The Westminster label has always been synonymous with a cult. Its catalogue, recorded between 1949 and 1970, is still of the utmost significance, technically and artistically. The Korean market has already sold upwards of 5,000 copies of its 50 CD Westminster chamber music box and now Deutsche Grammophon is presenting the best of both worlds in a glorious new 40-CD box set!

The DG Westminster box gives a cross-section of Westminster’s activity in all genres, from solo piano recordings (Jörg Demus, Paul Badura-Skoda, Clara Haskil, Egon Petri) to complete operas (Handel’s Rodelinda with Teresa Stich-Randall, Maureen Forrester, Alexander Young, conducted by Brian Priestman, receiving its CD premiere) to orchestral recordings by the legendary conductors Hermann Scherchen and Artur Rodzinski.

Many of these albums have never been released internationally before on CD, or have been deleted for many years. Westminster Records was an American classical music record label, founded in 1949. Its trademark was Big Ben and its slogan 'natural balance', referring to its single microphone technique in recording music, similar to Mercury Records’ Living Presence series.

Presented in the luxurious and endurable style of our successful DG-111 boxes, the release includes a lavish 100-page booklet, with newly commissioned articles by the great Westminster connoisseur Mike Gray, and by chamber music and vocal expert Tully Potter.

Contents:
CD 1: Beethoven - Symphonies 3 & 6 (Scherchen)
CD 2: Beethoven - Symphonies 2, 4 & 8 (Scherchen)
CD 3: Beethoven - Symphony 9 (Monteux)
CD 4: Haydn - Symphonies 45 & 100 (Scherchen)
CD 5: Mozart - Symphonies 39–41 (Leinsdorf)
CD 6: Holst - The Planets (Boult)
CDs 7–8: Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker • Symphony 4 (Rodziński)
CDs 9–10: Bruckner - Symphony 8 • Wagner - Siegfried Idyll (Knappertsbusch)
CDs 11–12: Mahler - Symphonies 1 & 2 (Scherchen)
CD 13: Glière - Symphony 3 “Ilya Murometz” (Scherchen)
CD 14: Beethoven - Wellington’s Victory (Scherchen)
CD 15: Mozart - Piano Concerto K 466 • Scarlatti - Sonatas (Haskil)
CD 16: Mozart - Piano Concerto K 482 • Sonatas K 570 & 310 (Barenboim)
CD 17: Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto 2 • Paganini Variations (Lewenthal)
CD 18: Brahms & Tchaikovsky - Violin Concertos (Morini)
CD 19: Mozart - String Quintet K 516 & Quartet K 590 (Amadeus Quartett)
CD 20: Beethoven - String Quartets opp. 18/4 & 59/3 (Smetana Quartet)
CD 21: Schubert - String Quintet D 956 (Vienna Konzerthaus Quartet)
CD 22: Schubert - Octet (Vienna Konzerthaus Quartet)
CD 23: Mendelssohn -  Octet (Janáček Quartet)
CD 24: Dvořák - String Sextet op. 48 • String Quintet op. 97 (European String Quartet)
CD 25: Beethoven - Pathétique, Appassionata, Hammerklavier Sonata             
CD 26: Schubert - Wanderer Fantasy • Moments musicaux (Badura-Skoda)
CD 27: Franck & Fauré - Piano Works (Demus)
CD 28: Spanish Guitar Music (Bream)
CD 29: Schumann - Frauenliebe und Leben, Liederkreis op. 39 • Respighi - Il tramonto (Jurinac)
CD 30: Duparc - Mélodies (Simoneau)
CD 31: Beethoven - Christus am Ölberge • Mozart - Lieder (Scherchen • Stader)
CDs 32–33: Bach - Mass in B minor (Scherchen)
CD 34: Mozart - Requiem (Scherchen)
CDs 35–37: Handel - Rodelinda (Stich-Randall • Forrester)
CDs 38–39: Berlioz - Roméo et Juliette • Symphonie fantastique (Monteux • Leibowitz)
CD 40: Operatic Arias (Sills)