This 25CD set presents the most famous, iconic and best-loved works from the Baroque Era, works which are part of our common musical heritage and conscience, eternally young and cherished for their charm, beauty and deeply human emotions, shared by audiences all over the world.
Played by specialized Early Music Groups like L’Arte Dell’arco, Musica Amphion, Violini Capricciosi, Musica ad Rhenum and many others.

This is the best available modern recording of Dvorák’s three gorgeous Slavonic Rhapsodies, music that’s totally neglected in the concert hall and nearly so on recordings (at least by major names). The dark timbre of the Leipzig orchestra, with strings dominating, isn’t exactly ideal for Dvorák. However, in the rhapsodies at least, the playing is so lovely and Masur’s direction so musical and alert that it would be churlish to quibble further.

This is the best available modern recording of Dvorák’s three gorgeous Slavonic Rhapsodies, music that’s totally neglected in the concert hall and nearly so on recordings (at least by major names). The dark timbre of the Leipzig orchestra, with strings dominating, isn’t exactly ideal for Dvorák. However, in the rhapsodies at least, the playing is so lovely and Masur’s direction so musical and alert that it would be churlish to quibble further.

Kurt Masur's achievement is defined above all by his relationships with two orchestras exemplifying vastly different traditions. Having spent some 20 years as Kapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, which traces it's roots to the 15th century, he became the transformational music director of the New York Philharmonic, an embodiment of the New World. Through all this, his musical integrity remained consistent. As the New York Times wrote: "He brought to the podium the ardent conviction that music-making was a moral act that could heal the world." Masur himself put things more simply: "My goal is meaningful playing… What counts is to be able to communicate the composer's meaning to the audience… When I conduct Beethoven, I wouldn't like to replace Beethoven. He should be in your mind, not me." This 70CD set consolidates the entirety of the catalogues that Masur built for EMI and Teldec between 1974 and 2009.

Masur, who is far and away the best craftsman and the most sympathetic interpreter of these symphonies; moreover he has far and away the best orchestra at his command of all rivalling issues. I will merely draw attention to the majesty and inexorable propulsion of his No. 2, and the sheer exuberance of his rhythmic textures in No. 3, which also features a red-hot sensual climax for the slow movement of this symphony. The sound quality is not the best, judging by our standards; but it is clear, warm and natural, hardly subject to complaints.

In 1970 Kurt Masur took over the direction of one of the best orchestras in Germany and the world: the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. One year later, in 1971, these recordings of the 12 Youth Symphonies by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy were made. They bear witness to the emergence of a fruitful artistic relationship between Kapellmeister and musicians that was to last 26 years. Bold artistic spirit meets musical excellence here, resulting in a high level of listener enjoyment. Kurt Masur's masterful interpretation provides a revealing insight into the imagination of a talented young composer. These recordings now shine in new splendour through a loving analogue remaster.

In July 1997, conductor Kurt Masur and actress Marthe Keller – together with Chœur La Psallette and the Orchestre Mondial des Jeunesses Musicales – delivered a performance of Franck’s Psyché unlike any other in recorded history. Expanding on Masur’s vision, Keller’s immersive narration added to the impact of this rarely-heard symphonic poem for chorus and orchestra. This powerful performance is the latest release on Verbier Festival Gold and it’s out now.

Now we have all three of the concertos, plus the Scottish Fantasy, Op. 46, and the Serenade, Op. 75, all in one convenient 2-CD set. The reproduction is broad, spacious and defined, with the solo violin in perfect perspective.

German maestro Kurt Masur and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra have recorded the complete Beethoven Symphonies for Philips twice. The first traversal was made in the 1970's. That cycle also included some of the overtures, and became legendary from the day it was issued. I well remember how sad and dismayed many collectors were when Philips elected not to issue that set in the USA. It was only available in specialty stores in large cities for a premium price.

I have to recommend this box set of Brahms Symphonies and other works including his Requiem recorded in the 1990's by Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic. Warner Classics released this edition in 2014 and it seems fitting for me to be the first one to review it now as Kurt Masur sadly passed away at the end of 2015. He had been the music director of the New York Philharmonic from 1991 until 2002 and this had been seen as a very successful period for the Orchestra which had been a bit wayward until he took over.

"I prefer music that brings people together rather than politics that divides them…" This sentence could have sounded a bit cliché in the mouth of another, but in that of Kurt Masur, it took on a very concrete meaning, he who declined the offer made to him to play a political role in the construction of a reunified Germany… Born on July 18, 1927 in Brieg in Upper Silesia (today Brzeg in Poland but then German territory), Kurt Masur very young in Hitler's army. One of the 27 survivors of his company of 130 men, he enrolled at the Musikhochschule in Leipzig at the end of the war to study music. The direction is in fact not the first choice of the young Masur. Suffering from a genetic disease contracting the tendons of his fingers, he knew very early that a career as a pianist was not within his reach. This did not prevent him, after the war, from playing jazz (his great passion!), in clubs… In 1948, this fan of Furtwängler and Walter became chief rehearsal then conductor at the Théâtre de Hall. He continues as kappelmeister of the operas of Erfurt and Leipzig.

Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and his Missa Solemnis have a lot in common. Both works come from the composer's last decade. Both works are massively scored for soloists, chorus, and orchestra and both aspire to reveal Beethoven's beatific vision in sound. But for their similarities, Beethoven's Ninth and his Missa Solemnis are not the same work. There are crucial musical differences, one is about its themes while the other is about its text, and there is an even more fundamental difference: one is a symphony while the other is a mass. More bluntly put, one is merely the embodiment of the Enlightenment and the other is a setting of the word of God. Which, when you think about it, is quite a big difference. The problem is that Kurt Masur doesn't seem to have thought about it because while his 1972 recording of the Missa Solemnis with his Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra is in every way as great as his contemporaneous recording of the Ninth, and it is the same sort of greatness, a secular humanist greatness. Which, as greatness goes, is pretty great; but as superbly sung, superlatively played, and supremely human as Masur's Missa Solemnis is, it lacks spirituality. The true greatness of the Missa Solemnis is its overwhelming sense that the numinous is imminent and for all the real and honest greatness of Masur's recording, one never senses the eternal or the infinite in his Missa Solemnis. Berlin's stereo sound was a bit gray in its day and this digital remastering is only a bit less gray.

New from the London Philharmonic’s own label is a previously unreleased recording by their former Principal Conductor Kurt Masur. And artist who NPR described as the “conductor who rebuilt the New York Philharmonic”. Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky cantata features music originally composed for the 1938 film by pioneering Russian director Sergei Eisenstein. It’s a rare example of film music that has found a regular place in the standard classical repertoire.

"Rosamunde" is, simply ravishing, one exquisite melody after another, and this performance and recording do it full justice. It well deserves pride-of-place in the collection of any classical music lover.

Masters of Classical Music is an informative and captivating guide to twenty of the most important works in music history. Outtakes from the original scores within the documentaries, assist the viewer by making it easier to follow the music and to overall comprehend the structure of the works. The viewer will travel back in time to experience the birth places of these compositions and will thereby gain insight into the lives of the composers whilst receiving a thorough introduction to the works.