Box Set Selections,
Boxed Set Selections - June 2024
Released to mark the New Zealand soprano's 80th birthday, this set presents her complete recital albums for Decca and Philips, supplemented with excerpts from the large number of sacred music and opera recordings which she made for these labels and for Deutsche Grammophon. Highlights include Strauss's Vier letzte Lieder with Sir Georg Solti, Mozart concert arias with György Fischer and Jeffrey Tate, and a recital of Liszt, Ravel and Obradors with Roger Vignoles.
Available Format: 23 CDs
This first instalment of a complete conspectus of the recordings which Sawallisch made for Electrola and EMI Classics between 1954 and 1997 focuses primarily on symphonic repertoire, including Dvořák's Symphony No. 8 (his first published recording), the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms, Strauss tone-poems, and Tchaikovsky ballet suites. Soloists in the concerto and song repertoire include Dennis Brain, Lucia Popp, Barbara Hendricks, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Emanuel Ax, and Stephen Kovacevich.
Available Format: 65 CDs
The recordings here were made between 1955 and 1973, and include Krips's celebrated 1955 Don Giovanni from Vienna (starring Cesare Siepi, Lisa della Casa & Suzanne Danco), a rare live account of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with Fritz Wunderlich & Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, the Mozart symphony recordings which he made with the Concertgebouworkest for Philips in the early 1970s, and the closing scene of Strauss's Salome with Inge Borkh.
Available Format: 21 CDs
Launched in 2016, Vänskä's Mahler series has been praised for the Finnish conductor's 'beautifully judged line and flow' (BBC Music Magazine on Symphony No. 9) and 'admirably unhistrionic' approach (The Guardian on Symphony No. 5), as well as for the orchestra's 'brilliance and clarity' and 'BIS’s technical prowess' (Gramophone on Symphony No. 7). The final instalment (Symphony No. 3) was released last month, and has already been warmly welcomed by The Times for 'the combination of fierce control and tenderness' on display.
Available Format: 11 SACDs
Explorer Set: French Edition
Mark Viner, Vincenzo Maltempo, Mūza Rubackytė, Emanuele Torquati, Giuseppe Taccogna, Alessandro Deljavan, Sofia Andreoli, Vittoria Quartarar (piano)
This set exploring neglected French piano repertoire includes discs devoted to Cécile Chaminade, Henri Dutilleux, Paul Dukas, Benjamin Godard, Albert Roussel and Louis Vierne, plus Charles-Valentin Alkan's Douze Études dans tous les tons majeurs, Gabriel Dupont's Les heures dolentes, Reynaldo Hahn's Le rossignol éperdu (Série 1), Vincent d'Indy's Piano Sonata, and Albéric Magnard's Promenades.
Available Format: 10 CDs
Released in five volumes between 2015 and 2022, Bach's survey of Bartók's complete solo piano music has been described as 'pretty much unimpeachable' (BBC Music Magazine on the Bartók-Reschofsky Piano Method), 'aimed at countering the perceived notion of Bartók as "remorselessly harsh"' (Gramophone on For Children), and 'a worthy contender...which all lovers of this music should invest some time in getting to know' (MusicWeb International on Volume One).
Available Format: 9 CDs
Italian Cello Sonatas
Amedeo Cicchese, Lamberto Curtoni, Andrea Favalessa, Roberto Trainini (cello), Massimiliano Ferrati, Giovanni Doria, Miglietta, Barbara Panzarella, Maria Semararo (piano)
Issued as part of Brilliant Classics's Italian Romantics series, this 6-CD set comprises cello sonatas by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, Francesco Cilea, Ildebrando Pizzetti, Giuseppe Martucci, Mario Pilati, Eliodoro Sollima, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Alfredo Piatti, and Alfredo Casella. The recordings were made in Italy between 2013 and 2021.
Available Format: 6 CDs
