Decca Re-Signs Exclusive Recording Contract with Riccardo Chailly

Decca Classics is proud to announce the renewal of its longstanding exclusive recording contract with the great Italian conductor Riccardo Chailly.

Projects under discussion in the new five-year agreement include a new cycle of Brahms symphonies to be toured throughout Europe in 2013, the Konzertmusik by Hindemith and the Verdi Requiem. Decca has also signed a new agreement with the Gewandhausorchester where Chailly has been Kapellmeister since 2005.

Paul Moseley, General Manager of Decca Classics, said: "Maestro Chailly has been an important part of the Decca family for a very long time but renewing with him is genuinely rejuvenating for all of us. Every project he takes on is re-conceived from first principles and his partnership with the great Leipzig orchestra is recognized worldwide as simply electrifying. We can't wait for his Beethoven cycle and realizing our other new plans together over the coming years."

Riccardo Chailly said: "Over nearly 30 years together I always felt Decca was ready to follow me not only in the core repertoire but with new adventures and risks. Our new contract will see a happy continuation of this philosophy."

2011 will see the release of a major new cycle of all nine Beethoven symphonies to coincide with the Gewandhaus' European tour in Autumn 2011, which will see the complete symphony cycle performed in Leipzig, Vienna, Paris and London.

"An electrifying occasion" (The Guardian)
"An uplifting experience" (The Independent)
"Chailly is a consummate musician" (The Times)
(reviews of Beethoven 8th & 9th symphonies at the Barbican, New Year's Day 2009)

Since taking up the baton in Leipzig, Riccardo Chailly has made acclaimed recordings of the music of his predecessor as Kapellmeister, Felix Mendelssohn, award-winning concerto recordings with Nelson Freire and Janine Jansen, and a series of the great works of the city's greatest musical resident, J. S. Bach - the most recent being the Weihnachtsoratorium which will be released tomorrow, December 7, 2010 in the US.

Maestro Chailly's first recording for Decca was in 1978 when aged just 25 he conducTed Rossini's opera Guglielmo Tell with a stellar cast led by Luciano Pavarotti and Mirella Freni. He became an exclusive Decca recording artist on January 1, 1982, celebrating with a classic recording of Rossini Overtures.
Over three decades, Decca has made over 100 recordings with all five of Maestro Chailly's orchestras - the RSO Berlin, the Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi and, most recently, the Gewandhausorchester.

As well as acclaimed cycles of the symphonies of Mahler and Bruckner, Maestro Chailly has championed 20th Century music - most notably Varèse, Berio, Zemlinsky and Shostakovich - as well as continuing to make outstanding recordings of Rossini, Puccini and Verdi, often in collaboration with other stars of the Decca roster like Luciano Pavarotti, Cecilia Bartoli, Angela Gheorghiu, Juan Diego Flórez and Joseph Calleja.

In addition to his substantial classical repertoire, he recently collaborated with the noted Italian jazz-pianist Stefano Bollani on an album of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and Concerto in F, which is currently enjoying pop chart success in his native Italy and will be released in the US in 2011.

www.deccaclassics.com/riccardochailly

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