LIMITED EDITION. SINGLE PRESSING ONLY.

'Fire-eating virtuoso' is how Stereo Review described the finales of the Rachmaninoff concertos recorded by pianist Rafael Orozco (1946-1996) with Edo de Waart. Collected here are the complete Philips recordings of one of Spain's piano aristocracy, winner of the 1966 Leeds Piano Competition. There is passion and poetry in equal measure, and an instinctive feeling for the ebb and flow of a phrase in these recordings of works by Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, and Rachmaninoff. Barnstorming virtuosity from a distinguished member of Spain's piano aristocracy: the complete Philips albums of Rafael Orozco include several recordings new to CD.

At age 20, Rafael Orozco came to the world's attention at the 1966 Leeds Piano Competition. The fire and poetry of his Chopin, Liszt, and Albéniz won him first prize, and then a contract with HMV/EMI which led to several acclaimed albums such as the Chopin Préludes. However, Orozco entered his full artistic maturity around the time of his recordings for Philips, made between 1972 and 1975.

A solo album of Rachmaninoff is one of the newly remastered treasures which have been forgotten over time, but it confirms the depth of Orozco's touch at the keyboard and his instinctive feeling for the ebb and flow of a phrase. Orozco projects the volatile mood-swings of Schumann's Kreisleriana while holding close control over details of line and texture.

In his booklet appreciation of Orozco, Jed Distler compares the album of Chopin's Scherzos to meeting an old friend after a long absence: 'I had forgotten the nuanced scintillation in the first Scherzo's demonic outer sections, not to mention the uncommon precision and centeredness of the triplets in No. 2's famous main theme.' He points out the coruscating impact but also strong architectural feeling of the Liszt Sonata recording which stands out among the solo repertoire on the set.

Orozco also found a meeting of minds with the young Dutch conductor Edo de Waart. Aided by transparent Philips engineering, they explored all the refinements of dialogue in concertos by Chopin, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninoff. His playing of them strikes a rare balance between refinement, passion and a sense of abandon. However, his Philips catalogue has rarely been reissued on CD, making this first-ever collection of his recordings for the label a valuable reminder of Orozco's place in the pantheon of Spanish pianists, alongside the likes of Alicia de Larrocha and Esteban Sánchez.

BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONY NO 3 LEIN

MUSICAL JOURNEY (A) - ROME: Piazzas, Fountains and the Remains of Empire (NTSC) ROME

The Places

Starting from the Pantheon and the Colosseum, our tour takes us to the Forum of Augustus and the Forum of Trajan, the Arch of Constantine and the Capitol, with the later city represented by the Piazza di Spagna, the Trevi Fountain, and the great piazza before St Peter's in Vatican City.

The Music

The music chosen for this tour of Rome is by Franz Liszt, who divided the last 25 years of his life between Rome, Hungary and Weimar, after an early career as a travelling virtuoso, one of the greatest pianists of his time, and a period settled in Weimar as Director of Music Extraordinary to the Grand Duchy. In Rome he took minor orders and developed further his interest in the music of the Church.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: Dolby Digital / DTS Surround
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 59 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

Kraft has filled his life and the lives of others with music through his prodigious career as composer, educator, writer on musical topics, and as an author of numerous books on music theory. The majority of his work is chamber music and he composes for orchestra, piano, vocal, band and electronic. This recording offers a fine cross-section of his music.

This CD Is the Sixth Centaur Records Release in Which Michael Tunnell Played a Featured Role. Sadly, Mr. Tunell Died Far Too Soon in Late 2014. This Album, a Testament to His Artistry, Was Recorded Between June 2012 - March 2014 and Features a Total of Ten Contemporary Works for Which Mr. Tunnell Played the Corno Da Caccia, or Circular Flugelhorn. Michael Was One of the Players Engaged By Director Steven Spielberg to Play Civil War Trumpets in a Scene Reenacting President Abraham Lincoln's Visit to Celebrate the Union Victory at Petersburg, Va. In the Movie Lincoln.

The recordings of the gifted Shostakovich interpreter Andrey Boreyko have met with great acclaim; his Shostakovich’s Symphonies No. 9 & 15 (CD 93.284) were awarded the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik in 2012. Shostakovich completed his Fifth Symphony in July, 1937 as a "response of a Soviet artist to justified criticism" – a critique which befell Shostakovich in 1936 over Stalin’s particular displeasure with “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District”.

CARLOS SIMON: FOUR SYMPHONIC WORKS

Classical Music

Rimsky-Korsakov' orchestral genius shines through in his colourful operatic suites, and that from his final opera Le Coq d'or is richly dramatic and expressive.

Honegger by Honegger: historic recordings from 1929 to 1947. In the third leg of our pilgrimage in search of long lost sound, we brought down the from the shelves of the abundant archives of the Discothèque Centrale de Radio France, a series of recordings related to the composer, director and pianist Arthur Honegger. The was engravings of the 'Rugby' or 'Pacific. 2.3.1' symphonic movements are famous (or at least known...) but music and record lovers will notice in this new volume in the collection «Pêcheurs de perles» this rare Decca version of Symphony No.3 «Liturgique? under the direction of the author. Also to be discovered are fifteen rare melodies, presented and sung her by voices chosen by Honegger, all the more interesting since the composer himself sat at the piano. These are tones from the past in moving and ideal live interpretations. A priceless witness of Arthur Honegger's way of thinking about music.

