
Giulini: Brahms Haydn Vars + Schubert Unfinished - Columbia 33CX 1778
Jacket EX / LP EX / English pressing This beautiful LP from Columbia (33CX 1778, English EMI pressing, blue/gold label, laminated flipback cover, mono) features Carlo Maria Giulini and the Philharmonia Orchestra's classic accounts of Schubert's Symphony No. 8 in B minor D. 759 "Unfinished"* and Brahms's Variations on a Theme by Haydn Op. 56a "St. Anthony", recorded in the rich acoustics of London's Kingsway Hall on 25/26 and 27* January 1961. This is exalted orchestral playing, and conducting, by any measure – the sound throughout is glorious. Wrote the outstanding editor, writer, and critic David Hurwitz for ClassicsToday: "Giulini's Philharmonia version of the Haydn Variations is outstanding, with excellent wind playing and an imposing climax to the final passacaglia leading to a truly joyous windup." Incidentally, the lovely cover art reprints Jacob Grimmer's "Landscape with Castle", held at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels. The liner notes on the reverse side of the jacket (