Commissioned for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and dedicated to Georg Solti, ‘Final Alice’ is scored for gargantuan forces and is based on the last two chapters of ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’. It has been described by the composer as a ‘grand concerto for voice and orchestra’and an ‘opera written in concert form’. The solo part […]
Now considered one of the most important of 19th-century symphonists, during his lifetime, Bruckner was the subject of incomprehension and ridicule. Georg Solti made two recordings of this symphonic edifice. While his Chicago recording has been in regular circulation, this much-requested reissue of the Seventh with the Vienna Philharmonic has lain dormant for far too […]
The three sonatas recorded here are linked not only by the date of their composition – the war years 1917-18 – but also because they are important in their composers’ respective oeuvres. Having left war-struck London, Elgar found refuge in his Sussex cottage to work on three of his most significant chamber works, including the […]
‘The veteran Swiss conductor was a fine Brahms conductor’ wrote Gramophone magazine and as these recordings prove, he was indeed. The majority of these recordings make their first international debut on CD, following repeated requests by Ansermet fans around the world. Classically poised, yet Romantically generous in their spirit, they make a welcome appearance on […]
As an eleven-year-old in 1895, Wilhelm Backhaus met and performed for D’Albert, Grieg, Nikisch and Brahms, among others. Here was a pianist who shunned hectoring gestures of the late Romantic era for economy and purposefulness. ‘His facial expression always remained steady, showing an unceasing concentration on the sounds his hands were coaxing from the instrument […]
Borodin’s second and third symphonies plus the Overture and Polovstian Dances from Prince Igor and ‘In the Steppes of Central Asia’ collected on a single CD. This is all of Ernest Ansermet’s Borodin recordings for Decca; recordings widely praised for their dynamism and thrust.
A rare foray for Ansermet into the Baroque era. Henri Helaerts and Roger Reversy were principal winds with the Suisse Romande and their solo work appears in many an orchestral work in his recordings. For this collection of Baroque concertos, Helaerts is soloist in two Vivaldi Bassoon Concertos recorded 16 years apart – in 1952 […]
Bach’s music featured early in Ansermet’s career and he conducted the fourth Orchestral Suite in his last concert. Playing Bach in the 1960s was not quite the affair it is today but it would be false to assume that Ansermet’s Bach is the bloated, romanticised affair that was current in the 1960s. While his readings […]
A collection of four of the most popular of Mozart’s sonatas, including the Alla Turca with its famous Rondo finale and the C major, KV545, sometimes called ‘for beginners’ and certainly played by many of them. Haebler delivers suitably eloquent performances.
Made early in Edo de Waart’s recording career with the superb Netherlands Wind Ensemble – probably the leading wind ensemble in the world – these are gloriously rich and autumnally-hued performances of two of Mozart’s greatest Serenades, coupled with a little-known Adagio.
A superb collection of four complete Britten orchestral masterpieces in performances that have been lauded over and over again. The ‘Simple Symphony’ is engagingly done, the virtuosity in the ‘Frank Bridge Variations’, not to mention state-of-the-art sound engineering, has never been exceeded and the two Van Beinum recordings have a wonderful nobility to them.
This ‘Best Of’ features complete works and in some of their most energetic performances. Mehta & Co raise the roof with their ‘Organ Symphony’ and Dutoit & Co have the best fun in ‘Carnival’. The recording is rounded off with two of the most popular pieces for violin and orchestra inimitably performed by Kyung Wha […]
