Gluck

Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate (now part of Germany) and raised in Bohemia, he gained prominence at the Habsburg court at Vienna, where he brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years. With a series of radical new works in the 1760s, among them Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste, he broke the stranglehold that Metastasian opera seria had enjoyed for much of the century.

The strong influence of French opera in these works encouraged Gluck to move to Paris, which he did in November 1773. Fusing the traditions of Italian opera and the French national genre into a new synthesis, Gluck wrote eight operas for the Parisian stages. One of the last of these, Iphigénie en Tauride, was a great success and is generally acknowledged to be his finest work. Though he was extremely popular and widely credited with bringing about a revolution in French opera, Gluck's mastery of the Parisian operatic scene was never absolute, and after the poor reception of his Echo et Narcisse he left Paris in disgust and returned to Vienna to live out the remainder of his life.

Gluck

BOULT & BBC SO Pre-War Recordings, Volume 1 (1932-37) - PASC670

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BACH Orchestral Suite No. 3, Partita No. 3
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 8, 2 Overtures
GLUCK Alceste - Overture
MOZART Symphony No. 41, 'Jupiter', 2 Overtures
SCHUBERT Symphony No. 9, 'Great'

Studio recordings, 1932-1937
Total duration: 2hr 34:13

BBC Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Sir Adrian Boult

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FLAGSTAD Gluck: Alceste (Met Opera, 1952) - PACO199

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GLUCK Alceste (performed in English)

Live broadcast performance, 1952
Total duration: 2hr 11:59

Alceste - Kirsten Flagstad
Admète - Brian Sullivan
High Priest - Frank Valentino
Oracle - Alois Pernerstorfer
Évandre - Emery Darcy
Herald - Norman Scott

Chorus and Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera
conducted by Alberto Erede

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HERTZ Complete San Francisco Recordings Volume 4; GABRILOWITSCH complete Detroit SO (1925-28) - PASC233

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VARIOUS COMPOSERS Short works and excerpts
Recorded by Victor between 1926 and 1928
Total duration: 65:06

San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Alfred Hertz
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Ossip Gabrilowitsch

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REINER Rarities, Volume 1 (1950-53) - PASC235

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MENDELSSOHN A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Incidental Music
GLUCK Orfeo ed Euridice – Dance of the Blessed Spirits
LISZT Totentanz
TCHAIKOVSKY Waltzes
Recorded 1950-1953
Total duration: 78:37

Robin Hood Dell Orchestra of Philadelphia
RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Fritz Reiner

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SPIVAKOVSKY Bach to Bloch, Volume 8 (1955-67) - PAKM080

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BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 9
BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 13
music by Brahms, Chopin, Liszt & Schumann

Recorded 1955-67
Total duration: 68:51

Jascha Spivakovsky, piano

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STOKOWSKI Acoustic, Volume 3 (1917-24) - PASC471

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RACHMANINOV Piano Concerto No. 2
VARIOUS Symphonic movements and short pieces
Acoustic studio recordings, 1917-1924
Total duration: 79:41

Leopold Stokowski, conductor
Sergei Rachmaninov, piano
The Philadelphia Orchestra

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