Box Set Selections,
Boxed Set Selections - September 2022
September heavyweights include a refreshed Vaughan Williams Collector's Edition on Warner Classics, Robert Levin's set of the Mozart keyboard sonatas performed on the composer's own fortepiano, the great Siberian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky's collected Philips recordings, and the complete sessions for Glenn Gould's 1981 Goldberg Variations on Sony - featuring eight hours of previous unreleased material, including conversations between Gould and the producers as well as the final Grammy-winning recording (restored from the original ¼-inch analogue tapes and mastered using 24 bit / 96 kHz technology).
Warner Classics mark Vaughan Williams's 150th birthday with this freshened-up reissue of the EMI previous Collector's Edition from 2010, with some new additions and minus a handful of tracks for which the rights have now expired. Highlights include Sir Adrian Boult's recordings of Job and The Pilgrim’s Progress, the complete symphonies from Vernon Handley, songs and folksongs from Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Ian Partridge and Robert Tear, and the operas Riders to the Sea and Sir John in Love from Meredith Davies.
Available Format: 30 CDs
To mark what would have been the Siberian baritone's sixtieth birthday next month, Eloquence reissue the eleven recital albums which he recorded for Philips in the 1990s, including Tchaikovsky & Verdi arias, Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death (both with Valery Gergiev), opera duets with Olga Borodina, Arie Antiche with Sir Neville Marriner, and several discs of Russian romances and folk-songs. The set is supplemented by a personal memoir from Hvorostovsky's Philips producer Anna Barry.
Available Format: 11 CDs
Nikolaus Harnoncourt Live: The Radio Recordings 1981-2012
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Curated by the Concertgebouw's artistic committee after a deep dive into the orchestra's extensive radio archives, this tribute to their late honorary guest conductor includes Bach's St John Passion, Haydn's Die Schöpfung, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Symphony No. 1, Dvořák's Biblical Songs with Christian Gerhaher, and Mendelssohn's incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream. All recordings receive their first commercial audio release here.
Available Format: 15 CDs
The German violinist began his long relationship with EMI in the mid-1980s, with a recording of Mozart's VIolin Concertos No. 3 & 5 with the Württembergische Kammerorchester Heilbronn; this 30-album collection also features concertos by Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, Ligeti, Stravinsky, Berg and Tchaikovsky, the complete Mozart sonatas with Alexander Lonquich, the Ysaÿe solo sonatas, and the Paganini Caprices.
Available Format: 30 CDs
To commemorate Gould's ninetieth birthday, Sony presents everything committed to tape during the sessions for his Grammy-winning 1981 recording of the Goldbergs, include his conversations with the producers as well as the takes themselves. Restored from the original ¼-inch analogue tapes and mastered using 24 bit / 96 kHz technology, the recordings are accompanied by a 216-page coffee-table book which includes an annotated score, transcriptions of the conversations, and recollections from the producers.
Available Format: 11 CDs
Isabelle Faust plays Bach
Isabelle Faust (violin), Kristian Bezuidenhout (fortepiano), Antoine Tamestit (viola), Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
This set brings together Faust's widely acclaimed complete Bach recordings on Harmonia Mundi to date: the Violin Concertos & Brandenburg Concertos (with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin), the Solo Sonatas & Partitas (which won a Diapason d’Or de l’Année in 2010), and Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord (with Kristian Bezuidenhout). A bonus DVD, recorded by Bach's tomb at the Leipzig Thomaskirche, features the Partita No. 2 in D minor and Sonata No. 3 in C major.
Available Format: 8 CDs + DVD Video
Founded by Sigiswald Kuijken in 1972, the Belgium-based ensemble quickly established itself at the forefront of historically-informed performance, and this fiftieth-birthday collection brings together their landmark recordings of the St Matthew Passion, St John Passion, Christmas Oratorio and Mass in B minor, all underpinned by Kuijken's extensive musicological research; soloists include Sunhae Im, Christoph Genz, and Marie Kuijken (daughter of Sigiswald).
Available Format: 9 CDs
Born in Azerbaijan in 1928, Davidovich was awarded joint first prize at the 1949 Chopin Competition, and was largely confined to the Soviet Union until she was allowed to emigrate to the US in 1978; her partnership with Philips began a year later, with recordings of Beethoven sonatas, Schumann's Carnaval and Chopin's Preludes. This set collects together the recordings she made over the next four years, including the Chopin Piano Concertos with Sir Neville Marriner, and a superb disc of Scriabin and Prokofiev (issued in 1985).
Available Format: 8 CDs
Recorded on the composer's own Anton Walter instrument from 1782, this set includes not only the complete keyboard sonatas but also Levin's completions of a number of unfinished fragments. Levin’s interpretations draw on First Viennese School performance practice, including improvised elements and decorations in repeated sections; the set is supplemented by a 100-page booklet with performance-notes by Levin and an extensive essay by Ulrich Leisinger (Director of Research at the Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg).
Available Formats: 7 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Etcetera 40th Anniversary Series
The Belgian independent label celebrates its fortieth birthday with four 10-CD collections, dedicated respectively to early music, Baroque, Classical & Romantic, and twentieth-century repertoire; personally selected by Etcetera's General Manager Dirk De Greef, highlights include Luigi Rossi's Oratorio per la Settimana Santa, Pieter Dirksen's Goldberg Variations on clavichord, Schubert's Schwanengesang from Thomas Oliemans and Malcolm Martineau, and Ten Holt's Canto Ostinato (the best-selling recording in the Etcetera catalogue).
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
