MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

National Orchestral Discography Pages
Prepared by Michael Herman
Continued by Stephen Ellis


The series of Discographies that I have compiled has been meant to partially fill a gap in the documentation of recorded music. As a collector of LPs and CDs for over 45 years with a specialty in orchestral music, it was apparent that it was nearly impossible to easily track down information about classical recordings unless they were currently available. This is not a new development, as the same problem existed in the days of LPs even though record catalogues were issued on a monthly or quarterly basis.

In the 1950’s, a comprehensive 3 volume guide to recordings was published that attempted to cover all recordings issued up to that very time. This was The World's Encyclopedia of Recorded Music by Francis F. Clough, and C.J. Cuming. However, a work of this type would be an impossibility today as too many recordings have been and are still being issued so something comparable would require a multi-volume set that would dwarf both the O.E.D. and New Grove many times over. So now it is up to the specialist to stake out a particular area and attempt to present reference works that will help enlighten that musical area for those that seek specific information about it.

The data contained in these Discographies comes from a wide variety of sources. The majority of these sources are sites found on the Internet and they basically consist of library databases, national music information centers, recording companies and retailers, music publishers and dedicated sites of composers, conductors and orchestras. I have been also able to utilize a personal library of musical reference books and record catalogues that I have gathered over the years. Finally, I have been able to call upon a network of international music friends from the various countries that my Discographies cover as well as direct questions to composers, conductors and officers of musical societies who are extremely forthcoming with needed information. Each Discography contains a bibliography listing of my sources.

The greatest advantage of online publishing is the ability to constantly revise what has already been written. In an area such as recordings, this ability is absolutely essential. With my eyes continually on the sites mentioned above, I endeavor to keep these Discographies useful by making them as up to date as possible. I am very grateful to readers of these works who have pointed out both omissions and errors and have greatly aided me in this enterprise.

Michael Herman
Michael Herman passed away, from COVID, in December 2020.

With the passing of his friend Michael Herman, Stephen Ellis, of Glenview, Illinois, has agreed to continue Michael’s sui generis discography pages. Ellis has been a collector of recordings of contemporary music since 1961, was a confederate of musicologist Nicolas Slonimsky for the last twenty years of his life, and published nearly 1,000 reviews of, and articles on, contemporary music over a span of 25 years as a writer/critic for Fanfare Magazine (1979–2004).

The Discographies
All cover releases on both LP and CD.

They include works written after 1800, with the exception of British Orchestral Music, which is for composers born between 1800 and 1910. The German & Austrian discography does not include Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bruckner and Mahler.

The discographies continue to be updated, but rather than in huge lots as before, they will be updated continually. The date in brackets after a particular discography link (below) shows when it was most recently updated. Any without a date remain at the August 2020 point for the moment.

American Symphonies (5/23)
Asian Symphonies
Benelux and Swiss Symphonies (2/22)

British and Commonwealth Symphonies

British and Commonwealth Concertos

British Orchestral Music

East-Central European and Balkan Concertos (3/22)

East-Central European and Balkan Symphonies (3/22)

French Concertos

French Symphonies

German and Austrian Symphonies
Italian, Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American Symphonies

Russian, Soviet & Post-Soviet Concertos

Russian, Soviet & Post-Soviet Symphonies

Finnish and Baltic Symphonies

Scandinavian, Finnish & Baltic Concertos

Scandinavian Symphonies (2/22)

 



Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing