A debut on CD for the American Decca legacy of Ruth Slenczynska, a prodigious Romantic-age keyboard lioness. The biography for her Wigmore Hall recital in March 1957 claimed that the 32-year-old Ruth Slenczynska had given 1600 concerts. Scarcely believably, perhaps, but no less so than other elements of her extraordinary life story – making her […]

Noted for his Haydn and Mozart and for his affinity with 20th-century music from Berg to Bartók to Messiaen, the Hungarian conductor Antal Doráti also demonstrated a particularly idiomatic flair in presenting music of the early romantic era. Of these Mendelssohn and Schuman recordings, all but the Minneapolis ‘Italian’ Symphony are in stereo. Unlike many […]

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 […]

Presented on CD for the first time and newly remastered, a pair of Romantic Lieder recitals by the Welsh contralto who inherited the mantle of Kathleen Ferrier. The history of British contraltos on record, stretches back to Constance Shacklock and before her Dame Clara Butt but it was Ferrier who defined the sound of that […]

‘In every way the most transcendentally gifted young piano student I have heard in the last 25 years’ was Percy Grainger’s pronouncement of the young Eileen Joyce (1908–1991) when he first heard her play in 1926. From the goldfields in Western Australia whose capital city is the most remote in the world, Joyce defied incongruous and […]

From 1962 (when he made his Royal Festival Hall debut) to 1967 and again from 1981 to 1987, Simon Preston held posts at Westminster Abbey, initially as sub-organist then as organist and master of the choristers. These recordings were made during that first period: signing off the compilation in style, Widor’s ‘Toccata’ was in fact […]

Newly remastered and compiled for the first time, the complete Decca recital albums of Irma Kolassi are now available on this 4CD set from Eloquence. Born in Greece but raised in Paris,she  began her career as a pianist until her ‘richly regal’ (The Times) mezzo-soprano was discovered. As a vocal coach in Athens, she worked […]

‘From Melba to Sutherland: Australian Singers on Record’ is the first-ever comprehensive survey of the recordings of Australia’s greatest singers – in a unique, new, 4CD set from Decca, complete with biographies of each of the 80 artists, rare photographs, all contained within a 68-page booklet. Why has there been such an extraordinary procession of […]

Schumann’s fleeting ‘Arabeske’ is here coupled with two of the composer’s most passionate, autobiographical musings (‘Kreisleriana’ and ‘Fantasie’) in performances that range from quiet dignity to storminess from Wilhelm Kempff.

Alicia de Larrocha was, for a long time, an exclusive Decca artist and besides making seminal recordings of Spanish repertoire at which she excelled, she was also a Bach, Mozart, Schubert and Schumann player, par excellence. She recorded Schumann’s ‘Carnaval’ twice for Decca and it’s her earlier (1978) analogue version we release here. Together with […]

While the bulk of Ansermet’s recordings were made with L’Orchestre de la Susise Romande, there were a few with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra and the very occasional foray into recordings with London orchestras. One of these was with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1959 with producer Michael Williamson and engineer Kenneth […]

Glazunov’s wonderfully atmospheric ‘The Seasons’ ballet, joins other Russian compositions by Liadov and Glinka as well as the colourful orchestral arrangement by Glazunov and others of Schumann’s ‘Carnaval’, in stunning recordings by Ernest Ansermet as part of the Decca Ansermet Legacy on Eloquence. In addition to the Glazunov and Glazunov-by-arrangement Ansermet recordings, this generous 2CD set […]