CD-Charts Position 151
Average Rating:

Romantic Arias

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Composers- A-Z
by: Jonas Kaufmann

Release Date March 11, 2008
I've just received this highly vaulted recital album, which is more-or-less my introduction to Kaufmann and his voice. My first thought was that the voice is as baritonal as they say -- like listening to Robert Merrill try tenor roles, though Kaufmann is fully comfortable in the range. I found this particularly distracting in the Traviata excerpt, when I couldn't stop wondering why Germont is singing his son's lines. Some tenors (Del Monoco?) do also come to mind, but rarely his (and my) idol Fritz Wunderlich; the sound is often cloudy and unclear, and rarely strings out cleanly and prettily (a notable fault in the Bizet aria, a bit better in Faust); it seems most open in the Wagner excerpt (and does sound a bit like Wunderlich there). In ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 152
Average Rating:

Mozart's Magic Fantasy: A Journey Through 'The Magic Flute'

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Composers- A-Z
from: Children's Group

Release Date April 11, 1995
I'm a general music teacher for grades K-2. I was a vocal major in college, and I am an opera singer. I really wanted to do an introduction to opera with my 2nd graders, and I think this CD is a great tool to do just that. The Magic Flute is one of my favorite operas, and it's a perfect story for kids. The child narrator really makes the opera more approachable for children, and the performers have very clear, expressive voices, so the story is easy to follow.

CD-Charts Position 153
Average Rating:

Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition; Night on Bald Mountain

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Composers- A-Z
from: Sony

Release Date October 25, 1990
Although I'm happy to have the music, I'm a little disappointed with the quality of the re-mastered CD. The newer recordings have so much more depth. I'll choose more carefully next time.

CD-Charts Position 154
Average Rating:

Menotti: Amahl and the Night Visitors

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Composers- A-Z
by: Gian Carlo Menotti, Thomas Schippers, Rosemary Kuhlmann Chet Allen, Andrew McKinley, David Aiken Leon Lishner

Release Date October 25, 1990
This was a holiday staple in our house when I was growing up, and dated though it may be, this CD sounds better than the LP we had. It's an exquisite work of art.

CD-Charts Position 155
Average Rating:

Air on a G String

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Composers- A-Z
from: Telarc

Release Date March 04, 2008
After hearing a selection from this CD on NPR, I knew I had to purchase a copy. I bought a copy for myself and also as a gift. David Russell takes his guitar to a place that touches your soul and makes your heart sing along. Even if you are not a fan of classical music you will love this CD.

CD-Charts Position 156
Average Rating:

World's Very Best Opera for Kids... in English!

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Composers- A-Z
from: Children's Group

Release Date September 23, 2003
I love this CD and can't wait to use it with my music students when school resumes. Opera is always a difficult subject to create affinity for...this will be extremely helpful!

CD-Charts Position 157
Average Rating:

Massenet - Thaïs / Fleming, Hampson, Sabbatini, Shkosa, Vidal, Devellereau, Cals, Yves Abel

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Composers- A-Z
by: Jules Massenet, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Renée Fleming, Thomas Hampson, Yves Abel, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Elisabeth Vidal, Marie Devellereau, Enkelejda Shkosa, Stefano Palatchi

Release Date August 22, 2000
I bought the CDs on Thais after hearing it in Paris in April 2007.
I think Renee Fleming is incomparable.

CD-Charts Position 158
Average Rating:

Tabula Rasa

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Composers- A-Z
by: Dennis Russell Davies, Keith Jarrett, Gidon Kremer, Stuttgart State Orchestra, Tatiana Grindenko, Alfred Schnittke, Twelve Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic

Release Date November 16, 1999
I found it impossible not to react on a variety of emotional levels to Part's music, especially Tabula Rasa. It almost demands feeling. It is also music whose complexities draw one continually to explore it. The more you listen, the more there is to find.

CD-Charts Position 159
Average Rating:

Red Violin Concerto

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Composers- A-Z
by: Joshua Bell

Release Date September 04, 2007

Forty years passed between the composition of Corigliano's "Sonata for violin and Piano" (1963) and the Red Violin Concerto premiere in 2003. The two works are very different in scope and scale, but to my ears they have a lot in common. I don't guarantee that I could recognize a previously unheard piece of music instantly as Corigliano's, but I'd be willing to try. In his notes for this CD, Corigliano says: the sonata is "for the most part a tonal work, although it incorporates non-tonal and poly-tonal sections within it, as well as other 20th-century harmonic, rhythmic and construction techniques. The listener will recognize the work as the product of an American writer, although this is more the result of an American writing music than writing 'American' muisc -- a second ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 160
Average Rating:

Alina - Arvo Pärt

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Composers- A-Z
by: Vladimir Spivakov, Sergej Bezrodny, Dietmar Schwalke, Alexander Malter

Release Date February 01, 2000
This review will be in fragments, as this is how thoughts come to me when listening to this remarkable CD. As I type this, I am listening to it on my iPod, where you can hear the breathing of the musicians, the gentle scratch of the bow on the strings. It is an intimate experience.

The deeply impactful movie "Wit" uses parts of Mirror in Mirror in the soundtrack, and that was our introduction to this music. The search ensued, the CD purchased, and it is one of the gems in our large music collection. It transcends genre, and time.

My dad passed away early last year from a stroke - when he was in hospice, we played this music for him on his last day. It seemed like the most peaceful, soothing, spiritual music that we owned. I hope that he liked it.

This ... Read More: