Rudolf Kempe was a German conductor. One of the great unsung conductors of the middle twentieth century, Rudolf Kempe enjoyed a strong reputation in England but never quite achieved the international acclaim that he might have had with more aggressive management, promotion, and recording. Not well enough known to be a celebrity but too widely respected to count as a cult figure, Kempe is perhaps best remembered as a connoisseur's conductor, one valued for his strong creative temperament rather than for any personal mystique. This Japanese double reissue of pair of Beethoven's recordings (Symphony No. 3 In E Flat Major, Op.55 'Eroica' (1960) & Overtures (1959)) features the 96kHz/24bit DSD Mastering from the analog master tapes.

Live Recording 14.12.1954. The Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15, is a work for piano and orchestra completed by Johannes Brahms in 1858. The composer gave the work's public debut in Hanover, the following year. It was his first-performed orchestral work, and (in its third performance) his first orchestral work performed to audience approval.

“It can be asserted without hesitation that every member of a first-class orchestra deserves to be called an ‘artist’,” Arthur Nikisch once wrote. With this credo, the chief conductor of what at that time was called the Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester played an important role in allowing the musicians to conceive of themselves as soloists — something that remains one of the unmistakable qualities of the Berliner Philharmoniker to this day.

In their third edition together, the Berliner Philharmoniker and chief conductor Kirill Petrenko pay homage to Sergei Rachmaninoff on the 150th anniversary of his birth.

SOMM Recordings announces the second instalment in Bruckner from the Archives, “a major commemorative series” (ConcertoNet.com) in six double-CD volumes celebrating the 200th anniversary of Anton Bruckner’s birth in 1824.

HighDefTapeTransfers chose another genuine classic to remaster, and one can hardly argue the importance of this 1961 recording of Antonín Dvořák's Cello Concerto in B minor, Op.104, B.191 from cellist Pierre Fournier ant the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by George Szell.

Renowned conductor Herbert von Karajan leads the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra through treasured pieces by Wagner. This essential release includes “Tannhauser: Overture”, “Tannhauser: Venusberg Music”, “Lohengrin: Prelude (Act I)” and “Tristan und Isolde: Prelude and Liebstod”.

DG originally recorded the music in 1968, and HDTT transferred it from a 4-track tape in 2015. The remastering adds some weight to the sound, a bit more dynamic contrast, and a little less glare…

Fournier's Don Quixote with Karajan and the BPO in top form has long held its rank as one of the finest interpretations of this Strauss masterwork…