CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

Essential Mozart: 32 Of His Greatest Masterpieces

from: Decca

Release Date March 13, 2001
You get Mozart's best works in 2 CD. The sound is flawless to the common ear. Get it! if you love Mozart

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

Andrea Bocelli - Sacred Arias / Myung-Whun Chung

by: George Frideric Handel, Giulio Caccini, Charles Gounod, Franz Schubert, Cesar Franck, Gioachino Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Wagner, Pietro Mascagni, Louis Niedermeyer, Franz Xaver Gruber, John Francis Wade, Jean-Paul Lecot, Myung-Whun Chung, Andrea Bocelli

Release Date November 09, 1999
What a wonderful CD! This is music I will listen to over and over - his voice is amazing!

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

The Best Opera Album in the World...Ever!

from: Angel Records

Release Date July 27, 1999
This is a great product if the individual enjoys and appreciates classical music and especially the opera.

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

Flute For Relaxation

from: RCA

Release Date October 10, 2000
This music is really soothing and relaxing. All you have to do is put the CD on and close your eyes. Stress relief on a CD. Great!

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

Des Canyons Aux Etoiles

by: Messiaen, Oprf, Chung

Release Date January 14, 2003
I used to live in the Southwest and Messiaen captures the abundance and loneliness of the desert.

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

The Very Best of James Galway

by: James Galway

Release Date June 25, 2002
The Very Best of James Galway

These recordings are pure pleasure to listen to. They contain well known selections, well executed, that deliver a very nice listening experience.

I enjoy Galway's style; these two CDs offer very good value.

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

Kiri

by: Kiri Te Kanawa, Giacomo Puccini, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, George Frideric Handel, George Gershwin, Giuseppe Verdi, Paul McCartney, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Marie-Joseph Canteloube, Gustave Charpentier

Release Date November 20, 2001
A terrific album by a great singer. This album represents the considerable territory that Kiri Te Kanawa covers in here repertoire. She moves easily from Handel to Puccini to Jerome Kern. The insertion of classic show tunes as a part of this CD is a nice little plus. Some opera stars absolutely kill popular music by overwhelming it with operatic technique (listen to Richard Tucker singing "What now my love"; this is a pleasant little tune, but it can't stand up to Tucker's voice of steel, using all the power at his command). Te Kanawa sings these songs, for the most part, nicely and does not overpower them with operatic conventions.

She does a wonderful job on Handel's "Let the bright seraphim," displaying good coloratura technique, as a matter of ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
Average Rating:

Sacred Arias [Special Edition with Bonus DVD]

by: Andrea Bocelli, Giulio Caccini, Cesar Franck, Charles Gounod, Franz Xaver Gruber, George Frideric Handel, Jean-Paul Lecot, Eric Levi, Steven Mercurio, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Louis Niedermeyer, Gioachino Rossini, Franz Schubert, Giuseppe Verdi, John Francis Wade, Richard Wagner, Myung-Whun Chung, Santa Cecilia National Academy Orchestra Rome

Release Date October 14, 2003
This CD/DVD combo is a huge bargain and sounds as though the music was coming directly from heaven. The Church in which the concert was held is beautiful, with vaulted ceiling. Highly recommended for serious lovers of sacred arias.

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

Olivier Messiaen: Turangalila-Symphonie

from: Deutsche Grammophon

Release Date May 12, 1992
One thing to keep in mind is that Messiaen has never really been the composer of easy listening. When listening to this piece, keep that in mind. His music is complex in its harmonies and its structures. This piece, written for piano and ondes Martenot soloists and orchestra, is a love song, as stated by the composer. You definitely get the feel for that as time progresses. The instrumentation is lush, and it is gorgeous. This recording is a great find because, not only was Messiaen present for the recording (stating that they recorded it almost exactly to his specifications), but the piano soloist is none other than the composer's wife and the one who premiered this work many years prior, Yvonne Loriod. You can feel the experience in her playing, as with the ondes soloist, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

James Galway - Dances for Flute

from: RCA

Release Date February 09, 1993
I purchased this CD after hearing a couple of tracks on our local fine arts radio station, but was completely unprepared for the richness and beauty to be found therein. Galway is a past master of the flute.

The selections on this CD, both familiar and new to this reviewer, are lovely. And more than one is positively haunting. I tell myself each day that I will remove the disk from the changer, to save for another day. But I cannot. I must have my daily dose of Galway.

Such is the enchantment that he weaves.