mine … Thomas Jensen conducting the complete Sibelius symphonies (truth or myth?), Fernando Valenti’s complete Scarlatti recordings on Westminster, Jörg Demus’s complete Bach recordings for Westminster, Josef Keilberth’s last Bayreuth Ring (I heard it broadcast ‘live’ in the early sixties), Sony’s original Craft Schoenberg edition …
… please carry on from here: 🙂
robccowan 
More from Manfred Honeck! Completion of his great (so far) cycle would be fantastic as well as some of his fabulous Bruckner.
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Happy New Year, Rob!
I’m not sure if this is a ‘wish list’ of possible recordings or simply recordings that already exists. If the latter, then a complete box set of Igor Oistakh’s work including the Tchaikovsky concerto as conducted by his father (see my letter in last month’s Gramophone!), his complete Beethoven sonatas and any other unpublished recordings. There are random cds around but they can be difficult to track down. A single box would be wonderful.
If the former, well, should I win a vast sum of money on the lottery, I would love to sponsor a new recording of the George Lloyd symphonies with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Phil!!!
Oh, and Sophie Yates playing all the Scarlatti sonatas. I once spoke to her about this and she told me she would use different instruments for different pieces.
OK, off to buy a ticket for tonight!
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Grand ideas Robert – esp. Igor Oistrakh who I had the great privilege of interviewing years ago at the Verbier Festival (forgive me if I’ve already said so). Have you ever heard his Elgar Concerto? I think Olympia released it some while ago. As a matter of interested when David O undertook a massive journey through the great concertos in Russia after the War, he played it too. How I’d love to hear that! Best. Rob.
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Hi Rob. Oh yes!! That Igor Elgar concerto is a real favourite. Ok, it’s not really idiomatic Elgar in the same way as Menuhin or Kennedy’s recording are but, oh boy, does he knock it into the middle of next week!
I’ve long heard that David Oistrakh played the Elgar and have long hoped there might be a tape buried in a radio archive somewhere that some enterprising company would release. I do have a cd of Gidon Kremer playing it that came from a competition.
I must tweet you a photo of my autograph of Igor that I got when I was a teenager.
It’s interesting to read how many recordings have never made it to cd. I wonder if it’s due to legal reasons.
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I have some Livia Rev LPs playing Liszt after Paganini and Schumann. A CD release, or two, would be fitting and timely.
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If Westminster will awaken, how about reviving the Beethoven Cello and Piano Sonatas with Janigro & Zecchi, organ recordings by André Marchal, and if Hungaroton is up to it, their entire field recording series of Hungarian Folk music?
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Ernst Levy’s recordings of Beethoven’s piano sonatas seem to have dropped out of the catalogue. Also Bruno Leonardo Gelber’s complete Beethoven piano sonata cycle.
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btw HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE
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Arthur Schnabel: Complete Beethoven piano sonatas. Galli-Curci, Tetrazzini, Tebaldi (forgotten) arias etc. Busch trio for starters.
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So many!
For Beethoven piano music alone, I’d like to see a long forgotten Andor Foldes DG LP containing Op. 101, Op. 109, Op. 78 and Op. 49 No. 1. Then the first reissue ever of Paul Baumgarnter’s Diabelli Variations. Charles Rosen’s wonderful late 80s Diabelli Variations were briefly available on CD via IMP, and deserve reissue. So does my favorite “Hammerklavier” recording, Peter Serkin’s (the version on a modern Steinway, the slightly earlier fortepiano version has been reissued).
I second the idea of all of Jorg Demus’ Bach, particularly his complete Westminster Bach output. But I’d also be curious if Rosalyn Tureck’s very first Goldberg Variations (originally on the Allegro label) exists in a decent source that could provide the basis for a reissue.
And my favorite commercial studio recording of Hindemith’s Ludus Tonalis with the late Käbi Laretei has never been reissued, it was only a Philips LP released in the mid-60s.
All of Lukas Foss’ American Decca recordings as a pianist deserve reissue.
Sony/BMG has been bringing out extraordinary comprehensive original jacket box sets, many of which I’ve been fortunate to annotate. I’d love to see this series include George Szell’s complete Columbia and Epic catalog, the complete Rudolf Serkin RCA and Columbia recordings (including his HMV sessions), and the complete RCA & Columbia 78 RPM and mono LP recordings of Eugene Ormandy (!). Also the complete Columbia and RCA recordings of pianist William Masselos.
Another priceless and important release, Dick Hyman’s 1975 complete cycle of Scott Joplin’s piano music for RCA Victor Red Seal has never been reissued in its entirety on CD, although a single disc of excerpts was once available. No better Joplin cycle exists. And Hyman’s RCA Zez Confrey disc also deserves reissue.
This is only the tip of my iceberg! Happy new year, dear Rob!
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Thanks Jed – and you! I’d add Sony’s ‘Epic’ Juilliard legacy
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Doesn’t Sony own the recordings originally done for MHS? If that’s right, we could add a complete Mikrokosmos to the Masselos box. And speaking of Sony: New Music Quartet!
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New Music Quartet – yes! And I still consider the Juilliards’ Epic set of the Mozart ‘Haydn’ Quartets just about the best ever recorded. Thanks Russell.
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Clara Butt singing ‘Rule Brittania’ on a one-sided 78 and anything with Tetrazzini (have her also on one-sided 78)
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