Ruggiero Ricci has enjoyed a varied and colourful discography on Decca and these recordings, are, apart from Prokofiev’s Second Violin Sonata, all comprised of music for solo violin. The Bach pieces date from the 1957 London sessions and the 20th-century pieces were recorded three years later at Victoria Hall in Geneva. Tully Potter’s perceptive liner […]

This was the first of two recordings by Ernest Ansermet of ‘Pelléas et Mélisande’, a work he conducted several times on stage. It was made in April 1952, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the premiere. In his liner notes, Juan Pons observes: ‘In this recording we can hear Ansermet’s best qualities: subtlety, clarity, a […]

This volume of Debussy’s orchestral works under Ernest Ansermet,  brings together all of the composer’s acknowledged masterpieces together with some of the shorter pieces. The rare 1951 recording of ‘Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune’ and the 1949 recording of the ‘Images’ make their first appearance on CD. Ansermet’s second recording of ‘La Mer’ – he also […]

One of Bartók’s most popular symphonic works is his Concerto for Orchestra. Rafael Kubelik’s fabulous recording of it has long been out of the catalogue and is now restored to circulation at budget price. What’s more, it’s the first recording of the piece made by the orchestra for which it was written. Koussevitzky and the […]

This well-filled 2CD set – nearly 2 hours and 40 minutes long – presents Bartók’s major concertos (the Viola Concerto appears on another Eloquence CD). The three Piano Concertos appear in muscular and sumptuously recorded performances (one of the finest examples of Decca’s 1970s engineering at the venerated Kingsway Hall) by Pascal Rogé and Walter […]

The Decca Ansermet Legacy on Eloquence continues to garner the highest plaudits from publications all around the world. And the latest batch presents the maestro’s recordings of four key Austro-German Romantics: Schubert, Weber, Mendelssohn and Schumann, bringing together all of Ansermet’s Weber recordings for Decca. Weber’s overtures possess an irresistible panache, being a perfect blend […]

In 1958, work started on the great ‘Ring’ project with Solti and the Vienna Philharmonic at the helm of a crop of outstanding singers. For the first complete recording of Wagner’s tetralogy and for the first opera, ‘Das Rheingold’, Flagstad was engaged to sing a role she had never performed before, that of Fricka. Producer […]

The third volume of The Flagstad Recitals couples music by Wagner and Mahler. Flagstad’s LP of Wagner scenes recorded with Hans Knappertsbusch is complemented by the ‘Todesverkündigung’ from Act II of ‘Die Walküre’ with Sir Georg Solti as well as the ‘Immolation Scene’ from ‘Götterdämmerung’ from a Norwegian broadcast performance conducted by Øivin Fjeldstad. Also […]

The fourth volume in ‘The Flagstad Recitals’, comprises two LPs Kirsten Flagstad made with the London Philharmonic and Sir Adrian Boult in December 1956 (Bach and Handel: CD2) and April 1957 (Sacred Songs: CD1) at London’s Kingsway Hall. The Penguin Guide to bargain Compact Discs praised the ‘sacred pops’ CD for the ‘vivid projection’ of […]

The Decca Ansermet Legacy on Eloquence continues to garner the highest plaudits from publications all around the world. And the latest batch presents the maestro’s recordings of four key Austro-German Romantics: Schubert, Weber, Mendelssohn and Schumann bringing together all of Ansermet’s Mendelssohn and Schubert recordings for Decca. Adopting clarity and muscularity over homogeneity, Ansermet’s Mendelssohn […]

The Decca Ansermet Legacy on Eloquence continues to garner the highest plaudits from publications all around the world .And this batch presents the maestro’s recordings of four key Austro-German Romantics: Schubert, Weber, Mendelssohn and Schumann bringing together all of Ansermet’s Schumann recordings for Decca. Ansermet’s Schumann is generally unforced and relaxed with all but the Piano […]

Between 1958 and 1960, Flagstad served as general manager of the Norwegian National Opera which had been newly established the year before. From her home in Kristiansand, she travelled to many Norwegian churches and sang small concerts there. These concerts were the result of radio broadcasts and recordings of Norwegian hymns – or, more accurately […]