Decca Conductors' Gallery / Various Decca Conductors' Gallery / Various CD

An A-Z of 23 conductors in a feast of classic recordings from Decca's early years - 1929-1949 - including the golden age of it's '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 recordings. 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 it's 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 Fa?ade; 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 it's 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.

1. Delius: Sea Drift (With Roy Henderson) - Anthony Bernard 2. Walton: Overture 'Portsmouth Point' - Anthony Bernard 3. Walton: Fa?ade (With Edith Sitwell, Constant Lambert); Viola Concerto (With Frederick Riddle) - Sir William Walton 4. Walton: Symphony No. 1 - Sir Hamilton Harty 5. Haydn: Symphony No. 95 - Sir Hamilton Harty 6. Berlioz: Overture 'Le Roi Lear'; Marche Troyenne (Les Troyens) - Sir Hamilton Harty 7. Handel-Harty: Suite in Five Movements - Sir Hamilton Harty 8. Purcell-Wood: Suite in Five Movements - Sir Henry Wood 9. Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on Greensleeves; Overture 'The Wasps'; Symphony No. 2 'A London Symphony' - Sir Henry Wood 10. Coates: London Suite; London Bridge - March - Sir Henry Wood 11. Elgar: Enigma Variations - Sir Henry Wood 12. J.S. Bach: Concerto for Two Violins (With Louis Zimmermann, Ferdinand Helman) - Willem Mengelberg 13. Gluck: Overture 'Alceste' - Willem Mengelberg 14. Mussorgsky: A Night on the Bare Mountain; Gopak (Sorochintsy Fair) - Albert Coates 15. Rimsky-Korsakov: Snegurochka - Suite - Albert Coates 16. Rimsky-Korsakov: Le Coq D'or - Suite - Albert Coates 17. Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 'Path?tique'; Romeo and Juliet - Fantasy Overture - Albert Coates 18. Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 'Eroica' - Victor de Sabata 19. Berlioz: Overture 'Le Carnaval Romain' - Victor de Sabata 20. Sibelius: Valse Triste - Victor de Sabata 21. Wagner: Ride of the Valkyries (Die Walk?re) - Victor de Sabata 22. Sibelius: en Saga - Victor de Sabata 23. Bizet: Ouverture 'Patrie'; Jeux D'enfants - Petite Suite - Roger D?sormi?re 24. Chabrier: Habanera - Roger D?sormi?re 25. Debussy: Marche Ecossaise - Roger D?sormi?re 26. Opera Arias - Gounod, Offenbach, Thomas, Proch, Charpentier (With Janine Micheau) - Roger D?sormi?re 27. Wagner: Overture 'Die Meistersinger Von N?rnberg' - Grzegorz Fitelberg 28. Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 2 (With Eileen Joyce) - Grzegorz Fitelberg 29. Borodin: Polovtsian Dances (Prince Igor) - Grzegorz Fitelberg 30. Rimsky-Korsakov: The Tale of Tsar Saltan - Suite - Grzegorz Fitelberg 31. Brahms: Symphony No. 2 - Wilhelm Furtw?ngler 32. Rossini: Overture 'La Scala Di Seta' - Carlo Zecchi 33. Pizzetti: La Pisanelle - Suite - Carlo Zecchi 34. Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 (With Clara Haskil) - Carlo Zecchi 35. Grieg: Symphonic Dances Nos. 1,2 ; 4 - Piero Coppola 36. Schumann: Symphony No. 1 - Piero Coppola 37. Schumann: Symphony No. 2 - George Enescu 38. Debussy: Petite Suite - Ernest Ansermet 39. Debussy: La Mer - Ernest Ansermet 40. Ravel: Alborada Del Gracioso (Miroirs) - Ernest Ansermet 41. Ravel: Sh?h?razade (With Suzanne Danco); la Valse - Ernest Ansermet 42. Beethoven: Overture 'Fidelio' - Clemens Krauss 43. Brahms: Academic Festival Overture - Clemens Krauss 44. R. Strauss: Tod Und Verkl?rung - Clemens Krauss 45. R. Strauss: Till Eulenspiegels Lustige Streiche - Clemens Krauss 46. Wagner: Overtures, 'Tannh?user' ; 'Der Fliegende Holl?nder' - Paul Van Kempen 47. Handel: Messiah, Israel in Egypt, Semele, Alexander's Feast, Solomon, Serse - Excerpts; Zadok the Priest - Sir Malcolm Sargent 48. Handel-Harty: Music for the Royal Fireworks - Suite - Sir Malcolm Sargent 49. Holst: The Perfect Fool - Ballet Music - Sir Malcolm Sargent 50. Elgar: Overture 'Cockaigne' - Eduard Van Beinum 51. Britten: Four Sea Interludes ; Passacaglia from Peter Grimes - Eduard Van Beinum 52. Arnold: Overture 'Beckus the Dandipratt' - Eduard Van Beinum 53. Mahler: Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen (With Eugenia Zareska) - Eduard Van Beinum 54. Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 - Eduard Van Beinum 55. Wagner: Overture 'Rienzi'; Tannh?user - Overture ; Venusberg Music; Lohengrin - Prelude to Act III; Die Meistersinger Von N?rnberg - Prelude to Act III, Dance of the Apprentices, March of the Guild - Hans Knappertsbusch 56. Wagner: Lohengrin - Prelude to Act I - Hans Knappertsbusch 57. Wagner: Die Meistersinger Von N?rnberg - Prelude to Act I - Hans Knappertsbusch 58. Handel: Andante Larghetto (Berenice) - Erich Kleiber 59. Mozart: Symphony No. 40 - Erich Kleiber 60. Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 'Pastoral' - Erich Kleiber 61. Josef Strauss: Sph?renkl?nge - Erich Kleiber 62. Johann Strauss II: Overture 'Der Zigeunerbaron' - Erich Kleiber 63. Dvorßk: Overture 'Carnaval' - Erich Kleiber 64. Tchaikovsky: Da, Cas Nastal!... Prostite V?, Kholm?, Polya Rodn?ye (The Maid of Orl?ans) (With Eugenia Zareska) - Jean Martinon 65. Chabrier: Suite Pastorale - Jean Martinon 66. Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin - Jean Martinon 67. Humperdinck: Prelude 'H?nsel Und Gretel' - Leo Blech 68. Haydn: Symphony No. 94 'Surprise' - Leo Blech 69. Mozart: Symphony No. 25 - Sergiu Celibidache 70. Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5; the Nutcracker - Suite - Sergiu Celibidache