New York Philharmonic

The world-renowned New York Philharmonic (officially the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York) is America's oldest symphony orchestra, a prime example of high standards of performance to musicians and audiences everywhere. Beginning in the 1820s, there were several attempts to found an orchestra in the city, the more successful of which were the Philharmonic Symphony Society (established in 1842) and the New York Symphony (established in 1878). The Philharmonic had a reputation for conservatism and high standards, hiring primarily European conductors, such as Gustav Mahler. The Symphony seemed more ambitious and interested in new music. It received patronage from Andrew Carnegie, enabling the building of Carnegie Hall (1891), with an inaugural concert led by Walter Damrosch and Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky.

I have to recommend this box set of Brahms Symphonies and other works including his Requiem recorded in the 1990's by Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic. Warner Classics released this edition in 2014 and it seems fitting for me to be the first one to review it now as Kurt Masur sadly passed away at the end of 2015. He had been the music director of the New York Philharmonic from 1991 until 2002 and this had been seen as a very successful period for the Orchestra which had been a bit wayward until he took over.

Wanda Landowska came from a cultured background. Her father was an amateur musician and lawyer in Warsaw and her mother, who spoke six languages, was the first to translate the works of Mark Twain into Polish and founded the first Berlitz School in Warsaw. Landowska began to play the piano at the age of four. Her first teacher was Jan Kleczyński and she continued her tuition at the Warsaw Conservatory with Aleksander Michałowski. At seventeen Landowska went to Berlin to complete her studies, in piano with Moritz Moszkowski and in composition with Heinrich Urban.