Sampler CD
A downloadable CD of sample tracks from the Orchestral Concert CDs catalogue, featuring various artists
Recordings: 1963 to 1973
| The Sampler CD may be downloaded freely from this page; alternatively, physical copies may be ordered for £3 to cover materials and postage |
A free set of high quality classical music sound sample downloads:
the fourteen tracks may be heard on this page, saved to your computer or burnt to CD.
Norman Lebrecht
“I enjoyed the performances very much, especially the Bruckner and Suk. The sound has a vivid, lifelike immediacy all too rare in studio recordings and the orchestral balance is just right.”
—Norman Lebrecht, private correspondence, 7th April 2009
Audiophile Audition
“I agree [that] your recordings are really excellent fidelity and much better than most commercial ones.”
—John Sunier, Editor/Publisher, Audiophile Audition, October 2009
Czech Music Direct
“The dynamic range and depth of sound achieved by Geoffrey Terry make these stereo recordings amongst the finest ever made in the Royal Festival Hall.”
—Czech Music Direct
Customer review
“Your CDs [...] are spectacularly good. The sound is the best I have ever heard: so clear, vivid and natural.”
—George Schatzkamer, New York, August 2009
| Track listing | CD/Time | |
|---|---|---|
| Jan Novák: Philharmonic Dances (Choreæ Philharmonicæ) | CD1/2008 | |
| 1 | III Vivace [excerpt] | 5' 05" |
| Brno Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jiří Waldhans Recorded in the Royal Festival Hall, London on 22nd October 1966 | ||
| Sergei Prokofiev: Piano Concerto no 3 in C major, op 26 | CD2/2008 | |
| 2 | II Tema con variazioni [excerpt] | 5' 11" |
| Prague Symphony Orchestra conducted by Zdeněk Košler Peter Katin, piano • Recorded in the Royal Festival Hall, London on 8th February 1967 | ||
| Ludwig van Beethoven: Violin Sonata in C minor, op 30 no 2 | CD3/2009 | |
| 3 | III Scherzo: Allegro [excerpt] | 2' 29" |
| Alfredo Campoli, violin; Peter Katin, piano • Recorded in the Fairfield Halls, Croydon on 24th September 1963 | ||
| Antonín Dvořák: Piano Trio no 4 in E minor, op 90 (Dumky) | CD4/2009 | |
| 4 | V Allegro [excerpt] | 3' 23" |
| The Czech Trio • Recorded in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London on 15th October 1972 | ||
| Zoltán Kodály: Dances of Galánta | CD5/2009 | |
| 5 | Dances of Galánta [excerpt] | 7' 45" |
| Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra conducted by János Ferencsik Recorded in the Royal Festival Hall, London on 26th February 1966 | ||
| Anton Bruckner: Symphony no 7 in E major | CD6/2009 | |
| 6 | III Scherzo: Sehr schnell – Trio: Etwas langsamer [excerpt] | 8' 14" |
| Berliner Staatskapelle Orchestra conducted by Kurt Masur Recorded in the Royal Festival Hall, London on 17th November 1967 | ||
| Josef Suk: Symphony in C minor, op 27 (Asrael) | CD7/2009 | |
| 7 | V Adagio – Mæstoso [excerpt] | 8' 15" |
| Brno Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jiří Waldhans Recorded in the Royal Festival Hall, London on 13th November 1968 | ||
| Johann Sebastian Bach: Orchestral Suite no 1 in C major, BWV 1066 | CD8/2009 | |
| 8 | I Ouverture [excerpt] | 2' 46" |
| Leipzig Gewandhaus Bach Orchestra conducted by Gerhard Bosse Recorded in Camden Theatre, London in October 1966 | ||
| Antonín Dvořák: Cello Concerto no 2 in B minor, op 104 | CD9/2009 | |
| 9 | III Finale: Allegro moderato [excerpt] | 6' 43" |
| Saša Večtomov, ’cello; Central Bohemia Symphony Orchestra conducted by Miloš Zelenka Recorded in Poděbrady Theatre, Czechoslovakia on 27th May 1973 | ||
| Antonín Dvořák: Symphony no 8 in G major, op 88 | CD10/2010 | |
| 10 | IV Allegro ma non troppo [excerpt] | 5' 12" |
| Prague Symphony Orchestra conducted by Zdeněk Košler Recorded in the Albert Hall, Nottingham on 13th February 1967 | ||
| Fryderyk Chopin: Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante in E flat major, op 22 | CD11/2010 | |
| 11 | Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante in E flat major, op 22 [excerpt] | 5' 22" |
| Peter Katin, piano • Recorded in the Fairfield Halls, Croydon in c. 1965 | ||
| Benjamin Britten: Violin Concerto, op 15 | CD12/2011 | |
| 12 | I Moderato con moto – Agitato – Tempo primo [excerpt] | 3' 09" |
| Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Witold Rowicki Wanda Wiłkomirska, violin • Recorded in the Royal Festival Hall, London on 7th April 1967 | ||
| Gustav Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer) | CD13/2011 | |
| 13 | I Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht [excerpt] | 2' 14" |
| Berliner Staatskapelle Orchestra conducted by Kurt Masur Annelies Burmeister, contralto • Recorded in the Royal Festival Hall, London on 17th November 1967 | ||
| Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony no 10 in E minor, op 93 | CD14/2011 | |
| 14 | III Allegretto [excerpt] | 5' 11" |
| Prague Symphony Orchestra conducted by Václav Smetáček Recorded in the Royal Festival Hall, London on 6th March 1968 | ||
| Total time: | 70' 59" | |
Copyright restrictions mean that the samples provided here have to be excerpts rather than full tracks; however, in most cases, the majority of each movement is provided in order to give a fair impression of the performance. Please note that the sound samples created for the Sampler CD have been created at a much higher quality than the other audio samples on this site. Hence, the files are quite substantial downloads but should give a good indication of the quality of the actual CDs.
Downloading individual tracks
To download the tracks to your computer, proceed as follows:
- If there is a small down-pointing arrow at the extreme right of the playback controls for the track you want to download, click on it; otherwise, right-click on the track’s playback controls. A pop-up menu should appear.
- Choose Save As Source... from this pop-up menu, and save the file somewhere convenient on your own disk.
- Repeat for as many tracks as you wish to keep.
- If you intend to store any of these tracks in music software such as iTunes, you may like to download the Cover artwork and attach it to each track.
Downloading the whole CD
If you would like to obtain all fourteen tracks easily in one step, perhaps in order to burn your own CD, then you can do so by downloading a single, large archive. Proceed as follows:
- Download a SamplerCD.zip archive containing all fourteen tracks, plus CD booklet, tray inlay and CD label as PDF files.
Once downloaded, you may need to double-click on the SamplerCD.zip archive in order to access its contents.
Be warned that this is a very large archive (93MB), and may take considerable time to download, depending on your Internet connection.