THE KING'S SINGERS
The King's Singers: Madrigals & Songs from the Renaissance The King's Singers with The Consorte of Musicke, Anthony Rooley & Tragicomedia [ Warner Classics / 8 CD Box Set - released 1/Mar/2018 ] Founded at King's College in Cambridge in 1968, the King's Singers are one of the world's most sought-after and acclaimed vocal ensembles. This amazing set repackages eight of their greatest albums. |
W. A. MOZART
Mozart: Die Zauberflote [The Magic Flute] (Complete opera recorded in 1978) Kiri Te Kanawa, Peter Hofmann, Edita Gruberova, Kurt Moll, Kathleen Battle / Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Alain Lombard [ Decca / 2 CD Box Set - released 8/Jan/2021 ] A real gem looking at the incredible cast, a veritable "Who's Who" of opera singers of the time: Kiri Te Kanawa, Peter Hofmann, Edita Gruberova, Kathleen Battle, Kurt Moll and Jose Van Dam. |
W. A. MOZART
Mozart: Die Zauberflote [The Magic Flute] (complete opera) Klaus Florian Vogt, Rolando Villazon, Regula Mühlemann, Christiane Karg, Albina Shagimuratova / Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin [ Deutsche Grammophon / 2 CD Box Set - released 6/Sep/2019 ] Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung praised Villazón's "comic talent" in his first Papageno, "achieving 'heights of emotion' with the captivating Regula Mühlemann's Papagena", as well as the "magical tenor" of Klaus Florian Vogt as Tamino. |
JOSEPH HAYDN
Haydn: String Quartets (complete) Kodaly Quartet [ Naxos / 24 CD Box Set - released 1/Jan/2009 ] "This is fine, traditional (in a good sense) quartet-playing, and unlike other complete quartet cycles currently available (Tatrai, Angeles), this set is REALLY complete." (ClassicsToday) |
LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN / FRANZ LISZT
Beethoven/Liszt: Symphonies Nos. 1-9 (Transcriptions) S464/R128 Konstantin Scherbakov (piano) [ Naxos Liszt Complete Piano Music Vol 21 / 5 CD - released 1/Dec/2006 ] "... one of the most capable, daring and interesting musicians of these days." (Peter Cossé) |
LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN
Beethoven: Complete Violin Sonatas / Cello Sonatas Kristóf Baráti (violin) Timora Rosler (cello) Klára Würtz (piano) [ Brilliant Classics Quintessence / 5 CD Box Set - released 25/Sep/2020 ] Here are superb musicians from Hungary to add their own approach: on 'traditional' rather than 'period' instruments but interpretatively untrammelled by one or another performing dogma. |
W. A. MOZART
Mozart: Complete Divertimenti & Serenades Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester Mannheim, Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra, Amati Chamber Orchestra [ Brilliant Classics / 9 CD Box Set - released 5/Apr/2024 ] A divertimento is defined as music intended for light entertainment, 'to please the ear' rather than arouse the emotions in the phrase of one early-19th-century theorist. The word was used interchangeably at the time with serenade and cassation, and... |
MICHEL-RICHARD DELALANDE
Delalande: Symphonies Pour Les Soupers Du Roy [Symphonies for the King's Supper] La Simphonie du Marais, Hugo Reyne [ Camera Obscura / Harmonia Mundi / 4 CD Box Set - released 1/Sep/1990 ] Hugo Reyne, known until then as the 'recorder-player of Les Arts Florissants', presented the first-ever completed recording of the Symphonies pour les soupers du Roy with his ensemble La Simphonie du Marais, founded three years previously |
LEONARD BERNSTEIN
Leonard Bernstein - The Harvard Lectures Leonard Bernstein (speaker / piano) [ Sony Classical / 13 CD Box Set - released 16/Aug/2018 ] The lectures were each given twice, first to the audience in Harvard Square, and afterwards before a small group of listeners at Boston's WGBH-TV, for broadcast by PBS in the US and by the BBC in the UK. |
FRANCESCO SACRATI
Sacrati: La finta pazza Leonardo García Alarcón; Cappella Mediterranea [ Château de Versailles Spectacles / 3 CD Box Set - released 27/May/2022 ] 1645: for the pleasure of the Queen Mother Anne of Austria, and attended by a young King Louis XIV, Cardinal Mazarin put on the first Italian opera in Paris. The Italian company, invited at great expense, performed Sacrati's La Finta Pazza. |
FRANZ LISZT
Liszt: The Complete Piano Music (99 CD boxset) Leslie Howard (piano) [ Hyperion Complete Liszt Edition / 99 CD Box Set - released 1/Mar/2011 ] 'Liszt, one of music's greatest innovators, tends to be known by a tiny fraction of his work. Here's a chance to see the fuller picture' (The Guardian) |
