Josef Krips Edition – Volume 1: 1947-1955 (Limited Edition)

LONDON

CD 1

OPERA ARIAS – Mozart; Puccini; Massenet; Bizet; Mussorgsky; Bellini; Gounod
Hilde Gueden ∙ Anton Dermota · Richard Lewis ∙ Rafael Arié, London Symphony Orchestra · New Symphony Orchestra

FIRST CD RELEASE ON DECCA (Dermota, Lewis, Arié)

CD 2

J. STRAUSS I & II: Waltzes
An der schönen blauen Donau; Kaiserwalzer; Accelerationen*; Perpetuum mobile; Annen-Polka; Rosen aus dem Süden; Wiener Blut; Wein, Weib und Gesang; Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka; Piefke und Pufke – Polka
National Symphony Orchestra · New Symphony Orchestra · London Symphony Orchestra

*FIRST CD RELEASE ON DECCA

CD 3 MOZART Overture: Le nozze di Figaro; Symphonies Nos. 39 & 41 – London Symphony Orchestra

FIRST CD RELEASE ON DECCA

CD 4 SCHUBERT Overture: Rosamunde (Die Zauberharfe)*; Symphonies Nos. 6 & 8 – London Symphony Orchestra

*FIRST CD RELEASE ON DECCA

CD 5 HAYDN Symphony No. 104 & WEBER Overture: Euryanthe* – London Philhamonic Orchestra · London Symphony Orchestra

*FIRST CD RELEASE ON DECCA

CD 6 BRAHMS Symphony No. 4 – London Symphony Orchestra

CD 7 DVOŘÁK Cello Concerto in B minor – Zara Nelsova; London Symphony Orchestra

CD 8 MOZART Overtures, MOZART · R. STRAUSS Arias – Ilse Hollweg; London Symphony Orchestra

CD 9 MOZART Symphonies Nos. 39 & 31 – London Symphony Orchestra

CD 10 BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto – Alfredo Campoli; London Symphony Orchestra

CD 11 MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 4 & SCHUMANN Symphony No. 4 – London Symphony Orchestra

CD 12 MOZART Symphony No. 40 & HAYDN Symphony No. 92 – London Symphony Orchestra

CD 13 SCHUMANN Piano Concerto – Wilhelm Kempff; London Symphony Orchestra

CD 14 MOZART Piano Concertos Nos. 23 & 24 – Clifford Curzon; London Symphony Orchestra

CD 15–16 MENDELSSOHN Elijah – Jacqueline Delman ∙ Norma Procter · George Maran ∙ Bruce Boyce ∙ Michael Cunningham, Hampstead Parish Church Boys’ Choir; London Philharmonic Choir
London Philharmonic Orchestra

CD 17 MOZART Violin Concertos Nos. 4 & 5 – Mischa Elman; New Symphony Orchestra
FIRST CD RELEASE ON DECCA

VIENNA

CD 18–19 MOZART Die Entführung aus dem Serail; Turkish March*, Heinz Woester ∙ Wilma Lipp · Emmy Loose ∙ Walther Ludwig · Peter Klein ∙ Endré Koréh

Opera Arias – Maria Reining · Lisa Della Casa · Paul Schöffler · Anton Dermota, Wiener Staatsopernchor, Wiener Philharmoniker

*FIRST CD RELEASE ON DECCA

CD 20 MOZART Requiem – Werner Pech ∙ Hans Breitschopf · Walther Ludwig ∙ Harald Pröglhöf
Wiener Hofmusikkapelle, Wiener Philharmoniker

AMSTERDAM

CD 21 SCHUBERT Symphony No. 9 – Concertgebouworkest

CD 22 BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 4 – Concertgebouworkest

The apotheosis of Viennese style: Mozart, Strauss and more under the baton of JOSEF KRIPS. An Original Covers collection of classic Decca albums recorded between 1947 and 1955, including several recordings new to CD.

Born and raised in Vienna, Josef Krips trained as a choirboy and studied with Felix Weingartner, who then hired him as a repetiteur at the Volksoper. He his debut there in 1921, before graduating to the Vienna State Opera in 1933. In the aftermath of the Second World War, it was Krips above all who reformed and re-trained the State Opera as a world-class ensemble, and in the most difficult conditions. His pragmatism and understated authority made him a model recording conductor, and Decca hired him to work with orchestras in several of their centres of activity.

Mozart was forever Krips’s hero: ‘My maxim is that everything has to sound as though it were by Mozart, or it will be a bad performance. When you perform Mozart, everything has to be crystal clear, everything has to be in balance and everything has to have a relaxed sound.’

Compiled here for the first time, as one of a two-volume Krips edition, are the conductor’s complete mono recordings for Decca beginning with Kingsway Hall sessions in October 1947. Mozart symphonies, concertos, overtures and arias appeared on 78s – newly transferred for this set by Andrew Hallifax. From the early LP era comes the first-ever complete recording of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, with a cast entirely drawn from the Vienna State Opera company, and (also from 1950) a remarkably forward-looking account of the Requiem, recorded with a cathedral-style all-male chorus including boys on the top line, much closer to Mozart’s world than contemporary, symphonic-style versions of the piece.

Combined with Decca’s famous ‘ffrr’ sound, these Mozartian qualities also illuminate Krips’s mono recordings of symphonies by Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms and Schubert, concertos by Schumann and Dvořák, Johann Strauss waltzes and a version of Mendelssohn’s Elijah which combines the best of the British oratorio tradition with an operatic momentum and a gently glowing orchestral palette.

Distinguished soloists on these recordings include Clifford Curzon and Mischa Elman in Mozart; Zara Nelsova in Dvořák’s Cello Concerto; and Hilde Gueden, Maria Reining, Anton Dermota and Richard Lewis singing opera arias (recorded on 78, several receiving their first CD transfer in this box). A companion volume from Eloquence is dedicated to Krips’s Decca and Philips recordings from the stereo era (1955–72) and will be released next month. The booklet for each set contains session photos and an essay on Krips’s life and legacy by Niek Nelissen.