Presto CD,
Presto CD - British Music Collection - Part 1
The latest batch of our Manufacture on Demand series focuses on Decca's British Music Collection, launched in 2001 by Decca, Philips and Argo to showcase a new generation of British composers and unearth older rarities as well as to mine the archives for vintage performances of core repertoire (often featuring the composers themselves).
Our first two-dozen titles testify to the breadth and variety of the series, ranging from Benjamin Britten performing his own compositions with Peter Pears and Mstislav Rostropovich to collections of orchestral works by one-time enfants terribles Mark-Anthony Turnage and Harrison Birtwistle.
You can read more about the first 24 releases (now available to order) below - this accounts for roughly half of what will become available on Presto CD, and Part Two will follow in a couple of weeks!
British Music Collection - Part 1
Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears are joined by Dennis Brain in the Serenade; Edith Sitwell narrates Façade. Four Britten folk-song settings complete the programme.
Available Formats: Presto CD, MP3, FLAC
Eduardo Fernandez is the soloist in the Guitar Concerto; the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble perform the Brass Quintet No. 1 and Symphony for Brass Instruments. Also included are the two sets of English Dances
Available Formats: Presto CD, MP3, FLAC
Tragoedia, Panic, Earth Dances, Secret Theatre and Endless Parade appear on this collection, with artists including Pierre Boulez, Andrew Davis and Håkan Hardenberger and orchestras such as the Cleveland Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Available Format: 2 Presto CDs
A comprehensive selection of Finzi's vocal and choral works; also included are the song-cycles Let Us Garlands Bring and Earth and Air and Rain. Bryn Terfel, Philip Langridge and Benjamin Luxon are among the soloists, with Richard Hickox, Edward Higginbottom and Neville Marriner conducting.
Available Formats: 2 Presto CDs, MP3, FLAC
This collection includes the Marmion, Macbeth and Victoria & Merrie England Overtures as well as the Mackerras-arranged Pineapple Poll Suite and two of Sullivan's best-known non-Gilbert compositions - The Lost Chord and Onward! Christian Soldiers.
Available Formats: Presto CD, MP3, FLAC
Late and early works of various genres, including the Russian song-cycle The Poet's Echo, the Six Hölderlin Fragments and Cantata Misericordium; several performances by dedicatees such as Pears, Fischer-Dieskau and Rostropovich.
Available Format: 2 Presto CDs
Includes Your Rockaby, Night Dances, Blood and the Floor and the song-cycle Some Days (sung by Cynthia Clarey), with conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Daniel Harding and Oliver Knussen.
Available Formats: 2 Presto CDs, MP3, FLAC
A comprehensive two-disc survey including the Cello Concerto (with Robert Cohen as soloist), Introduction and Allegro, Meditations on a Theme by John Blow and fanfares and flourishes for brass; several performances conducted by the composer.
Available Format: 2 Presto CDs
The Cello Sonata is performed by Bridge's one-time pupil Benjamin Britten and his frequent collaborator Rostropovich; other works include Enter Spring and Go not, happy day, sung by Kathleen Ferrier.
Available Format: Presto CD
Tasmin Little is the soloist in the Violin Concerto, with Julian Lloyd Webber in the Caprice and Elegy; also includes Brigg Fair, the Piano Concerto and On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring. Alexander Gibson and Charles Mackerras conduct.
Available Formats: Presto CD, MP3, FLAC
Stephen Cleobury conducts the Choir of King's College Cambridge in a programme including Take him, earth, for cherishing, the Te Deum & Jubilate and (appropriately enough) the Collegium Regale setting of the canticles.
Available Format: Presto CD
Bryn Terfel, Kathleen Ferrier, Benjamin Luxon, Elly Ameling, Jennifer Vyvyan are the soloists on a collection which ranges from Rubbra's sacred works to Ireland's salty Sea Fever and lusty Vagabond. Elgar Howarth conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, with a guest appearance from the Grimethorpe Colliery Band.
Available Format: Presto CD
This wide-ranging two-CD set includes the Concerto for Orchestra, Triple Concerto, Concerto for Double String Orchestra and other works for strings. Artists include Colin Davis, Neville Marriner, György Pauk, Nobuko Imai and Ralph Kirshbaum.
Available Format: 2 Presto CDs
Norman Bailey and Geoffrey Parsons take the solo songs, with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in the Capriol Suite and the Choir of Winchester Cathedral in the choral works.
Available Formats: Presto CD, MP3, FLAC
Andrew Litton conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in the Hindemith Variations and two orchestral suites from Façade, with Paul Neubauer as soloist in the Viola Concerto.
Available Format: Presto CD
Stephen Kovacevich, John Harle & Julian Lloyd Webber make solo appearances on this disc of the concertos and music from Four Weddings and a Funeral and the 1974 film Murder on the Orient Express.
Available Format: Presto CD
Three of the keyboard concertos are performed on organ, with No. 5 also included on harpsichord; the complete symphonies and arias from Artaxerxes and Bacchus and Ariadne (featuring Joan Sutherland) make up the rest of the programme.
Available Format: 2 Presto CDs
Richard Hickox conducts the Requiem, with Ann Murray and Anthony Rolfe-Johnson among the soloists; Stephen Cleobury directs the Choir of King's College Cambridge in the Nunc dimittis.
Available Formats: Presto CD, MP3, FLAC
The Musicians of the Globe under Philip Pickett perform songs from The Comedy of Errors, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night's Dream and more.
Available Format: Presto CD
A selection of secular and sacred choral and solo works - highlights include Thomas Allen in the Songs of the Sea, and Beati quorum via and The Bluebird from the Choir of New College Oxford.
Available Format: Presto CD
Balfe's 1843 opera receives a charming performance here from the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland under Richard Bonynge; Nova Thomas takes the title-role (with its famous 'I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls'), with the supporting cast including Patrick Power and Jonathan Summers.
Available Format: 2 Presto CDs
Georg Solti conducts the two symphonies; Benjamin Britten presides over the English Chamber Orchestra in the Introduction & Allegro, and Neville Marriner conducts the ASMF in the Serenade for Strings.
Available Format: 2 Presto CDs
The Bălănescu Quartet (of University Challenge theme fame) perform Nyman's three quartets from 1985, 1988 and 1990.
Available Formats: Presto CD, MP3, FLAC
This set includes a complete performance of A Child of our Time under Colin Davis - featuring Jessye Norman, Janet Baker, Richard Cassilly and John Shirley-Quirk - as well as the Canticles for St John's College and selected songs.
Available Formats: 2 Presto CDs, MP3, FLAC
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
