Great Recordings

2013 marked the 100th anniversary of recording between the Berliner Philharmoniker and Deutsche Grammophon, two giants in music. DG celebrated by releasing a hugely successful limited edition 50 CD ’Centenary Edition’, with content chosen by public vote. New for 2014 is a more bite-size box – 8 CDs honouring the same iconic relationship between label and orchestra, at a fantastic price. The featured maestros at the helm of the orchestra include Karajan, Abbado, Rattle, Böhm, Giulini, Kubelik and Furtwängler. The eight titles chosen are all best-sellers. Top of the best-seller list for units sold (and topical in Strauss Year), is Karajan’s 1981 interpretation of ‘An Alpine Symphony’. “A magnificent account of the Alpine Symphony, spacious and noble… this new and masterly account is arguably the finest to have appeared in recent years” Gramophone on An Alpine Symphony (Karajan) “There’s sunlight – and a certain tenderness – in this account of the Ninth that you won’t find anywhere else, a fluency and ease that’s something to marvel at.” Gramophone on Mahler 9 (Abbado) “An ideal pairing of artists for this rhapsodic, youthful yet formidable work . . . Here are musicians inspired by one another” The New York Times on Brahms (Zimerman/Rattle) “Rafael Kubelik's Schumann Symphonies with the Berlin Philharmonic from 1963 – 64 are lucid, unaffected and full of life” International Record Review on Schumann 2 & 4 (Kubelik)