Marriner Emi

EMI's 50 Best Romantic Classics is loosely organized by regions, with the first disc devoted to French music, the second to Scandinavian and Eastern European classics, and the third to music from Italy and Spain. This arrangement is quite practical for beginners, who may appreciate the music's recognizable national styles before grasping more historical or theoretical aspects. Yet some understanding is needed of the term romantic, for not all of the music included in this collection fits within the Romantic era (roughly, the 19th century, with some overlapping of the early years of the 20th).

Brigitte Fassbaender rose to worldwide fame in the role of Octavian in the Strauss/Hofmannsthal comedy Der Rosenkavalier. Fassbaender took her Octavian to all the major centers including London, Milan, Vienna, New York and Tokyo and continued singing the role for over 20 years.

This 6 CD set contains an unrivalled collection of 100 favourite romantic classics, performed by some of the world’s leading artists. Among them are the singers Maria Callas, Natalie Dessay, Angela Gheorghiu. Barbara Hendricks, Luciano Pavarotti and Kiri Te Kanawa; instrumentalists Leif Ove Andsnes, Martha Argerich, Jacqueline du Pre, Yehudi Menuhin, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Maxim Vengerov; plus conductors Mariss Jansons, Riccardo Muti, Antonio Pappano, Andre Previn, Sir Simon Rattle and Herbert von Karajan.