The first CD release of these recordings of showpieces for solo instruments and orchestra. All of the pieces are performed by the gifted members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic with the exception of the Bloch piece, one of Mehta’s earliest Decca recordings in which the solo cellist is János Starker. Here are spirited recordings of Haydn’s […]
The Weber Clarinet Quintet is well known and it’s good to welcome back this recording to the catalogue, notable especially for the wonderful clarinet playing of Gervase de Peyer. But the real finds on this recording are the superb Septet and Quintet of Hummel. The Piano Concertos of Hummel are now becoming a little more […]
A thrilling performance of Bruckner’s Sixth in a recording that has long languished in the archives. It is coupled with Stein’s legendary Weber performances.
Gervase de Peyer was one of the leading clarinet players in the 1960s, making several recordings as both soloist and chamber-music player for L’Oiseau-Lyre. Three of his most critically-acclaimed recordings – concertos by Mozart, Weber and Spohr – are offered here, all performed with the London Symphony Orchestra.
A thrilling collection of Overtures and Preludes (with some popular orchestral pieces thrown in for good measure) from Zubin Mehta. As a showman of the best variety, his recordings remain one of the Decca catalogue’s richest legacies with more than half of this collection released on CD for the first time.
Following the warmly-embraced reissue on Decca Eloquence of Horst Stein’s reading of Bruckner’s sixth symphony, we now follow with the Second. As with the sixth, the couplings are music by Weber. Another much-requested reissue, this will be warmly welcomed by collectors and represent some of the best Bruckner performances of all time.
Two slimmer works of Austro-German chamber repertoire – Mozart’s popular ‘Kegelstatt’ (Skittles) Trio and Weber’s lesser known but quite virtuoso, Flute Trio, preface Brahms’s magnificent Horn Trio on these rare L’Oiseau-Lyre recordings from The Melos Ensemble. All represent first releases on CD.
The Decca Ansermet Legacy on Eloquence continues to garner the highest plaudits from publications all around the world. And the latest batch presents the maestro’s recordings of four key Austro-German Romantics: Schubert, Weber, Mendelssohn and Schumann, bringing together all of Ansermet’s Weber recordings for Decca. Weber’s overtures possess an irresistible panache, being a perfect blend […]
One of the greatest joys for a music lover is to discover repertoire that one has not yet heard from a composer whose music one believes one was largely familiar. Beethoven’s folk song settings are truly a treat; this is easily the least familiar and least appreciated realm of his considerable output. What is probably […]
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 […]
During the 1950s, Karl Böhm made a handful of orchestral recordings for Decca with the Wiener Philharmoniker of music by, among others, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms Schubert and Weber. The Brahms Symphony is performed with sweep and with classical poise and the music is clearly in the Viennese players’ blood (after all, they premiered the symphony […]
During the 1950s, 60s and 70s, Decca recorded a number of albums of overtures with some of its key conductors. Many of these were singled out by the press for their terrific sound quality (the fabled ‘Decca Sound’) and for their often adventurous programming. Some of them also included entr’actes and intermezzi. Prized as collectors’ […]
