0028948414673

Anthony Collins: Complete Decca Recordings

Anthony Collins; London Symphony Orchestra

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Format: 14CD

Cat No: ELQ4841467

Release Date:  13 August 2021

Label:  Australian Eloquence

Packaging Type:  Box Set

No of Units:  14

Barcode:  0028948414673

Genres:  Classical  Orchestral  

  • Description

    Including several recordings new to CD, the complete published Decca legacy of noted Sibelius conductor Anthony Collins is collected for the first time on disc and is presented with ORIGINAL JACKETS - LIMITED EDITION.

    Highlights include:
    - the Sibelius symphonies and selected orchestral works with
    the London Symphony Orchestra
    - British music: Elgar, Walton, Vaughan Williams, the two
    Delius LPs and music by Anthony Collins himself
    - Concertos with Moura Lympany, Ruggiero Ricci, Friedrich
    Gulda, Gervase de Peyer and others
    - Orchestral showpieces by Tchaikovsky, Falla, Humperdinck
    and Bizet

    From the earliest days of his career, Anthony Collins (1893–1963) earned a reputation as a musician of parts: violist, conductor, arranger and composer. He had led the viola section of the London Symphony Orchestra under Beecham and Mengelberg before swapping bow for baton in the 1930s, and by then had already begun to promote the music of Sibelius. Then Hollywood came calling, and he spent the War in the US as an Oscar-nominated film composer writing for RKO Studios.

    He began to record for Decca directly after the War, first of all with the London Mozart Orchestra which he had founded shortly before leaving for the US.

    Renowned by then as a Mozartian of natural gifts, securing shapely and stylish performances independently of either the grand Viennese tradition or the period-instrument movement in its infancy, he accompanied the pianist Friedrich Gulda – a kindred spirit of similarly mercurial imagination – in concertos and concertante works by Mozart and Strauss, and then Peter Katin in Mendelssohn, and Moura Lympany in Rachmaninov.

    He re-established a close rapport with the LSO, conducting them in several albums of Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Delius that have rarely been equalled for their directness of expression and intensity.

    These virtues still distinguish the cycle of Sibelius symphonies and tone-poems, made in the mid-50s with the LSO, from later interpretations. A generation of English and American listeners learnt their Sibelius from these recordings, and Collins's deep fellow-feeling for his music stands the test of time.

    The Decca recordings included a Tchaikovsky album of Capriccio Italien and Francesca da Rimini as well as a pair of his own compositions, and other masterpieces of English light music by Walton – a complete Facade – Sullivan and Grainger.

    Items never previously issued on CD include dance suites from Hansel und Gretel and Der Rosenkavalier, as well as the Mozart Symphony No.33 which began his relationship with the label. The booklet offers full discographical details as well as an essay on Collins's life and career by Peter Quantrill.

    "The performances are in the best sense traditional, and in the Introduction and Allegro Anthony Collins has been at pains to make the quartet of soloists clearly distinguishable from the main body of players" The Record Guide, 1955 (Elgar)

    "The recording is a superb example of London's sound at its best. Under the direction of Collins, a very knowledgeable musician in media like these, there emerge performances that glow with an inner light. There is faultless balance, fine pace, a high finish." High Fidelity, January 1953 (Elgar, Vaughan Williams)


  • Tracklisting

      Disc 1

      Side 1

      • 1. WA MOZART: Symphony No. 33 In B Flat Major, KV 319
      • 4. Menuetto (from Divertimento In D Major, KV 334)
      • 5. Clarinet Concerto In A Major, KV 622
      • 8. Bassoon Concerto In B Flat Major, KV 191

      Disc 2

      • 1. WA MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 14 In E Flat Major, KV 449
      • 4. Piano Concerto No. 25 In C Major, KV 503
      • 5. Piano Concerto No. 26 In D Major, KV 537 ‘Coronation’

      Disc 3

      • 1. FELIX MENDELSSOHN: Piano Concerto No. 1 In G Minor, Op. 25
      • 4. Piano Concerto No. 2 In D Minor, Op. 40

      Disc 4

      • 1. SERGEI RACHMANINOV: Piano Concerto No. 3 In D Minor, Op. 30
      • 4. RICHARD STRAUSS: Burleske In D Minor For Piano And Orchestra

      Disc 5

      • 1. NICCOLO PAGANINI: Violin Concerto No. 1 In D Major, Op. 6
      • 4. Violin Concerto No. 2 In B Minor, Op. 7

      Disc 6

      • 1. GEORGES BIZET: Carmen Suite No. 1
      • 2. MANUEL DE FALLA: El Amor Brujo – Suite
      • 3. TCHAIKOVSKY: Capriccio Italien, Op. 45
      • 4. Francesca Da Rimini, Op. 32

      Disc 7

      • 1. JEAN SIBELIUS: Karelia Overture, Op. 10
      • 2. Symphony No. 1 In E Minor, Op. 39
      • 6. Symphony No. 7 In C Major, Op. 105

      Disc 8

      • 1. JEAN SIBEILIUS: Symphony No. 2 In D Major, Op. 43
      • 5. Symphony No. 3 In C Major, Op. 52

      Disc 9

      • 1. JEAN SIBEILIUS: Symphony No. 4 In A Minor, Op. 63
      • 5. Symphony No. 5 In E Flat Major, Op. 82

      Disc 10

      • 1. JEAN SIBELIUS: Symphony No. 6 In D Minor, Op. 104
      • 5. Pohjola’s Daughter, Op. 49
      • 6. Pelleas Et Melisande, Op. 46 – Suite (excerpts)
      • 7. Nightride And Sunrise, Op. 55

      Disc 11

      • 1. SIR EDWARD ELGAR: Falstaff – Symphonic Study, Op. 68
      • 2. Introduction And Allegro For Strings, Op. 47
      • 3. Serenade For String Orchestra In E Minor, Op. 20
      • 4. RVW: Fantasia On A Theme By Thomas Tallis

      Disc 12

      • 1. FREDERICK DELIUS: The Walk To The Paradise Garden
      • 2. A Song Of Summer
      • 3. Brigg Fair – An English Rhapsody
      • 4. On Hearing The First Cuckoo In Spring
      • 5. Paris (The Song Of A Great City)

      Disc 13

      • 1. FREDERICK DELIUS: In A Summer Garden
      • 2. Summer Night On The River
      • 3. SIR WILLIAM WALTON: Facade- An Entertainment

      Disc 14

      • 1. RICHARD STRAUSS: Der Rosenkavalier – First Suite Of Waltzes
      • 2. HUMPERDINCK: Dream Pantomime (from Hansel Und Gretel)
      • 3. SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN: Overture Di Ballo
      • 4. HENRY BALFOUR GARDINER: Shepherd Fennel’s Dance
      • 5. PERCY GRAINGER: Shepherd's Hey
      • 6. ANTHONY COLLINS: Vanity Fair
      • 7. With Emma To Town