Kubelik

The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and IMG Artists present an exclusive deluxe 8CD box set edition celebrating the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and its century-long national and international tradition. The box offers a unique collection of recordings dating from 1934-1978 with more than 10 hours of music. Here the orchestra plays under legendary names like Arturo Toscanini, Fritz Busch, Leopold Stokowski, Bruno Walter, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Pierre Monteux and Rafael Kubelik, together with their Swedish counterparts Tor Mann, Sixten Ehrling and Herbert Blomstedt.

Conductor and pianist James Levine is one of the powerhouse figures of the classical music scene today. As a child he undertook both piano and violin; he was so accomplished on the violin that at the age of ten he played Mendelssohn's second violin concerto at a Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra youth concert. He studied piano at various summer music festivals before enrolling at New York's Juilliard School, where he took conducting courses with Jean Morel and continued piano studies with Rosina Lhevinne.

The Collector's Edition - Celebrating a groundbreaking label - The true legacy of a legendary label. Long hailed as an audiophile's label, Mercury represents an important milestone in the history of classical recordings. A s The New York Times described, 'One feels oneself in the living presence of the orchestra'. 60 years after the landmark first recording, Mercury Living Presence: The Collector's Edition celebrates this special anniversary.

Tasmin Little and her accompanist Piers Lane begin this most generous recital disc (comprising 72 minutes of music) in commanding style, with an appropriately gradiloquent account of Kreisler's Praeludium and Allegro. The playing is committed and demonstrative, although Little is less convincing in the other Kreisler work, the Caprice viennois, where her vocalization and sense of timing lack that special Viennese charm so characteristic of Kreisler's original compositions.

After a slew of second-rate Slavonic Dances recordings, it's gratifying to once again make acquaintance with this classic Szell reading. Yes, the sound's a bit harsh and shallow, but boy, you just don't find performances as exciting and well played as these every day. Szell conducts enthusiastically and enlivens the music with a natural poetic inflection and nuance, while the Cleveland Orchestra takes to these pieces as if bred to play them. Listen to the delightfully bright woodwind tone in Op. 46 Nos. 1, 3, and 4, the sweetly singing strings in Op. 72 No. 1, the dancing lilt of Op. 46 No. 6, or the beautifully sculpted phrasing of Op. 72 No. 8. Plus, Szell is the only conductor on disc to play the opening repeat of Op. 72 No. 7 after the introductory bars (which otherwise is an awkward "restart" that, in the score or no, makes little musical sense). No matter which Slavonic Dances recording you own (even great ones like Kubelik, and Neumann) you simply must not do with out this magnificent Essential Classics release.
–Victor Carr Jr. classicstoday.com

Conductor and pianist James Levine is one of the powerhouse figures of the classical music scene today. As a child he undertook both piano and violin; he was so accomplished on the violin that at the age of ten he played Mendelssohn's second violin concerto at a Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra youth concert. He studied piano at various summer music festivals before enrolling at New York's Juilliard School, where he took conducting courses with Jean Morel and continued piano studies with Rosina Lhevinne.

With superlative recordings of Dvorák's unfairly neglected Sixth Symphony by Vaclav Talich with the Czech Philharmonic, Rafael Kubelik with the Berliner Philharmoniker, and Istvan Kertész with the London Symphony, this version featuring Jac van Steen and the Dortmund Philharmonic certainly faces stiff competition, and while it may not be the very finest, it ranks with the best recordings of the piece in the 30 years prior to its release. Van Steen has the strength, energy, and sympathetic understanding to put the best face on Dvorák's unendingly cheerful Sixth.