Deutsche Grammophon Celebrates with All-New Box Sets of Treasured Artists and Recordings

By -

DG111 Adds a 56-CD Box Set and 111 Track Set to the Birthday Party

Deutsche Grammophon ends its year-long 111th birthday celebrations with a new selection of releases to celebrate the Yellow Label’s long and illustrious past as well as the vibrant and healthy present and future. Though DG will turn 112 years-old on December 6, 2010, the popularity of last year’s celebration (the 55-CD set sold-out in mere weeks) has prompted the new box sets. This new, 2nd edition features more artists than before and stretches back even further in time to 1911 and then right up to the newest albums today. The entire selection, including all sets from 2009, will be available on November 9, 2010.

Though anniversaries and birthdays have occasionally been celebrated too often, the history of Deutsche Grammophon and the landmark recordings the label has produced warrant not only celebration but also intense scrutiny. The more one searches and listens the more one finds. Deutsche Grammophon is Universal’s oldest active label and for over 111 years has been a market leader and innovator with a roster of the world’s greatest musicians. With the purpose of recording great artists performing great music, DG records Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Mozart as well as Boulez, Gubaidulina, Nono and Stockhausen.

It has not only been with artists and repertoire that DG has excelled but also in the technical demands of recording. DG pressed the first test-CD ever produced (Strauss’ Eine Alpensinfonie with the Berlin Philharmonic led by Karajan) and has continued with such projects as the development of the DG Web Shop and by offering the first full-length classical music video for sale via iTunes. Since Emil Berliner began pressing gramophone records in 1888 Deutsche Grammophon has never stopped pursuing perfection in both performance and production.

Deutsche Grammophon has compiled two new sets: The Collector’s Edition 2 and 111 More Classic Tracks. The 56-CD Collector’s Edition 2 compliments the 55-CD set from 2009 and combined the two have a total of, fittingly enough, 111 CDs. The 6-CD set of 111 More Classic Tracks is a counterpart to 2009’s edition and includes completely different tracks and extends back in time to 1911 (Chaliapin with R. Strauss on the piano) thus presenting a span of 100 years in just one set.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In ...
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more

Teaching Composition – What are we trying to achieve

By -
In the process of learning composition I have spent time with a number of instructors who have encouraged me to write twelve-tone, pitch-class, electro-acoustic and other forms of experimental techniques. No matter how much I might understand and appreciate the work of other composers in the genres, these are not forms of music I resonate with. They are simply not forms of music I listen to and I struggle with the idea of writing them. However, in a Master Class by Libby Larsen she made the comment, “Learn them all, because all forms of music have something to offer.” This I very much agree. There are elements of each of the above mentioned forms (and others) that I do resonate with. Berg’s Violin Concerto is a beautiful twelve-tone work, although it is possible to look at numerous sections of the music with a “tonal” analysis. Another composer friend, Gary Bachlund commented that using these techniques can narrow the choices for how to compose a piece of work. If you look at ...
Read more