W. A. MOZART
Divertimento in E flat & Duos Nos. 1 & 2 Igor Oistrakh (violin) & David Oistrakh (viola) Rainer Küchl (violin) & Josef Staar (viola) Franz Bartolomey (cello) [ Australian Decca SBS Eloquence / CD - released 1/Nov/2014 ] "I can warmly recommend this radiant performance of radiant music" (Gramophone) |
W. A. MOZART
Mass in C major 'Coronation' / Vesperae solennes de confessore / Exsultate, jubilate Ilena Cotrubas / Helen Watts / Felicity Palmer / Erna Spoorenberg / Academy St Martins, Neville Marriner [ Philips Australian Eloquence / CD - released 1/Apr/2007 ] "George Guest was an experienced choral conductor, whose reputation in the classical repertoire still goes before him. Hearing this performance it is not hard to see why, and this makes a most pleasing compilation for the discerning... |
BRUCH / MENDELSSOHN / PROKOFIEV / MILHAUD / DEBUSSY / etc
Ion Voicu: The Decca Recordings Ion Voicu (violin) with Monique Haas (piano) Victoria Stefanescu (piano) / London Symphony Orchestra, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos [ Decca SBS Australian Eloquence / 2 CD - released 1/Apr/2015 ] "Ion Voicu is a player of considerable quality and with a lot of technique […] He plays the Bruch with impeccable technique" (Gramophone on Bruch / Mendelssohn) |
MAHLER
Symphony No. 3 in D minor (with Schoenberg - Pelleas und Melisande, Op. 5) Iris Vermillion (mezzo) / Deutsches Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin, Vladimir Ashkenazy [ Decca Australian Eloquence / 2 CD - released 10/Mar/2011 ] Two gargantuan late-Romantic Austrian works are coupled on this very rare recording by Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Deutsches Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin. |
VINCENZO BELLINI
Bellini: Norma (complete opera recorded in 1968) Elena Souliotis, Fiorenza Cossotto, Mario Del Monaco, Carlo Cava / Orchestra e Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Silvio Varviso [ SBS Deutsche Grammophon Australian Eloquence / 2 CD - released 20/Oct/2014 ] "Elena Souliotis has the power, ferocity, energy for the role...Mario del Monaco's "Ferisci, ma non interrogarmi" is a splendid moment [...] Cosotto's tone is always full and beautiful...Silvio Varviso's direction is pleasantly spirited" Gramophone |
FRANZ SCHUBERT
Schubert: The Symphonies Vol 1: Nos 1 - 4 & 8 "Unfinished" Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Zubin Mehta [ Decca SBS Australian Eloquence / 2 CD - released 1/Jul/2011 ] "Mehta secures neat, articulate, musically fluent performances from his Israeli orchestra and the Decca engineers reproduce them with admirable lucidity and absence of fuss" (Gramophone on 4 & 8) |
ZOLTAN KODALY / BELA BARTOK
Bartok/Kodaly: Concerto for Orchestra (with Janacek's Taras Bulba) Israel Philharmonic Orchestra / Zubin Mehta / Philharmonia Hungarica / Antal Dorati / etc [ Decca ABC Australian Eloquence / CD - released 9/Sep/2006 ] Three of the very best of Eastern Europe's orchestral exports. This is the first CD release of Zubin Mehta's sought-after Kingwsay Hall recording of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra coupled with the much lesser known Kodaly Concerto for Orchestra, and... |
GEORGE GERSHWIN
Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue / An American in Paris / Cuban Overture (with Copland - Fanfare for a Common Man & Appalachian Spring) Ivan Davis (piano) / Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Zubin Mehta [ Australian Decca SBS Eloquence / CD - released 6/Dec/1999 ] Eloquence - top recordings and artists at a special price |
FRANCOIS COUPERIN
Couperin: Les Nations; Pieces de Violes Jacobean Ensemble, with Neville Marriner (violin) / Desmond Dupré & Dennis Nesbitt (viola da gamba) Thurston Dart (harpsichord) [ Decca Australian Eloquence / 2 CD - released 27/Sep/2019 ] 'Dupre plays sensitively, and is fluent and convincing in ornamentation. Dennis Nesbitt...plays his part firmly but nevertoo obtrusively...the harpsichord [is] here played with style and refinement by Thurston Dart.' Gramophone, July 1958 (Piècesde v |
FELIX MENDELSSOHN
Mendelssohn: Elijah, Op. 70 (complete oratorio recorded in 1954) Jacqueline Delman, Norma Procter, George Maran / London Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir & Hampstead Parish Church Boys' Choir, Josef Krips [ Decca SBS Australian Eloquence / 2 CD - released 1/Mar/2011 ] "Boyce sings the part with studied beauty, as indeed do all the other soloists, and the chorus is in excellent form. Josef Krips sets them some rapid tempi here and there, but the result is lively and interesting … plenty of orchestral detail even in... |
FRANZ SCHUBERT
