Classical Companion

LAPO Complete Decca Recordings
Decca 485 0374 (38 CDs)
Top-notch, late-analogue Decca sound lavished on Mehta's central repertoire of late-Romantic humorists and tragedians.

Bruckner: Symphony No 9
Decca 483 0275 (LP); 468 4942 (download)
Decca's brass-heavy Sofiensaal engineering underlines the measured pathos of Mehta's precociously assured interpretation.

Puccini: La Fanciulla del West
DG 474 8402 (two CDs)
Still the classic recording of Puccini's Wild-West, happy-ending opera for its casting, engineering and conducting.

Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail
C major 752008 (two DVDs); 752104 (Blu-ray)
A 1965 triumph for Mehta at Salzburg in the joyous Giorgio Strehler staging, revived by La Scala half a century later.

Mahler, R Strauss, Webern
Arthaus 109421 (Blu-ray)
Mehta's unlikely Second-Viennese party- piece; a searing Kindertotenlieder with Thomas Quasthoff; a sumptuous Zarathustra.

Mozart: Sinfonia concertante, etc
DG 476 1651
Old-school Mozart bringing out the best in Mehta's long musical friendships with Perlman, Zukerman and the Israel PO.