11.22.63 S01e04 (2016)

Marie Jaëll probably represents the most authoritative and accomplished expression of the nineteenth century woman musician. In spite of her coming from the provinces and despite the heavy social restrictions imposed on artists of her gender, she nonetheless succeeded in being recognized as a virtuoso, a composer and as a teacher. Support from her husband – the Austrian pianist Alfred Jaëll – greatly contributed to the positive reception of her initial works for the piano, but it was by herself, armed with her talent and her resolve in the latter part of her life, that she faced up to the Parisian hurly-burly in which she proved herself to be one of its distinctive figures.

This amazing document, recorded at the Styriarte Festival in Graz, Austria in June and July, 2009, and conducted by the renowned Nikolaus Harnoncourt, reestablishes Gershwin’s masterpiece as the great American folk opera it was meant to be in the first place – the “American Wozzeck.” . With New Zealand star Jonathan Lemalu as Porgy, Isabelle Kabatu as Bess, and Gregg Baker – who sang the role at the Met in 1985 and at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1986 – as Crown, the performance emphasizes the work’s enormous theatrical and musical qualities, gives it the importance it always deserved, and sets it squarely alongside the greatest pieces ever created for the concert hall.

During the early nineteenth century the new 1804 Viennese version of La Clemenza di Tito, was Mozart's most popular opera in Europe. However, in keeping with the practice during that period, it was performed in versions adapted to the times and the taste of the opera public and this is precisely the starting point for our recording's conductor Alessandro De Marchi. He would like to present Tito in the form in which it was staged and acclaimed in great houses from the Vienna Court Opera to the Milan Scala and from Dresden and Hamburg to Paris during the early years of the nineteenth century. Our recording is based on the acclaimed production at the Innsbruck Festival Weeks 2013 with the Academia Montis Regalis performing on historical instruments.

~ The ultimate “Living Stereo” Collector’s Edition – A celebration of high-fidelity analogue recording ~ All 60 CDs newly remastered from the original 2- and 3-track master tapes using 24 bit / 192 kHz technology ~ First ever release of 48 “Living Stereo” LPs on CD ~ Hardcover bound book with a new introduction by discographer Michael Gray, full discographical notes and content listing ~ All albums with facsimile LP sleeves and labels About “Living Stereo”: Early in the fall of 1958, the world of high-fidelity music reproduction changed forever.