Sierra 1977

Russia is vast, and so is this 25-disc tribute to the great piano school of Russia-from the long-famous icons to the more recent inheritors of this ineffably proud tradition. Vladimir Horowitz, Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Lazar Berman and many others display their subtly various approaches to phrasing and timbre as they perform the great works of the Russian canon and composers across Europe. Monumental works like the first piano concertos of both Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev sit alongside intimate salon pieces like Tchaikovsky's The Seasons and rarely heard works such as the preludes of Kabalevsky. Many of these rapturously beautiful performances are rare and have never been available on CD!

Russia is vast, and so is this 25-disc tribute to the great piano school of Russia-from the long-famous icons to the more recent inheritors of this ineffably proud tradition. Vladimir Horowitz, Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Lazar Berman and many others display their subtly various approaches to phrasing and timbre as they perform the great works of the Russian canon and composers across Europe. Monumental works like the first piano concertos of both Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev sit alongside intimate salon pieces like Tchaikovsky's The Seasons and rarely heard works such as the preludes of Kabalevsky. Many of these rapturously beautiful performances are rare and have never been available on CD!

Between 1975 and 1983 Jordi Savall and the vocal and instrumental ensemble Hespèrion XX made a dozen recordings which remain indispensable to our knowledge of the richness and vitality of early Spanish music. They include performances not only of art music from the courts of Ferdinand and Isabella, and later Charles V and Philip II, but songs by women troubadours of the early 13th century, Sephardic romances and a justly famous recording of 14th-century pilgrim songs from the Llibre Vermell of Montserrat. Eight of these recordings were subsequently remastered for CD and are now brought together in this budget-priced Black Box.