Signature Box

The crown jewel in Apple/EMI’s extensive 2010 John Lennon remasters series, Signature Box contains all of the solo studio albums Lennon released during his lifetime (minus the trio of experimental duet LPs with Yoko Ono released on Apple and Zapple), his first posthumous album Milk and Honey, a disc of non-LP singles, a disc of home demos, but not the 2010 showcase item Double Fantasy Stripped Down, which is available only as a bonus on the indvidual reissue of Double Fantasy…

A triumph of technology and design, with respect for history in every detail, The Complete Albums Collection features 14 classic Billy Joel albums plus a bonus disc of rare and original recordings. This deluxe limited edition package is the most comprehensive collection ever by a consummate artist who has sold over 100 million records in the course of his 40-year career.

Over three discs this fantastic collection presents more than three hours of Celtic-themed music, both vocal and instrumental. Blending highly traditional and boldly contemporary styles, we invite you to sample the very best in Celtic songs and melodies.

Willem Mengelberg - The Concertgebouw Recordings (2013) {15CD Box Set Decca rec 1939-1941}
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© 1939-41, 2013 Decca / Universal Music | 0289 480 7636 9
Classical / Orchestral

Mengelberg attached huge importance to what he considered a link between Beethoven and himself. For through his studies in conducting, theory and composition in Cologne under Franz Wullner, a friend of Anton Schindler who in turn had been a friend, secretary, biographer and pupil of Beethoven himself, he felt that there was a oral tradition passed down to him. At times the conductor does get near to Beethoven's metronome markings with his swift tempi. Well, Mengelberg is not boring.

Shostakovich - The War Symphonies (2001) {Gergiev - 5CD Box Set Philips 470 841-2}
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© 2001 Philips | 470 841-2
Classical / Symphony / 20th Century

While this set of Shostakovich's Fourth through Ninth symphonies is billed as his "War" symphonies, these six works could be more aptly identified as his "Terror and War" symphonies. After all, the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth were composed in the years before the "Great Patriotic War" during the period called the "Great Terror," that period of Soviet history in which Stalin attempted to liquidate everyone he ever remotely suspected of having an unkind thought about him. Still, these six symphonies do form a cogent group of works that describe with extremely painful exactitude the horror of living through one of the most horrific decades in twentieth century history, qualities that Russian conductor Valery Gergiev captures with excruciating effectiveness.

Riccardo Chailly - Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra - Live - The Radio Recordings (2004) {13CD Box Set Q Disc 97033}
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© 2004 Q Disc | 97033
Classical / Orchestral

In June this year (2004), Riccardo Chailly stepped down as music director of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, to be succeeded by Mariss Jansons. Chailly's last appearances in Amsterdam exemplified his range as a conductor - there was a new production of Verdi's Don Carlo for Netherlands Opera, running in parallel with performances of Mahler's Ninth Symphony in the orchestra's home at the Concertgebouw itself.