‘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 […]

From 1962 (when he made his Royal Festival Hall debut) to 1967 and again from 1981 to 1987, Simon Preston held posts at Westminster Abbey, initially as sub-organist then as organist and master of the choristers. These recordings were made during that first period: signing off the compilation in style, Widor’s ‘Toccata’ was in fact […]

The ‘fresh, beautiful and critically underpraised’ voice (Gramophone) of Pilar Lorengar is celebrated here on an album of operatic arias, originally issued in 1980 by Decca as a portrait of the Spanish soprano who had entranced audiences on both sides of the Atlantic for three decades. ‘Our Pilar’as she was known affectionately at the Deutsche […]

During the golden age of the LP, Horst Stein was among a select band of central-European conductors (Vaclav Neumann and Otmar Suitner are another two notable examples) revered by Japanese orchestras and audiences, perhaps more than their Western counterparts. They had an uncomplicated mastery of the repertoire that shunned interpretative eccentricity and plugged listeners into […]

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 […]

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 […]

This recording of ‘Die Meistersinger’ was one of the first operas released on LP by Decca in January 1952. Act II was recorded in 1950 and released separately; a year later came Acts I and III. It was also the first complete studio recording of the opera to be released on LP and came early […]

‘From Melba to Sutherland: Australian Singers on Record’ is the first-ever comprehensive survey of the recordings of Australia’s greatest singers – in a unique, new, 4CD set from Decca, complete with biographies of each of the 80 artists, rare photographs, all contained within a 68-page booklet. Why has there been such an extraordinary procession of […]

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 […]

Part of a mini-series within ‘Zubin Mehta: The Decca Years’ celebrating the vintage recordings he made for Decca. Here is the popular ‘Romantic’ Symphony coupled with a wondrous performance of the Prelude to the first act of ‘Meistersinger’.

This, Ansermet’s only Wagner recording for Decca, was made in November 1963. He paces the ‘Meistersinger’ Prelude implacably and his Wagner interpretations have plenty of fire as well as richness and gravitas. Much requested for reissue, this recording finally makes its appearance on CD in the international arena.

One of the greatest soprano legends of all time, Nilsson’s 1963 Decca recital with Edward Downes of popular opera arias by Wagner, Weber, Beethoven, et.al. has never been fully issued. Here it is on CD – issued complete for the first time and in the fabled sumptuous Decca sound – coupled with her rare ‘Ah, […]