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 […]
With reissues of music from Haydn to Sibelius, Eloquence has returned to availability much of the recorded legacy of Eduard van Beinum, the chief conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam in the post-war years. This is the first time that his complete Mozart studio recordings have been gathered together in a single issue and […]
The Lyric Opera of Chicago was founded as recently as 1954 but within two years it had secured the services of many operatic stars of the day who were doubtless reassured of the quality and warmth of reception at the company by the trailblazing US debut of Maria Callas as Norma in its first season. […]
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 […]
Among the final albums made by the late Nikolaus Harnoncourt was a history in sound of Viennese dance, the waltzes and polkas that made contemporary millionaires of the Strauss dynasty and have since travelled the world not least thanks to the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Day concert. The leader of those concerts for 25 years, […]
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 […]
The version of Mozart’s Requiem most frequently performed today – and heard on this recording – is Süssmayr’s completion. Many have labelled his edition as a rushed, student effort (his own opera, ‘Moses’, was postponed due to his working on the Requiem) while others believe that no new edition or reworking, irrespective of how learned […]
‘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 […]
Georg Solti’s first recordings were as a pianist – those with the great German violinist, Georg Kulenkampff, here collected in their entirety. The two artists recorded Brahms’s G major sonata in February 1947 and Beethoven’s ’Kreutzer’ Sonata in June 1947. They completed the Brahms sonatas in July 1948. Sadly, this would be their only collaboration. Kulenkampff died […]
Zubin Mehta was one of Decca’s stars in the 1960s and 1970s, known more for his recordings of 19th and 20th-century repertoire than of the 18th. Yet, he has long had an abiding love for Mozart and conducts his symphonic and operatic music on a regular basis. Issued to coincide with his 80th birthday year, this 2CD […]
