August heavyweights include the great contralto Marian Anderson's complete recordings for RCA Victor, a centenary celebration of Giuseppe Di Stefano, a fiftieth-birthday collection from the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, an anthology of Anthony Collins's recordings for Decca, and the Lindsay Quartet's first Beethoven.
Marian Anderson: Beyond the Music
Marian Anderson (contralto)
This 15-disc set brings together all of the recordings which the African-American contralto made for RCA Victor between 1924 and 1966, restored from the original analog masters using 24 bit / 96 kHz technology; much of the material here is new to CD, and nine recordings are released for the first time in any format. Repertoire includes spirituals, Christmas carols, and lieder by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Strauss and Mahler.
Available format: 15 CDs
Beethoven: Complete String Quartets
Lindsay String Quartet
Recorded between 1979 and 1983, this is the Lindsay’s first complete Beethoven cycle; Opp. 18 and 74 were recorded as analogue LPs for the Enigma label, with the remainder of the quartets recorded by ASV using new digital technology. The late quartets from this set won the Chamber Music prize at the 1984 Gramophone Awards, and were described in the magazine as ‘second to none and superior to most’.
Available format: 10 CDs
Enrico Gatti: Imitating The Human Voice
Enrico Gatti
This set comprises the complete recordings which the Italian baroque violinist made with Ensemble Aurora between 1994 and 2016, using exceptional period instruments and often historically-significant recording-locations; repertoire includes Sonate da chiesa by Corelli, JS Bach’s Musical Offering, Stradella’s Cantate per il Santissimo Natale, violin sonatas by Tartini, Veracini and Mozart.
Available format: 13 CDs
Bruckner: 9 Symphonies
Berliner Philharmoniker, Daniel Barenboim
Originally released in the 1990s, Barenboim’s Berlin Bruckner cycle was praised by Fanfare (who described the Sixth as ‘a major landmark in Brucknerian discography’) and Gramophone (who praised the ‘superb Bruckner sound, spacious and clear’ on the recording of the Ninth). The set also includes Bruckner’s last completed work, the patriotic cantata Helgoland for male voice choir and orchestra.
Available formats: 9 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 44.1 kHz, 16 bit)
Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas & Concertos
Daniel Barenboim (piano/conductor), Berliner Philharmoniker
This set includes the first of Barenboim’s five studio cycles of the Beethoven sonatas (made in the mid-60s); Gramophone recently declared that these early interpretations ‘still stand as a fine achievement, and not merely when judged as those of a greatly gifted young artist’. The piano concertos date from twenty years later, and are directed from the keyboard.
Available format: 14 CDs
Júlia Várady: The Orfeo Recordings
Júlia Várady (soprano)
Released to mark the Hungarian-born German soprano’s eightieth birthday on 1st September, this 10-disc collection of recordings from 1981-2001 includes excerpts from operas by Verdi, Puccini, Strauss, Tchaikovsky and Wagner, operatic rarities by Spontini, Meyerbeer and Spohr, and lieder by Mozart, Strauss, Tchaikovsky and Spohr.
Available formats: 10 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 44.1 kHz, 16 bit)
Operas from Teatro Alla Scala (DVD)
Zubin Mehta, Michele Mariotti, Ádám Fischer, Franz Welser-Möst
Five acclaimed productions filmed in Milan between 2015 and 2017: Aida (with Kristin Lewis, Fabio Sartori and Anita Rachvelishvili), I Due Foscari (with Placido Domingo and Francesco Meli), Le nozze di Figaro (with Golda Schulz, Diana Damrau, Markus Werba, Carlos Álvarez and Marianne Crebassa), Die Zauberflöte (with Fatma Said and Martin Piskorski), and Die Entführung aus dem Serail (with Lenneke Ruiten, Mauro Peter and Sabine Devieilhe).
Available format: 8 DVD Videos
