Among Abbado’s first recordings, these performances of two of Mendelssohn’s favourite symphonies are some of the most sparkling and vivid to have been recorded. They date from 1968 when Abbado was under contract to Decca and have remained benchmark recommendations for these works ever since
Some of the most legendary recordings of these highly popular works for violin by Mendelssohn, Saint-Saens and Bruch, together on a single CD.
The first-ever pairing of these two marvellous ‘Double’ Concertos on CD. The Brahms is a classic performance, gutsy as well as autumnal and the work comes from towards the end of the composer’s rich harvest. The Mendelssohn, by far the lesser-known of the two pieces, conversely comes from the beginning of his life – in […]
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.
Alicia de Larrocha’s magisterial, sonorous, even coruscating performance of Liszt’s B minor Sonata is here preceded by altogether more genteel repertoire from the 19th century – pairs of pieces by Grieg and Mendelssohn. A rarity – making its first appearance on CD internationally – is Grieg’s only solo piano sonata which was written in eleven days […]
For their 1989 festival, the committee of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir invited Dame Kiri Te Kanawa to join the Choir and the Utah Symphony Orchestra under maestro Julius Rudel. The choice of repertoire remained open and Dame Kiri selected a highly appropriate program of inspirational works that she could share with the choir and its […]
Two recordings make their international CD premieres here. Solti recorded both these popular Mendelssohn symphonies twice for Decca and these are the earlier versions. The ‘Scottish’ dates from November 1952 and is in mono. The ‘Italian’ in stereo, recorded 1958, also with producer John Culshaw, is an absolute legend and has had many requests over […]
Bringing together four of Mendelssohn’s earliest works, this collection also showcases Marriner and the Academy in one of their earliest recordings – that of three of the composer’s String Symphonies. Warmly recorded and virtuosically despatched, they are coupled with a scintillating (unnumbered) Piano Concerto by Mendelssohn, with John Ogdon as a fleet-fingered soloist.
A thrilling collection of Overtures and Preludes (with some popular orchestral pieces thrown in for good measure) from Zubin Mehta. As a showman of the best variety, his recordings remain one of the Decca catalogue’s richest legacies with more than half of this collection released on CD for the first time.
While Mozart is regularly touted as a teenage wonder, experts say there’s nothing he wrote as a teenager that could rival Mendelssohn’s Octet – a work beloved of audiences and ensembles alike. One of Decca’s earliest digital recordings was of the string orchestra version of this piece by the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. Lusciously […]
A double-CD of Romantic Violin Concertos celebrating the art of Ruggiero Ricci, this set includes the first international release on CD of the Ricci/Boult 1952 recording of the Beethoven. Boult characterised it as ‘perhaps the most thoughtful concerto, the one which needs for the violinist to be a great man as well as a great […]
The fourth volume in ‘The Flagstad Recitals’, comprises two LPs Kirsten Flagstad made with the London Philharmonic and Sir Adrian Boult in December 1956 (Bach and Handel: CD2) and April 1957 (Sacred Songs: CD1) at London’s Kingsway Hall. The Penguin Guide to bargain Compact Discs praised the ‘sacred pops’ CD for the ‘vivid projection’ of […]
