Ernest Ansermet’s view of Bartók was a lyrical one and his incredible ear brought out lines, sonorities and shape in this music that have rarely been equalled. Here, collected together on CD for the first time, are his complete Bartók recordings for Decca as part of the ongoing ‘Decca Ansermet Legacy’. They include some of […]

Issued collectively for the first time on Decca are the complete Berlioz recordings of Ernest Ansermet. Included too is the rehearsal for ‘Symphonie fantastique’ (in French) previously issued on LP only in the US and Japan. The set also offers excerpts from ‘La damnation de Faust’ (the ‘Danse des sylphes’ making its first international appearance […]

Bizet’s ‘Carmen’ was misunderstood at its premiere in 1875. The Opéra-Comique was a place where respectable families could be entertained and where virginal daughters could be introduced to blameless sons with marriage in mind. No one expected to see uncouth gypsies, dirty smugglers and vulgar cigarette girls on its stage, let alone unvarnished human passions […]

It used to be fashionable to include the music of Lalo in concert in the mid-20th century. At the start of the 21st century, however, his works has fallen completely into neglect, in France as much as elsewhere. This is a cruel injustice for music full of sensuality and very highly inspired, quality orchestration. This unique 2CD […]

Composing and story-telling are not unrelated but Albéniz was as adept as any Scheherazade at both! For many, his masterpiece was ‘Iberia’, a set of piano pieces composed near the end of his life. It contains twelve ‘impressions’ (the composer’s word) of Spain and is organised into four books of three pieces each. Although they […]

This release gathers together – under the perceptive and sympathetic musicianship of Ernest Ansermet – a selection of music by (and refashioned by) Ottorino Respighi with a very high quotient of colour, atmosphere, rhythmic vitality and touching lyricism. ‘The Fountains of Rome’ and ‘The Pines of Rome’ are two-thirds of the composer’s Roman Trilogy (the third […]

To the delightfully muddled ‘Marriage of Figaro’-like plot of  ‘El amor brujo’, Ansermet brings an earthy sensuality and piquant wit. Ansermet recorded ‘El sombrero del tres picos’ twice and while the later recording with Teresa Berganza has rarely been out of the catalogue, this earlier mono, 1952 recording with Suzanne Danco is rare and much sought-after, not […]

Contrary to the imaginative view offered by many commentators, Fauré’s Requiem had nothing to do with the death of Fauré’s parents. ‘My Requiem was written for nothing,’ the composer confided to Maurice Emmanuel, ‘it was written, if I may say so, for fun.’ Ernest Ansermet recorded the piece with two stellar artists – Suzanne Danco […]

The DECCA ANSERMET LEGACY has been systematically releasing the vast recorded legacy of Ernest Ansermet, a key Decca artist in the 1950s and 1960s. It has become one of the most sought-after and praised of all reissue series. The latest brings together Ansermet’s Honegger recordings, including the first international release on CD of the Symphony […]

The Eloquence/Ansermet journey continues with a much-anticipated and unique set: the early Stravinsky/Ansermet Decca discography with recordings made in the decade from 1946–1955, with, as a bonus, the hitherto unissued-on-CD recording of the Divertimento from The Fairy’s Kiss, recorded in 1962. The detailed booklet notes by Richard Kaplan are supplemented with full-page reproductions of many […]

This collection brings together rarities and surprises from the Decca/Argo Britten discography, a collection notable as much for the infrequency with which much of this music is performed as it is for the fact that many of these are world-premiere recordings of Britten’s music. The source material itself is extremely rare and virtually every recording […]

During the 1950s, 60s and 70s, Decca recorded a number of albums of overtures with some of its key conductors. Many of these were singled out by the press for their terrific sound quality (the fabled ‘Decca Sound’) and for their often adventurous programming. Some of them also included entr’actes and intermezzi. Prized as collectors’ […]