This must surely be a unique event in recording history! In 1959, Arthur Grumiaux went into the studios to overdub – as both violinist and pianist – the Mozart and Brahms Violin Sonatas on this recording. A bold venture of its kind in instrumental classical music and on two such different instruments, the recording has […]

Julius Katchen that colossus that bestrode the pianistic firmament for all too short a time, recorded the Brahms Handel and Paganini Variations three times, twice in mono and once in stereo. Surprisingly, these much-praised 1958 recordings have never before been issued on CD and are now being made available singly, on Eloquence.  All of Katchen’s […]

Being born in Romania and surrounded from childhood by folk melodies and fiery popular dance music certainly helps in forming an inspired musician, provided the talent is there. In the case of the exceptionally gifted Gheorghe Zamfir, who was born to a family of vine-growers in 1941 in Gaiesti near Bucharest, these fortunate circumstances led […]

Perhaps no recording of the two gorgeous Serenades has been suffused with such warmth and glow as Masur’s little-known recordings with the Gewandhausorchester. The First has never been issued on CD and, it appears, the Second has not even had an LP release! This release now makes available through Australian Eloquence, all of Kurt Masur’s […]

One of Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s early Decca recitals, these are some of the most engaging and thrilling readings of a program of essentially concert etudes. To the Schumann, Thibaudet places the five posthumous variations as an appendix and his reading of the Brahms Paganini is one of the most scintillating of all.

Brahms’ Violin Concerto comes from the same period as his Second Symphony, with which, in sprit, it has much in common. A similar serenity and insistence on carefully balanced form pervades both works. The first performance of the work was given in Leipzig on New Year’s Day 1879. The concerto is in three movements and, […]

Two slimmer works of Austro-German chamber repertoire – Mozart’s popular ‘Kegelstatt’ (Skittles) Trio and Weber’s lesser known but quite virtuoso, Flute Trio, preface Brahms’s magnificent Horn Trio on these rare L’Oiseau-Lyre recordings from The Melos Ensemble. All represent first releases on CD.

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Kirsten Flagstad in Brahms and Schubert on CD1 as well as CD premieres of songs by Schumann (including her previously unpublished ‘Zum Schluss’), Strauss, Wolf and Sinding on CD2.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’ […]

This recording forms part of a series of reissues celebrating the glorious Decca recordings from the 1950s-1970s of the Wiener Oktett (Vienna Octet), made up of key principals from the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Both Clarinet Quintets on this disc are late works of the respective composers and both were inspired by […]

Born in Vienna in April 1902, the cheery-looking Josef Krips seems to have been pre-destined to achieve eminence in the Viennese classics. He recorded with both, the Wiener Philharmoniker and the key London orchestras for Decca in the 1940s, 50s and 60s and the interpretations have genuine expressive power while remaining devoid of exaggeration or […]

In 1961, at age 86, Pierre Monteux was appointed chief conductor with the London Symphony Orchestra on a 25-year contract. It was typical of his sense of humour that he chose to sign a contract of this length at this time in his life, but there is no doubt that the brief period he enjoyed […]

During the 1950s, Karl Böhm made a handful of orchestral recordings for Decca with the Wiener Philharmoniker of music by, among others, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms Schubert and Weber. The Brahms Symphony is performed with sweep and with classical poise and the music is clearly in the Viennese players’ blood (after all, they premiered the symphony […]