GUIDO CANTELLI: THE COMPLETE WARNER RECORDINGS (10 CDS) WARNER CLASSICS

A conductor of incandescent energy and exquisite refinement, Guido Cantelli was born in Novara in 1920. His rise to international prominence began in 1948, when he captured Arturo Toscanini’s attention at La Scala. Just eight years later, en route to New York, he was killed in a plane crash near Paris. Covering the intense period between 1949 and 1956, this 10-disc set includes recordings made in London, New York and Rome, with all LP-era items newly remastered from the original tapes in 192kHz/24-bit. Complementing the music, and bearing further testimony to Cantelli’s electrifying influence in the concert hall and recording studio, is a biographical disc featuring interviews with orchestral musicians who performed under his baton.

27 April 2020 will mark Guido Cantelli’s centenary. Arturo Toscanini discovered him during a 1948 rehearsal at La Scala and invited him to conduct the NBC Symphony in New York in January 1949. Widely considered as Toscanini’s heir, the very demanding Cantelli was invited by most prestigious orchestras in the world including New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, La Scala, Philharmonia Orchestra… He tragically died in a plane crash on 24 November 1956 at the age of 36, just after having been named artistic director of La Scala. The complete recordings he did for EMI now Warner – which represent a large part of his recorded legacy – are here complemented by a documentary by Jon Tolansky and by a Beethoven 5th Symphony rehearsal session released for the first time. All the recordings but 78RPM have been remastered in HD from original tapes.