Richard Strauss’s (1864–1949) acceptance into the pantheon of great Lieder composers began in the early 1950s, perhaps marked by the enthusiastic reception of his Four Last Songs, premiered by Kirsten Flagstad eight months after Strauss’s death. It wasn’t long before these songs became widely performed, and by extension, his Lieder as a whole, began to gain greater acceptance as high art along with Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, and Wolf. This compilation concentrates on Strauss Lieder recordings from an earlier era that display the sort of vocal charm and straightforward approach to the music not usually heard in today’s style of Lieder singing. Many of these recordings are extremely important historic documents retaining their position as the definitive versions of Strauss Lieder. Some of the singers included here not only knew Strauss, but worked with him, and their recordings could have been heard and judged by him. This three CD-set contains forty songs in eighty-two performances by fifty-seven singers.
Feodor Chaliapin (1873-1938) (bass) was in the opinion of many the greatest singing actor of the 20th century. Like Enrico Caruso, the name Chaliapin continued to be a household word long after his death. A case in point is that the Sobranie tobacco company continued to market their “Chaliapin” cigarettes into the 1970s. Producing a Chaliapin set has long been a desire of Marston, yet due to the size of the compilation, the production costs, and the time involved, this project has been pushed to the back burner time and time again. With the financial assistance of some of our generous supporters, we have finally released a thirteen-CD set containing every known recording of Feodor Chaliapin numbering well into the two hundreds.
One of the best British Invasion bands, the Hollies were rightfully famous for their stellar harmonies and keen sense of pop songcraft. The Hollies originally inspired by the harmony rich sound of Buddy Holly, they soon became artistic contemporaries of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, with their distinctive sound which was all part of the British Invasion of the US in the 60's.
Frank sinatra The Complete Reprise Studio Recordings (1995 US limited edition 20-CD set containing a total of 452 songs [over 24 hours sequenced in chronological order] recorded between 1960 & 1988, with 70 songs previously unavailable on CD & a further 18 previously unreleased titles, presented in embossed deluxe leather and brass bound 'trunk' carry case with individually numbered brass plaque, complete with 96-page hard back book with extensive liner notes and insightful essays by respected Sinatra scholars like Will Friedwald, interviews and photographs.)
No single box set–however sumptuously packaged, however comprehensively compiled–could hope to contain the bewildering, diverse array of musical styles and opinions that was brought together under the loose description "punk" between 1976 and 1979. There were so many fresh ideas and concepts–the final, irreversible emancipation of women in rock and the creation of an entirely new, non-R&B, guitar-based music form–contained within that one word, no compilation could hope to represent it fairly. 1-2-3-4 has a damn good try, though. Five CDs, featuring 100 tracks from the good, bad and downright ugly of punk.