Culshaw

For the hardcore Britten fan on your list, the 10-disc set called Britten conducts Britten is the perfect gift solution. They'll no doubt already have the classic recording of Britten conducting the War Requiem, his choral-orchestral masterpiece. But unless they collect old LPs, they probably won't have most of the rest of the recordings on these CDs including the odd but intense religious cantatas The Burning Fiery Furnace, The Prodigal Son, and Noye's Fludde; the even odder but still totally convincing children's opera The Little Sweep; and all the Christmas music, especially Saint Nicholas. How could any hardcore Britten fans resist?

Karajan & Vienna Philharmonic - The Legendary Decca Recordings (2008) {9CD Box Set Decca Music 478 0155}
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© 2008 Decca Music | 478 0155
Classical / Orchestral / Symphony

5 April 2008 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Herbert von Karajan, the legendary Austrian-born conductor who achieved a position of musical supremacy as director of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra that made him one of the most famous and celebrated conductors of the second half of the twentieth century. While the majority of his symphonic recordings were made for Deutsche Grammophon, von Karajan also recorded for Decca and EMI during the 1950s and 1960s. This set is reissued to mark this momentous anniversary and contains all of his orchestral recordings made with the Vienna Philharmonic for Decca during the late 1950s/early 1960s.

This recording has never received the respect it has deserved. The sound has been cleaned up and it is a Culshaw production with the VPO. It is fairly early in Karajan's career so the mannerisms that people fault him for are not so much in evidence. Del Monico is in great voice. This role needs an Italianate voice which is why I have never warmed to Domingo performances of the role. A great deal.
-By Grant C. Creeger-