"The idea of a Wagner performance with such luminaries as Elisabeth Rethberg and Lauritz Melchior topping a cast that included Emanuel List is mouthwatering. Even the Herald was luxury casting (Leonard Warren, in fine voice). This 1940 broadcast ticks all the boxes. The Prelude to act I is simply stunning. It is not just the purity of the high strings, more the way in which that purity conjures up the realm of the spirituality of the Grail, of the chivalrous knight, even of the white swan (as it turns out, it could be heard in retrospect to prefigure the heavenly voice of Rethberg, too). This is a glowing performance..." - Fanfare, 2012

Earlier this year, to great acclaim, we released Erich Leinsdorf's brilliant early-60s Metropolitan Opera Wagner Ring Cycle. This week we turn the clock back two decades to January 1940 and Lohengrin. Leinsdorf arrived at the Met in 1937 and first stood in as conductor in January 1938, with a performance of Wagner's Die Walküre. Among the cast that night were three of the six soloists with whom he'd appear on 27 January 1940 for the present performance of Lohengrin: Elisabeth Rethberg, Kerstin Thorborg and Emanual List.

They were joined for that afternoon's live matinee performance by Julius Huehn, Leonard Warren and, in the title role, Lauritz Melchior, possibly the finest Heldentenor of all time. This new transfer from previously unused acetate discs offers superb XR remastered sound quality in Ambient Stereo. Fabulous!

This release is a real find - we're pretty sure (a) that it's never been released before, and (b) it comprises the only recordings of Rudolf Serkin and Artur Rodziński together. Better still, both are top-notch performances of major piano concertos with the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York, playing live in Carnegie Hall!

As far as we've been able to discover, despite these major artists working largely in the same place at the same time, and both commanding major events with major orchestras, there were only three occasions when they played together. The first was not recorded and took place in 1940. The next two concerts came in 1945 and and 1946, with Beethoven's 3rd Concerto and Brahms's 1st Concerto respectively.

This is a release of major historical and musical interest, and is absolutely not to be missed!

"As these performances are all I know of Spivakovsky’s playing, they’ve made me hungry for more. This is playing here of a very special artist: one with the refinement of a Lipatti, the power of a Kapell, the clarity of a Gilels, and the naturalness of a Schnabel. If one is interested in 20th-century pianism, then Spivakovsky is an artist to know. I myself am ordering the previous releases as I write this." - Fanfare magazine

This week we return to our ongoing series of recordings by Jascha Spivakovsky, which have been building ever more attention for this fabulous yet largely forgotten pianist. Volume Eight begins with two Beethoven piano sonatas, nos. 9 and 13, both recorded for broadcast in the mid-1950s. In fact all but two of the pieces here were taken from radio or TV broadcasts in Australia and New Zealand.

Once again Spivakovsky reveals his master musician status by striking an ideal balance between objectivity and individuality, being faithful to the score while adding refined personal touches that bring the music to life.