OVERVIEW
• It starts with
Gregorian Chant and
Machaut chansons and ends with
Gorecki and the
Minimalists.
• The greatest composers have as many as five CDs devoted to them (
Bach,
Mozart,
Beethoven).
•
20th-century music is well represented with no fewer than 20 CDs.
•
Operas and major choral works are represented by highlights, but otherwise the edition presents, as far as possible, only complete works throughout.
• Altogether, there are more than 80 composers in the set, with over 400 works for a total of around 120 hours of music.
REPERTOIRE
As the box is intended for the non-expert, the repertoire is centrally based around the Classical and Romantic composers.
Here's the rundown:
CD 1 – 20 take us from Gregorian Chant to the
sons of Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian, with the great names of the Baroque – Monteverdi, Purcell, Charpentier,
Rameau, JS Bach, Handel and
Vivaldi all featured.
CD 21 – 33 are devoted to the Viennese Classics: Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.
CD 34 – 49 cover the early Romantic composers, from
Schubert, Paganini,
Berlioz,
Chopin to
Liszt and
Schumann.
CD 50 – 69 comprise the later Romantics –
Brahms,
Bruckner,
Dvořák, Grieg and
Tchaikovsky, plus
Verdi and
Wagner highlights.
CD 70 – 78 bring together turn-of-the-century composers, including
Mahler,
Debussy,
Richard Strauss and
Puccini.
CD 79 – 100 includes 20th-century masterworks from
Stravinsky to
Messiaen,
Boulez and Gorecki, taking in Holst,
Rachmaninov,
Sibelius,
Ives, Janacek,
Ravel and many others on the way.
HIGHLIGHTS
It reads like a cornucopia of the great, good and glorious. Look out for:
• the Orlando Consort’s forays into Gregorian Chant and Machaut;
•
John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach;
• Minkowski’s Charpentier and Rameau;
• Trevor Pinnock’s Handel and Vivaldi;
•
Karajan’s Creation;
• Anda’s Mozart Piano Concertos;
• Beethoven at the hands of
Bernstein and Karajan;
•
Rossini with Abbado;
• Chopin and Liszt Concertos with Argerich;
• Fischer-Dieskau’s Schubert and Schumann;
• Barenboim’s Chopin Nocturnes;
• Gilels’ Brahms Second Piano Concerto;
• Kubelik’s Dvořák;
• Mravinsky’s Tchaikovsky “Pathétique”;
• Karajan’s Mahler Five;
• Kleiber’s La Traviata highlights;
• Abbado’s Ravel,
Prokofiev and Stravinsky;
• Boulez’s
Schoenberg and Webern
• the Messiaen Turangalila Symphony and Gorecki’s Symphony no. 3!
—————————————
"harmonia mundi has earned a reputation as one of the most important classical music labels with their emphasis on the highest quality both in performances and sound. The Gold series is an assemblage of cornerstones in establishing that reputation - a collection that contains innumerable gems." - from Classics Online.
