Members - Receive Any Five of These Albums For Free!

Now, Musical Heritage Society members can choose their own music as part of the perks of being an MHS member. We're going to create a collection every month - between 20 and 30 titles, and any MHS member can choose up to 5 titles and receive them for free!

Here's this month's collection - and we've grouped up the selections to help you make your decisions.

Chamber Music

  • NEW! JUST ADDED!

    Three virtuosi combined to perform the string trios of Beethoven - early works that show the emerging power of this genius. These works equal the energy and vitality of his early string quartets.

    EXPLORE BEETHOVEN'S STRING TRIOS 

  • Masterful Works

    Among the greatest works written in the 20th century for string quartets, Janacek's two string quartets are modern yet timeless.

    EXPLORE THIS RECORDING 

  • A Must for Any Collection

    As it was written in The Review - why pile the hate on Schoenberg? His name seems synonymous with "unlistenable" but you'd never know it from his String Quartet No. 1

    LISTEN AND EXPLORE! 

  • A Youthful Quartet Rips Through The Romantic Era

    The Mendelssohn String Quartet (the group's sometimes confusing name) plays charming and romantic works by Dvorak and (here's the confusing part) Mendelssohn.

    EXPLORE LITTLE KNOWN WORKS FOR STRING QUARTET 

Haydn The Mighty Architect

  • A Great Starter Kit

    If you like classical music or if you are a scrupulous collection, you have to listen to Haydn's last symphonies. A great composer freed from the emperor, acclaimed and appreciated as never before - he created masterworks for the world.

    EXPLORE HAYDN'S LAST SYMPHONIES 

  • Listen for Yourself

    In The Review, David M. Greene touched on the "authenticity" of these works - they are certainly Haydn's piano sonatas, with violin. Listen and decide for yourself.

    EXPLORE 

  • The Best of His Best

    Haydn's early sonatas were lessons that even he didn't bother to keep (there's 20 early sonatas missing). But as he grew older, he returned to the piano sonata as a great form of expression and performance. Artur Balsam's complete series of Haydn's sonatas is a jewel in the MHS library - here are some of Haydn's finest middle and late period piano sonatas.

    EXPLORE HAYDN'S PIANO SONATAS 

Piano Music

  • Delightful and Charming

    We like recordings like this - chances are there aren't too many duplicates like this in your library. 5 variations on "Rule Britannia" and works by Dussek and Pinto (not a law firm). All delightful!

    EXPLORE NEW PIANO WORKS 

  • A Tribute to the Grand Old Men of the Early 20th Century

    Once daring, once considered nearly unlistenable, time has passed and left these once formidable masters firmly in the mainstream. These works use Bach and Mozart as their inspirations.

    EXPLORE 20TH CENTURY PIANO 

  • Mozart, Of Course!

    Mozart's piano sonatas are often, as we wrote about Haydn, works for students, to help the composers make ends meet by teaching. But Mozart couldn't possibly have written a piano sonata to be forgotten - and these middle period works are among his best known works for piano

    EXPLORE MOZART 

  • Mozart - Encore!

    If you choose Artur Balsam's Vol. 5 of Mozart's piano sonatas, Vol. 6 will give you a set of four of Mozart's most memorable piano works - and some of the most recognizable music he ever wrote.

    EXPLORE MOZART AGAIN! 

  • Chopin by Cecile

    Passion and virtuosic power from this marvelous pianist. Chopin's Etudes, Op. 10 and a selection of nocturnes and ballades round out this recital.

    EXPLORE THE ROMANTIC CHOPIN 

Explore The Baroque

  • Big Band Telemann

    You wouldn't exactly call the Orchestra of St. Luke's a big band - but they play on modern instruments, so you get a more glorious, supple sound, with a romantic edge. These familiar concertos and suites flow beautifully from this great American orchestra.

    EXPLORE TELEMANN 

  • True Exploration

    This doesn't sound like the most "commercial" hit pairing, but Ronald Borror is a remarkable soloist, and he's joined by top notch musicians. And while trombone doesn't convey the immediate image of a baroque instrument...you will love this recording.

    EXPLORE THE TROMBONE 

  • The Organ GOAT

    Handel - the finest organist of his time, wrote these works to perform during the intermissions of his oratorios. This recording combines his virtuosic gifts of performance and composition.

    EXPLORE HANDEL 

  • Make An Arrangement

    Bach made arrangements constantly - and felt it was part of his job, with no sense of "i shoudn't be doing this". The Aulos Ensemble goes as far as recovering erased pages from his manuscripts to restore viola da gamba parts from trio sonatas...and it's marvelous!

    EXPLORE BACH IN NEW ARRANGEMENTS 

  • The King of French Baroque

    Much of the popularity of baroque music in the past fifty years has come from the use of the music in movies. Marais leads the way. While this collection doesn't feature his "hit" tune, this collection does give you a sense of his lilting spirituality and beauty.

    EXPLORE MARAIS 

  • Virtuosi Defined

    As David M. Greene writes in his essay, virtuosi were defined in Italy as craftsman who could perform a range of musical tasks - they could play fast, slow, sadly, joyously, however the music demanded.

    EXPLORE THE ITALIAN BAROQUE 

Orchestral: Baroque and Classical

  • Baroque for Bassoon and More

    The unsung workhorses of the orchestra are featured on this lovely recording of very unusual baroque concertos for wind instruments. The oboe d'amore does fine; the bassoon concerto has a 1 minute slow movement and the Concerto Pastorale has 7 movements, 6 of which are 2 minutes long and one of which is 9 minutes long.

    EXPLORE UNHEARD BAROQUE CONCERTOS 

  • Improvisation, Baroque-Style

    In the notes for this recording, Daniel Nimitz writes that a certain latitude must be given for improvisation in a baroque concerto. It's difficult to know EXACTLY what is being improvised here, but Roman Totenberg plays these works with a decidedly romantic edge.

    EXPLORE A DIFFERENT "BAROQUE" 

  • Czech Please

    The Vienna Chamber Orchestra is the star here - a swiftly moving series of works by an underrecorded favorite of the early Romantic era.

    EXPLORE STAMITZ 

Choral

  • America's Early Voice

    Taken from one of the first books of choral hymns and instrumental music written entirely on this side of the Atlantic Ocean, The Colonial Singers present a series of works - many from the mother country, with a few new Yankee composers added in - from Bayley's A New Royal Harmony.

    EXPLORE AMERICA'S COLONIAL MUSIC 

  • Ars Perfecta Perfectly Sung

    David M. Greene didn't really know the phrase "Ars perfecta" but he understood what the Harvard Glee Club meant when they pieced together this set of works for low voices by desPres and Brumel.

    EXPLORE THE RENAISSANCE 

  • And a Hey, Ho

    Two sacred choral works - here's one that much less so. Purcell's music was written for the theater, and to be more direct, written to be performed between the theatrical scenes, in front of the curtain. Fredrick Renz leads the New York Ensemble for Early Music.

    EXPLORE PURCELL 

This Month's Selections: A-Z by Composer

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