Various Artists - Early Columbia Recordings - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Eight CD set. In summer 1987, nine years after he first requested permission to emigrate, the 35-year-old Russian pianist Vladimir Feltsman was finally allowed to leave the Soviet Union. Feltsman, who had studied at the Moscow Conservatory with the legendary Yakov Flier and won first prize at the prestigious Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris at the age of 19, arrived in New York amid a welter of publicity. CBS Masterworks offered him a recording contract, while President Ronald Reagan welcomed him to the White House for a recital that was glowingly reviewed in the New York Times. Now Sony Classical is reissuing his Carnegie debut recital from 1987, a Russian Chopin recording that preceded it and an even earlier Schubert recital, from Paris in 1978, along with all the other Feltsman performances captured by CBS mics before his collaboration with the tag ended in 1989.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is undoubtedly one of the greatest vocalists of the past century - and one of those with the most extensive discography. Yet we constantly note the disappearance from the catalogue of early recordings for radio or gramophone, particularly those which covered less popular repertoire. And there are a number of recordings that have simply never been issued on album. The present anthology aims to bridge this gap - with seven albums offering an average of 77 minutes playing time, or a total of some nine hours of music rare repertoire, seldom or never yet available in these versions on album, matched by indispensable gems of recorded music such as the young Fischer-Dieskau in Gustav Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen in the orchestral version under the baton of the great Wilhelm Furtwängler. That legendary orchestra director, in his turn, judged that Inchno-one has ever sung Mahler betterInch than the young baritone. Album Tracks 1. 1. Schwanengesang, D. 957 No. 10. Das Fischermadchen 2. 2. Du Bist Die Ruh, Op. 59, No. 3, D. 776 3. 3. Schwanengesang, D. 957 No. 4. Standchen (Serenade) 4. 4. Der Wanderer An Den Mond, Op. 80, No. 1, D. 870 5. 5. Über Wildemann, Op. 108, No. 1, D. 884 6. 6. Der Einsame (The Solitary), Op. 41, D. 800B 7. 7. Im Abendrot, D. 799 8. Schwanengesang, D. 957 (Excerpts) 9. 8. No. 7. Abschied 10. 9. No. 5. Aufenthalt 11. 10. Erlkönig, Op. 1, D. 328 12. 11. Seligkeit, D. 433 13. 12. Heidenröslein, Op. 3, No. 3, D. 257 14. 13. Ständchen, D. 889, InchHark, Hark, the LarkInch (Horch, Horch! Die Lerch) 15. 14. Fischerweise, Op. 96, No. 4, D. 881B 16. 15. Die Forelle, Op. 32, D. 550D 17. 16. Der Strom, D. 565 18. 17. Am Tage Aller Seelen, D. 343, InchLitanei Auf Das Fest Aller SeelenInch 19. Myrthen, Op. 25 (Excerpts) 20. 18. No. 7. Die Lotosblume 21. 19. No. 24. Du Bist Wie Eine

Sony Classical is pleased to announce the of a 17-album box set collecting the recordings made between 1940 and 1956 for American Columbia by the renowned Hungarian violinist Joseph Szigeti. Szigeti had a remarkable career. Born in 1892 in Budapest, where he studied with Jeno Hubay, one of most celebrated virtuosos and teachers of that golden era of violin playing, he was praised by the iconic German violinist Joseph Joachim at his Berlin debut in 1905; lived in London for several years following his acclaimed 1907 debut and played chamber music with, among others, Myra Hess and Ferruccio Busoni; was a frequent visitor after the war to the Soviet Union, where he introduced Prokofiev's First Violin Concerto; made his triumphant American debut at Carnegie Hall under Stokowski in 1925; toured the world during the 1930s before finally settling in the US in 1940. It was in that year that Szigeti renewed his friendship with fellow Hungarian émigré Béla Bartók, and in April the two gave a now-legendary recital in Washington which featured Bartók's First Violin Rhapsody of 1928 - a work dedicated to and premiered by Szigeti in Europe. In May 1940, Columbia recorded their interpretation of this Inchvehicle for Szigeti's biting and wholly magnificent fiddlingInch (MusicWeb International) in New York. That performance appears here for the first time on album along with another important work by Bartók, the classic first recording of his Contrasts for clarinet, violin and piano, written for and performed with Szigeti and Benny Goodman. The rest of the new collection displays many more treasures of Szigeti's passionate dedication to chamber music in Bach, Handel, Tartini, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Dvorák, Debussy, Ravel, Bloch, Busoni, Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Henry Cowell, collaborating with such artists as Andor Foldes - another Hungarian émigré - as well as with