CD-Charts Position 1
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 2
Average Rating:

Christoph Willibald Gluck: Alceste

from: BBC Legends

Release Date April 29, 2008
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 3
Average Rating:

Benjamin Britten: Billy Budd

from: Virgin Classics

Release Date October 14, 2008
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:

Purcell - King Arthur / Gens, McFadden, Piau, S. Waters, J. Best, Padmore, Paton, Salomaa, Les Arts Florissants, Christie

from: Erato (Warner Classics)

Release Date June 06, 1995
Yes - it's beautiful; but it does have some rubato which to me was unexpected and rather annoying. No doubt it's all very authentic, but still. Deller doesn't do this on his recording and I prefer the tempo his way - traditional. Other amateurs, like me, who love "King Arthur" might find this version occasionally tiresome.

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

Samson

by: Handel, Sixteen, Christophers

Release Date January 01, 2003
Some time ago I fell in love with baroque music, particularly sacred music. Then I discovered Vivaldi's operas but for some reason I put off buying anything by Handel. Then one day Amazon France had a special on Belshazzar. I bought it and I was hooked. Since then I have acquired a number of Handel's operas and oratorios. I have just acquired Handel's Samson performed by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen and stars Thomas Randle, Mark Padmore and Lynda Russell. It is a stunner. The music and particularly the choruses is vigorous and exciting. I love unequivocally all of Handel's music (I only buy and listen to vocal music) and it is uniformly great, but Samson outdoes all of them. I read somewhere that Beethoven said referring to Handel "I ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
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A Portrait of Vaughan Williams

from: Nimbus Records

Release Date February 23, 1999
Originally, I was confused when I encountered this set, as it incorporates four formerly individual Nimbus releases, now deleted from their catalogue. Be warned, then, if you have Nimbus releases of 'An Oxford Elegy' (and other choral music), or of RVWs Chamber Music (including the 'Phantasy Quintet' and the 'String Quartet') - these are the same recordings!

That being said, if you don't have these titles, or you have them in another release, and you enjoy RVWs music, then you simply must add this anthology to your collection. These discs include the first recording of 'An Oxford Elegy' that I ever encountered; it is such a marvellous piece that you'll be scrambling for poetry anthologies to find bits of Matthew Arnold's 'Thyrsis' ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
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Purcell - King Arthur / Les Arts Florissants · Christie [Highlights]

by: Henry Purcell, Les Arts Florissants, William Christie, Claron McFadden, Véronique Gens, Sandrine Piau, Susannah Waters, Mark Padmore, Iain Paton, Jonathan Best, Petteri Salomaa, François Bazola

Release Date August 19, 1997
As I always state, I am a Purcell worshipper. His harmonies, counterpoint, and text underlay are absolutely unique and wonderful. I second what was said in another review. Get the complete work if you can. However, this highlights disk is awfully fine listening.

Track 4 "Come if You Dare" is stunning in its energy and fun. It is almost unfair to single out any track because the excitement is everywhere in this performance.

Track 6 "How Blest Are Shepherds" is especially nice Purcell style lyric beauty.

Well, I could say something nice about every track. The point is - this is a treasure and should be in your collection (but go for the complete version of this same performance if you can).

CD-Charts Position 8
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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 ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

Vaughan Williams: Choral Works

from: Hyperion UK

Release Date June 10, 2008
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 ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

Howells: Requiem; Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing / Vaughan Williams: Mass in G Minor; Te Deum in G

by: Matthew Best, Jonathan Best, Michael Chance, Thomas Trotter, Janet Coxwell, Mary Seers, Philip Salmon, Herbert Howells, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Corydon Singers

Release Date October 01, 1992
EXCELLENT ENGLISH CHORAL MUSIC PRESENTED BY OUTSTANDING PERFORMERS!

initially bought this disc for 2 reasons: because of the solo line-up and because I do like the music of Vaughan Williams and I had never heard his Mass in G Minor. This G minor mass is purposefully spiritual in the manner of great Elizabethan liturgical music, employing clearly defined imitative entries for the voices, melodic shapes derived from plainchant, modal harmonies. However, Vaughan Williams did not abandon the suggestions of English folksong and parallel harmonies typical of his style in general.His 'Te Deum in G major'is written for divided mixed choir and organ.

I didn't realize how much I would also enjoy the music of Herbert Howells. His 'Requiem' is written ... Read More: