Posts tagged as "ernest-ansermet"

Jeanne Demessieux – The Decca Legacy

February 11, 2021

From her legendary debut through the succeeding years, Jeanne Demessieux brought virtuosity allied to intellect and sensitivity, and went on to become the glory of the French organ school. This 8-CD celebration of one of the instrument’s most spoken-of, yet enigmatic figures, brings together for the first time her complete Decca recordings and a previously […]

Helen Watts – Lieder Recital

July 15, 2019

Presented on CD for the first time and newly remastered, a pair of Romantic Lieder recitals by the Welsh contralto who inherited the mantle of Kathleen Ferrier. The history of British contraltos on record, stretches back to Constance Shacklock and before her Dame Clara Butt but it was Ferrier who defined the sound of that […]

Ansermet Encores

January 14, 2019

A generous compilation of short pieces either recorded individually or extracted from the Decca discography of Ernest Ansermet. Included is a complete ten-inch LP of encores entitled ‘Orchestral Favourites’ and containing pieces by Falla, Chabrier, Mussorgsky and Debussy. This dates from October 1955, near the beginning of Decca’s stereo catalogue whereas the rest of the […]

Martin: Orchestral works

July 6, 2018

Ernest Ansermet’s complete Decca recordings of Frank Martin. The Swiss conductor regarded his countryman, Frank Martin as one of the two great composers of his time. He rejected the atonal system of music as ‘without musical meaning’ and even, late in life, turned against Igor Stravinsky whom he had championed earlier in his career. In […]

Debussy, Dukas: Orchestral works

June 13, 2018

‘La  Mer’  was a signature work for Ernst Ansermet. He made four recordings of Debussy’s trilogy of symphonic sketches through the course of his career. The first and second of them, from 1947 and 1951, have been made available in new remasterings by Eloquence (482 5007 and 480 0127 respectively). Now they are joined by […]

Ansermet in Russia

June 13, 2018

Russian music was always a fundamental part of Ansermet’s vast repertoire. Of course, he spent seven years as conductor with the famous Ballets Russes during a particularly glorious period for the company. Formed in 1907 by Serge Diaghilev, the Ballets Russes brought a breath of fresh air to artistic creativity at the beginning of the […]

Ravel, Debussy: The Decca 78s (Ansermet)

June 13, 2018

In the words of the composer and critic, Virgil Thomson, the unique sonorities of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under its founder-director, Ernest Ansermet, were ‘smooth as a seashell, iridescent as fine rain, bright as the taste of a peach’. Ever since its foundation in 1918, the OSR had been coached and trained with […]

Haydn: Clock Symphony; Bizet: Symphony in C

June 13, 2018

Ansermet’s invigorating and unsentimental way with Haydn has been documented on Eloquence with reissues of the Paris symphonies (480 1942) and the Symphonies Nos. 22 & 90 (480 0378). What Ansermet loved about Haydn above all was his ability to ‘express afresh every time, in so satisfying and charming a way, his moral health and optimism.’ […]

Ernest Ansermet and the Ballets Russes

May 21, 2018

A generous collection of classic Decca stereo recordings, illuminating the idiomatic sympathy of the Swiss conductor, Ernest Ansermet, for ballet music and specifically the scores commissioned by Serge Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes. The Eloquence label has undertaken a thorough-going re-examination of the recorded legacy of Ernest Ansermet, including reissues of repertoire with which he […]

Mussorgsky, Ravel, Respighi: Orchestral Works

April 18, 2018

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 […]

Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2 · Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand

June 16, 2017

The Eloquence label has restored to modern circulation many recordings of the Swiss conductor Ernest Ansermet but few of them have been as overlooked as this pair of concertos which are now released internationally for the first time on CD, in new digital remasterings. French music found Ansermet in his element and he was a […]

Aromatherapy Vol.8

August 18, 2016

Aromatherapy, the quiet moments of classical music. And the seventh volume is a collection of music inspired by the countryside. This album takes a tour of many and varied landscapes beginning with the English countryside as seen through the eyes of Vaughan Williams, coupled with the Vienna Woods, in Johann Strauss II’s popular waltz, France’s […]