BACH / HANDEL / MENDELSSOHN / PARRY / etc
Sir Adrian Boult - The Decca Legacy, Volume 2 - Baroque & Sacred Music London Philharmonic & London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus / Kirsten Flagstad, Jennifer Vyvyan, Norma Procter, Kenneth McKellar, Joan Sutherland, etc [ Decca Australian Eloquence / 13 CD Box Set - released 7/Oct/2022 ] The second volume of Sir Adrian Boult's Decca legacy brings together the conductor's Messiah recordings of 1954 and 1960, plus Baroque and sacred music recitals from Kenneth McKellar, Kirsten Flagstad and Kathleen Ferrier. LIMITED EDITION. |
NICOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade / Russian Easter Festival Overture London Philharmonic Orchestra, Adrian Boult / London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux [ Decca SBS Australian Eloquence / CD - released 10/Aug/2015 ] In his most famous orchestral composition, Scheherazade, Rimsky-Korsakov, like Beethoven in his 'Pastoral' Symphony before him, was more interested in evoking feelings and impressions than in spoon-feeding listeners a pre-digested program. So the... |
FELIX MENDELSSOHN
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4 / A Midsummer Night's Dream London Philharmonic Orchestra, Concertgebouworkest, Eduard van Beinum [ Australian Decca SBS Eloquence / CD - released 20/Jun/2018 ] Classic 1950s accounts of Mendelssohn the teenage genius, the masterly orchestral tone-painter and the deft theatre composer, recorded by Decca and now reissued in new remasterings. With three of Mendelssohn's most popular orchestral works, Eloquence... |
BEETHOVEN / MOZART / CHABRIER / RAVEL / etc
Erich Kleiber, Jean Martinon - The Decca 78s London Philharmonic Orchestra, Erich Kleiber, Jean Martinon, with Eugenia Zareska (mezzo-soprano) [ Decca Australian Eloquence / 2 CD - released 19/Jul/2019 ] '[Kleiber] sets a norm, from the outset, of genuine, much-felt happiness … immensely wide dynamic range.' Gramophone, December 1951 (Kleiber: Beethoven 'Pastoral') |
ERIC & ALBERT COATES / EDWARD ELGAR / NOEL COWARD
Coates, Elgar, Coward: Orchestral Music London Philharmonic Orchestra, Geoffrey Corbett / New Symphony Orchestra of London, Eric Coates / London Symphony Orchestra, Malcolm Sargent [ Decca Australian Eloquence / 2 CD - released 5/Feb/2021 ] Four 1950s Decca records of popular English music, newly remastered and issued complete for the first time on CD. |
HEROLD / BOIELDIEU / ADAM / OFFENBACH
French Opera Overtures (Including Zampa, Orpheus in the Underworld & La Belle Helene) London Philharmonic Orchestra, Jean Martinon [ Decca SBS Australian Eloquence / CD - released 27/Jan/2006 ] 'Jean Martinon ... whips the orchestra into shape with the sheer energy of his conducting. All of these performances will set your pulse racing and toes tapping, from the élan of Hérold's Zampa to an absolutely wild account of the "can-can" finale to... |
PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Orchestral Works (Incls Nutcracker Suite & Serenade for Strings) London Philharmonic Orchestra / London Symphony Orchestra / Leopold Stokowski [ Philips Eloquence / 2 CD - released 1/Nov/2007 ] If you think you know these pieces, then listen again! Stokowski, the magician, sprinkles star-dust over the Nutcracker and gives the orchestra a jolly old workout in a couple of places. The Serenade has been considered one of the best ever recorded... |
HERRMANN / BAX / BLISS / SHOSTAKOVICH / VAUGHAN WILLIAMS / etc
Cinema Spectacular [incls 'Psycho', 'Things to Come' & 'Richard III Suite'] London Philharmonic Orchestra, National Philharmonic Orchestra, Bernard Herrmann [ Decca SBS Eloquence / 2 CD - released 20/Dec/2010 ] "Spellbinding … a firm favourite … performed with breathtaking precision by the LPO, and both they and the music come across with a thrilling and vivid immediacy" (Gramophone on the Herrmann) |
TCHAIKOVSKY / RACHMANINOV / PROKOFIEV / DOHNÁNYI / RIMSKY-KORSAKOV / MAHLER
Sir Adrian Boult - The Decca Legacy, Volume 3 - 19th & 20th Century Music London Philharmonic Orchestra, Wiener Philharmoniker, Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, Kirsten Flagstad, Julius Katchen, etc [ Decca Australian Eloquence / 16 CD Box Set - released 7/Oct/2022 ] The third volume of Boult's complete Decca recordings features Boult the insightful accompanist and inspired Russian interpreter, featuring many long-unavailable and newly remastered Decca recordings. LIMITED EDITION. |
