This week’s release brings together two strands of Sir Adrian Boult’s Mahler in a rare collaboration between Andrew Rose and Mark Obert-Thorn. The First Symphony, recorded in stereo in 1958 for Everest with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, is a performance of striking poise and architectural clarity. Boult resists grandstanding or rhetorical exaggeration, instead shaping the work as a coherent, forward-moving whole. It is a reading that still sounds remarkably modern in its balance, momentum and structural integrity.

Set alongside it are Boult’s 1950 studio recordings of Songs of a Wayfarer, preserved in mono and again featuring the London Philharmonic Orchestra, with Blanche Thebom as soloist. Mark Obert-Thorn’s work on these performances brings renewed focus to their intimacy and control. Thebom’s singing is inward and unsentimental, while Boult draws out Mahler’s instrumental commentary with quiet authority, allowing voice and orchestra to move together as equal partners.

Pristine Classical is also marking the 125th anniversary of Giuseppe Verdi’s death with a special promotion across its catalogue. To commemorate the occasion, all Verdi recordings are available at 15% off for a limited time, offering an opportunity to explore a wide range of historic performances at a reduced price.

When Fritz Reiner brought Richard Strauss’s Salome and Elektra to the Metropolitan Opera in 1952, he revealed these scores in their most uncompromising light. These are performances of iron discipline and fierce dramatic focus, where nothing is allowed to sprawl, soften, or indulge. Strauss’s modernity is laid bare with brutal clarity.

Heard today in Pristine XR remastering, these historic Met broadcasts sound anything but historical. With Ljuba Welitsch’s legendary Salome and Astrid Varnay’s searing Elektra, Reiner’s Strauss emerges with terrifying momentum and psychological force — performances that still feel shockingly modern more than seventy years on.

We also mark the 140th anniversary of the birth of Wilhelm Furtwängler, one of the most probing and philosophically minded conductors of the twentieth century, with a 20% discount on all his recordings at Pristine.

Sir Edward Elgar entered London’s Queen’s Hall in April 1926 to make his first electrical recordings, capturing Enigma Variations alongside a group of shorter orchestral works in performances of rare authority. Already a seasoned recording artist by this point, Elgar brings a lifetime’s intimacy with his own music to these sessions, shaping phrasing, tempo and balance with unmistakable purpose.

Mark Obert-Thorn’s restoration reveals a level of orchestral presence and detail that earlier transfers could only hint at. These historic recordings are not just documents, but living performances, and they have never sounded so immediate, full-bodied or convincing.

We also mark the anniversary of Arturo Toscanini’s death on 16 January with a golden opportunity: a 10% reduction on all his recordings at Pristine. With more than ninety albums spanning opera, symphonic repertoire and landmark broadcasts, this is an ideal time to explore the legacy of one of the most influential conductors in recorded history.