Maria Callas Arias, Vol. 3: Great Scenes & Mad Scenes completes Pristine’s three-volume series with music from Spontini’s La vestale, Verdi’s Don Carlo, Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, Thomas’s Hamlet and Bellini’s Il pirata. Recorded in the studio in 1955 and 1958, the 75:20 programme features the La Scala orchestra under Tullio Serafin and the Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus under Nicola Rescigno, in Ambient Stereo and stereo.

These substantial scenes offer more than a collection of recital favourites. They preserve encounters with operas Callas never recorded complete, including Don Carlo and Hamlet, while the extended Mad Scenes give listeners time to follow a dramatic sequence. This week’s sample is drawn from Elisabetta’s “Tu che le vanità” in Don Carlo. A Virtual Box Set also brings together all three volumes of the now-complete aria series.

Our weekly promotion celebrates Mendelssohn ahead of the 179th anniversary of his death on 4 November. Enjoy 10% off all Mendelssohn recordings from 2-8 October, with the discount applied automatically at checkout - no code is required. Explore the collection.

Five new virtual box sets offer fresh paths into Pristine’s catalogue of 1,266 releases. Maria Callas’s Bellini Opera Collection (PABX052) brings together I Puritani, La sonnambula and both her 1954 and 1960 studio recordings of Norma. Arturo Toscanini’s NBC Verdi Opera Collection (PABX053) gathers La Traviata, Otello, Aïda, Falstaff and Un Ballo in Maschera from the broadcasts of 1946 to 1954. Sir Thomas Beecham’s Beecham conducts Mozart (PABX054) unites the three-volume series, with seven symphonies, the Bassoon Concerto, the Divertimento in B-flat, K131 and recordings spanning 1912 to 1958.

Pablo Casals’s The Pristine Collection (PABX055) ranges from Bach’s Suites for Solo Cello to concertos, sonatas and chamber music, including Schubert’s Piano Trio No. 1 with Jacques Thibaud and Alfred Cortot. Guido Cantelli’s Cantelli in New York (PABX056) brings together six Carnegie Hall broadcasts from 1955 and 1956, with the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra and soloists including Walter Gieseking, Rudolf Firkušný and Wilhelm Backhaus. These five collections gather existing Pristine releases into focused programmes, making it easier to explore an artist’s work in depth or follow connections between recordings.

We are also celebrating Shostakovich’s 120th birthday with 20% off all Shostakovich recordings. Browse his music in the Pristine catalogue to revisit familiar works or explore performances you have yet to discover.

This week sees the completion of our six-volume survey of Willem Mengelberg's Telefunken recordings with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Volume 6 brings the series to 1942-43, with Schubert's Unfinished and Great Symphonies at its heart, alongside Beethoven's The Creatures of Prometheus, selections from Berlioz's La damnation de Faust, Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Brahms's Tragic Overture and Wagenaar's Cyrano de Bergerac Overture.

Producer and restoration engineer Mark Obert-Thorn has once again worked from the best surviving sources, and this final volume includes some particularly elusive recordings. Mengelberg's Schubert Unfinished has long been one of the harder items in his discography to find in satisfactory sound, while his extraordinarily swift Eine kleine Nachtmusik is another genuine rarity. The three Berlioz selections also preserve some of the finest sound Telefunken achieved in these sessions. Together they make a fitting conclusion to a series that has followed Mengelberg's remarkable relationship with the label from 1937 to 1943.

This weekend also marks 69 years since the death of Jean Sibelius on 20 September 1957, and our week's promotion turns to his music. From 18 September until the end of Thursday 24 September, an automatic 10% discount will be applied to every Sibelius recording in the Pristine catalogue, on CD and download alike. There is no code to enter: the reduction will be applied automatically at checkout.

This week’s new release completes Jörg Demus’s 1955 Westminster recording of Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier with Book II. Recorded in Vienna when Demus was just twenty-six, these performances show a pianist already deeply at home in Bach, combining clarity, poise and lightly pedalled transparency with a strikingly individual sense of character.

Book II is the more varied half of the pair, ranging freely from concentrated counterpoint to dance, brilliance, introspection and elegance. The original mono sound is particularly fine, and this new Pristine Ambient Stereo XR remastering adds air, depth and separation while preserving the character of the 1955 Westminster source. Together with last week’s Book I release, it completes Demus’s remarkable youthful cycle.

Our special offer this week celebrates Bruno Walter’s 150th birthday on 15 September 1876. All Pristine releases featuring Walter are reduced by 20% from 11 to 17 September, with the saving applied automatically at checkout.

This week’s new release is Jörg Demus’s 1955 Westminster recording of Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I. Demus was only twenty-six when he recorded both books at the Mozart-Saal of the Vienna Konzerthaus in July 1955, yet Bach was already deeply familiar territory: by twenty-one he had performed the complete Well-Tempered Clavier in four Vienna recitals. The result is poised, transparent piano Bach, lightly pedalled and unusually free of grandstanding.

The original mono recording is very fine, and this new Pristine Ambient Stereo XR remastering opens out the piano with greater air, tonal bloom and separation between the contrapuntal lines while retaining the character of the 1955 source. Book I appears this week; Book II follows next week, allowing Demus’s remarkable youthful cycle to unfold in two complementary instalments.

Our special offer this week marks the 130th anniversary of Anton Bruckner’s death on 11 October 1896. All Pristine Bruckner recordings are reduced by 20% from 4 to 10 September, with the saving applied automatically at checkout.