Box Set Selections,
Boxed Set Selections - February 2023
February heavyweights include an enormous limited-edition anthology marking the ninetieth anniversary of Claudio Abbado's birth, plus the Fitzwilliam Quartet's complete recordings on Decca, a collection celebrating the legacy of Spanish pianist, conductor and Hollywood star José Iturbi, reissues of neglected Offenbach from Opera Rara, and the same composer's complete works for two cellos on Brilliant Classics.
Released a few months ahead of what would have been the Italian conductor's ninetieth birthday, this mammoth collection comprises everything which he recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Decca and Philips, and is accompanied by a hardback book including reminiscences by Alfred Brendel, Yuja Wang, Evegeny Kissin & Albrecht Mayer and new essays by James Jolly, Julia Spinola, Jon Tolansky and Clemens Hellsberg. A particular highlight is the DVD premiere of the production Janáček‘s From The House of the Dead which Abbado conducted in Vienna in 1992.
Available Format: 257 CDs + 8 DVDs
This collection brings together the Hungarian conductor's complete Decca recordings with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (of which he was Music Director from 1977–1981), with highlights including the first-ever studio recording of Strauss's Die Ägyptische Helena, benchmark accounts of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and The Firebird (among Decca's earliest digital recordings), and recordings of Bartók’s Suite No. 1, The Miraculous Mandarin and Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta which prompted Robert Layton to declare that 'Bartók was in his blood-stream'.
Available Format: 18 CDs
The Fitzwilliam Quartet celebrates its 55th birthday this year, and made their first recording for Decca in the 1970s; highlights from this complete edition include their acclaimed Shostakovich cycle (which won the first-ever Gramophone Award for chamber music in 1977 and was also nominated for two Grammys), the same composer's Piano Quintet with Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Brahms Clarinet Quintet with Alan Hacker, plus works by Beethoven, Sibelius, Franck, Borodin, Wolf and Delius.
Available Format: 15 CDs
Celebrating Offenbach
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Alun Francis, Philharmonia Orchestra, David Parry
Over the past four decades, Opera Rara has done much to shine light on the French composer's lesser-known works, and this 7-CD set features newly remastered reissues of two complete opéras comiques: Robinson Crusoé (recorded 1980 and sung in English) with John Brecknock as the eponymous castaway and Yvonne Kenny as his fiancée, and Vert-Vert (starring Toby Spence in the title-role and Jennifer Larmore as the diva La Corilla). The 2CD compilation Entre Nous features excerpts from forgotten operas including Le voyage dans la Lune, Belle Lurette, and La boulangère a des écus.
(Texts and English translations can be downloaded from Opera Rara here).
Available Format: 7 CDs
Made in New York and London between 1959 and 1961, these recordings were given new high-definition transfers at Abbey Road before being remastered by Thomas Fine; repertoire includes the Beethoven concerto with Antal Doráti, the Brahms concerto with Herbert Menges, Stravinsky's Duo concertant with Roy Bogas, and sonatas by Prokofiev, Debussy, Bartók (a long-standing friend of Szigeti), Honegger and Ives.
Available Format: 6 CDs
In addition to his concert work, José Iturbi also starred as himself in a number of Hollywood movies of the 1940s, appearing alongside Judy Garland in Thousands Cheer and playing the romantic lead in Three Daring Daughters. Produced in collaboration with the José Iturbi Foundation and the Hollywood Museum Board of Directors, this 16-set presents all of the recordings which he made for RCA Victor between 1933 and 1953, including the duo recordings with his sister Amparo; repertoire includes concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Liszt, and solo piano works by his compatriots Albéniz, Granados, Falla and Rodrigo.
Available Format: 16 CDs
Before making his mark as an opera composer in the 1850s, Offenbach had a long and distinguished career as a virtuoso cellist, touring Europe (where he played for Queen Victoria and performed with Mendelssohn and Rubinstein) as well as holding a position in the orchestra of the Opéra-Comique. During this period he composed extensively for his own instrument, and this collection features his Cours Méthodique de duos pour deux violoncelles (written for teachers and pupils to play together) as well as a number of fantasias and transcriptions based on popular operas of the age.
Available Formats: 7 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Released individually between 2016 and 2021, the Polish quartet's recordings of Wajnberg's seventeen string quartets have been praised for their combination of 'ferocious energy and delicate subtlety' (BBC Music Magazine on Nos. 2-4) and 'ensemble finesse and genuine sympathy for Weinberg’s idiom' (Classics Today on the project as a whole). This set also includes the Piano Quintet (1944), the Improvisation und Romanze (1950), and the Three Palms after M. Lermontov for soprano and string quartet (1977).
Available Format: 7 CDs
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
