Rufus Wainwright had an eclectic 2024, encompassing projects including the West End musical Opening Night and this classical commission based on the text of Lord Byron's "Darkness" and the Requiem Mass. Warner Classics has issued the live recording of the premiere performance of the latter. Byron's text is mostly narrated by an actor (in this case, Meryl Streep; a future California performance will be narrated by Jane Fonda) and is underscored by orchestra. The Latin Requiem text is sung by a
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir Sings Christmas Carols: Expanded Edition
Over the past decade, we here at TSD have happily partnered with Real Gone Music on an array of Christmas releases from such evergreen artists as Johnny Mathis, The Supremes, Chet Atkins, Connie Smith, and Robert Goulet. But our newest yuletide title is from our biggest ever group - bigger than Mitch Miller and His Gang or Eugene Ormandy and The Philadelphia Orchestra! Now, we're proud to reissue the very first Christmas album from a group numbering 360 members: The Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Maestro on Record
Sony Classical offers a new look at Leonard Bernstein with this 12CD hardcover book-style box set. The main selling point of Maestro on Record isn't the music - though it's thoughtfully curated as and powerful today as when it was recorded - but rather the photos. Of roughly 21,000 photos related to Bernstein in the Sony Music Archives, producer Robert Russ and his team have selected hundreds (many previously unpublished) to document Bernstein's life and work, year by year, in this hefty
The Great Songs of Christmas: Masterworks Edition
The Great Songs of Christmas: Masterworks Edition brings together 18 lush selections primarily drawn from the original, long out-of-print series of LPs, featuring the most beloved carols of all time as performed by the greatest classical artists of the 20th century. These legends include Leonard Bernstein and The New York Philharmonic, Eugene Ormandy and The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, opera greats Richard Tucker, Robert Merrill, and Anna Moffo, cellist-conductor Pablo
The Ultimate Pops Christmas Party!
Arthur Fiedler and The Boston Pops' The Ultimate Pops Christmas Party! lives up to its title with 2 CDs and 35 tracks of yuletide cheer in the grand and lavish Boston Pops fashion. Spanning 1949-1971, The Ultimate Pops Christmas Party! includes two full albums: the original 1959 Pops Christmas Party in RCA's Living Stereo splendor and 1969's new-to-CD Christmastime in Carol and Song. The latter found Fiedler away from Boston and conducting in New York with some very special guests: legendary
The Vinyl Collection, Vol. 2
The Vinyl Collection, Vol. 2 brings newly remastered and repressed LP versions of Joel's final six studio albums - Glass Houses (1980), The Nylon Curtain (1982), An Innocent Man (1983), The Bridge (1986), Storm Front (1989) and River of Dreams (1993) - plus the debut vinyl pressing of Joel's classical compositions set Fantasies & Delusions (2001) and the premiere audio release of his beloved Live from Long Island concert special, broadcast 40 years ago. All the audio has been transferred
The Complete RCA Album Collection
Eugene Ormandy's The Complete RCA Album Collection features the Hungarian-born American conductor's early recordings as leader of The Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. He came to the attention of the Minnesota group after subbing for Arturo Toscanini, and was enlisted to step in for Henri Verbrugghen. The stint led to his leading the Symphony between 1931 and 1936, bringing him (and the Minneapolis Symphony) to national attention. The Complete RCA Album Collection includes every one of his RCA
Violin Concerto No. 2 and Selected Film Themes
Legendary maestro John Williams has teamed once again with renowned violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter for this premiere of his latest concert work. The four-movement piece was recorded by the Boston Symphony Orchestra; it's supplemented on the CD release by new recordings of violin-led arrangements of three classic Williams themes: a piece from Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye, and the romantic themes for "Han Solo and The Princess" (as debuted in The Empire Strikes Back) and "Marion's Theme"
The Complete Philips Recordings
Decca will celebrate John Williams' 90th by turning the clock back to 1980 when the famed composer-conductor took the baton from the legendary Arthur Fiedler to lead The Boston Pops Orchestra into a new era. John Williams and The Boston Pops: The Complete Philips Recordings boasts 21 CDs and 22 albums originally released on Philips between 1980 and 1990, at which point the Pops switched affiliations to Sony Classical. (The Sony Classical era was addressed in 2018 on the John Williams:
Bernstein Conducts Stravinsky
Sony Classical rounds up the landmark RCA and Columbia recordings conducted by Leonard Bernstein (for The Boston Symphony Orchestra, The London Symphony Orchestra, and The New York Philharmonic) of Igor Stravinsky's greatest works, plus the maestro's lectures on Stravinsky, in this new box set. Each disc utilizes "the newest remastering from analogue tape."
