The fourth and final volume in our series of Artur Rodzinski's 1938 broadcasts with the NBC Symphony Orchestra is now released. The programme brings together two sharply contrasted concerts given a week apart in December of that year: a Christmas Eve broadcast and a New Year's Eve concert from Studio 8H in New York's Radio City.

The Christmas Eve programme moves from the Prelude to Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel through two Bach chorales in Respighi's orchestral arrangements, Beethoven's First Symphony and Schoenberg's transformation of Brahms's Piano Quartet in G minor. A week later Rodzinski returned for a New Year's Eve programme of very different character, ranging from Vivaldi and Scriabin to Ravel, Debussy and the first waltz sequence from R. Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier. Andrew Rose's XR remastering reveals the orchestra with exceptional clarity for 1938.

We are also marking the 27th anniversary of Yehudi Menuhin's death with a 10% discount on all Menuhin recordings in the Pristine catalogue. From early concerto recordings to chamber music and later stereo performances, his Pristine discography offers a wonderful way to revisit one of the great violinists of the twentieth century.

This week we release George Szell conducting Bruckner’s monumental Symphony No. 8 in C minor with the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York. Recorded live during the orchestra’s Carnegie Hall subscription series in December 1950, the performance captures Szell’s disciplined approach to the composer’s vast musical architecture.

Drawn from the final concert of the series on Sunday afternoon, 17 December 1950, the interpretation unfolds with notable structural clarity and rhythmic control. Pristine’s XR remastering restores stability and presence to the original broadcast recording, revealing the orchestra’s precision and Szell’s unmistakable command of Bruckner’s symphonic design.

To mark the anniversary of Maurice Ravel’s birth on 7 March 1875, this week we offer a 10% discount on all Ravel recordings in the Pristine catalogue. Ravel’s music, renowned for its elegance, colour and technical refinement, remains one of the defining voices of twentieth-century French composition.

Rossini’s The Barber of Seville returns this week in Vittorio Gui’s classic 1962 recording, timed perfectly for the 210th anniversary of the opera’s Rome premiere. Il barbiere di Siviglia remains the quickest route to joy in the opera house: comic timing, melodic brilliance, and ensembles that sparkle when the rhythm is right and the style is true.

At the centre stands Sesto Bruscantini’s irresistible Figaro, partnered by Victoria de los Angeles’ luminous Rosina and Luigi Alva’s stylish Count Almaviva. With the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Glyndebourne Festival Chorus under Vittorio Gui’s light, alert direction, the whole performance glows with precision, charm and lift.

And with Chopin’s birthday on 1 March, we’re marking the occasion with 10% off all Chopin recordings for one week only. A perfect excuse to revisit the poetry and fire that keep his music forever young.