Reznicek: Donna Diana Overture

During the 1950s, 60s and 70s, Decca recorded a number of albums with some of its key conductors of Overtures. Many of these were singled out by the press for their terrific sound quality (the fabled ‘Decca Sound’) and for their often adventurous programming. Some of them also included entr’actes and intermezzi. Prized as collectors’ items, many of the original LPs exchange hands at high prices. And most of these reissues, in Decca Eloquence’s ‘Romantic Overtures’ series appear in CD, in part or whole, for the first time.

Romantic Overtures – Volume 4 is a Viennese celebration with a violinist / conductor synonymous with the waltz and everything that was echt-nineteenth century Vienna: Willi Boskovsky. Boskovsky had a lengthy association with Decca, conducting for them not only a volley of ‘New Year’ recordings of waltzes, polkas and marches by the Strauss Dynasty, but also the music of Mozart, and much chamber music too, with the Vienna Octet. At the centre of this collection is his fabled LP ‘Overtures of Old Vienna’, and it goes on to include other overtures recorded as part of his New Year albums, all of it extremely stylish and ‘of the age’, as it were.

Recording producers: John Culshaw (La Princesse Jaune, Benvenuto Cellini, Si j’étais roi, Zampa, Donna Diana, Pique Dame, Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Le Domino noir); Victor Olof (Masaniello, Le cheval de bronze, Fra diavolo, Les diamants de la couronne); James Walker (Le Corsaire, Le roi Lear, Le Carnaval Romain, Les francs-juges)

Recording engineers: Kenneth Wilkinson (La Princesse Jaune, Benvenuto Cellini) James Brown (Masaniello, Le cheval de bronze, Fra diavolo, Les diamants de la couronne); Roy Wallace (Le Corsaire, Le roi Lear, Le Carnaval Romain, Les francs-juges); Ken Cress (Si j’étais roi, Zampa, Donna Diana, Pique Dame, Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Le Domino noir)

Recording location: La Maison de la Mutualité, Paris, France, June 1951 (La Princesse Jaune, Benvenuto Cellini), September 1954 (Masaniello, Le cheval de bronze, Fra diavolo, Les diamants de la couronne), June 1955 (Le Corsaire, Le roi Lear, Le Carnaval Romain, Les francs-juges), November 1957 (Si j’étais roi, Zampa, Donna Diana, Pique Dame, Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Le Domino noir)

The recorded legacy of Albert Wolff is one of the most sought-after by collectors. Of Dutch parentage, but born in Paris, Wolff was something of a polymath: pianist, organist, conductor, composer, and had a long career in recording studios beginning in 1920. His first recordings for Decca, starting in the summer of 1951, were a complete Carmen (with Suzanne Juyol), a Manon (with Janine Micheau) as well as several French orchestral suites and individual pieces. ‘Overtures in Hi-Fi’ was the title given to a now ‘cult’ LP of Wolff conducting six overtures: Si j’étais roi, Le Domino Noir, Zampa, Donna Diana, Pique Dame and The Merry Wives of Windsor. To these are added a further ten overtures to make up this 2CD anthology.

Recorded: Town Hall, Bournemouth, 25 September 1962 (Reznicek), Winter Gardens, Bournemouth, 3 July 1967 (Tchaikovsky, Elgar)

This the fourth release on BBC Legends of the Rumanian conductor Constantin Silvestri (1913- 1969) who spent his last years as Music Director of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra raising it to an international level which it enjoys today. Silvestri recorded frequently for EMI with the Philharmonia, Vienna Philharmonic, Orchestre National in Paris, London Philharmonic and Paris Conservatoire.

The composer Emil von Reznicek was Silvestri's uncle (on his mother's side). This early and very high spirited performance with the BSO from 1962 of Reznicek's popular Donna Diana Overture confirms Silvestri's wonderful rapport with the orchestra.

Silvestri made his name on EMI with his exciting but sometimes controversial recordings of Tchaikovsky's Symphonies Nos. 4, 5 and 6. BBC Legends has issued his November 1966 broadcast of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.2 'Little Russian' and now we have Symphony No.3 'Polish' from a July 1967 broadcast in warm and immediate sound.

Silvestri's EMI recording of Elgar's 'In the South' Overture remains a classic to this day. BBC Legends have added the composer's Symphony No.1 (from 1968) and the 'Cockaigne' Overture (from 1966) and now we have probably the most popular Elgar work written, the 'Enigma Variations' (from July 1967) in a performance of deep understanding with a touch of non traditionalist about it.

A very special boxed set documenting the artistry of one of the 20th century’s greatest conductors. Includes a special bonus disc including Schuricht in rehearsal.