This 50-CD set offers a small sampling of Teldec’s rich catalogue, with recordings by some of the world’s great artists, including conductors Andrew Davis, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Mstislav Rostropovich and Giuseppe Sinopoli, pianists Martha Argerich, Boris Berezovsky, Cyprien Katsaris, András Schiff, Güher and Süher Pekinel, violinist Maxim Vengerov and clarinettist Sharon Kam, singers Barbara Bonney, Thomas Hampson, Dawn Upshaw, Edita Gruberova, Peter Schreier, Jennifer Larmore, and Chanticleer, the all-male, San Francisco-based “orchestra of voices”.
Daniel Barenboim recorded exclusively and extensively for Teldec as both conductor and pianist. His acclaimed Wagner opera recordings are represented by highlights from Die Walküre and Tristan und Isolde, while he can also be heard at the piano in Mozart Piano Concertos and playing tangos in his native Argentina with bandoneónist Rodolfo Mederos and bass player Héctor Console.
As an exclusive Teldec recording artist for nearly forty years, Nikolaus Harnoncourt enjoyed one of the longest relationships with a single record company, making several hundred recordings of music spanning several centuries.
A particular highlight of the set is the premiere recording (1930) of Kurt Weill’s Dreigroschenoper with the young Lotte Lenya, whilst the label’s many contemporary music recordings are represented by Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony; Lontano, Atmosphères and Apparitions by Ligeti; and one of Harrison Birtwistle’s most significant works, Pulse Shadows.