Posts tagged as "hector-berlioz"

Berlioz – Symphonie fantastique (performance & rehearsal); Overtures; Les nuits d’été

April 22, 2016

Issued collectively for the first time on Decca are the complete Berlioz recordings of Ernest Ansermet. Included too is the rehearsal for ‘Symphonie fantastique’ (in French) previously issued on LP only in the US and Japan. The set also offers excerpts from ‘La damnation de Faust’ (the ‘Danse des sylphes’ making its first international appearance […]

Overtures in Hi-Fi

April 20, 2016

The recorded legacy of Albert Wolff is one of the most sought-after by collectors. Of Dutch parentage, but born in Paris, Wolff was something of a polymath: pianist, organist, conductor, composer, and had a long career in recording studios beginning in 1920. His first recordings for Decca, starting in the summer of 1951, were a […]

Christmas with the Academy

April 18, 2016

The story of the birth of Jesus more than two thousand years ago has been the source of inspiration for countless poets and musicians, as well as practitioners of other forms of art. The infant, born of a virgin in a lowly cattle shed, because there was no room in the inn; the angel of […]

Berlioz: Roméo et Juliette; Harold en Italie; Le carnaval romain

March 15, 2016

Shakespeare and Byron meet for a double-CD of Maazel’s recordings of two of Berlioz’s symphonies for Decca, coupled with the Roman Carnival Overture, included on an Overtures disc for Decca. Back on CD after a long absence, the 1972 Vienna Roméo boasts a stellar vocal cast.

Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique. Mendelssohn: Ein Sommernachtstraum

March 7, 2016

Decca Eloquence continues its exploration of the recordings of Pierre Monteux with a coupling of two works that invoke the supernatural. Monteux’s brilliant, yet cultivated late-1950s readings of these works offer much pleasure and both are released internationally on Decca CD for the first time.