice.
Britten began&nbsp;A Ceremony of Carols&nbsp;in 1942 while returning to Britain from the United States. Before leaving Halifax, Nova Scotia, he acquired Gerald Bullett's anthology&nbsp;The English Galaxy of Shorter Poems; during the voyage, he set five of its texts, which became the core of the&nbsp;Ceremony. Medieval poetry and plainchant meet Britten's distinctive harmonies and melodic lines. Although the work is now often associated with children's voices, it was originally written for adult women's voices.
Set alongside the&nbsp;Ceremony&nbsp;is&nbsp;A Boy was Born, a work Britten composed at the age of 19: a 30-minute sequence of a cappella variations for adult and boys' voices.&nbsp;Missa brevis in D&nbsp;was written in 1959 for the choir of Westminster Cathedral and its director George Malcolm. Its rhythmically lively&nbsp;Gloria, twelve-tone&nbsp;Sanctus&nbsp;and unsettlingly fading&nbsp;Dona nobis pacem&nbsp;in the&nbsp;Agnus Dei&nbsp;show Britten's ability to turn rigorous compositional techniques into immediate dramatic expression.
The other works lead into different historical and spiritual worlds.&nbsp;A Hymn of St. Columba&nbsp;was written in 1962 to mark the 1,400th anniversary of Columba's voyage from Ireland to Iona, combining a text about the Last Judgment with deep organ rumblings and concentrated choral writing.&nbsp;The Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard&nbsp;was composed during the Second World War for Britten's friend Richard Wood and fellow musicians at the Oflag VIIB prisoner-of-war camp near Eichst&auml;tt. Britten sent the manuscript to the camp one page at a time on microfilm. Set against a wintry backdrop, the story tells of forbidden love, jealousy and murder; Britten's setting follows it with striking immediacy.
Winter Tales&nbsp;was recorded in Berlin's Auenkirche in January 2026. Its clear yet resonant acoustic and newly restored organ provided ideal conditions for the precision of Britten's choral writing. The exclusively digital&nbsp;Dolby Atmos version&nbsp;brings out the church's acoustic space and the choir's procession in and out of&nbsp;A Ceremony of Carols&nbsp;to beautiful effect.
The changing forces - from women's voices and harp, to a full choir with boys' voices, to men's voices and piano - are central to the album's dramatic design. They make audible the variety of Britten's music for the concert stage. For Doyle, they also reflect a fundamental idea in Britten's music: &ldquo;It doesn't really matter who sings his music. What matters is that it is performed well, with the appropriate spiritual or dramatic intention.&rdquo;
Winter Tales - The Britten Christmas Album will be released on CD and digitally in SD, HD and Dolby Atmos on 16 October 2026.&nbsp;There Is No Rose&nbsp;from&nbsp;A Ceremony of Carols&nbsp;will be available to stream and download from&nbsp;2 October 2026. Around the 50th anniversary of Britten's death, the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin will also bring music from the album to the concert stage: on&nbsp;5 December 2026&nbsp;at Berlin Cathedral and on&nbsp;6 December 2026 at the Marktkirche in Hanover, both under Justin Doyle's direction.

Floating Points Shares New Mere Mortals Track Pandora’s Creation

Mere Mortals&nbsp;will be released in all formats on 28 August 2026
Pandora&rsquo;s Creation will be shared online on 24 July&nbsp; 
Floating Points&nbsp;today unveils&nbsp;Pandora&rsquo;s Creation, the second track from his forthcoming Deutsche Grammophon album&nbsp;Mere Mortals. Following the release of&nbsp;Her Gift, the new single offers another compelling glimpse into Sam Shepherd&rsquo;s genre-defying score, where orchestral writing and electronic sound worlds merge into a rich and immersive musical experience.
Floating Points&rsquo;&nbsp;Mere Mortals&nbsp;will be released on&nbsp;28 August 2026. Recorded with the&nbsp;San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, the 14-track album captures Shepherd&rsquo;s first full-length ballet score, originally commissioned by San Francisco Ballet Artistic Director Tamara Rojo. Reimagining the myth of Pandora through a contemporary lens, the work explores themes of curiosity, transformation and humanity&rsquo;s relationship with technology and the natural world.
Reflecting on the project, Shepherd explains: &ldquo;Pandora&rsquo;s not about bringing hell to Earth. She really represents curiosity and change.&rdquo; This fresh interpretation shapes a score that moves seamlessly between lyrical orchestral passages, powerful brass writing and pulsating electronics, creating a musical narrative that is as compelling on record as it is on stage.
Floating Points will appear live in the European premiere of&nbsp;Mere Mortals&nbsp;with San Francisco Ballet at the 2026&nbsp;Edinburgh International Festival&nbsp;(28 August, with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra; further performances 29 &amp; 30 August), and when the work transfers to&nbsp;Sadler&rsquo;s Wells Theatre in London (9-12 September, with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia).

