Classical Music Review Blog

Classical.net – April 2014
… Guild has my thanks, though, since this disc is mostly excellent.
Mitropoulos really moves the Fifth Symphony along, pushing forward with an uncommon sense of urgency. The result is by turns exciting and a bit sloppy. The conductor, like many in his generation, wasn’t especially known for discipline. But when it’s good, it’s really good…
To the full reviews -> GHCD 2396 – Mitropoulos – Tchaikovsky 1954 & 1957

Classical.net – April 2014
…This is the real deal, a reminder of how great a man this was, and how wonderfully he and his successor built orchestras. Outstanding…
To the full reviews -> GHCD 2402 – Stokowski – Brahms, Wagner 1960

Strin – January 2014
…As always, Busch combines a respect for line and movement with an understanding that the moments when the soloist risks freely improvising are the moments at which the concerto most fully comes alive. He hesitates just a second during the initial arc of the minor key interlude in the Rondo in a way which suggests it was not something he did every night but reflected something which he heard in the music that night, perhaps for the first time…
To the full reviews -> GHCD 2395 – Adolf Busch, Beethoven 1942 & 49

Expedition Audio – March 2014
Guild Records has been proving their pudding of late by releasing exceptionally fine yet little known repertoire in quintessential performances. They do so again with ‘Le Piano Français’. Pianist Timon Altwegg with conductor Gilles Colliard and the Chamber Orchestra of Toulouse present four works by 20th century French composers, all of which, in all likelihood, are not yet in your collection…
To the full reviews -> GMCD 7391 – Le Piano Français – Virtuoso Piano Concertos

Audiophile Audition – March 2014
For the first time, the Adolf Busch legacy from Weimar Germany is assembled for our delectation of the foremost violinist and chamber musician in Europe at that time…
To the full reviews -> GHCD 2406/07 – Adolf Busch – The Berlins Recording 1921-1929

Klassik.com – März 2014
Voller Einsatz für den Opa
Drei völlig unbekannte Werke des Schweizers Volkmar Andreae stellen in dieser überwiegend gelungenen Interpretation eine willkommene Entdeckung dar.
To the full reviews -> GMCD 7400 – Volkmar Andreae – Symphony, Songs, Concertino

Journal into Melody – December 2013
…The idea behind this new Guild Light Music selection is to showcase those talented composers who have made it big in the light music world and in Library Music in particular. The album title is also the title of the first track by Den Berry and Stuart Cromie played in a bright optimistic manner by the Brussets New Concert Orchestra. As you would expect there are a number of well-known titles such as Beachcomber by Clive Richardson and Twentieth Century Express (Making Tracks) by Trevor Duncan but there are also some lesser known pieces and one in particular as far as I’m concerned, Main Event by Hubert Clifford, a real corker of a number played with great gusto by the Danish State Radio Orchestra conducted by Robert Farnon…
To the full reviews -> GLCD 5212 – Bright Lights

Music Web International – October 2013
…Should you ever find yourself in a position to be on one of those quiz shows where you have to name 25 of Elvis’s Top 20 Hits, or the full forenames of the Monarchs of the Austro-Hungarian Empire – not highly likely, I admit – then you could do worse than buy this disc and mug up on songs containing the word ‘Paris’. Yes, Guild has gone slightly peculiar and programmed no fewer than 28 songs bearing the name of the French capital…
To the full reviews -> GLCD 5207 – Ça C’est Paris

Music Web International – September 2013
…Guild Records could have easily sold me this latest CD on the strength of the cover alone. The former London, Midland & Scottish Railway poster entitled ‘Scot passes Scot’ by the artist Bryan De Grineau is a definite bonus. For many years the named train ‘The Royal Scot’ departed simultaneously from Glasgow Central and London Euston stations at 10am. The journey would have taken some seven hours. Just quite where the two trains passed I leave to railway enthusiasts, but I guess it must have been somewhere north of Crewe…
To the full reviews -> GLCD 5206 – Non-Stop To Nowhere

…This latest Guild volume adds yet more interesting music to the extensive forgotten repertoire regularly played up to the late 50s on the BBC Light programme in weekly broadcasts of ‘Workers’ Playtime’, ‘Housewives’ Choice’ or ‘Music While You Work’…
To the full reviews -> GLCD 5203 – Great British Composers – Vol. 2

Memory Lane – Winter 2013
…“Here’s to Holidays” not only features a voluptuous young lady on the cover sleeve it also provides some fascinating destinations of which Venus And Back is perhaps the most exotic…
To the full reviews -> GLCD 5205 – Here’s To Holidays

