Sony Classical and RCA Red Seal have joined together to present a comprehensive boxed set celebrating the greatest works of Felix Mendelssohn. Culled from two of the most venerable and distinguished catalogs, with recordings that feature the greatest artists of all-time, this set comprises 30 CDs and covers just about every Mendelssohn work — including the five symphonies, 13 string symphonies, the overtures, oratorio, concertos, sonatas, six string quartets, songs, chamber works and more. Artists include Vladimir Horowitz, Barbara Bonney, Angelika Kirchschlager, Isaac Stern, Alicia de Larrocha, Julian Bream, Glenn Gould, Murray Perahia, the Stern-Istomin-Rose Trio, Rudolf Serkin, Steven Isserlis, the Henschel Quartet and others. Orchestras featured include the New York Philharmonic with Leonard Bernstein, Philadelphia Symphony with Eugene Ormandy, the Boston Symphony with Erich Leinsdorf, Gewandhausorchester of Leipzig with Kurt Masur, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields with Sir Neville Marriner and plenty more.
This impressive Mendelssohn boxed set is being brought to you as an exclusive import by the Musical Heritage Society. This year the music world celebrates the bicentennial of Felix Mendelssohn, perhaps the greatest child prodigy of all but also a composer who created masterpieces in just about every genre available to him. Born in 1809, by the age of 16 he wrote his String Octet in E-flat major, the first work which showed the full power of his genius. Along with the Overture to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which came a year later, they are the best known of his early compositions. He also wrote five symphonies with his two most popular inspired by his travels to craggy Scotland and sunny Italy.
Not only a composer, Mendelssohn was also wholly responsible for helping revive the music of Johann Sebastian Bach as well as founding the Leipzig Conservatory of Music. During his life he was well received throughout Europe as a conductor and soloist and was known to be Queen Victoria's favorite composer. Here is a boxed set that will delight everyone and give a complete overview of Felix Mendelssohn, a composer who may have been overlooked for years but is now one of the most popular from the Romantic Era. A truly absorbing and satisfying set!
—Terrence London
"The Henschel Quartet is, no question, one of the best groups in the world, a great string quartet!" —Los Angeles Times
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