July heavyweights include a 7-CD set of Bernard Herrmann conducting his own film-scores, a multi-conductor Bruckner cycle from the Berliner Philharmoniker, Mark Wigglesworth's widely acclaimed Shostakovich cycle with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Friedrich Gulda's complete recordings on Decca, and an anthology of live recordings from the Sydney International Piano Competition.
Recorded over the past decade, this set features performances conducted by Herbert Blomstedt (No. 3), Bernard Haitink (Nos. 4 & 5), Mariss Jansons (No. 6), Paavo Järvi (No. 2), Zubin Mehta (No. 8), Seiji Ozawa (No. 1), Christian Thielemann (No. 7) and Simon Rattle (No. 9); includes a booklet-essay by Richard Taruskin and introductions to the individual symphonies.
Available Format: 9 SACDs
Shostakovich: The Symphonies
Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Mark Wigglesworth
Originally released between 1996 and 2010, Wigglesworth’s Shostakovich recordings with the Welsh and Dutch orchestras have been widely acclaimed, with The Guardian hailing the cycle as ‘one of the finest of recent times’, BBC Music Magazine describing him as ‘the finest Shostakovich interpreter of his generation’, and Gramophone praising the set’s combination of ‘high seriousness, fine detailing and a certain fierceness of articulation’.
Available Formats: 10 SACDs, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Made between 1954 and 1963, this collection of the Swiss conductor's stereo recordings with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Paris Conservatoire Orchestra includes substantial selections of works by Beethoven, Bizet, Debussy, Rousseau, Rimsky-Korsakov, Ravel and Stravinsky, plus relative rarities by Dukas, Glazunov, Glinka, Liadov and Frank Martin.
Available Format: 45 CDs
Featuring 77 pianists and music by 55 composers from JS Bach to Kapustin, this anthology was recorded between 1992 and 2016, over the course of seven competitions; the repertoire includes concertos, transcriptions and encores, and a substantial amount of Australian piano music by composers such as Ann Carr-Boyd, Brett Dean, Roy Agnew, and Arthur Benjamin.
Available Format: 11 CDs
With artists including Feodor Chaliapin, Natalia Rozhdestvenskaya, Evgeny Svetlanov, Walter Susskind, Boris Khaikin and André Clutyens, this set was recorded between 1946 and 1963 and comprises complete performances of Boris Godunov, Khovanshchina, Mlada, The Fair at Sorochyntsi, Zhenitba (‘The Marriage’), and the unfinished opera Salammbô; extras include pre-1940 recordings of Night on the Bare Mountain and the Intermezzo Symphonique in Modo Classico.
Available Format: 17 CDs
