Pietro Mascagni

Leontyne Price is simply one of the best sopranos of all time. Hailed as the “Stradivarius of singers” she had a unique, unmistakable and unforgettable voice which graced the stage of the Met an astonishing 164 times throughout her career.

The Leontyne Price catalogue is divided into two “Complete Collections”; Song and Spiritual Albums and Operatic Recital Albums. These collections are housed in original LP design cardboard slipcases and presented in a hardback boxset.

Beautifully packaged, and at budget price.

Full track-lists and synopses in English, German and French.

To celebrate Placido Domingo's 70th birthday, Sony Classical release this budget priced x12 CD boxset. Each disc is packaged in vinyl replica sleeve, with original album artwork & comes in a sturdy outer box. The x12 disc set covers recital & duet recordings from 1969-1989, including some of his finest works.

Plácido Domingo has been synonymous with the world of opera for nearly fifty years. In a career that has seen him perform 3,500 times, taking on more than 130 major tenor roles, encompassing music from Handel and Gluck to Menotti, Tan Dun and Daniel Catán, Domingo’s career has been unparalleled.

On 23 January 2011 Domingo celebrates his 70th birthday. To celebrate, we are planning a raft of releases, both new and old, with many incredible recordings drawn from his amazingly rich DG and Decca catalogue.

In chronological order, a fascinating 3-CD set celebrating four decades of Deutsche Grammophon and Decca recordings.

Two CDs dedicated to Opera - One CD of Latin American music, Viennese operetta, zarzuela, pop repertoire and religious music.

Limited, PRESTIGE edition.

152-page colour hardcover book.

Previously unreleased and rare tracks - Giordano's "Amor ti vieta" from his first recording (1968) and an unreleased aria from a Decca Don Carlo recording with Karajan and the Vienna Philharmonic from 1975.

Complete full-colour discography.

A new essay by critic Harvey Sachs.

The mid-price collection presents some of the most important and admired recordings of the EMI Classics and Virgin Classics catalogue which make EMI - The Home of Opera.

Bonus Disc contains synopsis and libretto with translation.

The German conductor Rudolf Kempe (1910–1976) began his musical career playing the oboe in various symphony orchestras. He eventually graduated to being a conductor after working for several years as an operatic repetiteur. His modest manner on the podium belied his great authority in controlling an orchestra, and his warm but meticulously detailed interpretations of the main classical repertoire established him as one of the leading conductors of his time.

The programme begins with recordings of four Beethoven Symphonies that Kempe made with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra in 1971–72 as part of a complete cycle that has been critically acclaimed, although it has not previously been widely available.

These are followed by Symphonies 3 and 4 by Brahms with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra respectively, two orchestras with which Kemper was closely associated throughout his career.

The next CD shows Kempe’s skill with descriptive ‘programme’ music in Mendelssohn’s delightful incidental music to Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and Rimsky-Korsakov’s colourful orchestral suite Scheherazade depicting a number of tales from the 1001 Arabian Nights.

Then comes music by three Bohemian composers: the opening of the famous ‘Largo’ from Dvorák’s ‘New World’ Symphony; the Polka from Schwanda the Bagpiper by Weinberger; and a suite from Smetana’s lively opera The Bartered Bride.

CDs 6 and 7 present several of the main orchestral works by Richard Strauss, including Don Juan., Ein Heldenleben, Till Eulenspiegel, Tod und Verklärung and Don Quixote, all except the last recorded with the Staatskapelle Dresden, an orchestra closely associated with the works of Richard Strauss.

CD 8 moves to the opera house and includes vocal extracts from Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos and Wagner’s Lohengrin and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. The next CD covers orchestral pieces from opera, including a suite arranged by Kempe himself from Hansel und Gretel by Humperdinck

On CD 10 we find Kempe in lighter mood with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in a programme of orchestral bon-bons that was called Vienna Philharmonic ‘On Holiday’ when it was originally released on LP. Tthe final CD covers some of the best loved music by the Strauss family. The very last track in the album is the waltz Gold und Silber by Franz Lehár, which Kempe considered the finest studio recording he ever made.