A major addition to the Ansermet discography: vividly coloured repertoire for which the conductor was renowned, in stereo recordings previously unreleased in any format. One of the greatest conductors of the last century, Ernest Ansermet got the whole world listening to new music by composers who were often personal friends: among them Debussy, Stravinsky (most […]
Three of Respighi’s most colourful and popular orchestral works in truly legendary performances. Both ‘Pines’ and ‘Fountains’ are massive orchestral scores evoking the named sights of Rome. ‘The Birds’ is based on music by Respighi’s Baroque predecessors and is a delightful, tuneful evocation of an earlier time in gleaming orchestrations.
Appearing on CD for the first time, Lamberto Gardelli’s Pizzetti recording has been one of the most venerated in the Decca catalogue, not only because the music is comparatively rare but because the recording is true state-of-the-art. The music has Gallic charm and a Stravinskian sense of razor-sharp wit, not to mention a fascinating storyline […]
This release gathers together – under the perceptive and sympathetic musicianship of Ernest Ansermet – a selection of music by (and refashioned by) Ottorino Respighi with a very high quotient of colour, atmosphere, rhythmic vitality and touching lyricism. ‘The Fountains of Rome’ and ‘The Pines of Rome’ are two-thirds of the composer’s Roman Trilogy (the third […]
Five composers, three LPs … an all-Italian, all-rare, 2CD compendium. Fernando Previtali’s orchestral recordings for Decca of music by Respighi, Casella, Ghedini, Petrassi and Casella were recorded in July 1956 and had a relatively short lifespan. Other than Respighi’s ‘Pines of Rome’, the remaining music was then – as it is now – largely unfamiliar […]
‘If I were condemned to hear only one voice for the remainder of my life I think it might well be hers. If I wanted to be charmed, to laugh or cry I would find her the perfect companion. In her singing … we hear someone whose every utterance bespeaks natural sincerity and truthful feeling’ […]
It is difficult to dissociate the pure, warm tones of Renata Tebaldi’s voice from her usual operatic repertoire – the heroines of the Italian lyric stage of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries which, thanks to her exceptional vocal and dramatic endowment, she interpreted so superbly. That these unforgettable portrayals were not just the product […]