Among the many recordings of The Matthew Passion, two have always stood out for their historical importance and for their diffusion - one conducted by Otto Klemperer for EMI and the other one, conducted by Eugen Jochum for Phillips. Urania is now proposing that the second, recorded in Amsterdam in 1965 with an extraordinary voice cast. This release is complete in all parts and has a fabulous sound for all listeners. The Bach by Jochum is vast, but not romantic - on the contrary - he puts the Passion under a light of sweetness and sorrow, without the harshness and coldness, typical of the recent interpretations. Urania has also added Bruckner's Te Deum, recorded in Monaco of Bravaria in 1954 by the same Jochum.

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

" In 2014, Fuga Libera celebrates the 25th anniversary of the baroque orchestra Il Fondamento. Founded in Belgium by the oboist Paul Dombrecht - renowned for his interpretations of baroque music -, the ensemble has gained an international interpretation, cand opposing less-known works with masterpieces. This set of three recordings by Johann Heinrich Fasch, Albinoni, and Bach were all highly acclaimed by the international press (Diapason d’or, R10 Classica, Supersonic pizzicato…)!"

Here’s a welcome reissue from Marco Polo, now on the less expensive Naxos line. László Lajtha (1892-1963) was the major 20th century Hungarian symphonist. He had the good fortune to be picked up by an important publisher early on (Leduc), but suffered from being largely out of favor with the Communist regime for most of his career. He wrote major works in all the traditional forms, in a style recognizably personal and immediately appealing, but without pandering. Aesthetically (as Leduc recognized) his voice was audibly French in orientation, and if I had to categorize him I might say that he was a sort of Hungarian Martinu. The melos of Hungarian folk music underlies much of his thematic substance, but the translucent textures and colorful orchestration have an impressionistic tinge.

All of this is quite evident in the First Symphony, a pithy work in three movements that consistently captivates the ear. In memoriam is a big, powerful funeral march that takes a few minutes to get going, but once it does, proceeds memorably. Its central climaxes are aptly harrowing. The early Suite for Orchestra has four movements, including a parodistic Marche burlesque and an equally ironic Can-Can conclusion. Its Valse lente third movement is lovely, as are these performances. The Pécs Symphony Orchestral plays well for conductor Nicolás Parquet, and they are also naturally recorded in a warm, open acoustic. If you missed this series the first time around, grab these reissues as they come.

– ClassicsToday (David Hurwitz)

On their label MPHIL, the Munich Philharmonic is opening up it's vast archives, giving listeners the opportunity to enjoy one of the richest collections of recordings by legendary artists. Because of the Celibidache era and it's part in forming the core essence of the orchestra, the label MPHIL have placed a particular focus on archive recordings under the baton of Sergiu Celibidache. In spring of 2020, it is a recording with Sergiu Celibidache from 1989, which is being made available to audiences around the world: a recording of Hector Berlioz' Symphonie fantastique.

Collected for the first time and newly remastered, the complete Decca and L'Oiseau-Lyre recordings (from 1931 to 1978) of Alfredo Campoli, including unpublished tracks and the classical 78s (newly remastered by Mark Obert-Thorn). Born into a family of professional musicians in 1906, Alfredo Campoli rapidly took to the violin, and before he turned eighteen, he was already secure in eleven major concertos. He subsequently toured with celebrated singers of the day including Nellie Melba and Clara Butt, before turning his attention to light music. During the 1930s he became a household name in the UK, known simply as 'Campoli', for his many recordings and broadcasts, especially with his Salon Orchestra. Campoli's impeccable technique and showman's instincts were combined with a rare purity of tone and beauty of phrasing, often likened to bel canto singing. He began recording for Decca in 1931, and these 78rpm discs have rarely been issued since, but they present the violinist on typically characterful form, in miniatures and arrangements which capture the essence of romantic violin-playing. Several tracks previously unpublished on Decca from a session in June 1940 include transcriptions of Chopin, Grainger and Stephen Foster, where Campoli turns on the charm in quintessential style. Decca captured the full range of Campoli's musicianship, from salon-orchestra serenades and Baroque-era sonatas to the first recording of the concerto which Sir Arthur Bliss wrote for him. He brought a special warmth and unmannered pathos to the Violin Concerto by Elgar, under the baton of Sir Adrian Boult in 1954, which stands out as a highlight of his legacy on record. A larger-than-life figure, keen on tennis and bridge and usually sporting a large cigar, Campoli continued to record for Decca during the LP and stereo eras, his technique undimmed by age. At the age of 73, he returned to the studio for the L'Oiseau-Lyre label, recording an album of Wieniawski which brought his career on record full circle, back to the virtuoso and popular repertoire that had made his name. This Eloquence set presents Campoli's legacy in largely chronological order, restoring the original LP couplings, and presenting for the first time on CD stereo versions of Saint-Sa�ns's Violin Concerto No. 3, the Kreisler/Paganini Violin Concerto No. 1 and pieces by Sarasate and Wieniawski. The remastering engineer Mark Obert-Thorn contributes a note focusing on the violinist's early recordings on 78rpm. First-issue covers and many rare photographs are complemented by a new and illuminating essay by Andrew Dalton, who recalls Campoli in concert in the early 1960s: 'I was instantly captivated, for a Campoli performance was never routine'.

