Rich, warm and resounding, the Ferras/Karajan Brahms Violin Concerto has always been one of the mainstays of the catalogue.

The most popular guitar concerto coupled with less well-known but no less charming ones from Spain’s most eloquent masters of the guitar, Siegfried Behrend.

Lorin Maazel’s early DG and Decca recordings were landmarks and this disc offers what is unquestionably two of the finest performances of these two symphonies. The Fifth has really thunderbolt impact and the Berlin strings and winds in the ‘Pastoral’ sing gloriously

Blazing and saturated sound – of the aptly-described ‘gold brick’ variety – characterises these celebrated performances of eight of Beethoven’s best-loved Overtures. All the favourites are there and the recordings have been stunningly remastered for this release.

As a leading Mozartean, Karl Böhm turns out exquisite and warm performances of three of Mozart’s most popular serenades – all collected on a single CD. The three distinguished wind soloists in the ‘Posthorn’ add immeasurably to its pleasure.

Herbert von Karajan turns his attention to the swaggering pomp of favourite marches by the ‘other’ Strauss family and many others in this good natured and emblazoned romp.

‘Die Schöpfung’ (The Creation) is one of the great choral masterpieces that Haydn composed after finishing his 104th symphony in 1795. It is a work championed by Igor Markevitch who made this critically-acclaimed recording of it with a compelling team of soloists, including the radiant Irmgard Seefried.

The Berlioz Symphonies in acclaimed performances by Daniel Barenboim – Fantastique: first international CD release; Roméo: a rare recording returns to the catalogue. And Lorin Maazel conducts a wonderful performance of ‘Harold en Italie’ – long unavailable on CD.

The reissue of this recording marks a double celebration – the bicentenary of Verdi’s birth and the centenary of Solti’s. Solti’s second recording of Verdi’s Falstaff returns to the catalogue. Recorded ‘live’ at the Philharmonie in Berlin, it boasts a thoroughly imaginative cast and magnificent recorded sound.

Herbert von Karajan’s mighty ‘Ring’ cycle, here represented through extended highlights allows us to sample Karajan’s choice of different singers for the same character in different operas – Fischer-Dieskau’s Wotan in ‘Das Rheingold’ and Thomas Stewart’s in ‘Siegfried’. There are notes on the music as well as an essay by Karajan expert, Richard Osborne, on […]

Looking back at ‘Tristan und Isolde’ twenty years after its composition, Wagner told his wife Cosima: ‘My model was Romeo and Juliet – nothing but duets!’ He was invoking Bellini’s opera,’I Capuleti e i Montecchi’ which he had conducted many times as a young man. Indeed, there had been much in the Italian master’s legacy that […]

Among the many Heldentenoren spoken of in glowing terms, perhaps none has been so unfairly neglected as Jess Thomas. Full-throated and resplendent, not a hint of strain, an amazing array of colours in the voice (from sotto voce to overpowering), he possessed an artistry that was not only a thrill in the theatre but that […]