Box Set Selections,
Boxed Set Selections - November 2023
This month's heavyweights include trailblazing countertenor Russell Oberlin's complete recordings on American Decca, the complete Monteverdi madrigals from Concerto Italiano & Rinaldo Alessandrini on Naïve Records, an anthology of Respighi's orchestral works from John Neschling in Liège and São Paulo on BIS, and the late Lars Vogt's collected recordings on Warner Classics.
This celebration of the American countertenor (1928-2016) includes discs of Handel arias, cantatas by Telemann, Buxtehude and Handel, a recital of songs by Robert Jones, Schumann, Wolf and Purcell, a 1964 recording of Walton's Façade, and several albums with New York Pro Musica: Elizabethan and Jacobean Ayres, Madrigals & Dances, Sacred Music of Thomas Tallis, Music of the Medieval Court and Countryside for the Christmas Season and Ludus Danielis.
Available Formats: 9 CDs, MP3, FLAC
Alessandrini began his survey of the complete Monteverdi madrigals in 1993 with Book IV (which prompted Gramophone to declare that 'at its best, this record is simply without equal'); the project was completed last year with Books I and IX, which are released here for the first time. The Italian conductor describes this body of work as 'a theatre made of humanity, of aspiring to the sublime and the joyful resolution of life’s sorrows through love, the curative power of song and the energetic exaltation of dance.'
Available Format: 11 CDs
The most recent incarnation of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra was formed by Mauceri in 1990, and all of the albums here were originally released in the first half of the 1990s; stand-outs include My Fair Lady (with Kiri Te Kanawa & Jeremy Irons), Schoenberg in Hollywood, Heatwave: Patti LuPone sings Irving Berlin, The King and I (with Julie Andrews & Ben Kingsley), and Journey to the Stars: A Sci-Fi Fantasy Adventure (featuring music by Herrmann, Waxman, Corigliano, Ligeti and John Williams).
Available Format: 16 CDs
Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt Edition: Volume 2
London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt
This collection of the German conductor's recordings for Philips, Mercury, Deutsche Grammophon and Accord date from the period between 1944 (Sutermeister's 1940 opera Romeo und Julia) and 1972 (Mozart's Die Gärtnerin aus Liebe aka La finta giardiniera, which turned out to be Schmidt-Isserstedt's final recording). Other highlights include Alfred Brendel's first recording of Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 1, Rimsky Korsakov's Scheherazade, and Ravel's Piano Concerto in G with Monique Haas.
Available Format: 15 CDs
Respighi: Orchestral Works
Anna Caterina Antonacci (soprano), Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, John Neschling
Described by BBC Music Magazine as ‘the finest-ever survey of the composer’s orchestral output undertaken by a single conductor’, Neschling's Respighi project began in 2010 with a recording of the Roman Trilogy from São Paulo which prompted Classic FM to declare that 'this music has rarely sounded so well on CD'. Other highlights include a 'dazzlingly done' (Gramophone) account of Metamorphoseon from Liège, a gripping Sinfonia drammatica, and a radiant Il tramonto (performed with the full string-section and Antonacci as soloist).
Available Formats: 7 SACDs, MP3, FLAC
This celebration of the recorded legacy of the German pianist (who died last September aged just 51) includes the Brahms piano sonatas and several major chamber works, the first two Beethoven piano concertos, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, Schumann's Kreisleriana, Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps from the Spannungen Festival, and works by Vogt's first wife Tatjana Komarova.
Available Format: 27 CDs
Recorded between 2009 and 2021, the French pianist's Haydn survey has been widely acclaimed for his ' humour and gentle passion' (Classic FM), 'exquisite taste' (Financial Times), and 'gifts of insightful exposition and revelation' (Sunday Times); back in 2011, Gramophone declared that 'if you have been badly missing Alfred Brendel in Haydn since his retirement, let us celebrate a special moment: Volume 3 of Jean-Efflam Bavouzet's Haydn establishes him as a worthy successor...Do please listen to him.'
Available Format: 11 CDs
Accompanied by a hardcover coffee-table book, this limited-edition set includes Liszt symphonic poems from Giuseppe Sinopoli, Janáček's Glagolitic Mass from Riccardo Chailly, Shostakovich's Symphonies Nos. 6 & 9 from Leonard Bernstein, works by Kodály and Elgar from Sir Georg Solti, Dvořák's Symphonies Nos. 8 & 9 from Herbert von Karajan, and sinfonie concertanti by Haydn and Mozart from Karl Böhm.
Available Format: 20 CDs
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
