Schubert Waltzer

This CD's main attraction for many will be Gil Shaham's velvety violin in gorgeous, largely off-beat music. Others will relish these Schubert works in arrangements that replace the piano with the expert guitar of Göran Söllscher, enhancing the impression of hearing Schubert's music in the intimate domestic setting for which it was written. Most of the works are short, melodically rich dance-based gems on which Shaham and Söllscher lavish a Romantic tonal fullness and freedom rarely heard these days. Sometimes that's a bit too much of a good thing, as works like the Violin Sonata in D veer close to the sentimental.

The French pianist, Michel (Jean Jacques) Dalberto, was born into non-musical family, but he began playing the piano before his 4th birthday. At age 12 he was studying with Vlado Perlemuter (piano) Jean Hubeau (chamber music) at the Paris Conservatoire. He later studied with Raymond Trourard. In 1975 he won the Clara Haskil Competition and the Salzburg Mozart Competition, and in 1978 he captured the 1st prize at the Leeds Competition, where he played a W.A. Mozart's Piano Concerto (No. 25 K. 503) in the final round, the only first-prize winner ever to do so.

There were occasions during the three decades when the LP record ruled supreme - from the 1950s to the 1970s - when the chemistry between an orchestra, its conductor and their record company combined to work a magic that the commitment of long-term recording contracts quite often made possible. Karajan and the Philharmonia; Ansermet and the Suisse Romande; Dorati and the Minneapolis; Münch and the Boston Symphony, Cluytens and the Paris Conservatoire and Previn and the London Symphony are all prime examples of such collaborations. All of these produced recorded performances that are as fine today as they ever were and are all well-represented in the current CD catalogues. Until now there has been one successful recording collaboration that seems almost to have slipped under the radar: the Pittsburgh Symphony, William Steinberg and the Capitol Records producer, Richard C. Jones.

Following the success of her Odradek debut, Splinters, pianist Mariann Marczi pays tribute to the genius of Schubert. With his Moments musicaux, Schubert set the standard for a whole genre: dancing, evocative miniatures, each offering a brief snapshot of some vignette or character, like a succession of colourful pictures in a slide show. Like Schubert, Hüttenbrenner studied with Salieri and was influenced by Beethoven; the theme from the slow movement of his String Quartet No. 1 is audibly related to the Allegretto from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. Schubert particularly loved that symphony, but chose his friend’s theme as the basis for his set of Variations on a theme by Hüttenbrenner.

Peter Schreier was one of the most highly esteemed tenors of the 20th century, particularly in German lieder, oratorio, and cantata performances, as well as opera. He was also well-regarded as a conductor, specializing in the music of Bach and Mozart.

Gil Shaham took up the violin aged seven and a mere three years later debuted as soloist with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. Less than a year later, Shaham performed with Israel's foremost orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, conducted by Zubin Mehta. Shaham has since performed with many of the world's leading orchestras. His recordings for Deutsche Grammaphon reveal a broad repertoire and not least an affinity to the music of the twentieth century.

Karajan’s Deutsche Grammophon complete recordings is recorded on chronological order. From the “Magic Flute” overture of the 1938 recording used as first recording to the recording of the last in 1989, and the Symphony No.7 of Bruckner. There is no selling separately. It becomes ordering limited production.

This Sony-made 30CD classical music collection covers almost all classical music, from the early Baroque period represented by Bach to the schools of classical music by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms represent romantic, national and even modern musical schools led by Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, etc. representative, everything wonderful and vivid.

This set of 20 CDs presents virtually everything that was recorded by Steinberg during the seven years that he recorded for Capitol: from the Schubert Second Symphony, recorded on 9 February 1952, to the Italian Serenade by Wolf, from 16 April 1959. There are some exceedingly good performances in this set and the recordings show that Capitol Records were at the technical forefront when it came to sound quality and production values.