This production created for the opening of the Salzburg Festival in 1966, which remained on the programme for five years, was Karl Böhm's last Salzburg Figaro. After multiple tries to stage Figaro at the Salzburg Festival in the 1950's and 60's, the successful team Karl Böhm/Günther Rennert mounted this production with new décor, costumes by Rudolf Heinrich and with a practically new, young cast of singers. It was not only the celebrated highlight of the festival summer 1966 but also became a "standard for Mozart" " that at least was the headline the German critic and future director of the Stuttgart Opera, Wolfram Schwinger, gave his report in the "Stuttgarter Zeitung" of 27 July 1966.

Two great recordings of two of the greatest choral works. Karajan and Levin swoops the standards of tempi, phrasing and intens music making. Karajan's finest recording of the Requiem. Levin sets the bar a milestone higher. Remastering of the Requiem is confidentional good. Sound quality of K427 is superb.

"Bernstein stamps his outsize personality on every bar and regularly has you convinced it is Mahler's own" (Gramophone). Bernstein's youthful, urgent conducting of the Fourth takes a refreshing slant on the symphony's classical temper, while in the Fifth he coaxes from the Vienna Philharmonic a detailed response to the work's tragic beginning and triumphant conclusion. The reverie of the Adagietto is uniquely intense in this performance. Bernstein's thrilling traversal of the epic Sixth Symphony comes from the end of his Mahler cycle in Vienna, during which the conductor and his orchestra forged an unbreakable bond.

This recording of Handel's Acis and Galatea (or Acis und Galatea) features the German translation and arrangement completed by Mozart in Vienna circa 1788, per the instructions of the Baron Gottfried von Swieten to "modernize" Handel's pieces - including Alexander's Feast, Messiah, Ode for St. Cecilia's Day, and Acis and Galatea. Mozart kept much of Handel's original string arrangements, but proceeded to layer harmonies with a degree of sophistication that Handel could only have dreamed of.

''Attention, attention! Unknown flying objects from another planet and creatures identified so far only as Globolinks have landed on Planet Earth. All citizens are asked to remain calm. Be on your guard. Stay tuned for further broadcasts. THE GLOBOLINKS ARE HERE!'' A scene from a science fiction movie? It certainly could have been; the admonition is so familiar but, no, this is the opening spoken narrative that follows some evocative night skies, space-sweeping and reminiscent-of- schooldays orchestral music in Menotti's space-age opera for children of all ages, “Help, Help, The Globolinks”. Composed in 1968 and first performed in Hamburg, Menotti's music for “Globolinks” is appealing and accessible and often very amusing.

The opening with the opening choir "Kommt, ihr Töchter" immediately sets the tone; not a quick-played waltz, but imposing and wide-set, like the start of a great human drama. Richter exceeds 11 minutes with this tempo. Only the version by Otto Klemperer is even slower. But unlike Klemperer, here in the rest of the MP we are not dealing with a somewhat stately approach, but with a sharply profiled and dramatic one!

Le nozze di Figaro has been Glyndebourne’s signature opera since the company was founded in 1934 and Glyndebourne is responsible for bringing Mozart back into the currency of English musical life. An obvious choice with which to launch Glyndebourne’s own label in 2008. This 1962 recording features a vintage cast with Heinz Blankenburg in the title role, Mirella Freni as Susanna, who had made her international breakthrough at Glyndebourne in the summer of 1961.

This 1971 film version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Magic Flute is based on a production at Hamburg State Opera staged by the multi-talented stage, television and film author, director and actor Sir Peter Ustinov, with decor and costumes by Jens-Denis Malclès. The cast brought together by Rolf Liebermann for this film version of the Magic Flute consists of stars with established international careers but also of singers who were just on the point of breaking through to international fame at the time.

This German version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, with set and costumes by Ita Maximowna, dates from the year 1967. The Hamburg State Opera Choir and the Philharmonic State Orchestra of Hamburg are conducted by Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, who worked as the opera company’s first conductor between 1935 and 1942 as well as from 1945 to 1971 and was chief conductor of the North German Radio Orchestra, which he had personally been responsible for reorganizing in the post-war years. It may come as a surprise to learn that the singers, all of whom are now international stars, were drawn exclusively from the Hamburg State Opera ensemble - further proof of Rolf Liebermann’s skill in identifying up-and-coming musicians! The fact that almost all the singers were of roughly the right age for the roles they were playing helped enhance the film’s credibility and realism when it came to close-up shots.”