MOZART: DON GIOVANNI - Vienna Philharmonic, Wilhelm Furtwangler (3 CDs)

Cesare Siepi (Don Giovanni), Elizabeth Schwarzkopf (Donna Elvira), Erna Berger (Zerlina), Elizabeth Grümmer (Donna Anna), Anton Demota (Don Ottavio), Otto Nobleman (Leporello), Walter Berry (Masetto)

Chor der Wiener Staatsoper & Wiener Philharmoniker, Wilhelm Fürtwängler

Recorded live at the Salzburg Festival in 1954, this Don Giovanni brings together some of the greatest German and Austrian singers of the period - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf among them. Don Giovanni himself is sung by a young Italian, the velvet-voiced Cesare Siepi, who the previous year had made his brilliant Salzburg debut in the role. On both occasions his conductor was Wilhelm Furtwängler, closely associated with both the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic, and one of the towering musicians of the 20th century.