Tah 653-654 - Franch Women Pianists

CD I: Chopin: Waltzes op. 64 Nos. 1 & 2 – Godard: 4th Mazurka –Mendelssohn: Fantaisie Caprice op. 16 No. 2 – Rondo capriccioso – Romance sans paroles (la fileuse) – Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody Nos. 11 and 13 (Aimée Marie Roger-Miclos, Fonotipia recordings, around 1905) - Chopin: Mazurka op. 17 No. 4 – Nocturne posthume – Mozart: Pastorale variée – Albéniz: Granada (Marie Panthès, Columbia recordings 1934-36 and un interview issued by courtesy of Radio Suisse Allemande) - Mazurkas op. 56/2 – op. 6/2 – op. 7/3 – op. 63/2 – op. 67/7 – op. 17/4 – op. 33/2 – op. 30/3 – op. 68/4 – op. 41/3 – op. 50/3 (Youra Guller, recorded in June 1956) - CD II: Duphly: La de Valmalète – Scarlatti: Sonatas L 465, L23, L391 – Couperin: Le carillon de Cythère – La fleurie – Le réveil matin – Les barricades mystérieuses – Le tictoc choc – Les petits moulins à vent (Madeleine de Valmalète, recording date unknown) - Bach: Chaconne of the second partita for violin – Liszt: Mephisto Waltz No. 1 – Rapsodie espagnole – Schumann: Phantasiestücke op. 12/1 and op. 12/3 (Agnelle Bundervoët, recordings of 1954, 1955 and 1957).

After Marcelle Meyer, Monique Haas and Youra Guller, we are continuing our (re)discovery of French women pianists. Thus we are going to give a sort of second life to three great pianists of the past : Aimée Marie Roger-Miclos, Marie Panthès and Angnelle Bundervoët. We are also releasing herewith a number of very rare recordings by the Marquise Madeleine de Valmalète. As for Youra Guller, she stands here as interpreter of eleven Mazurkas by Chopin.

Date : May, 2008 - Barre code : 3504129065317

FURT 2001 - The last Beethoven's Ninth by Furtwängler

L. van Beethoven: Ninth Symphony - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (soprano), Elsa Cavelti (contralto) - Ernst Haefliger (tenor), Otto Edelmann (bass) - Choir of the Lucerne Festival (choir master: Albert Jenny) - Philharmonia Orchestra London - Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting - Live recording made at the Lucerne Kunsthaus on 22.VIII.1954

This is Tahra's first SACD with the famous Beethoven Ninth conducted by Furtwängler at the Lucerne Festival and his very last performance (August 1954) three months before his death. Tahra released it for the first time in 1994; in 1995 it won the Gramophone Award and is our greatest success.
The new mastering allows us to listen to this concert in sound conditions approaching the fabulous quality of the original tape recorded by the Swiss Radio.

Note : Historical non-vocal Gramophone Award 1995 - Replacement of Furt 1003

Date : May, 2008 - Barre code : 3504129200114

West 3007-3008 - Edith Farnadi & Hermann Scherchen

CD I: F. LISZT: Piano Concerto No. 1, in E flat major - Piano Concerto No. 2, in A major - B. BARTOK : Piano Concerto No. 2 (1930)
CD II : B. BARTOK : Piano Concerto No. 3 (1945) - S. RACHMANINOV : Piano Concerto No. 2, op. 18 in C minor /
Vienna State Opera Orchestra -
Conductor: Hermann Scherchen & Piano: Edith Farnadi
Recordings made in July 1953 (Bartok) and in October 1952 (Rachmaninov). The recording dates of the Liszt concertos are unknown but might be October 1951.

Date : April, 2008 - Barre code : 3504129300715

Tah 646 - Great performers: Dietrich FIscher-Dieskau

G. Mahler: Kindertotenlieder (NWDR Sinfonieorchester, Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt conducting, recorded 6.VI.1955) - Lieder eins fahrenden Gesellen (Kölner RSO, Otto Ackermann conducting, recorded 9.VI.1954) - Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Orchestre National de France, Carl Schuricht conducting, recorded at the Besançon Festival on 9.IX.1957)

Dietrich Fiecher-Dieskau, the century’s barytone, performed throughout his career some three thousand lieder (and read the music of some two thousand more): mainly Schubert but also Brahms, Mendelssohn, Wolf, R. Strauss… and Gustav Mahler.
The recordings resented in this CD are released for the first time: the Kindertotenlieder with Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt in Hamburg, two versions of the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, with Otto Ackermann in Cologne and Carl Schuricht at the Besançon Festival.

Date : March, 2008 - Barre code : 3504129064617

Tah 649 - Great performers: Wilhelm Kempff

L. van BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 1 (Orchestre National de France – Carl Schuricht conducting - Recorded 14.IX.1955) - L. van BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 3 (Orchestre National de France – Karl Münchinger conducting -
recorded 26.IX.1957)

Some critics saw in Kempff’s performances only mannerism whereas others highlighted his magnificent sense of balance and the fullness of his sound. Kempff never was a virtuoso of the keyboard but a musician and a philosopher: «Making music has always been for me a kind of thirst and of hunger. It is my second nature. The music that I love is my heart». With its refinements, Kempff’s message is entirely made of joy and light.
The two present recordings are released for the first time.

Date : March, 2008 - Barre code : 3504129064914

Tah 647/648 - Quartetto Italiano

CD I: J. HAYDN: Quartet op. 76 No. 4, « Sonnenaufgang » - Quartet op. 3 No. 5, « Serenaden-Quartett » - Quartet op. 76 No. 2, « Quinten-Quartett »
CD II: L. BOCCHERINI: Quartet op. 39 No. 3 - L. van BEETHOVEN: Quartet No. 10, op. 74, « Harfen-Quartett »

Founded in 1945, the Quartetto Italiano gave more than 3000 concerts all over the world. For all but four of its thirty five years the quartet remained unchanged: Paolo Borciani, Elisa Pegreffi, Piero Farulli and Franco Rossi. And unlike so many other quartets, the members of the Quartetto Italiano didn’t play on great Stradivarius, Guarnierius or Amati instruments, but on less venerable and less famous instruments. In other words, the musician was more important for the beauty of sound than his or her instrument.

Date : February, 2008 - Barre code : 3504129064716

Tah 636/637 - The great performers: Otto Klemperer

CD I: L. van BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 4 (soloist: Leon Fleischer – Kölner RSO - 27.II.1956) - Symphony No. 6 (RIAS Berlin - 15.II.1954)
CD II: L. van BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 8
(Kölner RSO - 28.V.1955) - J. BRAHMS: Symphony No. 1 (Kölner RSO - 17.X.1955)

Like Furtwängler, Klemperer was a representative of the great German humanist romantic tradition and through his art he gave voice to a vision of the world, although his own search for truth lay in faithful respect for the musical score. But, as with Knappertsbusch, he was fascinated by vast monumental structures. Klemperer was the perfect opposite of Bruno Walter. Even though both were converted Jews and disciples of Mahler, where Walter reassures, Klemperer disturbs with his radicalism and his provocative lucidity. Karajan said one day that he wished to make Schoenberg sound like Mozart. One could say that throughout his life, Klemperer tried to make Mozart sound like Schoenberg...

Date : February, 2008 - Barre code : 3504129063610

Tah 645 - Great Performers: Pierre Fournier

R. Schumann: Cello concerto, op. 129 (Sinfonieorchester des Südwetsfunks, Hans Rosbaud conducting - Recorded 14.IV.1957) - A. Dvorak: Cello concerto, op. 104 (NWDR Sinfonieorchester, Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt conducting - Recorded 14.V.1956)

The Dvorak and Schumann concertos (the present recordings are issued here for the first time) were among the highlights throught Pierre Fournier’s career. Pierre Fournier treated this concerto that he adored (and which gave it back to him) as a sinfonia concertante for orchestra and cello. There exist no less than eighteen Live recordings of it in different radio archives.

Date : N/A - Barre code : 3504129064518