The Columbia Legacy
Sony Classical revisits Eugene Ormandy and The Philadelphia Orchestra's early Columbia recordings with a massive 120-disc box set, The Columbia Legacy. This will be the second-largest box in Sony Classical history after the complete Arthur Rubinstein set of 142 CDs released in 2011. The Columbia Legacy is dedicated to Ormandy's mono recordings made for Columbia through 1957; his subsequent stereo albums beginning in 1958 number over 200. While Columbia parent Sony has released various boxes
John Williams in Vienna: Live Edition
Released just this past August and noted as 2020's best-selling classical album, John Williams in Vienna presented the five-time Oscar winner leading the Weiner Philharmoniker and violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter - the soloist on 2018's Across the Stars collaboration album - from the stage of The Musikverein in Austria, considered one of the world's finest-sounding stages. Williams ably led the ensemble through a stirring set of thematic favorites (JAWS, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. The
The Complete Columbia Analogue Recordings
This 75-disc box celebrates the great violinist's legacy at Columbia Records where he recorded the classical repertoire with such titans as Leonard Bernstein, Eugene Ormandy, and Andre Previn.
The Complete Columbia Christmas Albums
Eugene Ormandy's 44-year tenure as music director of the world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra remains the single longest affiliation of conductor and orchestra. Under the direction of Maestro Ormandy, the orchestra earned two Grammy Awards and three Gold records. Now, Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music are thrilled to bring to CD both of Ormandy's original Columbia Records Christmas albums in one deluxe package. The Complete Columbia Christmas Albums presents The Glorious Sound of
This Is Leonard Bernstein: His Greatest Recordings
This budget-priced set (16 discs for, at the time of this writing, 36 bucks on Amazon) is part of Sony's ongoing Leonard Bernstein centennial series. The box brings together 15 original albums from the 1950s and 1960s on Columbia Records including the original cast albums of West Side Story and Candide plus Bernstein's recordings of Beethoven, Gershwin, Mahler, and many more.
The Complete Christmas Albums
This comprehensive 2-CD, 43-track set from Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music features all three of the legendary conductor's classic Columbia Christmas LPs - Joy to the World: The Music of Christmas (1959), Wonderland of Christmas (1963), and Wishing You a Merry Christmas (1965), on which he was joined by vocalist Phyllis Curtin and The St. Killian Boychoir - plus a host of holiday bonuses. These include Kostelanetz's rare 1950 single of "White Christmas," a complete recording of "The
Unmasked: The Platinum Collection
Andrew Lloyd Webber celebrates his 70th birthday and his memoir Unmasked with this 4-CD, 71-track box set of the same name. The career-spanning anthology features many of the composer's most famed songs from Phantom of the Opera, Evita, Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar, School of Rock, and more, performed by artists including Barbra Streisand, Madonna, Elvis Presley, Alice Cooper, Tom Jones, The Everly Brothers, and the stars of his hit shows onstage such as Glenn Close, Donny Osmond, Elaine Paige,
Leonard Bernstein: The Composer
The LP-sized box set Leonard Bernstein: The Composer contains 25 CDs of the maestro's most enduring compositions in remastered and/or remixed form including his Broadway musicals, all of the original stereo "Bernstein Conducts Bernstein" recordings made for Columbia Masterworks, new compilations, and more. View our original article for full details on this comprehensive collection!
The New Complete Edition
225 years after the composer's passing, W.A. Mozart: The New Complete Edition chronicles every last note of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's many compositions over a staggering 200 discs. Limited to 15,000 copies worldwide, this box features 240 hours of performance, including five hours of new recordings, some done on instruments the composer personally used. Eighteen labels, including Decca and Deutsch Grammophon, will be represented, and 70% of the recordings are alternate to Philips Classics'
Never Till Now
Sepia has a new offering from legendary tenor Mario Lanza (1921-1959) comprising English-language studio recordings, radio broadcasts, film outtakes, and a live performance, all spanning the years 1950 to 1958. This new compilation also includes previously unreleased spoken introductions by the singer. This is a public domain release in accordance with current EU laws.
Classic Quadrophenia
Pete Townshend and Billy Idol join opera and Les Miserables star Alfie Boe in a new symphonic version of The Who's seminal rock opera Quadrophenia, with orchestrations by Townshend's partner Rachel Fuller. The deluxe CD/DVD edition includes the complete CD and a 44- minute DVD featuring an exclusive on-camera interview with Pete Townshend, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the album, and the new music video for "Love Reign O'er Me" shot on location at Brighton Beach Pier in England,
