Elgar 85 Cello

This is set of records of violin virtuoso Jascha Heifetz, one of the best violinists ever. It was originally issued in seventies on vinyl and it is mono. As you can read in the booklet. "The selections on these compact disks were recorded before noise-reduction methods were available. In the digital remastering, effort was made to minimize the inherent noise; radical methods were not used in order to preserve the full-frequency content of the original recordings. Therefore, some noise may be experienced in reproduction on wide-range equipment".

The title is Romantic Adagios II. The description is "Over 2 1/2 hours of the world's most passionate music." What these are, in other words, are two discs of seduction music, which is fine. Using music for seductive purposes is the oldest ploy in the world. From Orpheus up to Ol' Blue Eyes, music hath charms to arouse, inflame, and incite lascivious and lubricious behavior. The whole purpose of this disc is to ensure a successful seduction. It sure isn't because sticking all of these Adagios together doesn't make any sort of musical sense.

To mark the 40th anniversary of Barbirolli's death, EMI created this magnificent set, which includes notable Pye recordings along with all the EMI Classics ones. He conducts Manchester's Hall Orchestra (which he elevated to world-class standing) on many of these, with particular emphasis on the great English composers.