All your plum puddings at once… lustily sung and heartily played, this CD of traditional carols old and new includes all the Christmas ‘standards’ as well as the delectable offerings of John Rutter.
On the back of one of Eloquence’s most applauded and best-selling CDs – that of Dutch contralto, Aafje Heynis, singing Bach and Handel – comes a recording of her as the centrepiece in two Bach Cantatas and seven sublime but rarely-performed Sacred Songs. The piece de resistance is of course, Vergnugte Ruh (‘Contented Rest’), here […]
The Dutch contralto, Aafje Heynis, had a dark, rich, altogether unique voice and the story of her discovery in a Holland recovering from the ravages of World War II, told in the booklet notes, is heart-warming indeed… as is this collection put together from several of her recordings. Seven Bach and six Handel arias make […]
Initially released in 1979, this album built on the success of the legendary ‘Carols for Choirs’ volumes thereby establishing John Rutter’s name with the wider public. The accomplished Clare College Choir features male and female voices and the recording was made in the glorious acoustics of Ely Cathedral’s Lady Chapel.
Colin Davis recorded Handel’s ‘Messiah’ twice for Philips – in the 1960s with an English cast and then in the 1980s with British soprano and tenor soloists, a German alto and an American bass, not to mention a German orchestra and chorus. It’s a warm and voluble reading and was for a short while available […]
The three 2-CD Tchaikovsky/Ansermet sets, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker and Swan Lake, represent his complete Tchaikovsky recordings for Decca. Ansermet’s recording of The Nutcracker is in a league of its own and many will find fascinating his own sequencing of numbers from Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty. Refined, yet passionate, many of the […]
The fourth volume in ‘The Flagstad Recitals’, comprises two LPs Kirsten Flagstad made with the London Philharmonic and Sir Adrian Boult in December 1956 (Bach and Handel: CD2) and April 1957 (Sacred Songs: CD1) at London’s Kingsway Hall. The Penguin Guide to bargain Compact Discs praised the ‘sacred pops’ CD for the ‘vivid projection’ of […]
Sir Adrian Boult made a selection of Decca recordings in the 1950s and 60s ranging from Baroque repertoire (Bach, Handel) to the music of the 20th century – most notably the first eight Vaughan Williams symphonies. Coupled together for the first time on CD are his two major Handel recordings for Decca – of the […]
The DECCA ANSERMET LEGACY has been systematically releasing the vast recorded legacy of Ernest Ansermet, a key Decca artist in the 1950s and 1960s. It has become one of the most sought-after and praised of all reissue series. The latest brings together Ansermet’s Honegger recordings, including the first international release on CD of the Symphony […]
Jean-Baptiste Duval of the Venetian Republic’s French Embassy records that on Christmas Eve 1607, Midnight Mass in St. Mark’s was celebrated by the light of more than one thousand candles, sixty huge torches and silver lamps. He counted no less than eight ‘choirs’ of voices and instruments sounding back and forth across the gilded vaults […]
Choirs and orchestras join for a beautiful celebration of 20th-century British Christmas favourites recorded in sumptuous Argo sound. Book-ended by two perennial favourites – Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on Christmas Carols and Finzi’s In terra pax – this collection explores the subtle and radiant music of Howells, Warlock, Ireland and Holst, and includes an orchestral number […]
This is a gem of an album, containing not only some glorious and seldom heard pieces but is also the only available recorded version of ‘Soberana Maria’ (anon.). ‘A piece of heart-breaking beauty, sung exquisitely a capella’ wrote a reviewer on Amazon.com of this admirable album made in 1968 – one of Roger Norrington’s earliest recordings. […]
