The Dutch contralto, Aafje Heynis, had a dark, rich, altogether unique voice and the story of her discovery in a Holland recovering from the ravages of World War II, told in the booklet notes, is heart-warming indeed… as is this collection put together from several of her recordings. Seven Bach and six Handel arias make […]
Chopin raised the pedagogic ‘study’ (étude) to entirely new levels with his Opp. 10 and 25. Virtuoso studies, testing the technique of any pianist, they are also incredibly poetic works. Here they are unforgettably played by Nikita Magaloff. The ‘Trois Nouvelles Études’, three tiny gems that were posthumously published, complete this oeuvre.
This CD, originally issued on the newly-relaunched Argo label in the 1990s, now reappears on Australian Eloquence. As a demonstration disc of orchestral music, it is supreme. But it’s also interesting for its breadth of repertoire and its inclusion of many lesser-known orchestral works. For lovers of sultry, seductive and even angry Latin American music, […]
Imposing recordings of the ‘Coronation Mass’ and the ‘Vespers’ (which includes the famous ‘Laudate dominum’) plus Erna Spoorenberg, radiant in the ‘Exsultate, jubilate’.
These magnificent recordings of the Ravel Piano Concertos have taken a far too long leave of absence from the Decca catalogue and are now back, with generous Faure and Franck couplings. Beautifully recorded sound too.
The fearsomely, devilishly virtuosic Caprices of Paganini represent a technical and artistic Mount Everest for the violin. No. 24 has been popularly used as a basis of sets of variations by Liszt, Rachmaninov, Lutoslawski, Blacher and many others. Here, the Caprices are performed in the unusual arrangement for violin and piano, made by Schumann. They […]
These wonderful performances of Haydn’s Piano Trios – eight in all, across the two volumes – have long been unavailable.
This happy assembly of pianists and conductors share the honours for these three Mozart concertos, making a welcome return to the Decca catalogue.
Zubin Mehta has had a long association with the Vienna Philharmonic, conducting them for his first ever recording for Decca (Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony – Decca Eloquence 461 3572) and returning often to conduct them both in their home city and on tour. Collected here for the first time are his complete Decca recordings of Schumann […]
There is a celebrated letter from the year 1810 in which Bettina Brentano enthuses to the poet Goethe about a recent meeting with Beethoven. ‘When I open my eyes’, Beethoven had announced to her, ‘I must sigh … I must despise the world which does not know that music is a higher revelation than all […]
From Roussel’s delightful tribute to the animal kingdom in ‘Le festin de l’araignée’ via two of Dukas’ symphonic masterpieces (‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ in state-of-the-art sound) to Chausson’s powerful and massive Symphony in B flat, this generous anthology in the ‘Decca Ansermet Legacy’ features the conductor in music he knew intimately and performed inimitably.
This volume of Debussy’s dramatic works and ballet music is dedicated, by and large, to ‘rarities’ by the composer. Few of Debussy’s works have divided critical opinion more than ‘Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien’, banned as it was by the Archbishop of Paris six days before its premiere. The beautiful, rarefied ‘Six Épigraphes Antiques’ were […]