Deutsche Grammophon China signs guzheng artist Yang Yang and pianist Ju Xiaofu

Yang Yang Becomes DG China&rsquo;s First Chinese Traditional Instrumentalist and Ju Xiaofu Joins the Label As Its First Signed Pianist
 BEIJING&nbsp;/BERLIN, 14 April&nbsp;&mdash;&nbsp;Deutsche Grammophon China (DG China), the China classical label launched by Universal Music Greater China (UMGC) in collaboration with Deutsche Grammophon, today announced the exclusive signing of two outstanding young Chinese musicians &mdash; guzheng artist&nbsp;Yang Yang&nbsp;and pianist&nbsp;Ju Xiaofu.
The signings represent a significant milestone in DG China&rsquo;s continued investment in the future of Chinese classical music. Under these long-term agreements, DG China will support both artists through an integrated partnership spanning recordings, concert, artist management, touring, repertoire development and brand collaborations &mdash; a full-spectrum model designed to support enduring artistic careers.
Since its launch in 2025, DG China has set out to discover and support a new generation of Chinese classical artists, drawing on the heritage and artistic leadership of Deutsche Grammophon together with UMGC&rsquo;s local market expertise and global infrastructure. The signing of Yang Yang and Ju Xiaofu reflects that mission in action, while expanding the label's artistic vision &mdash;marking the first time in Deutsche Grammophon's nearly 130-year history that it has embraced Chinese traditional music..
Timothy Xu, Chairman &amp; CEO of Universal Music Greater China, said: &ldquo;DG China was created to support exceptional Chinese musicians with long-term vision, world-class resources and a truly global platform. Yang Yang and Ju Xiaofu are both remarkable artists with distinctive voices, deep musical integrity and the potential to resonate far beyond China. We are proud to welcome them to DG China and to begin a comprehensive partnership that will accompany them across every dimension of their artistic journeys.&rdquo;
Dr. Clemens Trautmann, President of Deutsche Grammophon and&nbsp;New Business Strategy Global Classics, said: &ldquo;Deutsche Grammophon has always believed in nurturing artists whose individuality, imagination and artistic excellence can speak across cultures. Yang Yang and Ju Xiaofu each represent a compelling facet of China&rsquo;s rich and evolving musical landscape.&nbsp;Universal Music is&nbsp;in&nbsp;a unique position to grow their careers meaningfully and holistically in China and beyond. We are excited about creating opportunties for our roster of DG China artists with globally visible recording projects as well as with live touring and brand partnerships.&rdquo;
Yang Yang, the first Chinese traditional instrumentalist signed to an exclusive full-service contract with DG China&nbsp;, represents a new generation of musicians bringing heritage into contemporary focus. A young guzheng artist currently pursuing her Master&rsquo;s degree at the Central Conservatory of Music, she combines virtuoso performance with composition, arranging, production and singing, reflecting a distinctly multidimensional artistic identity. The guzheng, the plucked Chinese zither with a history of more than two millennia, remains one of the most distinctive instruments in Chinese musical tradition. Yang Yang has performed Guo Wenjing's&nbsp;Chun Wang (Spring Gazing)&nbsp;at both the Vienna Konzerthaus and Beijing's National Centre for the Performing Arts, captivating Chinese and international audiences with her nuanced yet intense interpretation to thunderous applause and widespread acclaim.&nbsp;She has&nbsp;also built&nbsp;a strong following among younger audiences in China through original projects and a digital fanbase approaching one million across major platforms.
Yang Yang&nbsp;said: &ldquo;It is a tremendous honor to join DG China and begin a new chapter with the iconic Yellow Label, which I have long admired. As a guzheng artist, I hope to bring a distinctively Eastern voice to this storied classical label through the instrument&rsquo;s 21 strings, and to explore how Chinese traditional music can speak to contemporary audiences in ways that feel fresh and meaningful while expanding true to its spirit and depth. I am deeply grateful to DG China for embracing this vision and for supporting me so comprehensively across recording, performance, artistic planning and long-term development. I look forward to sharing my music with more audiences in China and around the world."
Ju Xiaofu joins DG China as its first signed pianist, bringing to the label a distinctive artistic voice shaped by contemporary sensibility and poetic imagination. A graduate of The Juilliard School now pursuing further studies in Hannover, he has appeared at leading venues including the Wiener Musikverein, Salzburg Festspielhaus, Berlin Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall&rsquo;s Zankel Hall, while also performing with the China Philharmonic Orchestra and the China NCPA Orchestra. Deeply engaged with contemporary repertoire, he has given the Chinese premieres of Philip Glass&rsquo;s Piano Concerto No. 3 and Messiaen&rsquo;s Oiseaux Exotiques, and released his debut album Waldeinsamkeit in 2025.
Ju Xiaofu&nbsp;said: "Joining DG China is both deeply meaningful and profoundly inspiring for me. The Yellow Label has been part of my musical imagination since childhood, and it is a great honor to now become part of that legacy. I hope that, together with Universal Music and DG China, I will be able to realize many of my artistic aspirations, release more recorded work and bring my music to ever larger stages. I am very grateful to DG China for its trust, and I believe this will be a close and joyful partnership through which we can create new work together with sincerity, imagination and freedom."
Zhao Zheng, Head of DG China, said: &ldquo;From the moment we began shaping DG China, our ambition has been to build a platform that supports artists in a truly comprehensive way &mdash; from identifying talent and refining artistic direction to recording, touring, management, media projects and brand collaboration. Yang Yang and Ju Xiaofu are exactly the kind of young artists we hope to champion: deeply committed, highly individual, and capable of opening new conversations around classical music and artistic expression in China today. We are excited to work closely with both of them over the long term and to help bring them to broader audiences at home and internationally.&rdquo;

harmonia mundi to be available in the DG Store and on STAGE+

Berlin, 25 March 2026 &ndash; A new landmark partnership between harmonia mundi and Deutsche Grammophon will launch in April this year. The renowned French heritage label will be represented with a curated selection of recordings both in Deutsche Grammophon&rsquo;s physical store and on the STAGE+ streaming platform.
Founded in 1958, harmonia mundi ranks among the world&rsquo;s leading classical labels. Shaped by the pioneering vision of its founder Bernard Coutaz, the Arles-based company has established itself as a major force in historically informed performance while also building a broad-ranging catalogue spanning early music to contemporary works. Harmonia mundi works with outstanding artists including William Christie, Ren&eacute; Jacobs, Pablo Heras-Casado, Nikolai Lugansky, Paul Lewis, Isabelle Faust and Tabea Zimmermann, while its harmonia#nova series is dedicated to fostering emerging talent. Numerous accolades, including multiple &ldquo;Label of the Year&rdquo; honors and, most recently, Gramophone&rsquo;s 2025 &ldquo;Recording of the Year&rdquo; award for Bach&rsquo;s *Mass in B minor* by Pygmalion under Rapha&euml;l Pichon, underscore the label&rsquo;s international standing.
The collaboration will open at Easter with two major new releases: Johann Sebastian Bach&rsquo;s *St John Passion*, performed by Ensemble Pygmalion under Rapha&euml;l Pichon, and Joseph Haydn&rsquo;s *The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross* in its oratorio version, recorded by the RIAS Kammerchor and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin under Justin Doyle.
At the outset, the DG Store will offer a selection of key catalogue titles, including benchmark reference recordings, recent releases, premium LP editions and selected CD box sets. In parallel, STAGE+ will launch an expanding streaming offering that is set to grow gradually into harmonia mundi&rsquo;s full audio catalogue.
STAGE+ will also broaden its audiovisual programme with productions from the label. Highlights include the acclaimed Schumann concerts with Isabelle Faust, Alexander Melnikov, Jean-Guihen Queyras and the Freiburger Barockorchester under Pablo Heras-Casado. The offering will be complemented by exceptional video formats, including Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker&rsquo;s dance-theatre staging of Bach&rsquo;s Cello Suites with Jean-Guihen Queyras, as well as Rapha&euml;l Pichon&rsquo;s interpretation of Bach&rsquo;s *St Matthew Passion* from Aix-en-Provence.
With the integration of harmonia mundi, Deutsche Grammophon and STAGE+ are making another clear statement in support of curated excellence and the fusion of tradition and innovation in the digital classical market.

