Most Recent Releases

SIBELIUS Memorial Concert, Songs

by Andrew Rose December 08, 2017

"How skillfully Mr. Simila balanced his orchestral forces ... how well he graded his climaxes so he always had the resources needed for the greatest ones ... the dark richness of color he evoked from Sibeliu...

Die Meistersinger: Hans Hotter's Sachs

by Andrew Rose December 01, 2017

"This is perhaps the best all-round Meistersinger I have ever heard. The main reason is Hotter's Sachs, which I had never heard before and which is surely one of the greatest operatic characterizations ever ...

Reiner conducts Wagner

by Andrew Rose November 24, 2017

Despite being regarded as one of the great Wagner conductors of his age - he conducted a performance of Tristan und Isolde in front of an audience of 12,000 in New York's Lewisohn Stadium in 1937 - Fritz Rei...

JOAN SUTHERLAND sings Rodelinda

by Andrew Rose November 17, 2017

"Miss Sutherland's Rodelinda is on a level with her Lucia—confirmation that we have in our midst one of the great sopranos of the world. The brilliance and beauty of her coloratura are matchless. But no less...

HORENSTEIN conducts Sibelius

by Andrew Rose November 10, 2017

"Sibelius Second Symphony—taut, probing, idiomatically on the mark and, lyrically inspired. Very few conductors can match Horenstein’s grasp of Sibelius’s architecture, especially in the problematical finale...

KOUSSEVITZKY Unheard Beethoven (1943/44)

by Andrew Rose November 03, 2017

"Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony was accorded a beautiful performance - fleeting, precise and very expressive. Beethoven is one of the composers whom Mr. Koussevitzky performs with something of a super-super int...

Verdi - Rigoletto (Met Opera, 1945)

by Andrew Rose October 27, 2017

"This performance marked the return of Bjorling to the Met after a wartime break of four years spent mostly in his native Sweden. And what a return: at 34 he was at the absolute peak of his powers and sings ...

KEMPEN conducts Sibelius and Grieg

by Andrew Rose October 20, 2017

This new release brings together all but one of van Kempen’s recordings of Scandinavian works (he also recorded Grieg’s Symphonic Dances) and includes one particular rarity: his Sibelius Seventh Symphony. Cl...

HOROWITZ Live at Carnegie Hall, Volume 2 (1948)

by Andrew Rose October 13, 2017

"Vladimir Horowitz gave his final piano recital of the season at Carnegie Hall last night. The full house and large stage audience heard his performances of Beethoven's Thirty-two Variations; Schubert’s G ma...

Solti & Schwarzkopf - Der Rosenkavalier, 1959

by Andrew Rose October 06, 2017

This broadcast of Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier marked both a new arrival and a return that would prove to be a farewell. Georg Solti had burst onto the international musical scene the year before with ...

BRUNO WALTER Complete Brahms Symphonies (1934-40)

by Andrew Rose September 22, 2017

Along with Mozart, Beethoven and Mahler, Brahms was one of the cornerstones of Bruno Walter’s repertoire. Yet it was not until 1934, twelve years into his recording career, that Walter made his first Brahms...

Joan Sutherland's stunning Met debut as Lucia di Lammermoor

by Andrew Rose September 15, 2017

"The Metropolitan Opera season has produced the debut of a soprano, Joan Sutherland, of Australia, who is almost unimaginably good. Resultantly, the Sunday night audience went nearly berserk with delight dur...

HOROWITZ Live at Carnegie Hall, Volume 1 (1948)

by Andrew Rose September 08, 2017

"The overwhelming performance of the evening for this writer was that of the Chopin Fantasy. We have never heard the introductory pages presented with so much imagination — the treading march in the bass, an...