Gioacchino Antonio Rossini

This has to be one of the most amazing recordings of Rossini Overtures ever made. The polish and scintillation of the orchestral playing practically outclasses any other recording and the sense of fun is infectious.

A thrilling collection of Overtures and Preludes (with some popular orchestral pieces thrown in for good measure) from Zubin Mehta. As a showman of the best variety, his recordings remains one of the Decca catalogue's richest legacies, and more than half of this collection is being released on CD for the first time.

In her day Marcelle Meyer was the doyenne of French piano. Cortot admired her and she performed with the likes of Ravel and Couperin. She had a vast repertoire that extended from the Baroque to contemporary composers like Stravinsky and she left a considerable recorded legacy. The recordings she made have not always been as readily available as one might wish, so it is a great pleasure to be able to get one's hands on this set of her recordings from 1927 to 1957. At a total of seventeen discs, this is a fascinating collection as well as a fantastic bargain. The composers represented include Chabrier, Debussy, Ravel, Bach, Couperin, Scarlatti, Mozart, Rossini, Schubert and Stravinsky. There is also a sonata by Oscar Espla, which was a new name to me. Almost all of the recordings are of the solo repertoire (there are no chamber pieces and only two Mozart concerti). There is also some reduplication of music Meyer recorded more than once: this applies to a lesser extent to the Couperin and Rameau, and to a slightly greater extent to the Scarlatti sonatas.

Recorded in her 59th year, this was one of Sutherland's last studio recordings. The notes are by Richard Bonynge, the indefatigable mind behind the research of much of this repertoire.