This is exactly what it says: selected highlights from 125 years of performance history at New York’s great concert hall, which opened on 5 May 1891. The choice may look like a box of bonbons – it is – but it’s fascinating as a swift if slightly jerky gallop through performance styles and big stars of the past (mainly) half century. The earliest track, from 1943, is the last movement of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 1, conducted by Arturo Toscanini with Vladimir Horowitz as soloist. Other big names include Bernstein, Bolet, Van Cliburn, Richter, Menuhin, Fischer-Dieskau, Rostropovich. Sample them and, if the names are new to you, see what the fuss was about. Also available in a deluxe 43-CD box set.
