JACQUES OFFENBACH
Offenbach: La Belle Helene, Orphee Aux Enfers, La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein (Complete Operettas in French) Felicity Lott, Yann Beuron, Natalie Dessay, Ewa Podles, Sandrine Piau, Laurent Naouri, Patricia Petibon, etc / Les Musiciens du Louvre-Grenoble, Marc [ Erato Classics / 6 CD Box Set - released 15/Nov/2018 ] "These are enormously spirited performances, no undue lingering, rhythmically riveting and generally uplifting. There is punch in the concerted numbers and the dances are whirlwinds." MusicWeb |
JOSEPH HAYDN
Haydn: The Complete Strings Quartets played on period instruments Festetics Quartet [ Arcana / 19 CD Box Set - released 27/May/2022 ] This remarkable undertaking by the Festetics Quartet represents the first and only recording of Haydn's complete String Quartets on period instruments. Recorded in Budapest between 1993 and 2006. |
JEAN SIBELIUS
Sibelius: Symphonies Nos 1 - 7 / Karelia Overture & Suite / Violin Concerto / etc Finnish Radio Symphony, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, with Joseph Swensen (violin) [ Sony / RCA / Finlandia / 8 CD Box Set - released 13/Mar/2020 ] "His tempos grab and hold the listener, and the orchestra plays with a sure sense of style. The brasses are incisive, the woodwinds reedy and a bit nasal, the strings strident or cushioning, all as appropriate." New York Times |
MOZART / SCARLATTI / CHOPIN / SCHUMANN / SCHUBERT / etc
Fou Ts'ong - Complete Westminster Recordings Fou Ts'ong (piano) / London Symphony Orchestra, Peter Maag, Vienna Radio Orchestra, Brian Priestman, with Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, etc [ Westminster Australian Eloquence / 10 CD Box Set - released 10/Dec/2021 ] The Westminster label legacy of a master Chopin interpreter, issued complete for the first time in an 'original covers' box of new remasterings. |
ANTONIO VIVALDI
Vivaldi: Cello Concertos (complete) Francesco Galligioni (cello) / L'Arte dell'Arco, Federico Guglielmo [ Brilliant Classics / 4 CD Box Set - released 25/Feb/2015 ] Antonio Vivaldi was one of the first composers to feature the cello, then a relatively "new" instrument (after the viola da gamba), as a mature solo instrument. He wrote no less than 27 concertos for the cello. |
W. A. MOZART
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Mozart: Concert Arias Francine van der Heyden, Miranda van Kralingen, Annemarie Kremer, Marcel Reijans, Ezio Maria Tisi, and others / various orchestras [ Brilliant Classics / 6 CD Box Set - released 10/Aug/2007 ] This set contains all concert arias on 6 CD's recorded by several singers including the famous Dutch soprano Miranda van Kralingen. |
GIUSEPPE VERDI
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Verdi: Simon Boccanegra (complete opera with libretto) Piero Cappuccilli, Mirella Freni, José van Dam, Nicolai Ghiaurov / La Scala Chorus & Orchestra, Claudio Abbado [ Deutsche Grammophon Originals / 2 CD Box Set - released 20/Jul/2016 ] "one of the most beautiful Verdi sets ever made. The playing of the orchestra is brilliantly incisive as well as refined, so that the drama is underlined by extra sharpness of focus..with electrifying choral singing as well." (Penguin Guide) |
FRITZ BRUN
Brun: Complete Orchestral Works Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Bratislava Symphony Orchestra, Adriano [ Brilliant Classics / 11 CD Box Set - released 1/May/2019 ] "...if you have yet to explore the music of this Swiss master, this release affords a very reasonably priced way of immersing yourself into the gorgeous musical world of Fritz Brun." Fanfare |
W. A. MOZART
Fritz Busch at Glyndebourne - Mozart Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender, Audrey Mildmay, Heddle Nash, John Brownlee, Ina Souez, Sena Jurinac, Alexander Young, Richard Lewis / Fritz Busch (cond) [ Warner Classics / 9 CD Box Set - released 8/Jul/2017 ] Fritz Busch (1890-1951) was one the greatest German conductors of the first half of the twentieth century, noted for his illuminating performances and his ethical principles. |
CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Monteverdi: Orfeo (complete opera with libretto) Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Julianne Baird, Lynne Dawson, Anne Sofie von Otter, Nancy Argenta / Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gard [ Deutsche Grammophon / 2 CD Box Set - released 2/Feb/1987 ] "This is an impressively musical Orfeo. With John Eliot Gardiner in charge of such a strong cast of singers and players, it could hardly have been otherwise. Most enigmatic of all is Anthony Rolfe Johnson's acting of the central role." Gramophone |
GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL
Handel: Concerti grossi Op. 3 and Op. 6 Georg Kallweit, Bernhard Forck, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin [ Pentatone / 3 CD Box Set - released 12/Mar/2021 ] BRILLIANT PERFORMANCES OF HANDEL'S MASTERWORKS Handel's concerti grossi Op. 3 and Op. 6 are among the most exceptional instrumental music of the baroque age, and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin brings out all the brilliance of these delightful... |
FRANZ LISZT
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Liszt: Piano works [Incls 'Hungarian Rhapsodies'] Georges Cziffra (piano) [ EMI Classics / 5 CD Box Set - released 20/Oct/2011 ] "Cziffra, with his superb technique, Hungarian birthright and virtuoso flair, is the ideal exponent of this music and, predictably, there are wonderful things in these performances" Gramophone on the Hungarian Rhapsodies |
JOHANNES BRAHMS
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Brahms: Complete works for solo piano Gerhard Oppitz (piano) [ Eurodisc / 5 CD Box Set - released 14/Jul/1990 ] "Gerhard Oppitz is a penetrating Brahmsian, bracing in the youthful works, quietly confiding in the later ones" Gramophone |
W. A. MOZART
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: The Essential Mozart [5 DVD set] Gil Shaham / Sharon Kam / Sandrine Piau / Dorothea Roschmann / Daniel Barenboim / and more [ EuroArts DVD / 5 DVD Box Set - released 10/Oct/2011 ] MediciArts offers a DVD box full of the most sparkling of Mozart's compositions. Performed by instrumentalists, orchestras, conductors and singers, among the best interpreters of his works, this representative selection... |
DUPRÉ / FRANCK / COUPERIN / BRUHNS / BACH / MESSIAEN
Gillian Weir: A Celebration Gillian Weir (organ) [ Decca Australian Eloquence / 22 CD Box Set - released 12/Feb/2021 ] 'Dame Gillian is one of the greatest of living artists; her playing shows a perfect mixture of hand and heart, a true musician with the technique to tackle anything.' - JOHN AMIS, WRITER AND CRITIC |
JOSEPH HAYDN
Haydn 2032, Vol. 1-10: The Symphonies Il Giardino Armonico, Kammerorchester Basel, Giovanni Antonini [ Alpha Classics / 10 CD Box Set - released 28/Jan/2022 ] This ten-CD set celebrates the release of the first ten volumes of the HAYDN2032 series, which aims to record all 107 Haydn symphonies by the 300th anniversary of his birth in 2032. |
J. S. BACH
Glenn Gould plays Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier Books I & II, BWV 846-893 Glenn Gould (piano) [ Sony Classical / 4 CD Box Set - released 10/Sep/2012 ] Released as part of the Glenn Gould Anniversary Edition |
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Shakespeare: Great Comedies: - Twelfth Night / A Midsummer Night's Dream / The Taming of the Shrew (recorded live at the Globe Theatre London) Globe Theatre / Liam Brennan, Johnny Flynn, Stephen Fry, Paul Chahidi, Colin Hurley [ Opus Arte DVD / 3 DVD Box Set - released 1/Jul/2015 ] A Midsummer Night's Dream: Shakespeare put some of his most dazzling dramatic poetry at the service of this teasing, glittering, hilarious and amazingly inventive play, whose seriousness is only fleetingly glimpsed beneath its dreamlike... |
GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL
Handel Box Set: Rinaldo / Saul / Giulio Cesare (Recorded live at Glyndebourne Opera House, 2005-2015) Glyndebourne Opera / Sonia Prina, Anett Fritsch, Sarah Connolly, Danielle de Niese, Christopher Purves, Iestyn Davies / Orchestra of the Age of Enligh [ Opus Arte DVD / 5 DVD Box Set - released 20/Mar/2017 ] "Dantone conducts a strongly characterised performance founded on the alert playing of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment." (BBC Music on Rinaldo) |
HECTOR BERLIOZ
Berlioz: Benvenuto Cellini (Complete opera recorded in 2003) Gregory Kunde, Joyce DiDonato, Patrizia Ciofi, Laurent Naouri / Orchestre Nationale de France. John Nelson [ Erato / Warner Classics Home of Opera / 3 CD Box Set - released 15/Sep/2018 ] 'A splendid achievement. Here indeed is the 'verve and vitality' Berlioz always believed he had found.' - Gramophone |