BELLINI / BIZET / DONIZETTI / PUCCINI / VERDI
Pearlfishers' Duet: World-Famous Operatic Duets Ettore Bastianini / Carlo Bergonzi / Mario del Monaco / Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau / Jose Carreras [ Australian Decca SBS Eloquence / CD - released 1/Oct/2009 ] There is always a special pleasure in the blending of two fine voices, and composers have usually been happy to provide it during the course of their operas. Characters may join their voices in a unity of feeling, or in extreme disagreement, or in... |
ALEXANDER BORODIN
Borodin:: String Quartets Nos 1 & 2 Fitzwilliam String Quartet [ Decca SBS Australian Eloquence / CD - released 1/Mar/2006 ] "The Fitzwilliams' nervous energy can sometimes be brilliantly applied to the music, and be properly exciting" Gramophone |
MOZART / SCARLATTI / CHOPIN / SCHUMANN / SCHUBERT / etc
Fou Ts'ong - Complete Westminster Recordings Fou Ts'ong (piano) / London Symphony Orchestra, Peter Maag, Vienna Radio Orchestra, Brian Priestman, with Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, etc [ Westminster Australian Eloquence / 10 CD Box Set - released 10/Dec/2021 ] The Westminster label legacy of a master Chopin interpreter, issued complete for the first time in an 'original covers' box of new remasterings. |
W. A. MOZART
Mozart: Don Giovanni (Highlights from the complete opera) Gabriel Bacquier, Joan Sutherland, Pilar Lorengar, Marilyn Horne / English Chamber Orchestra, Richard Bonynge [ Decca Australian Eloquence / CD - released 15/Feb/2014 ] This is one of the most successful and stylish of Don Giovanni recordings. Having sung Donna Anna in her early (Giulini) recording, Sutherland here is, if anything, even more spine-tingling in this role. Bonynge and the English Chamber Orchestra,... |
DUKAS / OFFENBACH / ROSSINI / TCHAIKOVSKY
Solti at the Ballet [Incls 'La Boutique fantasque' & 'Gaîté Parisienne'] Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti [ Decca Australian Eloquence / 2 CD - released 20/Jul/2016 ] "an absolutely splendid recording …This Solti performance [of La Boutique fantasque] is sheer delight, played as it is with a combination of style and gusto it needs; a most exhilarating performance …this is an excellent debut on Decca" Gramophone |
DOMENICO SCARLATTI / J. S. BACH
Scarlatti: Sonatas / Bach: Italian Concerto, etc George Malcolm (harpsichord) [ Decca Australian Eloquence / CD - released 20/Jun/2019 ] George Malcolm, who died in 1997, irreverently called the harpsichord the 'jangle box', yet he was a master of that instrument, and of several other musical domains as well. Of Scottish ancestry, he was born in London in 1917, and when he was just... |
J. C. BACH / COUPERIN / RIMSKY-KORSAKOV / RAMEAU / etc
The World of George Malcolm George Malcolm (harpsichord) / Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner [ Decca Australian Eloquence / CD - released 16/Sep/2017 ] "[Malcolm's] obvious musicality, fluent and clean technique, rhythmic control and polished phrasing place him firmly among the world's leading harpsichordists" Gramophone [on the Bach] |
BENJAMIN BRITTEN
Britten: Choral Works [Incls 'Cantata Academica'] George Malcolm (organ), Benjamin Britten [ Decca Australian Eloquence / CD - released 8/Nov/2019 ] The first recordings of choral masterpieces by Britten, performed by the dedicatees and newly reissued in a unique compilation. |
JOHANNES BRAHMS
Brahms: Complete Orchestral Works Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig, Kurt Masur, with Salvatore Accardo (violin), Heinrich Schiff (cello) & Mischa Dichter (piano) [ Philips Decca Australian Eloquence Original Jackets Collection / 8 CD Box Set - released 10/Sep/2019 ] Kurt Masur's burnished readings of Brahms's orchestral music with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig are issued for the first time as a Limited Edition box with Original Jackets. |
ERIC KORNGOLD
Korngold - Symphony / Violin Concerto / Film Music [Incls 'The Sea Hawk'] Gil Shaham (violin) / London Symphony Orchestra, Andre Previn (piano) [ Deutsche Grammophon Australian Eloquence / 2 CD - released 20/Jul/2016 ] "Shaham gives a performance of effortless virtuosity and strong profile. […] Shaham and Previn together consistently bring out the [Violin Concerto's] sensuous warmth without making the result soupy" (Penguin Guide) |
