This compilation draws Christmas music from several recordings conducted by the late Herbert von Karajan, but emphasizes two of them, both from the 1960s: a collection of Baroque Christmas pieces in a mostly pastoral vein, and an LP on which he and the Vienna Philharmonic backed the great African American soprano Leontyne Price. Neither of these recordings is easy to obtain these days, and Karajan aficionados may well be pleased to have them in a single package. Beyond that, the Price pieces, from her heyday, are gorgeous.
All the singers of the Berlin Vocal Ensemble “Carl Maria von Weber” were members of the nationally and internationally renowned Berlin Male Chorus “Carl Maria von Weber”. After the compulsory dissolution of his professional male chorus in May 1995, choral director Andreas Wiedermann decided to risk a new start with these 14 experienced singers…
The Grosses Festpielhaus in Salzburg has been the scene of countless memorable musical events - operas, concerts and recitals - for 50 years. Here is a unique chance to celebrate the glories of this distinguished era. In an exceptional collaboration with the Salzburg Festival, we have prepared a 25-CD box set - 5 complete operas, 10 concerts and 2 recitals - featuring many of the world's greatest artists, in recordings with classical status and others that are appearing on CD for the first time.
The performance of the St. Matthew Passion at the 1950 International Bach Festival still carries an enormous reputation. The Wiener Singverein and the Wiener Symphoniker were conducted by Herbert von Karajan. The singers were all said to be among the best of the early postwar period, and Kathleen Ferrier was at the peak of her tragically short career. And even his detractors had to admit that in the immediate postwar period Herbert von Karajan was at his least narcissistic when he was feeling slightly chastened by having picked the losing side and slightly nervous that someone might hold his choice against him. We are gratified that „Andante“ has reissued the performance and thrilled with the excellence of the digital remastering and with the richness of their packaging.
This massive new reissue from Eugene Ormandy’s stereo discography collects all the Columbia Masterworks recordings he made in Philadelphia between the early 1960s and early 1980s. Sony Classical’s new 94-CD box set once again demonstrates what noted critic Jed Distler, reviewing the previous instalment of this ambitious project “The Columbia Stereo Collection 1958–1963” in Gramophone’s December 2023 issue, characterized as “the Philadelphia Orchestra’s brilliance and versatility as well as Ormandy’s unflappable consistency and habitually underestimated interpretative gifts”. Some of these performances – including the complete recording of Bach’s St. John Passion, Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis, Schubert’s Sixth Symphony and a disc of opera choruses with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, as well as Ginastera’s Concerto for Strings and the ballet music from Massenet’s opera Le Cid – have never appeared before in the digital medium, and they shine a light into new corners of Ormandy’s astonishingly large repertoire.