Final Fantasie

Naxos has collected its four volume traversal of the lute music into a handy slipcase. All the volumes are available singly, but you can also buy the four together as a quartet of excellence, presided over by Nigel North, the acknowledged hero of the hour. What follows is a reprise of two volumes already reviewed - volumes 1 and 3 - and a look at volumes 2 and 4.

This is the first-ever collection of Rudolf Serkin's complete recordings for Columbia Masterworks on 75 discs: Concertos, sonatas, chamber music and vocal performances, all recorded between 1941 and 1985. An all-embracing survey of Rudolf Serkin's recorded achievements, spanning over 44 years. Some collaborations include Adolf Busch, Pablo Casals, Peter Serkin, Jaime Laredo, Frtiz Reiner, George Szell, Eugene Ormandy, and Arturo Toscanini.

Marking 100 years since his death, this is the first ever set of SCRIABIN COMPLETE WORKS. Drawn principally from Decca’s distinguished catalogue, the set also features no fewer than 64 newly-recorded tracks - over 200 mins of music, newly recorded by Vladimir Ashkenazy and Valentina Lisitsa especially for this set. Scriabin has in recent years become admired as one of the early 20th century’s most innovative and influential composers. The set concludes with a bonus disc showcasing great pianists across Decca, Philips and DG who have played Scriabin down the years, from Horowitz, Richter and Cherkassky onto Kissin, Grosvenor and Trifonov.