JOSEPH HAYDN
Haydn: Symphonies Nos 44 - 49 [includes 'The Farewell'] English Chamber Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim [ Deutache Grammophon Australian Eloquence / 2 CD - released 21/Aug/2020 ] "These performances are crisp and bright, and the attendant clarity is achieved with seeming ease… Highly recommended.' Fanfare, November 1981 |
RAMEAU / CHARPENTIER / GRETRY
Raymond Leppard conducts Rameau & Charpentier English Chamber Orchestra, Raymond Leppard [ Decca SBS Australian Eloquence / CD - released 1/Feb/2011 ] 'Performances are excellent … Leppard splendidly catches the sense of wilfulness and quirky brilliance which lends his music its special colour' [Rameau] Gramophone |
TCHAIKOVSKY / ALBÉNIZ / CHABRIER / de FALLA / DVORAK / GRANADOS / etc
Enrique Jorda - Decca Recordings 1950-51 Enrique Jorda conducting L'Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire de Paris & New Symphony Orchestra of London, with Clifford Curzon [ Decca Australian Eloquence / 2 CD - released 9/Apr/2021 ] A new collection of Decca's legendary 'ffrr' recordings from the early 1950s, made by an underrated Spanish master of orchestral colour in London and Paris. Includes several items new to CD. |
GUSTAV MAHLER
Mahler: Symphony No. 1 (plus works by Wagner & Richard Strauss) Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Mahler), London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Erich Leinsdorf [ Decca Australian Eloquence / 2 CD - released 8/Nov/2019 ] "the sound quality and recorded ambience are both remarkable and contribute to the full in making this Mahler issue a candidate for top recommendation, in a symphony which has fared remarkably well in its recorded history." MusicWeb |
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. |
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... |