Beauty Scala

Fritz Reiner was one of the foremost conductors of his time. Crowning his long career in Europe and America was the decade from 1954 to 1963 as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra – an illustrious partnership that ranks along such other historical tenures as Karajan’s in Berlin, Szell’s in Cleveland and Bernstein’s in New York.

First recordings of concertos by a legendary virtuoso of the Italian Baroque. Concert master at the Teatro alla Scala since 2014, Laura Marzadori studied with Salvatore Accardo and Giuliano Carmignola, as well as playing in the Orchestra Mozart under Claudio Abbado. She has given chamber-music concerts with internationally renowned soloists such as Antonio Meneses, Andrea Lucchesini and Bruno Giuranna, and worked as a concert master for some of the world’s great conductors, including Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Chailly and Antonio Pappano. She gave the world premiere performances of Respighi’s Violin Concerto in 2011, followed by a warmly received recording of the piece. She has also recorded the beautiful but little-known concerto by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari.

The Szell/Cleveland Recordings Complete! In the heyday of George Szell s tenure as its chief conductor, declared Gramophone, The Cleveland Orchestra had few if any peers among the world s great orchestras. Coinciding with the orchestra s centenary in 2018, Sony Classical is excited to announce one of the most ambitious reissue projects of recent times, a comprehensive collection of the Clevelanders recordings made under the baton of their iconic fourth music director. These span the period between 1947 a year after Szell (born in Budapest in 1897) inherited a fine provincial orchestra from Erich Leinsdorf and began transforming it into the elite ensemble it remains to this day and 1969, a year before his sudden death shocked the musical world. Szell's dream was to create an ensemble that combined the Americans purity and beauty of sound and their virtuosity of execution with the European sense of tradition, warmth of expression and sense of style, in the words of his biographer Michael Charry.

The Maggio Musicale in Florence is the oldest and one of the most famous music festivals in Italy. When it’s director, Zubin Mehta, celebrated his 70th birthday, the staging of Giuseppe Verdi’s Falstaff was part of the festivities. The opera was conducted by Zubin Mehta himself and directed by Luca Ronconi.

For those who can only judge Callas' voice, any recording can be very disapointing. To enjoy listening to her voice, one must be aware of her work as a dramatic performance rather than a technically perfect and beautiful voice. She sang with her soul, her heart and all the deep feelings a human being can experience and this led her to the top of the opera world, although her voice never achieved beauty and evenness as it would be expected of an opera Diva.

This is a relatively new venture for the outstandingly imaginative recording outfit that is Opera Rara. The label's fifty-fourth recording sees them venturing on an uncompleted work by Donizetti, the composer they love the most. The composer had decamped from Naples to Paris when the censors, on the king’s personal instructions, banned his opera Poliuto.

Emilio Arrieta (1821-1894), the first Spanish composer whose music was heard at the Royal Theatre (Ildegonda, in 1854), and the first to have it sung in Spanish (Marina, in 1871), is an essential figure in 19th-century musical Spain.

Celebrating the 175th Anniversary of the New York Philharmonic, America’s oldest symphony orchestra. 65 CDs of famous New York Philharmonic performances conducted by many of its most renowned music directors, from the very first recording in 1917 up to 1995.