Related Links

Recommended Links

Give the Composers Timeline Poster



Site News

What's New for
Winter 2018/2019?

Site Search

Follow us on
Facebook    Twitter

Affiliates

In association with
Amazon
Amazon UKAmazon GermanyAmazon CanadaAmazon FranceAmazon Japan

ArkivMusic
CD Universe

JPC

ArkivMusic

Sheet Music Plus Featured Sale

CD Review

The Decca Sound

  • CD 1 - Ernest Ansermet - Falla & Debussy
  • CD 2 - Ataúlfo Argenta - Showpieces of Spain & Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
  • CD 3 - Vladimir Ashkenazy plays Rachmaninov
  • CD 4 - Vladimir Ashkenazy conducts Sibelius & Mussorgsky
  • CD 5 - Cecilia Bartoli - Italian Songs
  • CD 6 - Joshua Bell - Barber, Walton & Bloch
  • CD 7 - Herbert Blomstedt - Richard Strauss
  • CD 8 - Karl Böhm - Bruckner Symphony #4
  • CD 9 - Willi Boskovsky - New Year's Day Concert in Vienna
  • CD 10 - Benjamin Britten - Britten War Requiem
  • CD 11 - Riccardo Chailly - Messiaen
  • CD 12 - Kyung-Wha Chung - Mendelssohn & Bruch
  • CD 13 - Clifford Curzon - Mozart Piano Concertos
  • CD 14 - Christoph von Dohnányi - Schoenberg, Berg & Webern
  • CD 15 - Antal Doráti - Stravinsky
  • CD 16 - Charles Dutoit - Ravel
  • CD 17 - Renée Fleming - Great Opera Scenes
  • CD 18 - Nelson Freire - Brahms Piano Concerto #1 & Schumann Carnaval
  • CD 19 - Bernard Haitink - Shostakovich Symphonies #5 & 9
  • CD 20 - Christopher Hogwood - Purcell Dido & Aeneas
  • CD 21 - Janine Jansen - Beethoven & Britten Violin Concertos
  • CD 22 - Herbert von Karajan - Holst The Planets
  • CD 23 - Julius Katchen - Bartók, Ravel & Prokofiev Piano Concertos
  • CD 24 - István Kertész - Dvořák Symphonies #8 & 9
  • CD 25 - David Willcocks - Haydn Nelson Mass
  • CD 26 - Alicia de Larrocha - Granados & Falla
  • CD 27 - Ute Lemper - Berlin Cabaret Songs
  • CD 28 - Radu Lupu - Beethoven Piano Sonatas
  • CD 29 - Peter Maag - Mendelssohn
  • CD 30 - Lorin Maazel - Respighi
  • CD 31 - Charles Mackerras - Janácek
  • CD 32 - Neville Marriner - Tchaikovsky & Grieg
  • CD 33 - Jean Martinon - Ibert, Bizet, Saint-Saëns & Borodin
  • CD 34 - Zubin Mehta - Varèse & Ives
  • CD 35 - Pierre Monteux - Ravel Daphnis et Chloé & Elgar Enigma Variations
  • CD 36 - Karl Münchinger - Bach
  • CD 37 - Georg Solti - Wagner The Golden Ring
  • CD 38 - The Three Tenors - Carreras Domingo Pavarotti in Concert
  • CD 39 - Joan Sutherland & Luciano Pavarotti - Puccini Turandot (highlights)
  • CD 40 - Philip Pickett - Susato
  • CD 41 - Pascal Rogé - Saint-Saëns Piano Concertos
  • CD 42 - Christophe Rousset - Pergolesi Stabat Mater
  • CD 43 - András Schiff - Bach Goldberg Variations
  • CD 44 - Georg Solti - Romantic Russia & Suppé
  • CD 45 - Georg Solti - Mahler Symphony #8
  • CD 46 - Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti & Marilyn Horne - Live from Lincoln Center
  • CD 47 - Takács Quartet - Beethoven Late String Quartets
  • CD 48 - Renata Tebaldi - Puccini La Fanciulla del West (highlights)
  • CD 49 - Vienna Octet - Mendelssohn Octet & Beethoven Septet
  • CD 50 - Andrew Litton & David Hill - Walton & Parry
Decca 4782826 50CDs
Find it at AmazonFind it at Amazon UKFind it at Amazon GermanyFind it at Amazon CanadaFind it at Amazon FranceFind it at Amazon JapanOrder Now from ArkivMusic.com

This set is a marvel, a mostly wonderful 50-CD tribute to some of the finest stereo recordings ever made in the Classical medium. Smartly packaged, and intelligently chosen, the box is worth having even if one owns some of the contents already. And you are bound to, for even a novice collector will recognize the great singers, conductors, and soloists on display. It's also reasonably priced on both sides of the pond, and is undoubtedly a limited edition, in the sense it will be pulled soon and sold at outrageous eBay prices. So if the prospect interests you, by all means indulge.

By and large the historical recordings are of more worth than the more recent offerings. Argenta, Martinon, and Maag all get a nod, and it's equally nice to see that Ashkenazy is being recognized as both an arranger and conductor here. Karajan and Solti naturally appear, although it must be said that those are wholly successful appearances, Doráti gets tons of kudos on Mercury, so one disc will do here; I wish only that it were Haydn. Schiff's justly famous Goldberg's are here, and Radu Lupu gets a disc, even if it's hardly the best. Britten's War Requiem with the composer conducting has been jammed onto one disc, as if it could get any more essential, and Kerstez's Vienna 9th and London 8th make a memorable Dvořák disc indeed.

The modern recordings are more variable. I don't really like the disc of songs with Ute Lemper, but some may, and surely it was chosen to show off Decca's artistic range. The "Three Tenors" concert is entirely irritating in that it pushed any number of great recordings out of the set, and the same goes for the live Carnegie concert with Pavarotti, Sutherland, and Horne. The label's new wave; Fleming, Bell, and Bartoli, are here because they had to be, not because any of this is their best work. That said, the early music recordings are all extremely worthwhile and perhaps unexpected in a collection such as this. And Chailly is stunning in both his appearances as are his other currently active counterparts; Mehta, Blomstedt, and Dohnányi.

There are also some recordings where the "Decca Sound" is frankly lacking. The New Year's Concert from Vienna is an important historical document, magnificently played, but the sound and especially applause are brittle and unpleasant. And the Walton disc at the end of the set is swallowed by a simply awful acoustic that the engineers were powerless against. Conversely, many of these recordings still pack a massive punch today. Solti's Mahler 8th has been bettered recently, but his soloists have never been equaled, and the disc is a thrill. Maazel's Cleveland disc of orchestral blockbusters is reference material, and Bohm's Bruckner 4th is simply an experience. Doráti's Haydn isn't here, but his wonderfully engineered Stravinsky from Detroit's fabled Orchestra Hall is. So it's a lot of good mixed in with that bad.

Overall, the set offers incredible value. While a good deal of this material has been around on Decca Legends and later Decca Originals, a good deal of it has not been easy to find. Take the "limited" part of this set very seriously. It serves as a way to build a collection, supplement it, or simply expand it. No matter where you are as a collector, I promise hours of enjoyment. Grab it while you can!

Copyright © 2013, Brian Wigman

Trumpet