From Adam to Zandonai, from 1954 to 1996, 20 CDs made up of no less than 28 Decca opera recordings, most of them recorded as highlights albums, many long unavailable, newly remastered and all featuring the greatest singers of their age. In bygone years, before 24/7 streaming, recorded music was less readily available than it […]
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 […]
No expense was spared to mount the first production of ‘Le Corsaire’ at the Théâtre Impérial de l’Opéra in Paris early in 1856. Soon finding a permanent home in the Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg thanks to the choreography of Marius Petipa, this full-length ballet quickly became an established classic of the genre. Audiences have […]
No conductor working in the recording studios in the 1960s and beyond did more than Richard Bonynge to recover the sound of the 19th-century ballet, especially in its home of the Paris Opéra-Comique. A central figure in that culture was Adolphe Adam who supplied vaudevilles, ballets, pastiches and comic operas over the course of three […]
While the bulk of Ansermet’s recordings were made with L’Orchestre de la Susise Romande, there were a few with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra and the very occasional foray into recordings with London orchestras. One of these was with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1959 with producer Michael Williamson and engineer Kenneth […]
One of the greatest soprano legends of all time, Nilsson’s 1963 Decca recital with Edward Downes of popular opera arias by Wagner, Weber, Beethoven, et.al. has never been fully issued. Here it is on CD – issued complete for the first time and in the fabled sumptuous Decca sound – coupled with her rare ‘Ah, […]
With this CD, you are in possession of two very special LP recordings which form one of the most sparkling collections of its kind. In short, you have a gem. The concert going public has, alas, been deprived of this once-popular overture repertoire for too long: classical music these days has become a serious business, […]
Following a stream of requests – not least from the conductor himself! – we’ve releasing for the first time on CD internationally, Richard Bonynge’s first (1967/analogue) recording of ‘Giselle’. The enchanting score has even more spontaneity and bounce than Bonynge’s later digital remake for Decca.
The recorded legacy of Albert Wolff is one of the most sought-after by collectors. Of Dutch parentage, but born in Paris, Wolff was something of a polymath: pianist, organist, conductor, composer, and had a long career in recording studios beginning in 1920. His first recordings for Decca, starting in the summer of 1951, were a […]
The recorded legacy of Albert Wolff is one of the most sought-after by collectors. Of Dutch parentage, but born in Paris, Wolff was something of a polymath: pianist, organist, conductor, composer, and had a long career in recording studios beginning in 1920. His first recordings for Decca, starting in the summer of 1951, were a […]
While Richard Bonynge has long been associated with opera, particularly with that of the Bel Canto age, he has been one of the most active revivers and conductors of ballet in the 20th and 21st centuries. His recordings of the major Romantic classical ballet scores have been critically acclaimed but he has also been responsible for making […]
