Newly compiled for the first time, the Decca career of a pre-eminent Mozart conductor, complemented by his recordings for Deutsche Grammophon and Westminster. Peter Maag began his career as a pianist, but turned to conducting with the encouragement of Wilhelm Furtwangler. He made his first Decca recording having lately turned 30, with the Suisse Romande […]
Four 1950s Decca records of popular English music, newly remastered and issued complete for the first time on CD. Better than anyone else, Eric Coates and Sir Noël Coward captured the moods of middle-class, mid-century England at its most optimistic – and in other ways most nostalgic, comforting their audiences and distracting them from their […]
Three Decca albums of popular Romantic classics, remastered complete for CD and compiled for the first time. Recorded at London’s Kingsway Hall early in 1957 and first released in the US by RCA Victor, ‘Overtures in Spades’ was a collection of operatic openers that enjoyed more popular currency then than they do now: Suppé’s ‘Light […]
Issued in the US under the title ‘Witches’ Brew’, Alexander Gibson and the New Symphony Orchestra of London recorded this album in 1959 and the performances remain today as characterful and incisive as they were then. While pieces from this recording have previously appeared on Decca, this is its first complete release on the label. […]
Aromatherapy, the quiet moments of classical music. And the fifth volume, The Heart of Tchaikovsky, showcases classical music’s ultimate Romantic, his music often a reflection of his passionate, sometimes torrid life. From the love theme of ‘Romeo and Juliet’, to music from his ballet, ‘The Nutcracker’ and the core of his First String Quartet (Andante cantabile), […]
Aromatherapy, the quiet moments of classical music. And in the second volume, Romantic Bach, discover why as a Baroque composer his music transcends time, place and genres. This collection offers the quiet moments of Bach’s music – piano transcriptions of his chorale preludes; slow movements from concertos and beloved moments from his Cantatas.
Aromatherapy, the quiet moments of classical music. And the first volume, Music for Relaxation, offers a miscellany of classical pieces from piano (the first movement of Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight’ Sonata) to orchestral music by Grieg, Elgar and Borodin.
The three orchestral song cycles collected here are central to the Britten canon of recorded repertoire and whereas Pears’ other recordings of the ‘Serenade’ and ‘Les Illuminations’ (with Boyd Neel and Benjamin Britten as conductors) have been in circulation, this mono recording with Goossens receives its first and much-anticipated release on CD. All three recordings […]
Newly mastered from the original tapes and released on Decca for the first time, this Maag release couples the familiar ‘Posthorn Serenade’ with the lesser known D major, KV 203.
All of the few Britten recordings made by Eugene Goosse in 1953, have now been released on Decca Eloquence. Remodelled on themes he wrote as a boy, the ‘Simple Symphony’s’ undeniable charm and charisma have ensured it a constant place in repertoire enjoyed not only by children but by adults too. Much the same goes […]
The music on this pair of CDs falls into one of two categories: ballet music from an opera, or ballet music that was not originally intended for dancing at all, but that was subsequently adapted for that purpose. (The exception is Don Quixote, a full-length ballet with an original score.) Many famous conductors had unusual […]
Julius Katchen recorded two Mozart piano concertos with Peter Maag and they both appear on this CD, together with the Six German Dances, KV 509 – ‘a magnificent example of the power of a genuinely charismatic conductor’ as Tully Potter notes in his liner notes. Katchen first entered Decca’s London studios in 1947 and was […]
