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Mendelssohn: Overtures; Schubert: Rosamunde

October 29, 2018

Two original Decca releases of the Vienna Philharmonic in early-Romantic repertoire, freshly compiled and newly remastered. ‘I am an exponent of an old tradition,’ remarked Carl Schuricht. ‘I have nothing against the music of today but I feel it is important to rejuvenate the sense of tradition.’ This he did throughout a distinguished career which […]

Haydn: Symphonies Nos. 44-49

October 29, 2018

Fiery accounts of six symphonies from Haydn’s ‘Sturm und Drang’ period. Daniel Barenboim had been conducting the English Chamber Orchestra for 20 years when he made the first of the three Deutsche Grammophon LPs newly remastered and compiled on this Eloquence twofer. The familiarity tells in the crisp and dynamic response of the ECO to […]

Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake; The Nutcracker

October 29, 2018

According to legend, Anatole Fistoulari (1907–1995), conducted an orchestra for the first time at the age of seven. Having moved to France in his twenties, he escaped to England after the fall of France in 1939 and based the rest of his career in the UK as a ballet specialist who became something of a […]

Tchaikovsky: The Queen of Spades

October 29, 2018

A first international release on CD for the first recording in stereo of Tchaikovsky’s tragic masterpiece of obsession. With this and six companion issues, Eloquence makes available for the first time on CD the seven complete Russian operas recorded in 1955 by Decca with the company of the Belgrade Opera. Fresh from a successful tour […]

Robert Irving – The Decca Recordings

September 21, 2018

Robert Irving: the pre-eminent ballet conductor of his day on home turf and vividly captured in Decca’s superbly life-like, late mono-sound with his complete recordings for that label. Despite bringing the orchestras of both The Royal Ballet and the New York City Ballet to celebrated peaks of brilliance in execution, the conductor Robert Irving left […]

Yvonne Minton sings Mahler

September 21, 2018

Minton · Solti · Mahler – the complete record of a supreme artistic partnership. For a memoir published in 2017, Yvonne Minton wrote that ‘Mahler’s music could have been written with Sir Georg and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in mind.’ She was too modest to speak of her own contribution, in which a superbly schooled […]

Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin

September 21, 2018

A first release on CD for the first recording in stereo of Tchaikovsky’s operatic masterpiece. With this and six companion issues, Eloquence makes available for the first time on CD the seven complete Russian operas recorded in 1955 by Decca with the company of the Belgrade Opera. Fresh from a successful tour of ‘Boris Godunov’ […]

Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail; Overtures

September 21, 2018

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 […]

Bernard Haitink – The Early Years

September 21, 2018

The pre-eminent maestro of our day, caught in little-known studio recordings from the very beginning of his career, including first releases on CD of Beethoven and Mendelssohn recordings. In an original and valuable documentary essay which serves as the booklet note, Niek Nelissen outlines the rapid and unlikely genesis of Haitink’s career, from being rejected […]

Chansons Françaises

September 21, 2018

A BRAND NEW RECORDING FROM WOLFGANG HOLZMAIR. ‘For me,’ Wolfgang Holzmair once remarked, ‘the song is a continuation of speech – a higher form of expressing words and thoughts.’ Over the course of three decades, the Austrian baritone has been true to his own belief in a stream of recitals and recordings of the Lieder, […]

Glinka: Ivan Susanin (A Life for the Tsar)

August 20, 2018

A first release on CD for the first recording in stereo of the first ‘Russian opera’ in its Soviet-era rewrite. With this and six companion issues, Eloquence makes available for the first time on CD the seven complete Russian operas recorded in 1955 by Decca with the company of the Belgrade Opera. According to one […]

Mozart: Piano Concertos. Beethoven: Choral Fantasy

August 20, 2018

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 […]