Marilyn Horne’s plum-tinged mezzo and the music of Mahler are inseparable. So far, only the ‘Fahrenden Gesellen’ songs and the ‘Kindertotenlieder’ have made their way to CD (now deleted), so it is appropriate to collect on a single CD, the three masterpieces all performed by the same artist. The ‘Rückert-Lieder’ make their first appearance on […]

Georg Solti’s reading of ‘Tristan und Isolde’, is one of the most thrilling experiences of this opera on record, moving from becalmed to frenzied. The prominence of the orchestral playing – and what playing from the Vienna Philharmonic – is explained by producer John Culshaw as being very clearly indicated in the score by Wagner […]

Venerated for their perky, piquant performances and the ripe, rich Decca sound, Walter Weller’s thrilling readings of Shostakovich’s Symphonies 1 & 9 have long been on the reissue request list. Now, they appear on CD for the first time coupled with another Decca classic of earlier vintage – Martinon’s ‘Age of Gold’ suite.

Following the warmly-embraced reissue on Decca Eloquence of Horst Stein’s reading of Bruckner’s sixth symphony, we now follow with the Second. As with the sixth, the couplings are music by Weber. Another much-requested reissue, this will be warmly welcomed by collectors and represent some of the best Bruckner performances of all time.

With technique to burn but poetry at the fore, Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s recordings of the two Liszt concertos have always held a special affection in many a music-lover’s heart. They are reissued as per the original CD couplings – with the demonic ‘Totentanz’ and the multi-coloured ‘Hungarian Fantasy’.

One of Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s early Decca recitals, these are some of the most engaging and thrilling readings of a program of essentially concert etudes. To the Schumann, Thibaudet places the five posthumous variations as an appendix and his reading of the Brahms Paganini is one of the most scintillating of all.

Wolfgang Holzmair and Imogen Cooper’s lieder partnership is the stuff of dreams and their traversal of the Schumann repertoire has won them international plaudits both for performance as well as the sound engineering on these Philips recordings. Here, brought together for the first time as a collection, is their complete traversal of a vast selection […]

Daniel Barenboim’s sumptuous performances of English music have long been favourites and here they are beautifully remastered with state-of-the-art technology for this release. Pinchas Zukerman’s performance of ‘The Lark Ascending’ is surely a stand-out among recordings of this work (‘beautifully played, highly sympathetic performance’ said Gramophone). What’s more, the addition of Vaughan Williams’s Tuba Concerto, […]

Among the Concertgebouw Orchestra’s first stereo recordings, these Decca sessions were taped in February 1961 and the performances and sound engineering are still as vivid as ever – in fact, quite overwhelming.

A perennial best-seller in the catalogue and much beloved of balletomanes, these vividly recorded ballet masterpieces are restored to the catalogue – and at super-budget price!

A delectable release of some of Schubert’s most popular chamber works, including the two Piano Trios in the famed 1966 performances by the Beaux Arts Trio –  the other-worldly ‘Notturno’ and the early one-movement B flat major Trio, written when the composer was 15. Coupled with these are the first appearances on CD of the […]

Following a stream of requests – not least from the conductor himself! – we’ve releasing for the first time on CD internationally, Richard Bonynge’s first (1967/analogue) recording of ‘Giselle’. The enchanting score has even more spontaneity and bounce than Bonynge’s later digital remake for Decca.