Reissued to mark Colin Davis’s 80th birthday, this sublime Philips recording of ‘Dido and Aeneas’ makes a welcome return to the catalogue. The honeyed sound of its protagonists – Josephine Veasey (whom Colin Davis also chose as the Dido for his recording of Berlioz’s ‘Les Troyens’) and John Shirley-Quirk – is offset by a chaste-sounding Helen […]
Charles Mackerras’s warm and voluble Elgar recordings bring one of the most stirring ‘Enigmas’ on record, a reflective yet resolute Cello Concerto and a disc of pieces of music inspired by childhood. A very young Bryn Terfel is a highlight on the ‘Starlight Express’ songs.
As a follow-up to the best selling Deutsche Grammophon disc of Gregorian Chant (DG Eloquence 457 2932), this reissue returns a sublime Philips recording of Byzantine Chant to the catalogue.
Britten’s stately and clear-sighted readings of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos begin a program that continues with a group of rarities. Much requested and finally available on CD, is the complete 1953 Opening Concert of the Aldeburgh Festival in which Britten and Imogen Holst shared the conducting honours. In addition to the anthems (in which the soloists […]
One of Joan Sutherland’s last records was a disc of trios for soprano, horn and piano. All the music is virtually unknown (and texts/English translations are included), all of it charming and lovingly performed by the trio of Australians.
Kertész’ orchestral Mozart has been well documented on Eloquence with many releases appearing on CD for the first time. Now, restored to the catalogue, is his dramatic, muscular reading of the ‘Requiem’. Stretching to 79 minutes, the disc is filled out with selections from the composer’s Masonic Music, with the ‘Maurerische Trauermusik’ bearing an uncanny resemblance […]
Continuing its exploration of Britten rarities,this Decca Eloquence release features Peter Pears as both tenor as well as director (of the Wilbye Consort) and the much-loved harpist Osian Ellis. While the Pears/Britten recording of Britten’s folk song arrangements is well known, the recording with Pears and Ellis is a decided rarity. Using this as a […]
Colin Davis recorded Handel’s ‘Messiah’ twice for Philips – in the 1960s with an English cast and then in the 1980s with British soprano and tenor soloists, a German alto and an American bass, not to mention a German orchestra and chorus. It’s a warm and voluble reading and was for a short while available […]
As with his Seventh symphony, Bruckner began his Eighth without a commission and without any specific promise that it would be performed. Nowadays, it’s one of his most often performed symphonies. It also happens to be his longest symphony – one, with its sheer breath of scope, asks for the listener to adjust his or […]
Frederick Fennell and the Eastman Wind Ensemble were one of the pioneering ensembles, inextricably associated with Mercury Living Presence and boasting some of the finest wind players in the United States. This rare recording which includes the much-requested ‘Lincolnshire Posy’, features seminal 20th-century music for this ensemble, not easily found elsewhere.
While Mozart is regularly touted as a teenage wonder, experts say there’s nothing he wrote as a teenager that could rival Mendelssohn’s Octet – a work beloved of audiences and ensembles alike. One of Decca’s earliest digital recordings was of the string orchestra version of this piece by the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. Lusciously […]
This and the other two 2CD sets – 4800834 and 4800837 – represent all of Ansermet’s Prokofiev recordings for Decca (with the exception of a mono recording of the March & Scherzo from The Love for Three Oranges – the stereo version appears here).
