Legacy

  • Leopold Stokowski: Great Recordings from the BBC Legends Archive, Vol. 2

    Leopold Stokowski’s eminence as one of the truly great conductors of the 20th century in a career spanning six decades is exemplified in this second 6-CD set featuring live BBC performances of many of the works he performed in concert during his final years.
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  • Yevgeny Svetlanov: Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky & Prokofiev

    The great Yevgeny Svetlanov frequently conducted Debussy. His interpretation of Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune in the Philharmonia concert recorded here in 2001 has an almost operatically vocal style, coupled with spacious tempo. Svetlanov's conducting of Respighi’s orchestration of two of Rachmaninov’s Etudes-Tableaux, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in October 1999, is typically atmospheric in the first tableaux – La Mer et les Mouettes (The Sea and the Gulls) following Debussy’s La Mer, while the second, La Foire (The Fair) demonstrates the conductor’s wonderful ear for colour. Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes was composed for sextet in 1919 while in the USA, but was re-scored for orchestra in 1934. Svetlanov’s concert with the LSO from October 1979 is a rarity since his only recording dates back to an early Melodiya account.
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  • 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.
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  • 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
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  • 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
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  • Shura Cherkassky: Saint-Saëns & Liszt

    Shura Cherkassky was born in Odessa, Ukraine in 1909 and died in London in 1995. He was initially taught by his mother who had played for Tchaikovsky, but when the family moved to the US in 1923, he studied with his long-time teacher and mentor, the legendary Josef Hofmann, before auditioning for Rachmaninov. Prior to World War II, he had made his name in the US but from 1945 he extensively toured Europe and settled in London in 1961. The last of the great Romantic tradition of pianists, Cherkassky was described by Bryce Morrison as a 'mercurial genius', a unique personality, blessed with an incredible technique, who delighted in defying convention as no performance was identical. For a musician reluctant to visit the studio, live performances were the showcase for his stunning virtuosity and creativity caught on the wing.
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  • Otto Klemperer (Richard Itter Collection Vol.2)

    MP3 Album:
    This release has been sourced from the Richard Itter archive of ‘live’ recordings. The collection is very important for collectors because it has never been released before onto the market. Following the archive’s launch in October 2017 with releases featuring Beecham, Böhm, Cantelli, Karajan, du Pré, Klemperer and Rostropovich, it has received universal praise from both the classical media and record collectors for the excellent sound and performances.
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  • Pierre Monteux (Richard Itter Collection)

    MP3 Album:
    The great French conductor Pierre Monteux  (1875-1964) was naturally considered a specialist of his native country’s music, though he would never allow this to restrict him. This new set of previously unpublished recordings seeks to set the record straight, with a strong representation of German repertoire, notably Brahms’ Symphony No.3 with the Boston Symphony, which he never recorded commercially, in a rare ‘live’ performance from the 1956 Edinburgh Festival. More Brahms featuring two celebrated virtuosos – the Violin Concerto with the French violinist Zino Francescatti, and the Double Concerto where he is joined by his compatriot Pierre Fournier, both ‘live’ recordings from the Royal Festival Hall in 1955. Both are previously unpublished.
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  • Otto Klemperer (Richard Itter Collection Vol.1)

    MP3 Album:
    Despite there being a large number of Otto Klemperer recordings on the market, these Richard Itter tapes of live broadcasts from the Royal Festival Hall and the BBCs Studios in Maida Vale between 1955 and 1956 have never, as far as is known, been released before. Klemperer was always more exciting when caught live and had added urgency as compared to his studio accounts, particuarly at this time before his health deteriorated in later years. His Philharmonia concerts were hugely successful in the mid 1950s when Walter Legge was looking to replace Herbert von Karajan, who was in the process of leaving for the Berlin Philharmonic. As Richard Osborne states in his notes, The winter of 1955-56 marked a new dawn for Klemperer.
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  • BBC Legends Vol. 2

    MP3 Album:
    ICA Classics are proud to release a second volume of the best selling BBC Legends box, featuring 20 CDs of some of the greatest artists of the 20th Century. Volume 1 was released in 2013 and comprised 20 CDs taken from the award winning BBC Legends catalogue (unavailable since 2010). Here is the follow-up with a further 20 CDs. The artists include Arturo Toscanini, David Oistrakh, Sviatoslav Richter, Kirsten Flagstad, Victoria de los Angeles, Sir Thomas Beecham, Carlo Maria Giulini, Igor Stravinsky, Pierre Monteux, Yehudi Menuhin, Andres Segovia, Dame Myra Hess, Nathan Milstein, Walter Gieseking, Arthur Rubinstein, Geza Anda, Claudio Arrau, Eduard van Beinum, Sir William Walton, Pierre Fournier, Benjamin Britten and the Borodin Quartet. Contains interviews/memories of Kirsten Flagstad and Carlo Maria Giulini.
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  • A Tribute to Rudolf Barshai (20 CD set)

    A Tribute to Rudolf Barshai

    MP3 Album:
    A 20 CD set in tribute to Russian-born Rudolf Barshai (1924-2010), possibly the most famous viola player of all time. He performed as a soloist and in chamber groups with Shostakovich, Richter, Oistrakh and Rostropovich and later with Kogan and Gilels. He won numerous Soviet and international competitions.
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  • Great Choral Classics (5 CDs)

    Great Choral Classics

    MP3 Album:
    WILLIAM STEINBERG BEETHOVEN Missa solemnis – 1973 ICAC 5054 IGOR MARKEVITCH VERDI Messa da Requiem – 1960 ROSSINI Overtures – 1957 ICAC 5068 (2CD) DIMITRI MITROPOULOS BERLIOZ Requiem (Grande Messe des morts) – 1956 ICAC 5075 GENNADI ROZHDESTVENSKY MAHLER Das klagende Lied – 1981 JANÁCEK The Fiddler’s Child – 1979 ICAC 5080
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CD releases from the Legacy Series