Solti's "Falstaff" still shines brilliantly as a masterpiece! Solti's overwhelming interpretation is vividly revived here with the beauty of the Decca sound of the time. Although Verdi’s "Falstaff" has an important place as the last opera of the 1950s, there are not many recordings of it compared to the popular work "La Traviata". Among them, the 1963 recording board by Solti who still shines brightly (released under the name of "RCA Italian Opera Orchestra & Chorus" at that time). Solti, a great conductor born in Hungary, recorded "Falstaff" in the 1990s, but the singers of the 1963 recording remain unmatched and their overwhelming interpretation is the original version. Also, the wonderful sound by Decca at that time vividly conveys Solti's accurate interpretation.

One of the most legendary conductors of the twentieth century, Charles Munch was, with Pierre Monteux, certainly the greatest French conductor. After a long activity in France, Munch then moved to the United States, becoming an American citizen and reaching the apex with the conduction of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with which he recorded a large number of performances, especially symphonies, published by RCA. These 2 albums represent an important document of some live concert versions of his American activity and are completely unpublished. The sound quality is excellent!

Czech-born Swiss conductor Rafael Kubelik trained in Prague and debuted with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 19. He went on to be music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Royal Opera Covent Garden, and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Before recording the best of his repertoire (Mahler, Beethoven, R. Schumann, and more) for Deutsche Grammophon, Kubelik was particularly active with the English label Decca. With it, he recorded his only complete edition of the Brahms Symphonies in 1957. And it is this beautiful stereo version, which has not been found on the market for years, that we are presenting on these 2 albums after careful restoration.

Karl Weigl’s music will not be lost. We will return to it after the storm has passed. We will return to those who have written real music. (Pablo Casals) I always considered Karl Weigl as one of the best composers of the old school; one of those who continued the glittering Viennese tradition. He truly preserves this old culture of musical spirit which represents the best of Viennese culture. (Arnold Schoenberg, 1938)

From the legendary Albani’s library in Urbino, a collection of recordings, many of which unpublished, of anonymous manuscripts alternated to compositions by the two most famous lutenists of Rome at the time: Vincenzo Pinti and Lorenzo Tracetti. The repertoire of this Album captures an almost magical moment in which two different musical tendencies meet briefly, only to separate with the establishment of the Baroque style. On the one hand the tradition of Roman polyphony, on the other the revolution in Baroque music. However, these two aspects are hardly presented separately, rather they are combined in the same piece, where strict meditation and sudden changes of atmosphere and sound alternate.

Saving the imagination. This was one of the secrets of good composition (“sparing the imagination and conducting a piece with a few ideas”) according to Donizetti. Indeed, this economy of invention proved especially effective in chamber music, particularly in its noblest formation: the string quartet. This second box marks a further step towards the recording of the complete opera released by the strings of the Mitja Quartet.

The Mitja Quartet was founded in 2008 by four musicians from Naples, Cosenza, Potenza and La Serena (Chile). The ensemble was formed in the most prestigious academies in Europe (the Fiesole Music School, the European Academy of the Quartet of Florence, the W. Stauffer Academy of Cremona, the Pro Quartet Academy of Paris, the Jeunesse Musicale Deutschland of Weikersheim, the International Piano Academy Incontri col Maestro di Imola), studying with internationally renowned musicians and ensembles, such as the Artemis Quartet, the Alban Berg Quartet, the Casals Quartet, the Kuss Quartet, the Cremona Quartet, Antonello Farulli , Andrea Nannoni and Alfred Brendel.

172 pieces, 400 movements, 3, or more, compositional decades: those are the main features at the basis of the corpus of the keyboard Sonatas of Baldassare Galuppi, known as “il Buranello”. The indeterminacy of a specific instrument and the cultural influence of several European countries give to his music a heterogeneous character both in formal and stylistic terms, following that movement of ideas so typical among the best composers of the time. The Sonatas included in this Album come from different manuscripts and their musical language seems almost a sampler of Buranello’s different compositional modes.

This album tackles some of Clara Schumann’s most representative early works, from the Polonaises op. 1 (written when she was 13) to the Sonata in G minor (composed at the age of 20). These pages show the environment in which the young Clara grew up artistically, namely: virtuoso pianism, the influence of Chopin (such as in the Soirées Musicales op.6 ), almost statutory homagea to the Viennese tradition (as in the Souvenir de Vienne op. 9 dedicated to the Empress of Austria) and, equally obligatory, the sonata. Together with the Romances op. 11, this key work marks the passage to a second, more mature phase – magnificent yet tormented – of her life and poetics.

My God! What a child! No one has understood me as this boy does... this is not imitation, it is the same feeling, an instinct that makes him play without reasoning, as if he could not be otherwise. He plays almost all of my compositions without having heard them performed, without my having shown him the slightest thing - not exactly like me (having his own personality), but just as well. Chopin on Filtsch (The Humorist, 1843)

Among the few recordings of Don Carlo, this recording stands out with great authority. Despite being a live performance, it is of the highest quality. It's importance lies above all in the participation of two great performers, Franco Corelli and Gundula Janowitz, who have never recorded Don Carlo in the studio.