Pristine Classical

The finest historic recorded music, remastered to award-winning acclaim

Casals' classic solo Bach

Pristine Classical

The finest historic recorded music, remastered to award-winning acclaim

Klemperer in Philadelphia

Pristine Classical

The finest historic recorded music, remastered to award-winning acclaim

Horenstein's Mahler 5

Pristine Classical

The finest historic recorded music, remastered to award-winning acclaim

Die Walküre - Met Opera '40

Pristine Classical

The finest historic recorded music, remastered to award-winning acclaim

Schnabel plays Beethoven

Most Recent Releases

Harty & Monteux conduct Berlioz

This year sees the 150th anniversary of the death of one of the great French composers, Hector Berlioz (11 December 1803 – 8 March 1869), and we're marking the year with this special compilation of recordings by two conductors who could claim to one extent or another, direct links to the composer: Sir Hamilton Harty and Pierre Monteux.

With both conductors born within a decade of Berlioz's death it's fair to say both would have had exposure to musicians and others who'd lived and breathed the same air as the composer, despite themselves being a generation or so away from this direct link. They were both also closely associated with orchestras established by acquaintances of Berlioz with long-standing traditions of playing the composer's music.

The recordings here comprise all of Harty's electrical commercial recordings of Berlioz along with all of the works recorded by Monteux - who re-recorded the Symphonie Fantastique a number of times, but was said to have regarded his first 1930 recording as his best performance on disc.

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Koussevitzky conducts Tchaikovsky

This is a very special recording: one of only two examples of Koussevitzky conducting Tchaikovsky's "Pathétique" Symphony No. 6, it was captured from a live broadcast of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1946 and shows the maestro and his orchestra at the peak of their powers.

And yet the recording itself suffered - post-wartime shortages meant no spares were available for recording machines, which meant old discarded cutting lathes had to be pressed back into service. The broadcast itself, transmitted from ABC's studios in New York, came down a low quality telephone wire from Boston to get there.

And yet in this new transfer and restoration you'll hear nothing of this. The tone is full and bright, the pitch stable and solid, and the full majesty of Koussevitzky's Boston Symphony Orchestra shines through. Coupled with a performance from the same year of Tchaikovsky's Francesca da Rimini, this is a very special release that begs your attention from the opening notes.

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Toscanini conducts Richard Strauss

We ended 2018 with some fine-sounding Toscanini, and we begin 2019 with some astounding-sounding Toscanini, and in doing so mark the 70th anniversary of the death of Richard Strauss with a double-CD containing fine examples of each of the Strauss works that survive in recordings conducted by the Italian maestro.

As with the Russian disc, we have once again been able to access mint sources, offering unprecedented sound quality throughout. Indeed, I'm not sure if I've ever heard recordings from 1938 which sound quite as fresh, new and vibrant as this Don Quixote - you can almost hear the rosin jumping from Emanuel Feuermann's bow!

I was working on the opening recording of Don Quixote and thought to compare it with a previous issue, one I'd not heard for maybe ten years or more. The difference could not be more stark. Gone was not only the noisy, scratchy surface, but also the thin, harsh sound, to be replaced with something of real beauty. What an honour and privilege to be able to unlock such a thing from an 81 year old artefact. A humbling experience indeed.

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