Box Set Selections,
Boxed Set Selections - September 2018
As well as a comprehensive centenary tribute to Birgit Nilsson, September’s heavyweights include collections from Gramophone Award-winners Neeme Järvi and Blue Heron, the first-ever boxed set focusing on Cecilia Bartoli, two starry compendia from major Swiss music festivals, and archive treasures from Sviatoslav Richter and Alexander Brailowsky.
Grieg, Nielsen and Sibelius feature prominently on this celebration of the relationship between the Estonian conductor (winner of this year's Gramophone Lifetime Achievement Award) and the Swedish orchestra, whom he served as principal conductor from 1982 to 2004; Swedish composers are also well represented, including Alfvén, Stenhammar, Dag Wirén and Lars-Erik Larsson.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
22 discs of live recordings made at the Swiss festival between 2002 and 2016; Argerich’s guests include Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Gidon Kremer, and fellow pianists Stephen Kovacevich, Nelson Goerner, Maria João Pires and Piotr Anderszewski. Featured composers include Mozart, Bartók, Shostakovich, Ravel, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Janáček and Lutosławski.
Available Formats: 22 CDs, MP3, FLAC
Lucerne rather than Lugano is the main focus on this 13-disc collection, with some stunning performances from Verbier thrown into the mix: includes Mozart symphonies from Jérémie Rhorer and Le Cercle de l'Harmonie, a recital of Bloch, Rachmaninov and Shostakovich from Sol Gabetta and Bertrand Chamayou, Mahler Five from James Levine and the Verbier Festival Orchestra, and On Wenlock Edge from Ian Bostridge and the Casals Quartet.
Available Format: 13 CDs
The first complete collection of Paganini’s works, this 40-CD set makes use of numerous manuscripts which were fiercely guarded by a private collector until 1970 and which supersede earlier published editions; includes recordings of the complete caprices from both Leonidas Kavakos and Ruggiero Ricci, and vintage recordings of the concertos from Yehudi Menuhin, Fritz Kreisler, Arthur Grumiaux and Zino Francescatti.
Available Format: 40 CDs
Recorded live in Moscow and Leningrad between 1948 and 1963, this collection includes selections from Liszt’s Transcendental Studies, Harmonies poétiques et religieuses and Années de pèlerinage, the complete Chopin ballades and selected nocturnes and mazurkas, Szymanowski’s Piano Sonata No. 2, and excerpts from the Liszt and Chopin concertos.
Available Formats: 12 CDs, MP3, FLAC
The Borodins have a uniquely close relationship with Shostakovich’s quartets (their original line-up frequently consulted and performed with the composer, and both current violinists had direct contact with him towards the end of his life); this set also includes the Preludes from Podrugi, the Piano Quintet (with Alexei Volodin), and the Elegy & Polka Op. 36a.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
The Boston-based vocal ensemble won a Gramophone Award earlier this month for the fifth volume of their traversal of these sixteenth-century English partbooks, and this set brings together the complete recordings, made between 2010 and 2017. You can read David’s in-depth interview with their director Scott Metcalfe about the project here.
Available Formats: 5 CDs, MP3, FLAC
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
