Legacy

  • 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

  • Sir Adrian Boult: Vaughan Williams Symphonies Nos 5 & 6

    BBC Symphony Orchestra Sir Adrian Boult

  •  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.

  • Herbert von Karajan & Clara Haskil: Mozart

    The combination of Herbert von Karajan and the revered Romanian pianist Clara Haskil (1895-1960) was an ideal partnership. Karajan had an extraordinary rapport with her, describing her career as 'a long and often sorrowful march to glory' due to Haskil's well documented ill-health.

  • 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.
  • Herbert von Karajan (2CDs)

    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.
  • Great Symphonies (5 CDs)

    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.
  • 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
  • Evgeny Svetlanov

    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
  • Gennadi Rozhdestvensky

    Gennadi Rozhdestvensky

    MP3 Album:
    Tchaikovsky Symphony No.5 Janáček Taras Bulba BBC Symphony Orchestra
  • BBC Legends Limited Edition Box Set (20 CDs)

    BBC Legends Vol.1

    MP3 Album:
    This 20 CD box set brings together some of the greatest performances taken from the BBC archives which were featured in the best-selling series BBC Legends, launched in 1998. The collection features classic recordings by stellar artists including Mstislav Rostropovich, Arturo Toscanini, Emil Gilels, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Sir Thomas Beecham, Dennis Brain, Evgeny Mravinsky, David Oistrakh and Sviatoslav Richter.

MP3 releases from the Legacy Series