Legacy

  • Gennadi Rozhdestvensky: Berlioz Romeo et Juliette, Scriabin Le Poeme de l’extase

    COMPOSERS Hector Berlioz, Alexander Scriabin ARTISTS Gennadi Rozhdestvensky

  •  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.

  • 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.

  • Carlo Maria Giulini: Mozart’s Le Nozze Di Figaro (Richard Itter Collection)

    MP3 Album:
    Carlo Maria Giulinis celebrated studio recording of Le nozze di Figaro was recorded in September 1959 following a live performance at the Royal Festival Hall a few days earlier. Nearly 18 months later on 6th February 1961 there was another RFH performance but with a substantially different cast from that on disc. Only two roles the Countess (Elisabeth Schwarzkopf) and Antonio (Piero Cappuccilli) were sung by the same artists.

  • 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.
  • 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 Italian Operas (6 CDs)

    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’.
  • 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
  • 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.
  • Great Pianists Box Set (5 CDs)

    Great Pianists

    MP3 Album:
    EMIL GILELS BEETHOVEN Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 3 – 1967 ICAC 5000 CLAUDIO ARRAU CHOPIN Piano Concerto No.1 • BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No.4 – 1954 & 1959 1954 (Chopin), 1959 (Beethoven) Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln. ICAC 5045 JULIUS KATCHEN BRAHMS Piano Concerto No.1* • CHOPIN Ballade No.3 • LISZT Mephisto Waltz No.1 SCHUMANN Vogel als Prophet (Waldszenen) • ALBÉNIZ Triana (Ibéria – Book 2) – 1958, 1965 & 1967* ICAC 5048 GEORGES CZIFFRA GRIEG Piano Concerto • LISZT Piano Concerto No.1 • Fantasy on Hungarian Folk Themes LULLY Gavotte en rondeau • D. SCARLATTI Sonata K96 ‘La Chasse’ – 1959 ICAC 5079 SHURA CHERKASSKY CHOPIN Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 – 1981 & 1983 ICAC 5085
  • Shura Cherkassky

    Shura Cherkassky

    MP3 Album:
    CHOPIN Piano Concerto No.1 Piano Concerto No.2 BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Christopher Adey BBC Symphony Orchestra Richard Hickox Recorded: Studio 1, Broadcasting House, Glasgow, 3 December 1981 (No.1) Royal Albert Hall, London, 30 August 1983 (No.2)

MP3 releases from the Legacy Series