FURTWÄNGLER conducts Brahms Symphony No. 1

"The performance is incomparable ... for the moment I confess I know no performance of this symphony which more strikingly illuminates those points where this symphony is palpably at its greatest."
- Gramophone, 1985

Gramophone's critic couldn't praise Furtwängler's live recording of Brahms' First Symphony, performed on 27 January 1952 with the Vienna Philharmonic, highly enough. It is indeed an incredible performance.

Sound-wise it wasn't too bad either. But wait until you hear what Pristine's 32-bit XR remastering has done to it! There can be few recordings of this era which come so close to perfection in so many different ways. This is surely one, and one of the finest we've had the pleasure to release.

MISCHA ELMAN plays Vivaldi, Beethoven, Mendelssohn

Mischa Elman came into prominence as a star violinist just as the recording industry began at the beginning of the twentieth century. Indeed, his earlier recordings were second only to those of the legendary Fritz Kreisler in popularity at the time.

But as economic slump and the Great Depression hit in the late 20s and 1930s, his recording output lessened - though he did live to perform and record well into the era of stereo, with a discography that spans the years 1906-1967, and sales of several million discs.

In this release Mark Obert-Thorn has trawled the archives for four rare and superlative recordings made by Elman in Britain and the United States between 1931 and 1951. From standard classics like the Mendelssohn Concerto to a rare 45rpm recording of his own arrangement and variations on Paganini's 24th Caprice, this is a treasure trove of musical history waiting to be opened.