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 […]

The recorded legacy of Eduard van Beinum has been extensively documented on Eloquence. Previous issues have revealed the Dutch conductor’s mastery of and sympathy for 20th-century composers such as Sibelius (442 9487) and Britten (480 2337). His clear-headed approach to any score, combined with the refinement of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, particularly suit the music of […]

The Argo LP of the ‘Symphony of Psalms’ and ‘Canticum Sacrum’ caused a stir when it was first issued in 1975. All previous recordings had used female voices for the upper parts but Stravinsky specifically asks for children’s voices in the Symphony and his old-fashioned score markings in the ‘Canticum Sacrum’ suggest that he had […]

Both Strauss’s ‘Elektra’ and Stravinsky’s ‘Oedipus Rex’ trace their lineages back to Sophocles, the Greek dramatist who lived in the fourth century BC. Both are stories of the avenging of a royal father’s murder, either by surviving family members (‘Elektra’) or by Fate or the gods themselves (‘Oedipus Rex’). Even from an early age, Georg […]

Stravinsky began work on ‘Petrushka’in the summer of 1910, shortly after the successful première of his first ballet, ‘The Firebird’. Like ‘The Firebird’, and ‘The Rite of Spring’ which came later, ‘Petrushka’ was written for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. The choreographer was Mikhail Fokine and the title role was danced by the mercurial, Vaslav Nijinsky. Nijinsky […]

Pierre Monteux  made his first LSO recording in 1957 – a generous selection of pieces drawn from Tchaikovsky’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’. Originally released on RCA, the recording repatriated to Decca in 1973. Over 50 minutes of selections from the ballet (as much as would comfortably and generously fit on two LP sides in the 1950s) in […]

From the magical fairy-tale world of Red Riding Hood in Ravel’s ‘Mother Goose’, through the langurous haze of an afternoon in Debussy’s ‘Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune’, to the scintillating Spanish rhythms of ‘Rapsodie Espagnole’ and the black-and-white of both ‘En blanc et noir’ as well as the Stravinsky Sonata, this legendary piano duo partnership delivers […]

For too long absent from the catalogue, Dohnanyi’s pair of recordings coupling Stravinsky and Bartok present him and the Vienna Philharmonic at their scintillating, dramatic best. Here is one of the most exciting accounts of ‘Petrushka’ ever to be committed to disc and the sordid tale of ‘The Miraculous Mandarin’ is sharply etched in this […]

For too long absent from the catalogue, Dohnanyi’s pair of recordings coupling Stravinsky and Bartok present him and the Vienna Philharmonic at their scintillating, dramatic best. ‘The Firebird’ is luxuriously done, the final apotheosis most moving and the lesser known ‘Two Portraits’ of Bartok are showpieces of instrumental colour, timbre and contrast.

Arthur Grumiaux was a prince among violinists and recorded extensively for Philips/Decca. Many of his recordings – some of them released internationally for the first time on CD – have appeared on an extensive series on the Eloquence label. Here is another – a rare 1956 performance of the Tchaikovsky concerto coupled with his highly-praised […]

Ruggiero Ricci has enjoyed a varied and colourful discography on Decca and these recordings, are, apart from Prokofiev’s Second Violin Sonata, all comprised of music for solo violin. The Bach pieces date from the 1957 London sessions and the 20th-century pieces were recorded three years later at Victoria Hall in Geneva. Tully Potter’s perceptive liner […]

Stravinsky’s tongue-in-cheek morality masterpiece, The Soldier’s Tale, is one of his cleverest and most enduring works, here receiving its first outing on CD, following several requests. It boasts a stellar cast, not only of musicians, drawn from the Boston Symphony and soloists in their own right, but also of the narrators/actors – Sir John Gielgud, […]