Robert Schumann

39 CD-box with recordings of Bruno Walter’s later years in a high quality LP-sized box.

32 page LP-sized booklet with elaborate liner notes in German and English.

This box set contains the complete symphonies of Beethoven and Brahms, the later symphonies of Mozart, symphonies of Mahler and Bruckner, CDs with rehearsals and many more.

The German born conductor Bruno Walter (1876-1962) was known primarily for his interpretations of the Viennese school. Though out of step with 20th century trends he was such a fine musician that he became a major figure - filling the wide gulf between the extremes of his day - Arturo Toscanini and Wilhelm Furtwängler.

He was an associate of Gustav Mahler and a long and faithful proponent and interpreter of Mahler's music.

He conducted the world premieres of “Das Lied von der Erde” (1911) and the “Symphony No. 9” (1912).

In 1925, he helped institute the Salzburg Festival and was named musical director of the Berlin Staatsoper. In 1929, Walter had a falling out with the Berlin opera management and departed to succeed Wilhelm Furtwängler at the Leipzig Gewandhaus.

In 1933 he left Germany when the Nazis came to power and went to Austria and from there in 1938 to France. Walter finally left Europe in 1939 and settled in the United States where he already had a strong following. He built up a reputation as a respected conductor under whom musicians enjoyed working. Amongst other orchestras, he frequently conducted the New York Philharmonic.

In 1957 a West Coast recording ensemble named Columbia Symphony Orchestra was specially put together for Walter to produce new recordings of famous works by Bruckner and Mahler in stereo.

Late in the 1840s, Schumann entered a chamber music phase. It was, it is said, motivated partly by financial reasons – creating a body of chamber works that could be played by talented amateurs in their own homes. Many of the works on this disc date from 1849. Significantly, for collectors, one of these – the Andante and Variations – receives its first release on CD and marks Vladimir Ashkenazy’s first recording of chamber music for Decca. The same sessions also included duo piano recordings with Malcolm Frager, from which the Study in Canon Form emanates. Other notable duo collaborations on this disc include Rostropovich and Britten (Fünf Stücke im Volkston), Holliger and Brendel (Drei Romanzen, Abendlied) and Ashkenazy with Tuckwell in the 1974 (Adagio and Allegro) and with Franklin Cohen in 1990 (Fantasiestücke).

With a flourishing international concert career and an acclaimed discography, Freddy Kempf has become firmly established among the top pianists of today. His very first disc, at the age of 22, was a Schumann recital that made reviewers around the world sit up and take notice.

Kempf now returns to Schumann, with these three solo piano works. The Études symphoniques is one of Schumann’s most imposing piano works and is played here in its 1852 version, with the additional five variations (later published by Brahms) and the third and ninth études from the 1837 edition. This really gives the listener an opportunity to hear this work in all its glory.

IRR said of Kemp’s most recent release on BIS (BISSACD1940) ‘Kempf is consistently imaginative, attentive to details, technically adroit and emotionally committed’.

Awarded the prestigious title of ‘Instrumentalist of the Year’ by the Royal Philharmonic Society in 2006, British violinist Anthony Marwood is internationally celebrated for his engaging and insightful performances. For Schumann’s three Violin Sonatas, he is joined by Aleksandar Madžar, recently praised by Classical Music Magazine as matchless ‘in terms of technique and interpretation’.

Considered by many to be the product of a tired mind hovering on the edge of insanity, these richly impassioned works are filled with restlessness, melancholy and fractured lyricism.

The first international compilation devoted to one of DG / Universal’s greatest young pianists, YUNDI.

It started back in 2000, when he won the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw and went on to record six albums as an exclusive DG artist. Now here’s a distillation of those recordings, both solo and concerto in a fascinating flow of virtuosic and dreamily romantic music.

This midprice release includes the several selections from Chopin, Liszt and Schumann, as well as from the Ravel and Prokofiev piano concertos. There is also some Scarlatti and Mozart – over 80 minutes great music and exceptional playing in a seamless sequence.

Byron Janis began his extraordinary career as Horowitz’s star pupil.

Kenneth Woods and Orchestra of the Swan continue their revelatory cycle pairing the symphonies of Hans Gál and Robert Schumann, with Gál’s Second and Schumann’s Fourth. Kenneth Woods, Principal Guest Conductor of Stratford-upon-Avon based Orchestra of the Swan, has made international headlines for his ongoing cycle of world-premiere recordings of Hans Gál’s Symphonies. The set, paired with the symphonies of Robert Schumann, has been featured on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and Performance Today, The New York Times, The Washington Post, in Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine, and dozens of other newspaper and online reviews, introducing a new generation to Gál’s wide-ranging and extensive oeuvre.

Woods and OOTS continue the cycle with Gál’s Second and Schumann’s Fourth. The Gál, written in 1942-43 during the darkest war years, is perhaps the most personal of the composer’s four symphonies. With an emotional depth and haunting beauty, the symphony distils the process of overcoming pain and loss into the language of pure music. Composed a century earlier, Schumann’s Fourth is arguably his most popular symphony.