Legacy

  • Leopold Stokowski: Great recordings from the BBC Legends archive

    Leopold Stokowski’s eminence as one of the truly great conductors of the 20th century, in a career which spanned six decades, is exemplified in this 6CD set. It features BBC performances in stereo of many of the symphonies and works he performed in concert during his final years and, in many cases, premiered on record in his early years. Release Date: 24 May 2024
  • Sir Adrian Boult: Beethoven, Schubert & Brahms

    Beethoven: Symphony No.3 Schubert: Symphony No.9 Brahms: St Anthony Variations Overtures by Beethoven, Weber, Rossini and Cherubini London Philharmonic Orchestra BBC Welsh Orchestra BBC Symphony Orchestra BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Release Date: 24 May 2024
  • Annie Fischer: Schumann

    Schumann: Piano Sonata No. 1 & Schubert: 4 Impromptus D. 935
  • Arvīds Jansons: Tchaikovsky & Prokofiev

    Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 Tchaikovsky: The Sleeping Beauty Op. 66 (Excerpts) Tchaikovsky: Francesca da Rimini, Op. 32 Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1 Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra USSR Symphony Orchestra Arvīds Jansons
  • Constantin Silvestri: Shostakovich Symphony No. 8, Kabalevsky Colas Breugnon Overture

    This recording is a rarity and belonged to Silvestri, only discovered after his death. The live performance from 1961 of Shostakovich Symphony No.8 is a new addition to Silvestri's discography, as is Kabalevsky’s Colas Breugnon Overture. The recording captures Silvestri’s electrifying performance of Shostakovich’s greatest symphony. During his early years in Moscow, Silvestri conducted Shostakovich and was praised by the composer. Silvestri’s only other Shostakovich recording was Symphony No.5 with the Vienna Philharmonic in 1960
  • BBC Legends Vol.4

    ICA Classics, via its long-term contract with BBC Worldwide, are proud to release a fourth volume of the best-selling BBC Legends box, featuring 20 CDs of some of the greatest artists of the 20th century. Volume one was released in 2013 and comprised 20 CDs taken from the critically acclaimed BBC Legends catalogue which has been unavailable since 2010. The second volume was released in 2017 and is now out of print, while the third volume came out in late 2022. A beautifully packaged clamshell box with individual wallets for each main artist featuring full details of tracks, dates and venues.
  • Gennadi Rozhdestvensky: Berlioz Romeo et Juliette, Scriabin Le Poeme de l’extase

    COMPOSERS Hector Berlioz, Alexander Scriabin ARTISTS Gennadi Rozhdestvensky
  • Sir Adrian Boult: Holst The Planets, works by Vaughan Williams, Walton & Butterworth

    COMPOSERS Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Walton, George Butterworth ARTISTS Sir Adrian Boult, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Alan Harverson
  • Rudolf Kempe: Dvořák Symphony No. 8, Beethoven Prometheus Overture, Strauss Tod und Verklärung

    COMPOSERS Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard Strauss, Antonín Dvořák ARTISTS Münchner Philharmoniker, Rudolf Kempe
  • Kurt Sanderling: Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10 – Balakirev: Islamey at the Royal Festival Hall, London

    COMPOSERS Dmitri Shostakovich, Mily Balakirev ARTISTS New Philharmonia Orchestra, Kurt Sanderling, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
  • BBC Legends Vol.3

    ICA Classics, via its long-term contract with BBC Worldwide, are proud to release a third volume of the best-selling BBC Legends box, featuring 20 CDs of some of the greatest artists of the 20th century. Volume one was released in 2013 comprising 20 CDs taken from the critically acclaimed BBC Legends catalogue which has been unavailable since 2010. The second volume was released in 2017 and is now out of print.
  •  Gennady Rozhdestvensky: Shostakovich

    Gennady Rozhdestvensky (1931-2018) was one of Russia's greatest conductors along with Evgeny Mravinsky and Kirill Kondrashin. His close personal and musical relationship with Shostakovich began in the 1950s and continued until the composer's death in 1975. Rozhdestvensky said at the time, 'It would be difficult to overestimate the significance of my relations with Dmitri Shostakovich since he opened before me a musical universe like a gigantic magnifying glass reflecting our fragile world'. Rozhdestvensky conducted the first western premiere of Shostakovich's Symphony No.4 in Edinburgh in 1962 and after many subsequent performances internationally, it was also the inaugural piece in his tenure as chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (1979-81). Composed in 1936 but condemned by the Soviet authorities, it did not receive it's first performance until 1961 in Moscow. The epic Symphony No.11, given a dramatic performance by the BBC Philharmonic in 1997, is based on revolutionary folksongs relating to the 1905 Russian Revolution, and received the Lenin Prize in 1958. Despite this, questions arose as to whether Shostakovich was denouncing the Soviet regime's brutal treatment of it's opponents in it, specifically the 1956 invasion of Hungary or the Tsarist tyranny and oppression of 1905, to which there are no conclusive answers.

CD releases from the Legacy Series