His passing most unfortunately coming on the same day as the dreaded Stalin's, Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953), most fortunately, left to posterity a far better, less lethal legacy. His music, often marked rhythmically and instrumentally by the violence and war which surrounded him after his return to the Soviet Union, is all the more dramatic as a result. Few could capture that drama as well as his countryman Sviatoslav Richter, a pianist seemingly born to play his music. These 1956-8 Moscow recordings of the Sonatas Nos. 6, 7 & 9, capture Mr. Richter at the height of his interpretative powers.

A timely re-issue of the legendary 1960 live concert performance in Salzburg featuring a dazzling firmament of legendary singers all in the prime of their singing careers: Leontyne Price, Eberhard Wächter, Hilde Rössel-Majdan, Fritz Wunderlich and Walter Berry. With the great Herbert von Karajan leading the Vienna Philharmonic and the soaring Wiener Singverein, this is a most distinguished performance of Mozart's Requiem.

• A 1957 live performance from Stuttgart, conducted by Lovro von Matacic. • The great Heldentenor Wolfgang Windgassen stars as Rienzi. • Stuttgart came to be known as the “Winter Bayreuth” for its staging of Wagner operas not slated for performance in Bayreuth.