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 […]
Jean Fournet was already one of the best-known French conductors when on 12th November, 1950, he made his debut with the Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. Three days later he made his debut with the Concertgebouw Orchestra when he stepped in for Eduard van Beinum whose recorded legacy is extensively reissued on Eloquence. Newly remastered and […]
A first release on CD for the first recording in stereo (and entirely complete) of Borodin’s operatic masterpiece. With this and six companion issues, Eloquence makes available for the first time on CD, the seven complete Russian operas recorded in 1955 by Decca with the company of the Belgrade Opera. Fresh from a successful tour of […]
This highly appealing collection of light-orchestral classics, gathers up eighteen years in the history of one of the world’s most celebrated orchestras during the golden age of the LP. Ever since its foundation in 1883, the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam has been blessed with a hall that to all intents and purposes, belongs to them. […]
For the first century of its history, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam had only four principal conductors and it was the second and fourth, Willem Mengelberg and Bernard Haitink who enjoyed a truly international reputation. Previous issues on Eloquence from Haydn (476 8483) to Debussy (464 6362) have shed light on the recordings made […]
Is nothing sacred? The Cambridge Buskers bring their madcap humour to the greats of classical music – everything from the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ and the ‘1812 Overture’ to Ravel’s ‘Bolero’ and the ‘Teddy Bears’ Picnic’! And not forgetting Beethoven’s Nine Symphonies in under four minutes… This 4CD set brings together the pair’s most famous albums, released […]
Two of the works on this collection were inspired by literary sources. Tchaikovsky was an assiduous reader and it is not surprising that so many of his works had literary origins. In the case of ‘Francesca da Rimini’, a reading of Dante’s ‘Inferno’ was sufficient to convince him that here was worthy material for a […]
Borodin’s second and third symphonies plus the Overture and Polovstian Dances from Prince Igor and ‘In the Steppes of Central Asia’ collected on a single CD. This is all of Ernest Ansermet’s Borodin recordings for Decca; recordings widely praised for their dynamism and thrust.
Aromatherapy, the quiet moments of classical music. And the first volume, Music for Relaxation, offers a miscellany of classical pieces from piano (the first movement of Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight’ Sonata) to orchestral music by Grieg, Elgar and Borodin.
Solti’s 1956 recordings of the Tchaikovsky Second and Fifth symphonies included on this collection are his only recordings of them. He never recorded a complete cycle, although, in the 1970s he recorded the Fifth and Sixth with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Both symphonies were recorded with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra. The story behind his recording […]
This recording forms part of a series of 10 reissues celebrating the glorious Decca recordings from the 1950s-1970s of the Wiener Oktett (Vienna Octet), made up of key principals from the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Five titles were released in September and the remaining five are released this month. In addition to […]
Born in 1888, the Russian soprano, Oda Slobodskaya, won a scholarship for secondary education but, having completed her schooling, to her displeasure, found herself working with her parents in a second hand clothes shop. Despite having no formal musical training, she travelled, at the age of eighteen, from her hometown of Vilno (then part of […]
