A treasure-trove of historic Barber recordings. The earliest and one of the best known is his own performance of Dover Beach recorded in 1935 with the Curtis Quartet. A real discovery is the broadcast of the Adagio for strings and the First Essay with the NBC Symphony under Toscanini on November 5, 1938. These were the actual sounds that propelled Barber into the front rank of American composers, able to command the attention of the big-shot conductors from Europe. The Adagio is nicely paced and the First Essay has extra bits in the opening section that were later removed. There are also differences in the first part of the Second Essay, premiered by the New York Philharmonic-Symphony under Bruno Walter in 1942.

Cellist Orlando Cole, who died last year at 101, was, along with Barber, one of the first students at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia when it opened in 1924. The Cello Sonata is a live recording from 1972 introduced by Cole, for many years cellist in the Curtis Quartet, and who remembers being in on the genesis of this now standard classic.

There are two delightful piano items – Rudolf Firku≈nu in the Excursions and Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale in the duet version of the catchy Souvenirs. Recorded in the early 1950s and still sounding well, both of these works show Barber in lighter moods, captured perfectly by these performers.

Barber’s visit to London in 1950 was probably at the high point of his reputation in England, before the reaction against his conservative style gathered momentum. He was particularly pleased with the recordings he conducted for Decca at Kingsway Hall in December 1950. He took his conducting seriously, had lessons well in advance and even brought his coach to the sessions. With the New Symphony Orchestra of London he recorded the orchestral suite Medea and the Second Symphony (later destroyed but reinstated), and was particularly pleased with Zara Nelsova in the Cello Concerto – all of which are included here.

There are three recordings here of Knoxville: Summer of 1915. Eileen Farrell, in the first broadcast with the CBS Symphony Orchestra under Bernard Herrmann in 1949; Eleanor Steber, for whom it was written, but recorded with piano, live at Carnegie Hall in 1958; and a robust and vocally stunning performance from Leontyne Price, well recorded live at Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic under Schippers in 1959. Vanessa, with its Chekovian libretto by Menotti, is the original live recording from the Met in 1958, issued on LP, and well worth preserving for its fine cast, including Steber, and its real sense of drama.

Another CD offers Barber’s 1958 interview with James Fassett, a transcription of which is included in my book Samuel Barber Remembered: A Centenary Portrait (U of Rochester Press: 2010), as are the interviews quoted from by Barbara Heyman in her very generous 97 pages of notes with photographs on the CD-ROM. She is Barber’s definitive biographer and her copiously annotated Thematic Catalogue is in press now. There are 33 pages of notes in French from Pierre Brévignon, who started Capricorn, the French Samuel Barber Society, and whose full-scale biography will be out later this year. This set of CDs is a gold mine for anyone wanting to study Barber’s revisions and early performances, many of which are not otherwise available.