The Heifetz Collection

In their liner notes for this string of estrellitas (‘small stars’), Elena Urioste and Tom Poster admit to a shared love for ‘an old-world, golden sound and for melodies that tug at the heartstrings’. This has resulted in a deeply personal collection of miniatures full of winks, sighs and tears aimed at transporting the listener to bygone eras of fireside salon concerts. With a few exceptions, including Elgar’s Chanson de Nuit and Salut d’amour, the pieces are arrangements by the great violinists of that bygone, golden age: Auer, Kreisler, Zimbalist, Heifetz … while the originals they are based upon range from Gluck’s Melodie from Orpheus and Euridice and Liszt’s Consolation No. 3 to Beau soir by Debussy and Estrellita by Manuel Ponce. In a closing section Elena Urioste and Tom Poster also pay their respects to the Great American Songbook, with new arrangements, signed Tom Poster, of Moon River, When I Fall in Love and Over the Rainbow.

Containing six discs and 111 tracks, Deutsche Grammophon's 111 Years of Deutsche Grammophon is a sprawling collection of single items drawn largely from its enormous 55 CD 111 Years of Deutsche Grammophon The Collector's Edition…

Respighi’s orchestral music is loved for its lavish, operatic ‘fireworks’, its pomp and circumstance. This recording of his music for violin and piano demonstrates a more tender and intimate side to the composer, and also shows what a master he was of melody. Respighi had many influences from all over Europe and an enthusiasm for German music which perhaps explains the pleasing echoes of Brahms and Schumann among others. The sonatas, especially the later in B minor, are important works of nineteenth-century chamber music, and gems such as the Valse caressante and the Serenata are suffused with lyrical elegance which is perfectly carried off by the wonderful violinist Tanja Becker-Bender.

Ricci’s recording of Sibelius’s Violin Concerto falls between Jascha Heifetz’s two (1935 and 1959) and straddles the demonic energy of the first and the icy mystery of the second. Decca’s engineers (Cyril Windebank and Gordon Parry, in this case) reproduce the sharp bite of the brass and clarity of the strings. They also project Ricci forward so as to capture the cleanness of his playing and the richness of his tone.

A CD reissue of "Greatest Hits" LP, named "Greatest Hits CD", was released in 1986, and greatly expands on the content of the original album in the light of "Daphnis et Chloé" and the subsequent two studio albums. Some of the tracks on this CD were included on the earlier LP release "A Voyage Through His Greatest Hits" ("Voyage" in Japan) which was released as Vol. 2 of the original "Greatest Hits" LP collection.