Doráti in Detroit: Complete Decca Recordings

Collected here in one edition are the complete Decca recordings of Antal Doráti and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra:

• 18 CDs with spined wallets, original jackets
• Highlights include: Performances of Bartok’s Suite No.1, 2 Pictures, Miraculous Mandarin and Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta – “Bartok was in his [Doráti’s] blood-stream”, wrote critic Robert Layton

And recordings of works by a trio of composers Doráti knew well and worked with: Strauss, Stravinsky and Copland including:

• The first-ever studio recording of Strauss’s opera Die Ägyptische Helena boasting a stunning cast headed by Gwyneth Jones, Willard White and the young Barbara Hendricks
• Sonically excellent interpretations of Firebird and The Rite of Spring that even half a century later still leap out of the loudspeakers – some of the earliest Decca digital recordings that remain benchmarks to this day
• Doráti’s last sessions in Detroit included Copland’s Appalachian Spring. Doráti had been a lifelong champion of the composer and the atmosphere was clearly special at those sessions
• The recordings are accompanied by a 52pp book (En/Fr/De) with new notes by Dominic Fyfe, Label Director, Decca Classics
• Two-piece capbox, 52pp booklet, 18 spined wallets, original jackets / Approx. dimensions: 128x128x46mm

CD1
1    TCHAIKOVSKY “1812” Overture; Capriccio italien; Marche slave     
CD2
1    LISZT Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 S.244/2 (arr. Karl Müller-Berghaus)     
2    DVOŘÁK Slavonic Rhapsody in A flat Op.45/3 B.86/3     
3    ENESCU Romanian Rhapsody No.1 in A Op.11/1     
4    RAVEL Rapsodie espagnole M.54     
CD3
1    BARTÓK Suite No.1 Sz. 31; 2 Pictures Sz. 46     
CD4–5
1    R STRAUSS Die ägyptische Helena Op.75 TrV 255 Jones, Kastu, Bryant, Hendrick, White     
CD6
1    R STRAUSS Don Juan; Tod und Verklärung     
CD7
1    STRAVINSKY Petrushka (1947 version)     
CD8
1    SZYMANOWSKI Symphony No.2 Op.19; Symphony No.3 Op.27 “Chant de la nuit”     
CD9
1    DVOŘÁK Czech Suite Op.39 B.93; Prague Waltzes B.99     
2    Polonaise B.100; Polka Op.53a/1 B.114 “For Prague Students”; Nocturne Op.40 B.47     
CD10
1    COPLAND El salón Mexico; Dance Symphony     
2    Fanfare for the Common Man; Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo     
CD11
1    STRAVINSKY Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring)     
CD12
1    R STRAUSS Also sprach Zarathustra Op.30 TrV 176; Macbeth Op.23 TrV 163     
CD13
1    STRAVINSKY L’Oiseau de feu (The Firebird)     
CD14
1    GROFÉ Grand Canyon Suite     
2    GERSHWIN Porgy & Bess: A Symphonic Picture (arr. Robert Russell Bennett)     
CD15
1    R STRAUSS Suite from Der Rosenkavalier Op.59 TrV 227 (arr. Antal Doráti)     
2    Symphonic Fantasy from Die Frau ohne Schatten TrV 234a     
CD16
1    BARTÓK The Miraculous Mandarin Op.19 Sz. 73     
2    Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta Sz. 106     
CD17
1    STRAVINSKY Symphony No.1 in E flat Op.1; Scherzo fantastique Op.3     
CD18
1    COPLAND Appalachian Spring (1945 suite)     
2    STRAVINSKY Apollon musagète (1947 version)