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Moné Hattori: Waxman-Shostakovich
MP3 Album:
Born in Tokyo in 1999, Moné Hattori comes from a musical family. After studies in Japan with Aguri Suzuki, Yasuko Ohtani, and Akiko Tatsumi, she made her concerto debut aged eight, and enrolled in Zakhar Bron’s prestigious Academy in Interlaken, Switzerland. Her debut recording featuring Franz Waxman’s virtuoso showpiece Carmen-Fantasie is technically brilliant as well as being a rarity on record.
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Legend of Butterfly Lovers
MP3 Album:
Susanne Hou’s father Bo Zhi (Alexander) Hou was the top violinist at the Shanghai Conservatory at the time this concerto was written, going on to lead major orchestras in China before and during the Cultural Revolution. Mr Hou was asked to make the world premiere recording of The Butterfly Lover’s Concerto but, due to sensitive political and societal circumstances, he ultimately left the country without having had the opportunity to make the recording. He therefore now passes the torch of his legacy in China, and his unfulfilled destiny of recording The Butterfly Lovers Concerto, to his daughter Susanne Hou.
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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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Vladimir Jurowski: Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty
MP3 Album:
Jurowski's interpretation is based on his view that Acts 1 & 2 inhabit a Romantic sound world and then between Act 2 & 3, the sound changes completely becoming drier with much sharper outlines. He has said that if it were not for Tchaikovsky's untimely death, he would have developed a similar style of composition to Stravinsky between 1917 and 1928, around the time of Pulcinella. The Sleeping Beauty recorded here is performed complete. This release includes notes by David Nice and an interview with Jurowski about his interpretation.
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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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Antonio Pappano: Schumann Symphonies Nos. 2 & 4
MP3 Album:
ICA Classics is proud to present the first recordings of Pappano conducting two of Schumann’s most popular symphonies, No.2 in C major op.61 and No.4 in D minor op.120. Symphony No.2 was sketched out in 1845 but its completion was greatly prolonged by nervous exhaustion which some years later was to decline into mental instability. This personal struggle evokes Beethoven, while the tremendous energy in the work recalls Schubert. Symphony No.4 was composed in 1841 but revised in 1851 (the version heard here) and consists of four continuous movements, an innovation at the time.
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Antonio Pappano: Elgar Symphony No. 1 & In the South
MP3 Album:
Elgar Symphony No.1 in A flat major op.55 & Concert Overture ‘In the South’ op.50 with Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Recorded live in the Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome, 21, 23 & 24 January 2012 (Op.55) & 18 March 2013 (Op.50).
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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)
