Phillips Salvatore Accardo

Noted for his exquisite, beautiful playing and a technical wizardry, Accardo is most associated with Paganini. DG are proud to present these legendary Paganini in a deluxe 6CD + Blu-ray Audio package remastered from the original sources. These incredible virtuoso solo violin works are heard in astounding detail in this new 96kHz/24-bit remastering. Accardo's instrument is a Stradivarius dating from 1717.

The task of picking "essential masterpieces" for a big-box collection like this is essentially futile. Sure, one could complain that restricting the vocal music to the two Gloria settings distorts Vivaldi's output severely, but any selection would cause complaints - and the compilers could point out that it was instrumental concertos that made Vivaldi popular and instrumental concertos on which his popularity rests. Furthermore, the recordings featured here, mostly by the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, are, in many cases, those that turned Vivaldi into an industry - they were the backbone of programming on NPR, the BBC, and their counterparts in other countries for years.

Admirable pose and command … An unusually wide-ranging and full-bodied recording.

The most comprehensive edition devoted to Gioacchino Rossini marking his 150th anniversary. Born in 1792, Rossini was the most popular opera composer of his time. Although he retired from the Opera scene in 1829, he continued to compose in other genres, including sacred music, piano and chamber works. He did gather his late works under the ironic title Péchés de vieillesse (Sins of Old Age), which veils a true collection of masterworks.

These recordings by I Musici, with soloists Salavatore Accardo (violin) and Heinz Holliger (oboe) display both attributes in spades. The recordings were made in 1975. While maybe not displaying the same cutting-edge tempi as the most recent competition (Federico Guglielmo and Il Arte Dell'Arco in the new Brilliant Classics Vivaldi edition) they are still very very good. If you see this set for sale I wouldn't hesitate to grab it.

Concertos Nos. 3 and 4 are not only formidably demanding from a technical standpoint, but also are extremely difficult to interpret musically. Rózsa has all the violinistic equipment necessary to tackle these fiendish scores, as he impressively shows in the first movement cadenza of the E minor work. For comparison, I turned to Salvatore Accardo's account on Deutsche Grammophon with Charles Dutoit and the London Philharmonic. Accardo is rightly regarded as a Paganini specialist, but he is neither as subtle in his phrasing and inflection nor so stylish and polished in bravura passages as Rózsa.