…The title “Non-Stop To Nowhere” had me initially confused and I had to turn to David Ades copious notes to establish that this CD is “simply an assortment of all kinds of Light Music” with many of the 26 tracks requested by Guild’s army of fans…
To the full reviews -> GLCD 5206 – Non-Stop To Nowhere

…The title “Non-Stop To Nowhere” had me initially confused and I had to turn to David Ades copious notes to establish that this CD is “simply an assortment of all kinds of Light Music” with many of the 26 tracks requested by Guild’s army of fans…
To the full reviews -> GLCD 5207 – Ça C’est Paris

…The Lost Transcriptions – Volume 4 no doubt provided restorer and remastering ace Alan Bunting with a few headaches but, as always, he has risen to the challenge in superb fashion…
To the full reviews -> GLCD 5208 – The Lost Transcriptions – Vol. 4

Memory Lane – Autum 2013
…This CD gives some back-of-stage instruments, such as the Xylophone and Tuba, the chance to impress…
To the full reviews -> GLCD 5204 – Salon, Light and Novelty Orchestras

Musik & Theater – Oktober/November 2013
…Bei so viel klanglichem Raffinement und Charme ist es erstaunlich, dass keines der vier Konzerte für Klavier und Streichorchester von Jean Rivier, Robert Casadesus, Jean Wiener und Jacques Castérède zum Standardrepertoire zählt…
To the full reviews -> GMCD 7391 – Le Piano Français – Virtuoso Piano Concertos

Audiophile Audition – November 2013
…Certain to be among the most sought-after Stokowski discs, this collection of Mozart performances offers some truly rare and outstanding collaborations…

Klassik.com – November 2013
…Guild präsentiert Mitschnitte von Werken, die zum Kern von Stokowskis Repertoire gehörten. Das Ergebnis zeigt einmal mehr Stokowskis eigenständigen und -willigen, hörenswerten Zugang…

To the full reviews -> GHCD 2405 – Stokowski – Mozart 1949-1969

International Record Review – September 2013
…The Austrian-born Karl Rankl (1898-1968) is a largely forgotten name. He was music director of Covent Garden alter the war but had to cope with some very public sniping from Beecham, among others. He was more successful as conductor of the Scottish National Orchestra in the 1950s, before moving to Australia…
To the full reviews -> GHCD 2397 – Karl Rankl – Mahler, Dukas 1954

BBC Music Magazine – September 2013
…Perhaps surprisingly, Toscanini had a real feeling for Gershwin’s vibrant idiom, and this historic live account from 1942 brims with the Italian’s customary vitality and precision…
To the full reviews -> GHCD 2256/57 – Toscanini – All-American Concerts 1942 & 1944

American Record Guide – September/October 2013
…All of this music is really enjoyable, even the 12-tone elements in the quartet. This is a fine program introducing a fine composer, played with involvement and affection by a group of musicians that I hope will keep Hyde writing for them. The recording is in excellent sound and the balances are effective…
To the full reviews -> GMCD 7389 – Autumnal – Chamber Music by Thomas Hyde

…His first piano trio won first prize at the Trinity College Chamber Music Competition in 1879. I am sure that if you like Mendelssohn’s trio you will like Nixon’s longer one (48 minutes). It certainly sounds derivative, as if Mendelssohn wrote another one after his two. That suits me just fine. See what you think…
To the full reviews -> GMCD 7392 – Piano Trios by Mendelssohn & Cotter Nixon

…Smetana is not a composer I’ve felt strongly about, but his trio, which I’d not heard before, has made me a fan. I was immediately struck by the strength of the themes, the cohesiveness of the writing, and the deep, sincere emotionalism…
To the full reviews -> GMCD 7384 – Piano Trio by Beethoven, Smetana, Schaeuble

MusicWeb International – November 2013
……To sum up, then, the performance of the symphony is unlikely to top anyone’s list. It offers, nonetheless, an interesting opportunity to listen to the work of a gifted – but now sadly overlooked – conductor from what, in retrospect, we can now appreciate as a golden age of recording.…
To the full reviews -> GHCD 2396 – Mitropoulos – Tchaikovsky 1954 & 1957

International Record Review – November 2013
…an exciting disc recommended for the curious, for piano fanciers, for lecturers seeking to illustrate neo-classicism and for lovers of well-recorded sound.…
To the full reviews -> GMCD 7391 – Le Piano Français – Virtuoso Piano Concertos

…Adriano’s interpretations of these works sound confidently authentic and the members of the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, with whom he has by now established a longstanding rapport, sound as if they’re playing at the top of their game. (The Symphony gives the brass ensemble some striking opportunities to shine.) Guild’s recording is fully up the standards of previous volumes in this series, …
To the full reviews -> GMCD 7395 – Fritz Brun – Symphony No. 1 & Overture to a Jubilee Celebration

