Kathleen Battle “A radiant and joyous experience for performers and listeners alike. The Fauré songs are so seductively coloured, and the spirituals convey at once such animation and so much unassuming dignity.” Stereo Review, April 1987 (Carnegie Hall Recital) “There’s something about Battle’s singing which disarms me completely. In the long-lined numbers especially, she is […]
Antal Doráti – The Mercury Masters – The Mono Recordings “The lively Mendelssohn symphony finds conductor and orchestra in superlative form. Their performance of this difficult work is amply virtuosic, yet very sensitively phrased.” High Fidelity, January 1953 (Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4) “Refreshingly brisk, straightforward and unmarred by any of the usual sentimentality … The […]
The once-mighty Franco-Belgian school of violin playing suffered something of a thin time in the post-war years. In Belgium, Alfred Dubois died in 1949, aged only 50, leaving his pupil Arthur Grumiaux on a lonely eminence. In France, air crashes claimed Ginette Neveu in 1949, aged 30, and Jacques Thibaud in 1953, aged 72. Fine […]
In 1990 Peter Maag (1919–2001) returned to the Gran Teatro del Liceo in Lisbon for a run of Così fan tutte, an opera he had been directing for over 40 years. He raised a few eyebrows when he asked for an orchestra of only 26 players. ‘If there is more,’ he explained, ‘Mozart vanishes.’ Mozart, […]
95-year-old piano legend Ruth Slenczynska reminiscences with Eloquence Classics about studying with her legendary mentors, Josef Hofmann and Sergei Rachmaninov, and witnessing the creation of her classmate Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings.
As the Eloquence label turns 21, Gramophone speaks to its founder and curator, the Sydney-based VP of Classics & Jazz at Universal Australia. The Eloquence label issued its first 25 titles exactly 21 years ago, a project conceived, and looked after ever since, by Cyrus Meher-Homji. James Jolly spoke to him about the label, how […]
When I was asked to choose a disc of my own favourite recordings I thought ‘What a good idea!’. In actual fact, it has become a torment as I have far too many favourites! I have ended up with a few pieces which have been part of my life and given me intense pleasure – […]
A tribute to the late Ida Haendel, comprising her complete Decca Recordings (1940–1997), newly remastered, as well as her performances at the 1982 Huberman Festival. Lavishly illustrated, Original Jackets, Limited Edition. On her death in July 2020, obituaries worldwide paid glowing tributes to the effervescence of the violinist Ida Haendel, in both her playing and […]
