The high spirits of the opening movement of Haydn’s String Quartet, Op. 77 No. 1 are totally infectious and the playing of the ‘original’ Takacs Quartet is without peer – with sweep and a vocalism so particular to their ensemble.
Recorded in the splendidly-lush acoustic of Winchester Cathedral, this popular Decca/Argo release is now restored to circulation at super-budget price with such popular favourites as Parry’s ‘I was glad’ and Elgar’s orchestration of ‘Jerusalem’. But there are also many other pieces for choir and orchestra here to be discovered.
The program on this CD is composed of various liturgical songs, arranged around four different themes within the Jewish year: the high festivals, the three main festivals, the Sabbath and Hanukah.
These 1970s recordings make their first appearance on CD in this compilation and are masterfully performed by the Beaux Arts Trio and Walter Trampler. Dvorak’s two piano quartets have lain in the shade of his glorious Op. 81 Piano Quintet but where this composer’s chamber music is concerned, beautiful surprises await the listener who steps […]
These vocal works are mostly late Haydn and the performances are based on texts derived from recent scholarship. ‘Arianna a Naxos’ was written with keyboard accompaniment; Haydn intended to orchestrate it but never got around to it. This version is a collation of two anonymous orchestrations, plus ‘vocal embellishments and cadenzas’ presumably by H. C. Robbins […]
Quintessential mezzo-soprano, Marilyn Horne, treats us to a program of great songs from ‘The American Songbook’ – a veritable quilt of many-coloured delights. The arrangements range from the delicate to the lush and the mood ranges from racy fun to religiously uplifting. This CD, one of Decca’s first releases on compact disc, has been excerpted […]
A treasury of some of the greatest Lehar recordings from the Decca catalogue, this CD encompasses the entire LP with Holm, Krenn and Paulik plus Pilar Lorengar singing arias from ‘Eva’ and ‘Gypsy Love’. It’s a model of sugar-encrusted elegance of a bygone era.
One of Riccardo Chailly’s first recordings with the Concertgebouw, reissued at super-budget price and marking the conductor’s glorious tenure with this magnificent orchestra, this disc provides a fascinating picture of Ravel the Orchestrator. For those after thrilling recordings of ‘Bolero’ and ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ this is a self-recommending recording but the rare gems by […]
In 1977, Decca released an LP entitled ‘Concertos from Spain’ which coupled two contemporary piano concertos – one by Montsalvatge (‘Concerto Breve’, written for Alicia de Larrocha) and the other, Surinach’s Piano Concerto. The Surinach recording – he was a kind of Spanish Khachaturian – has never before been released on CD. Taking advantage of the […]
The ‘Stabat Mater’ was one of those works which served to promote Haydn’s reputation in the rest of Europe, for a successful performance in Paris in April 1781 was followed by a lengthy and highly complimentary article in ‘Le Mercure de France’, publication of the full score in London (1783) and Paris (1785) and a […]
For a variety of reasons, the Romantic piano concerto remains one of the most engaging ambassadors for classical music. In the collective mind of the world audience, the names of Tchaikovsky, Liszt and Rachmaninov are synonymous with large and spectacular musical works during which a symphony orchestra and a dazzling pianist are set to engage […]
The glorious performances on this CD have never before been available on CD (outside Japan). Taking full advantage of the Gewandhaus’ characteristic aural glow, these readings will soon work themselves to the top of the list of the complete Brahms symphony cycles. ‘Symphony No. 1’ receives a monumental performance with some delicious violin and oboe […]
