Symphonic Highlights For Capriccio's 40 Year Anniversary
[ Capriccio / 10 CD - released 20/May/2022 ] Following Capriccio's founding in 1982 as a producer of LPs and tapes, the label's first recording to turn heads was its pioneering digital Beethoven Symphonies cycle with the Dresden Philharmonic under Herbert Kegel, which was issued on CD two years... |
GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL
Handel: Oratorios: Messiah, Athalia, Esther and La Resurrezione [8 CD set] Academy of Ancient Music / Emma Kirkby / Joan Sutherland / Aled Jones / David Thomas et al [ Decca / 8 CD Box Set - released 7/Dec/2005 ] Now at budget price! Christopher Hogwood's pioneering period instrument recordings of 4 Handel oratorios. |
GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL
Handel - Marriner: The Decca Legacy Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Neville Marriner [ Decca Australian Eloquence / 19 CD Box Set - released 22/Mar/2024 ] A unique collection of L'Oiseau-Lyre, Argo, Decca and Philips albums in original covers, showcasing both the genius of Handel and the musicianship of the classic ASMF/Marriner pairing at its most stylish. |
GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL
Handel: Messiah (complete oratorio Live from the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge 2009) Ailish Tynan, Alice Coote, Allan Clayton & Matthew Rose / Choir of King's College, Academy of Ancient Music, Stephen Cleobury [ Warner Classics / 2 CD Box Set - released 10/Mar/2010 ] "The first choral concert transmitted live to 85 cinemas, Stephen Cleobury's interpretation ticks all the boxes, with choir and orchestra impeccably balanced, and soloists glowing." The Independent, 24th April 2009 **** |
FRANZ SCHUBERT
Schubert: String Quartets, Trout Quintet & String Quintet Alban Berg Quartet, Elisabeth Leonskaja (piano), Georg Hörtnagel (double bass) [ Warner Classics / 5 CD Box Set - released 17/Mar/2023 ] The Alban Berg Quartett approach Schubert with classical discipline while vividly conveying the mysterious fervent power that is so instantaneously unique in the composer's works. They capture the quintessentially Viennese spirit of Schubert, as... |
LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN
Beethoven: Complete String Quartets Alban Berg Quartett [ Warner Classics / 7 CD Box Set - released 24/Aug/2012 ] "The Alban Berg Quartet possess a wonderfully burnished tone, superbly blended ensemble and unanimity of attack as well as flawless intonation." (Gramophone) |
MODEST MUSSORGSKY
Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov, opera in seven scenes (1869 version) Alexander Tsymbalyuk, Maxim Paster, Mika Kares, Sergei Skorokhodov, Göteborg Opera Chorus [ BIS SACD / 2 CD - released 6/Sep/2019 ] "This new account, based on live performances, is beautifully sung and played, and recorded in surround sound" MusicWeb |
VARIOUS COMPOSERS
Alexei Lubimov Alexei Lubimov (piano) [ Alpha Classics / 7 CD Box Set - released 13/Mar/2020 ] Composers: Beethoven, Ludwig van (1770-1827) Berg, Alban (1885-1935) Haydn, Franz Joseph (1732-1809) Ives, Charles (1874-1954) Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756-91) Satie, Erik Alfred Leslie (1866-1925) Schubert, Franz Peter... |
LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN
Beethoven: Piano variations and Bagatelles Alfred Brendel (piano) [ Brilliant Classics / 5 CD Box Set - released 14/Dec/2006 ] A truly historic document: some 40 years ago Alfred Brendel recorded Beethoven's Bagatellen and Piano variations. Here the eminent pianist already showed his idiosyncratic self. Some people consider his playing dull; others find it refreshingly... |
HANDEL
Belshazzar (complete oratorio) Allan Clayton, Rosemary Joshua, Iestyn Davies / Les Arts Florissants, William Christie [ Les Arts Florissants Editions / 3 CD Box Set - released 20/Jun/2014 ] "The choir of Les Arts Florissants acquit themselves with full honours in Handel's imaginative dramatic narrative choruses" (Gramophone Magazine, December 2013) |
J. S. BACH
Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier Books 1 & 2 Andras Schiff (piano) [ ECM New Series / 4 CD Box Set - released 20/Sep/2012 ] GRAMOPHONE AWARD FINALIST 2013: Instrumental |
RAVEL / PROKOFIEV / MOZART / BACH / CHOPIN
