“The 50’s”: The Legend of Music
“The 50’s: The Legend of Music” is a collection of 50 CDs, chosen from among the most outstanding recordings of ….. (you’ve guessed it) the ‘Fifties! Collectively, the 50 CDs form a basic “discothèque” of classical music, of the best produced by famous musicians during a period of legendary greatness.

Why did we choose the ‘Fifties?
Because it was a unique period in our history and in the annals of musical interpretation. All the masters of that art, who later passed on to take their place in posterity, were still there and active on the international scene. These were the years that saw the final period of activity of conductors such as Furtwängler, Walter, and Toscanini, the representatives of a world and a civilization, that of the age of romanticism, the late 19th century, destined to disappear with them. They were also the years in which new musicians came to the fore, the most outstanding of whom were certainly the man dubbed by the international press “das Wunder Karajan”, or “the Karajan miracle”, and a personage who was to leave his mark on the second half of the century. The ‘Fifties also included musicians who had begun their careers in the ‘Twenties and ‘Thirties and who were then at the height of their artistic and technical ability. These include Backhaus, Rubinstein, Menuhin, Horowitz, Segovia, and Casals, to mention but a few of the names that figure in the legend that is music and whom the disc has enabled us to “document” and hear at the apex of their skill in the ‘Fifties.

The “50’s”: The Fascination of a Golden Era
When all is said and done, the world that revolves around the “The “50’s” Collection of CDs is more than just musical, for it was a world that, because of its typical way of making music, which subsequently died out, documented a social climate, the mores of the age, artistic concepts and values. The thought and ethics of an historical period never to come again are a thread running through and uniting these discs with a wider, lost world, which, thanks to them, we can conjure up and relive. Hence the decision to carry out some careful iconographic research to revive the memory and experience the feeling of bygone days. The cover of each CD has a Hulton Getty photograph that bears authoritative, significant witness to those times, one of the tens of thousands of photos taken by a photographer who, with his lens, recorded for us faces, manners, attitudes and tastes.

“The 50’s”: A Series of Historic Recordings
The “50’S” Collection contains many references to the history of musical interpretation in the 20th century. They include the following:

  • Karajan’s Mozart, represented by two memorable recordings: of The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute.

  • Brahms’s First Symphony and Verdi’s famous Requiem, conducted by Toscanini on the fiftieth anniversary of the Italian composer’s death.

  • Mussorgski ‘s Pictures at an Exhibition with Horowitz at the piano - one of the outstanding examples of virtuosity recorded on this disc.

  • Mahler’s symphonies conducted by Bruno Walter, Mahler’s friend and assistant, considered the leading exponent of the symphonies precisely because he witnessed their creation at the composer’s side.

  • Beethoven played by the pianist Backhaus, considered the composer’s greatest interpreter of his keyboard music.

  • The celebrated Carmen, including the dialogues recorded at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, the scene of the opera’s first performance.

  • The first operatic recordings of Renata Tebaldi, whose voice is heard here at its magnificent best.


    “The 50’s”: The Package
    The first series of the collection consists of 50 CDs in 25 jewel boxes. Thus, with “The 50’s”, we have these historic recordings all in one container for the first time.

    “The 50’s”: “the Contents of the First Series”
    The Art of Segovia
    Bizet Carmen Cluytens
    Backhaus & Beethoven
    Walter & Mahler
    The World of Clara Haskil
    Casals plays Bach
    Lipatti Piano Favourites
    Mozart Die Zauberflöte Karajan
    Menuhin Plays Bach
    Virtuoso Piano Concertos
    Verdi Requiem Toscanini
    Puccini Tosca Tebaldi
    The Essential Mozart
    Kempff Plays Beethoven
    Michelangeli: The Myth
    Puccini La Bohème Tebaldi
    Vladimir Horowitz: The Virtuoso
    The Essential Schubert
    Puccini Madama Butterfly Tebaldi
    The Art of Toscanini
    Verdi Aida Tebaldi
    Artur Rubinstein: The Piano
    Great Violin Concertos
    Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro Karajan