released April 11, 2024

Track 1: Tchaikovsky: Francesca da Rimini
Tracks 2-5: Bizet: Symphony No. 1 in C major
Track 2: Bizet Symphony Movt 1: Allegro vivo
Track 3: Bizet Symphony Movt 2: Adagio
Track 4: Bizet Symphony Movt 3: Allegro vivace: trio
Track 5: Bizet Symphony Movt 4: Allegro vivo

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Charles Munch, conductor

Producer: Charles Gerhardt
Recording engineer: Kenneth Wilkinson

Recorded in Kingsway Hall. London, by the Reader's Digest Association, and released in 1963 as disc 6 of the 12 disc set Treasury of Great Music.

Tracks 6-9: Rameau: Extracts from the Suite from the opera Dadanus by Jean-Philippe Rameau
Track 6: Dardanus: Ouverture
Track 7: Dardanus: Sommeil. Rondeau tendre
Track 8: Dardanus: Rigaudons 1/2
Track 9: Dardanus: Air gay en rondeau
Track 10: Roussel: Second Suite from the ballet Bacchus et Ariane

Moscow State Symphony Orchestra
Charles Munch, conductor

Recorded from a live concert given in Moscow during 1965

(The Rameau extracts are the only known recordings of these items conducted by Charles Munch)

The Reader's Digest 12 disc box set 'Treasury of Great Music', released in the United Kingdom in 1963, was masterminded and produced by Charles Gerhardt. It's aim was to bring together outstanding international conductors, leading soloists, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in core classical music repertoire, recorded to the highest standards of the day in a twelve disc set of long playing records. The set was marketed to subscribers of the Reader's Digest magazine, then a significant number.

A decade or so later some of the individual issues were released at mid-price by RCA, in effect their first public appearance, to great critical acclaim. During the CD era elements of the set reappeared on a variety of labels including Reader's Digest, but the set as a whole has never been reissued since its first publication.

CRQ Editions intends to release the set in stages, to make the complete set ultimately available as it was originally conceived.

A scan of the lavish booklet produced to accompany the first publication of the set in the United Kingdom in 1963 may be downloaded from:
crqeditions.co.uk/acquire.php?file=K8lPz9UrSEkDAA==

A biography of Charles Munch may be found at:
www.naxos.com/Bio/Person/Charles_Munch/30483

Information about the repertoire featured in this release may be found at Wikipedia:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki