Heavyweight highlights from the last couple of months include anthologies dedicated to Sir Charles Mackerras, Lorin Maazel and the late Christoph von Dohnányi, plus the Calidore Quartet's acclaimed Beethoven cycle on Signum Classics, Musica Ficta and Bo Holten's survey of Danish part-song through the ages on Naxos, and John Williams's collected recordings with the Boston Pops Orchestra.
Released to mark the centenary of the Australian conductor's birth (which fell on 17th November), this set brings together all of the recordings which Mackerras made for HMV, Pye, Columbia Graphophone, Classics for Pleasure, EMI Classics, Virgin Classics & Erato, from his 1951 recording debut with his own Pineapple Poll suite on music by Arthur Sullivan (premiered earlier that year) to a superb 2001 account of Mozart's Idomeneo with a cast headed by Ian Bostridge and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. Other highlights include a complete set of the Beethoven symphonies, Puccini arias with Montserrat Caballé, several discs of ballet music and folksongs, and music by Dvořák, Smetana and Mackerras's beloved Janáček.
Available Format: 63 CDs
Released in three volumes between February 2023 and January 2025, the New York-based string quartet's Beethoven recordings have been praised for their 'remarkable technical accomplishment' (BBC Music Magazine), 'sophistication and sheer polish' (Gramophone), and 'bright, pure-toned playing' (The Strad). The set of the late quartets won the Chamber Prize at the BBC Music Magazine Awards in 2024, whilst the set of the middle quartets was Gramophone's Recording of the Month that October.
Available Formats: 9 CDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra: Complete Philips Recordings
Boston Pops Orchestra, John Williams
This collection celebrates the great film composer's parallel career as a concert conductor, bringing together all of the recordings which he made for Philips during the first decade of his tenure as Principal Conductor of the Boston Pops (Williams succeeded the long-serving Arthur Fiedler in 1979). Highlights include Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf (narrated by Dudley Moore), Holst's The Planets, a Christmas album from 1980, Bernstein by Boston, and Salute To Hollywood; an all-American song recital with Jessye Norman (with Williams as pianist) rounds out the set in fine style.
Available Format: 21 CDs
Sanctioned by the late Romanian pianist's estate and released to mark what would have been his eightieth birthday, this collection of radio broadcast recordings and master-tapes from the Decca archives includes accounts of Bartók's Out of Doors and the Copland Piano Sonata from Aldeburgh, Schumann's Faschingsschwank aus Wien and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition from the Concertgebouw, Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 18 from Karlsruhe, and his two Piano Quartets with members of the Tel Aviv String Quartet.
Available Formats: 6 CDs, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Recorded at the Barbican over the course of nine years, Noseda's Shostakovich cycle has been praised for the 'razor-sharp clarity of texture and dazzling precision of ensemble' on display (BBC Music Magazine on Nos. 9 and 10) and 'magnificent orchestral sound' (Gramophone on No. 13). The Italian conductor spoke to Presto midway through the series in 2019, when he reflected on the special relationship which British orchestras and their audiences have with Shostakovich's music.
Available Formats: 10 SACDs, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Spanning half a century, this 85-disc anthology ranges from the Austrian pianist-composer's earliest recordings for Decca (made when he was only seventeen) to his final Mozart sessions in Attersee just a few months before his death in 2000. Taking in concertos, solo repertoire, chamber music and live recital recordings, the set includes two complete cycles of Beethoven sonatas and Debussy's Préludes, numerous CD premieres, and the first release of a Bach Toccata recording from 1947 which was only recently unearthed.
Available Format: 85 CDs
The German conductor (who died in September two days before his 96th birthday) had a long relationship with the Wiener Philharmoniker, conducting them in over a hundred concerts as well as in numerous productions at the Wiener Staatsoper. This set includes their previously unreleased accounts of Strauss's Burleske and the complete Mendelssohn symphonies, plus a number of recordings which have hitherto only been available on vinyl; his Wiener Philharmoniker legacy is supplemented here by selected recordings with the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Wiener Symphoniker, and the Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Available Format: CD + DVD Video
Founded in 1964 as a warm-up act for the main orchestra at the Tanglewood Festival, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players soon became a headline attraction in their own right, and signed with Deutsche Grammophon alongside the orchestra in 1970. This collection includes their recordings of the Mozart and Brahms clarinet quintets, Stravinsky's Octet, Ragtime and L’Histoire du Soldat, works by Elliott Carter, Charles Ives and Quincy Porter, and chamber arrangements of Strauss waltzes by Berg, Schoenberg and Webern.
Available Format: 9 CDs
Lorin Maazel: The Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin Recordings
Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Lorin Maazel
Maazel succeeded Ferenc Fricsay as Chief Conductor of the Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (now the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin) in 1964, and remained in the position until 1975. This set brings together their joint discography for the first time, and includes landmark recordings of the Pergolesi Stabat mater (with Evelyn Lear and Christa Ludwig), the complete Brandenburg Concertos, Falla's El amor brujo and El sombrero de tres picos, Mozart's 'Prague' and 'Jupiter' symphonies, and Stravinsky's Firebird Suite.
Available Format: 14 CDs
The Copenhagen-based vocal ensemble and its founder Bo Holten spent twenty-five years chronicling the part-song tradition in Denmark, ranging from medieval treasures to contemporary examples by Gunner Pedersen, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen and Holten himself; the collection also includes a substantial amount of music by Carl Nielsen, plus children's songs, Christmas carols and hymns, folksong settings and motets. Welcoming the inaugural volume in 1996, Gramophone declared that 'Musica Ficta cannot put a foot wrong', and later pronounced that the album of Christmas songs 'ought to have the broadest possible appeal, especially when performed with such style'.
Available Format: 18 CDs
