Box Set Selections,
Boxed Set Selections - July 2019
July heavyweights include a celebration of the Wiener Staatsoper at 150, Karajan’s Tchaikovsky from Berlin and Bernstein’s Beethoven from Vienna remastered in 24bit sound, a collection of Frescobaldi’s organ and harpsichord works recorded on a range of glorious Italian historical instruments, and Donizetti, Schubert and Mozart from István Kertész in Vienna.
The Italian organist and harpsichordist (who studied with Gustav Leonhardt and Luigi Tagliavini) uses nine different instruments for this collection, including the organs of Santa Maria in Vallicella and the Basilica di San Martino Maggiore in Bologna, and replicas of harpsichords by Alessandro Trasuntino and Costanzo Antegnati; the collection was partially recorded at the summer residence of the Este dukes, where Frescobaldi spent part of his boyhood.
Available Formats: 7 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Frescobaldi also features on this 6-CD box celebrating the legacy of the great French organist and improviser; recorded during the 1960s and early 70s, the repertoire includes JS Bach, Froberger, Muffat, Widor, Giroud, Pachelbel and Vierne.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
This 8-CD collection brings together the complete recordings which the Russian-American pianist made for Columbia between 1986 and 1990, including Tchaikovsky piano concertos with Mstislav Rostropovich, Prokofiev concertos with Michael Tilson Thomas, Rachmaninov with Zubin Mehta, Liszt’s Piano Sonata and Petrarch Sonnets, Schubert’s Wanderer-Fantasie and Moments Musicaux, and the Chopin Preludes.
Available Format: 8 CDs
Presented on 5 CDs and 1 Blu-ray Audio disc (remastered at 192kHz/24-bit), this set of Bernstein’s Beethoven cycle from Vienna (originally issued in 1980, and described by Classical.Net as ‘the conductor's finest symphonic Beethoven efforts in one place’) includes transcripts of his spoken introductions to the works from their television broadcasts and a new essay about Bernstein and Beethoven by Jed Distler.
Available Format: 5 CDs + Blu-ray Audio
Beethoven: Complete Symphonies
Danish National Concert Choir, Danish Chamber Orchestra, Ádám Fischer
On the evidence of the three symphonies which we’ve already test-driven in the Presto office, Fischer Senior’s Beethoven cycle (recorded at intervals over the past three years) looks set to prove as fresh and revelatory as his excellent ongoing Mahler series with his Düsseldorf orchestra; Fischer takes the unusual step of casting a countertenor, Lars Møller, in the Ninth.
Available Formats: 5 CDs, MP3, FLAC
Also presented on CD and Blu-ray Audio is Herbert von Karajan’s Tchaikovsky cycle from the late 1970s, described as ‘peerless’ in the Penguin Guide and praised in Gramophone for its ‘fullness and vividness of sound’; the set is released on 26th July to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the conductor’s death.
Available Format: 4 CDs + Blu-ray Audio
Originally released on ASV in the 1990s, the British pianist’s Scriabin survey was described as ‘uniquely spellbinding’ (International Piano), ‘revelatory’ (Fanfare), ‘vivid and insinuating’ (Gramophone), and ‘cleanly articulated but still warm and atmospheric’ (BBC Music Magazine). The set includes six of the ten sonatas, the complete Preludes and Études, and a generous selection of the smaller-scale works.
Available Formats: 5 CDs, MP3, FLAC
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