Kazuki Yamada Showcases Walton  for his Deutsche Grammophon Debut 

Music Director Kazuki Yamada and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra add a trio of works by Walton to the DG catalogue
Released on 6 March 2026, the album presents live performances of Symphonies Nos. 1 &amp; 2 and the Coronation March Orb and Sceptre
&ldquo;&hellip; the union between conductor and orchestra was inextricably bound&hellip;&rdquo;
Bachtrack, reviewing a recent CBSO concert conducted by Kazuki Yamada
Internationally acclaimed conductor Kazuki Yamada took the helm of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in 2023. Since then, he has continued the work of such eminent predecessors as Sir Simon Rattle, Sakari Oramo, Andris Nelsons and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla in taking the orchestra from strength to strength. Now Yamada is to release his debut Deutsche Grammophon album. On what is also his first recording with the CBSO, he and his players showcase three works by William Walton &ndash; Orb and Sceptre and the composer&rsquo;s two symphonies, all new to the DG catalogue.
Featuring performances captured live at Birmingham&rsquo;s Symphony Hall, the album comes out digitally and on CD on 6&nbsp;March 2026. Orb and Sceptre will be available to stream or download from 20&nbsp;February.
In January 2025, Yamada&rsquo;s contract with the CBSO was extended to the end of the 2028-29 season; just weeks later he was presented with the Royal Philharmonic Society&rsquo;s 2025 Conductor Award. The RPS jury hailed Yamada as a &ldquo;local hero&rdquo;, adding, &ldquo;he&rsquo;s brought finesse and effervescence to must-see concerts at Symphony Hall &hellip; He&rsquo;s bringing such joy to working with CBSO&rsquo;s youth orchestra, and delighting citizens in the Bullring shopping centre and even on the city&rsquo;s trams!&rdquo;
Speaking about his contract extension, Yamada himself said, &ldquo;&hellip; it has been a true privilege to build on the special relationship I have with these talented musicians &hellip; [this] feels like a wonderful affirmation of the trust and mutual respect we&rsquo;ve built.&rdquo; That close bond shines through in the three performances on their Walton album. The choice of an English composer for their first recording together seemed appropriate to Yamada, and there is a particular significance attached to the opening work, Orb and Sceptre. This rousing march was written in 1953 for the coronation of the late Queen Elizabeth&nbsp;II, the centenary of whose birth will be marked in 2026.
Walton&rsquo;s First Symphony (1932-35) poses a raft of challenges to the performers, with its energy, passion and intensity. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a little bit like surfing!&rdquo;, says Yamada. &ldquo;If you catch the waves of excitement, the piece goes well.&rdquo; Written 25 years later, the Second Symphony is equally inventive, but more introspective in feel. It is of course the work of an older, more experienced composer, and its music emerged from a post-war world. As Yamada notes, &ldquo;there is a feeling of peace &ndash; but is it real?&rdquo;
Kazuki Yamada began his career in Japan, with leading ensembles such as the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra. Victory in the 2009 Besan&ccedil;on International Conducting Competition brought him to global attention and led to Principal Guest Conductor appointments with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and CBSO. Having become Artistic and Music Director in Monte-Carlo in 2016, he will step down in August 2026 and assumes the role of Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin the following month.
Still very active in Japan, Yamada is also Music Director and Chairman of the Philharmonic Chorus of Tokyo and becomes Artistic Director (Music) at Tokyo&rsquo;s Metropolitan Theatre in April 2026. In 2024, he won Japan&rsquo;s Suntory Music Award, the jury stating that &ldquo;his insatiable desire to win over as many audiences as possible should be a guiding principle for the survival of classical music&rdquo;.
Yamada&rsquo;s forthcoming schedule includes Pell&eacute;as et M&eacute;lisande at the Op&eacute;ra de Monte-Carlo (22‑28 February 2026); concerts in the UK with the CBSO and soloists Steven Osborne (4 March), DG artist Bruce Liu (5 March) and Nelson Goerner (9 April); works by Song Aa Park, Lalo and Debussy with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse (18 April); a Berlin Philharmonie concert with the DSO Berlin and DG artist Seong-Jin Cho (26 April); and his inaugural appearance as Artistic Director at Tokyo&rsquo;s Metropolitan Theatre (10 May).

Deutsche Grammophon Recordings Recognised With Six Nominations for the 68th GRAMMY Awards®

Berlin, Saturday 8 November 2025. Yesterday, the 68th Annual GRAMMY Awards nominations were unveiled in a special livestream event. As the record industry's most prestigious honour, it recognises exceptional artistic and technical achievements. Deutsche Grammophon recordings have secured a phenomenal total of six nominations across four of the main classical categories this year. Deutsche Grammophon&rsquo;s landmark Shostakovich project in collaboration with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and its Music Director Andris Nelsons, which began in 2015, has reached its peak in 2025 with the release of a towering anthology, featuring the complete symphony cycle alongside other major works. Three recordings as part of this 2025 project have now been nominated for a Grammy Award: The new recordings of the composer&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/shostakovich-piano-concertos-solo-works-yuja-wang-andris-nelsons-13763" target="_blank" rel="noopener">complete piano and cello concertos</a> with soloists <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/shostakovich-piano-concertos-solo-works-yuja-wang-andris-nelsons-13763" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Yuja Wang</a> and <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/shostakovich-cello-concertos-yo-yo-ma-andris-nelsons-13798" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Yo-Yo Ma</a> were both nominated in the category for Best Classical Instrumental Solo and the first commercial audio release in nearly 20 years of Shostakovich&rsquo;s only full-length opera, <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/shostakovich-lady-macbeth-andris-nelsons-13732" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District</a>, has been nominated for Best Engineered Album, Classical.
Pianist and 2024 Grammy-Award-Winner Yuja Wang alongside conductor Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra were further nominated in the Best Orchestral Performance category for their acclaimed recording of Messiaen&rsquo;s sprawling <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/messiaen-turangalla-nelsons-wang-13655" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Turangal&icirc;la-Symphonie</a>. 
Conductor Yannick N&eacute;zet-S&eacute;guin and The Philadelphia Orchestra continue their commitment to recording neglected American repertoire with their album <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/still-bonds-yannick-nezet-seguin-the-philadelphia-orchestra-14200" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Still &amp; Bonds: Symphonie &amp; Variations</a>, which has also been nominated for Best Orchestral Performance.
The world premiere recording of Jeanine Tesori's powerful opera, <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/tesori-grounded-yannick-nezet-seguin-emily-dangelo-14189" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Grounded</a>, has been nominated for Best Opera Recording, honouring the late composer. Mezzo-soprano Emily D&rsquo;Angelo stars in the tour-de-force leading role of Jess. The opera is conducted by Yannick N&eacute;zet-S&eacute;guin leading the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
The nominations for Best Album Notes included Deutsche Grammophon distributed label ECM&rsquo;s&nbsp; After The Last Sky recording featuring Anouar Brahem, Anja Lechner, Django Bates, Dave Holland and album notes writer Adam Shatz.
 "We are immensely proud that the breadth and ambition of the Yellow Label's commitment to outstanding recording projects have been recognised with these significant GRAMMY nominations," says Dr. Clemens Trautmann, President, Deutsche Grammophon and New Business Strategy Global Classics. "This success validates our key collaborations: artists and partners with whom we have worked for more than a decade and created landmark productions in the symphonic and operatic repertoire as well as in the solo concerto genre. It is especially rewarding that Yuja Wang and Yannick N&eacute;zet-S&eacute;guin have each been nominated twice with different projects and Andris Nelsons with the Boston Symphony Orchestra even earned a total of four nominations including three for their groundbreaking Shostakovich cycle. Congratulations as well to Emily D&lsquo;Angelo, Yo-Yo Ma, The Metropolitan Opera and The Philadelphia Orchestra and to our friends at ECM Records. We are particularly proud of the exciting musical discoveries that these partnerships have enabled with both brand-new and timeless repertoire. &ldquo;
The 2026 GRAMMYs take place Sunday, 1 Feb, at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
&nbsp; Best Opera Recording
<a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/tesori-grounded-yannick-nezet-seguin-emily-dangelo-14189" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TESORI: GROUNDED</a>
Emily D&rsquo;Angelo, Ellie Dehn, Ben Bliss, Kyle Miller, Greer Grimsley, The Metropolitan Opera
&nbsp;
Best Orchestral Performance
<a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/messiaen-turangalla-nelsons-wang-13655" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MESSIAEN: TURANGAL&Icirc;LA-SYMPHONIE</a> Andris Nelsons &amp; Boston Symphony Orchestra
&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/still-bonds-yannick-nezet-seguin-the-philadelphia-orchestra-14200" target="_blank" rel="noopener">STILL &amp; BONDS: SYMPHONIES &amp; VARIATIONS</a> Yannick N&eacute;zet-S&eacute;guin &amp; The Philadelphia Orchestra 
Best Classical Instrumental Solo
<a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/shostakovich-cello-concertos-yo-yo-ma-andris-nelsons-13798" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SHOSTAKOVICH: THE CELLO CONCERTOS</a>
Yo-Yo Ma; Andris Nelsons, conductor (Boston Symphony Orchestra)
&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/shostakovich-piano-concertos-solo-works-yuja-wang-andris-nelsons-13763" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SHOSTAKOVICH: THE PIANO CONCERTOS &amp; SOLO WORKS</a>
Yuja Wang; Andris Nelsons, conductor (Boston Symphony Orchestra)
&nbsp;
Best Engineered Album, Classical
<a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/shostakovich-lady-macbeth-andris-nelsons-13732" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SHOSTAKOVICH: LADY MACBETH OF THE MTSENSK DISTRICT</a> Andris Nelsons, Kristine Opolais, G&uuml;nther Groissb&ouml;ck, Peter Hoare,
Brenden Gunnell &amp; Boston Symphony Orchestra
&nbsp;
Best Album Notes
AFTER THE LAST SKY&nbsp;(ECM)
Adam Shatz, album notes writer (Anouar Brahem, Anja Lechner, Django Bates, Dave Holland)

