Donizetti’s Messa da Requiem was composed after the composer received the news of Vincenzo Bellini’s death. Soprano Leyla Gencer performs beautifully in this rare recording. This recording was made in 1961 by the Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Milano della Rai with conductor Gianandrea Gavazzeni.

"The performance of Elgar's oratorio that John Barbirolli conducted in Rome in November 1957 was briefly available on LP, and acquired a place in history as the only surviving record of the great Jon Vickers in the title role. Now out of copyright and available for the first time on CD, it's a fascinating document, although the shortcomings are considerable. Vickers doesn't disappoint, singing with an intensity and a care for the sound and sense of every word that are well nigh ideal...The orchestra and chorus do their best, which isn't quite good enough; it's Vickers who makes this a must-have." - Andrew Clements, The Guardian, London

Newly released as part of the Archipel Desert Island Collection, this disc captures in concert one of the two greatest and most important of Russian pianists to emerge from the Soviet Union after WWII, Emil Gilels (1916-85). + From a March, 1963 Milan concert comes Chopin’s First Concerto and the Schubert/Kabalevsky re-imagined Fantasy in F minor, D940, an orchestrated version written specially for Gilels. + Also to be heard is a live 1951 performance from Firenze of Mozart’s C minor sonata, K457.