Reynolds – Florence, Az. 2014

This 28 CD box set includes the Argo jewels from Marriner’s early recording days with the chamber orchestra he founded in 1958, The Academy of St Martin in the Fields. The edition spans the years 1964-1981, and includes a bonus CD of the first recordings from 1961.The collection concentrates on the Argo years, when the pattern for the Academy’s success was set. Winning performances by soloists such as Alan Loveday and Iona Brown — who in 1974 became Marriner’s successor in directing from the violin – were a key part of the fabric of the Academy’s unique sound. Highlights in this box include the legendary recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, and full performances of Handel’s Messiah and Mozart’s Requiem.

When it was first released in 1994, Richard Buckner's debut album Bloomed seemed little short of miraculous, a beautifully spare but rich and compelling set of songs about the sweet and bitter sides of love, accompanied by a superb, primarily acoustic ensemble led by producer Lloyd Maines. In retrospect, Bloomed turned out to reveal just one of the many facets of Buckner's musical personality, but if his muse took him many places after this (and continued to guide him in fascinating ways), this still remains one of the most satisfying and engaging albums in his catalog. Buckner's songs on Bloomed dig deep, whether he's pondering the mysteries of love on "Blue and Wonder" and "Mud," or sketching an indelible portrait of a young man succumbing to despair and self-pity on "22," and his wordplay is at once artful and down to earth, and all the more effective for Buckner's strong, burnished voice and thoughtful phrasing; it's hard to imagine another voice putting so much effortless resonance behind lines like "This is where things start going bad," or "Christ, how this life, from mud to miracles, is just the prettiest little burden."

"Between 1972 and 1982 Maazel was Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra and between 1973-79 made a series of recordings for Decca – all of which are collected here. The repertory includes many orchestral spectaculars and Decca’s first recording in Cleveland, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, is one of the very best and a recording which has achieved reference status. “…. The precision of The Cleveland Orchestra is little short of miraculous… the recording is one of Decca’s most spectacular, searingly detailed but atmospheric too.”

The founding of the Berliner Philharmoniker on the first of May in 1882 is annually celebrated with a concert in a European city of cultural significance. For this newly released EUROPAKONZERT Blu-ray Disc all recordings were lovingly restored and converted to High Definition video. Maestro Zubin Mehta was awarded the Presidential Medal of Distinction for his unique contribution to Israeli culture. Sarah Chang has not only received the Royal Philharmonic Award for Young Artist and the Gramophone Award among others, but she was also the youngest person to receive the Hollywood Bowl’s Hall of Fame award. The concert took place at the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence.