Newly compiled for the first time, the Decca career of a pre-eminent Mozart conductor, complemented by his recordings for Deutsche Grammophon and Westminster. Peter Maag began his career as a pianist, but turned to conducting with the encouragement of Wilhelm Furtwangler. He made his first Decca recording having lately turned 30, with the Suisse Romande […]

James Levine assembled a cast of stars for his 1989 recording of Donizetti’s opera of potions and passions. Luciano Pavarotti (on loan from Decca) reprised the role he had recorded in July 1970 alongside Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge and his voice was noted to be ‘just as pure and steady’ as it was nearly […]

Dvořák naturally gave a great deal of attention to the genre of the oratorio and it was his work in this area that firmly established his reputation in the English-speaking world. Rossini very much admired Pergolesi’s fine setting of the Stabat Mater but had not felt equal to attempting his own. The decision to try […]