Product Description

PRESENTATION & PACKAGING
Champagne style box - lift off lid, with luxury gold-wrap outer box;

Black and gold CD wallets, with recordings arranged chronologically by composer, starting with Haydn and ending with Khachaturian and Kodály);

200pp softcover perfect-bound book, approx. 200mm x 110mm, landscape orientation. FIVE essays are provided, each of approx. 1500 words, respectively by Dr. Silvia Kargl of the Wiener Philharmoniker Historisches Archiv, by long-term Decca producers Christopher Raeburn, Erik Smith and John Culshaw, and by Paul Moseley/Raymond McGill of Decca;

All note content in English, German and Japanese.

The book presents the majority of the original album sleeves, as well as photographic images, contracts and even letters, all of which together offer a comprehensive overview of the Decca-WP relationship across several decades.

Designed and art directed by UMGIs Matt Read, whose work for Decca includes the remarkable Solti / Ring Deluxe Edition of 2012 and the Britten Complete Works of 2013, among many others.

Conductors including: Abbado, Bernstein, Boskovsky, Boult, Bohm, Chailly, Dohnányi, Dorati, Haitink, Karajan, Kertesz, Kondrashin, Khachaturian, Kleiber, Knappertsbusch, Krauss, Krips, Kubelik, Maazel, Mehta, Monteux , Münchinger, Reiner, Schmidt-Isserstedt, Schuricht, Stein, Solti, Szell, Walter

Pianists: Gulda, Backhaus, Curzon, Ashkenazy, Schiff

THE PROPOSITION
64 CDs of orchestral and concerto recordings, starting 64 years ago, handsomely presented and imaginatively curated.

A document of a label-orchestra relationship, of famous venues and of the art of classical recording. Few labels can claim to be so associated with a city as inextricably as Decca is with Vienna. No history of classical recordings would be complete without a chapter documenting how both Decca and the WP worked to perfect the art of recording in the citys great concert halls, most notably in the famous Sofiensaal.

Classic Recordings:
Bruno WALTER Mahler Das Lied von der Erde (1952)

Erich KLEIBER - Beethoven Eroica Symphony (1959)

Pierre MONTEUX Haydn Recordings (1960)

Herbert von KARAJAN - Beethoven, Holst and Richard Strauss Recordings

Karl BÖHM - Bruckner Symphony No. 3 (1970) & Symphony No. 4 (1974), Four Last Songs (Lisa Della Casa, 1953)

Sir Georg SOLTI - Verdi Requiem (1968)

Zubin MEHTA - Mahler Symphony No. 2 (1975)

Sir Charles MACKERRAS and Richard CHAILLY - Janácek Recordings

Clemens KRAUSS Richard Strauss Recordings

George SZELL - Beethoven Egmont (1970)

Willi BOSKOVSKY Johann Strauss / New Year s Concert (1979)

Includes THREE complete symphonic cycles:

BEETHOVEN Monteux, Kleiber, Schmidt-Isserstedt, Solti, Abbado

BRAHMS Mehta, Schuricht, Böhm, Kertesz

BRUCKNER Mehta, Abbado, Solti, Stein, Maazel, Böhm (this is WPs only complete Bruckner cycle, recorded 1965-1974)

5 Perspectives producers, archivists and record executives from Vienna and London. Dr. Silvia Kargl (WP Archivist) documents the orchestras unparalleled tradition. Three essays by the three great Decca producers Christopher Raeburn, Erik Smith and John Culshaw add the perspective of engineers, producers and executives, while Raymond McGill (Catalogue Consultant) and Paul Moseley (MD Decca Classics) tell it from today s viewpoint.

A document of a tradition. As long-term Decca producer Christopher Raeburn summarises: There is a definite tradition in Viennese playing and interpretation as exemplified by the Vienna Philharmonic, and the collaboration with DECCA has done much to preserve this quality.

Review

To my ear, in the right conditions and with the right conductor, it is the best orchestra in the world... --John Culshaw, Decca Producer

The glory of this version stems from the quality of the playing, its refinement in every department, the glow of tone encouraged by the acoustic of the Sofiensaal, Decca's regular venue in Vienna, and the flexible, lyrical style which comes naturally to Viennese performers. --Gramophone (original review) on Mahler Symphony No. 2 (Mehta

The VPO plays with towering commitment and the recording further helps to convey the sense of the music's vaulted splendour. --Gramophone on Bruckner Symphony No. 4 (Böhm

The glory of this version stems from the quality of the playing, its refinement in every department, the glow of tone encouraged by the acoustic of the Sofiensaal, Decca's regular venue in Vienna, and the flexible, lyrical style which comes naturally to Viennese performers. --Gramophone (original review) on Mahler Symphony No. 2 (Mehta

The VPO plays with towering commitment and the recording further helps to convey the sense of the music's vaulted splendour. --Gramophone on Bruckner Symphony No. 4 (Böhm

The glory of this version stems from the quality of the playing, its refinement in every department, the glow of tone encouraged by the acoustic of the Sofiensaal, Decca's regular venue in Vienna, and the flexible, lyrical style which comes naturally to Viennese performers. --Gramophone (original review) on Mahler Symphony No. 2 (Mehta

The VPO plays with towering commitment and the recording further helps to convey the sense of the music's vaulted splendour. --Gramophone on Bruckner Symphony No. 4 (Böhm

The glory of this version stems from the quality of the playing, its refinement in every department, the glow of tone encouraged by the acoustic of the Sofiensaal, Decca's regular venue in Vienna, and the flexible, lyrical style which comes naturally to Viennese performers. --Gramophone (original review) on Mahler Symphony No. 2 (Mehta

The VPO plays with towering commitment and the recording further helps to convey the sense of the music's vaulted splendour. --Gramophone on Bruckner Symphony No. 4 (Böhm