This week we present Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd in the composer's own revised two-act version, drawn from a historic BBC studio recording broadcast in November 1960. Conducted by Britten himself and featuring Peter Pears as Captain Vere, the performance captures one of the twentieth century's greatest operas at a pivotal moment in its evolution.

Remastered in Ambient Stereo XR, the recording emerges with remarkable clarity, atmosphere and dramatic power. Joseph Ward's moving Billy and Michael Langdon's chilling Claggart lead a distinguished cast in a performance that combines historical importance with compelling musical and theatrical immediacy.

Also this week we mark the 75th anniversary of the death of Serge Koussevitzky, one of the twentieth century's most influential conductors. As Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, champion of new music and mentor to a generation of musicians, Koussevitzky helped shape the modern orchestral world and remains a towering figure in musical history.

Bruno Walter’s profound connection to Mahler lies at the heart of this week’s new Pristine release: a towering live 1948 Carnegie Hall performance of the “Resurrection” Symphony with the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York, Westminster Choir, Nadine Conner and Jean Watson. More than historical documentation, this is Mahler interpretation passed almost directly from the composer’s own world into sound.

Coupled with Walter’s blazing 1953 account of Bruckner’s Te Deum, this new Ambient Stereo XR restoration brings renewed depth, presence and dramatic force to two great choral masterpieces of the Austro-German tradition. Monumental music-making, human at its core.

Also this week, we celebrate the centenary of Miles Davis with 20% off all Miles titles in the Pristine catalogue, from Kind of Blue to the First Great Quintet recordings. One of the few musicians who genuinely changed the direction of modern music multiple times over, Davis remains as restless, elegant and influential now as ever.

Frederick Stock closes his remarkable Chicago Symphony discography with a final set of 1941 studio recordings that perfectly capture the qualities which made him one of America’s great orchestral builders: authority, warmth, colour and complete musical conviction. From Stock’s own grand orchestration of Bach’s “St. Anne” Prelude and Fugue to a wonderfully atmospheric Dvořák In Nature’s Realm, these performances reveal a conductor whose artistry deserves to stand alongside the bigger names of his era.

At the heart of the release lies a superb performance of Chausson’s Symphony in B-flat, passionately played and beautifully recorded, alongside a rare Wagner Forest Murmurs transferred from a surviving test pressing. Issued here in the sixth and final volume of our Frederick Stock series, these recordings form both a fitting conclusion and a compelling reminder of a major conductor too often overlooked today.

To mark the 213th anniversary of Richard Wagner’s birth on 22 May 1813, we’re also offering 10% off all Wagner recordings this week. With 116 Wagner titles currently available, from legendary Ring cycles conducted by Furtwängler and Krauss to Toscanini’s blazing orchestral broadcasts and historic Parsifal and Tristan performances, there’s no better moment to explore one of the most transformative figures in musical history.