Verbier Festival - Best of 2014

Erato presents one of Europe's most celebrated classical events - the annual Verbier Festival - releasing an official album for the first time, presenting highlights from the thrilling 2014 concerts.

Since 1994, the high-profile, high-altitude festival in the Swiss Alps has been a breath of fresh air for musicians and audiences alike, each year attracting a who's who of classical music without losing the intimacy and community fostered in this uniquely inspiring locale.

Twenty years after the first festival, the 2014 edition was no exception, with pianists Martha Argerich, Evgeny Kissin, Daniil Trifonov and Jan Lisiecki, along with cellists Mischa Maisky and Gautier Capuçon, headlining a long list in which living legends rub shoulders with the younger generation of classical luminaries.

The dynamic young Verbier Festival Orchestra was conducted by revered maestri Charles Dutoit (an electrifying Tchaikovsky B-flat Piano Concerto with Martha Argerich), Marc Minkowski (Beethoven Fidelio - highlights) and Daniel Harding (Verdi's Don Carlo). The festival also commissioned two important world premieres: Rodion Shchedrin's Moscow-Petushki Dramatic Fragment for Orchestra, and young British composer Edward Nesbit's To Dance On Sands for eight cellos.

The magical atmosphere and live excitement of this orchestral, opera and chamber music idyll are captured here on disc and digital audio platforms for the first time, for release in July. Just in time for the 2015 festival featuring Joyce DiDonato and Angela Gheorghiu, Edgar Moreau, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon and more in another sensational line-up.