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Walter Gieseking’s interpretations of Bach in the early years of his career gained him laurels for “his control over shades of tone, especially over infinite gradations in the range between piano and pianissimo, the clear definition of his agile finger-work, and the firm outlines of his rhythm and phrasing… This style, so lucid and so rhythmical, is the perfect vehicle for Bach’s keyboard music”.

Gieseking’s 1931 account of Beethoven’s ‘Tempest’ Sonata also won him contemporary critical accolades: “Perfect playing matched with perfect recording. I know of no better interpretation of this sonata… a splendid achievement, one of the high water marks of piano recording”.

The great German pianist, Wilhelm Backhaus (1884–1969), made his first concert tour at the age of sixteen. He toured widely throughout his life, making his U.S. debut in 1912 (his final concert there took place in 1962 when he was 78!). Backhaus was well known for his interpretations and recordings of Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms and was also much admired as a chamber musician.

His 1909 abridged recording of the Grieg Concerto was not only the first recording of that work, but the first time any concerto had ever been recorded. Apart from this, he was also the first pianist to record the Chopin Études in 1928. He became a Swiss citizen in 1930 and reached the age of 85. The Times praised Backhaus in its 1969 obituary for having upheld the classical German music tradition of the Leipzig Conservatory.

These recordings have never been issued before on CD, and are in excellent sound for the period. This 1959 concert gives us a rare experience of hearing Backhaus caught ‘live’ in the Beethovenhalle in Bonn in a typical programme of Schubert and Beethoven.

The CD contains a great performance of Beethoven’s monumental ‘Hammerklavier’ Sonata. According to the pianist and Beethoven specialist Stephen Kovacevich, Backhaus was the only pianist to have understood the work.

The booklet notes have been written by the distinguished musicologist and writer Bernard Jacobson, who draws comparisons through Backhaus’s playing of the Schubert Impromptu in B flat major and Beethoven’s earlier sonata op.10 no.2 with his interpretation of the ‘Hammerklavier’.

Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886–1954), along with Arturo Toscanini, were unquestionably the two dominant conductors of classical music in the 20th century.

Furtwängler always regarded Beethoven’s ‘Choral’ Symphony as a near-religious work and the performances he gave were always special occasions.

This release is important because it has never been released before outside Japan and came about because Furtwängler, having scheduled a number of performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 in January 1953, fell ill during the first concert, which was abandoned. The concerts were then re-scheduled for the end of May with an extra performance thrown in for those who were at the uncompleted one.

This took place on May 30 but is often confused with the final concert which took place a day later, on May 31, and which has been released on a number of labels.

The original sound of the May 30 concert is superior to that of the performance of May 31 and has been enhanced with Ambient Mastering.

These historical recordings were made between 1947 and 1954. Symphony No.9 is performed by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Elsa Cavelti, Elsa Haefliger, Otto Edelmann, Festwochenchor Luzern and the Philharmonia Orchestra.

After Berlin, Vienna was the music centre to which the conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler had the closest artistic connections. Under his direction the Vienna Philharmonic made a whole series of radio recordings that have now, for the first time, been carefully edited under the auspices of the Furtwängler specialist Gottfried Kraus and released by Orfeo on 18 CDs. The series commences with recordings from 1944/45, including one of Mozart’s g-minor symphony K550 in which Furtwängler demonstrates his clear sense of form from the very first bars. Beethoven’s third 'Leonore' Overture and an excerpt from Schubert’s 'Rosamunde' music complete our selection from this, the earliest of the recording sessions. Several works are to be found more than once in this anthology. Thus, Beethoven’s Eroica can be compared in an early version from 1944 and a later recording from 1953, just as Bruckner’s Eighth can be compared in recordings from 1944 and 1954. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is offered no less than three times here – from the years 1951, 1952 and 1953 – a work that surely no other conductor could make into such an 'event', an experience of universal import, as could Wilhelm Furtwängler. This was also true of his Brahms interpretations, represented here by the first two symphonies, the 'Haydn' Variations, the Double Concerto and the 'German Requiem', which is sadly only extant in an incomplete recording from 1951. This is, incidentally, the only time in this collection that we hear Furtwängler conducting the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Besides Irmgard Seefried and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau – two vocal soloists whom Furtwängler admired and engaged repeatedly – we can hear the chorus of the Vienna Singakademie on this recording.

They also sing in Bach’s 'St Matthew Passion': in a partial recording from 1952 and in the famous performance of 1954 that was shortened by Furtwängler himself, but which is here released in a restored recording based on the original radio broadcast, without the cuts that were later made by record companies. Here as elsewhere in this collection, the acoustic heritage of the Viennese radio stations of the time has been restored using the best possible technological means available today. Even collector’s items such as the Piano Concertos K365 and 482 by Mozart, with Dagmar Bella and Paul Badura-Skoda, have probably never sounded better since they were first heard in the concert hall. Hence justice is done to Furtwängler’s timeles” style of music-making that unites different epochs, ranging from Gluck’s Overture to 'Iphigenie in Aulis' to Mahler’s 'Songs of a Wayfarer' and Furtwängler’s own Second Symphony – a work that despite all its late-Romantic echoes succeeds in attaining originality and a considerable emotional impact. This universality of Furtwängler has not found its match to this day.