STAGE+ Celebrates World Opera Day with New App Suite for Google Play and Samsung Galaxy Stores

In new partnership with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, STAGE+ to present Jeanine Tesori&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.stage-plus.com/de/video/live_concert_9HKNCPA3DTN66PBIEHFJ2C9G6K">Grounded</a> and catalogue highlights from two decades
Full functionality and quality features &ndash; including 4K, Dolby Atmos and HighRes Audio &ndash; now also available in Google and Samsung ecosystems
The mobile app for Deutsche Grammophon&rsquo;s streaming service STAGE+ is now available with full functionality for Android users. It can be downloaded from the Google Play Store and Samsung Galaxy Store. New customers can take advantage of a 30-day free trial to explore all features and content before subscribing to the platform.
STAGE+ offers over 50 livestreams per year of performances from the world&rsquo;s most prestigious concert halls and opera houses. Every week, more audio and video releases are added to the platform&rsquo;s extensive and exclusive archive, which now hosts over 1500 VODs (concerts, operas and documentaries) and over 7000 DG, Decca, ECM, Hyperion, Carus, CAvi and Myrios audio albums.
Streams are available in high-quality audio and video options, including 4K, Dolby Atmos and HighRes Audio, while optimised metadata allow subscribers to search recordings by composer, orchestra, artist or work. All content can be downloaded for offline listening and viewing, with push notifications to provide reminders of live events.
The STAGE+ app is now available on Apple iOS, tvOS and visionOS; Android Mobile, Android TV and Google TV (Smart TV); Amazon Fire TV (Smart TV and Fire TV Stick); Samsung Tizen (Smart TV); and LG&nbsp;webOS (Smart TV). It also supports Apple AirPlay and CarPlay or Google Cast and Android Auto.
New and existing subscribers are invited to immerse themselves in all the passion, drama and colour of opera as STAGE+ celebrates <a href="https://www.stage-plus.com/de/partner/partner_A1GN4T3ECLP5UD9L">World Opera Day</a> (25 October). Its specially curated selection of performances feature such stars of the opera world as Emily D&rsquo;Angelo, Cecilia Bartoli, Benjamin Bernheim, Nadine Sierra, Bryn Terfel, Jonathan Tetelman and Pretty Yende.
Canadian mezzo-soprano Emily D&rsquo;Angelo (&lsquo;Female Singer of the Year&rsquo;, OPUS KLASSIK 2025) stars as a female fighter pilot in Jeanine Tesori&rsquo;s acclaimed opera <a href="https://www.stage-plus.com/video/live_concert_9HKNCPA3DTN66PBIEHFJ2C9G6K">Grounded</a>, with a libretto by George Brant. She performs alongside tenor Ben Bliss. Filmed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Grounded is directed by Michael Mayer, with the Met Opera Chorus and Orchestra conducted by Yannick N&eacute;zet-S&eacute;guin. The opera will premiere on STAGE+ on World Opera Day.
Four more operas from New York will appear on STAGE+ between now and early March 2026, as part of the platform&rsquo;s new <a href="https://www.stage-plus.com/partner/partner_A1GN4T3ECLP5UC9G6K">partnership with the Metropolitan Opera</a>. One production will be premiered each month: Verdi&rsquo;s La traviata, with Nadine Sierra and Stephen Costello on 29&nbsp;November; Massenet&rsquo;s Cinderella, with Isabel Leonard and Emily D&rsquo;Angelo on 25&nbsp;December; Puccini&rsquo;s La rondine, with Angel Blue and Jonathan Tetelman on 24&nbsp;January; and Donizetti&rsquo;s Lucia di Lammermoor, with Nadine Sierra and Javier Camarena on 6&nbsp;March.
A further 13 productions from the Metropolitan Opera have already been added to the STAGE+ archive. These encompass some of the company&rsquo;s most iconic stagings of recent years, including Robert Lepage&rsquo;s&nbsp;Ring cycle.
Also new to STAGE+ is a&nbsp; library of 100 operatic productions &nbsp;from Naxos. Filmed at such prestigious venues as Covent Garden, Glyndebourne and the Staatsoper Berlin, these additions enrich the STAGE+ core-repertoire archive but also feature some fascinating rarities &ndash; for example, the Deutsche Oper Berlin production of Korngold&rsquo;s Das Wunder der Heliane, directed by Christof Loy.
STAGE+ also enjoys partnerships with the Royal Ballet &amp; Opera; Op&eacute;ra national de Paris; Bayreuth Festival; Teatro alla Scala, Milan; Wiener Staatsoper; Bayerische Staatsoper; Teatro Real, Madrid; Deutsche Oper Berlin; Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin; Salzburg Festival; and Zurich Opera.
As part of this year&rsquo;s World Opera Day series, STAGE+ is offering three streaming events free of charge: <a href="https://www.stage-plus.com/video/vod_concert_APNM8GRFDPHMASJKBSPJ2E8">Pretty Yende and Nadine Sierra in Concert</a> from the Philharmonie de Paris; Donizetti&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.stage-plus.com/video/vod_concert_APNM8GRFDPHMASJKBSQJCD8">L&rsquo;elisir d&rsquo;amore</a> from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with Nadine Sierra and Bryn Terfel; and Mozart&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.stage-plus.com/video/vod_concert_APNM8GRFDPHMASJKBSOJ2C9J">Le nozze di Figaro</a> from the Wiener Staatsoper, with Andr&egrave; Schuen as the Count. There are also a huge number of operas waiting to be discovered in its audio archive, from Monteverdi&rsquo;s L&rsquo;Orfeo to Saariaho&rsquo;s Adriana Mater. &nbsp;
Download the app <a href="https://help.stage-plus.com/hc/en-gb/articles/39805842693019-Download-Supported-Devices">here</a>
OTHER FORTHCOMING STAGE+ HIGHLIGHTS
24 October, 7pm CEST, Premiere <a href="https://www.stage-plus.com/video/live_concert_9HKNCPA3DTN66PBIEHFJ2C9G6C">Joana Mallwitz conducts Der Rosenkavalier &ndash; with Diana Damrau</a> Opernhaus Z&uuml;rich
28 October, 8pm CET, Premiere <a href="https://www.stage-plus.com/video/live_concert_9HKNCPA3DTN66PBIEHFJCE9I">Fabio Luisi &amp; Julius Asal: Scriabin&rsquo;s Piano Concerto</a> with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra
8 November, 8pm CET, Premiere <a href="https://www.stage-plus.com/video/live_concert_9HKNCPA3DTN66PBIEHFJ2C9M70">Yannick N&eacute;zet-S&eacute;guin &amp; Seong-Jin Cho: Bruckner &amp; Beethoven</a> Lucerne Festival
15 November, 8pm CET, Premiere <a href="https://www.stage-plus.com/video/live_concert_9HKNCPA3DTN66PBIEHFJCCHN">Mikhail Pletnev plays Chopin &amp; Scriabin</a> Laeiszhalle, Hamburg
22 November, 7.30pm CET, Livestream <a href="https://www.stage-plus.com/video/live_concert_9HKNCPA3DTN66PBIEHFJ2C9M74">Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as, Antonio Pappano &amp; the COE: Lalo &amp; Dvoř&aacute;k</a> Esterh&aacute;zy Palace

