Most Recent Releases

BLISS conducts Bliss

by Andrew Rose October 25, 2024

Sir Arthur Bliss's first major success as a composer was for his early work "A Colour Symphony", written in the early 1920s. By the time he wrote his Violin Concerto for Alfredo Campoli in 1955 he had been k...

ORMANDY The World's Greatest Music!

by Andrew Rose October 18, 2024

This week we are presenting a number of recordings of major works - two Bach Brandenburg Concertos, the Mozart 40th, the Beethoven 5th, Schubert’s “Unfinished” and the Brahms 2nd - by Ormandy and The Philade...

CALLAS The classic 1954 Norma

by Andrew Rose October 11, 2024

"The musicianship of her Casta Diva leaves most of the versions I know as non-starters, the glissando passages in the cabaletta “Deh bello a me ritorna” shortly afterwards are breathtaking, Norma’s anguish w...

TOSCANINI conducts Respighi

by Andrew Rose October 04, 2024

"Toscanini completes the trilogy; and be it said at the start that he gets a remarkably good recording. His performance, and the orchestra's, it goes without saying, are superb." - The Gramophone, 1954Toscan...

BJÖRLING & NILSSON in Turandot

by Andrew Rose September 27, 2024

"Sometimes we reviewers cannot in the circumstances of the case cease from hedging and beating about the bush. But this time I shall say that I think this new Turandot is the best." - The Gramophone, 1961Sho...

Unheard Schoenberg

by Andrew Rose September 20, 2024

To mark the 150th birthday of Arnold Schoenberg, we bring you this week two recordings so rare that they've probably not been heard in 62 and 83 years respectively - from two of the finest orchestras and con...

BUDAPEST QUARTET play Grieg and Sibelius

by Andrew Rose September 13, 2024

"The first recording of a major work often has a special place in the pantheon; and with regard to the Grieg G minor and Sibelius D Minor Quartets, there is good reason to consider these performances the bes...

KNAPPERTSBUSCH conducts Bruckner

by Andrew Rose September 06, 2024

This week at Pristine we celebrate the 200th birthday of Anton Bruckner, born 4 September 1824, with three magnificent symphony recordings made in the mid-1950s by Hans Knappertsbusch with the Vienna Philhar...

Le Conte conducts Bizet's Carmen

by Andrew Rose August 30, 2024

This week at Pristine we bring you a very French take on Bizet's Carmen, in a recording made in Paris in 1959 under the baton of Pierre-Michel Le Conte with the choirs and orchestra of the Concerts of Paris....

BRUNO WALTER at the NBC, Vol. 3

by Andrew Rose August 23, 2024

Bruno Walter's first concert with the NBC Symphony Orchestra, in March 1939, featured an extra-long all-Mozart programme: with the 15th Divertimento, the 40th Symphony, and a performance of the 20th Piano Co...

Stock and the Chicago Symphony, Vol. 4

by Andrew Rose August 16, 2024

After a hiatus of nearly a decade, thanks to the Great Depression, Frederick Stock and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra returned to the recording studio in 1939 to begin a second series of fabulous recordings....

Callas's 1952 Gioconda

by Andrew Rose July 26, 2024

This week at Pristine we wind the clock back to 1952, and one of Maria Callas's earliest full opera recordings, taking the title role in Ponchielli's La Gioconda in a studio performance recorded at RAI in Tu...

Nathan Milstein Solo Columbias Vol. 1

by Andrew Rose July 19, 2024

"...he is above all a contemplative player, inclining to the quiet and the reflective. There is evidence of this in the exquisitely drawn melodic line of the Largo ... Here is an admirable partnership. This ...