‘The most original and artistically consummate of all my works,’ Hugo Wolf said (with justice) of the Italienisches Liederbuch which he wrote in 1890-1 to the poetry of Paul Heyse. Perhaps no pair of singers on record has interpreted this cycle of 46 songs with such natural accomplishment as Irmgard Seefried and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. They […]
Presented on CD for the first time and newly remastered, a pair of Romantic Lieder recitals by the Welsh contralto who inherited the mantle of Kathleen Ferrier. The history of British contraltos on record, stretches back to Constance Shacklock and before her Dame Clara Butt but it was Ferrier who defined the sound of that […]
In several valuable and newly remastered releases under ‘The Decca Recitals’ banner, Eloquence has compiled tributes to several fine singers of the 1950s whose vocal personality particularly fitted the demands of art song: among them are Jacques Jansen (482 4603), Irma Kolassi (482 4637) and Oda Slobodskaya (480 3524). They are now joined by an […]
During the golden age of the LP, Horst Stein was among a select band of central-European conductors (Vaclav Neumann and Otmar Suitner are another two notable examples) revered by Japanese orchestras and audiences, perhaps more than their Western counterparts. They had an uncomplicated mastery of the repertoire that shunned interpretative eccentricity and plugged listeners into […]
Hans Hotter (1909–2003) was 64 when he recorded two recital LPs for Decca, here coupled as a 2CD set. One of the rare singers to achieve equal eminence in Wagner and in Lieder, the singer’s voluminous bass-baritone, at once majestic and profoundly human, was in its autumn. Yet, the sense of detail, of characterisation, he […]
In 1960, the Stuttgart-born conductor Karl Münchinger (1915-1990), made a Decca recording of Pachelbel’s ‘Canon and Gigue’ that assured the piece its immortality in years to come. Münchinger recorded extensively for Decca with his Stuttgarter Kammerorchester (Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra). Moderate-size forces, rhythmic sprightliness and judicious ornamentation were the hallmarks of his recordings of 17th and 18th-century […]
The first of four 2-CD ‘Flagstad Recitals’ features Kirsten Flagstad in Brahms and Schubert on CD1 as well as CD premieres of songs by Schumann (including her previously unpublished ‘Zum Schluss’), Strauss, Wolf and Sinding on CD2. Her great power and control placed her among those with the natural capacity for success in the ‘big’ […]
The larger-than-life Régine Crespin, made only one song recital record for Decca, of music by Schumann, Wolf, Debussy and Poulenc. This is the first time the entire recital has been made available on CD. As her career progressed, Crespin became associated with certain roles – Kundry, Sieglinde, Brünnhilde, Tosca, the Marschallin – but she was […]
One of the most gorgeous recorded versions of Schubert’s String Quintet is now available once more, after its relatively short-lived release as a full-price CD. The cellist was Christopher van Kampen, with whom the Fitzwilliams performed often. Appearing on CD for the first time is the Quartet’s recording of the Brahms Clarinet Quintet, with Alan […]
During the 1950s, 60s and 70s, Decca recorded a number of albums of overtures with some of its key conductors. Many of these were singled out by the press for their terrific sound quality (the fabled ‘Decca Sound’) and for their often adventurous programming. Some of them also included entr’actes and intermezzi. Prized as collectors’ […]
‘If I were condemned to hear only one voice for the remainder of my life I think it might well be hers. If I wanted to be charmed, to laugh or cry I would find her the perfect companion. In her singing … we hear someone whose every utterance bespeaks natural sincerity and truthful feeling’ […]
Like so many artists from north of the Alps, Wolf was lured by the Mediterranean south, an intoxicating world of light, sensual grace and intense, often violent emotions. His ‘Spanisches Liederbuch’ of 1889–90, 34 settings of Iberian folk poems translated by Emanuel Geibel and Paul Heyse, is the finest fruit of a long-lasting fascination with […]
