Box Set Selections,
Boxed Set Selections - November 2024
November heavyweights include collections celebrating French-American conductor and harpsichordist William Christie (whose eightieth birthday falls next month), the great film-composer John Williams, Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi, Dutch cellist Pieter Wispelwey, and the Belcea Quartet (which turns thirty this year).
Released in anticipation of the American-French conductor and harpsichordist's eightieth birthday this December, this anthology of his work for Erato includes his landmark recordings of Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie, Les fêtes d'Hébé and Zoroastre, Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Die Zauberflöte, Charpentier's La descente d'Orphée aux enfers and Médée, and Handel's Alcina, Orlando, Serse and Theodora.
Available Format: 61 CDs
John Williams in Concert (vinyl)
Saito Kinen Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, John Williams
This seven-LP set includes the concerts of his film-music which Williams conducted in Toyko, Berlin, Vienna and Boston (featuring music from the scores for the Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Harry Potter franchises, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Hook, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, The Witches of Eastwick and Jaws), plus his Violin Concerto No. 2 for Anne-Sophie Mutter. A 12-inch Darth Vader picture disc includes versions of the Imperial March from Star Wars from all four orchestras.
Available Format: 7 Vinyl Records
Paavo Järvi: The Complete Erato Recordings
Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; Paavo Järvi
This wide-ranging collection of the Estonian conductor's recordings for Virgin Classics, EMI and Erato features a generous selection of music by the Nordic composers whom he has long championed, including Grieg, Sibelius and Stenhammar as well as Järvi's compatriots Arvo Pärt & Erkki-Sven Tüür; a bonus CD includes the first release of Franck’s Symphony, recorded with the Orchestre de Paris in September 2023. Look out for our guest-writer Rob Cowan's review of the set next month...
Available Format: 31 CDs
This collection of the Belcea's Alpha recordings comprises music by Berg, Beethoven, Brahms, Janáček, Ligeti, Schoenberg, Shostakovich and Webern; the quartet's guests include Tabea Zimmermann and Jean-Guihen Queyras (in the Gramophone Award-nominated Brahms sextets), Piotr Anderszewski (in the Shostakovich Piano Quintet), and Nicolas Bone & Antonio Meneses (in Verklärte Nacht).
Available Format: 15 CDs
Giacomo Puccini Edition
John Barbirolli, Georges Prêtre, Lovro von Matačić, Antonio Pappano, Tullio Serafin et al
Highlights from this collection marking the centenary of Puccini's death include Il trittico with Tito Gobbi and Victoria de los Ángeles, La fanciulla del West with Birgit Nilsson, Madama Butterfly with Renata Scotto and Carlo Bergonzi, Tosca with Callas, Bergonzi and Gobbi, and recital-albums from Callas, Angela Gheorghiu, Montserrat Caballé, José Cura and Kiri Te Kanawa.
Available Format: 23 CDs
This anthology assembles all of the recordings which the Cuban-American pianist made for Decca between 1977 and 1990; his final recording of Chopin Nocturnes and the Berceuse (made just seven months before his death) appears here for the first time, with other highlights including Liszt's Années de pèlerinage, opera paraphrases and Piano Sonata, Schumann's Carnaval, a selection of Debussy Préludes, and concertos by Grieg, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff.
Available Format: 26 CDs
This set brings together the thirty-five recordings which Wispelwey made for the Dutch label between 1990 and 2009, including two accounts of the Bach Cello Suites, concertos by Vivaldi, Dvořák, Shostakovich, Lutosławski and Gubaidulina, solo works by Britten, Reger, Hindemith and Ligeti, and Brett Dean's ballet One of a Kind (which Wispelwey premiered in 1998). Keep an eye out for David's interview with Wispelwey about the set in the coming weeks.
Available Format: 35 CDs
The Japanese conductor (who died earlier this year) first worked with the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1966 and maintained a close relationship with the orchestra for the rest of his life, becoming an honorary member in 2016. Produced in close consultation with Ozawa and his family, this set includes Mendelssohn's Elijah, Bruckner's Symphony No. 7, Mahler's Symphony No. 1, Strauss's Eine Alpensinfonie, Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, and Ravel's Piano Concerto in G with Martha Argerich.
Available Format: 6 CDs + Blu-Ray Video
This is the most comprehensive collection to date of recordings by the Hungarian pianist Edith Farnadi (1921-73), who was widely respected for her interpretations of music by her compatriots of Liszt and Bartók (both of whom are well-represented here). The set also includes violin sonatas by Ravel, Grieg, Beethoven and Othmar Schoeck (with Gerhard Taschner), Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2.
Available Format: 21 CDs
