"Between 1972 and 1982 Maazel was Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra and between 1973-79 made a series of recordings for Decca – all of which are collected here.
The repertory includes many orchestral spectaculars and Decca’s first recording in Cleveland, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, is one of the very best and a recording which has achieved reference status. “…. The precision of The Cleveland Orchestra is little short of miraculous… the recording is one of Decca’s most spectacular, searingly detailed but atmospheric too.” [The Penguin Guide] Another highlight of Maazel’s Decca / Cleveland discography is the 1975 recording of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. This was the first complete stereo recording of the work and Gramophone was lavish in its praise: “ The actual sound quality is amazingly vivid… the sound remains electrically brilliant with the brass and percussion superbly caught… his masterpiece has at last been so triumphantly presented on record. It is above all a triumph for Lorin Maazel, arguably his richest recorded performance to date.”

CD 1
Debussy: La Mer • Nocturnes • Ibéria
CD 2
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé
Debussy: Jeux
CD 3
Respighi: Feste romane • Pini di Roma
Rimsky-Korsakov: Le Coq d’or — Suite
CD 4
Prokofiev: Symphony 5
Rimsky-Korsakov: Russian Easter Festival — Overture
Capriccio espagnol
CD 5
Glinka: Ruslan and Lyudmila — Overture
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
Scriabin: Le Poème de l’extase
CD 6 & 7
Berlioz: Grande Messe des Morts (Requiem) + Harold in Italy
CD 8
Bizet: L’Arlésienne Suites 1 & 2 + Jeux d’enfants
Franck: Symphony
CD 9 & 10
Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet
CD 11-13
Gershwin: Porgy and Bess
CD 14
Gershwin: An American in Paris + Cuban Overture
Rhapsody in Blue
Franck: Symphonic Variations
CD 15
Brahms: Symphony 1
Academic Festival Overture
Tragic Overture
CD 16
Brahms: Symphony 2
Symphony 3
CD 17
Brahms: Symphony 4
Haydn Variations
CD 18
Verdi: Don Carlo — Ballet music
Otello — Ballet music
Les Vêspres siciliennes — Ballet music
Verdi: La forza del destino — Overture
Beethoven: Die Seschöpfe des Prometheus — Overture
Berlioz: Le Carnaval romain — Overture
CD 19
Elgar: Cello Concerto
Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo theme
Tchaikovsky: Pezzo capriccioso
SXL 6965 [53.05]
+ Rossini: La gazza ladra — Overture