The father of Domenico Scarlatti (he of the 555 harpsichord sonatas), Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725), a successful musician in his own right, composed a number of popular opera serie in his day, Griselda (1721) being the last. Bruno Maderna (1904-75), one of the finest Italian composers of the 20th c., understood this music intimately, and his conducting, rarely captured, is often wondrous. Complimented by a cast of singers including Mirella Freni, Heinz Ruhfuss and Ernst Haefliger, this 1960 Hannover performance of Griselda is a rare market sighting and offers true listening enjoyment.

Newly released as part of the Archipel Desert Island Collection, this luminous May, 1962 Vienna Philharmonic performance of Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9/Te Deum coupling marked the first of more than a dozen Herbert von Karajan’s performances of this symphony to be captured for posterity between 1962-1986 with either the Vienna or the Berlin Philharmonic. + The impressive soloist quartet roster for the Te Deum included soprano Wilma Lipp and tenor Nicolai Gedda.

• An all-Beethoven double-disc set of Herbert von Karajan conducting the first and last symphonies with the New York Philharmonic in late 1958. • The bonus performance of the Beethoven Fifth, with the Vienna Philharmonic, sees its first-ever release. • Leontyne Price heads a stellar quartet of singers for the Beethoven Ninth.

Leonid Kogan, accompanied by Andrei Mytnik will leave you speechless with these live recordings and radio broadcasts of Brahms' Violin Sonatas. Critics consider these to be some of the best recordings of the three Violin Sonatas As a bonus, Kogan plays Brahms' Hungarian Dances