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.

Georg Solti’s first recordings were as a pianist – those with the great German violinist, Georg Kulenkampff, here collected in their entirety. The two artists recorded Brahms’s G major sonata in February 1947 and Beethoven’s ’Kreutzer’ Sonata in June 1947. They completed the Brahms sonatas in July 1948. Sadly, this would be their only collaboration. Kulenkampff died […]

Georg Solti recorded the Beethoven Fourth three times – twice with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (1974, 1987) and in 1950 with the London Philharmonic. The LPO recording was among Solti’s earliest Decca recording sessions and was issued, first on 78rpm and immediately after on LP using Decca’s then revolutionary FFRR technology. Fêted by the Victor […]

Erich Kleiber was one of Georg Solti’s idols and it was a Kleiber performance of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony that transformed his life and was the catalyst in his decision to become a conductor – a decision he made at the age of fourteen. The Schubert recording comes from one of only two recording sessions with […]

This collection of overtures – many of them appearing internationally on Decca CD for the first time – comes from the very start of Georg Solti’s recording career. That for Beethoven’s ‘Egmont’ was, in fact, his first recording as conductor, issued as a 78rpm record. The two Rossini overtures were issued as a 45rpm and […]

The Dutchman, Arnold van Mill (1921–1996), never enjoyed the international fame of his German contemporary, Gottlob Frick or the younger Martti Talvela and Nicolai Ghiaurov. Yet at the height of his formidable powers in the 1950s and 60s, he had few rivals for rotund depth and sonority of tone (with what Hope-Wallace called ‘double bass […]

Aromatherapy, the quiet moments of classical music. And the seventh volume is a collection of music inspired by the countryside. This album takes a tour of many and varied landscapes beginning with the English countryside as seen through the eyes of Vaughan Williams, coupled with the Vienna Woods, in Johann Strauss II’s popular waltz, France’s […]