Schubert: Symphony No. 9 in C major, D944 'The Great' (with Beethoven - Symphony No 4) [recorded 1953-54] Jacqueline Delman, Norma Procter, George Maran / London Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir & Hampstead Parish Church Boys' Choir, Josef Krips [ Decca Australian Eloquence / CD - released 1/Mar/2011 ] "The excellence of the performance is matched by that of the recording; it manages to be very clean and forward. An unreservedly good recording of this piece" (Gramophone on the Schubert) |
GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL
Handel: Orlando (complete opera) James Bowman, Arleen Augér, Catherine Robbin, Emma Kirkby / The Academy of Ancient Music, Christopher Hogwood [ Decca SBS Australian Eloquence / 2 CD - released 1/Mar/2014 ] "James Bowman's portrayal of Orlando is both impassioned and intelligent […]Emma Kirkby is perfectly cast in the tragi-comic role of the shepherdess Dorinda […] as unfailingly stylish an account as you're likely to get" (Gramophone) |
WAGNER
Wagner Heroes James McCracken (tenor) Matthias Goerne (baritone) Tom Krause (bass-baritone) James King (tenor) Ernst Haefliger (tenor) Wolfgang Windgassen (tenor) [ Australian Decca SBS Eloquence / CD - released 1/Jun/2014 ] This is a 50-year retrospective (1950 - 2000) of great Wagner singing on Decca and Deutsche Grammophon featuring twelve extracts from eight operas (including all four operas of the Ring cycle) with nine great singers. Wagner's knowledge of heroes... |
JEAN SIBELIUS
Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor / En Saga / Tapiola / Finlandia / Four Legends / etc (rec 1953 & 1958) Jan Damen (violin) / Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam / London Philharmonic Orchestra / Eduard van Beinum [ Decca ABC Australian Eloquence / 2 CD - released 20/Jul/2008 ] Eduard van Beinum was quite a Sibelius pioneer and collected here are his complete Sibelius recordings for Decca and Philips. The set also marks the first appearance on CD of his Violin Concerto in a 1952 performance by Jan Damen. |
GLUCK
Gluck: Opera Arias Janet Baker (mezzo) / English Chamber Orchestra, Raymond Leppard. [ SBS Decca Australian Eloquence / CD - released 19/Feb/2006 ] "this is in general a thrillingly sung recital of music which, apart from the two arias on which I have concentrated, is not particularly well-known." (MusicWeb Feb 2006) |
J. S. BACH
Bach: Cantatas BWV170, BWV82. BWV159, BWV56, BWV211, BWV212 Janet Baker, Robert Tear, John Shirley-Quirk, Julia Varady, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau / Academy of St. Martin of the Fields, Neville Marriner [ Decca Australian Eloquence / 2 CD - released 18/Mar/2020 ] The complete Philips and L'Oiseau-Lyre recordings of Bach cantatas made by Sir Neville Marriner, reissued together for the first time. Bach's cantatas vary enormously in scale and style, ranging from festal works featuring elaborate choral... |
BRITTEN / RAVEL / DEBUSSY / CHABRIER
The Art of Janine Micheau Janine Micheau (soprano), with Janine Collard (mezzo-soprano), Jean Mollien (tenor) [ Decca Australian Eloquence / CD - released 10/Feb/2019 ] 'the Damoiselle élue always seemed to be her best recorded work. Hearing it again, one admires no less the clear definition and the virginal simplicity.' Gramophone, April 1985 |
RICHARD STRAUSS
Strauss, (R.): Burleske / Duet-Concertino / Oboe Concerto / le Bourgeois Gentilhomme / etc Jean-Yves Thibaudet (piano), Dimitri Ashkenazy (clarinet) Gordon Hunt (oboe) / Wiener Philharmoniker [Vienna Philharmonic], Lorin Maazel, etc [ Decca SBS Australian Eloquence / 2 CD - released 1/Aug/2014 ] Relative rarities among his output are Richard Strauss's concertos, many written later in his life. This collection brings together works for oboe, clarinet and bassoon (the Duet Concertino) and the scintillating Burleske for piano and orchestra. In... |
FRANZ LISZT
Liszt: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 / Hungarian Fantasy / etc Jean-Yves Thibaudet (piano) / Orchestre symphonique de Montreal / Charles Dutoit [ Decca Australian Eloquence / CD - released 1/Dec/2006 ] "Indeed, I have only praise. Each of the four works here is well characterized, and the typically Lisztian varying tempos are spot on, unrushed but never deliberate and always leading naturally from one to the next. Climactic passages are powerful,... |
GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL
Handel: Semele (complete opera recorded in 1956) Jennifer Vyvyan, Anthony Lewis, William Herbert / New Symphony Orchestra, The St. Anthony Singers, Anthony Lewis [ Australian Eloquence / Decca / 2 CD - released 20/Dec/2018 ] A pioneering Handel recording of the 1950s in a new digital remastering. The scholar and conductor Anthony Lewis was one of the early luminaries of the L'OiseauLyre label which became, over time, the early-music imprint of Decca. Drawing on his... |