With this CD, you are in possession of two very special LP recordings which form one of the most sparkling collections of its kind. In short, you have a gem. The concert going public has, alas, been deprived of this once-popular overture repertoire for too long: classical music these days has become a serious business, […]

Here, for the first time on CD, are Boris Belkin’s sizzling accounts of the two Prokofiev Concertos. Kirill Kondrashin was meant to conduct them both but his untimely death meant that Rudolf Barshai had to step onto the podium to conduct the Second. As a coupling you have a veritable Hi-Fi Spectacular – few recordings […]

Not all of Bach’s Cantatas were written for Sunday service. Here is a pair of humorous offerings performed with great charisma by the husband-wife duo of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Julia Varady.

One of Bruckner’s most sublime Adagios is to be found in this String Quintet and a comparative rarity is his contemporary Franz Schmidt’s G minor Piano Quintet. Long unavailable on Decca, this is something of a connoisseur’s item, now restored to circulation and at super-budget price.

The sequence of Italian operas on this recording take us from the birth of opera at the end of the sixteenth century to the first flowerings of the Classical period nearly 200 years later. The extraordinary power and agility of Dmitri Hvorostovsky’s voice comes fully into its own on this recording, allowing for a richness […]

Spanish pianist, Alicia de Larrocha’s first recording of Beethoven’s Emperor is a grand and thrilling affair and here receives its first release on CD. The pairing is Beethoven’s own arrangement of his Violin Concerto, for piano and orchestra and it is played with tremendous elan and style by Olli Mustonen. Note the first movement cadenza, […]

A wonderful collection of Franck tone poems, most of them drawn from Daniel Barenboim’s now deleted recordings for Deutsche Grammophon and adding the wonderfully airborne Ansermet performance of ‘Les Eolides’. Try the sheer orchestral terror of ‘Le Chasseur Maudit’ (‘The Accursed Huntsman’) or the blazing brass of ‘Redemption’ for sonic thrills or revel in the […]

The Weber Clarinet Quintet is well known and it’s good to welcome back this recording to the catalogue, notable especially for the wonderful clarinet playing of Gervase de Peyer. But the real finds on this recording are the superb Septet and Quintet of Hummel. The Piano Concertos of Hummel are now becoming a little more […]

Kurt Masur’s invigorating and warm-hearted accounts of the Brahms Hungarian Dances are welcomed back to the catalogue.

Purists might squirm but purists should think again. As Raymond Tuttle says in his background notes to this unique release, ‘When purists complain about Bach played on the piano, they also need to be reminded that, as these five concertos were not written for the keyboard in the first place, one might argue that any […]

These peerless recordings of Oboe Concertos are despatched with beautiful clarity by Ernest Rombout both playing the oboe and directing the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra.

Colin Davis’ Sibelius is well-known and regarded but surprisingly some key Sibelius recordings of his with the Boston Symphony have never made it to CD. These include ‘Pohjola’s Daughter’ and ‘En saga’. His ‘Karelia Suite’ is rare at best. Together with Valse Triste’ and ‘Tapiola’, these make up an excellent disc of Sibelius Tone Poems.