A Classical Collection Programme 4

At home, David Morriss has some real treasures in his record collection and here he shares with us a personal selection of the rare, the exquisite and the sometimes astounding.

An excerpt from Boris Godonov (though probably not the one you’re thinking of!); NZ bass Inia Te Wiata sings music by Purcell inspired by a rough sea journey; and David takes a look at one of the 20^th Century’s great unsung musicians: Japanese conductor Takashi Asahina.

Johann Mattheson – the man who nearly killed Handel in a duel. Engraving by Johann Jacob Haid, painting by J. S. Wahl.

Otto Klemperer peering deep into your soul. Photograph from the George Grantham Bain collection / Library of Congress

Eugene Ysaye. By Aime Dupont Studio, NY

Inia Te Wiata singing, circa 1951. Photographer unidentified, National Library of New Zealand, ref. no.: PAColl-6208-05

Japanese conductor Takashi Asahina in 1949. Photographer unknown.

LP of little-known early German opera, including Mattheson’s Boris Godunow. Photo by D. Morriss

Nigel Rogers singing French music from the court of Louis XIII. Scanned image of CD cover.

Inia Te Wiata sings Purcell. Scanned image of CD cover.

Japanese set of Bruckner’s symphonies conducted by Takashi Asahina. Scanned image of CD cover.

French basses of the early 1900s. Scanned image of CD cover.

Bonus tracks:

• Mozart's Impresario Overture
• Weber's Invitation to the Dance

Bruno Walter, Arturo Toscanini, Erich Kleiber, Otto Klemperer and Wilhelm Furtwängler. Photo by Erich Auerbach, 1929 Photo: Wilhelm Furtwangler Society

Music Details:

JS BACH: Sinfonia from Cantata no. 49, Ich geh und suche mit verlangen - Bach-Collegium Stuttgart/Helmuth Rilling (Hänssler 098.620.000)

MATTHESON: Boris Godunov excerpt - Marlies Siemeling (sop), Günter Arndt Choir, Berlin Philharmonic/Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg (LP Columbia C 91 102)

MUSSORGSKY: I have attained the highest power, from Boris Godunov - Mark Reizen (bass), Bolshoi Theatre Orch/Nikolai Golovanov (Lyrica LRC 01092)

MOZART: Don Giovanni overture: New Philharmonia/Otto Klemperer (EMI 5 67335)

WAGNER arr. WILHELM: Prize song, from The Mastersingers - Eugen Ysaye (vln) (Symposium 1045)

MOULINE: Seigneur, c’est ton pouvoir qui produit ces miracles, from Le Cantique de Moyse - Les Arts Florissants/William Christie (Harmonia Mundi HMA 1901055)

JACQUES MAUDUIT: Eau vive, source d'amour - Nigel Rogers (ten), Anthony Bailes (lute) (LP EMI 063-30 935)

GOUNOD: Soldiers’ Chorus, from Faust - Paris Opéra choir & orch/André Cluytens (EMI 5 65256)

BEETHOVEN: 3rd movement, from Piano Sonata no. 30 in E Op 109 - Wilhelm Backhaus (pno) (Decca 467 258)

PURCELL: They that go down to the sea in ships - Inia Te Wiata (bass), Charles Brett (countertenor), Choir of St John’s College Cambridge, Academy of St Martin in the Fields/ George Guest (LP Argo ZRG 5444)

DVORAK: 1st movement, from Symphony no. 9 in E minor, From the New World - Osaka Philharmonic Orch/Takashi Asahina (Canyon Classics PCCL-00545)

BRUCKNER: 4th movement, from Symphony no. 4 in Eb, Romantic - Osaka Philharmonic Orch/Takashi Asahina (Canyon Classics PCL-00599)

THOMAS: Falstaff’s aria, from Le Songe d’une Nuit Dété - Hyppolite Belhomme (bass) (Vocal Archives VA 2113.15)

TYE: Agnus Dei I, ii, iii & iv, from Missa Euge Bone - Winchester Cathedral Choir/David Hill (HYPERION CDA66424)