DUPRÉ / FRANCK / COUPERIN / BRUHNS / BACH / MESSIAEN
Gillian Weir: A Celebration Gillian Weir (organ) [ Decca Australian Eloquence / 22 CD Box Set - released 12/Feb/2021 ] 'Dame Gillian is one of the greatest of living artists; her playing shows a perfect mixture of hand and heart, a true musician with the technique to tackle anything.' - JOHN AMIS, WRITER AND CRITIC |
ALEXANDER SCRIABIN
Scriabin: Piano Works [5 CD set] Gordon Fergus-Thompson (piano) [ ASV Decca Australian Eloquence / 5 CD Box Set - released 14/Jun/2019 ] 'For those who wish to savour Scriabin's often bewildering changeability without having their emotions torn to shreds, Fergus-Thompson is uniquely spellbinding in this repertoire.' International Piano |
MAURICE RAVEL
Ravel: Complete Music for Solo Piano Gordon Fergus-Thompson (piano) [ ASV Decca Australian Eloquence / 2 CD - released 14/Jun/2019 ] 'Fergus-Thompson confirms his calibre and status as a distinguished, most individual Francophile …Even the most experienced Ravelians will find themselves returning to these finely recorded accounts for a special and magical enlightenment' Gramophone |
RICHARD STRAUSS
Strauss, (R) - Salome (Complete opera recorded in 1972) Gwyneth Jones, Dietrich Fischer Dieskau, Richard Cassily / Hamburg State Opera, Karl Bohm [ Australian Deutsche Grammophon SBS Eloquence / 2 CD - released 1/Nov/2014 ] "singing of grandeur and magical intensity [from Gwyneth Jones, in the last scene] [...] [Fischer-Dieskau's] denunciation of the "Tochter Sodoms" chills the spine" (Gramophone) |
ANTONIN DVORAK / JOHANNES BRAHMS
Dvorak / Brahms: Orchestral Music Hamburg Radio Symphony Orchestra, NDR-Sinfonieorchester, Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt [ Decca Australian Eloquence / 2 CD - released 14/Aug/2020 ] Newly remastered, and new to CD, the dramatically charged DvoĆák recordings made by Hans-Schmidt-Isserstedt for Decca and Deutsche Grammophon, coupled with the composer's (and Brahms) folkloric dances. |
VARIOUS COMPOSERS
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Songs for Courtiers and Cavaliers [recorded 1956 - 1958] Helen Watts (contralto), Thurston Dart (harpsichord) Philomusica of London [ Decca Australian Eloquence / 2 CD - released 1/Aug/2019 ] Three L'Oiseau-Lyre LPs celebrating the art of a much-loved contralto, newly remastered and compiled together for the first time, including material new to CD. |
GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL
Handel: Cantatas; Arias Helen Watts (contralto), Robert Tear (tenor) / Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner [ Decca Australian Eloquence / CD - released 1/Aug/2019 ] Of the works by Handel presented here, three are cantatas devoted to the Patron Saint of music, St. Cecilia, another is an Italian cantata that was probably presented for a private patron in Rome, while the remaining two works are drawn from Handel's... |
STRAUSS 11 / KALMAN / OSCAR STRAUSS / LEHAR / DOSTAL / STOLZ
Hilde Gueden sings operetta Hilde Gueden (soprano) / Vienna State Opera / New Promenade Orchestra / Hans May [ Decca Australian Eloquence / 2 CD - released 15/Dec/2015 ] "my first choice is "Operetta Evergreens" in which Hilde Gueden is the lovely soloist in selections from Johann Strauss, Lehár, Kálmán, Zeller and others" (Gramophone Dec 1962) |
W. A. MOZART
Hilde Gueden sings Mozart Hilde Gueden (soprano)/ Wiener Philharmoniker, Alberto Erede, Clemens Krauss, London Symphony Orchestra, Josef Krips [ Decca Australian Eloquence / CD - released 20/Jul/2016 ] "Voi che sapete" and "Deh vieni" are both given excellent performances, the latter with its recitative "Giunse alfin" and here Gueden is on her home ground […] the recording is really excellent" (Gramophone on the original release of Figaro) |
RICHARD STRAUSS
Strauss, (R.): Ariadne auf Naxos (complete opera recorded in 1970) Hildegard Hillebrecht, Tatiana Troyanos, Reri Grist, Jess Thomas / Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Karl Böhm [ Australian Deutsche Grammophon SBS Eloquence / 2 CD - released 3/Apr/2015 ] "Reri Grist is my ideal Zerbinetta, precise of rhythm and intonation, witty in phrasing and verbal inflexion, tough in attack yet delectably sensual in vocal quality, the whore of one's dreams, sweet and permissive and utterly natural, never calculat |