Collins,Anthony Complete Decca Recordings CD

Limited Edition 14CD box set including several recordings new to CD, the complete published Decca legacy of noted Sibelius conductor Anthony Collins is collected for the first time on disc. Highlights include the Sibelius symphonies and selected orchestral works with the London Symphony Orchestra, British music from Elgar, Walton, Vaughan Williams, the two Delius LPs and music by Anthony Collins himself, concertos with Moura Lympany, Ruggiero Ricci, Friedrich Gulda, Gervase de Peyer and others, and orchestral showpieces by Tchaikovsky, Falla, Humperdinck and Bizet. From the earliest days of his career, Anthony Collins (1893-1963) earned a reputation as a musician of parts: violist, conductor, arranger and composer. He had led the viola section of the London Symphony Orchestra under Beecham and Mengelberg before swapping bow for baton in the 1930s, and by then had already begun to promote the music of Sibelius. Then Hollywood came calling, and he spent the War in the US as an Oscar-nominated film composer writing for RKO Studios. He began to record for Decca directly after the War, first of all with the London Mozart Orchestra which he had founded shortly before leaving for the US. Renowned by then as a Mozartian of natural gifts, securing shapely and stylish performances independently of either the grand Viennese tradition or the period-instrument movement in it's infancy, he accompanied the pianist Friedrich Gulda - a kindred spirit of similarly mercurial imagination - in concertos and concertante works by Mozart and Strauss, and then Peter Katin in Mendelssohn, and Moura Lympany in Rachmaninov. He re-established a close rapport with the LSO, conducting them in several albums of Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Delius that have rarely been equalled for their directness of expression and intensity. These virtues still distinguish the cycle of Sibelius symphonies and tone-poems, made in the mid-50s with the LSO, from later interpretations. A generation of English and American listeners learnt their Sibelius from these recordings, and Collins's deep fellow-feeling for his music stands the test of time. The Decca recordings included a Tchaikovsky album of Capriccio Italien and Francesca da Rimini as well as a pair of his own compositions, and other masterpieces of English light music by Walton - a complete Fa?ade - Sullivan and Grainger. Items never previously issued on CD include dance suites from H?nsel und Gretel and Der Rosenkavalier, as well as the Mozart Symphony No.33 which began his relationship with the label. The booklet offers full discographical details as well as an essay on Collins's life and career by Peter Quantrill.

1. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Symphony No. 33 In B Flat Major, Kv 319 2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Menuetto (From Divertimento In D Major, Kv 334) 3. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Clarinet Concerto In A Major, Kv 622 4. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Bassoon Concerto In B Flat Major, Kv 191 5. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 14 In E Flat Major, Kv 449 6. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 25 In C Major, Kv 503 7. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 26 In D Major, Kv 537 æCoronation' 8. Felix Mendelssohn - Piano Concerto No. 1 In G Minor, Op. 25 9. Felix Mendelssohn - Piano Concerto No. 2 In D Minor, Op. 40 10. Sergei Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No. 3 In D Minor, Op. 30 11. Richard Strauss - Burleske In D Minor For Piano And Orchestra 12. Niccolo Paganini - Violin Concerto No. 1 In D Major, Op. 6 13. Niccolo Paganini - Violin Concerto No. 2 In B Minor, Op. 7 14. Georges Bizet - Carmen Suite No. 1 (Excerpts) 15. Manuel De Falla - El Amor Brujo û Suite 16. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Capriccio Italien, Op. 45 17. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Francesca Da Rimini, Op. 32 18. Jean Sibelius - Karelia Overture, Op. 10 19. Jean Sibelius - Symphony No. 1 In E Minor, Op. 39 20. Jean Sibelius - Symphony No. 7 In C Major, Op. 105 21. Jean Sibelius - Symphony No. 2 In D Major, Op. 43 22. Jean Sibelius - Symphony No. 3 In C Major, Op. 52 23. Jean Sibelius - Symphony No. 4 In A Minor, Op. 63 24. Jean Sibelius - Symphony No. 5 In E Flat Major, Op. 82 25. Jean Sibelius - Symphony No. 6 In D Minor, Op. 104 26. Jean Sibelius - Pohjola's Daughter, Op. 49 27. Jean Sibelius - Pell?as Et M?lisande, Op. 46 û Suite (Excerpts) 28. Jean Sibelius - Nightride And Sunrise, Op. 55 29. Sir Edward Elgar - Falstaff û Symphonic Study, Op. 68 30. Sir Edward Elgar - Introduction And Allegro For Strings, Op. 47 31. Sir Edward Elgar - Serenade For String Orchestra In E Minor, Op. 20 32. Ralph Vaughan Williams - Fantasia On A Theme By Thomas Tallis 33. Ralph Vaughan Williams - Fantasia On Greensleeves 34. Frederick Delius - The Walk To The Paradise Garden (Intermezzo, From A Village Romeo And Juliet) 35. Frederick Delius - A Song Of Summer 36. Frederick Delius - Brigg Fair û An English Rhapsody 37. Frederick Delius - On Hearing The First Cuckoo In Spring 38. Frederick Delius - Paris (The Song Of A Great City) 39. Frederick Delius - In A Summer Garden 40. Frederick Delius - Summer Night On The River 41. Sir William Walton - Facade û An Entertainment 42. Henry Balfour Gardiner - Shepherd Fennel's Dance 43. Richard Strauss - Der Rosenkavalier û First Suite Of Waltzes 44. Engelbert Humperdinck - Dream Pantomime (From H?nsel Und Gretel) 45. Sir Arthur Sullivan - Overture Di Ballo 46. Percy Grainger - Shepherd's Hey 47. Anthony Collins - Vanity Fair 48. Anthony Collins - With Emma To Town