Posts tagged as "wiener-philharmoniker"

Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier (highlights)

March 22, 2016

It is a pity that one of the most acclaimed recordings of ‘Rosenkavalier’ was only recorded as excerpts but at over an hour and including some of the absolute plums of scenes from the opera, it is rightly regarded as a gem among great recordings of Strauss’ music. Included are the Marchallin’s Act I Monologue, the […]

Romantic Overtures: Vol. 4

March 22, 2016

During the 1950s, 60s and 70s, Decca recorded a number of albums of overtures with some of its key conductors. Many of these were singled out by the press for their terrific sound quality (the fabled ‘Decca Sound’) and for their often adventurous programming. Some of them also included entr’actes and intermezzi. Prized as collectors’ […]

Romantic Overtures: Vol. 1

March 22, 2016

During the 1950s, 60s and 70s, Decca recorded a number of albums of overtures with some of its key conductors. Many of these were singled out by the press for their terrific sound quality (the fabled ‘Decca Sound’) and for their often adventurous programming. Some of them also included entr’actes and intermezzi. Prized as collectors’ […]

Romantic Overtures: Vol. 3

March 22, 2016

During the 1950s, 60s and 70s, Decca recorded a number of albums of overtures with some of its key conductors. Many of these were singled out by the press for their terrific sound quality (the fabled ‘Decca Sound’) and for their often adventurous programming. Some of them also included entr’actes and intermezzi. Prized as collectors’ […]

Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen – Explorations

March 16, 2016

To mark the worldwide bicentenary celebrations of Wagner’s birth, a set of four CDs was recorded for the Decca label by Australian Wagner scholar, author and lecturer Peter Bassett, as an introduction to and commentary on Richard Wagner’s great cycle of four music dramas: Der Ring des Nibelungen. The recording uses extensive musical excerpts from the […]

Schoenberg: Gurrelieder

March 15, 2016

2013 marked the centenary of the first performance of Schoenberg’s – if not the early 20th century’s – essay in gargantuism. The forces involved were unprecedented: in addition to the soloists (soprano, mezzo-soprano, two tenors, bass and speaker) there were three male-voice choirs and an eight-part mixed choir; and the 150-piece orchestra included 25 woodwind, […]

Hans Knappertsbusch conducts Wagner

March 15, 2016

‘It’s Wagner’s opera: let’s present him and not ourselves!’ This remark by Hans Knappertsbusch to Hans Hotter as the singer was about go on stage as Gurnemanz at Bayreuth in 1964, was characteristic of the conductor’s attitude. Singers’ egos, directors’ concepts and designers’ flights of fancy had no place in the Knappertsbusch vision of Wagner’s […]

George London sings Wagner

March 15, 2016

George London was born in Montreal, Canada; when he was fifteen the family moved to the United States. His original surname was Burnstein (he also used Burnson for a time) and his forebears were from Širvintos in Lithuania. He began his singing studies in Los Angeles and by the 1940s was touring with a trio […]

Tchaikovsky: Manfred Symphony; Tone Poems; Rococo Variations; Pezzo capriccioso

March 15, 2016

In addition to recording the six Tchaikovsky symphonies for Decca with the Vienna Philharmonic, Lorin Maazel also recorded the ‘Manfred’ – a recording often singled out as one of the best made of this symphony, as well as three of the tone poems based on literary legends, two Shakespearian (Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet) and one […]

Berlioz: Roméo et Juliette; Harold en Italie; Le carnaval romain

March 15, 2016

Shakespeare and Byron meet for a double-CD of Maazel’s recordings of two of Berlioz’s symphonies for Decca, coupled with the Roman Carnival Overture, included on an Overtures disc for Decca. Back on CD after a long absence, the 1972 Vienna Roméo boasts a stellar vocal cast.

Dvorák: Symphonies Nos. 3, 6, 7 & 8

March 12, 2016

‘Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony’, wrote Bernard Shaw following a performance at the Crystal Palace in 1893, ‘is very nearly up to the level of a Rossini overture, and would make excellent promenade music at the summer fêtes out in the grounds.’ In advancing this view, Shaw turned on its head an essential quality of Dvořák’s music […]

Richard Strauss: Tone Poems

March 12, 2016

This 2CD set brings together for the first time all of Lorin Maazel’s Decca recordings of Strauss’ tone poems with the Vienna Philharmonic (he recorded ‘Tod und Verklärung’ twice, the second time with the New Philharmonia Orchestra). All the recordings were made in Vienna’s Sofiensaal and star VPO principals were soloists in ‘Don Quixote’ and ‘Der […]