• 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.

  • 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 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)
  • Guido Cantelli

    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
  • Hugo Wolf

    Hugo Wolf

    MP3 Album:
    Wolf: Italienisches Liederbuch Janet Baker John Shirley-Quirk Steuart Bedford Live from the 1977 Aldeburgh Festival
  • Yuri Bashmet

    Yuri Bashmet

    MP3 Album:
    Brahms: Symphony No.3 - Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.6 ‘Pathétique’ Novaya Rossiya State Symphony Orchestra
  • Shura Cherkassky

    Shura Cherkassky

    MP3 Album:
    Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini - Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No.7 - Stravinsky: Three Scenes from Petrushka Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester / Zdeněk Mácal