GILBERT AND SULLIVAN
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Gilbert & Sullivan Favourites (from The Gondoliers, Iolanthe, Ruddigore, The Mikado & The Yeomen of the Guard) The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company / James Walker / Sir Malcolm Sargent [ Decca Australian Eloquence / CD - released 7/Jul/1995 ] 'all the performances are as good as they get' ClassicsToday.com |
GILBERT and SULLIVAN
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Gilbert & Sullivan: Patience (Complete opera with full dialogue) D'Oyly Carte Opera Company with John Reed; Kenneth Sandford; Mary Sansom, Philip Potter / New Symphony Orchestra of London / Isidore Godfrey [ Decca Records / 2 CD Box Set - released 1/Apr/1989 ] "Great diction. You get to hang onto every word....Donald Adams as Colonel Calverley is dynamic and John Reed excels as Reginald." Mel@marbecks |
GILBERT and SULLIVAN
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Gilbert & Sullivan: The Grand Duke (Complete) / Henry VIII-Incidental Music / Overture di Ballo D'Oyly Carte Opera Company with John Reed, Meston Reid, Kenneth Sandford / Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royston Nash [ Decca Records / 2 CD Box Set - released 1/Apr/1993 ] "This represents, perhaps the ideal way to sample Sullivan's least known major score. The recorded performance has both polish and vigour. The recording is characteristically brilliant." *** Three Stars. Penguin Stereo Guide. |
OTTORINO RESPIGHI
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: The Essential Respighi [Incls 'Fountains of Rome' & 'The Birds'] Swiss Radio Orchestra, Ernst Ansermet / London Symphony Orchestra, István Kertész / Argo Chamber Orchestra, Laszlo Heltay [ Double Decca / 2 CD - released 10/Apr/1995 ] "Ansermet, with his ear for detail and orchestral colour, yields up vivid results in the Fountains of Rome...Maazel's Pines of Rome is a strong, direct performance, and memorable in impact." (Penguin Guide) |
ANTONIO VIVALDI / MAURO GIULINI
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Vivaldi/Giuliani: Guitar Concertos Eduardo Fernandez (guitar) / English Chamber orchestra, George Malcolm [ Decca / CD Box Set - released 20/Sep/2015 ] Original recording made at the Henry Wood Hall, London, December 1986 |
HUGO WOLF
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Wolf: 13 Lieder nach Gedichten von Eduard Morike (with lieder by Loewe, Grieg & Brahms) Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (soprano) Geoffrey Parsons (piano) [ Decca / CD - released 1/Nov/2006 ] In memory of an outstanding soprano, the legendary German soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf passed away on August 3rd 2006 (born December 9th 1915), this is Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's last recording - on CD for the first time in over 20 years. |
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Shostakovich: Symphony No 15 / From Jewish Folk Poetry Elisabeth Soderstrom (soprano) Ortun Wenkel (contralto) / London Philharmonic, Haitink [ Decca Ovation / CD - released 5/May/2001 ] Rosette (highest rating) Penguin Stereo Guide |
JOSEPH HAYDN
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Haydn: String Quartets Op.33 1 - 3 / Op.1 No. 3 Weller Quartet [ Decca / CD - released 12/Apr/1992 ] "The Haydn quartets (are) most beautifully played... buoyant and colourful." ClassicalNet |
GAETANO DONIZETTI
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Donizetti: Don Pasquale (Act 1) [with Cimarosa- Il maestro di cappella] Fernando Corena, Juan Oncina, Graziella Sciutti, Tom Krause / Wiener Staatsopernchor und Orchester, Istvan Kertesz [ Decca / CD - released 1/Jul/1996 ] 'Under Kertész, Corena is an attractive buffo ... and Krause makes an incisive Malatesta. Graziella Sciutti is charming, bright-toned and vivacious, and remarkably agile in the most difficult passages. The 1964 Decca recording is excellent" Penguin |
GIOACCHINO ROSSINI
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Rossini: The Barber of Seville [Il Barbiere di Siviglia] (Complete Opera recorded in 1983) Francisco Araiza, Agnes Baltsa, Thomas Allen, Robert Lloyd / Academy St Martins / Neville Marriner [ Decca Opera! / 2 CD - released 10/Mar/2011 ] Sir Neville Marriner makes one of his rare appearances as an opera conductor and the combination of a superb cast and stylish orchestral playing combine to make a magnificent recording of Rossini's comic masterpiece. |
