Franco Gulli was one of the most prominent and active Italian violinists of the latter part of the twentieth century. He began his studies with his father (a pupil of �evc�k and Mar�k at the Prague Conservatory), then went to Arrigo Serato in Siena and later to Szigeti in Switzerland. His varied and significant career included leading the Orchestra of the Pomeriggi Musicali, Milan, for several years, after which he took up a similar post with Virtuosi di Roma. Gulli's activities included a considerable volume of teaching and he was well-respected in this r�le, giving masterclasses all over the world and sitting on the juries of several international competitions including those in Brussels, London, Genoa, Munich, New York, and Indianapolis. He was a member of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome, the Accademia Cherubini, Florence, and the Reale Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna, as well as holding a Professorship at Indiana University. The present release features newly remastered live recordings surveying forty years of Gulli's career.

MusicWeb wrote of this new release: “This is a valuable addition to the discography. The Los Angeles concerts of 1963-1964 were given at the Hollywood Bowl, in which Heifetz and Piatigorsky played the Brahms Double with Leonard Bernstein, and at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion where the violinist essayed the Beethoven with Zubin Mehta. Neither concert has apparently been issued before. There are two bonus tracks, previously released, that come from the Bell Telephone Hour with Donald Voorhees conducting in Radio City, New York in February 1950. The Evorak is tightly coiled, cloaked and hooded, full of inimitable tonal splendor and not remotely relaxed while the Sarasate Habanera is suave and bewitching. Cembal d’amour once issued this but their transfer is cloudy and palpably inferior to this one.”

Ruggiero Ricci is recognized to have greatly contributed to the world's renewed appreciation and affection for the great 19th century composers, though he maintained a broad repertoire including over 50 concertos with orchestra. Ricci has performed the world premieres of several contemporary composers including Gottfried von Einem, Richard Flury, Urs Joseph Flury, Vittorio Giannini, Alberto Ginastera, Alexander Goehr, Gail Kubik, Benjamin Lees, Gerard Shurmann and Carlos Veerhoff. His official discography encompasses the widest repertoire of any violinist. This six-album set presents live and studio recordings, ranging from 1951 to 1978, including some rarities, never recorded commercially, like the Ginastera Violin Concerto, Emile Jaques-Dalcroze Violin Concerto, and Paganini Violin Concerto No. 6.

MusicWeb writes of this album: “The value of this release lies in the rarity of these captivating scores, performed by a violinist with a close affinity to both- This interesting release focuses on the Italian violinist Alfonso Mosesti (b. 1924). The recordings have scrubbed up well for their age and provenance thanks to the expert remastering of Emilio Pessina. The documentation is second-to-none, written by Gianluca La Villa, who sets the music in some sort of historical context. The beautifully reproduced black and white photographs are the icing on the cake.” The two pieces featured on this release were recorded at the Auditorium Foro Italico, Rome, November 1959, and the Teatro Comunale Comunale Giuseppe Verdi, Trieste, 1953.

The Italian pianists who have made the history of interpretation are well known, starting with Busoni through Zecchi, Benedetti Michelangeli, Pollini and others. But there are many other great Italian pianists, who due to a series of unclear circumstances slipped away unnoticed without the recognition they deserved. In particular, Sergio Fiorentino stands out above them all, an incomparable pianist and musician, who had a discontinuous career and who only began to be universally ranked as one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century after his death. He was a soulful musician who always avoided virtuosity for virtuosity's sake, and could thus return profound interpretations of Bach, Schubert, Franck or the last Beethoven Sonatas. He was a balanced pianist, faithful to the score but at the same time tied to certain freedoms of expression. The present release is a live recording of one of Fiorentino's last live concerts, made in Taiwan in 1998.

Ruggiero Ricci followed the tradition of Vasa Prihoda, the Czech virtuoso, who performed Paganini as a central part of his repertory (Ricci gave the US premieres of both the 4th and 6th Violin Concertos). Giving so much attention to the works of the Genoese composer, as he later said, he learned much of the violin-technique from Paganini's works. Mainly for this reason, Ricci was often associated with Paganini, but during his life he was firmly opposed to any categorization, and indeed he was known to say: "A specialist is somebody who plays all the other types of music worse." This 4-album set presents live and studio recordings, ranging from 1946 to 1970, including some rarities, which have never before been commercially released.

A recital by Piero Scarpini, the pianist who put his art at the service of 20th Century music, is always a source of stimulating modernity, even when he sits at the piano and plays masterpieces of the past. Those who are familiar with Scarpini and his personal conflict with contemporary music, know in fact, that his Bach, his Mozart, and his Beethoven can not be solely "some works" selected at random from any pianist's repertoire, but they will always be "that" Bach, "that" Mozart, and "that" Beethoven, which for their interpreter are the most innovative and in some way "contemporary." These live recordings were taken from Scarpini recitals dated 1953, 1961, and 1974.

