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. -
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. -
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. -
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
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
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
MP3 Album:Tchaikovsky Symphony No.5 Janáček Taras Bulba BBC Symphony Orchestra -
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. -
Géza Anda
MP3 Album:Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1 - Brahms Piano Concerto No.2 Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester Sir Georg Solti Otto Klemperer -
Guido Cantelli
MP3 Album:SCHUMANN Symphony No.4 - DEBUSSY Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien – Suite La Mer Philharmonia Orchestra/Cantelli USHER HALL, EDINBURGH, 9 SEPTEMBER 1954
MP3 releases from the Legacy Series