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In the late '90s, mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli was one of the world's most popular singers, for several years eclipsed in album sales only by Luciano Pavarotti, and she remains a beloved figure. Her repertory runs from the Baroque through Mozart and the bel canto roles of the first third of the 19th century. Bartoli's performances and recordings are well-researched as well as beautifully sung, and for a singer of her stature, she has recorded a good deal of little-known music. A new Bartoli compilation, Casta Diva, appeared in 2024.

Bartoli was born in Rome on June 4, 1966. Her parents were both professional singers, and she made her stage debut at nine as a shepherd boy in Puccini's Tosca. Bartoli attended the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, studying trombone and flirting with a career as a flamenco dancer; her only long-term voice teacher had been her mother. She made her Zurich Opera House debut in 1989 as Cherubino in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro under conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, a frequent collaborator. That year also saw the release of Bartoli's debut album, Rossini Arias, on the London label. Her star rose rapidly in the early '90s; her debut in New York, where she remains extraordinarily popular, came at a 1990 Mostly Mozart Festival concert. In 1992, she would return to that festival for three sold-out shows.

Charismatic, musically intelligent, and vocally agile (singing both mezzo-soprano and soprano roles), Bartoli made her debut on the coveted stage at Milan, Italy's La Scala, in 1991. Bartoli has called herself a child of the 18th century and has been able to combine vocally spectacular Baroque roles, several times in Vivaldi's comparatively underexposed operas, with limpid Mozart melodies and bel canto through much of her career. Bartoli's Metropolitan Opera debut came in 1996 as Despina in Mozart's Così fan tutte, returning in 1997 in the lead role in Rossini's La Cenerentola, and once again in 1998 as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro. In the mid-2000s, she devoted herself mostly to Baroque opera, appearing as Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio Cesare, and then to bel canto toward the end of the decade, issuing the album Maria, which investigated the career of famed soprano Maria Malibran. The pace of Bartoli's stage appearances and recordings slowed somewhat in the 2010s but remained vigorous. Bartoli became the artistic director of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival in 2012; her appearances there as Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio Cesare (2012) and in the title roles of Bellini's Norma (2013) and La Cenerentola (2014), as well as her programming decisions, resulted in record ticket sales for the formerly academically oriented festival.

On recordings, Bartoli has been associated mostly with the London and Decca labels; crossover albums have been notably absent from her large catalog. Bartoli's 2011 album Sacrificium won a Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Performance; it was her fifth Grammy. Some of her albums have included music by lesser-known composers such as Antonio Salieri and Agostino Steffani; her concept album Mission (2012) covered the music and career of the latter. On Decca, she released Antonio Vivaldi, a collection of arias, in 2018. The following year saw the release of Farinelli, an homage to the 18th century castrato singer, on the cover of which Bartoli appeared in drag. Bartoli's 2021 album Unreleased consisted of an unissued 2013 album featuring arias by Beethoven, Josef Mysliveček, Mozart, and Haydn, all written for leading divas of the era. Her 2024 release Casta Diva was a collection of classic and newly recorded Bartoli material; by that time, her recording catalog comprised well over 50 items, many of them complete operas. Bartoli was inducted into the French Order of Arts and Letters in 1995. She has lived with her husband, baritone Oliver Widmer, in Switzerland on Lake Zurich, in Rome, and in Monaco. ~ James Manheim

András Schiff is among the most prominent members of a generation of Hungarian pianists born in the years following World War II, along with such artists as Zoltán Kocsis, Dezso Ránki, and Jenö Jandó. Of this remarkable group, Schiff has achieved the strongest international reputation, due not only to his decision to pursue his career outside of Hungary but also to his finely shaded sense of touch and his energetic yet clear treatment of contrapuntal textures.

Schiff was born in Budapest on December 21, 1953. He studied with composers Pál Kadosa and Ferenc Rados (saying of the latter that he had benefited from his overwhelmingly critical attitude), as well as harpsichordist George Malcolm. Schiff made his debut in Budapest at age 19 and was soon making concert appearances throughout Europe and the U.S., despite Iron Curtain-era restrictions. He took the top prize at the 1974 Moscow competition and the 1975 Leeds Festival. A major early mentor was violinist and conductor Sándor Végh, with whom Schiff recorded the complete piano concertos of Mozart and much violin-and-piano chamber music. In 1989, he founded his own Mondsee Musiktage festival near Salzburg (where he had first encountered Végh). Schiff also formed his own ensemble, Cappella Andrea Barca, in 1999, and with it, recorded a complete cycle of Mozart's piano concertos.

Schiff's energy and clarity in contrapuntal music has made him a top Bach interpreter; he has recorded Bach's complete keyboard music. Later, he recorded a complete Beethoven sonata cycle on the boutique label ECM, completing it in 2009. He has also recorded a large amount of music by Schubert and Schumann, receiving a prize in 2011 from the city of Zwickau, Germany, for his interpretations of the latter. Eastern European music by the likes of Béla Bartók and Leos Janácek have also appeared prominently in his repertory. He left Hungary in 1979 and spoke out forcefully against developments there, stating that he would never again set foot in his homeland, alluding to physical dangers he would face if he did. He renounced his Austrian citizenship, which he had taken in 1987, also for political reasons, and is now a British citizen.

In the 2000s, he often revisited Bach repertory that he had previously recorded. Schiff has held several prestigious residencies: from 2004 to 2007, he was Artist-in-Residence of the Kunstfest Weimar; in the 2007-2008 season, he was Pianist-in-Residence of the Berlin Philharmonic; and in 2011-2012, he was a Perspectives Artist of Carnegie Hall in New York. Schiff is married to violinist Yuuko Shiokawa, with whom he has recorded violin-and-piano repertory for ECM. In addition to ECM, Schiff's large discography includes albums on the Decca, London, and Teldec labels as well as others. In the 2010s, despite earlier skepticism about the trend, he began to perform and record on the fortepiano, often using a Viennese instrument of 1820 built by the lesser-known maker Franz Brodmann. On that instrument, he released an album of Schubert Impromptus and the Piano Sonata in C minor, D. 958, in 2019. He returned on ECM with an album of Brahms piano concertos in 2021 and with J.S. Bach: Clavichord in 2023. By that time, Schiff's recording catalog comprised well over 150 items. ~ James Manheim