The Pro Arte Piano Quartet was made up of leading London-based instrumentalists, many of whom also played in the Melos Ensemble of London. Pianist Lamar Crowson was, and remains, one of the great chamber music pianists of all time (and a soloist in his own right). Kenneth Sillito led, for several years, the Academy of […]
One of the most peerless Mozartians of our time, Felicity Lott, has been one of the foremost sopranos to essay the composer’s major roles in the opera house. Complementing these is her magnificent disc of concert arias as well as Mozart’s beloved motet ‘Exsultate, jubilate’ and arias from two of the composer’s lesser-known operas. The […]
‘Operatic justice’, writes J.B. Steane in his informative and amusing note for this album, ‘is a law unto itself, and the baritone has been prominent among its victims. Unlucky in love, he is seen in the most favourable light as a father-figure and is otherwise all too often the villain of the piece. He may […]
One of Fricsay’s last recordings, this sublime ‘Figaro’ is once more restored to the catalogue. It boasts a Who’s Who of great Mozarteans from the late-1950s/early 1960s, including Irmgard Seefried, Maria Stader and Hertha Töpper with the magnificent Fischer-Dieskau in incomparable form as the Count Almaviva. The extensive booklet notes include a synopsis, notes on […]
Mozart’s final four quartets have a sublime quality. Two of these appear here, and the classic recording of KV575 receives its first international appearance on CD. Over the years Rainer Küchl became the VPO’s first concertmaster and his quartet has evolved to a point where only he remains from the four who recorded back in […]
These recordings of Mozart’s String Quartets (some of his final ones) KV 499 and KV 589, made in 1961 at the Sofiensaal in Vienna, have historic significance as the last gasp of a Viennese style of string playing of Mozart which stemmed from before World War II. Otto Strasser (1901–96), Willi Boskovsky (1909–91), his exact […]
Barry Tuckwell and Mozart are synonymous. He recorded the composer’s works several times during his horn-playing career, beginning with the Horn Concertos recorded with Peter Maag. In July 1983, he recorded them again, directing the English Chamber Orchestra from the horn. The sessions extended to include many of Mozart’s chamber works with horn – the […]
‘When he is at his best he plays more beautifully than any of us’ wrote Alfred Brendel on the pianism of Wilhelm Kempff. Eloquence is proud to announce a mini-edition devoted to some of the rarer recordings of Wilhelm Kempff, born in 1895 at Jüterbog, the son of a church organist. By 1916, Kempff was […]
‘When he is at his best he plays more beautifully than any of us’ wrote Alfred Brendel on the pianism of Wilhelm Kempff. Eloquence is proud to announce a mini-edition devoted to some of the rarer recordings of Wilhelm Kempff, born in 1895 at Jüterbog, the son of a church organist. By 1916, Kempff was […]
‘Rita Streich, famed for her peerless coloratura, for her Queen of the Night and her performances of Olympia in Les contes d’Hoffmann and Blonde in Die Entführung aus dem Serail; Rita Streich, often dubbed a ‘singing nightingale’ also took time out from a busy career to record miniatures. Several LPs, combined over two (now deleted) Deutsche […]
Alicia de Larrocha made several LPs of Mozart’s solo piano music for Decca between 1973 and 1986. In a series of recordings on Decca Eloquence, reissued to celebrate her artistry, this 3CD set brings together, for the first time, all her solo Mozart – nine sonatas, the D major Rondo, and the D minor and […]
Concertos, symphonies, operas … sonatas, serenades and divertimenti. But Mozart and Ballet Music? Truly a rarity! Much of the music on this disc formed the tenth and last LP in Decca’s complete Dances and Marches series with the Wiener Mozart Ensemble under Willi Boskovsky for which he chose younger players, some of whom had not […]
