Presto CD,
Presto CD - Critics' Choice
For our latest batch of 'Presto CDs', we're delighted to bring back 26 titles from the Decca, DG and Philips series 'Critics' Choice'. The series is based entirely around recordings which achieved widespread critical acclaim, and includes a significant number of top recommendations from BBC Radio 3's Building a Library programme. Several of them make a welcome return to CD format, or provide an additional option for recordings otherwise only available in large box sets.
Manufactured by us here at Presto Classical under licence from the original record labels, Presto CD produces a finished product almost indistinguishable from the original factory pressed version. Each disc includes full booklets and inlays, whilst the audio (sourced directly from the factory) is 100% identical to that found on the original CD version.
Presto CDs play on all standard CD players.
Critics' Choice
Sir David Willcocks conducts the Choir of King's College Cambridge in anthems and canticles including the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis from the Short Service, 'This is the Record of John', and 'O clap your hands'.
Available Format: Presto CD
Gil Shaham is the soloist in these two Russian Romantic concertos, with Mikhail Pletnev conducting the Russian National Orchestra.
Available Format: Presto CD
Jo Vincent and Kathleen Ferrier join the Concertgebouw Orchestra under Otto Klemperer for this magisterial 1951 performance from the Holland Festival.
Available Format: Presto CD
Herbert Blomstedt conducts the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, with Jean-Yves Thibaudet as soloist in the two piano concertos, with the Variations sérieuses and Rondo capriccioso as attractive makeweights.
Available Format: Presto CD
Marc Minkowski directs his Musiciens du Louvre on this pioneering 1998 recording.
Available Format: Presto CD
Elena Souliotis is Santuzza, Mario del Monaco Turiddu and Tito Gobbi Alfio under the baton of Silvio Varviso in this 1966 studio recording from Rome.
Available Formats: Presto CD, MP3, FLAC
Radu Lupu performs three of Beethoven's best-known sonatas.
Available Format: Presto CD
Andras Schiff's first recording of the Goldbergs, made in 1982 at Kingsway Hall in London.
Available Format: Presto CD
Kyung Wha Chung is the soloist on this Russian triple-bill with André Previn conducting the London Symphony Orchestra.
Available Format: Presto CD
The Choir of New College Oxford are joined by the Academy of Ancient Music for a programme of works by Blow, Boyce, Clarke, Croft, Handel and Purcell.
Available Format: Presto CD
Dame Joan Sutherland, Sumi Jo and Marilyn Horne dazzle with vocal pyrotechnics from works including I Puritani, Semiramide, Die Zauberflöte and Les Contes d'Hoffmann.
Available Format: Presto CD
Barbara Bonney is accompanied by André Previn & Sato Knudsen in a recital of songs by Argento, Barber, Copland and Previn himself.
Available Format: Presto CD
Leonard Bernstein conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Barber's Adagio, Copland's Appalachian Spring and Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue.
Available Format: Presto CD
Mikhail Pletnev performs the Piano Sonata, Funérailles, Gnomenreigen and Après une lecture du Dante.
Available Format: Presto CD
Salvatore Accardo plays one of the cornerstones of the virtuoso violin repertoire in a recording from 1990.
Available Format: Presto CD
Helga Dernesch is Brünnhilde and Jess Thomas Siegfried in these highlights from all four operas, with Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Available Formats: Presto CD, MP3, FLAC
Adam Fischer directs the Budapest Festival Orchestra in the Concerto for Orchestra, Kossuth and Three Village Scenes.
Available Format: Presto CD
Marianne Häggander and Urban Malmberg are the vocal soloists on Herbert Blomstedt's 1979 account with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
Available Format: Presto CD
Alfred Brendel and James van Demark join members of the Cleveland Quartet for the most famous of all piano quintets.
Available Format: Presto CD
Richard Bonynge presides over the National Philharmonic Orchestra for the Tchaikovsky and the London Symphony Orchestra in Offenbach's Le Papillon.
Available Format: 2 Presto CDs
Emma Kirkby, Evelyn Tubb & Rogers Covey-Crump feature on this double-disc of works by Gibbons, Morley and Wilbye from the Consort of Musicke under Anthony Rooley.
Available Format: 2 Presto CDs
The composer himself conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker in the first five symphonies (recorded in 1964) and the London Symphony Orchestra in the Sixth (recorded in 1972).
Available Format: 2 Presto CDs
David Oistrakh is joined by his son Igor on viola for the Sinfonia Concertante; his accompanists for the solo works are the Moscow Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra under Kyrill Kondrashin and Jascha Horenstein.
Available Format: 2 Presto CDs
Herbert von Karajan conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker in a selection of late Mozart Symphonies including the Haffner, Linz, Prague and Jupiter.
Available Format: 3 Presto CDs
Gidon Kremer & Martha Argerich collaborate on the complete sonatas for these recordings from the late 1980s and early 90s.
Available Format: 3 Presto CDs
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
