The Decca legacy of WILHELM KEMPFF, one of the last century’s greatest keyboard poets. Wilhelm Kempff is known, with good reason, as a Beethoven interpreter of sublime simplicity, with several cycles of the concertos and sonatas to his credit, all of them recorded for DG. However, he began recording as early as 1918 and made […]
From Haydn to Eisler: the collected Philips recordings of WOLFGANG HOLZMAIR, a supreme art-song interpreter, including many long-deleted albums. Wolfgang Holzmair has long been recognised as one of today’s most accomplished and intelligent Lieder singers. He brings a refinement and subtlety to his performances worthy of the great German Lieder baritones, but it is the […]
Several legendary but long-unavailable recordings freshly remastered in a comprehensive ‘original covers’ set of Ruggiero Ricci’s recordings for American Decca during the 1960s. With definitive accounts of the Tchaikovsky Concerto and the Paganini Caprices recorded in 1950, Ruggiero Ricci became established as a Decca artist in the early days of LP. A decade later he […]
Two legendary studio recordings and a 1951 concert from Munich: the small but precious Decca legacy of the 20th century’s greatest recreative conductor, Wilhelm Furtwängler. While the performances of Wilhelm Furtwängler issued by Decca have been made available in small and large compilations, they have never been issued in this convenient format. They include a […]
Igor Markevitch’s complete recordings for Philips, made between 1959 and 1968, including several recordings new to CD. Igor Markevitch made his debut on the Philips label in 1959 with a pair of symphonies by Haydn, conducting the Parisian Lamoureux Orchestra, whose fortunes he had begun to revive two years previously. He had embarked on a […]
Issued complete for the first time, Igor Markevitch’s Deutsche Grammophon legacy from Berlin, Paris, Prague and New York, made between 1953 and 1965. ORIGINAL JACKETS | LIMITED EDITION. ‘I record so much I forget even my own records!’ Markevitch was a prolific recording artist for several labels, principal among them Deutsche Grammophon, HMV/EMI and Philips […]
Mercury, Philips and Decca recordings of orchestral pops conducted by the supremely versatile Sir Charles Mackerras, including a pair of Strauss overtures new to CD. Few conductors, if any, have demonstrated the sheer versatility of Charles Mackerras. He could turn his sharp ear and his unfussy baton technique to every corner of classical repertoire, and […]
From Monteverdi to Brahms via French Baroque rarities: the Decca Gold (US) legacy of a complete musician, newly remastered and issued complete for the first time, with fascinating liner notes by Nigel Simeone. Original Jackets, Limited Edition. Composer, teacher, organist, pianist, harpsichordist, choir trainer, conductor, musicologist: there seemed to be no end to the talents […]
A tribute to the late Ida Haendel, comprising her complete Decca Recordings (1940–1997), newly remastered, as well as her performances at the 1982 Huberman Festival. Lavishly illustrated, Original Jackets, Limited Edition. On her death in July 2020, obituaries worldwide paid glowing tributes to the effervescence of the violinist Ida Haendel, in both her playing and […]
Newly remastered, and new to CD, the dramatically charged Dvořák recordings made by Hans-Schmidt-Isserstedt for Decca and Deutsche Grammophon, coupled with the composer’s (and Brahms) folkloric dances. Eloquence pays tribute to the self-effacing art of Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt (1900-1973) combining three LPs onto a 2-CD set – all recorded during his postwar reinvention as a symphonic […]
The early recordings of a keyboard lioness, long unavailable and new to CD. Not generally given to extravagant effusions, William Glock (Controller of Radio 3 and the BBC Proms in the 1970s) had no doubt: ‘There is no one who plays the piano better in the world than she does. There is no one with […]
Kurt Masur’s burnished readings of Brahms’s orchestral music with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, issued as a Limited Edition box with Original Jackets. Hardly less than with its founder, Felix Mendelssohn, the Leipzig Gewandhaus grew up with Brahms conducting and playing. For a sense of heritage, the orchestra boasts a Brahms tradition second to none. In […]
