Box Set Selections,
Boxed Set Selections - February 2024
Nordic Symphonies
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Malmö Symphony Orchestra et al
In addition to complete Sibelius and Nielsen cycles (with the Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester & Kurt Sanderling and Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra & Theodore Kuchar respectively), this collection includes Grieg's symphony from the mid-1860s (which he suppressed but later reworked into the Two Symphonic Pieces for piano four-hands), Hugo Alfvén's Symphonies No. 1 & 3, Wilhelm Stenhammar's folk-inspired Symphony No. 2, and Johan Svendsen's Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2. (The first of Svendsen's symphonies was very positively reviewed by Grieg, shortly before he decided that his own symphony 'must never be performed).
Available Format: 10 CDs
This set comprises all of the recordings of his own music which Copland made for Columbia Masterworks between 1935 and 1976, plus recordings of Inscape and Connotations by Leonard Bernstein. Soloists include Bernstein (in the Piano Concerto), William Warfield (in the Old American Songs), Benny Goodman (in the Concerto for Clarinet, Strings & Harp) and Isaac Stern (in the Violin Sonata).
Available Format: 20 CDs
Released by Universal Music France as part of its Écoutez le Cinéma series, this 20-disc collection features concert-works such as the Sinfonietta for Wind Ensemble, Violin Concerto No. 1 and Elegy for Cello and Orchestra, early film-scores including Checkmate, How To Steal A Million and Not With My Wife, You Don’t! and the Anne-Sophie Mutter collaboration Across The Stars as well as Williams's enormously popular scores for the Indiana Jones films, Jaws, E.T. The Extra-Terrestial, Schindler's List, and Jurassic Park.
Available Format: 20 CDs
Beethoven: The Complete Symphonies
Camilla Tilling (soprano), Kelley O'Connor (mezzo), Issachah Savage (tenor), Ryan McKinny (bass-baritone); National Symphony Orchestra, Kennedy Center, Gianandrea Noseda
Recorded live at the Kennedy Center between 2021 and 2023, this Washington Beethoven cycle was originally released as four digital albums and met with a warm reception: reviewing Symphonies Nos. 1 &3 , BBC Music Magazine noted that 'while the orchestra’s beautifully rounded collective sound is a world away from today’s period-style hegemony, it has such quality in its own right that nothing sounds anachronistic', and Gramophone observed that the playing in the Pastoral 'vividly evokes an atmosphere of refreshing coolness'.
Available Formats: 5 SACDs + Blu-ray Audio, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Released to mark the 215th anniversary of Mendelssohn's birth, this 40-disc anthology includes the first CD release of a collection of the organ works from Marie-Claire Alain, plus the Violin Concerto with Maxim Vengerov, the complete symphonies with the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester and Kurt Masur, chamber music from the Alban Berg Quartett, and rarities such as excerpts from the operas Die beiden Pädagogen and Die Heimkehr aus der Fremde.
Available Format: 40 CDs
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
