Box Set Selections,
Boxed Set Selections - October 2023
Released to mark the centenary of the Spanish lyric soprano's birth, this collection brings together all of the recordings which she made for EMI between 1948 and 1977; stand-outs include complete recordings of Puccini's La Bohème (with Sir Thomas Beecham), Gounod's Faust (with André Cluytens) and Massenet's Manon (with Pierre Monteux), several recitals of Spanish art-songs, and the first CD release of a concert which de los Ángeles gave with Gerald Moore at the Royal Festival Hall in 1964.
Available Format: 59 CDs
Comprising all of the operas and sacred works which Otto Klemperer recorded for EMI Columbia and HMV, this set includes Bach's St Matthew Passion (with Peter Pears, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Christa Ludwig, Nicolai Gedda and Walter Berry), the three Mozart/Da Ponte operas (with casts including Margaret Price, Luigi Alva and Geraint Evans), Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer and Act One of Die Walküre. Bonus material includes footage of the rehearsals and playback sessions for Don Giovanni and reminiscences from some of the singers who worked with Klemperer.
Available Format: 29 CDs
Solti in Europe: The Orchestral Recordings
Orchestre de Paris, Wiener Philharmoniker, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, World Orchestra for Peace et al,
Following boxes dedicated to Solti in London and Chicago, Decca presents a collection which spans his entire fifty-year relationship with the label - beginning with his first Decca recording as a pianist in 1947 and ending with the album of Kodály, Bartók and Weiner which he made with the Budapest Festival Orchestra just three months before his death in 1997. Other highlights include the Verdi Requiem and highlights from Der Ring des Nibelungen (both made with John Culshaw at the Sofiensaal in Vienna), a live recording Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Berliner Philharmoniker, and the 1995 UN 50th Anniversary Concert with the World Orchestra for Peace.
Available Format: 44 CDs + 2 DVD Videos
Including the Study Symphony and the 'Nullte' as well as the nine numbered symphonies, this is the Wiener Philharmoniker's first Bruckner cycle under a single conductor, released in anticipation of the composer's bicentenary next year. Individual volumes have been praised for their 'undeniable power and presence' (Fanfare on Symphony No. 4), 'magisterial' sound (The Sunday Times on No. 8) and 'near ideal balance between spaciousness and clarity of detail' (BBC Music Magazine on No. 5).
Available Formats: 11 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Nelsons began his Bruckner cycle in 2017, with what Gramophone described as a 'direct, clear-sighted and spacious' account of Symphony No. 3; subsequent instalments have been acclaimed for the 'the unique Leipzig blend of sound, portentous brass and brilliant woodwind solos' (The Sunday Times) and 'burnished and refulgent' horn sound (Limelight Magazine). The cycle also includes orchestral music from Wagner's operas.
Available Formats: 10 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
BBC Legends, Vol. 4: Great Recordings from the Archive
Sir John Barbirolli, Sir Adrian Boult, Nadia Boulanger, Clifford Curzon, Rudolf Serkin, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (piano) et al
Highlights from this fourth instalment of BBC Worldwide recordings from ICA Classics include Nadia Boulanger conducting Fauré's Requiem and two psalms by her sister Lili, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in Mahler's Rückert-Lieder and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Britten's War Requiem from Carlo Maria Giulini, a Schubert recital from Sviatoslav Richter, and Mahler's Symphony No. 4 from Sir John Barbirolli.
Available Formats: 20 CDs, MP3, FLAC
This celebration of the French conductor's two-decade relationship with the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg includes Ives's Symphony No. 4 and Three Places in New England, Bartók's Viola Concerto and suite from The Miraculous Mandarin, six Berlioz overtures, Debussy's Images and La mer, Stravinsky's Petrushka and The Rite of Spring, Ravel's Valses nobles et sentimentales and La Valse, and Janáček's Sinfonietta.
Available Formats: 10 CDs, MP3, FLAC
Sacred Music
Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe
This anthology of sacred works from Herreweghe and his Belgian choir comprises JS Bach's Mass in B Minor, Haydn's The Creation and The Seasons (a finalist at the Gramophone Awards in 2015), Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, Dvořák's Requiem and Stabat Mater, and Bruckner's Mass No. 2 in E minor.
Available Format: 11 CDs
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
