Listen to content by Wiener Okttet.

A 20th-century counterpart to ‘The Well-Tempered Clavier’ in a landmark recording, long unavailable, newly remastered and transferred to CD from the original tapes for the very first time. Hindemith wrote ‘Ludus tonalis’ in 1942 while staying in the US as a refugee from Nazi Germany. The hour-long piano cycle itself, finds refuge from conflict in […]

Three original Argo albums demonstrating the vitality and variety of 20th-century organ music, newly remastered and compiled together for the first time in a 2CD set, with new booklet notes on the music and a tribute to Simon Preston. Simon Preston had only left King’s College, Cambridge, (where he had been organ scholar) the previous […]

A collection of music for strings, including the first complete appearance of a rare LP by the Moscow Chamber Orchestra and Rudolf Barshai of music by Bartók (one of the most invigorating “Divertimento” recordings ever made). Vivaldi is coupled with a selection of gleaming ‘Visions Fugitives’ (arranged by Barshai from Prokofiev’s piano pieces) and the […]

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 […]

William Steinberg made only three recordings for Deutsche Grammophon and his Hindemith recordings, authoritative, sumptuously recorded and pulsating with energy, are among the most invaluable in the Hindemith discography. Barenboim’s coupling of ‘Der Schwanendreher’ is no less welcome, offering what is substantially an important 20th-century viola concerto and being a viola player himself, Hindemith’s writing […]

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. Perhaps the ensemble projected a rather cosy, cuddly image on its tours abroad. More often than not, the […]

Orchestral showpieces such as those grouped here were among the most obvious beneficiaries of the advances in recording technique pioneered by Decca from the late 1950s onwards. Works which may have seemed dauntingly complex to an earlier generation of gramophone collectors could now be captured with startling clarity, due in no small part to the […]

Seefried’s radiance and imaginative strength made her a cherishable Lieder singer over an enterprisingly wide repertoire. She always championed the songs of Hugo Wolf, far less frequently programmed in the 1940s and 50s than today. In 1953, Seefried recorded with her regular pianist partner, Erik Werba, 22 numbers from Italienisches Liederbuch. Five years later she […]