Hartmut Haenchen was born in Dresden in 1943 and from the moment of his 1971 Carl Maria von Weber Competition victory onward, he has been a force of nature in the classical music world. These Mahler recordings are being released to commemorate Haenchen's seventieth birthday and a rich career conducting orchestras and opera companies worldwide.

Robin Ticciat's deserved reputation as one fo the great Berliozian's of our age is evident on this recording, his second, with the award-winning Swedish Radio Symphony. Romeo et Juliette was considered a pinnacle of French Romanticism and a brilliant example of Berlioz's orchestral mastery. The piece is one of the most original conceptions of the 19th century - deftly poised between symphony and stage drama. Robin Ticciati fully communicates the range of Berlioz's imagination; he brings an innate understanding of the romanticism of the music and succeeds in delivering a performance that is brimming with color.

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REVIEW:

The sound pictures are precise and subtle. Katija Dragojevic is a gorgeously warm mezzo, and Alastair Miles a stentorian bass in the final Serment de réconciliation.

– Guardian (UK)

In the corpus of recordings made by I Musici on behalf of Phillips, in the mid-sixties, it still counts the recording of Vivaldi's Op. No. 3 - L'Estro armonico. This is not the case to deepen the artistic element of the famous chamber music ensemble. Suffice it to say that despite the contributions of the executive philology, this traditional recording remains a landmark in the discography of Vivaldi, ever actual for the executive equilibrium, for the solo contributions and for its beauty in general.

Vaughan Williams withdrew or destroyed many works from his earliest period, but with its haunting opening and luminous polyphonic textures he considered The Solent as amongst his ‘most important works’. The Fantasia is his earliest known piece for solo instrument with orchestra and contains some of his most bravura writing, contrasting with the graceful geniality of the Suite. Depicting a sublimely pastoral scene and now one of the best loved pieces ever written, Vaughan Williams called The Lark Ascending a ‘romance’, a term reserved for his most profoundly lyrical utterances.

This program includes some of the least known masterpieces from Ernest Bloch’s nearly 30 works for orchestra. Macbeth: Two Symphonic Interludes is an intoxicating and passionate distillation of Shakespeare’s powerful drama. In Memoriam is a brief elegy dedicated to the pianist Ada Clement, while the Three Jewish Poems were written when Bloch was mourning the death of his father. Originally conceived as a third concerto grosso, Bloch’s last Symphony, in E flat major, is at times emotionally turbulent and deeply spiritual work containing passages of harmonic acerbity.

CONCERTO FOR THE LEFT HAND / ALBORADA DEL GRACIOSO

BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONIES 3 & 5

A Limited edition original Jackets treasury of analogue-era pianism by legendary and lesser-known names from the catalogues of American Decca and Westminster. Spanning 1950 to 1963 - Clara Haskil in Scarlatti to Guiomar Novaes in Chopin and Debussy - the recordings in this set document the end of some distinguished careers (notably Benno Moiseiwitsch and Egon Petri) and the early flourishing of others, such as Jörg Demus and Nina Milkina. Classic examples of German, Russian, French, Hungarian, Romanian and American pianism illustrate the characteristics of their national schools, but most of all underline the personal artistry of musicians such as Haskil and Moiseiwitsch who always turned a phrase or a chord and made it their own. The four solo LPs for Westminster recorded in 1956 by Raymond Lewenthal marked his return to the studio after an assault which had left him unable to play for several years. He would go on to become an early champion on record of the late-Romantic, ultra-virtuoso style, but these Westminster LPs capture him in repertoire from Beethoven sonatas and Scriabin preludes to popular encores. Excerpts from some of these LPs have appeared on CD before, but not the full albums as originally sequenced. This is also true of the treasurable August 1961 sessions in New York made by Benno Moiseiwitsch, playing inimitably inflected accounts of Beethoven, Schumann and Mussorgsky. There is a first-time CD release for Petri's 'Moonlight' Sonata, alongside it's original LP couplings of the 'Pathétique' and 'Appassionata', plus the 'Hammerklavier' and Busoni's Fantasia contrappuntistica from the same sessions in June 1956. Petri's aristocratic and intellectual style could hardly be more contrasted with the spontaneous rubato of the Brazilian pianist Guiomar Novaes, in Chopin's Barcarolle. A trio of previously unissued Chopin Mazurkas makes a precious addition to the legacy of the French pianist Youra Guller. Jörg Demus is now esteemed for his Bach and Beethoven, but his mastery of Franck and Fauré has been forgotten. Each of these LPs tells it's own story, of a forgotten pianist or a little-known recording, and the piano-specialist Mark Ainley supplies valuable context with new booklet appreciations of each artist.

Classical Music