This 31 CD box set is being released to celebrate what would have been her 100th birthday in December 2015. The set contains all the recital programmes of song, opera and operetta tha t she recorded for EMI between 1952 and 1974, and also included two live recitals. All the recordings have been newly remasteredto the highest standards by various studios including Abbey Road. A reigning soprano of her era, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (1915-2006) remains renowned for her vocal beauty and elegance and for her acute interpretative insight – above all in the music of Mozart, Wolf and Strauss.
Culled from New York Philharmonic broadcasts spanning 75 years, this remarkable 10-disc compilation testifies to the strong-willed yet chameleon-like orchestra's virtuosity and versatility under a diverse assemblage of podium personalities. Stylistically speaking, the earlier items are the most interesting, revealing, for instance, a more vibrant Otto Klemperer and freer Arturo Toscanini than their later commercial efforts sometimes suggest. Other artists are heard in repertoire which they otherwise didn't record: Fritz Reiner's Brahms 2nd, Leonard Bernstein's Berg and Webern, and a wrenching concert version of Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle under Kubelík's direction, to name but a few. From program notes to transfer quality, not one stone is left unturned to ensure first-rate results.
In the late 1940s, the pioneering Decca recording engineers perfected a new set of microphone techniques that allowed the full range of frequencies to be fully heard by listeners for the first time, and the term ‘full frequency range recording’ was launched. It was a major revolution in sound quality, and the beginnings of high fidelity.
Again we are indebted to NM Classics for another volume (the second) in their Anthology of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra series. This one covers the period 1950-1960 and contains many unusual treasures as well as a number of performances that have already been issued: the fine Daphnis and Chloe with Monteux which currently is available on both Audiophile Classics and Music & Arts, Bruno Walter's Mozart, Mahler and Strauss all of which are available on Music & Arts, and the Brahms concerto with Monteux/Milstein, available on Audiophile Classics and Arioso (as well as a discontinued Tahra set). However, there are many fascinating items here including a number of major additions to Eduard van Beinum's discography. We have Beinum conducting music of Dutch composers Hans Henkemans (1913-1995), Anthony van der Horst (1899-1965), and Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967).
The Radio Legacy is a compilation of the seven part Anthology of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the four box sets devoted to the orchestra s chief conductors Willem Mengelberg, Eduard van Beinum, Bernard Haitink and Riccardo Chailly, and also featuring more recent recordings with Mariss Jansons.