This is volume two of Ingrid Jacoby's complete set of Beethoven Piano Concertos. This strongly projected performance of Beethoven's Concerto No.5 is complemented by an all-Beethoven recital which Jacoby recorded in 1991/92, featuring sets of variations, the Andante favori and the op. 119 Bagatelles.

Highly respected by Toscanini, Italian conductor Guido Cantelli (b. 1920) started recording with the Philharmonia Orchestra for EMI in the early 50's but was tragically killed in an air crash in Paris in 1956. These very rare live recordings, carefully restored by Paul Baily and featuring the Philharmonia Orchestra, derive from the Music Preserved archive and have never been released before.

Antoni Wit conducts the Warsaw Philharmonic and National Orchestra & Choir of Poland with tenor Rafal Bartminski and pianist Jan Krzysztof in 2009.

The Borodin Quartet performs works by Schubert and Brahms.

Erich Leinsdorf conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra in works by Mahler and Strauss.

Praised by The New York Times for her ‘clear articulation … unequivocal phrasing … [and] expressivity’, Ingrid Jacoby has established herself as one of her generation’s most poetic and admired pianists.Winner of numerous prizes and competitions, she has, since moving to England, performed with many major orchestras, including the LSO, the LPO and the RPO, as well as the London Mozart Players, and worked with many eminent conductors.Her new recording of Mozart’s Concertos K467 and K488, complete with the Rondo K386, and accompanied by the internationally celebrated ASMF conducted by Sir Neville Marriner, follows on from her acclaimed earlier recording of the Concertos K449 and K595 which received excellent reviews from Int’l Record Review, Gramophone and Fanfare magazines, among others.The accompanying booklet contains notes by Richard Wigmore and personal insights by Ingrid Jacoby on Mozart.

This release documents an amazing array of concerto soloists, caught at various stages of their careers in the four years 1953-1956. Among them are several with claims to be the finest exponents of their particular concertos- notably David Oistrakh playing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in a broadcast from the BBC Studios in 1954, and Dennis Brain in two Mozart Horn Concertos from 1953 and 1954 respectively along with Strauss's Horn Concerto No. 1, from 1956. For those collectors looking for rare artists who were less well known to the general public, the Italian violinist Gioconda de Vito and the French virtuoso pianist Monique de la Brouchollerie are represented; the former with a wonderfully spontaneous account of Viotti's Violin Concerto No. 22 from 1953, while Brouchollerie adds a scintillating performance of Rachmaninov's Paganini Variations from 1955. The remaining artists in the set are well known to collectors and the public alike. The great Polish violinist Ida Haendel recorded the Sibelius Concerto and her live performances including this 1955 Prom account were praised by the composer himself. The Italian violinist Alfredo Campoli became one of Britain's most beloved musicians and this broadcast of Lalo's Symphonie espagnole from 1954 captures his sweet tone perfectly.

This release has been sourced from the Richard Itter archive of 'live' recordings. The collection is very important for collectors because it has never been released before onto the market. Following the archive's launch in October 2017 with releases featuring Beecham, Bohm, Cantelli, Karajan, du Pre, Klemperer and Rostropovich, it has received universal praise from both the classical media and record collectors for the excellent sound and performances. Robert Casadesus was a renowned 20th century French pianist and composer who knew and worked with Ravel. He was especially known for his celebrated performances of the Mozart Concertos accompanied on record by George Szell- the Gramophone called it 'exquisite Mozart playing,' as well as his recordings of Ravel, Faure and Debussy. He recorded Beethoven's First, Fourth, and Fifth Concertos, the latter two multiple times, though these were all made in the studio. He also extensively recorded the Beethoven Violin Sonatas with Zino Francescatti, who also appears in ICA Classics' Pierre Monteaux set.

This spine-tingling account of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1 has never been issued before. It is a 'live' studio recording from 1958 with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra - accompanied by Geza Anda's fellow Hungarian Georg Solti! This historic performance generates enormous electricity between the two artists.

Evgeny Svetlanov's was a masterly conductor of of Russian and non-Russian composers of the late-Romantic era. The Brahms is both powerful and mellifluous, superbly played by the LSO. The Debussy has tension from the start, combining colour, sensitivity and transparency. The bonus consists of Janet Baker singing the final song from Chausson's Poeme de l'amour et de la mer. The Brahms and Debussy are previously issued. Recorded at Royal Festival London, 1975.

This release has been sourced from the Richard Itter archive of 'live' BBC recordings. The collection is very important for collectors because it has never been on the market before. Following the archive's launch in October 2017 with successive releases featuring Beecham, Bohm, Cantelli, Casadesus, Karajan, Menuhin, Monteux, du Pre, Klemperer, Rostropovich and Walter, it has received universal praise from both the classical media and record collectors for the excellent sound and performances. Carlo Maria Giulini's celebrated studio recording of Le nozze di Figaro was recorded in September 1959 following a live performance at the Royal Festival Hall a few days earlier. Nearly 18 months later there was another performance but with a substantially different cast. Harold Rosenthal in Opera magazine wrote of the concert performance: "Giulini's reading of this miraculous score has deepened since the studio recording... The spark that was suddenly kindled between conductor and Teresa Berganza in 'Voi che sapete' was a moment to treasure. Indeed all Miss Berganza's singing was outstanding."

Hungarian born Gyorgy Cziffra was one of the most celebrated virtuosos of the post-war decades in Europe, noted for his powers of improvisation as a Liszt pianist. The Grieg Concerto is typical of Cziffra's 'mercurial quality' while the Liszt Concerto and Fantasy on Hungarian Folk Themes are very much in the style with which Liszt 'loved to astonish his adoring audiences'. (Bryce Morrison)

Walter Berry reflected in an interview in 1985, "we played in the Theater an der Wien (during the rebuilding of the Vienna State Opera) and we developed a certain style, a Mozart style which was connected very much to the singers of that time … this was an incredible ensemble." Harold Rosenthal, Editor of Opera magazine, described the staged performance at London’s Royal Festival Hall on 13 September 1954 as ‘a sheer delight’, highlighting the performances of Erich Kunz (Figaro) and Sena Jurinac (Cherubino), while Irmgard Seefried (Susanna) was ‘one of the joys of this recording’ (George Hall). These Richard Itter tapes of the live broadcast have never been released before, and the superb recording fully captures the atmosphere in this light-footed performance in a packed Royal Festival Hall to perfection.

Gunter Wand conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Kurt Sanderling conducts the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra with Carolyn Watkinson and John Mitchinson in works by Schumann and Mahler.