CLAUDE DEBUSSY / MAURICE RAVEL
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Great Pianists of the 20th Century - Friedrich Gulda I Friedrich Gulda (piano) [ Philips / Decca / 2 CD - released 20/Jan/2018 ] Born in Vienna as the son of a teacher, Gulda began learning to play the piano from Felix Pazofsky at the Wiener Volkskonservatorium, aged 7. In 1942, he entered the Vienna Music Academy, where he studied piano and musical theory under Bruno... |
LEOS JANACEK
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Janacek: String Quartets Nos 1 & 2 [with Smetana - String QuartetNo. 1] Gabrieli String Quartet [ Decca / CD - released 1/Nov/1991 ] "They have authority and imagination and they are as faithful to the score as I can judge … I admire the way they succeed in sustaining magic without inflating the rhetoric and over-emphasizing the bizarre." Gramophone |
PAUL HINDEMITH
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Hindemith: Konzertmusik op.50 / Der Schwanendreher / Nobilissima visione Geraldine Walther (viola0 / San Francisco Symphony, Herbert Blomstedt [ Decca / CD - released 1/Nov/1993 ] "Walther brings such character to the solo part that the pastiche German folk style holds the attention throughout. Nobilissima visione has had several recordings recently, but none better than Blomstedt's warm and brilliantly detailed version" BBC |
FRANCOIS ROBERDAY / JEAN LANGLAIS / SAMUEL SCHEIDT
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: King of Instruments: The Art of Gillian Weir Gillian Weir (organ) [ Decca Argo / CD - released 1/May/2005 ] 'her light touch and prismatic registrations enliven one hour's worth of François Roberday's beautiful but severe Fugues et Caprices ' 10/10 ClassicsToday.com |
VARIOUS
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE; The Hoffnung Festival of Music - Royal Festival Hall 1988 Guests include Bill Oddie, Jane Glover, Jill Gormez, Robin Ashby, Felicity Lott, Joseph Horovitz,, Richard Watkins, etc [ Double Decca / CD - released 27/Aug/2014 ] On February 12th & 13th, 1988, two reprise concerts were performed and recorded at the Royal Festival Hall and released by Decca. Many distinguished guests appeared, including Donald Swann, Annetta Hoffnung (playing the role of "orchestral maid"),... |
W. A. MOZART
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Mozart: Don Giovanni, K527 (Complete opera) Hakan Hagegard, Gilles Cachemaille, Arleen Auger, Della Jones / Drottningholm Court Theatre, Arnold Ostman [ Double Decca / 2 CD - released 1/Aug/2007 ] "Even those who have never been to Drottningholm and experienced Arnold Ostman's Mozart in the flesh will know exactly what it is that makes his recorded performances live." (Gramophone) |
RICHARD WAGNER
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Wagner: Tannhauser (Complete Opera with libretto) Hans Sotin, Christa Ludwig, Rena Kollo, Helga Demesch / Vienna Philharmonic, Solti [ Decca Records / 3 CD Box Set - released 11/Aug/2002 ] "One of the most satisfying of Georg Solti's Wagner recordings. Christa Ludwig is a seductive Venus in this, the Paris version, Helga Dernesch a sweet-toned Elisabeth, though René Kollo isn't quite the singer we expect from Tannhäuser." BBC Music |
GUSTAV MAHLER
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Mahler: Symphony No 8 'Symphony of a Thousand' Heather Harper, Lucia Popp, Arleen Auger, Rene Kollo / Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti [ Decca / CD - released 10/Apr/1996 ] 1001 Classical recordings you must hear before you die (1901-1950) "Now at last Mahler's Symphony of a Thousand can be heard on record at something approaching its full, expansive stature. Here is a version from Solti which ... conveys the... |
GUSTAV MAHLER
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Mahler: Symphony No 8 'Symphony of a Thousand' Heather Harper, Lucia Popp, Arleen Auger, Rene Kollo / Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti [ Decca Legends / CD - released 10/Apr/1999 ] 1001 Classical recordings you must hear before you die (1901-1950) |
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. |