GRAMOPHONE CLASSICAL MUSIC AWARDS 2025 - DG Artists María Dueñas, Joana Mallwitz and Krystian Zimerman Take Home Four of This Year’s Prestigious Prizes

Berlin/London, 16 October 2025. The Gramophone Classical Music Awards 2025 gala ceremony took place last night at the De Vere Connaught Rooms in central London. Renowned as the Oscars of classical music, the Gramophone Awards &ndash; presented with Presto Music &ndash; &nbsp;celebrate the finest recordings of the previous twelve months, recognising the outstanding achievements of artists, ensembles and labels. This year, no fewer than four of the prestigious awards were presented to Deutsche Grammophon artists and recordings.
There was a dual victory for Spanish violinist Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as. Not only did her second DG album Paganini: 24&nbsp;Caprices win the Instrumental Award but she was also named Young Artist of the Year (an award sponsored by Classic FM). Gramophone summed up Due&ntilde;as&rsquo;s readings of Paganini as &ldquo;dazzling&rdquo;, going on to praise her &ldquo;luminously radiant and golden-toned, fluidly quicksilver technique&rdquo;, as well as hailing the &ldquo;joys&rdquo; of the album&rsquo;s companion disc (works by Berlioz, Cervell&oacute;, Kreisler, Gabriela Ortiz, Saint-Sa&euml;ns, Sarasate and Wieniawski). Due&ntilde;as also treated the ceremony to a performance from that album and stated in her acceptance speech &ldquo;it&rsquo;s a great pleasure and honour&hellip; thank you for believing in the power of youth and curiosity in the arts, thank you so much for this recognition.&rdquo;
The Chamber Award (sponsored by Wigmore Hall) went to the album featuring Brahms&rsquo;s Piano Quartets Nos. 2 and 3 made by pianist and DG artist Krystian Zimerman with violinist Maria Nowak, violist Katarzyna Budnik and cellist Yuya Okamoto. Gramophone called it an &ldquo;outstanding recording&rdquo;, noting how it contains &ldquo;fervour, angst and lyricism in Shakespearean proportions&rdquo;. Maria Nowak and Yuya Okamoto accepted the award on behalf of the quartet.
&ldquo;I am deeply honoured &ndash; and truly touched &ndash; that our recording of&nbsp;Brahms&rsquo;s Piano Quartets&nbsp;has been chosen for this year&rsquo;s&nbsp;Gramophone Award,&rdquo; says Krystian Zimerman. &ldquo;My warmest thanks to&nbsp;Gramophone&nbsp;for this recognition, to&nbsp;Deutsche Grammophon&nbsp;for their faith and patience, and to our audience&nbsp;-&nbsp;for listening, with open hearts. And, not being such a serious person after all, please allow me to put it in the language of today:&nbsp;We are happy to have made Brahms great again!&rdquo;
&nbsp;Conductor Joana Mallwitz and the Berlin Konzerthausorchester, meanwhile, took home the Orchestral Recording of the Year Award for The Kurt Weill Album. Featuring the Berlin composer&rsquo;s two symphonies as well as the &ldquo;sung ballet&rdquo; Die sieben Tods&uuml;nden, this is the debut DG album from Mallwitz, recently named OPUS KLASSIK&rsquo;s Conductor of the Year 2025. &ldquo;This Weill collection, polished but never slick, merits the very strongest recommendation,&rdquo; said Gramophone. &nbsp;
&ldquo;On behalf of the musicians of the Konzerthausorchester and all those who have contributed to this CD &ndash; on and behind the stage &ndash; I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for this award,&rdquo; says Joana Mallwitz. &ldquo;It honors us very much and we are very happy about it, also because it helps to bring Kurt Weill's great works back into focus.&rdquo;
There was further success for Universal Music in the shape of the Opera Award. This was given to Norwegian National Opera&rsquo;s recording of Wagner&rsquo;s Der fliegende Holl&auml;nder, conducted by Edward Gardner and starring soprano and Decca Classics artist Lise Davidsen as Senta. The landmark album captures this &ldquo;true Wagnerian&rdquo; live in a role she is unlikely to revisit.
&ldquo;We are delighted that our artists and recordings have once again been recognised by Gramophone in major categories and that the Yellow Label has garnered around a quarter of the total awards presented tonight&ldquo;, says&nbsp;Dr Clemens Trautmann, President Deutsche Grammophon and New Business Strategy Global Classics. &ldquo;Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as&rsquo;s expressive and technical abilities shine in her tribute to Paganini and his successors, and it&rsquo;s hugely gratifying to see her exceptional talent recognised in the Young Artist and Instrumental categories. Krystian Zimerman and his colleagues&rsquo; interpretations of Brahms are the perfect exemplar of collaborative musicianship, while Joana and Konzerthausorchester have done fantastic work in championing Kurt Weill&rsquo;s symphonic music in the studio as well as on the concert platform. My warmest congratulations to all our winners.&rdquo;
&nbsp;
DETAILS OF UNIVERSAL MUSIC&rsquo;S AWARD-WINNERS:
1 | Deutsche Grammophon Krystian Zimerman, Maria Nowak, Katarzyna Budnik, Yuya Okamoto Chamber Recording of the Year Brahms: Piano Quartets Nos. 2 &amp; 3
2 | DG Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as Instrumental Recording of the Year Paganini: 24 Caprices, etc.
3 | DG Joana Mallwitz/Berlin Konzerthausorchester Orchestral Recording of the Year The Kurt Weill Album
4 | DG Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as Young Artist of the Year
5 | Decca Classics Lise Davidsen, Orchestra &amp; Chorus of Norwegian National Opera/Edward Gardner Opera Recording of the Year Der fliegende Holl&auml;nder

