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Karl Böhm: Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (Richard Itter Collection)
MP3 Album:
Walter Berry reflected in an interview in 1985, 'we played in the Theater an der Wien (during the rebuilding of the Vienna State Opera) and we developed a certain style, a Mozart style which was connected very much to the singers of that time ... this was an incredible ensemble'. Harold Rosenthal, Editor of Opera magazine, described the staged performance at London's Royal Festival Hall on 13 September 1954 as 'a sheer delight', highlighting the performances of Erich Kunz (Figaro) and Sena Jurinac (Cherubino), while Irmgard Seefried (Susanna) was 'one of the joys of this recording' (George Hall). These Richard Itter tapes of the live broadcast have never been released before, and the superb recording fully captures the atmosphere in this light-footed performance in a packed Royal Festival Hall to perfection.
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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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Guido Cantelli (Richard Itter Collection)
MP3 Album:
Guido Cantellis live recordings with the Philharmonia Orchestra are exceptionally rare because the BBC seldom broadcast any of his concerts. ICA Classics released Cantellis live concert from the Edinburgh Festival in September 1954 on ICAC 5081 but there has been nothing else. Toscanini was Cantellis mentor and there is no doubt that he would have continued in the great conductors footsteps had he not been tragically killed in an air accident in Paris on the 24th November 1956. He was 36 years old. The Royal Albert Hall recording made by Richard Itter in May 1953 is very well recorded for the period and preserves the palpable excitement of the whole concert.
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Herbert von Karajan (Richard Itter Collection)
MP3 Album:
This release has been sourced from the Richard Itter archive. The collection is very important for collectors because it has never been released before onto the market. Herbert von Karajan’s association with the Philharmonia Orchestra started in 1948 and continued to 1960. Despite this long relationship, there are practically no live recordings from London’s Royal Festival Hall of Karajan and the Philharmonia caught on the wing.
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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
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 Symphonies
MP3 Album:
Beethoven’s Ninth and Mendelssohn’s “Italian” are two of the great symphonies to appear in this collection, which also features works by Tchaikovsky, Schumann and Brahms, among others. With renowned conductors including Sir Adrian Boult and Gennadi Rozhdestvensky at the helm, these expertly remastered recordings represent an excellent addition to any symphony-lover’s collection.
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Great Italian Operas
MP3 Album:
This set features two classic performances from the golden age of the Covent Garden Opera Company and a sparkling Falstaff from the Edinburgh Festival, combining masterworks of Italian opera by Puccini, Verdi and Rossini into one outstanding collection. Carefully remastered and restored, the recordings feature a stellar cast of Italian singers and conductors, including renowned soprano Renata Tebaldi, said by Toscanini to possess ‘the voice of an angel’.
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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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Claudio Arrau
MP3 Album:
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No.31
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No.32
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No.23
(Swedish Radio Studios, Stockholm, 5 April 1960)
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Otto Klemperer
MP3 Album:
Bach: Suite No.3 BWV 1068/KRSO
(Saal 1, Funkhaus, Koln, 17 October 1955)
Mozart: Symphony No.29/KRSO
(Saal 1, Funkhaus, Koln, 8 February 1954)
Beethoven: Symphony No.1/KRSO
(Saal 1, Funkhaus, Koln 21 February 1954)
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Evgeny Svetlanov
MP3 Album:
BRAHMS
Symphony No.3
DEBUSSY
La Mer
London Symphony Orchestra
Evgeny Svetlanov
ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL, LONDON, 17 APRIL 1975
BONUS
CHAUSSON
Poème de l’amour et de la mer:
La Mort de l’amour – Le Temps des lilas
Janet Baker MEZZO-SOPRANO
London Symphony Orchestra
Evgeny Svetlanov
ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL, LONDON, 17 APRIL 1975
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