The first in a three-volume edition of the complete Decca recordings of Sir Adrian Boult, this set represents the most complete survey ever issued of Sir Adrian Boult’s British music recordings for Decca. It includes previously unpublished recordings of Holst and a pioneering cycle of Vaughan Williams. LIMITED EDITION. Boult began recording for Decca in […]
A tribute to the late Ida Haendel, comprising her complete Decca Recordings (1940–1997), newly remastered, as well as her performances at the 1982 Huberman Festival. Lavishly illustrated, Original Jackets, Limited Edition. On her death in July 2020, obituaries worldwide paid glowing tributes to the effervescence of the violinist Ida Haendel, in both her playing and […]
Eighty minutes of Christmas at King’s: reference Argo recordings of Britten and Vaughan Williams capturing both the magic and joy of the season as well as the resonant glory of a famous acoustic. Britten’s genius as a choral composer centred around his ability to write rewarding parts for amateurs and young singers; his choice of […]
An original Decca recording of the soprano, Jennifer Vyvyan, in English song repertoire, coupled with traditional folksongs with another much-loved English singer of the 1950s and 60s, Norma Procter. In the August 1953 issue of Opera magazine, the editor looked back on outstanding vocal achievements in the preceding season of opera. Drawing largely from stagings […]
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 […]
There’s nothing quite as heady as being at the Last Night of the Proms. As the summer comes to a close and this great annual festival in London concludes, the crowds gather in the park to watch this event broadcast in the park (and now, in other British cities too). And those that have been […]
Sir Neville Marriner and his Academy made some of the most priceless recordings of Vaughan Williams for Decca and Philips and this collection restores to circulation his Philips traversal of music by this composer with the addition of five pieces made for Decca – the Romance for harmonica (with Tommy Reilly), possibly the best version […]
Sir Adrian Boult made some pioneering Decca recordings, among them symphonies and other orchestral works of Vaughan Williams. Having had first-hand experience of the composer, his recordings have an authority in our age that is virtually unequalled. The music on this CD contrasts Blake’s visions of darkness in ‘Job’ with the hilarious ‘Wasps Suite’, with […]
Daniel Barenboim’s sumptuous performances of English music have long been favourites and here they are beautifully remastered with state-of-the-art technology for this release. Pinchas Zukerman’s performance of ‘The Lark Ascending’ is surely a stand-out among recordings of this work (‘beautifully played, highly sympathetic performance’ said Gramophone). What’s more, the addition of Vaughan Williams’s Tuba Concerto, […]
Simply idyllic, this 2CD set couples a traversal of English seasons with idyllic music for cello and orchestra by English composers, all rapturously performed by the Academy and Marriner.
Bernard Herrmann made some significant recordings for Decca in the late-1960s/early-1970s. Many of these used the company’s then new audio technology, Phase 4, which brought the music into brilliant light. This collection brings together a selection of British Film Music as well as music by Herrmann himself for a series of Alfred Hitchcock films, including […]
On 24 June 1936, Peter Pears joined his BBC Singers colleague, contralto Anne Wood, at Decca’s studio in Upper Thames Street in the City of London to make his very first commercial recording, of Peter Warlock’s setting of the Corpus Christi carol for unaccompanied voices. The year marked a turning-point for Pears: he met Benjamin […]