JOSEPH HAYDN
Haydn Symphonies L'Estro Armonico, Derek Solomons [ Sony / 18 CD Box Set - released 26/Apr/2024 ] "The sense of adventure and discovery remains palpable in so many of the recordings here, and despite the occasional misfire, nearly all of these performances stand up well to comparison with a number of period-instrument recordings that succeeded... |
PYOTR Il'yich TCHAIKOVSKY
Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin (complete opera with libretto) Thomas Allen, Mirella Freni, Anne Sofie von Otter, Neil Shicoff / Staatskapelle Dresden, James Levine [ Deutsche Grammophon Originals / 2 CD Box Set - released 2/Feb/1988 ] "James Levine's 1984 recording is characterised by an appropriately full recorded sound and much gutsy playing from his orchestral forces." (MusicWeb) |
BACH / HANDEL / MENDELSSOHN / PARRY / etc
Sir Adrian Boult - The Decca Legacy, Volume 2 - Baroque & Sacred Music London Philharmonic & London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus / Kirsten Flagstad, Jennifer Vyvyan, Norma Procter, Kenneth McKellar, Joan Sutherland, etc [ Decca Australian Eloquence / 13 CD Box Set - released 7/Oct/2022 ] The second volume of Sir Adrian Boult's Decca legacy brings together the conductor's Messiah recordings of 1954 and 1960, plus Baroque and sacred music recitals from Kenneth McKellar, Kirsten Flagstad and Kathleen Ferrier. LIMITED EDITION. |
TCHAIKOVSKY / RACHMANINOV / PROKOFIEV / DOHNÁNYI / RIMSKY-KORSAKOV / MAHLER
Sir Adrian Boult - The Decca Legacy, Volume 3 - 19th & 20th Century Music London Philharmonic Orchestra, Wiener Philharmoniker, Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, Kirsten Flagstad, Julius Katchen, etc [ Decca Australian Eloquence / 16 CD Box Set - released 7/Oct/2022 ] The third volume of Boult's complete Decca recordings features Boult the insightful accompanist and inspired Russian interpreter, featuring many long-unavailable and newly remastered Decca recordings. LIMITED EDITION. |
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake, Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty (Complete ballets) London Symphony Orchestra, Andre Previn [ Warner Classics / 7 CD Box Set - released 12/Aug/2016 ] 1001 Classical recordings you must hear before you die (Sleeping Beauty) - "André Previn's new version is much the best there has ever been-the best played and the best recorded." (Gramophone on Sleeping Beauty) |
DVORAK / RIMSKY-KORSAKOV / MOZART / VERDI / SCHUBERT / etc/
Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt Edition - Volume 2 London Symphony Orchestra, Concertgebouworkest, NDR-Sinfonieorchester, Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, with Alfred Brendel, Henryk Szeryng, etc [ Decca Australian Eloquence / 15 CD Box Set - released 29/Sep/2023 ] Supplementary to his legendary Beethoven cycles for Decca are Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt's recordings for Philips, Mercury, Deutsche Grammophon and Accord. They date from 1944 (Sutermeister) to 1972, when he made his last recording, fittingly by Mozart. |
FELIX MENDELSSOHN
Mendelssohn: Symphonies & Overtures London Symphony Orchestra, The Monteverdi Choir, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Lucy Crowe (soprano) [ LSO / 4 CD Box Set - released 21/Sep/2019 ] LSO Live presents Sir John Eliot Gardiner's award-winning Mendelssohn series together in its entirety for the first time. Captured over three seasons during critically acclaimed concerts in the Barbican Hall, this set offers listeners the definitive... |
RACHMANINOV
Rachmaninov: Symphonies Nos 1-3, Symphonic Dances London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev [ LSO Live / 4 CD Box Set - released 27/Apr/2018 ] Recorded live at the Barbican Hall, London September 2008 - February 2015 This highly anticipated box set brings together Valery Gergiev's acclaimed cycle of the complete Rachmaninov symphonies, which were recorded alongside the London Symphony... |
DELIBES / ADAM / TCHAIKOVSKY / MINKUS / OFFENBACH / MASSENET / etc
Richard Bonynge - Complete Ballet Recordings L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, English Chamber Orchestra, National Philharmonic Orchestra, Richard Bonynge [ Decca / 45 CD Box Set - released 18/Dec/2020 ] 48 CDs compiled by Cyrus Meher-Homji, a long-time friend of Richard Bonynge, including familiar scores by Tchaikovsky & Delibes alongside works revived by Maestro Bonynge throughout his career. |