Originally recorded in 1977, this splendid re-release per of Haydn’s sacred masterpiece in its original fully orchestral version was never released as a CD or in digital, making it one of the highlights of our Marriner centenary jubilee!

The amazing soprano Lucia Popp largely owes her success to her unforgettable roles in the grand German Romantic repertoire by Richard Strauus & Richard Wagner. She was also known to be a brilliant performer of lighter lyrical works, with which such composers as Franz Lehár, Johann Strauss or Carl Zeller triumphed at the Theater an der Wien or the Wiener Staatsoper, ultimately entertaining the Austrian high society to a great degree. This exquisite collection of Viennese bonbons is accompanied by Sir Neville Marriner, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, with the Ambrosian Opera Chorus featured in choral excerpts from The Merry Widow, Giuditta or Casanova.

As a specialist of Baroque and classical eras, the albums Neville Marriner dedicated to modern music are quite rare among his discography, making them all the more interesting! This 1978 recording highlights two Genevan composers, the greatest Swiss figures of their generation. Ernest Bloch (famous for his hit for cello and orchestra Schelomo) composed a beautiful and lively neo-classical Concerto grosso for piano and strings, as for Frank Martin, one of his most celebrated compositions is the Petite Symphonie concertante and its unusual distribution – a double string orchestra accompanied by a piano, a harp and a harpsichord. Featuring Osian Ellis, Francis Grier, Philip Ledger, and Simon Preston.

This premiering album by Neville Marriner includes modern, witty instrumental arrangements of the most famous arias and scenes from Verdi and Puccini’s operatic masterpieces: Nessun dorma, La donna è mobile… Don’t miss the moving chant of the ondes Martenot in Madama Butterfly or the voluble cimbalom in the Anvil Chorus from Il trovatore!

Warner Classics is continuing Sir Neville Marriner’s centenary celebrations, and with it comes a wonderful re-release in the form of the irresistible collection of Rossini overtures, from Marriner's very first staged opera La cambiale di matrimonio to the famous William Tell and The Barber of Seville.

For this wonderful recital finally making is digital debut, Kathleen Battle made a beautiful selection of Handel arias excerpted from its most famous operas (Alcina, Giulio Cesare in Egitto), oratorios (Solomon, Messiah) and masques (Acis and Galatea). It is witfully accompanied by Neville Marriner’s Academy, who provides an ideal backdrop in which Battle’s voice can express all its charm and virtuosity. This album is definitely a highlight of our Neville Marriner centenary retrospective!

This is a summit meeting in these Mozart late piano concertos between two specialists of the Classical era!

This recording of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s two sacred masterpieces is one of the only forays Neville Marriner ever made into French baroque. Full of elegance and refinement, this rendition features great vocal soloists such as Ann Murray, Daw Upshaw or John Aler.

This is not strictly a compilation of what the British would term "light music," for there is music of substantial weight on these two discs: e.g., Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending, Butterworth's A Shropshire Lad, and Elgar's Introduction and Allegro, but for the most part, Marriner and his charges offer less weighty fare that is familiar to many classical music-lovers and certainly dear to the heart of Anglophiles like this writer. From Vaughan Williams's perennial favorites, Fantasia on Greensleeves and the English Folk Song Suite, and George Butterworth's nigh-ubiquitous The Banks of Green Willow to less familiar fare like Delius's Serenade (composed to honor the 70th birthday of Frederick Delius) and the suite from Elgar's incomplete opera The Spanish Lady, this compilation of recordings–originally made in 1968, 1972, 1976, and 1979–embodies the spirit of England and does so faultlessly. This is a well chosen and exemplarily executed collection of English orchestral miniatures proffered by a conductor and orchestra whose names have become synonymous with the repertoire.

This recording of one of Beethoven's most melodious scores has been a favorite of mine since it first appeared in vinyl many years ago. It has long been superseded in popularity perhaps even critical acclaim by Kremer's later, grander, more conventional effort with Harnoncourt conducting on Teldec. Philips, to my knowledge, never saw fit to re-issue it on CD; it is now beind done so, under license by Arkiv, though preserving the Philips artwork but not the notes. The sound retains the warmth and clarity of the original, bright early-digital recording.

This two-CD collection offers a strong, masterfully performed selection of Vaughan Williams' shorter orchestral works. All the best-known pieces are here–the Tallis Fantasia, the Fantasia on Greensleeves, The Lark Ascending, Dives and Lazarus–as well as lesser-known but equally beautiful works such as the Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1, the Concerto Grosso and the Oboe Concerto. Disc One is devoted to performances by Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields; on Disc Two, Barry Wordsworth and the New Queen's Hall Orchestra take over, except for one selection–the fiercely dramatic Partita for Double String Orchestra–performed by Sir Adrian Boult and the London Philharmonic. I did not think there could be a more beautiful performance of The Lark Ascending than the one by Boult and Hugh Bean, but the recording here by Marriner and Iona Brown is at very least its equal. For anyone who loves the music of Vaughan Williams, or for anyone who wants to get acquainted with this great and underrated composer, this double-CD set is a must.

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields (ASMF) is an English chamber orchestra, based in London. John Churchill, then Master of Music at the London church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, and Neville Marriner founded the orchestra as "The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields", a small, conductorless string group. The ASMF gave its first concert on 13 November 1959, in the church after which it was named. In 1988, the orchestra dropped the hyphens from its full name.

One of the early pioneers of the Baroque movement, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields has been a leading ensemble in early music for more than half a century. They are one of the most recorded chamber orchestras of the industry, mostly under the baton of the legendary Sir Neville Marriner. This collection of their Vivaldi realisations includes the very popular version of the Gloria with Barbara Hendricks, and concertos with soloists Christopher Parkening, Maurice André, and Iona Brown.