Super Audio CD or SACD is the next generation of audio disc, offering full-range, uncompressed multi-channel surround sound based on a new type of digital recording technology called Direct Stream Digital (DSD), as well as superior-to-CD stereo. As with the step up from mono to stereo, uncompressed surround sound represents a quantum leap in your musical listening experience.

A Super Audio CD looks like a normal CD and almost all of the SACD titles we supply contain a CD layer. These are called 'hybrid' discs. This allows you to play the disc on any existing CD player (hi-fi, walkman, in-car system, etc.), whilst being able to enjoy the superior SACD quality via a SACD player.

Cellist David Watkin, formerly of the Eroica Qt, joins the Tokyos in this distinguished reading of Schubert's 'Quintet in C' - the last and perhaps the most haunting of all his chamber works, in which light and shadow, serenity and drama are presented in constant alternation. The programme also includes the 'Quartettsatz' of 1820 with its fragmentary slow movement.

Cheryl Barker first broke the hearts of audiences worldwide as Mimì in Baz Luhrman's imaginative production of La bohème. In Puccini Passion the radiant Australian soprano delivers beguiling performances in a panoply of Puccini's heroines in favourite arias, accompanied by the State Orchestra of Victoria under the baton of Richard Bonynge.

This recording, the second celebrating the 450th anniversary of Rogier's birth, is a new collection of premiere recordings by the Renaissance composer, including the Missa Philippus Secundus Rex Hispaniae and a selection of Iberian Polyphony.

The second release in the Complete Wagner Edition. It is a unique project with all Wagner's operas being performed by the same forces. The first release, Flying Dutchman (PTC5186400) was a Gramophone Editor's Choice. This set is beautifully packaged.

The Sublime Porte was the name of the open court of the sultan, led by the Grand Vizier. It got its name from the gate to the headquarters of the Grand Vizier in the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, where the sultan held greeting ceremonies for foreign ambassadors. It was an ancient Ottoman practice to make the gates of cities and kings' palaces places of assembly. Later the name came to refer to the Empire's position as gateway between Europe and Asia.