Erato Warner Classics 49CD Boxset Baroque Concertos Various Artists & Composers
The Erato label flourished from the early 1950s. It is defined both by its discerningly chosen repertoire and by the high quality of its artists - brilliant instrumentalists including Marie-Claire Alain (organ), Maurice Andre (trumpet), Lily Laskine (harp), Jean-Pierre Rampal (flute), Helene Grimaud (piano) and outstanding and sympathetic conductors such as Jean-François Paillard, Claudio Scimone, Michel Corboz, John Eliot Gardiner, Marc Minkowski, Ton Koopman and William Christie.
Together they recorded a rich catalogue of Baroque - particularly French Baroque - music. Erato's second priority was contemporary music, especially that by French composers.
No label has better or so faithfully served this repertoire, and this 50-CD edition includes some of its greatest treasures - Maurice Durufle conducting his Requiem; Pierre Boulez conducting Le Visage nuptial and Le Soleil des eaux, and Stravinsky's Pulcinella; Yvonne Loriod, Boulez and Marius Constant performing Messiaen; Messiaen playing his own Meditations sur le mystere de la Sainte Trinite; and Darius Milhaud conducting two of his symphonies. Reviewed in Canada on 25 January 2014. Back in my LP days, I scoured the local classical music stores for new works on the Erato label, and grew to love some of their lesser known composers such as Charpentier and Lully. This box includes some of those disks, as well as several other lovely pieces that were seldom, or sometimes never, recorded by other labels.
The recordings by the Erato engineers are excellent, with great clarity and dynamic range considering the time. The remastering to digital is superb, and some of these disks are in heavy rotation in my listening cycle. There's a few titles I will listen to rarely, sure, after the first pass through all fifty disks, but there's a considerable number that will be listened to many times. The box is more expensive than many other anthologies, but Erato was an important label back in the 80s, leading the way with some great recordings of French composers (and others, to be fair).
I absolutely adore this collection, both eclectic and intriguing, and the quality of the recordings makes it a personal favorite. I can't recommend this enough to classical music fans, especially those who may want to delve into some of these composers that are less well known. Probably my favorite box set of the past year. Follow-up two months later: I've been through this box set now three times. Sure, a few of the CDs I zipped over quickly, but some of them have been in repeated play. I continue to be impressed by the Erato engineers, the A&R people for choosing great subjects, and by the odd gem I come across in this box. This and the Das Alte Werke boxes have quickly become my favorite box sets, and I expect this green colour box will continue to sit right next to my CD player for quite a while more. Disc number 20 is missing, making this a 49 CD boxset with no booklet. The discs have been checked and are in near mint condition. The cardboard sleeves are in excellent condition. The outer cardboard box shows signs of wear scuffs, scratches and a tear on one corner edge. The photos form part of the description please message me if you need any further information. I have hundreds of new and used classical CDs being listed.