Jean Martinon

Erich Kleiber, Jean Martinon: Decca 78s

Decca studio recordings made between 1947 and 1949 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, newly compiled and remastered by Mark Obert-Thorn and including material new to CD.

Following the success of Stravinsky's Petrushka with Ernest Ansermet (made in 1946 and reissued by Eloquence in its comprehensive series dedicated to the Swiss conductor) other major artists visiting London were invited to make records at the acoustically excellent Kingsway Hall. One of them was Erich Kleiber, who had attracted a considerable following in London through his concerts.

The French conductor Jean Martinon also had a short-lived relationship with Decca in London before making most of his records in the US for RCA. They include deliciously light-textured accounts of Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin and Chabrier's Suite Pastorale as well as another gramophone rarity: the farewell aria for Joan of Arc in Tchaikovsky's opera The Maid of Orleans, sung by the Polish mezzo-soprano Eugenia Zareska.