Giuseppe Verdi

Kurt Baum seems to have polarized opera fans. Some consider him to be a loud and showy singer with little musicianship, while others wax lyrical about the strength and reliability of his high notes. The tremendous power of his high Cs earned him admiration, but not necessarily respect, from the critics.

Albert Da Costa had a very impressive voice but made very few recordings, so never achieved the level of recognition of his contemporaries. These recordings are from his early career and will be coveted by collectors.

Elisabeth Grümmer became in 1946 a regular member of the Städtische Oper Berlin (now the Deutsche Oper), which was her primary professional association throughout her career, remaining with that major company through 1972. In April 1967 she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera New York as Elsa in Lohengrin. Elisabeth Grümmer’s exquisite voice and admirable dramatic gifts made her an exemplary interpreter of the music of Mozart and Richard Strauss. She restricted herself to a rather small repertoire she made very much her own: Pamina, Donna Anna, Ilia, the Countess Almaviva, Agathe, Hänsel, Oktavian, the Marschallin, Countess Madeleine, Eva, Elsa, Elisabeth, Gutrune, Freia and Desdemona.

The Grosses Festspielhaus in Salzburg has been the scene of countless memorable musical events – operas, concerts and recitals – for 50 years. Here is a unique chance to celebrate the glories of this distinguished era.

In an exceptional collaboration with the Salzburg Festival, we have prepared a 25-CD box set – 5 complete operas, 10 concerts and 2 recitals – featuring many of the world’s greatest artists, in recordings with classical status and others that are appearing on CD for the first time.

Concerts (five out of ten are first-time releases): with Abbado, Bernstein, Böhm, Boulez, Karajan, Levine, Mehta, Muti, Solti. Soloists include Anne-Sophie Mutter and Jessye Norman. The Wiener Philharmoniker feature prominently; individual concerts with Berliner Philharmoniker, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra.

Recitals: two exceptional concerts with Alfred Brendel (first release) and the Martha Argerich/Nelson Freire duo-concert from 2009.

The set includes new liner notes in English, German and French, and photos of the opera productions and artists – 72-page booklet.

This 2-CD set marks the 40th anniversary of the death of Sir John Barbirolli (1899-1970) and features recordings ranging from boy cellist in 1911 to international conductor 1969 – in both ‘live’ and studio recordings. John Barbirolli was born in Southampton Row, Bloomsbury, on 2 December 1899, a Cockney as he proudly boasted. Or, to be accurate, Giovanni Battista Barbirolli was born, son of an Italian émigré violinist and his French wife. English-born with Italo-French parentage – a wonderful pedigree for a musician. And so it proved, for he conducted Elgar, Verdi and Debussy, Vaughan Williams, Puccini and Ravel, with equal sensitivity and perception and intuition. This album of recordings forms a kind of musical biography; and Michael Kennedy’s notes (with many rare photos) trace that life alongside the recordings. A special bonus is the 1947 Austrian Radio recording of two works, Weber’s Euryanthe overture and Delius’s Walk to the Paradise Garden, from the Salzburg Festival concert on 20 August at which he conducted the Vienna Philharmonic. Was this, Michael Kenneday asks, the first time this orchestra had played the Delius? Two rare mementos of the New York period are included in this album. Anthony Collins had long been a friend of Barbirolli (they played in the LSO together) and worked in the USA from 1936 to 1945 and his Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, based on the two comic characters in Twelfth Night, is an example of his overlooked talent. Another composer almost forgotten today is the Czech-born Jaromir Weinberger whose opera Schwanda the Bagpiper enjoyed inter-war popularity. His Christmas for organ and orchestra was composed in 1929. In 1939 he dedicated his Variations and Fugue on an old English tune, ‘Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree’ to Barbirolli and the New York Philharmonic.

The storyline of Stiffelio provoked the censorship board as it was about a Protestant minister and an adulterous wife. Verdi rewrote the work as Aroldo but it was far from successful and remained one of his very rarely performed operas, especially since the rediscovery of Stiffelio in the 1960s. This performance was recorded in 1951.