Scintillating pianism in music from Mozart to Messiaen: the complete Argo and Decca recordings of John Ogdon. John Ogdon began to study at the Royal Northern College of Music in 1953, at the age of 16. Fellow students such as Alexander Goehr and Harrison Birtwistle were astonished by the speed of Ogdon’s mind, matched by […]
A violinist-conductor who understood orchestras from the inside out: commanding power and Viennese warmth in the complete Decca symphonic recordings of Walter Weller. As the youngest ever leader of the Vienna Philharmonic, Walter Weller quickly established a natural rapport with orchestras at home and abroad when he swapped bow for baton in the late 1960s. […]
A new-world virtuoso with old-world musicianship: the complete Decca recordings of JOSHUA BELL, capturing the first decade of the violinist’s career on record. Decca signed the nineteen-year-old Joshua Bell in 1986 on the basis of privately made concerto tapes. Bell had first picked up a violin at the age of four, but he had been […]
“We all envied her, because all that we had to struggle so hard to achieve seemed so natural and self-evident to her because she knew how to sing from the heart” said Elisabeth Schwarzkopf of her colleague IRMGARD SEEFRIED. Collected here are Seefried’s complete recital recordings for Deutsche Grammophon as well as highlights from her […]
Michael Tilson Thomas’s complete recordings for Deutsche Grammophon (1970–2003) and Argo (1992–1995) encapsulate the conductor’s restlessly exploratory nature and masterful handling of the modern orchestra. The recordings in this collection demonstrate his superb ear for complex rhythms and textures, an orchestral builder, as well as an inspired interpreter of the widest imaginable range of music. […]
On two days in October 2016, Russian pianist and conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy and Australian cellist Catherine Hewgill went into the studio to make their first recording together. An all-Russian program, it features the Cello Sonatas of Shostakovich and Prokofiev with the added pendant of the Rachmaninov Vocalise in an arrangement by American cellist Leonard Rose. […]
‘In every way the most transcendentally gifted young piano student I have heard in the last 25 years’ was Percy Grainger’s pronouncement of the young Eileen Joyce (1908–1991) when he first heard her play in 1926. From the goldfields in Western Australia whose capital city is the most remote in the world, Joyce defied incongruous and […]
The first CD release of these priceless recordings from the Decca archives. Kertész brings his blend of thrust and tenderness (and huge architectural conviction) to the Fifth Symphony while John Ogdon and Neville Marriner perform the First Piano Concerto ‘to the manner born’ with not a single high-jink glossed over. Raymond Tuttle provides the fascinating […]
Two Russian violin concertos together on a single disc. The performances are staggering, to say the least… just try the finale of the Tchaikovsky to get an idea (which, incidentally, is released complete for the first time on CD). The brooding, expansive Shostakovich makes an ideal foil to the highwire Tchaikovsky, its meditative Passacaglia worth […]
Solti came late in life to the music of Shostakovich and in his introduction to the recording of the Thirteenth Symphony (reprinted in the booklet) explains the music’s effect on him. These rare recordings have long been out of the catalogue and are now issued as a 2CD set at super-budget price. Sergei Aleksashkin is […]
Venerated for their perky, piquant performances and the ripe, rich Decca sound, Walter Weller’s thrilling readings of Shostakovich’s Symphonies 1 & 9 have long been on the reissue request list. Now, they appear on CD for the first time coupled with another Decca classic of earlier vintage – Martinon’s ‘Age of Gold’ suite.
An undisputed masterpiece of the Russian repertoire – Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet – is joined by the little known Prokofiev Quintet which had a vexed gestation together with a rarity from the Hungarian-born Matyas Seiber who lived most of his life in Britain. In it, Peter Pears takes the role of narrator of passages from the […]
