The first release on CD of favourite soprano arias recorded by Leona Mitchell for Decca with simply ravishing orchestral playing to boot.

Belgian violinist, Arthur Grumiaux, brings his sublime artistry to four French compositions from the nineteenth century, some inspired by aspects of Spain, including Lalo’s five-movement ‘Symphonie espagnole’ and Ravel’s spicy ‘Tzigane’.

One of Radu Lupu’s earliest Decca recordings, this couples two of Beethoven’s most dramatic C minor works. The performance with Lawrence Foster receives its first CD release while the C minor Variations have, time and again, been recognised as classic recordings.

Beethoven’s earliest piano concerto (although the second to be published) is here coupled with the first CD release of Mehta’s ‘Creatures of Prometheus’. And what a performance it is, full of fire and delicacy.

Some of the most poetic readings of these concertos.  Lupu and Mehta bring freshness and vitality to No. 1 while No. 4 receives one of its most lucid readings on record with its famous opening, phrased with perhaps unequalled beauty.

This is simply sublime! Kempff’s transcriptions of Bach, Handel and Gluck aren’t that often heard, yet his way with such favourites as ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’, ‘Nun komm’ der Heiden Heiland’, ‘In dulci jubilo’, two pieces from Gluck’s ‘Orfeo’ and the unforgettable Handel G minor Minuet are ravishing! In addition, Kempff performs two great […]

One of the peaks of the choral repertoire, the ‘St. Matthew Passion’ remains one of Bach’s most recorded (and popular) works. This recording is special, not only for its simplicity and reverential glow but also because the international cast of soloists (German, Dutch, English), all at the peak of their careers, seem so inspired and so […]

On the back of one of Eloquence’s most applauded and best-selling CDs – that of Dutch contralto, Aafje Heynis, singing Bach and Handel – comes a recording of her as the centrepiece in two Bach Cantatas and seven sublime but rarely-performed Sacred Songs. The piece de resistance is of course, Vergnugte Ruh (‘Contented Rest’), here […]

The first CD release of these marvellous LP recordings of Sibelius with Vladimir Ashkenazy. There’s ice and fire in Boris Belkin’s performance of the Violin Concerto and the half-lights in the other, lesser known, pieces are admirably captured by both Ashkenazy and Marriner.

These delightful Cantatas have very familiar tunes that Handel was later to reuse in other works, so many of them are instantly recognisable. They also elicit some of the most visceral singing imaginable from Helen Watts.

This is one of the most sought-after and highly-praised recordings of ‘Hänsel und Gretel’, Engelbert Humperdinck’s everlasting fairy-tale opera. What’s more, the sonics are thrilling and the stellar cast is a veritable Who’s Who of the great opera stars of the 1970s.

These are unashamedly old-fashioned but beautifully clear, performances of these timeless masterpieces. They were recorded in the famed ‘old’ Concertgebouw and the sound of the winds especially – horn (track 3) and oboe (track 2) – are beautifully glowing.