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Bartók showed little interest in opera, until the libretto for Bluebeard’s Castle by Béla Balázs arrived on his desk. Something about the character of Bluebeard, and his intense loneliness, appealed to him. When Bartók completed the work in 1911 it was banned by the Hungarian Commision of Fine Arts. It wasn’t until 1918 that the Italian conductor Egisto Tango disinterred the score and realised its worth. The work was then performed in Berlin in German, and in Hungarian in Florence. Kodály described the work as the ‘Hungarian Pelléas’, and the dual between Romantic and impressionistic influences certainly links the two works.

Berg’s Wozzeck was premiered in 1925 conducted by Erich Kleiber, then banned by the Nazis as decadent in the 1930s. Since then though it has become recognised as one of the masterpieces of 20th-century opera. Structured as a normal opera, but without arias and recitatives, the second act is in effect a fourmovement symphony. The opera also has significant symphonic interludes. Berg made a concert suite from material from the opera in 1924, and it met with instant success.

Composed some 12 years after Berlioz’s Requiem, his Te Deum is in many respects a close relation of the earlier work. Again it is on a large scale, written for triple choir, large orchestra, organ and tenor soloist. Where the Te Deum differs is in the range of colours it projects. There is much more in the way of light and shade, more a sense of praising God, rather than fearing him as is conveyed in the Requiem, at least until the awesome final ‘Judex crederis’. Both works plundered the 1824 Messe solenelle, and Berlioz commented to Liszt that ‘the Requiem has a brother’. We know little about the reasons why Berlioz composed this work. Maybe the upcoming coronation of Louis-Napoleon provided the stimulus – we know that Berlioz was lobbying for the honour of writing a suitable work for the new Emperor. Berlioz had also examined in Dresden the score of a large-scale Te Deum by Hasse, and commented on the dramatic effect made by the pealing of bells in the score. Some of the early material was intended for an aborted Fête musicale funèbre of1835. This later became the Symphonie funèbre et triomphale, and the section where Berlioz imagines ‘General Bonaparte making his entry beneath the cathedral vaults’ may have been the catalyst for the Te Deum.

Initially designed to be a play with music, it quickly became apparent to Strauss and his librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal that what was intended as an after-dinner entertainment would require an opera company to perform it. So, in 1916, a 30-minute ‘divertissement’ became a 90-minute opera, with a newly composed prologue. Set in the house of ‘the richest man in Vienna’, it concerns the struggles of a young composer to arrange a performance of his new opera for the guests his master has invited to the house.

His opera is about Ariadne on the island of Naxos, and all the backstage chaos and bitching and scratching among performers and the domestic staff is wonderfully portrayed by Strauss. The mutual hostility between the Major-Domo and the composer is exquisite. The prologue is followed by the opera proper, and the marvel of the orchestration is especially notable – with just 36 players playing some of Strauss’s most sumptuous music.

‘Any opera house in the world would think themselves fortunate to assemble this cast … A landmark in the history of the gramophone … this really does triumph over them all.’ Gramophone

Described as ‘miraculously gifted’ by Alfred Cortot, Dino Ciani was a contemporary of Maurizio Pollini. Born in Croatia in 1941, he died aged just 32 in a car crash in Rome in 1974, robbing the world of one of the great pianists of the late 20th century. He had a remarkable rise to fame, and was offered a Deutsche Grammophon contract. His repertoire centred on Beethoven, Bartók , Brahms, Debussy, Chopin, Liszt, Mozart, Schumann, Schubert and Weber. He also explored lesser-known areas of the repertoire, making pioneering recordings of Hummel and Kozeluch. As a pianist he divided opinions, but with supporter such as Cortot, and the support of conductors of the calibre of Abbado, Muti, Barbirolli, Guilini and Gui, his reputation is assured. Like many artists who die young he became a cult figure for some. He can now be judged for what he was – in the words of Cortot ‘one of the most remarkable examples of the rarest talents one could hope to find’.

‘Ciani commands a very fine technique and impressive musicality. …there are many virtues, such as Ciani's beautiful handling of the Intermezzo of this work, or of the latter part of the second Trio of No.8. Note also how well he manages No.4 where so many pianists would lose control, or the whole of No.5 which with its piano and orchestra overtones, is in several respects the most demanding of the set.’ Gramophone, Schumann Novelletten, 1969

‘Dino Ciani, although not a Frenchman, was a pupil of Cortot and the first thing to be said about his Debussy is that it is absolutely idiomatic. I admire him particularly because his view is sane and steady and because it has been formed from a conscientious interpretation of every detail of Debussy's text.’ Gramophone, Debussy Preludes, 1973

The Polish composer Lutoslawski is one of the towering figures of 20th century music. His Concerto for Orchestra can stand comparison to the famous example by Bartók, and Mi-parti from 1976 has become a modern classic.These recordings, directed by the composer in 1976/7 contain all the orchestral music he had written up to that point, and are essential listening for all that are interested in 20th century music.

‘It’s my guess that posterity will judge Witold Lutowslaski among the supreme twentieth century musical colourists. All in all, this must surely count as the introduction to Lutoslawski s symphonic world.’ Gramophone reviewing the original release

The repertoire in this set ranges from J.S. Bach (four of the solo suites) to Schnittke (Suite in the old style). As is customary in this series, some of the music included is virtually unknown in the West, for example the Romance by Nikolai Rakov and the Melody by Vladimir Vlasov.

See also the Russian Legends box set.

The first Soviet conductor of whom it can truly be said that he is a citizen of the world’ John Warrack BBC Radio 3 1978 Gennady Rozhdestvensky is a musician of catholic taste as this 10CD illustrates. His discography includes around 800 works! He is capable of freshly considered and immaculately prepared interpretations of Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Tavener, Berwald and Nielsen as well as some of the rarer names included on CD1 if this set.

However, the Russian repertoire was at the core of his musical life. Among the great recordings of Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Prokofiev and Glazunov, his interpretations of Shostakovich stand out. This set includes symphonies Nos.1, 4, 7, 9 & 10 as well as works by lesser know contemporary Soviet composers who music he championed, notably Fleischmann’s ‘Rotschild’s Violin’ completed by Shostakovich.

He is a conductor who’s podium style is undemonstrative – using only the most subtle and economic of gestures, and yet maintaining total control of the orchestra securing knife edge rhythms, sharp phrases and precision attack. He is without doubt one of the greatest conductors of our time, and Volume 1 of his recordings from Brilliant Classics allows the listener to experience the extraordinary genius of Rozhdestvensky over a characteristically wide and varied range of repertoire.

See also the Russian Legends box set.