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Agnelle Bundervoët – Complete Recordings on Decca France

June 29, 2020

Three exceptionally rare Decca LPs of a much prized French pianist, newly remastered and released on CD for the first time. Rheumatism forced Agnelle Bundervoët to retire from the platform at the peak of her career in the late 1950s, though she continued to pass on to her students at the Conservatoire of Versailles the […]

Albert Ferber – Decca Recordings 1945-1951

June 29, 2020

Rarely encountered and previously unpublished recordings by a major Swiss pianist of the 1950s and 60s. Born in Lucerne in 1911, Albert Ferber studied with a pupil of Alfred Cortot and often played for Rachmaninov in Switzerland. International critics visiting the 1939 Lucerne Festival were impressed by ‘an exceptional Swiss pianist … who also showed […]

Eugen Jochum – The Orchestral Recordings on Philips

May 15, 2020

According to one former violist in the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Eugen Jochum was the type of conductor ‘who doesn’t “put on” spectacular performances, but whose music-making always bears the stamp of honesty. He is enthusiastic during a concert and also conveys his intentions to the orchestra without any affectation’. The sincerity and integrity of Jochum’s musical […]

Tchaikovsky: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 6; Violin Concerto

March 10, 2020

Erich Kleiber’s major Tchaikovsky recordings, newly remastered and coupled with Ruggero Ricci’s debut recording for Decca. Only a truncated version of the Capriccio Italien from 1933 predates these accounts of the Fourth and Sixth symphonies in the Kleiber discography. They were made in Paris – Decca apparently esteemed the playing of the Conservatoire Orchestra in […]

Tchaikovsky: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5

March 10, 2020

The Decca Sound in Hamburg and Paris: a trio of 1950s Tchaikovsky albums, including a pair of symphony recordings previously unpublished on CD. This supple and beautifully proportioned 1952 mono account of the Fifth Symphony marked the debut on disc of the NDR Sinfonieorchester under its founding conductor Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, the focus of two other […]

Prokofiev – The Decca Masters

March 10, 2020

A kaleidoscopic collection of orchestral Prokofiev in the 1950s, as recorded by Decca engineers in London, Paris and Copenhagen, featuring both rarities and classics. Once upon a time Peter and the Wolf was the best known of them, with six recordings to its credit in the days before LP. On this Kingsway Hall recording from […]

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 3; Violin Concerto

March 10, 2020

Sir Adrian Boult was a conductor of much more ‘temperament’ than is commonly supposed, with ever-frustrated ambitions to lead a complete Ring cycle, and whose consummate professionalism and Edwardian moustache concealed an interpreter of often fiery passions in Romantic repertoire. This new collection invaluably gathers up all the Tchaikovsky recordings he made for Decca between […]

Tchaikovsky: Serenade; Ballet Music

March 10, 2020

The Tchaikovsky ballet score recordings conducted for Decca and Philips by the Ukrainian-born Anatole Fistoulari (1907-1995) are prized ‘among the finest ever made’ (Gramophone). As a companion issue to his first, abridged versions of Swan Lake (4825225) and Sleeping Beauty (4827223), this newly remastered set offers another trio of complete LP albums, all stereo recordings […]

The Eton Choirbook

February 7, 2020

The first substantial survey of the Eton Choirbook’s treasures on record, newly remastered, compiled and reissued on CD for the first time. Copied out between 1490 and 1502, the Eton Choirbook is the most substantial extant source of English liturgical polyphony from the late 15th and very early 16th centuries. The architectural historian Nicholas Pevsner […]

Mozart: Flute Concertos; Symphonies 39, 40, 25, 29, 32

February 7, 2020

Three Philips albums of Mozart from the early years of Sir Colin Davis’s half-century association with the London Symphony Orchestra, including several recordings new to CD. Known as a peerless interpreter of Berlioz, Sibelius and Tippett, Sir Colin Davis was devoted above all to the music of Mozart. Symphonies, concertos and serenades by Mozart formed […]

Dvořák: Symphonic Variations; Serenade for Strings

February 7, 2020

An original Philips album of two light-orchestral masterpieces by Dvořák, with the Serenade for Strings receiving a first international reissue on CD. While best known as a conductor of the central symphonic repertoire, and the operas of Berlioz and Tippett, Colin Davis always showed special affection for the music of Dvořák. He made this album […]

Hans Knappertsbusch – The Decca & Westminster Bruckner Recordings

February 7, 2020

Newly remastered and gathered under one roof for the first time, the Decca recordings of Hans Knappertsbusch conducting Bruckner: a legendary combination. For record collectors in the 1950s and 60s, the names of Bruckner and Knappertsbusch (‘Kna’) were practically synonymous. At a time when the composer’s symphonies were routinely compared to Gothic cathedrals, the rough […]