Andre Tchaikowsky - The Complete RCA Collection André Tchaikowsky (piano) / Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner [ RCA Red Seal / Sony Classical / 4 CD Box Set - released 15/Feb/2018 ] First ever release of André Tchaikowsky's complete RCA recordings in a 4CD collection. The set includes Tchaikowsky's debut LP recording remastered for the first time on CD. This recording features Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit which Tchaikowsky... |
ANGELO GILARDINO
Gilardino: Complete Music for Solo Guitar 1965-2013 Angelo Marchese (guitar) [ Brilliant Classics / 14 CD Box Set - released 14/Aug/2015 ] Angelo Gilardino is one of the most important guitar composers of the last half century. His unique style is a blend of the old and new, folk art and contemporary music, from Mozart to Messiaen. |
LEROY ANDERSON
Anderson: Orchestral Works (Complete) BBC Concert Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin, with Kim Criswell (soprano) & William Dazeley (baritone) [ Naxos / 5 CD Box Set - released 12/Nov/2021 ] Leroy Anderson etched out his own unique place in American music - a composer rigorously trained in the classical tradition whose records could top the pop charts, a reclusive personality whose compositions became household words. |
HENRYK GORECKI
Antoni Wit Conducts Henryk Górecki [Incls Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs) ] Anna Górecka (piano) Carol Wincenc (flute) Zofia Kilanowicz (soprano) / Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra [ Naxos / 3 CD Box Set - released 10/Apr/2014 ] "What impresses me most about this performance is its sprituality" - Gramophone on the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs |
RICHARD STRAUSS
Strauss, (R.): Orchestral Works [5 CD set] Anna Tomowa-Sintow (sop) / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan, with Lothar Koch, oboe, & Norbert Hauptmann, horn [ Deutsche Grammophon Collector's Edition / 5 CD Box Set - released 10/Oct/2012 ] Herbert von Karajan's Strauss recordings of the early 1980s, remastered in the 1990s, for the Karajan Gold Edition are a benchmark of lifetime of engagement with the composer in the concert hall and studio, and won unparalleled critical acclaim. |
CLAUDE DEBUSSY / MAURICE RAVEL
Boulez Conducts Debussy and Ravel (6 CDs special price) Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo) Krystian Zimerman (piano) / London Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Cleveland Symphony, Pierre Boulez [ Deutsche Grammophon / 6 CD Box Set - released 20/Jun/2012 ] "Zimerman's pianism is self-recommending. His trills in the first movement of the G major Concerto are to die for, his passagework in the finale crystalclear, never hectic, always stylish. Boulez and the Clevelanders are immaculate and responsive"... |
CHARLES LECOCQ
Lecocq: La fille de Madame Angot (complete operetta) Anne-Catherine Gillet; Véronique Gens; Mathias Vidal / Orchestre de chambre de Paris; Sébastien Rouland; Chœur du Concert Spirituel, Sébastien Rouland [ Bru Zane / 2 CD Box Set - released 22/Oct/2021 ] La Fille de Madame Angot, an opéra-comique in three acts, was premiered at the Théâtre des Fantaisies-Parisiennes in Brussels on 4 December 1872 before scoring a similar triumph in France on 21 February 1873. |
JACQUES OFFENBACH
Offenbach: The Opera & Operettas Collection Anneliese Rothenberger, Teresa Berganza, Michel Dens, Jose Carreras, Nicolai Gedda, Gabriel Bacquier, John Aler, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, etc [ Warner Classics / 30 CD Box Set - released 1/Jul/2019 ] He was born in Cologne, but it was in Paris that Jacques Offenbach achieved fame. A special feature of this 30-CD collection are star-studded recordings in both French and German of his most celebrated operettas. |
W. A. MOZART / BEETHOVEN / SCHUMANN / LISZT / BARTOK / SCHUBERT
Annie Fischer: The Complete London Studio Recordings Annie Fischer (piano) Philharmonia Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Otto Klemperer, etc [ Warner Classics Icon / 8 CD Box Set - released 23/Aug/2014 ] 'I can find no praise too high for Annie Fischer's playing, for she makes every phrase a delight. Sawallisch partners his soloist to perfection. Everybody has here combined to produce something really outstanding among recordings of Mozart... |