Chailly Messiaen

RCO - Anthology of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Volume 6, 1990-2000 (2011) {14CD Box Set, RCO 11004} (Complete Artwork)
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© 1990-2000, 2011 Radio Netherlands Music / RCO LIve | RCO 11004
Classical / Orchestral

I bought this shortly after my first visit to the Concertgebouw itself, when I was bowled over by the hall's superb acoustics and atmosphere. So these live broadcast recordings were pungent evocations of the experience. But even without that, this is a box worth having, if you can afford it. The first two discs alone are dynamite: a marvellously dramatic, idiomatic account of Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle with Ivan Fischer and Hungarian soloists, followed by one of the best Mahler Fifths I've heard, from Tennstedt in 1990.

The Anthology of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is a recorded history of six decades of performances by the Concertgebouw Orchestra, taken from broadcasts contained in the archives of Dutch Radio and Radio Netherlands World Service. RCO Live has chosen not only legendary performances under chief conductors of the RCO but also concerts led by countless guest conductors of both greater and lesser renown. The sixth volume of the anthology features broadcasts from the 1990s, and presents a fascinating and colorful portrait of the orchestra s artistic development under various conductors during that period.

RCO - Anthology of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Volume 7, 2000-2010 (2013) {14CD Box Set, RCO 12004} (Complete Artwork)
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 4.42 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 2.45 Gb
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© 2000-2010, 2013 Radio Netherlands Music / RCO LIve | RCO 12004
Classical / Orchestral

This seventh and final installment of the Anthology of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra covers the years 2000 to 2010, a rich period in the orchestra's history largely characterized by the changing perspectives of a new century. Indeed, it was in 2004 that Riccardo Chailly relinquished his position as chief conductor, to be replaced by the Latvian maestro Mariss Jansons, who shifted the orchestra's focus more towards Tchaikovsky, Richard Strauss and Shostakovich. A generation of orchestral players retired and were succeeded by a group of outstanding young musicians, most of them hailing from outside the Netherlands, resulting in a growing internationalization of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Also in this period, the launch of the orchestra's own in-house record label, RCO Live, breathed new life into its rich recording tradition.

Decca’s first FFRR concerto recording available for the first time: Eileen Joyce / Tchaikovsky 2nd Piano Concerto – never released on 78rpm and long thought lost, the test pressings were recently found at the International Piano Archives in Maryland.

The subtitle of this SACD is "The Ultimate Audio Experience". But open the notes, and you discover that all the tracks save one are from 44, 48, and 96KHz PCM sample original sources. There are some great performances here –- forever trapped in mid-definition resolution. They date from 1993 to 2003, a surprising number of them being recorded in 2001-2003, after DSD recording was available. In listening to this SACD, I was beginning to have doubts about the SACD format until I noticed the sources in the liner notes.