2024

When William Steinberg was appointed music director of the Boston Symphony in 1969 as successor to Erich Leinsdorf, he attained the pinnacle of his career. No previous conductor had headed two top-ten US orchestras simultaneously. It was a condition of his Boston position that he could continue to work in Pittsburgh with the orchestra that he had headed since 1952. Born as Hans Wilhelm Steinberg in Cologne on 1 August 1899, he studied at the local conservatory with the conductor Hermann Abendroth and the pianist Lazzaro Uzielli, a Clara Schumann pupil. On graduating in 1920 he became Otto Klemperer’s assistant at the Cologne opera house.

Jean Doyen was a French classical pianist, pedagogue and composer. Doyen is best known for his interpretations of 19th and 20th century French music, notably in the works of Gabriel Pierné, Reynaldo Hahn and Vincent d'Indy and is considered one of the great interpreters of this repertoire and above all, of Maurice Ravel and Gabriel Fauré. He also enjoyed playing Vincent d'Indy's Fantaisie sur un vieil air de ronde française and Samazeuilh's Trois Danses. However, he recorded Chopin's waltzes, and premiered the Variations sur un thème de Don Juan.

The eminent Russian pianist, pedagogue and composer, Samuel [Samuil] Feinberg, was born in Odessa and raised in Moscow. From an early age he exhibited an extraordinary talent on the piano. He enrolled in the Moscow Conservatory and studied piano with Alexander Goldenweiser. During his student years he took instruction in composition privately with Nikolai Zhilyayev.

Regarded today as one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century, the Ukrainian-born Mischa Elman. Elman made his first records at the age of 15, and at the age of 19 – following his triumphant Carnegie Hall début – he made his first recordings for The Victor Talking Machine Company. Elman – along with Kreisler and Heifetz – made up the triumvirate of violinists that dominated record sales in the 1920s and 30s.

Beggars Arkive in conjunction with the Estate of Mark Lanegan, are honored to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Mark Lanegan’s acclaimed 2004 album Bubblegum. On August 23rd, we will release Bubblegum XX - a set of releases that include a remastered double LP edition of the original album and a 4XLP/3XCD release containing 40 remastered tracks, 12 of which are previously unreleased.

In the late 1980s, William Christie and Les Arts Florissants recorded a galvanising version of the masterpiece of early English opera: Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. This seminal interpretation is now available again, for the first time in digital.

"Bridge Of Sighs", Robin Trower's second album after leaving Procol Harum, was critically acclaimed and was a commercial breakthrough, selling 3 million copies worldwide and taking Robin's original trio concept into exciting new territory.

Forever Fan is an upcoming compilation album by Cher, set for release on September 20, 2024, via Warner Records. The album features several songs from Cher, released throughout her music career, spanning from 1963 to 2024. According to a press release on August 1, 2024, all the songs were chosen by Cher herself.

When Fleetwood Mac finished touring for Tusk in 1980, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham wasted no time jumping back into the studio, recording nearly all the instruments for his 1981 solo debut, Law and Order. Before the turn of the century, Buckingham added two more albums to his discography – Go Insane and Out of the Cradle – along with a string of memorable songs for films, including “Holiday Road” from National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983).

For the third album collection of the Joni Mitchell Archives project, The Asylum Albums (1976-1980) covers what is arguably the knottiest and most challenging period in a career known for being knotty and challenging. While there are certainly fans who have a preference for Mitchell's diaristic/post-folk sounds of the late '60s/early '70s Reprise era or the exploratory fusions of pop and jazz of her first three Asylum albums, most of those fans can find space to love all (or at least most) of the work she released between 1968 and 1975.