PhilomusicaSeveral Eloquence releases have celebrated the pellucid timbre and vivid characterisation of the British soprano’ Jennifer Vyvyan. ‘A treasury to treasure’ was the BBC Music Magazine’s verdict on ‘Songs of England’ (482 5045), a L’Oiseau Lyre recital from 1953. Four years later, she took part in the first complete recording of Purcell’s masque, ‘The Fairy […]
‘From Melba to Sutherland: Australian Singers on Record’ is the first-ever comprehensive survey of the recordings of Australia’s greatest singers – in a unique, new, 4CD set from Decca, complete with biographies of each of the 80 artists, rare photographs, all contained within a 68-page booklet. Why has there been such an extraordinary procession of […]
A superb collection of four complete Britten orchestral masterpieces in performances that have been lauded over and over again. The ‘Simple Symphony’ is engagingly done, the virtuosity in the ‘Frank Bridge Variations’, not to mention state-of-the-art sound engineering, has never been exceeded and the two Van Beinum recordings have a wonderful nobility to them.
This much sought-after recording of folksong arrangements, recorded by their creator Benjamin Britten with his partner, the tenor Peter Pears in 1959 and 1961, was one of Decca’s most prized recordings. Now, after a considerable period of absence from the catalogue, it is reinstated on Eloquence.
Aromatherapy, the quiet moments of classical music. And the seventh volume, Reflections in the Water, is the ultimate tranquility! Water is a force of nature that inspired composers to some of their most languid compositions, from the Baroque (Handel’s Water Music written for a royal party held on a barge) to Impressionistic (the aqueous ripples and shimmer […]
The names of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears are forever linked by their personal and creative partnership. Composer and interpreter have rarely enjoyed so long-standing or fruitful relationship. They met and became friends in 1937 while going through the papers of a mutual friend who had accidentally died. Within a couple of years, they had […]
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 […]
A beautiful collection of Purcell favourites, both from recent times with artists of the calibre of Emma Kirkby and Christopher Hogwood, to such Purcell champions of the mid-20th century as Benjamin Britten, whose rousing arrangement and performance of the ‘Chaconne in G minor’ is here included.
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 […]
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 […]
A composer with an extraordinary ear for sonority, original in his outlook, sometimes misunderstood, now revered, Percy Grainger is one of Australia’s most unique sons, and, in the words of Sir Peter Pears, one of its “most independent and single-minded spirits”. Many of these recordings, of vocal and chamber orchestra pieces, were made by Decca […]
An inspired arrangement between Decca and Imogen Holst, led to a series of pioneering recordings of her father Gustave Holst’s music, which appeared on Argo and are now comprehensively released on CD as part of the Eloquence series. This collection opens with the Pears/Britten recording of a substantial English song cycle never before published on […]
