Franz Peter Schubert

“Few tenors have matched the young Wunderlich in the freshness and golden bloom of the voice. The open manner could not be more appealing here in glowing performances” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition ***

“The cover shows Caspar David Friedrich's familiar The Wanderer above theSea of Fog. Pollini, on the other hand, is a wanderer in a transparent ether or crystalline light, and both these legendary performances, recorded in 1973 and beautifully remastered, are of a transcendental vision and integrity. In the Schubert his magisterial, resolutely unvirtuoso approach allows everything its time and place.
Listen to his flawlessly graded triple piano approach to the central Adagio, to his rock-steady octaves at 5'23" (where Schubert's merciless demand is so often the cause of confusion) or to the way the decorations in the Adagio are spun off with such rare finesse, and you may well wonder when you've heard playing of such an unadorned, unalloyed glory. Pollini's Schumann is no less memorable. Doubting Thomases on the alert for alternating touches of imperiousness and sobriety will be disappointed, for, again, Pollini's poise is unfaltering. The opening Moderato is sempre energico, indeed, its central Etwas langsamer is so sensitively and precisely gauged that all possible criticism is silenced. The coda of the central march (that locus classicus of the wrong note) is immaculate and in what someone once called the finale's 'shifting sunset vapour' Pollini takes us gently but firmly to the shores of Elysium. Here is a record that should grace every musician's shelf.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

A Pastoral of Relaxed gait in which every tempo and every colour seems so right: Sunday in the park with Karl perhaps - James Jolly, Gramophone 1000th issue

“Karl Böhm's Beethoven is a compound of earth and fire. His VPO recording of Beethoven's Sixth of 1971 dominated the LP catalogue for over a decade, and has done pretty well on CD on its various appearances.
His reading is generally glorious and it remains one of the finest accounts of the work ever recorded. It still sounds well and the performance (with the first-movement exposition repeat included) has an unfolding naturalness and a balance between form and lyrical impulse that's totally satisfying. The brook flows untroubled and the finale is quite lovely, with a wonderfully expansive climax.
The Schubert dates from the end of Böhm's recording career. It's a superb version of this lovely symphony, another work that suited Böhm especially well. The reading is weighty but graceful, with a most beautifully phrased Andante (worthy of a Furtwängler), a bold Minuet and a thrilling finale. The recording is splendid.
If you admire Böhm this is a worthy way to remember his special gifts.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Fischer-Dieskau's voice was still at its freshest, yet the singer had deepend and intensified his understanding of his greatest of song-cycles to a degree where his finely detailed and thoughtful interpretation sounded totally spontaneous, and this DG version is now freshened on CD.” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition ****