This month’s heavyweights include anniversary anthologies to mark the 450th birthday of the Staatskapelle Berlin and the 90th birthday of Decca Records, a celebration of Zubin Mehta’s tenure in Los Angeles, and vintage mono and stereo recordings of the Beethoven violin sonatas from Zino Francescatti and Robert Casadesus.
The first third of this 15-CD collection is devoted to the second of Jochum’s Beethoven symphony cycles, dating from the late 1960s, followed by a substantial selection of overtures; the repertoire also includes Strauss tone-poems, Wagner Preludes and Overtures, symphonies by Mozart, Schubert and Schumann, and a live recording of Bruckner Five from the Abbey of Ottobueren in 1964.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV
The Legacy of Charles Munch
Orchestre de la Société Philharmonique de Paris, L’Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire de Paris, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Concertgebouworkest, New Philharmonia Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Charles Munch
This 14-CD box comprises the French maestro's complete discography on Decca as well as his earliest recordings for Polydor and for LOiseau-Lyre, made in Paris in 1938 and newly transferred from the original masters. The repertoire includes Widor's rare Fantaisie in A flat, generous helpings of Ravel and Roussel, and Berlioz's Grande messe des morts, recorded in Munich the year before Munch's death.
Available Format: 14 CDs
This 9-SACD set features Bychkov’s BBC Music Magazine Award-winning Lohengrin (starring Johan Botha, Adrianne Pieczonka and Petra Lang) from 2010, Strauss’s Eine Alpensinfonie, Till Eulenspiegel and Elektra, Rachmaninov’s The Bells and Symphonic Dances, and the Verdi Requiem with Violeta Urmana, Olga Borodina, Ramón Vargas, and Ferruccio Furlanetto.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV
This 7-CD set comprises the complete stereo cycle which the pair recorded in Paris between 1958 and 1961, plus earlier mono recordings of seven sonatas (including previously unreleased accounts of Nos. 5 & 6 from 1957). The stereo set was praised in High Fidelity as ‘flawlessly well articulated, cleanly reproduced, and with every element of Beethoven’s writing set into proper perspective’.
Available Format: 7 CDs
The Ébène's Beethoven cycle was recorded live over the course of a tour which took in São Paulo, Tokyo, Vienna, Philadephia, Nairobi, Paris and Melbourne; Gramophone described the first instalment (released last September) as ‘Beethoven unburdened by the weight of history or hindsight’ and observed that their ‘acute sense of emotional timing distinguishes the Ébènes from many of their contemporary rivals’.
Available Formats: 7 CDs, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
