Deutsche Grammophon and Apple Music mark launch of new dedicated audio and audio-visual destination for classical music with special media event at Salzburg Festival

In Deutsche Grammophon's 120th-anniversary year, the label's artists to curate Apple Music's Beethoven, Mozart and Bach radio stations

Daniil Trifonov leads way creating Apple Music's first Video Essential Playlist by a classical performer and Rolando Villazón launches first opera visual album with his performance in Gounod's "Roméo et Juliette"

Deutsche Grammophon and Apple Music announce long-term collaboration designed to enhance the experience of classical music for a global music audience.

Central to the new experience with Apple Music are "The DG Playlist" – a regularly updated classical musical experience to highlight the very best recordings from the iconic 120-year-old classical music label – a selection of visual albums featuring legendary performances by DG superstar artists and special video performances from Daniil Trifonov and Ildar Abdrazakov. For the launch, artists Daniil Trifonov, Rolando Villazón and Peter Gregson curate Apple Music's three main composer radio stations: Mozart, Bach and Beethoven.

Deutsche Grammophon's Apple Music destination brings together audio and visual content in one platform and will highlight major classical music events, iconic releases, featured composers and performers and significant anniversaries alongside curated playlists and outstanding audio-visual content on which Apple Music's specialist classical team will work closely with DG's in-house and guest curators.

In 2016, Deutsche Grammophon became the first classical label to establish a curator channel on Apple Music. The partnership has continued to develop, delivering over two dozen successful playlists and creating the foundations for the future curatorial collaboration with Apple Music.

The DG destination www.applemusic.com/dg launched today with a high-profile media conference at Mozart's birthplace. DG artists Daniil Trifonov, Rolando Villazón, Ildar Abdrazakov and Peter Gregson performed and appeared on a panel discussion about music curation in the digital age. They were joined by Michael Bladerer, CEO of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Together they offered an overview of their personal curatorial approach, conveying their passion, energy and enthusiasm for classical music in the digital era.

"The curatorial power of the Yellow Label and our vibrant artist community has always been exceptional, in record stores and in the digital space," comments Dr Clemens Trautmann, President Deutsche Grammophon. "In a world where attention spans have become shorter and classical music content more ubiquitous, people must think wisely before spending their limited time and resources. Together with our partner Apple Music, we aim to enable discovery and provide orientation to everything that is essential in classical music. We also embrace the opportunity to present short-form and long-form video productions in a significant way, making the service a cornerstone of DG's global audio-visual strategy."

Jonathan Gruber, Apple Music, welcomes this launch, "Classical music is all about the joy of exploration, and we are thrilled to welcome the amazing artists of Deutsche Grammophon to join our worldwide team of trusted guides," he said.

Daniil Trifonov's performance at Mozart's birthplace was recorded and will be added to his inaugural Video Essential Playlist immediately, along with other newly recorded and specially curated material. "I am delighted to have the opportunity to share my work on Apple Music, thanks to my label's new space there allowing artists like myself to share their music with the classical community," observes Daniil Trifonov. "I feel privileged to be the first classical artist to present an audio-visual playlist of my performance videos; I have dear memories of conceiving and creating them over the past few years, and I'm excited for them to be available widely on Apple Music."

Other audio-visual highlights include the first ever full opera to be offered by Apple Music in the form of a visual album – a critically acclaimed account of Gounod's Roméo et Juliette from the 2008 Salzburg Festival, starring Rolando Villazón and conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin – along with a Salzburg video playlist, including the Mozart Gala given to mark the composer's 250th-anniversary year, featuring Anna Netrebko, Magdalena Kožená, Thomas Hampson, Daniel Harding and the Vienna Philharmonic.

"Mozart has been one of my long-time passions and Salzburg has always been a central place in my life, both as a performer and as artistic director of Mozartwoche," notes Rolando Villazón. "I am thrilled, therefore, to be able to share some of my favourite Mozart pieces on Apple Music's Mozart radio station. I'm fully aware of how important it is to provide context and orientation to listeners of classical music and am committed to making its richness accessible to everyone. I feel the new DG space on Apple Music is an excellent forum for discovery."

Michael Bladerer comments: "Approximately one third of Vienna Philharmonic's over 175 years of musical history have been documented in a partnership with Deutsche Grammophon, among others outstanding recordings with Maestri Abbado, Bernstein, Böhm, Boulez, Furtwängler, Karajan, Kleiber und Sinopoli and more recently with Barenboim, Dudamel, Gardiner, Muti, Nelsons, Previn und Thielemann. We are delighted that this discographic oeuvre can be rediscovered through a prominent, expert-curated playlist on Apple Music and that a new global audience can become familiar with it."

Ildar Abdrazakov is certain of Apple Music's relevance as a means to reach both new and existing classical fans. "I love engaging with my audience," he says. "For the campaign around my recent album with Rolando Villazón and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Apple Music's social media feature proved a great interactive communication tool. That's why I am so happy to share, via Connect, a video of a Mozart aria, recorded today."

Cellist Peter Gregson has attracted an international following to his genre-crossing, neo-classical compositions and thrilling creative collaborations. "Bach has always played a central role in my life, as a cello student and performer at the Royal Academy, as composer with my Recomposed project with the Cello Suites – and now as curator of Apple Music's Bach radio station," reflects Gregson. "With a footing in the classical and the non-classical world, it's important to open up new ways to access classical music. On streaming platforms, the barriers are lower than ever. And I believe that the Yellow Label – a brand well known beyond the core-classical community – can enable discovery together with DG's artist community that I am proud to be a part of," he adds.

Deutsche Grammophon's curators and artists are passionate about creating innovative ways of sharing classical music and building the global audience: partnering with Apple Music delivers reach, expertise and a commitment to music fans around the world.