A relaxed and eloquent ‘Spring Sonata’ contrasts with a lean and athletic performance of the ‘Kreutzer’ from two expert Beethovenians. In between comes the Op. 12 No. 2 – a sonata that greatly puzzled its audience at the time of its composition.
Lorin Maazel’s early DG and Decca recordings were landmarks and this disc offers what is unquestionably two of the finest performances of these two symphonies. The Fifth has really thunderbolt impact and the Berlin strings and winds in the ‘Pastoral’ sing gloriously
Blazing and saturated sound – of the aptly-described ‘gold brick’ variety – characterises these celebrated performances of eight of Beethoven’s best-loved Overtures. All the favourites are there and the recordings have been stunningly remastered for this release.
A thrilling ‘Emperor’ from Lupu and Mehta is coupled with some solo piano rarities. Both the two Rondos and the two Sonatas included here are among Beethoven’s simpler pieces for piano and, while ever charming, they are constantly played by piano students and on regular piano exam syllabuses.
Spanish pianist, Alicia de Larrocha’s first recording of Beethoven’s Emperor is a grand and thrilling affair and here receives its first release on CD. The pairing is Beethoven’s own arrangement of his Violin Concerto, for piano and orchestra and it is played with tremendous elan and style by Olli Mustonen. Note the first movement cadenza, […]
For their 1989 festival, the committee of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir invited Dame Kiri Te Kanawa to join the Choir and the Utah Symphony Orchestra under maestro Julius Rudel. The choice of repertoire remained open and Dame Kiri selected a highly appropriate program of inspirational works that she could share with the choir and its […]
It is customary – although also somewhat arbitrary – to divide Beethoven’s career into early, middle and late periods. Be that as it may, his only completed violin concerto comes from the middle period. (Beethoven had attempted a violin concerto in 1790 but only 259 bars of it survive.) He began writing it in late […]
A thrilling collection of Overtures and Preludes (with some popular orchestral pieces thrown in for good measure) from Zubin Mehta. As a showman of the best variety, his recordings remain one of the Decca catalogue’s richest legacies with more than half of this collection released on CD for the first time.
Herbert von Karajan turns his attention to the swaggering pomp of favourite marches by the ‘other’ Strauss family and many others in this good natured and emblazoned romp.
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 […]
The young Abbado made a handful of recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic of which this taught, sprightly reading of Beethoven’s Eighth (just listen to the orchestra’s reflexes in the finale) and the grand yet detailed vision of Bruckner’s First made just one short-lived appearance on CD. Now they return, remastered and at super-budget price.
A simply gorgeous recording of the most popular Violin romances. The recording had long been deleted from the catalogue and is now reissued with the added ‘bonus’ of the Schubert Rondo.