SCHUTZ / PURCELL / GABRIELI / MONTEVERDI / HASSLER / etc
Glad Tidings: A Baroque Christmas London String Players / Philip Jones Brass Ensemble / Camden Wind Ensemble / Roger Norrington [ Decca Eloquence / CD - released 1/Nov/2012 ] |
FREDERICK DELIUS
The Best of Delius [Incls 'In a Summer Garden' & 'The Walk to the Paradise Garden'] London Symphony Orchestra, Anthony Collins [ Decca Australian SBS Eloquence / CD - released 20/Sep/2015 ] Five substantial pieces of 'classic' Delius are brought together on this remarkable and heartfelt tribute to the English composer (who spent very little of his actual career in England!), Frederick Delius. |
JEAN SIBELIUS
Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 1 - 4 London Symphony Orchestra, Anthony Collins [ Australian Decca SBS Eloquence / 2 CD - released 14/Jul/2014 ] "Collins's readings possess a red-blooded fervour and thrusting energy to which many will rightly respond" (Gramophone) |
PROKOFIEV
Symphonies 1 & 3 / Romeo & Juliet / Chout (with works by Janacek & Hinemith) London Symphony Orchestra, Claudio Abbado [ Decca SBS Eloquence / 2 CD - released 10/Mar/2013 ] Orchestral showpieces such as those grouped here were among the most obvious beneficiaries of the advances in recording technique pioneered by Decca from the late 1950s onwards. Works which may have seemed dauntingly complex to an earlier generation... |
DVORAK / RIMSKY-KORSAKOV / MOZART / VERDI / SCHUBERT / etc/
Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt Edition - Volume 2 London Symphony Orchestra, Concertgebouworkest, NDR-Sinfonieorchester, Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, with Alfred Brendel, Henryk Szeryng, etc [ Decca Australian Eloquence / 15 CD Box Set - released 29/Sep/2023 ] Supplementary to his legendary Beethoven cycles for Decca are Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt's recordings for Philips, Mercury, Deutsche Grammophon and Accord. They date from 1944 (Sutermeister) to 1972, when he made his last recording, fittingly by Mozart. |
OTTORINO RESPIGHI
Respighi: Pines of Rome, The Birds, Fountains of Rome London Symphony Orchestra, Istvan Kertesz [ Decca Australian Eloquence / CD - released 1/Jun/2019 ] Three of Respighi's most colourful and popular orchestral works in truly legendary performances. |
DVORAK
Symphony No 5, 7, 8 & 9 'from the New World' London Symphony Orchestra, Istvan Kertesz [ Decca Eloquence / CD - released 29/Jan/2003 ] "Symphony No.8 ... is just as thrilling today ... and very well balanced ... Kertész No.9 has also stood the test of time as a highly reccommendable and imaginative performance with vivid sound." Gramophone |
MEYERBEER / GLINKA / STRAUSS / TCHAIKOVSKY / SMETANA / WEBER / etc
Kaleidoscope - An Orchestral Extravaganza London Symphony Orchestra, London Proms Symphony Orchestra, Sir Charles Mackerras [ Decca Australian Eloquence / 2 CD - released 5/Feb/2021 ] Mercury, Philips and Decca recordings of orchestral pops conducted by the supremely versatile Sir Charles Mackerras, including a pair of Strauss overtures new to CD. |
W. A. MOZART
Mozart: Symphony No. 38 / Four Interludes from 'thamos, Kanig in a„gypten' / Six German Dances / etc London Symphony Orchestra / Peter Maag [ Decca ABC Eloquence / CD - released 16/Jun/2006 ] Peter Maag's celebrated recording of the Mozart 'Prague' Symphony (widely requested for reissue, internationally), now presented in a stunning remaster from the original tapes, leads into a program of Mozart rarities |
MAURICE RAVEL
Ravel: Boléro / La Valse / Pavane pour une infante défunte / etc London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux [ Decca Australian Eloquence / CD - released 1/Nov/2015 ] Pierre Monteux as the ideal interpreter of Ravel, that great teaser and lover of mystification. Born less than a month apart in 1875, the two men were bound to come together in pre-war Paris, which was such fertile ground for artistic novelty. The... |
DEBUSSY
Images / Nocturnes I & II / Prelude A l'aprAs-midi d'un faune / etc London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux [ Decca SBS Eloquence / CD - released 10/Mar/2013 ] "Some vintage performances but the competition from Munch is daunting" (MusicWeb April 2006) |