CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

All Shook Up (2005 Original Broadway Cast) (Featuring the Songs of Elvis Presley)

by: Cheyenne Jackson, Jenn Gambatese, Alix Korey

Release Date May 31, 2005
All Shook Up is a lot of fun. The music can't be beat because it's all Elvis and the singing is super. This Broadway cast - all the ladies are great belters and Cheyenne Jackson as Chad has a big range. I can't wait to see the show.

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

A Venetian Coronation 1595

from: Angel Records

Release Date December 23, 2002
The other reviews here are spot on and i agree! This is a very special disc.
May i also add that it was awarded Record of the Year 1990 by ABC-FM Stereo
here in Australia and Gramophone (UK) 1990 Early Music Award.
I also suggest looking at abcshop dot com dot au for a superb selection of High quality classical music most of which is produced in Oz and not seen in huge quantities overseas. Amazon does have a few also. Type in ABC Classics
and browse through the selection.

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

Venetian Vespers (Monteverdi * Rigatti * Grandi * Cavalli) /Gabrieli Consort & Players * McCreesh

by: Research Composer, Giovanni Antonio Rigatti, Alessandro Grandi, Claudio Monteverdi, Adriano Banchieri, Giacomo Finetti, Pietro Francesco Cavalli, Anonymous, Gregorian Chant, Biagio Marini, Gabrieli Consort, Charles Daniels, Paul McCreesh, Alison Wray, Jonathan Best, Tessa Bonner, Angus Smith, Peter Harvey, Robert Horn, Paula Chateauneuf, Timothy Roberts, Susan Hemington Jones, Fred Jacobs, Celia Harper, Charles Pott, Florian Deuter, Gabrieli Players

Release Date May 11, 1993
This really a fine recording. I bought my copy one sunny Saturday morning in Melbourne in around 1993. I saw it on the shelf and I got my wallet out. I was completely blown away by the music on this disc. Rigatti was a real discovery for me.

The use of high falsettists in the chorus and solos is particularly effective and gives us a real insight into the sounds of music in Venice in the early 17th century.

I cannot recommend this marvellous recording too highly, it is clearly one of the best made by the Gabrieli Consort, Choir & Players.

Great playing from the strings, cornetti and tromboni.

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

Giovanni Gabrieli: Music For San Rocco

from: Archiv Produktion

Release Date November 19, 1996
This CDs sound quality is superb and highlights the antiphonal quality of the works.

This CD displays the range of Gabrieli, who is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated composers. There are pieces for every mood. From the triumphal "Jubilate Deo," to the dynamic "Magnificat," this collection does not disappoint. My favorite track has to be "Suscipe, Clementissime Deus." It starts off as very prayerful, introspective and pleading and blossoms into an outpouring of fervor toward the end when the singers exclaim, "Tu solus sanctus, tu solus Dominus, to solus altissimus, Jesu Christe."

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

Stillness And Sweet Harmony

from: Collegium

Release Date October 10, 1996
Stillness And Sweet Harmony
It's like Gregorian Chants with added harmony. Very impressive, and a joy to listen to over and over again.

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

Christmas Through the Ages

from: Hyperion UK

Release Date November 13, 2001
Heaven forfend if there was some disaster and I had to flee my home suddenly, and couple only clutch a few Christmas CDs before going out the door - this would be the first one I would look for! When you look at the price of this disc you might think you are buying some really cheap collection culled from old, unwanted recordings by orchestras and choirs you've never heard of. This is not so. Rather, this CD contains some of the very best Christmas music from one of the world's leaders in classical music record production: the great Hyperion label from England. On this disc is one of the most beautiful recordings of In The Bleak Midwinter that I have ever heard. It's almost haunting. There's also some medieval songs that will become instant favorites, as well as a recording on an ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

Bach Cantatas: 54; 169; 170

from: Hyperion UK

Release Date November 16, 1993
Glorious Bach singing and playing. It gets you into the atmosphere immediately. The performance sounds very authentic and the recorded sound is pleasantly warm. This CD contains some unusually melodious music from Bach.

CD-Charts Position 8
Average Rating:

I Will Lift up Mine Eyes

from: Collegium

Release Date September 13, 1993
This is a solid, if uninspired, rendering of some lovely English choral music. The actual selection of pieces is very nice. I would not have started the CD with the Stanford Magnificent in G. Although Caroline Ashton is a fine soprano, her solo on this work leaves much to be desired. It seems as if she is trying to achieve a pure English treble sound where the warmer sound of a female soprano is called for. After all, this is Mary's song!

All in all, I would still purchase the CD again. The Howells Requiem is nicely done, as is When Mary Thro' The Garden Went. Not a bad introduction to some fine English composers.

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

Vivaldi: Sacred Music, Vol. 10

from: Hyperion UK

Release Date March 09, 2004
This the 10th and final CD in a survey of Vivaldi's sacred choral music. It takes maybe a wee bit of cheek to release the most famous piece, the Gloria RV 589, as part of the last CD in the series. However, the wait is worthwhile. A wonderful rendition. Aptly timed and well executed. The soloists are perfect.

Additionally, there are two other bits that are worth noting (and buying): a recently discovered "nisi dominus" by Vivaldi that's both powerful and delightful in equal measure, and finally (to round off the series)..a guest appearance! A setting of the Gloria from Giovanni Ruggieri, an older contemporary of Vivaldi's that Michael Talbott and Robert King suggest was an early and clear influence on Vivaldi as he wrote his own works (listen to it...sounds like it influenced ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

Schütz: Christmas Vespers / McCreesh, Gabrieli Consort and Players

by: Gregorian Chant, Heinrich Schutz, Gabrieli Consort and Players, Paul McCreesh, Charles Daniels, Neal Davies, Andrew Carwood, Susan Hemington Jones, Charles Pott, Simon Grant, Robert Horn, James Johnstone, Kristian Olesen, Choir of Roskilde Cathedral

Release Date October 19, 1999
First of all, I was enthralled by the singing and the organ sound: very rich and musical in every way. The congregational singing, specifically, is superb, and the CD is worth buying for everything that comes before and after the Christmas Historia.

The historia, though, is an edition that is disconcerting to me. Perhaps I have heard versions that are less "authentic" than this one, but there are enough differences between the McCreesh and other versions I have heard that I must assume others will be affected the same way.