OPUS KLASSIK 2025 - Universal Music’s Classical Artists Honoured in Major Categories 

Berlin, 12 October 2025. The work of some of Universal Music&rsquo;s leading classical artists has been recognised at the OPUS KLASSIK 2025 awards. Musicians signed to Deutsche Grammophon, Decca Classics and DG partner label CAvi Music won awards in 9 different categories, including major categories such as Singer (both male and female), Instrumentalist and Conductor of the Year. Today&rsquo;s prestigious gala awards ceremony, hosted by actress and presenter D&eacute;sir&eacute;e Nosbusch at the Konzerthaus Berlin, featured live performances by several prize-winners with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin conducted by Anu Tali.
Emily D&rsquo;Angelo (Female Singer of the Year) &ndash; honoured for her second solo DG album <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/freezing-emily-dangelo-13563" target="_blank" rel="noopener">freezing</a> &ndash; captivated the audience with a newly arranged orchestral medley of Wild Mountain Thyme and O&nbsp;Love is Teasing, while Benjamin Bernheim &ndash; named Male Singer of the Year for his first solo song album <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/douce-france-melodies-chansons-benjamin-bernheim-13552" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Douce France: M&eacute;lodies &amp; Chansons</a> &ndash; performed the aria &ldquo;Pourquoi me r&eacute;veiller&rdquo; from Massenet&rsquo;s Werther. Instrumentalist of the Year awards went to Seong-Jin Cho (<a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/ravel-the-complete-solo-piano-works-seong-jin-cho-13661" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ravel: The Complete Solo Piano Works</a>) and Antje Weithaas (<a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/vasks-violin-concerto-no-2-antje-weithaas-13593" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vasks: Violin Concerto No. 2</a>). Having won the latter award last year for <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/saint-saens-lang-lang-13199" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lang Lang &ndash; Saint-Sa&euml;ns</a>, pianist Lang Lang this year won Bestseller of the Year for the same album. He played Chopin&rsquo;s Pr&eacute;lude in E minor, Op.&nbsp;28 No.&nbsp;4 and Andrew Wrangell&rsquo;s Rush E, two of the many miniatures on the upcoming album <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/piano-book-2-lang-lang-13779" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Piano Book 2</a>. This new volume amplifies the message of the original Piano Book (Lang Lang&rsquo;s highest-streaming album to date), namely that classical music is for everyone. The 2025 Conductor of the Year award went to Joana Mallwitz for <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/the-kurt-weill-album-joana-mallwitz-13499" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Kurt Weill Album</a>, recorded with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, of which she is Chief Conductor, while Aigul Akhmetshina was named a Young Talent of the Year for her debut solo album Aigul. Creative storytelling&nbsp;&ndash; as in Alice Sara Ott&rsquo;s ‑immersive 45minute film <a href="https://www.stage-plus.com/video/vod_concert_APNM8GRFDPHMASJKBSRJGE0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nocturne</a>, directed by Andrew Staples (Audiovisual Music Production of the Year), and David Chalmin&rsquo;s experimental <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/sonic-wires-katia-marielle-labeque-deluxe-edition-13676" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sonic Wires</a> (Innovative Listening Experience of the Year) &ndash; demonstrated the spirit of artistic renewal at the heart of OPUS KLASSIK 2025.
Key to the ceremony were the celebrations surrounding Estonian composer Arvo P&auml;rt, this year&rsquo;s recipient of the Lifetime Achievement award. Still active at the age of 90, P&auml;rt has exerted a decisive influence on classical music since the 1960s. In developing his tintinnabuli technique, he opened up a new soundworld that has touched millions of people worldwide. He made his first recording for DG partner label ECM Records in 1984, launching an ongoing collaboration with ECM&rsquo;s founder and producer Manfred Eicher which has led to legendary recordings of key works including Tabula Rasa, Fratres and Spiegel im Spiegel. P&auml;rt&rsquo;s work also features on Deutsche Grammophon, notably on the recently-released album of pianist Georgijs Osokins, For Arvo.
&ldquo;The OPUS KLASSIK has established itself as one of the world&rsquo;s most eminent music awards and a true celebration of classical music in all its variety. We&rsquo;re proud to have seen our artists triumph in so many major categories this year,&rdquo; says Kleopatra Sofroniou, General Manager Classics, Deutsche Grammophon. &ldquo;Every project honoured today, from virtuosic interpretations of core repertoire to innovative collaborations and cutting-edge new music, reflects the creativity and extraordinary vitality of our roster.&rdquo;
Frank Briegmann, Chairman &amp; CEO Universal Music Central Europe and Deutsche Grammophon, adds: &ldquo;My heartfelt congratulations to all our nominees and award-winners on their outstanding achievements. Universal Music&rsquo;s artists and labels have once again shown how world-class artistry, creativity and a shared passion for music define what we do. My thanks go to our partners and all involved in making the OPUS KLASSIK weekend such a wonderful celebration of what classical music can achieve today and in the future.&rdquo;
The OPUS KLASSIK is Germany&rsquo;s most prestigious classical music prize. Designed to honour outstanding artists and recordings, it is awarded by the Verein zur F&ouml;rderung der Klassischen Musik&nbsp;e.V. (Society for the Promotion of Classical Music), whose members are drawn from record labels, promoters, publishers and other representatives of the classical music world. A jury of industry experts decide the OPUS KLASSIK awards in 30 different categories.
The ceremony was broadcast at 22.15 (CEST) by OPUS KLASSIK&rsquo;s media partner ZDF. The OPUS KLASSIK concert was broadcast on RBB&rsquo;s radio3 at 20.00 (CEST) on 12 October 2025.