From 1947 to 1956 Ruggiero Ricci played on the 1734 Guarneri del Gesu "Ferni, Duc de Camposelice" and from 1956 to 1999 he usually played on the 1731 Guarneri del Gesu "Gibson, ex-Huberman, " which he purchased in 1977. For him the Guarneri sound (as opposed to Stradivari) was a matter of preference, able as it was to give the required brilliance, color and attack that he sought. Until 1981 he also owned violin Lorenzo Storioni c. 1779, with which he recorded the 6 Bach Solos on February 27-28, 1981. This 4-album set presents live and studio recordings, ranging from 1952 to 1986, including some rarities which have never been released commercially, like the Bartok Romanian Folk Dances, Bloch Violin Sonata No. 1, Prokofiev Violin Sonata No. 1, and Saint-Saens Violin Sonata No. 1 Op. 75.

Aldo Ferraresi was one of the most celebrated Italian concert violinists of all time, who has recently, unfortunately, fallen into relative obscurity. Born in Ferrara to a mandolin player, he began his studies at the age of five at the Frescobaldi Institute of Music in Ferrara. When he was twelve, he was admitted to the Parma Conservatory. Later, he would receive a degree in violin from the Accademia di Santa Cecilia. His recording heritage is presented here for the first time. The recordings on this album span a period of time from 1960-1973, during Ferraresi’s later life. Several world-renowned conductors are featured on the release, including Aram Khachaturian, William Walton, and Carlo Zecchi. The presented repertoire is mostly romantic, but also includes classics from Mozart as well as newer concertos from Benjamin, Khachaturian, and Shostakovich.

This new, exciting release will allow listeners to rediscover a great and too often forgotten pianist- Pietro Scarpini. “This set will appeal especially to aficionado’s of great pianism and will be of added value in enhancing Scarpini’s scant discography. The albums are complemented with a beautifully illustrated booklet. Rhine Classics have carefully restored and remastered these valuable aural documents in 24bit 96KHz sound.” (MusicWeb UK) “Piano-wise Rhine Classics has given us a stimulating six-album set of Pietro Scarpini playing Busoni and Liszt [...] all played with intelligence and the odd tell-tale flashback to old-world performing gestures.” (Gramophone UK)

Yitzhak-Meir (Isaac) Gitlis was born in Haifa, Palestine Mandate to Jewish parents, who emigrated in 1921 from Kamianets-Podilskyi, Russia, now Ukraine. In 1951, as suggested by his teacher Alice Pashkus, Gitlis participated in the Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris, where he took fifth place. During the preliminary stages of the competition a rumor circulated that he had stolen a Stradivarius violin during the war, which caused a scandal on the day of the final. Six years after the fall of Hitler, being a Jew in France was still causing debate. In 1963, he was the first Israeli violinist to play in the Soviet Union. He gave a series of concerts under the cultural exchange program of the Soviet Union and Israel, starting in Vilnius. His other concerts were given in Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev and Odessa. In the same year, invited by Giancarlo Menotti, he played in Italy at Spoleto’s “6th Festival dei Due Mondi.” This release features early recordings from Gitlis, dated between 1949 and 1963.

Recorded live in September 1987, this release features Fiorentino’s legendary complete survey of Rachmaninov’s solo piano works. “…an utterly mindblowing release of the complete Rachmaninoff solo piano music by Italian master pianist Sergio Fiorentino, to whom the piano world owes a huge debt of gratitude for coaxing the master out of retirement and ensuring that his last decade of concerts was recorded. In this set, we find in absolutely stunning sound quality Fiorentino’s masterful traversals of Rachmaninoff’s solo works, the golden sheen of his sound and refinement of his nuancing as captivating as his passionate and intelligent interpretations.” (The Piano Files)

Sergio Fiorentino (1927-1998) exceptionally detested any superficial gestures and facial expressions when sitting at his instrument. In that respect and in his general view on making music he was true to pianists like Rachmaninov and Moiseiwitsch. The utmost technical difficulties were executed by his hands, and he showed neither strain nor superfluous movements, also never compromising in tempo. His hands always close to the keys, he exerted wonders of clear articulation and full piano tone. Never did he sacrifice the music to show off his tremendous technical endowments. Rhine Classics' collection will comprehensively represent all the significant "non-commercial" recordings left by Fiorentino (from Master's Private Archive), in top-quality remastered sound.

After the premiere recording of Reynaldo Hahn's concerto (released by RH-022), this is another premiere recording by Szeryng: Benjamin Lees's violin concerto. This 2CD set also includes: Brahms violin concerto with Wolfgang Sawallisch, Bach and Szymanowski violin concerto with Ernest Ansermet, Bartok violin concerto with Ernest Ansermet: all never before published recordings.

Two of Heifetz's most important concerts in his career, never released before: Korngold's violin concert first broadcasting and Heifetz and Piatigorsky's last concert at Carnegie Hall.