A magnificent tribute to one of the world’s most panoramic cities from the masters of Venetian Renaissance – Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli, respectively, father and son. This collection includes brass fanfares and choral music, resplendently sung and played.
A sprightly recording of Respighi’s wonderful tapestry of Rossini’s music for the ballet stage is coupled with some of the most gorgeous orchestral playing you’ll ever hear in the Chopin/Douglas ‘Les Sylphides’. And to finish off, a much-popularised recording of the ‘Meditation from Thaïs’ – from a young Nigel Kennedy!
The famous ‘Shine’ piano concerto – No. 3 – now appears at budget price in this very romantic performance from one of Decca’s star pianists, Alicia de Larrocha. The coupling is the no-less-difficult and wildly exciting Piano Concerto No. 1 from Peter Katin.
One of the most impassioned accounts of the ‘New World Symphony’ to be committed to disc, is generously coupled with the lyrical Eighth Symphony. Outstanding performances all.
Rich, warm and resounding, the Ferras/Karajan Brahms Violin Concerto has always been one of the mainstays of the catalogue.
The most popular guitar concerto coupled with less well-known but no less charming ones from Spain’s most eloquent masters of the guitar, Siegfried Behrend.
Miniatures for guitar from the Iberian peninsula, performed with style and panache by one of the guitar’s leading exponents, Pepe Romero.
Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’ and I Musici go hand in hand, so much so, that the ensemble has recorded this collection of concertos repeatedly over the years. This is one of the very finest of their recordings and is coupled with two further violin concertos by Vivaldi, performed with the same stylish panache.
Readings of drama and pathos of two of Tchaikovsky’s best-known orchestral masterpieces.
Two of Grieg’s most popular works on a single CD. The ‘Peer Gynt’ excerpts are more extended than those normally encountered on the suites, incorporating both choruses (in ‘In The Hall of the Mountain King’, for example) and songs (those of Solveig). To finish, Marriner directs one of the freshest performances of the zestful ‘Holberg […]
From some of the best Debussy recordings in the DG catalogue, this collection brings together some of the most popular pieces by this composer in tranquil, gleaming performances.
Lorin Maazel’s early DG and Decca recordings were landmarks and this disc offers what is unquestionably two of the finest performances of these two symphonies. The Fifth has really thunderbolt impact and the Berlin strings and winds in the ‘Pastoral’ sing gloriously
