What could be more fun than discovering the colours of classical music by visiting a zoo? A menagerie of birds and beasts come to life on this delightful collection – a perfect way to introduce to the wonderful world of classical music.
This one-off partnership on record between the mercurial Argentinean pianist and scholarly Italian conductor, may have looked unlikely on paper but it struck sparks in early Beethoven as the critical response at the time recognised. Martha Argerich is, as Gramophone’s reviewer acknowledged in September 1986, a brilliant technician ‘but there is also a fantastic streak […]
Vladimir Ashkenazy recorded three of the Beethoven symphonies for Decca and this coupling of two of the most popular date from the early 1980s. They are grand and expressive readings, at once thrilling and visionary.
Aromatherapy, the quiet moments of classical music. And in the fourth volume, Music of the Night, there’s the ‘Barcarolle’ from Offenbach’s ‘Tales of Hoffmann’, slow movements from String Serenades by Mozart, Dvorak and Suk and of course, Chopin’s night music, celebrated by his popular D flat major Nocturne, Op. 27 No. 2.
Tchaikovsky’s three piano concertos (including the third in Taneyev’s completion) are here collected for release in superbly colourful performances by Peter Jablonski with the Philharmonia. Peter Maag, for some time a conductor much associated with Decca (as witness his marvellous Mozart recordings, now on Decca Eloquence, as well as some glorious Mendelssohn) was meant to […]
Other than the Symphonies and the Violin Concerto, these works represent some of Sibelius’ most popular orchestral pieces – and some of their finest performances. The ‘Finlandia’ is truly epic and searing, the ‘Valse triste’ ethereal, and the ‘Four Legends’ (which includes the famous ‘Swan of Tunonela’) in turn ethereal and commanding.
The first CD release of these marvellous LP recordings of Sibelius with Vladimir Ashkenazy. There’s ice and fire in Boris Belkin’s performance of the Violin Concerto and the half-lights in the other, lesser known, pieces are admirably captured by both Ashkenazy and Marriner.
Aromatherapy, the quiet moments of classical music. And the third volume, the Magic of Mozart, showcases of some of his most magical, gorgeous slow movements, several of which – from the Piano Concerto No. 21 (‘Elvira Madigan’) and the Clarinet Concerto (‘Out of Africa’) – have acquired popular status from their incorporation into films.
Saint-Saëns’s complete piano concertos on a 2CD Eloquence set presents some truly rare recordings – Campanella’s of the Fourth and Tagliaferro’s of the Fifth. And while the second is oft-played, this set gives the listener an opportunity to discover the lesser known First and Third. Also included is the first release on CD of ‘Wedding […]
Following many requests for a reissue of Ashkenazy’s Philharmonia recording of Tchaikovsky’s programmatic ‘Manfred Symphony’, many listeners will be delighted to have his searing portrayal available again. It is coupled with the little-known ‘Élégie’ which was incorporated into Tchaikovsky’s incidental music for ‘Hamlet’.
This well-filled 2CD set – nearly 2 hours and 40 minutes long – presents Bartók’s major concertos (the Viola Concerto appears on another Eloquence CD). The three Piano Concertos appear in muscular and sumptuously recorded performances (one of the finest examples of Decca’s 1970s engineering at the venerated Kingsway Hall) by Pascal Rogé and Walter […]
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 […]