Klassik.com – Oktober 2013
……Insgesamt eine interpretatorisch fast durchgängig ideale CD, die mit kleinen Einschränkungen sehr zu empfehlen ist…
To the full reviews -> GHCD 2404 – George Szell – Blacher, Mozart, Brahms, Stravinsky 1958

Music Web International – August 2013
…The present new disc opens with two unpublished works beginning with an early teenage piece, the Piano Concerto. I failed to mention in the above description of Andreae the word ‘pianist’ as he premiered this concerto at the tender age of 19. This was a year before he had been soloist in Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto. Any young man who manages to write and play such a gushing and confident concerto deserves our unlimited respect and regard. No matter how you think of it this is a fine work and the second subject of the first movement is an absolutely ravishing melody that Brahms would have been proud to write…
To the full reviews -> GMCD 7394 – Volkmar Andreae – Piano & Violin Concertos

Audiophile Audition – August 2013
The “fateful” combination of Mitropoulos and the music of Tchaikovsky has a potent restoration in these performances from the 1950s by the New York Philharmonic…
To the full reviews -> GHCD 2396 – Mitropoulos – Tchaikovsky 1954 & 1957

Audiophile Audition – August 2013
The “fateful” combination of Mitropoulos and the music of Tchaikovsky has a potent restoration in these performances from the 1950s by the New York Philharmonic…
To the full reviews -> GHCD 2402 – Stokowski – Brahms, Wagner 1960

Music Web International – August 2013
Glamour, the joys of travel and the lure of romance announce post-war unshackling in this astute selection…
To the full reviews -> GLCD 5205 – Here’s To Holidays

Music Web International – August 2013
The CD title makes it very clear what to expect from this release, the latest in Guild’s huge and continuing ‘Golden Age of Light Music’ series, which features pieces from an era when “the boundaries between light music and dance bands became somewhat blurred”. Incredibly, the label has now released over a hundred CDs under this rubric…
To the full reviews -> GLCD 5204 – Salon, Light and Novelty Orchestras

“The Golden Age of Light Music” is a weekly programme broadcast around the world via the internet on Radio Six International. All the music played comes from the Guild “Golden Age of Light Music” series of CDs, and the programmes are introduced by David Ades, who also produces and compiles the CDs for Guild.
It can be heard throughout the world via the internet: www.radiosix.com

Klassik.com – July 2013

Jenseits der Schönberg-Schule
Karl Rankl gehört zu der Menge vergessener Dirigenten, deren Werkdeutungen allerdings auch in der Gegenwart zu faszinieren vermögen. Hier steht Mahlers Vierte in einer idiomatischen Wiedergabe im Zentrum…
To the full reviews -> GHCD 2397 – Karl Rankl – Mahler, Dukas 1954

In our news letter we are informing about our new releases.
Read more here.

Internationa Record Review – July/August 2013

…A specialist issue, then, but an eminently worthwhile one…
To the full reviews -> GHCD 2400/01 – Max Reger – Recordings 1936-1943

…Throughout, Jinny Shaw allies splendid musicianship to a virtuosic technique, with George Vass and Orchestra Nova the most sympathetic of partners. Similarly, the musicians making up the string trio, Sara Trickey, Sarah-Jane Bradley and Bozidar Vukotic, are equally dedicated to their task. The recording is excellent in its immediacy and good balance and the booklet note by Robert Matthew-Walker is very informative, a window to music well worth getting to know…
To the full reviews -> GMCD 7383 – British Music for Oboe and Strings

Thurgauer Zeitung – 8. Juli 2013
…Der Thurgauer Pianist Timon Altwegg hat unter dem Titel «Le Piano français» eine neue CD herausgebracht, die vier kompakte Klavierkonzerte vereint. Die Aufnahme ist eine quirlige Entdeckungsreise zu einem Stück wenig bekannter Musik…

To the full reviews -> GMCD 7391 – Le Piano Français – Virtuoso Piano Concertos

Basler Zeitung – 22.04.2013
…Die CD brilliert durch eine bestechende Aufnahmetechnik, welche die verwendeten Instrumente (Barocklaute und Arciliuto, ein Instrument mit zusätzlichen Basssaiten) ausgezeichnet zur Geltung bringt…

Geluit-Luthinerie, No.61 – 03/2013
…The toccatas are performed with rubato and subtle feeling, through which Peter Croton understands how to build musical tension…

To the full reviews -> GMCD 7388 – Light & Shadows