Victor le Masne Reimagines Ravel As DG Marks 20 Years of its Groundbreaking Recomposed Series 

The Composer and Musical Director of the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics bridges the contemporary and classical worlds in his 150th-anniversary homage to Ravel 
&nbsp;Ravel Recomposed includes Le Masne&rsquo;s versions of Bol&eacute;ro, Le jardin f&eacute;erique, excerpts from the String Quartet and L&rsquo;enfant et les sortil&egrave;ges, and many more
Out on 21 November 2025, the album features guest performances from Christine and the Queens (lyrics and vocals), Julius Asal (piano) and Camille Thomas (cello) 
&nbsp;&ldquo;Ravel&rsquo;s music is so modern, so universal. He can be very demanding, yet he is always generous and very warm &ndash; I tried to keep his warm feeling of humanity.&rdquo; (Victor le Masne)
Ravel Recomposed presents Victor le Masne&rsquo;s affectionate take on music by one of the greatest of all French composers. This 12-track album is the latest edition in Deutsche Grammophon&rsquo;s pioneering Recomposed series, launched 20 years ago with Matthias Arfmann&rsquo;s reworks of recordings by the Berliner Philharmoniker and Herbert von Karajan. Fresh from his monumental role as Composer and Musical Director of the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics, Grammy&reg;-winning&nbsp;composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Le Masne brings vibrant colours and contemporary reflections to works he has loved since childhood. The album commemorates the 150th anniversary of Maurice Ravel&rsquo;s birth with a fusion of musical styles and genres, embracing everything from classical and jazz to Le Masne&rsquo;s distinctive brand of French Touch electro-dance music. It also features guest contributions from Christine and the Queens and DG&nbsp;artists Julius Asal and Camille Thomas.
Ravel Recomposed comes out in all formats on 21 November 2025, and the first digital single to be shared is Le jardin f&eacute;erique on 29 August. This track inspired the album&rsquo;s cover image, designed by Le&nbsp;Masne&rsquo;s wife, Jill Caytan. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s about the idea of lush musical environments, and the idea of fading,&rdquo; says the composer. &ldquo;When you see a flower, there&rsquo;s a timeless vibe, but also something impermanent. It reminds me of Le jardin f&eacute;erique, the fairy garden. I asked my wife to make the image because I wanted something true, intimate and very close to my heart.&rdquo;
Ravel has been close to Le Masne&rsquo;s heart for most of his life. &ldquo;I grew up in a family of musicians, and my father is a composer,&rdquo; he explains. &ldquo;When I was very young, he played me a lot of Ravel&rsquo;s music. And my mother loved L&rsquo;enfant et les sortil&egrave;ges. It was a bit scary for me &ndash; the idea of furniture and animals turning against this naughty child. But I think the music went into me in a very strong way.&rdquo;
At the age of sixteen, Le Masne was given a mix tape by his father which included Bol&eacute;ro and &ldquo;Lever du jour&rdquo; from Daphnis et Chlo&eacute;. &ldquo;I played the Ravel many, many times. And I started to understand his harmonies more clearly and enjoy them, not as a child, but as someone receiving his music.&rdquo;
Years later, that influence fed into his work as Composer and Musical Director of the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics. &nbsp;As well as collaborating with Lady Gaga, Aya Nakamura, Jean-Michel Jarre, C&eacute;line Dion and other global artists, he wrote scores for all four ceremonies, including reworks of several pieces by Ravel.
That led to an invitation from Christian Badzura, DG&rsquo;s Vice President A&amp;R New Repertoire, to add to the Recomposed series, which encourages composers to open a contemporary dialogue with music from the past. Previous editions include Matthew Herbert&rsquo;s take on Mahler&rsquo;s Tenth Symphony, Peter Gregson&rsquo;s reworks of Bach&rsquo;s Cello Suites and Max Richter&rsquo;s &nbsp;2012 and 2022 reinventions of Vivaldi&rsquo;s Four Seasons. &ldquo;It helps to approach a project like this with intelligence, and with respect,&rdquo; says Le&nbsp;Masne. &ldquo;If you add in some fun as well, you can create something very interesting.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Victor brought an elegant balance of respect and reinvention to this project,&rdquo; confirms Badzura. &ldquo;By recomposing Ravel through his own musical voice, he&rsquo;s created something that feels both timeless and contemporary. It&rsquo;s a bold artistic statement that deepens the repertoire while opening it up to new audiences who simply have a thirst for great music.&rdquo;
Having studied Ravel&rsquo;s scores in depth and read all he could about the composer, Le Masne chose twelve pieces, then applied a multitude of genres and compositional techniques as he began to transform the originals. He plays piano, synths and percussion himself on the album, as well as conducting the musicians who joined him in the studio, and working closely with his three guest soloists.
Singer-songwriter-producer-choreographer Christine and the Queens, who worked with Le Masne at the 2024 Paralympics, improvised his own lyrics to Bol&eacute;ro &ndash; &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never witnessed anything like that before. It&rsquo;s quite amazing!&rdquo; In Jeux d&rsquo;eau, Le Masne added strings and winds to the solo part played by pianist Julius Asal, and in Chanson h&eacute;bra&iuml;que, cellist Camille Thomas&rsquo;s haunting line is accompanied by guitar, bass and kalimba.
Le Masne&rsquo;s compositional inventiveness is evident throughout Ravel Recomposed, notably in &ldquo;Lever du jour&rdquo;, in which he turns one of Ravel&rsquo;s finest melodies on its head. &ldquo;I like the idea of a reversed world for the final track, because this album is about recomposing Ravel,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;So I start with the reverse melody, then I go into the original harmonies but make it as a kind of loop. Then there&rsquo;s the climax, done with a new instrumentation. And then you have maybe 30 seconds of climax before that too returns in reverse. The original is so well written that even in reverse it sounds amazing!&rdquo;
&nbsp;
August 2025

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Universal Music Greater China launches Deutsche Grammophon China, marking a strategic expansion into China's classical scene

