Most Recent Releases

MENGELBERG Telefunken Recordings, Volume 1

by Andrew Rose February 19, 2021

In celebration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Willem Mengelberg (28 March 1871), Pristine is pleased to present the first in a series of releases surveying the conductor’s recordings with the Conce...

BEECHAM conducts Bizet's Carmen

by Andrew Rose February 12, 2021

“Beecham’s work was a triumph of brilliant pacing, of delicate accompanying, of fine attention to detail and of general animation. He made the Bizet score sound like the superb score that it is, and he made ...

KEMPFF Beethoven Piano Concertos, Volume 1

by Andrew Rose February 05, 2021

“Kempff strides with Haydnesque gallantry in the First, his brio both bracing and affectionate. The warmth and delicacy of his slow movement is both natural and unaffected, whilst the energy and dynamism of ...

BUSCH conducts Haydn in Copenhagen

by Andrew Rose January 29, 2021

“The best orchestral performance in the group I listened to. . .The Clock [is] conducted with taste by Fritz Busch, played expertly by the Austrian Symphony Orchestra, and cleanly and brightly recorded.” - N...

CALLAS in Rossini's Il Turco in Italia

by Andrew Rose January 22, 2021

"[Callas is] in great voice in this 1954 recording, absolutely secure throughout her range, and her impeccable rhythmic sense makes her work in the tricky, sometimes off-the-beat ensembles ideal. She turns o...

SZIGETI The European Columbia Recordings, Volume 1

by Andrew Rose January 15, 2021

This week’s release by violinist Joseph Szigeti is the first of a series which restores to circulation some of the most difficult-to-find recordings by one of the 20th Century’s greatest violinists. These re...

HORENSTEIN in Gothenburg, Vol. 4

by Andrew Rose January 08, 2021

"Horenstein's account of the Fourth is not naive or simple but probing and searching, an empathetic shaping of accent and expression that goes far beyond the facile view of the work as one of the "easy" Mahl...

RODZIŃSKI: The Early Recordings

by Andrew Rose December 18, 2020

"...As you listen to them, I think you will understand why the Philharmonic snatched him up to succeed Barbirolli. Rodziński whips up tremendous excitement coupled with flexible tempi; and his Cleveland reco...

KEMPFF The Beethoven Piano Sonatas

by Andrew Rose December 11, 2020

"Wilhelm Kempff was in his mid-50s when the mono recordings were made, and about 70 for the later cycle. The musicianship on both sets is exemplary, but the earlier cycle finds Kempff closer to the zenith of...

BUSCH conducts Beethoven in the USA

by Andrew Rose December 04, 2020

This week we enter the finishing straight of our year-long Beethoven 250th birthday celebrations with a fantastic set of recordings conducted by Fritz Busch in the USA. Busch is captured here conducting thre...

KOUSSEVITZKY conducts Sibelius

by Andrew Rose November 27, 2020

"I have long intended to write to you but there have been so many demands on my time that I have scarcely had a minute to myself ... Do you not think that it would be an excellent idea if you came to America...

MENGELBERG Columbia Concertgebouw Recordings, Volume 2

by Andrew Rose November 20, 2020

This week we complete the Mengelberg Concertgebouw Columbia Recordings series with this second volume of to add to Volume One and our previous issue of his Columbia Tchaikovsky recordings, which merited thei...

HORENSTEIN conducts Bach and Bruckner

by Andrew Rose November 13, 2020

NB: Due to the current pandemic CDs may take longer than usual to arrive. "The Gothenberg players, under Horenstein’s stellar leadership, remain electrically alert to all gradations of tone, rhythm, and colo...