Great Masters
1945 to 1964 was a golden age of music making and money was freely available for cultural events. Walter Legge, arguably the most important classical recording producer in EMI Classics' history and a key figure in the record industry, was able to sign von Karajan and Furtwängler, Dinu Lipatti, Elisabeth Schwarkopf, Fischer-Dieskau and many others - attracting into its studios important European musicians and Soviet artists as well as those who were music gods in America. Legge created a culture, carried on and refined by Peter Andry and others, that is evident in many of the recordings in this series, and not least some of those which featured in the first 25 issues when the series was launched in October 1998:
Klemperer's recording of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with the great German mezzo Christa Ludwig and Fritz Wunderlich who died at 36 in the year the recording was made.
Otto Klemperer Photo © EMI Archives
The flawless performance of Brahms's Violin Sonatas by Perlman and Ashkenazy in 1983
Ithzak Perlman Photo © Christian Steiner
Fauré's lovely Requiem in its later version with large orchestral forces and with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Victoria de los Angeles
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Photo © Fayer, Wien
Victoria de los Angeles Photo © Derek Allen
The 1967 and 1968 recordings of the Haydn and Boccherini Cello Concertos with Jacqueline du Pré accompanied by Daniel Barenboim and Sir John Barbirolli.
Jacqueline du Pré Photo © Godfrey MacDomnic
Daniel Barenboim Photo © Godfrey MacDomnic
The astonishing live recording of the opening concert of the first post-war Bayreuth Festival in 1951 at which Furtwängler conducted Beethoven's Choral Symphony with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, a legendary account of the work.
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Photo © Fayer
Three of the most distinguished Russian virtuosos of all time - Oistrakh, Rostropovich and Richter - coming together with Karajan in 1969 for the Beethoven Triple Concerto.
Herbert von Karajan, Sviatoslav Richter, Mstilav Rostropovich and David Oistrakh
Photo © Siegfried Lauterwasser
Dinu Lipatti - the legendary Romanian pianist who died in 1950 at the tragically young age of 33 - in Chopin's 14 Waltzes, a recording, it was said, that should never be out of the catalogue.
Dinu Lipatti Photo © EMI Archive
Yehudi Menuhin playing Mendelssohn and Bruch Violin Concertos - a recording of the fifties to which remastering has given a new vitality.
Yehudi Menuhin Photo © Angus McBean
Dennis Brain's recording of Mozart's four horn concertos - with Karajan and the Philharmonia, the first ever recording of all four works which first appeared in 1955 and has remained uniquely unmatchable ever since.
Dennis Brain Photo © EMI Archive
Previn's classic performance of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana - a 1975 account that still challenges every one of the 50 other recordings of the work in current catalogues.
André Previn Photo © Clive Barda
Incomparable voices at the peak of their enchantment in Schwarzkopf's recital of Strauss's Four Last Songs, and Kathleen Ferrier's remarkable singing of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder.
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Photo © Fayer
Herbert von Karajan, Sir Thomas Beecham, Placido Domingo, Maurice André, Janet Baker, Sir John Barbirolli, Mstislav Rostropovich, Simon Rattle are just a few of the legendary names appearing in the series.
Walter Gieseking Photo © Roger Hauert
Placido Domingo Photo © Reg Wilson
Dame Janet Baker Photo © Zoë Dominic
Sir John Barbirolli Photo © EMI Archive
Sir Simon Rattle Photo © Trevor Leighton
