This week’s new release takes us to Tanglewood in August 1949 for Britten’s Albert Herring, recorded during the opera’s U.S. premiere production. Boris Goldovsky conducts the Berkshire Music Center Opera Department, with David Lloyd, later remembered as the first American Albert, in the title role.

This is a fascinating document of a new opera still finding its American voice: lively, theatrical, quick on its feet, and full of the energy of young singers making the case for Britten’s sharp little comedy of village respectability, spiked lemonade and quiet rebellion. The early tape source has needed careful reel-by-reel pitch correction, but once stabilised the performance comes through with remarkable freshness.

Our special offer this week marks Kirsten Flagstad’s 131st birthday. All Pristine recordings featuring the great Norwegian soprano are reduced by 10% until next Thursday, with the discount applied automatically at checkout.

Johanna Martzy’s legendary 1954-55 English Columbia recordings of Bach’s complete Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin return in this major new Pristine XR remastering. Long treasured by collectors, these performances combine grave concentration, tonal beauty and extraordinary structural command, with the great D minor Chaconne standing at the heart of the set.

The original recordings have often sounded dull, veiled and burdened by hum, thumps, clicks and surface noise. This new restoration transforms the listening experience, opening out the tone and bringing Martzy’s violin into far clearer focus while preserving the essential mono character of the Abbey Road recordings. One of the great Bach violin cycles now speaks with renewed presence and immediacy.

To mark Gustav Mahler’s 166th birthday on 7 July, we are offering 10% off all Mahler recordings for one week. The discount is applied automatically at checkout, covering our full Mahler catalogue, from Mengelberg, Walter and Klemperer to Horenstein, Boult and more.

This week’s new release brings together János Starker’s celebrated 1957-59 Columbia recordings of Bach’s six Suites for Solo Cello. These are performances of extraordinary discipline, clarity and physical presence: Bach not as distant monument, but as living sound, shaped by bow, string, wood and breath. Starker’s playing is lean, articulate and intensely alive, with each dance, prelude and sarabande given its own distinctive weight and movement.

The original recordings have been newly XR remastered by Andrew Rose, with Ambient Stereo processing applied to the earlier mono material, while the later true stereo recordings have been preserved and remastered as such. The result is a striking transformation, opening the sound and bringing the listener much closer to the cello itself: the grain of the bow, the resonance of the instrument, and the remarkable authority of Starker’s Bach.

Also this week, to mark the anniversary of Alfred Cortot’s death on 15 June 1962, we are offering 10% off all Pristine recordings featuring the legendary French pianist. Cortot remains one of the most compelling and individual pianists on record: poetic, volatile, visionary, and never merely correct.