One of the most significant violinists in gramophone history, Alfredo Campoli enjoyed tremendous success in the 1930s as a purveyor of light music both in concerts with his own salon orchestra and on Decca. A series of six 2CD reissues from Eloquence focuses on the violinist’s postwar reinvention of himself as ‘Campoli’, the classical soloist. […]
‘In every way the most transcendentally gifted young piano student I have heard in the last 25 years’ was Percy Grainger’s pronouncement of the young Eileen Joyce (1908–1991) when he first heard her play in 1926. From the goldfields in Western Australia whose capital city is the most remote in the world, Joyce defied incongruous and […]
One of three complementary albums which celebrate the art of the Hungarian pianist, Andor Foldes, in the music of Beethoven, this Eloquence release pairs an eventful journey through the composer’s sonatas with his excursions into shorter and lighter repertoire. Taken by itself, the release would serve as an ideal introduction to Beethoven’s piano music. Foldes […]
This one-off partnership on record between the mercurial Argentinean pianist and scholarly Italian conductor, may have looked unlikely on paper but it struck sparks in early Beethoven as the critical response at the time recognised. Martha Argerich is, as Gramophone’s reviewer acknowledged in September 1986, a brilliant technician ‘but there is also a fantastic streak […]
Among the final albums made by the late Nikolaus Harnoncourt was a history in sound of Viennese dance, the waltzes and polkas that made contemporary millionaires of the Strauss dynasty and have since travelled the world not least thanks to the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Day concert. The leader of those concerts for 25 years, […]
In a quickly released series for Deutsche Grammophon, Andor Foldes went into the studio towards the end of the 1950s with around half of Beethoven’s piano sonatas and these recordings have now been reissued by Eloquence, in many cases for the first time on CD. The solo works were complemented by two concerto recordings which […]
A couple of years after making these Beethoven recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, Andor Foldes remarked that ‘I am not a prodigy and I am not an octogenarian. I just have to be good’. Such plain-spoken reserve might be considered characteristically Hungarian. Eloquence has already released Foldes’s long-esteemed albums of his fellow countrymen Bartók (480 7100) […]
Is nothing sacred? The Cambridge Buskers bring their madcap humour to the greats of classical music – everything from the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ and the ‘1812 Overture’ to Ravel’s ‘Bolero’ and the ‘Teddy Bears’ Picnic’! And not forgetting Beethoven’s Nine Symphonies in under four minutes… This 4CD set brings together the pair’s most famous albums, released […]
Nearly 65 years ago, when Swiss pianist, Paul Baumgartner (1903–1976), and German pianist, Erik Then-Bergh (1916–1982), paid separate visits to the Beethovensaal in Hanover, they each recorded a monumental set of variations – very possibly on the same Hamburg Steinway D – and in each case the resulting LP proved to be the only that […]
With his Scandinavian looks and fine physique, Ticho Parly (1928–1993) seemed predestined to portray Wagner’s heroes. Like his fellow-Dane, Lauritz Melchior, Parly began his career as a baritone. He pursued his vocal studies initially in Paris and then in Denmark, Italy and Switzerland. To finance his studies he worked for several years in a travel […]
‘It was altogether shocking how absolutely wonderful his voice sounded … so unique, so individual, so clear and authentic – a voice that could be compared to no other.’ Rolando Villazón ‘What he did – there was no one who came close to him. I don’t think he will ever be surpassed.’ Nicolai Gedda ‘The […]
Vladimir Ashkenazy recorded three of the Beethoven symphonies for Decca and this coupling of two of the most popular date from the early 1980s. They are grand and expressive readings, at once thrilling and visionary.
