Box Set Selections,
Boxed Set Selections - May 2022
May heavyweights include Wilhelm Kempff's collected Decca and Polydor recordings, the Richard Hickox/Andrew Davis cycle of Vaughan Williams symphonies with the London Symphony and Bergen Philharmonic Orchestras on Chandos, the Netherlands Wind Ensemble's complete Philips recordings, and a fortieth-birthday anthology from Capriccio.
Smaller sets include Russian pianist Alexey Zuev's recordings of Stravinsky's complete piano solos & transcriptions on Fuga Libera, a five-disc collection of Hildegard von Bingen discs on Christophorus, and Andris Nelsons's 'Strauss Alliance' from Boston and Leipzig on Deutsche Grammophon.
Highlights from this newly remastered collection include previously unpublished recordings of Rameau and Brahms, Kempff’s first Decca recordings of JS Bach (which receive their premiere release on CD here), pre- and mid-war Polydor recordings of Beethoven sonatas with Pablo Casals and Georg Kulenkampff, and a set of Brahms’s late solo works from 1953. The booklet includes an in-depth essay by Alfred Brendel.
Available Format: 13 CDs
Vaughan Williams: Complete Symphonies
London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir, Edvard Grieg Kor, Richard Hickox, Sir Andrew Davis
Reissued to mark the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth, this was the first Vaughan Williams symphony cycle to be recorded in Surround Sound. Richard Hickox began the project in 1999 with the London Symphony Orchestra, and their ‘riveting’ account of A London Symphony was named Recording of the Year at the 2001 Gramophone Awards; after his death in 2008 the set was completed by Sir Andrew Davis and the Bergen Philharmonic.
Available Formats: 6 SACDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Nelsons describes this project as 'a dream come true: some of my absolute favorite music...with my two beloved orchestras': highlights include Eine Alpensinfonie, Tod und Verklärung, Ein Heldenleben and the Symphonia Domestica from Boston, and Don Juan, Also sprach Zarathustra and Till Eulenspiegel from Leipzig, plus Don Quixote with Yo-Yo Ma and the Burleske with Yuja Wang. The two orchestras come together on the final disc for the Festliches Präludium, written in 1913 for the opening of the Wiener Konzerthaus.
Available Formats: 7 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Released to mark the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin's fortieth birthday, this 11-disc set includes Johann Sebastian's complete Orchestral Suites and Brandenburg Concertos, symphonies and concertos by Carl Philipp Emanuel and Wilhelm Friedemann, Johann Ludwig's Trauermusik, and Johann Christian's Requiem and Miserere.
Available Format: 11 CDs
Founded as a wind quintet in 1959, the Netherlands Wind Ensemble soon expanded to champion larger-scale works by Mozart, Beethoven and Krommer, and began their relationship with Philips in 1968; this collection includes a generous selection of Mozart divertimenti, a 1978 set of Rossini paraphrases which was praised by High Fidelity for its ‘energy and charm’, and music by Antheil, CPE Bach, Dvořák, Stravinsky, Richard Strauss and Wranitzky.
Available Format: 17 CDs
Symphonic Highlights For Capriccio's 40 Year Anniversary
Concerto Köln, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Gürzenich Orchester Köln, Sir Neville Marriner, Hartmut Haenchen, Kurt Sanderling et al
Recorded between 1984 and 2005, this birthday box-set includes excerpts from the label’s first major project: a Beethoven cycle with the Dresdner Philharmonie and Herbert Kegel, represented here by Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3. Other highlights include Boyce’s Eight Symphonies and Tchaikovsky’s Mozartiana with Sir Neville Marriner, Shostakovich’s ‘Leningrad’ Symphony with the Gürzenich Orchester Köln and Dmitrij Kitajenko, and early Mozart with Sándor Végh.
Available Format: 10 CDs
Wege zu Hildegard von Bingen
Ensemble für frühe Musik Augsburg, Per-Sonat, Instrumentalkreis Helga Weber Estampie
This set brings together five discs of chants by Saint Hildegard which were released over the past four decades: Lieder und Antiphone von Hildegard von Bingen from 1980 (thought to be the earliest recording of her music), Göttliches Licht, Die grosse Mystikerin, materia mystica, and A Kiss of Peace. Sabine Lutzenberger was described as ‘one of Hildegard’s finest vocal advocates’ by Early Music Today when the latter album was released in 2013.
Available Format: 5 CDs
The Golden Age of Pianist-Composers
Joseph Banowetz, Sergio Gallo, Yue He, Jouni Somero, Paul Stewart, Artem Yaysynskyy (piano)
This collection shines a spotlight on six virtuoso pianists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries who also composed or arranged music for their instrument: Adolf von Henselt, Ignaz Friedman, Józef Kazimierz Hofmann, Alfred Cortot, Selim Palmgren, and Nikolay Medtner. Individual volumes in the series have been warmly welcomed, with Gramophone applauding Sergio Gallo’s ‘lively and attractive’ interpretations of Henselt and Pianist hailing He Yue’s disc of Cortot transcriptions as ‘a fantastic discovery’.
Available Format: 6 CDs
The Russian pianist Alexey Zuev has had a special affinity with Stravinsky’s music since early childhood, and this collection features the world premiere recordings of a series of arrangements and transcriptions (including the final movement of Le Baiser de la fée) which have hitherto been almost entirely unknown. The set was recently described on Record Review as ‘a really impressive achievement: it's crisp, it's clean, it's precise, it's clear’.
Available Formats: 5 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Ravel: Complete Orchestral Works
Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, SWR Vokalensemble, Cantus Juvenum Karlsruhe, Stéphane Denève
In addition to the purely orchestral works, this set also includes the one-act operas L’heure espagnole (with Stéphanie D’Oustrac as Concepción and Alexandre Duhamel as Ramiro) and L'enfant et les sortilèges (with Camille Poul as ‘L’Enfant), plus Shéhérazade (also with Oustrac). Reviewing the final instalment of the series in 2017, Gramophone noted that ‘Denève yet again proves himself an exceptionally fine conductor of French repertoire’ and BBC Music Magazine declared that ‘Stuttgart’s players excel’.
Available Formats: 5 CDs, MP3, FLAC
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
