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VA - Westminster Legacy: Chamber Music Collection [59CD Remastered Limited Edition] (2012)

VA - Westminster Legacy: Chamber Music Collection [59CD Remastered Limited Edition] (2012)

BAND/ARTIST: Various Artists

  • Title: Westminster Legacy: Chamber Music Collection
  • Year Of Release: 2012
  • Label: Universal [DG40020]
  • Genre: Classical
  • Quality: WAV (image+.cue,booklet)
  • Total Time: 59CD
  • Total Size: 37.70 gb
  • WebSite:
When the Westminster Recording Company was founded in New York in 1949, the timing could hardly have been more propitious. After the traumas of World War II and its aftermath, both Europe and America were ready for new beginnings and musical life was getting back to normal. Home listening - tied for half a century to clunky 78rpm shellac discs holding not more than five minutes of music per side - was undergoing huge changes. In 1948 American Columbia had launched the 33rpm long-playing record, which held the equivalent of four or five 78rpm discs. But the way was wide open for competitors, as EMI was still faithful to the "78" and RCA Victor was busily darting down the cul-de-sac of seven-inch 45rpm discs. And as the industry was virtually starting again from scratch, the entire panoply of repertoire was available for exploitation. It cost a lot of money to record in America but, as EMI had already discovered, Vienna was full of singers, instrumentalists and orchestral musicians of high quality who desperately needed cash; and Austria seemed to be a less controversial workplace than disgraced Germany.

James "Jimmy" Grayson, the New York-based Englishman who spearheaded Westminster's operations in the field, started recording in Vienna in autumn 1949. His fulcrum of activity was the Konzerthaus, opened in 1913 as the last great cultural achievement of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire. Some recordings were made in the main hall, decorated in Secessionist style; and in the early days the resident Vienna Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Henry Swoboda, was used because it had its own Symphonia studio. But even more sessions were held in the middle-sized Mozartsaal, where the Busch Quartet had held sway from 1913 to 1935. The resident ensemble at this hall since 1937 had been the Konzerthaus Quartet, one of two world-class string quartets in the Vienna Philharmonic. Founded in 1934 by members of the Symphony Orchestra but soon taken into the Philharmonic, this group was at its peak in the post-war decade, with its original personnel, so Westminster gratefully made use of its skills. Another coup was to capture the Vienna Philharmonic Wind Group, including two already legendary players, clarinettist Leopold Wlach and hornist Gottfried von Freiberg, who had premièred Richard Strauss’s Second Horn Concerto.

By April 1950 five discs were ready for release. The honour of carrying the first number, WL 5001, went to a coupling of Kodály’s Te Deum and Theatre Overture – from the start Westminster stressed repertoire and composers rather than performers. Of the first 25 discs issued, 14 featured orchestral music and one of those, with Philharmonic wind soloists, employed the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. This ensemble was homeless, as the bombed opera house would not reopen until 1955 – the company was camping out at the Theater an der Wien – although the Volksoper, for which the VSOO also supplied players, was doing fine. The band that made so many Westminster recordings was drawn from this pool of musicians, but without the star soloists who occupied the first chairs when the opera orchestra appeared in its concert guise as the Philharmonic.

CD-1 –Franz Schubert - Piano Quintet In A Major “The Trout” Op.114 D.667 [Details In Notes]
CD-2 –Franz Schubert - String Quintet Op.163 D.956
CD-3 –Franz Schubert - Octet In F Major, Op.166 D.803
CD-4 –Franz Schubert - Rondo For Solo Violin And String Quartet D.438 / String Trios Nos. 1 & 2
CD-5 –Ludwig van Beethoven - Trio For 2 Oboes And Cor Anglais, Op.87 / Octet, Op. 103
CD-6 –Ludwig van Beethoven - Septet, Op.20 / Sextet, Op.71: Adagio
CD-7 –Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Eine Kleine Nachtmusik K.525 / Divertimento No.17 K.334 (320b)
CDs 8-10 –Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Violin Sonatas
CD-11 –Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Oboe Quartet K.370 (368b) / Ein Musikalischer Spass K.522 / Flute Quartet No.1 K.285
CD-12.1 –Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Clarinet Quintet In A Major K.581
CD-12.2 –Johannes Brahms - Clarinet Quintet In B Minor Op.115
CD-13 –Johannes Brahms - Clarinet Sonatas Nos.1 & 2, Op. 120 / Horn Trio in E flat major Op.40
CD-14 –Johannes Brahms - String Quintet No.1 Op.88 / String Sextet no.2 Op.36
CD-15 –Johannes Brahms - String Sextet No.1 Op.18 / Piano Quintet Op.34
CDs-16-17 –Johannes Brahms - Piano Quartets
CD-18.1 –Robert Schumann - Märchenzählungen For Clarinet, Viola And Piano, Op.132
CD-18.2 –Felix Mendelssohn - Zwei Konzertstück For Basset Horn, Clarinet And Piano, Op.113
CD-18.3 –Johannes Brahms - Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op.114
CD-19 –Robert Schumann - Piano Quintet, Op.44 / Piano Quartet, Op.47
CD-20 –Antonín Dvořák - Piano Quintet, Op.81 / String Quartet No.14, Op.105
CD-21.1 –Alexander Borodin - String Quartet No. 1
CD-21.2 –Antonín Dvořák - String Quintet No.2, Op.77
CD-22.1 –Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka - Trio Pathétique In D Minor
CD-22.2 –Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - Quintet In B Flat Major
CD-22.3 –Richard Strauss - Suite For 13 Wind Instruments, Op.4 / Serenade For Wind Instruments, Op.7
CD-23.1 –Franz Schmidt - Piano Quintet In G Major
CD-23.2 –Ottorino Respighi - Il Tramonto / Quartetto Dorico Per Archi
CD-24.1 –Leoš Janáček - Concertino For Piano And Chamber Orchestra / Dumka For Violin And Piano (1880) / Violin Sonata
CD-24.2 –Bohuslav Martinů - Concerto For String Quartet And Orchestra
CDs 25-31 –Franz Schubert - String Quartets
CDs 32-34 –Joseph Haydn - String Quartets
CDs 35-43 –Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - String Quartets / Divertimentos
CDs 44-45 –Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - String Quintets
CDs 46-57 –Ludwig van Beethoven - String Quartets / String Quintet Op.29

Bonus Discs
CD-58.1 –Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Concerto For Piano And Orchestra No.20, K.466
CD-58.1 –Domenico Scarlatti - 11 Sonatas
CD-59.1 –Ludwig van Beethoven - 33 Variations On A Waltz By Anton Diabelli, Op.120
CD-59.2 –Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano sonata No.14, Op.27 No.2 “Moonlight”

 TRACKLIST

Classical | Discography | FLAC / APE

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  • SLifan825
  •  wrote in 18:47
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    • 0
Thanks a million for re-up!
quote