ARTISTS
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone

TRACKLISTING
CD 1
J. S. BACH: Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen BWV56
Ich habe genug BWV 82
Christ lag in Todesbanden BWV 4:
Hier ist das rechte Osterlamm
HANDEL: Giulio Cesare - Arias and scenes

CD 2
BRAHMS: Vier ernste Gesänge Op. 121
WOLF: Italienisches Liederbuch
VERDI: Brav, alter Hans (Falstaff)
ORFF: Carmina burana complete extracts
Ego sum abbas
Estuans interius
Tempus ist iocundum

CD 3
SCHUMANN: Dichterliebe Op. 48
7 Lieder
12 Gedichte Op. 35 (Kerner-Lieder)
 
CD 4
BRAHMS: Die schöne Magelone, Op. 33 (first time on CD)
6 Lieder (Heine)

CD 5
HENZE: 5 Neapolitanische Lieder
FORTNER: The Creation (first release on CD)
MARTIN: 6 Monologues from Jedermann

CD 6
GLUCK: Orpheus und Eurydike

CD 7
GLUCK: Orpheus (cont.)
BIZET: Votre toast (Carmen)
GOUNOD: Avant de quitter ces lieux (Faust)
BIZET: L'orage s'est calmé (Pearl Fishers)
ROSSINI: Resta immobile (Guillaume Tell)
VERDI: 'Morir! Tremenda cosa!' - Urna fatale del mio destino (A Masked Ball)
VERDI: Di Provenza il mar (La Traviata)
GIORDANO: Nemico della patria (Andrea Chenier)
LEONCAVALLO: Si può? Signore (Pagliacci)
 
CD 8
MEYERBEER: Menschenfeindlich
Hör ich das Liedchen klingen
Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube
Komm, du schönes Fischermädchen
Der Garten des Herzens
Le poète mourant
Ständchen
Die Rosenblätter
Le chant du dimanche
Sie und ich
Sicilienne
Cantique du triste
Scirocco
Mina
REICHARDT: Gott
Feiger Gedanken
Die schöne Nacht
Einziger Augenblick
Einschränkung
Mut
Rhapsodie
An Lotte
Tiefer liegt die Nacht um mich her
ZELTER: Rastlose Liebe
Um Mitternacht
Gleich und gleich
Wo geht's Liebchen?
SACHSEN-WEIMAR: Auf dem Land und in der Stadt
Sie scheinen zu spielen
SECKENDORFF: Romanze
NEEFE: Serenate aus 'Claudine von Villa Bella'

CD 9
BEETHOVEN: Mit Mädeln sich vertragen
KREUTZER: Ein Bettler vor dem Tor
HUMMEL: Zur Logenfeier
ARNIM: O schaudre nicht
RICHARD WAGNER: Lied des Mephistopheles
Branders Lied
REICHARDT: Petrarch settings

Erzähltes Leben ('From my Life', first release on CD)
Childhood and Adolescence
Firsts steps in Cantata, Lied and Opera
Singing for Wilhelm Furtwängler
Programming Lieder Recitals
Opera Appearances in the 1950s
Accompanists
Contemporary Music and the Stage
The Horizons and Responsibilities of a Performing Artist
recorded December 1960; includes numerous musical extracts

As part of Deutsche Grammophon's celebration of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's 80 th birthday, the label is issuing this compendium of the celebrated singer's early recordings.

Appearing in the Original Masters series, the release is a 9-CD edition of Fischer-Dieskau recordings made for Deutsche Grammophon in the 1950s. It clearly shows the young singer's enormous versatility.

In addition to celebrated recordings which have scarcely ever been out of the catalogue, this set also includes a lot of material which has not been available for some time.

First-time releases on CD include: complete Orff Carmina burana extracts, Brahms: Die schöne Magelone , Fortner: The Creation , Meyerbeer: 14 Lieder ; Early Goethe Settings; Erzähltes Leben ( A Life Retold , 1960, read by the artist himself, with numerous musical extracts - full summary in English and French in CD booklet)

ARTISTS
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Radio Symphonie Orchester, Berlin,
Riccardo Chailly

TRACKLISTING
MAHLER: Symphonies Nos. 1-10

This is an outstanding release which will be warmly welcomed by all lovers of symphonic classical music. Riccardo Chailly's acclaimed complete cycle of Mahler Symphonies with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (and, for No.10 the Radio Symphonie Orchester, Berlin) garnered favourable reviews from the world's music press, and it represents great value on 12 Budget Price CDs.

Released to mark the climax of Maestro Chailly's tenure at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw (and the start of his time in Leipzig), this series of performances is one of the glories of the Decca catalogue in recent times.

Outstanding vocal soloists include Barbara Bonney, Ben Heppner, Petra Lang, Jane
Eaglen & Anne Schwanewilms.
 
N.B. Other music on the original CD releases is not included in this special price box.

ARTISTS
Joan Sutherland · Emma Kirkby · Patrizia Kweller · Judith Nelson, sopranos
Aled Jones, boy soprano
James Bowman · Carolyn Watkinson, altos
Anthony Rolfe-Johnson · Ian Partridge, tenors
David Thomas, bass
The Academy of Ancient Music
Christopher Hogwood

TRACKLISTING
HANDEL: Messiah · Athalia · Esther · La Resurrezione

Christopher Hogwood and The Academy of Ancient Music have made a number of distinguished recordings of Handel, ranging from popular orchestral works such as the Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks to Handel's most popular oratorio, Messiah .

Messiah heads up this set of Handel oratorios in which the 1985 recording of Athalia (with no less than Joan Sutherland in the title-role) returns to the international catalogue after an absence of several years. Esther , the first English oratorio and the first oratorio by Handel to make major use of the chorus, was recorded in 1984, and has Patrizia Kwella in the title-role.

