Decca studio recordings made between 1947 and 1949 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, newly compiled and remastered by Mark Obert-Thorn and including material new to CD. Decca first presented its ‘ffrr’ technology – full frequency range recording – in 1944, originally developed by the company’s engineers as a means of detecting and identifying German submarines […]
A cherishable Mozart soprano of the 1950s and 60s, celebrated with the complete reissue of a Decca recital album, newly remastered. The quality that defined Graziella Sciutti as a singer was lightness – of voice, of bearing and presence on stage. Her vivacious intelligence was no less suited to the Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti roles […]
The supreme exponent of Viennese Mozart and his first recording of Mozart’s ‘rescue opera’ set in a Turkish harem (Decca’s first opera to be issued on LP), coupled with a superbly stylish collection of overtures. Weber’s verdict on ‘Die Entführung’ – ‘the victory of youth in all its freshness’ – has hardly been challenged since […]
A first CD release on Deutsche Grammophon of four concertos from a master interpreter of Mozart. Describing his experience as a youth in Hungary hearing Bruno Walter play and conduct a Mozart concerto, the Hungarian pianist, Andor Foldes, stated that all in attendance ‘were happy, so obviously happy, in the service of a higher power […]
Dating from May 1956, this recording of the ‘Posthorn’ Serenade was made in what became the Indian Summer of Eduard van Beinum’s recorded legacy with the Concertgebouw. The orchestra was on song and entirely at one with their music director in this chamber-music repertoire as may already be heard in the Bach suites recorded the […]
To complement a 2CD set of Rossini and Spanish songs entitled ‘Brava Berganza’ (482 6397), Eloquence has also reissued more buried treasure from the Decca discography of Teresa Berganza. The compilation takes its title from a 1961 album made, like the Rossini arias on ‘Brava Berganza’ with Sir Alexander Gibson conducting the orchestra of the […]
A first-time CD release for a gala concert given by the pre-eminent Mozart interpreters of the late analogue era. On 27th January, 1978 fell the 222nd birthday of Mozart and the auspicious occasion was marked in Strasbourg, at the Palais de la Musicque et des Congrès, by an ingeniously planned program which spanned a decade […]
One of the most significant violinists in gramophone history, Alfredo Campoli enjoyed tremendous success in the 1930s as a purveyor of light music both in concerts with his own salon orchestra and on Decca. A series of six, 2CD reissues from Eloquence focuses on the violinist’s postwar reinvention of himself as ‘Campoli’, the classical soloist. […]
‘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 […]
A pair of L’Oiseau-Lyre albums reissued together, making their first appearance on Decca CD. As a church musician in Salzburg, the young Mozart was required to turn out a regular diet of masses and settings of the Vespers and Litanies. Sung at afternoon services on feast days, the Litany was a favourite form of Catholic […]
The role of Constanze in ‘Die Entführung aus dem Serail’ is famously one of the most demanding, not only among Mozart’s operas but in the entire dramatic coloratura repertoire. The singer should have youth on her side, yet the technique to master two long and taxing arias placed almost back to back and the emotional […]
