A generous collection of classic Decca stereo recordings, illuminating the idiomatic sympathy of the Swiss conductor, Ernest Ansermet, for ballet music and specifically the scores commissioned by Serge Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes. The Eloquence label has undertaken a thorough-going re-examination of the recorded legacy of Ernest Ansermet, including reissues of repertoire with which he […]

A new, well-filled single CD anthology of Decca and Philips song recordings made by a leading French lyric soprano of the 1950s. This recital showcases the vivacious, versatile French lyric soprano, Janine Micheau (1914–1976). Three great 20th-century masters of orchestration are featured – Britten (‘Les Illuminations’), Ravel (Shéh’razade’) and Debussy (‘La Damoiselle élue’) – along […]

The complete Philips recital recordings of a leading French baritone of the postwar era. The tessitura of Maurane’s fine voice with a pleasant low register and clear, fluent top notes like a tenor’s, places him in that splendid line of French baryton-Martin, named after the early 19th-century singer, Jean-Blaise Martin. More modern exponents include Pierre […]

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. […]

‘Jansen is Pelléas,’ wrote Eduardo Arnosi in a love-letter to Roger Desormière’s still-unsurpassed first recording (Opera magazine, September 1999) and few would demur. There was, however, much more to Jacques Jansen than the refined ardour and spontaneity of this 1941 recording. Just over a decade later, Decca producer, John Culshaw, spent a day in Paris […]

Newly remastered and compiled for the first time, the complete Decca recital albums of Irma Kolassi are now available on this 4CD set from Eloquence. Born in Greece but raised in Paris,she  began her career as a pianist until her ‘richly regal’ (The Times) mezzo-soprano was discovered. As a vocal coach in Athens, she worked […]

‘Gervase de Peyer is one of the greatest instrumentalist alive’ announced Fanfare magazine. One of the foremost clarinettists of the 20th century, London-born Gervase de Peyer was chosen soloist for a host of conductors and made many award-winning recordings for Decca, L’Oiseau-Lyre and EMI among others. His Concerto recordings have won the Grand Prix du Disque, […]

Aromatherapy, the quiet moments of classical music. And the seventh volume is a collection of music inspired by the countryside. This album takes a tour of many and varied landscapes beginning with the English countryside as seen through the eyes of Vaughan Williams, coupled with the Vienna Woods, in Johann Strauss II’s popular waltz, France’s […]

Debussy’s ‘Preludes’ represent one of the great cultural ‘events’ of the 20th century, exploring both the vivid and near-invisible colours of the piano. A feast of sound and sensations, this recording is unique in presenting all 24 ‘Preludes’ on a single disc.

‘This is the one piece I would like to conduct when I am old,’ reads Claudio Abbado’s entry in his diary, aged eight. He was speaking of Debussy’s ‘Nocturnes’. He recorded it in 1970 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, at whose Tanglewood Festival in 1958 he had won the Koussevitzky Prize. It was around 1970 […]

The two Debussy sonatas date from late in the composer’s life and are wistful pieces though not without humour. The Ravel Violin Sonata is sleek, elegant and has a delightful jazzy movement while the Trio is a masterpiece, a tour de force of writing for these three instruments and a hugely enjoyable work. This early […]

From Decca’s rich catalogue of piano music comes a generous selection of miniatures for piano, many of them quiet, all of them popular and much sought-after, in the finest of performances, of course.