Deutsche Grammophon debuts DG China, announcing projects with cellist Jian Wang, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and next wave of Chinese classical talent
&nbsp;
SHANGHAI, MAY 15, 2025 &ndash; Universal Music Greater China (UMGC), a division of Universal Music Group (UMG), today announced the official launch of Deutsche Grammophon China (DG China) and Blue Note Records China, marking a major expansion into China&rsquo;s burgeoning classical and jazz music sectors. As two of the most iconic and influential labels in global classical and jazz history, Deutsche Grammophon and Blue Note will now operate dedicated China imprints through collaboration with UMGC, bringing their artistic excellence and storied legacy into closer dialogue with China&rsquo;s music community.
Both new labels will focus on identifying and supporting rising Chinese talent, fostering original creativity, and building pathways for Chinese musicians to connect with global audiences.
Timothy Xu, Chairman &amp; CEO of Universal Music Greater China, said: &ldquo;For decades, Deutsche Grammophon and Blue Note have held a special place in the hearts of Chinese classical and jazz musicians. These labels have deeply influenced the way local artists understand, study, and create within these genres. Today marks a new beginning - for the first time, these two iconic brands are establishing dedicated labels in China to engage directly with local artists and communities. DG China and Blue Note Records China will be fully committed to discovering and supporting the next generation of talent emerging from China. Through these efforts, we hope to contribute to the growth and appreciation of classical and jazz music in China, and to help bring the richness of Chinese musical expression into deeper dialogue with the world.&rdquo;
Adam Granite, Executive Vice President, Market Development, Universal Music Group, said: &ldquo;At UMG, we are committed to supporting the development of diverse music cultures around the world. The launch of Deutsche Grammophon China and Blue Note Records China reflects this vision in action and marks a meaningful step forward in the evolution of our multi-label operations in the market. By combining the global heritage and artistic leadership of these two iconic labels with the market knowledge and cultural insight of our local team, we are creating a stronger platform to connect Chinese talent with global opportunities.&rdquo;
Deutsche Grammophon China (DG China) was officially launched with a mission to discover and support the next wave of Chinese classical talent, and to contribute to the broader appreciation of classical music in the country. The label will sign and develop emerging musicians from across China, backed by UMG&rsquo;s global infrastructure &mdash; from recording and repertoire development to international promotion and touring.
At the launch event, it was also announced that globally renowned pianists Lang Lang and Yuja Wang, and Long Yu, acclaimed conductor and Music Director of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra &mdash; all long-time international DG artists &mdash; will serve as Artistic Advisors to DG China.
Dr Clemens Trautmann, President Deutsche Grammophon and New Business Strategy Global Classics, comments: &ldquo;In the past decade Deutsche Grammophon has hugely&nbsp;increased its visibility in the vibrant Chinese classical music market, with the 120th anniversary gala concert in the Forbidden City, the re-signing of Lang Lang, and the comprehensive collaboration with Long Yu and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. We are proud to co-invest in the future generation of outstanding classical performers from Greater China, together with our esteemed colleagues at UMGC to foster the success of amazing new talent across recording, touring and brand partnerships. Embarking on this journey alongside the equally iconic Blue Note imprint and with our international artists Lang Lang, Yuja Wang and Long Yu as Artistic Advisors, underlines the global footprint and boundless creativity of UMG in the field of arts Lang Lang shared a special video message celebrating the launch and said, &ldquo;Deutsche Grammophon has been my musical home for many years, and I&rsquo;m thrilled to see the launch of DG China. It&rsquo;s an honor to serve as Artistic Advisor and continue supporting a label that has shaped my artistic journey. I believe DG China will be a key platform for emerging Chinese musicians and help connect classical music with broader audiences. I also hope it will bring more Chinese voices to the global stage &mdash; a mission I deeply believe in and am proud to be part of.&rdquo;
Yuja Wang commented: &ldquo;The Yellow Label has been my recording home for well over a decade, and I am delighted to see it engage with young artists in my home country. I am thrilled to support this initiative as Artistic Advisor and to help identify and grow future talent across the full spectrum of classical music.&rdquo;
DG China will release its first album on May 23, 2025 &mdash; Bach: The Cello Suites, performed by internationally acclaimed cellist Jian Wang. &ldquo;Bach&rsquo;s Cello Suites have been the most important works in my life as a cellist,&rdquo; said Jian Wang. &ldquo;Over the past two decades, I have approached them with deep reverence, constantly exploring new interpretations and artistic insights. On the 20th anniversary of my previous recording on Deutsche Grammophon, I felt a profound urge to revisit these masterpieces &mdash; to document my evolving understanding and reflections in a new rendition. I am truly grateful to DG China for supporting this project.&rdquo;
DG China has also announced a special project with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra to record and globally release the complete Shostakovich Symphonies in 2029, commemorating the orchestra&rsquo;s 150th anniversary.
Long Yu said: &ldquo;It is a great honor to be named Artistic Advisor to DG China, and I appreciate the trust that Deutsche Grammophon and Universal Music China have placed in me. I have enjoyed a long and rewarding relationship with the label, and it is thrilling to witness the launch of DG China as a new chapter in its celebrated legacy. Our upcoming Shostakovich project is not only a tribute to the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra&rsquo;s 150-year history, but also a powerful expression of the artistry and interpretive depth of Chinese musicians today. With DG&rsquo;s global platform, we are proud to bring these voices to audiences around the world.&rdquo;
The DG China launch event was also attended by leading figures from China&rsquo;s classical community, including composers Zhao Lin and Yu-Peng Chen, and Fedina Zhou, President of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.
&nbsp;

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Title

SCHUMANN Complete Works for Piano Trio / Dénes Várjon, Antje Weithaas, Marie-Elisabeth Hecker

Schumann: Complete Works for Piano Trio

Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 63 Piano Trio No. 2 in F major, Op. 80 Piano Trio No. 3 in G minor, Op. 110 Fantasiest&uuml;cke, Op. 88

On their upcoming album, violinist Antje Weithaas, cellist Marie-Elisabeth Hecker and pianist D&eacute;nes V&aacute;rjon present Schumann&rsquo;s complete works for piano trio. On the album, the three artists explore music in which intimacy and passion, lyrical reflection and restless energy, light and darkness can succeed one another in an instant.
The album brings together the three Piano Trios, Opp. 63, 80 and 110, and the Fantasiest&uuml;cke, Op. 88. Begun in 1842 as Schumann&rsquo;s first composition for piano trio and revised before its publication in 1850, the Fantasiest&uuml;cke offer a concentrated, poetic counterpart to the three numbered trios.
All three artists have established international solo careers while keeping chamber music at the centre of their artistic lives. Their shared musical language, shaped in concert and deepened in the studio, allows them to follow every sudden turn of mood, bringing Schumann&rsquo;s hidden ideas and the shifting dialogue among the three voices into focus.
Recorded over seven intensive days in February and March 2025, the album is released in the year of Antje Weithaas&rsquo;s 60th birthday and includes a richly illustrated 24-page booklet with an essay by Elisabeth Richter, an interview with the artists, archival images and photographs from the recording sessions.
The full album will be released digitally and on CD on 30 October. Pre-order the CD edition in the <a href="https://store.deutschegrammophon.com/de-de/products/antje-weithaas-robert-schumann-complete-works-for-piano-trio-121821?_pos=2&amp;_psq=antje+wei&amp;_psid=ad1fc6e42&amp;_ss=e">DG Store</a>.
Listen to a first pre-release track, the third movement of Schumann&rsquo;s Fantasiest&uuml;cke, Op. 88.

Mist Without

Digital

Apple Music Album

Amazon Music

Spotify

Deezer

Amazon MP3 Album/Track

iTunes Album

Presto Classical - Streaming

Presto Classical - Digital

Tidal

YouTube Music

Qobuz

STAGE+ Audio

With Mist Without, recently signed pianist and poet Xiaofu Ju presents his debut album for DG China. This concept-driven recital transforms a single image into a richly imagined listening journey, introducing a distinctive artistic voice of a new generation.&nbsp;
Inspired by the German notion of Weltschmerz (pain of the world) and the spirit of Chinese Misty Poetry, the album reveals its emotional world through suggestion rather than direct expression. Meaning emerges gradually, like shapes appearing through mist, as music, text, and poetry come together to create a unified artistic experience.&nbsp;
More than a collection of masterpieces, Mist Without is conceived as a complete one-sitting experience &mdash; an immersive world that moves through mist, night, ghosts, mourning, and darkness before arriving at a moment of lucid stillness. The music comes to an end, yet the mist remains. &nbsp;

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