Sony Classical is proud to announce an unparalleled reissue of Pierre Monteux’s RCA Victor recordings. They are being issued together for the first time in a single original jacket collection of 40 CDs.

Each and every recording in this new 40-CD set comes from the best source, including previous Living Stereo, SACD and XRCD reissues. Many others have been newly re-mastered from the original 78-rpm matrices or tapes.

Most of Monteux’s now legendary recordings for RCA were made between 1941 and 1961 with the two US orchestras he served as music director: the Boston Symphony (1919-24) and San Francisco Symphony (1936-52).

Naturally they contain music he had introduced to the world decades earlier, for example Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (recorded in Boston on 78s in 1945 and on LP in 1951) and Petrushka (recorded in Boston, 1959) as well as Ravel’sValsesnobles et sentimentales and Daphnis et Chloé.

His RCA French discography also contains multiple recordings of Debussy’s Images, La Mer and Nocturnes, Berlioz’sSymphonie Fantastique and works by Chausson and d’Indy. And then there is his peerless interpretation of the FranckSymphony in D Minor. Monteux recorded that symphony in San Francisco in 1941 and 1950, then once again with the Chicago Symphony in 1961. Those were his last RCA sessions, and the recording it yielded is still universally regarded as the work’s finest ever.

Includes as a bonus CD: 'Pierre Monteux - The 80th Birthday Interview'

Set contents:

DISC 1:
Ravel: La valse
Rimsky-Korsakov: Le coq d'or - Cortège Des Noces (1941)
Indy: Symphonie sur un chant montagnard francais (Symphonie cévenole), Op. 25
Franck: Symphony in D Minor (1941)

DISC 2:
Franck: Pièce héroique
Debussy: Images pour orchestre No. 1, Gigues (1942)
Debussy: Images pour orchestre No. 3, Rondes de printemps (1942)
Indy: Symphony No. 2, Op. 57
Rimsky-Korsakov: Tsar Sultan - March
Lalo: Le roi d'Ys – Overture

DISC 3:
Lalo: Symphonie espagnole, Op. 21
Bruch: Concerto No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra in G Minor, Op. 26

DISC 4:
Berlioz: Benvenuto Cellini – Overture (1945)
Berlioz: Les troyens: Act II - Overture
Indy: Istar: Symphonic Variations, Op. 42
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique (1945)

DISC 5:
Indy: Fervaal Prelude, Op. 40
Rimsky-Korsakov: Sadko, Op. 5
Brahms: Alto Rhapsody, Op. 53 (Nach "Harzreise im Winter") (1945)
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (1945)

DISC 6:
Brahms: Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73 (1945)
Rimsky-Korsakov: Le coq d'or – Introduction and Cortège Des Noces (1945)
Milhaud: Symphonic Suite No. 2 "Protée"
Chausson: Poème, Op. 25
Grünberg: Violin Concerto, Op. 47

DISC 7:
Milhaud: Symphonic Suite No. 2, Op. 57 "Protée"
Chausson: Poème, Op. 25
Gruenberg: Violin Concerto, Op. 47

DISC 8:
Ibert: Escales
Rimsky-Korsakov: Symphony No. 2 "Antar", Op. 9
Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé: Suite No. 1
Debussy: Sarabande

DISC 9:
Strauss: Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40
Chabrier: Le roi malgré lui: Fete-polonaise

DISC 10:
Scriabin: Symphony No. 4, op. 54 “Le poème de l'extase” (1947)
Gounod: Faust: Ballet Music
Mendelssohn: Ruy Blas, Op. 95 – Overture
Ravel: Alborado del gracioso
Berlioz: Benvenuto Cellini - Overture (1947)
Berlioz: La damnation de Faust - Rákóczy March

DISC 11:
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade: Symphonic Suite, Op. 35

DISC 12:
Beethoven: Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36

DISC 13:
Franck: Symphony in D Minor (1950)

DISC 14:
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique (1951)

DISC 15:
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (1913/21 version) (1951)

DISC 16:
Brahms: Symphony No. 2, Op. 73 in D (1951)

DISC 17:
Chausson: Symphony, Op. 20 in B flat

DISC 18:
Brahms: Alto Rhapsody, Op. 53 (Nach "Harzreise im Winter") (1950)
Mahler: Kindertotenlieder

DISC 19:
Debussy: Images pour orchestrstre No. 3, Gigues (1951)
Debussy: Ibéria

DISC 20:
Brahms: Song of Destiny, Op. 54 (Schicksalslied)
Bach: Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor
Bach: Christmas Oratorio - Sinfonia
Beethoven: Die Ruinen von Athen, Op. 113

DISC 21:
Beethoven: Symphony No. 4, Op. 60 in B-Flat
Schumann: Symphony No. 4 in D minor, op. 120

DISC 22:
Scriabin: Symphony No. 4, op. 54 "Le poème de l'extase" (1952)
Liszt: Les préludes (Symphonic Poem No. 3)

DISC 23:
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 12 in A, K.414
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 18 in B-Flat, K.456

DISC 24:
Chausson: Poème de l'amour et de la mer
Various: French Songs

DISC 25:
Beethoven: Symphony No. 8, Op. 93 in F
Berlioz: Benvenuto Cellini - Overture (1952)

DISC 26:
Delibes: Sylvia: Suite
Delibes: Coppélia: Suite
Delibes: Coppélia: Prélude, Mazurka (Stereo Version)

DISC 27:
Debussy: La mer
Debussy: Nocturnes
Debussy: La mer: De l’aube à midi (Stereo Version)

DISC 28-29:
Verdi: La traviata

DISC 30:
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, Op. 74 "Pathétique" in B Minor

DISC 31:
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5, Op. 64 in E Minor

DISC 32:
Khatchaturian: Violin Concerto
Saint-Saens: Havanaise, Op. 83

DISC 33:
Brahms: Concerto for violin in D, Op. 77

DISC 34:
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4, Op. 36 in F Minor

DISC 35:
Stravinsky: Pétrouchka

DISC 36-37:
Gluck: Orfeo and Euridice

DISC 38:
Strauss: Tod und Verklärung, Op. 24
Wagner: Siegfried Idyll

DISC 39:
Franck: Symphony in D Minor (1961)

DISC 40:
Bonus: Interview