Two celebrated recordings in the Decca catalogue, in performances of pathos, sweep and grandeur. Mehta’s ‘Enigma’ has been ranked as among the very finest in a highly competitive catalogue.

Re-released to mark the centenary of Noel Coward’s birth, this has for long been a ‘cult’ Coward album the world over. Its special significance to Australia, besides the obvious participation of Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge, is its inclusion of other Australian singers in some of the ensemble pieces, among them Margreta Elkins and Morag […]

Besides Verdi, Puccini was the other great nineteenth-century Italian opera composer. This anthology brings together favourite arias and ensemble pieces from his operas. All the most famous are represented – ‘Bohème, Butterfly, Tosca, Gianni Schicchi…’ And of course the performers are the greatest operatic stars you can think of having all on a single CD!

This is surely one of the most elegant, heart-warming recordings of ‘The Marriage of Figaro’, capturing the singers – and the conductor – at the peak of their profession. A choice collection of highlights.

Has there ever been a more quicksilver version of the ‘Trout Quintet’? We doubt it! Ingrid Haebler’s effortless pianism and Artur Grumiaux’s airy playing are a match made in heaven. As is the combination of Jack Brymer and the Allegri Quartet in one of Mozart’s most sublime pieces, the Clarinet Quintet in A major.

Highlights from the dream-cast recording of ‘Così’, with the ultimate Mozart orchestra, ‘the VPO’, at the helm under the direction of Böhm – one of the most perceptive Mozarteans of our time.

Three of Respighi’s most colourful and popular orchestral works in truly legendary performances. Both ‘Pines’ and ‘Fountains’ are massive orchestral scores evoking the named sights of Rome. ‘The Birds’ is based on music by Respighi’s Baroque predecessors and is a delightful, tuneful evocation of an earlier time in gleaming orchestrations.

With its beautiful slow movement, ‘Adagietto’, used in the film ‘Death in Venice’, this symphony achieved immortality and the widest listening public. But the rest of it too is wonderful stuff – dramatic, searing, thrilling. This is also one of its most dramatic performances and a benchmark in the discography of this work.

Sir Adrian Boult made some pioneering Decca recordings, among them symphonies and other orchestral works of Vaughan Williams. Having had first-hand experience of the composer, his recordings have an authority in our age that is virtually unequalled. The music on this CD contrasts Blake’s visions of darkness in ‘Job’ with the hilarious ‘Wasps Suite’, with […]

The ubiquitous Pachelbel Canon starts off this delightful collection of Baroque favourites. Three virtual one-hit wonders – Pachelbel, Albinoni, Boccherini – meet Mozart’s dad, the reputedly sour-puss Leopold, who here, takes off his wig and summons a collection of toys to partake in the Haydn-attributed ‘Toy Symphony’.

Karl Böhm and Mozart’s ‘Magic Flute’ were synonymous in the world of opera and this is the first of two studio recordings he made of the work together with soloists who were star performers at the Vienna State Opera at the time. All the favourite arias, duets and choruses are included.

Although Sutherland and Bonynge gave many memorable performances of ‘The Merry Widow’ on stage, they never recorded it completely. However, this recording – sung in English – offers a choice collection of the opera’s ‘greatest hits’, including ‘Vilja’, the famous waltz and some of the big scenes in the operetta.