Pictures at an Exhibition & other Russian works (Recorded 1956/57)

He had a gift for assimilating difficult scores and gave London premieres of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps and works by Honegger, Milhaud and Poulenc with his own orchestra. In 1923, he accepted the directorship of the Rochester Philharmonic (1923-1931) in the US before moving to Cincinnati (1931-1946). In 1946, he rejected an invitation to become Music Director of the Royal Opera House and instead accepted the position of Chief Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Director of the New South Wales Conservatorium. Goossens was knighted in 1955 but in 1956 he returned to Britain where he continued to conduct and record in Europe. He died on 13 June 1962.

Many of Goossens's recordings are largely forgotten these days and are therefore very rare. A few short items have been issued on EMI over the past few years and there has been a recording of early material on Dutton. This is one of the reasons for including him on Medici Masters; to provide more than passing interest to the serious collector.

Goossens made a number of brilliant recordings for RCA, EMI and lastly for Everest. His Russian recordings for EMI from 1956 to 1957 have not been issued before on CD and show his close affinity with these brilliant orchestral scores. The performances and orchestral playing are of a very high standard.

If this CD is successful, a Spanish/French CD could be the follow-up.

The stereo sound quality on all these recordings is quite remarkable, notably the Pictures at an Exhibition from 1957.

All tapes have been licensed from EMI and remastered by Paul Baily.