Johann Sebastian Bach

Volume 3 in Idis’ ongoing series of Glenn Gould performances, this disc presents Bach’s Concerto No 1 in D minor fortepiano and orchestra BWV 1052 coupled with the Goldberg Variations, both taken from 1958.

"VIVARTE" is the 'Sony Classical' period music label, known for producing outstanding recordings on period instruments. The recordings by legendary producer Wolf Erichson are made with the best recording technologies available & by one of the best production teams in the world (Tritonus Music Production, Stuttgart). The box-set includes recordings with specialists in historically informed performance practice, such as Anner Bylsma, Gustav Leonhardt, Tafelmusik, Huelgas Ensemble, L'Archibudelli & others. The CD's are presented in paper sleeves with the original artwork of the former CD's. Tne box contains a x250 page booklet with tracklistings & the original liner notes of each recording.

Distinguished pianist Antony Gray is an Australian who has based himself in London for over 30 years. He has recorded for ABC Classics for the last 20 years. Antony’s debut recording for ABC Classics was in the early 1990s; the piano music of Sir Eugene Goossens which was acclaimed for his ‘diligent and captivating pianism surpasses all competition’ and ‘technical assurance and expressivity are hugely impressive’. The other notable release is Malcolm Williamson’s complete music for solo piano, on which IRR notes Antony delivers ‘excellent performances … dispatched with considerable technical and artistic accomplishment. I cannot recommend this issue too strongly.’

Williamson’s piano music is uncompromising and rarely speaks the same musical language and this J.S Bach project is no different. J.S Bach’s works are uncompromising and here Antony Gray has compiled excerpts from over 60 of Bach’s works; from note for note transcriptions through to liberal offerings where the transcriber very much adds his/her style to Bach’s original. The diversity of transcriptions here mark Gray’s trademark intelligence, energy and atmospheric emotion as musician and pianist.

After Berlin, Vienna was the music centre to which the conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler had the closest artistic connections. Under his direction the Vienna Philharmonic made a whole series of radio recordings that have now, for the first time, been carefully edited under the auspices of the Furtwängler specialist Gottfried Kraus and released by Orfeo on 18 CDs. The series commences with recordings from 1944/45, including one of Mozart’s g-minor symphony K550 in which Furtwängler demonstrates his clear sense of form from the very first bars. Beethoven’s third 'Leonore' Overture and an excerpt from Schubert’s 'Rosamunde' music complete our selection from this, the earliest of the recording sessions. Several works are to be found more than once in this anthology. Thus, Beethoven’s Eroica can be compared in an early version from 1944 and a later recording from 1953, just as Bruckner’s Eighth can be compared in recordings from 1944 and 1954. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is offered no less than three times here – from the years 1951, 1952 and 1953 – a work that surely no other conductor could make into such an 'event', an experience of universal import, as could Wilhelm Furtwängler. This was also true of his Brahms interpretations, represented here by the first two symphonies, the 'Haydn' Variations, the Double Concerto and the 'German Requiem', which is sadly only extant in an incomplete recording from 1951. This is, incidentally, the only time in this collection that we hear Furtwängler conducting the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Besides Irmgard Seefried and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau – two vocal soloists whom Furtwängler admired and engaged repeatedly – we can hear the chorus of the Vienna Singakademie on this recording.

They also sing in Bach’s 'St Matthew Passion': in a partial recording from 1952 and in the famous performance of 1954 that was shortened by Furtwängler himself, but which is here released in a restored recording based on the original radio broadcast, without the cuts that were later made by record companies. Here as elsewhere in this collection, the acoustic heritage of the Viennese radio stations of the time has been restored using the best possible technological means available today. Even collector’s items such as the Piano Concertos K365 and 482 by Mozart, with Dagmar Bella and Paul Badura-Skoda, have probably never sounded better since they were first heard in the concert hall. Hence justice is done to Furtwängler’s timeles” style of music-making that unites different epochs, ranging from Gluck’s Overture to 'Iphigenie in Aulis' to Mahler’s 'Songs of a Wayfarer' and Furtwängler’s own Second Symphony – a work that despite all its late-Romantic echoes succeeds in attaining originality and a considerable emotional impact. This universality of Furtwängler has not found its match to this day.

Parallel to the forthcoming John Eliot Gardiner Collection, here’s a famous compilation of Great Bach Choruses, newly re-presented just in time for Easter 2013.

It comes with a fresh cover, liner notes and texts and translations.

The acclaimed Monteverdi Choir sings a selection of celebrated Bach choruses under their director John Eliot Gardiner, one of the most versatile and exciting conductors of our time. For Gardiner, “Bach is probably the only composer whose music is so rich, so challenging to the performer and so spiritually uplifting to performer and listener alike.”

Selections from the Passions, the Mass in B minor, Christmas Oratorio and several cantatas.

This is the first ever complete collection of the legendary Heifetz-Piatigorsky concerts. A budget priced, 21-CD boxed set in deluxe clamshell box with standard cardboard sleeves, with facsimile sleeves & labels. There is a new introduction from Heifetz expert John Maltese. Highlights of these superb set include Dvorak's Piano Quintet No.2 & Tchaikovsky's souvenir de Florence