Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

There were occasions during the three decades when the LP record ruled supreme – from the 1950s to the 1970s – when the chemistry between an orchestra, its conductor and their record company combined to work a magic that the commitment of long-term recording contracts quite often made possible. Karajan and the Philharmonia; Ansermet and the Suisse Romande; Dorati and the Minneapolis; Münch and the Boston Symphony, Cluytens and the Paris Conservatoire and Previn and the London Symphony are all prime examples of such collaborations. All of these produced recorded performances that are as fine today as they ever were and are all well-represented in the current CD catalogues. Until now there has been one successful recording collaboration that seems almost to have slipped under the radar: the Pittsburgh Symphony, William Steinberg and the Capitol Records producer, Richard C. Jones.

This set of 20 CDs presents virtually everything that was recorded by Steinberg during the seven years that he recorded for Capitol: from the Schubert Second Symphony, recorded on 9 February 1952, to the Italian Serenade by Wolf, from 16 April 1959. There are some exceedingly good performances in this set and the recordings show that Capitol Records were at the technical forefront when it came to sound quality and production values.

The earlier recordings were, of course, made in mono and come up surprisingly well on CD. From 1956 onwards the recordings were made in stereo. There are a selection of recordings, both mono and stereo, that are here being released on CD for the first time.

Also included are the recordings of Strauss that Steinberg and Jones made with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, in June 1957.

Getting to know these wonderful 1950s recordings from a conductor who, perhaps, didn't always get the critical acclaim that was his due, will be an exciting and rewarding experience for any prospective purchaser.

Chen Reiss appears in leading roles at La Scala, Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Hamburg State Opera, and Frankfurt Opera. She also sang the soundtrack to the film ‘Das Parfum’ (Perfume) with the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle.

Chen Reiss starred with Rolando Villazon on German TV in an opera gala show. She sings Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier in December 2011 at the Staatsoper Wien.

The Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires has long been associated with the music of Mozart. Her delicacy of touch, vibrancy of phrasing and sense of fantasy mark her out as one of the elect who can touch his keyboard music without coarsening or simplifying it.

She has made two complete cycles of the sonatas; reissued here is the first one, from the days in the 1970s when she first appeared on the international scene and won over listeners with a graceful purity of approach that left more famous names trailing in her wake. The later cycle brought added refinement, but anyone who is captivated by this still undervalued corpus – too difficult for beginners, yet scorned by many professionals in search of gaudier glories – will want to hear this set.