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VIRTUOSO – Pianists of the Sydney International Piano Competition (1992-2016)

May 27, 2021

Described by The Australian as ‘a boon for lovers of the piano and those keeping an ear on exciting musical talent’, the Sydney International Piano Competition (The Sydney) has become a fixture on the classical music landscape. This unique retrospective chronicles more than 100 fascinating performances. They were recorded by 77 pianists during seven events […]

RAFAEL KUBELÍK – The Mercury Masters

April 7, 2021

Groundbreaking technology, dynamic musical leadership, world-class orchestral playing: a brief marriage of lasting impact for the history of recorded music. To mark the 70th anniversary of Mercury Living Presence, this limited-edition box presents the complete Chicago Symphony/Rafael Kubelík recordings, newly remastered by Thomas Fine and including never-before-published material. Original cover albums New booklet essay on […]

RAFAEL KUBELÍK – Complete Decca Recordings

April 7, 2021

Rafael Kubelik, the Czech conductor, was in every way a big man: tall and robust in physique, he was the most generous of human beings and he inspired devoted affection among his friends and colleagues. This complete Decca collection finds Kubelík working with the Wiener Philharmoniker, the Israel Philharmonic, the Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian […]

Enrique Jorda – Decca Recordings 1950-51

March 25, 2021

A new collection of Decca’s legendary ‘ffrr’ recordings from the early 1950s, made by an underrated Spanish master of orchestral colour in London and Paris. Includes several items new to CD. Enrique Jordá described conducting as a ‘hair-raising’ business, and his career never recovered from a very public dressing-down by George Szell while music director […]

Johanna Martzy, Michael Mann – Complete Deutsche Grammophon Recordings

March 25, 2021

Complete on CD for the first time, the Deutsche Grammophon legacy of cult violinist Johanna Martzy, and of violist Michael Mann. Five original DG albums complete on two CDs. The brilliant tone and discriminating taste of the recordings made by Johanna Martzy (1924-79) mark her out among the finest violinists of her generation. Her EMI […]

Max Rostal – Twentieth-Century Violin Sonatas

March 25, 2021

Six Violin Sonatas from the 20th century performed by German violinist Max Rostal and recorded for Argo and Deutsche Grammophon. Having fled from the Nazis and moved to London in 1934, the German violinist Max Rostal became a fixture of the English capital’s musical scene and an inspired interpreter of English music. With his regular […]

Gerhard: The Plague; Walton: Façade; Stravinsky: The Soldier’s Tale

March 25, 2021

A trio of twentieth-century classics, sardonic and timely tales, in long-unavailable Decca/Argo recordings from the 1970s. Roberto Gerhard’s imagination was immediately fired by reading Albert Camus’ 1947 novel, La Peste, about a French-Algerian town in the sudden grip of bubonic plague. He determined to make a musical setting (The Plague), and after its premiere in […]

Erich Kleiber – The Complete Polydor 78s

March 25, 2021

Collected for the first time – Erich Kleiber’s rare recordings with the Staatskapelle Berlin and the Berliner Philharmoniker made for Polydor/Grammophon and newly remastered for this release. Erich Kleiber’s appointment to the musical directorship of the Staatsoper Berlin in 1923 proved to be the making of his career. Hired on the strength of a single […]

Eugen Jochum – Choral Recordings on Philips

February 11, 2021

Eugen Jochum’s complete recordings of choral / sacred music for Philips collected together for the first time. Includes the rare Rudolf Mengelberg Magnificat. Born into a Catholic family of Bavarian musicians, Eugen Jochum was playing the organ and conducting his father’s choir as a child. Late in life he became renowned as a Bruckner specialist, […]

Jeanne Demessieux – The Decca Legacy

February 11, 2021

From her legendary debut through the succeeding years, Jeanne Demessieux brought virtuosity allied to intellect and sensitivity, and went on to become the glory of the French organ school. This 8-CD celebration of one of the instrument’s most spoken-of, yet enigmatic figures, brings together for the first time her complete Decca recordings and a previously […]

The Peter Maag Edition

January 6, 2021

Newly compiled for the first time, the Decca career of a pre-eminent Mozart conductor, complemented by his recordings for Deutsche Grammophon and Westminster. Peter Maag began his career as a pianist, but turned to conducting with the encouragement of Wilhelm Furtwangler. He made his first Decca recording having lately turned 30, with the Suisse Romande […]

Coates, Elgar, Coward: Orchestral Music

January 6, 2021

Four 1950s Decca records of popular English music, newly remastered and issued complete for the first time on CD. Better than anyone else, Eric Coates and Sir Noël Coward captured the moods of middle-class, mid-century England at its most optimistic – and in other ways most nostalgic, comforting their audiences and distracting them from their […]