Decca Conductors’ Gallery (24/48 FLAC)

Number of Discs: 21
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Eloquence
Catalogue: 4842117
Release: 2023
Size: 13.1 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover

CD 01
Anthony Bernard
Delius: Sea Drift (with Roy Henderson)
Walton: Overture ‘Portsmouth Point’

Sir William Walton
Walton: Façade (with Edith Sitwell, Constant Lambert); Viola Concerto (with Frederick Riddle)

CD 02
Sir Hamilton Harty
Walton: Symphony No. 1
Haydn: Symphony No. 95
Berlioz: Overture ‘Le Roi Lear’; Marche troyenne (Les Troyens)

CD 03
Sir Hamilton Harty
Handel–Harty: Suite in Five Movements

Sir Henry Wood
Purcell–Wood: Suite in Five Movements
Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on Greensleeves; Overture ‘The Wasps’; Symphony No. 2 ‘A London Symphony’

CD 04
Sir Henry Wood
Coates: London Suite; London Bridge – March
Elgar: Enigma Variations

Willem Mengelberg
J.S. Bach: Concerto for Two Violins (with Louis Zimmermann, Ferdinand Helman)
Gluck: Overture ‘Alceste’

Albert Coates
Mussorgsky: A Night on the Bare Mountain; Gopak (Sorochintsy Fair)

CD 05
Albert Coates
Rimsky-Korsakov: Snegurochka – Suite
Rimsky-Korsakov: Le Coq d’or – Suite
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 ‘Pathétique’; Romeo and Juliet – Fantasy Overture

CD 06
Victor de Sabata
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 ‘Eroica’
Berlioz: Overture ‘Le Carnaval romain’
Sibelius: Valse triste
Wagner: Ride of the Valkyries (Die Walküre)

CD 07
Victor de Sabata
Sibelius: En saga

Roger Désormière
Bizet: Ouverture ‘Patrie’; Jeux d’enfants – Petite Suite
Chabrier: Habanera
Debussy: Marche ecossaise
Opera Arias – Gounod, Offenbach, Thomas, Proch, Charpentier (with Janine Micheau)

CD 08
Grzegorz Fitelberg
Wagner: Overture ‘Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg’
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 2 (with Eileen Joyce)
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 3

CD 09
Grzegorz Fitelberg
Borodin: Polovtsian Dances (Prince Igor)
Rimsky-Korsakov: The Tale of Tsar Saltan – Suite

Wilhelm Furtwängler
Brahms: Symphony No. 2

CD 10
Carlo Zecchi
Rossini: Overture ‘La Scala di Seta’
Pizzetti: La Pisanelle – Suite
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 (with Clara Haskil)

Piero Coppola
Grieg: Symphonic Dances Nos. 1, 2 & 4

CD 11
Piero Coppola
Schumann: Symphony No. 1

George Enescu
Schumann: Symphony No. 2

CD 12
Ernest Ansermet
Debussy: Petite Suite
Debussy: La Mer
Ravel: Alborada del gracioso (Miroirs)
Ravel: Shéhérazade (with Suzanne Danco); La Valse

CD 13
Clemens Krauss
Beethoven: Overture ‘Fidelio’
Brahms: Academic Festival Overture
Strauss: Tod und Verklärung
Strauss: Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche

Paul van Kempen
Wagner: Overtures, ‘Tannhäuser’ & ‘Der fliegende Holländer’

CD 14
Sir Malcolm Sargent
Handel: Messiah, Israel in Egypt, Semele, Alexander’s Feast, Solomon, Serse – excerpts; Zadok the Priest
(with Kathleen Ferrier, Richard Lewis, Trevor Anthony)

CD 15
Sir Malcolm Sargent
Handel–Harty: Music for the Royal Fireworks – Suite
Holst: The Perfect Fool – ballet music

Eduard van Beinum
Elgar: Overture ‘Cockaigne’
Britten: Four Sea Interludes & Passacaglia from Peter Grimes
Arnold: Overture ‘Beckus the Dandipratt’

CD 16
Eduard van Beinum
Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (with Eugenia Zareska)
Bruckner: Symphony No. 7

CD 17
Hans Knappertsbusch
Wagner: Overture ‘Rienzi’; Tannhäuser – Overture & Venusberg Music; Lohengrin – Prelude to Act III; Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg – Prelude to Act III, Dance of the Apprentices, March of the Guild
Wagner: Lohengrin – Prelude to Act I

Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg – Prelude to Act I

CD 18
Erich Kleiber
Handel: Andante larghetto (Berenice)
Mozart: Symphony No. 40
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 ‘Pastoral’

CD 19
Erich Kleiber
Josef Strauss: Sphärenklänge
Johann Strauss II: Overture ‘Der Zigeunerbaron’
Dvořák: Overture ‘Carnaval’

Jean Martinon
Tchaikovsky: Da, čas nastal! … Prostite vï, kholmï, polya rodnïye (The Maid of Orléans) (with Eugenia Zareska)
Chabrier: Suite Pastorale
Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin

CD 20
Leo Blech
Humperdinck: Prelude ‘Hänsel und Gretel’
Haydn: Symphony No. 94 ‘Surprise’

Sergiu Celibidache
Mozart: Symphony No. 25

CD 21
Sergiu Celibidache
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5; The Nutcracker – Suite

An A-Z of 23 conductors in a feast of classic recordings from Decca’s early years – 1929-1949 – including the golden age of its ‘ffrr’ technology.

Newly remastered from the best available sources by Mark Obert-Thorn, Ward Marston and Andrew Hallifax, this comprehensively annotated and richly illustrated set features several new-to-CD releases. It is a must-have for any follower of historical recordingd and features:

ANSERMET . VAN BEINUM . BERNARD . BLECH . CELIBIDACHE . COATES . COPPOLA . DESORMIERE . ENESCU . FITELBERG . FURTWANGLER . HARTY . VAN KEMPEN . KLEIBER . KNAPPERTSBUSCH . KRAUSS . MARTINON . MENGELBERG . DE SABATA . SARGENT . WALTON . WOOD . ZECCHI.

Spanning almost twenty years, the unique story of this set begins in May 1929 with Decca’s first major recording, Delius’s Sea Drift – a performance whose merits were obscured at the time by surface noise, but which the latest technology reveals to be a gloriously sympathetic reading of Delius’s poignant elegy. Back then, the conductor (Anthony Bernard) was not even printed on the 78 labels; yet, for a later recording in the set, a suite of Handel, the name of Erich Kleiber stands out: a sign of how far the label travelled in its first twenty years, through some choppy commercial waters, to become a byword for technological excellence and world-class musical artistry drawn from around the globe.

The pre-war recordings inevitably centre on British/Irish conducting talent, old and new: Hamilton Harty, dynamic in Haydn and Walton; Walton himself, in a definitive first recording of Facade; atmospheric Vaughan Williams, Elgar and Coates from Henry Wood. One of the rarest items in the set is Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins as led by Mengelberg in 1936.

The post-war material includes several great names of the podium from those pre-war days, judiciously picked up by Decca when they might otherwise have been forgotten: Albert Coates whipping up a frenzy in the Russian repertoire he made his own; Clemens Krauss, incandescent in Strauss from Milan and London; Leo Blech’s genial ‘Surprise’ Symphony of Haydn.

Senior composer-conductors include Fitelberg in Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 3 and Enescu in Schumann’s Second. Then there are thrilling young podium tyros who were setting London musical life alight in the postwar years: Celibidache’s electrifying and wayward Tchaikovsky, Martinon’s exquisite Ravel, Coppola’s majestic Schumann.

A note from the remastering engineer Andrew Hallifax explains the history behind this first-ever release of Handel choruses conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent. Mark Obert-Thorn explains his choice of treasures for this box and introduces the history of Decca and its revolutionary development of ‘full frequency range recording’ in the late 1940s. Peter Quantrill expands the historical perspective with notes on both Decca and each of the individual conductors in the box.

“There is much that reflects Furtwangler’s great attention to dynamic relationships, his sense of architecture, and his ear for balance and color. He whips up quite a phenomenal bit of energy for the final coda.” Fanfare, July 2020 (Furtwangler – Brahms: Symphony No. 2)

“Mr. Riddle seems to get ample sonority and a good deal of variety out of the solo part, and the recording is clear and free from harshness.” Gramophone, February 1938 (Walton: Viola Concerto)

“[Harty] shows clearly how much of the work’s success was due to his inspired advocacy. He brings out the vehemence and passion very starkly, but also finds an underlying rock-like strength.” Gramophone, December 1993 (Harty – Walton: Symphony No. 1)

“It would be difficult to exaggerate the concentrated power of this music, which is superbly performed and recorded.” The Record Guide, 1955 (Van Beinum – Britten: Four Sea Interlude.