Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Frequently heard and recorded as an abbreviated orchestral suite, this rare recording is one of very few available featuring the complete score of this glittering ballet.

The album boasts world-class artistry from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Nicolae Moldoveanu and solo violinst Clio Gould. Clio Gould is the Orchestra’s leader and an acclaimed soloist in her own right, performing as a soloist, director and leader throughout Britain and Europe, whilst Nicolae Moldoveanu’s work as a conductor has taken him to the top orchestras and opera houses throughout Europe and North America.

This double CD was recorded at the Cadogan Hall, London, a wonderful venue with exceptional facilities and acoustics.

“Idil Biret was one of the greatest (child) prodigies of the 20th century. Her recital at the Boston Conservatory on Tuesday night demonstrated that she is no less prodigious today. She played a long and demanding program with the power, concentration and pouncing instincts of a crouching tiger…This is the kind of playing that makes reservations irrelevant; there is no one like her which is what defines a unique artist.” Richard Dyer Boston Globe USA Sept. 2000 & Nov. 2005

The Deutsche Radio Philharmonie’s Tchaikovsky cycle, conducted by Christoph Poppen, has its own special character, which emphasises finely differentiated chamber-music interplay. On the second CD of the series, Poppen contrasts two poetically motivated works.

Lucio Gallo is regarded as one of the leading baritones and recently triumphed in two Verdi roles in Covent Garden. He continues to perform in some of the greatest venues in the world. This CD features arias by Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Gounod, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Puccini and Giordano.

This fine Norman and Beard Organ stands untouched in Wellington Town Hall in New Zealand. Douglas Mews, the Town hall organist plays an exciting progamme of little recorded music to suit this fabulous instrument.

1 SACD with bonus CD 'Ein Leben in Tönen' (speaker: Harald Schmidt).

NB The spoken word CD is ONLY in German.

Ivry Gitlis was born in Haifa, Israel in 1922. He gave his first recital when he was just nine years old, and was heard by the great Bronislav Huberman, who recommended that he go to Paris to study at the National Conservatory. He won the Premiere Prix at the age of 13, and went on to study with George Enescu, Jacques Thibaud and Carl Flesch. During the Second World War he moved to London, where he was assigned to the British Army artist branch, giving many concerts for Allied troops.

Gitlis has always been a difficult violinist to categorise – maverick, with an unwillingness to conform, he has cultivated a unique style, and is at home in Wieniawski as he is in Xenakis, on prime time TV shows and in the great recital rooms of the world. He is a devoted champion of new music and has premiered works by Maderna and Xenakis. He is also proud of his appearance on The Rolling Stones album ‘Rock and Roll Circus’. Vox made the recordings on this set in the late 1950s and the 60s. The Berg and Stravinsky concertos won a Grand Prix du Disque, and as well as being highly regarded by fellow musicians, were apparently a favourite of Marilyn Monroe.

‘It seems to me, though I should like to have longer to think about it, that Ivry Gitlis gives the finest performance of both the Bartok works above that I have ever heard’ Gramophone, Bartok, 1955

‘Ivry Gitlis is a technical master, and he brings to both the Bruch and Sibelius concertos an address that stands them in very good stead…The Sibelius relaxes less often; and indeed Gitlis's attack on it is pursued with an intensity and ferocity that are substantially rewarding in their own right’ Gramophone 1956