Posts tagged as "camille-saint-saens"

Gillian Weir – A Celebration

November 16, 2020

A 22-CD celebration of the doyenne of organists on her 80th birthday (17 January 2021) spanning her illustrious career of nearly five decades. ‘Weir is to the organ what Heifetz was to the violin, and Casals to the cello – a phenomenon,’ pronounced the celebrated broadcaster John Amis. Fittingly, this is a 22-CD celebration of […]

Ruth Slenczynska – Complete American Decca Recordings

November 4, 2020

A debut on CD for the American Decca legacy of Ruth Slenczynska, a prodigious Romantic-age keyboard lioness. The biography for her Wigmore Hall recital in March 1957 claimed that the 32-year-old Ruth Slenczynska had given 1600 concerts. Scarcely believably, perhaps, but no less so than other elements of her extraordinary life story – making her […]

Ida Haendel – The Decca Legacy

September 22, 2020

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 […]

French Virtuoso Organ Music

November 7, 2019

A first CD release for a thrilling recital of dazzling toccatas and fantasias from the French organ tradition by one of the world’s most celebrated musicians. Installed in 1972 and built by the Austrian firm of Hradetzky, the four-manual organ at the Royal Northern College of Music was just four years old when Gillian Weir […]

Cecile Ousset – The Decca France Recordings

September 17, 2019

The early recordings of a keyboard lioness, long unavailable and new to CD. Not generally given to extravagant effusions, William Glock (Controller of Radio 3 and the BBC Proms in the 1970s) had no doubt: ‘There is no one who plays the piano better in the world than she does. There is no one with […]

A Visit To The Zoo (Classics for Kids)

June 15, 2018

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.  

Alfredo Campoli: The Bel Canto Violin – Vol 4

January 12, 2018

One of the most significant violinists in gramophone history, Alfredo Campoli enjoyed tremendous success in the 1930s as a purveyor of light music both in concerts with his own salon orchestra and on Decca. A series of six, 2CD reissues from Eloquence focuses on the violinist’s postwar reinvention of himself as ‘Campoli’, the classical soloist. […]

Variations on America – Organ Spectacular

November 27, 2017

An original album from the last days of the Argo label and a spectacular display of virtuosity in both composition and performance. Simon Preston had been a recording artist for almost three decades when in March 1988, he recorded this collection at the organ of the Methuen Memorial Music Hall in Boston. The instrument itself […]

Poulenc, Saint-Saëns: Choral Works

October 13, 2017

Camille Saint-Saëns was only 21 years of age when he wrote his Mass Op. 4 but the craftsmanship of both its vocal and instrumental writing, testifies to the accomplishment of an experienced composer at a tender age: as a prodigious student at the Paris Conservatoire he was awarded a first prize in organ at just […]

Concertgebouw Lollipops

July 14, 2017

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. […]

An Evening at the Lyric Opera of Chicago

July 14, 2017

The Lyric Opera of Chicago was founded as recently as 1954 but within two years it had secured the services of many operatic stars of the day who were doubtless reassured of the quality and warmth of reception at the company by the trailblazing US debut of Maria Callas as Norma in its first season. […]

Verismo Arias And Duets

January 20, 2017

James McCracken (1926–1988) recorded the arias on the first half of this disc in 1969, four years after the duets he recordeed with his wife, mezzo-soprano Sandra Warfield (1921-2009). Both singers were in their prime leon during those years and in the decade following. These performances of distinction offer some of the sappiest and most […]