Among Abbado’s first recordings, these performances of two of Mendelssohn’s favourite symphonies are some of the most sparkling and vivid to have been recorded. They date from 1968 when Abbado was under contract to Decca and have remained benchmark recommendations for these works ever since
As one of the releases in our ‘Primavera Series’, featuring illustrations by the gifted artists whose work has been displayed at the annual Primavera Exhibition in Sydney, it is appropriate that this CD should be adorned by a series of illustrations that make up Victoria Lobregat’s ‘Cloud of Flowers’. The music itself could hardly have […]
Eschewing the barn-storming bravura of some of his colleagues, Claudio Arrau brought an extra dimension – a spiritual, meditative one – to his performances of Liszt and these recordings of the Concertos unfold with unequalled grandeur. Equally compelling are his expansive readings of the three ‘Études de Concert’.
This is a classic recording from 1968, of Leoncavallo’s one-act, grisly tale of ‘live’ murder during a village stage production. This is ‘verismo’ at its finest and most potent and the star-studded cast gives a thrilling, edge-of-the-seat performance.
The first release on CD of favourite soprano arias recorded by Leona Mitchell for Decca with simply ravishing orchestral playing to boot.
Belgian violinist, Arthur Grumiaux, brings his sublime artistry to four French compositions from the nineteenth century, some inspired by aspects of Spain, including Lalo’s five-movement ‘Symphonie espagnole’ and Ravel’s spicy ‘Tzigane’.
One of Radu Lupu’s earliest Decca recordings, this couples two of Beethoven’s most dramatic C minor works. The performance with Lawrence Foster receives its first CD release while the C minor Variations have, time and again, been recognised as classic recordings.
Beethoven’s earliest piano concerto (although the second to be published) is here coupled with the first CD release of Mehta’s ‘Creatures of Prometheus’. And what a performance it is, full of fire and delicacy.
Some of the most poetic readings of these concertos. Lupu and Mehta bring freshness and vitality to No. 1 while No. 4 receives one of its most lucid readings on record with its famous opening, phrased with perhaps unequalled beauty.
This is simply sublime! Kempff’s transcriptions of Bach, Handel and Gluck aren’t that often heard, yet his way with such favourites as ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’, ‘Nun komm’ der Heiden Heiland’, ‘In dulci jubilo’, two pieces from Gluck’s ‘Orfeo’ and the unforgettable Handel G minor Minuet are ravishing! In addition, Kempff performs two great […]
One of the peaks of the choral repertoire, the ‘St. Matthew Passion’ remains one of Bach’s most recorded (and popular) works. This recording is special, not only for its simplicity and reverential glow but also because the international cast of soloists (German, Dutch, English), all at the peak of their careers, seem so inspired and so […]
On the back of one of Eloquence’s most applauded and best-selling CDs – that of Dutch contralto, Aafje Heynis, singing Bach and Handel – comes a recording of her as the centrepiece in two Bach Cantatas and seven sublime but rarely-performed Sacred Songs. The piece de resistance is of course, Vergnugte Ruh (‘Contented Rest’), here […]