La Resurrezione stands apart from Handel's English oratorios of his mature years and represents his first oratorio on a sacred subject; it was written in 1708 for Rome and is a richly dramatic work which the composer produced under the patronage of the Marchese Francesco Maria Ruspoli.

Emma Kirkby, who is probably regarded as the most technically assured singer of Handel's music in our time, features in all four oratorios. The casts also include acknowledged baroque specialists such as Carolyn Watkinson, Anthony Rolfe-Johnson and David Thomas.

ARTISTS
Paul Crossley, piano
Sir Georg Solti · Sir Colin Davis · Neville Marriner · John Pritchard, conductors

TRACKLISTING
CD 1: Piano Sonata Nos.1, 2 & 3 · Fanfare for Brass · Sonata for Four Horns
CD 2: String Quartet Nos.1, 2 & 3
CD 3: Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli · Concerto for Double String Orchestra · Concerto for Violin, Viola, Cello & Orchestra
CD 4: Symphony Nos.1 Symphony No.2 · Little Music for String Orchestra
CD 5: Symphony No.3 · Ritual Dances (The Midsummer Marriage)
CD 6: Suite in D for the Birthday of Prince Charles · Concerto for Orchestra · Symphony No.4

January 2005 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Sir Michael Tippett who died in 1998. During a long and distinguished career as teacher, conductor and composer Tippett produced works in all the important forms: sonata, symphony, concerto and opera. This set brings together those instrumental and orchestral recordings made for Decca and Philips.

Paul Crossley recorded Piano Sonatas 1-3 for Philips and has been a major advocate of Tippett's piano music for the past 30 years; similarly The Lindsay String Quartet has been a major exponent of Tippett's quartets and recorded Quartets 1-3 for Decca in 1975. These classic interpretations of Quartets 1-3 make a welcome return to the catalogue while Piano Sonatas 1-3 appear on CD for the first time. Also included is the virtuosic Sonata for Four Horns (also appearing on CD for the first time).

The names of Sir Colin Davis and Tippett are inextricably linked and Davis has conducted a number of first performances of major orchestral and operatic works by Tippett around the world. His interpretations of Symphonies 1-3, the Triple Concerto and Concerto for Orchestra are included here. Symphony No.4 was commissioned for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Sir Georg Solti who gave the first performance in Chicago in October 1977 and went on to record the work in 1979; the same forces also recorded the Suite in D in 1981.

This set represents a magnificent conspectus of this great voice in 20 th century music and features some of the composer's most passionate advocates in many definitive performances.

ARTISTS
Zoltán Kocsis, piano

TRACKLISTING
CD 1
14 Bagatelles, BB 50 · 2 Elegies, BB 49 · 6 Roumanian Folk Dances, BB 68 · Sonatina, BB 69 · 3 Hungarian Folk Tunes, BB 80b
CD 2: 2 Roumanian Dances, BB 56 · 3 Hungarian Folk Songs from Csík, BB
45b · Allegro barbaro, BB 63 · 4 Dirges, BB 58 · Suite, BB 70 · Roumanian Christmas Carols, BB 67 · 3 Studies, BB 81· 3 Rondos on Folk Tunes, BB 92 · First Term at the Piano, BB 66
CD 3: For Children, BB 53: Volume I · Volume II · Volume III · Volume IV
CD 4: Sonata, BB 88 · Out of Doors, BB 89 · 9 Little Piano Pieces, BB 90 · Petite Suite, BB 113
CD 5: Mikrokosmos, BB 105 Nos.1-96
CD 6: Mikrokosmos, BB 105 Nos.97-153
CD 7: 3 Burlesques, BB 55 · 7 Sketches, BB 54 · 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs, BB 79 · Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs, BB 83 · 10 Easy Piano Pieces, BB 51
CD 8: Dance Suite, BB 86b · Rhapsody, Op.1 - long version, BB 36a · 4 Piano Pieces, BB 27 · Marche funèbre from Kossuth, BB 31 · Rhapsody, Op.1 - shortened version

Hungarian pianist Zoltán Kocsis recorded all of Bartók's solo piano music as well as the three concertos and rarities such as the Rhapsody and Scherzo over a period of several years. This is the most comprehensive survey of Bartók's piano music to have been committed to disc by a single pianist and it has received wide critical acclaim. All of the solo piano recordings now appear for the first time in an integral collector edition and this set is a 'must' for any collector interested in one of the major
contributions to twentieth-century piano repertory.

ARTISTS
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Bernard Haitink

TRACKLISTING
BRUCKNER: Symphonies Nos. 0-9

Bernard Haitink has been acclaimed as one of the great Bruckner and Mahler interpreters of the second half of the twentieth century and during his tenure as chief conductor of Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Orchestra he recorded complete cycles of symphonies by both composers. Haitink's Bruckner cycle commenced with Symphony No.8 in September 1960 and over a twelve year period he recorded Symphonies 0-9. He completed this cycle in May 1972 with Symphony No.1 (in the Linz version). This highly-acclaimed cycle makes a welcome return to the catalogue.

ARTISTS
Mitsuko Uchida, piano
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Kurt Sanderling

TRACKLISTING
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concertos Nos. 1-5
32 Variations in C minor, WoO 80

The issue of these exquisite interpretations of Beethoven's Concertos prepares the way for Mitsuko Uchida's new Beethoven sonatas disc in Autumn 2005. Mitsuko Uchida is best known for her superlative performances of the music of Mozart and Schubert. For many years, however, she has also enjoyed enormous success playing the music of Beethoven.