Archiv Produktion 1947-2013 - A Celebration Of Artistic Excellence From The Home Of Early Music (Ltd. Ed.)

The box-set traces the history of Archiv from 1947, when the first recordings were made (Helmut Walcha playing Bach organ works), to a bonus CD featuring selections from the new 2013 albums mentioned above. A complete overview is appended. In between comes a sequence of albums several of which are new to CD from the great names of the label, from Walcha, Wenzinger and Safford Cape, through Karl Richter, Nikolas Harnoncourt and Sir Charles Mackerras, on to David Munrow, Ralph Kirkpatrick, Jurgen Jurgens, to Reinhard Goebel, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Trevor Pinnock, Paul McCreesh, Marc Minkowski, Anne Sofie von Otter, Magdalena Kozená and many, many more. The list of artists who have recorded for Archiv is truly astounding.

This is an original-cover box, starting with the austere yellow covers of the 1940s and 1950s gradually giving way to the great historical illustrations and images that featured up to the 1990s, when artists at last began to make an appearance (there were no artist photos in the 1950s!)

The 180+-page full-colour book in an arresting oblong format has articles by journalist Nicholas Anderson, and memoirs by former directors of Archiv, Prof. Andreas Holschneider and Dr. Peter Czornyj, and Executive Producer, Marita Prohmann.

The book features many rare photos from Archiv recording sessions, as well as other memorabilia.