CD-Charts Position 101
Average Rating:

The Best of Kathleen Battle

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Composers- A-Z
from: Deutsche Grammophon

Release Date November 09, 2004
K Battle is the 'Nat King Cole of opera!' So smooth, warm and beautiful yet surprisingly lyrical and a vocal range that is remarkable. The high notes are chrystal clear yet with that smoothness and warmth mentioned earlier. You won't be disappointed.

CD-Charts Position 102
Average Rating:

Puttin' on the Ritz: The Great Hollywood Musicals

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Composers- A-Z
by: The Singing Hoosiers

Release Date September 26, 1995
Eric Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops have done it again. This is a spectacular collection. It makes you feel like getting dressed up with a lot of glitz and glam and going dancing. Though I must admit that Fredrica Von Stade's rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" will definitely touch your heart.

CD-Charts Position 103
Average Rating:

The Jessye Norman Collection: Brahms and Schumann Lieder

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

Release Date May 10, 2005
I really enjoy these recordings that are at great tempi, they are great for diction and the musicianship is a fine quality.

CD-Charts Position 104
Average Rating:

Schubert: Lieder

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Composers- A-Z
from: Deutsche Grammophon

Release Date December 13, 2005
It's surprising that, as I write this, there is only one other review. This set may be the most valuable recording of lieder in the history of recorded music. Containing all of Schubert's songs for male voice (there are many others that DFD didn't record, because they are for higher ranges), this set is brilliant, and has a rare homogeneity. Some may say that it's not quite as good as his recordings from the 1960s, and they may be right. But this set has a unity of vision that spans all 21 CDs, from the songs of Schubert's youth to the three great song cycles.

DFD is certainly the golden voice that has left the greatest imprint on lieder singing, and this set should be in every lieder fan's library. While completists will want to also ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 105
Average Rating:

Knoxville Summer of 1915

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

Release Date October 25, 1990
Dawn Upshaw's voice is perfect for twentieth century classical music. The Barber is beautiful, I like the Harbison Mirabai Songs, but my favorite piece on the album is the Stravinsky No Word from Tom. This album was recorded twenty years ago, so it's a young Dawn Upshaw. Her voice may be richer and more mature now, but the lightness and clarity of her flexible voice is thrilling. There are other recordings of Barber, Menotti, and Stravinsky, but as far as I know this is the only recording of the Mirabai Songs.

CD-Charts Position 106
Average Rating:

Por Amor

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Composers- A-Z
from: Atlantic / Wea

Release Date August 25, 1998
I like Placido Domingo very much, and the songs of Agustin Lara sung by Mr. Domingo are great, as also the other songs by M. Teresa Lara, Jorge Casas and Julio Hernandez. I really like this album and have it in my car to listen to it over and over again while driving long distances. I think this was a good purchase and highly recommend it.

CD-Charts Position 107
Average Rating:

Mamma

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Composers- A-Z
by: Giovanni D'Anzi, Eldo di Lazzaro, Vincenzo De Crescenzo, Anonymous, Giovanni Battista Califano, Columbo Arona, Andrea Griminelli

Release Date October 25, 1990
Relax and listen to the warmth, joy and drama Maestro gives to each song along with his lovely voice of the 80's. The albumn is worth just to hear him sing In un palco della Scala (with apologies to Pink Panther) he could have been on Broadway.

CD-Charts Position 108
Average Rating:

Handel - Serse / von Otter, Norberg-Schulz, Piau, Zazzo, Tro Santafe, G. Furlanetto, Abete, Les Arts Florissants, Christie

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Composers- A-Z
from: Virgin vertias (EMI Classics)

Release Date November 02, 2004
On the whole this recording of Serse is elegant, committed, stylish, and a delight. Von Otter performs the "Ombra mai fu" with touching sensitivity. I can only surmise that the weakness of her performance of "Crude Furie," near the end of the opera, may have simply been a matter of tiring out before the end of a live performance.

Paula Rasmussen, in another live performance, available on DVD (Handel - Serse / Rasmussen, Piau, Bayrakdarian, Bardon, Hallenberg, Peirone, Lippi, Rousset, Les Talens Lyriques, Dresden Opera), brings all the energy and fire to "Crude Furie" that von Otter lacked. If you want drama, that performance is to be preferred over this CD.

Yet, this Arts Florissants CD has so many wonderfully musical sections that ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 109
Average Rating:

Puccini: Madama Butterfly

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

Release Date September 16, 1997
I know there are other recordings of Butterfly out there with Tebaldi, Scotto, Freni and others. They are all great singers.

But---

Nothing replaces Leontyne Price's devastating characterization of Butterfly. I have known this recording since I was about 12 years old and as I have grown older, my admiration and love for this Butterfly has increased.

Leontyne Price's voice is one of the wonders of the 20th century and here in this recording it is captured at its prime. Her high notes are the glory of opera. The interpolated high note at the end of her entrance music has never been equaled.

If you are only after one Butterfly recording, THIS IS IT. If you are collecting a number of them, there are other options.

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CD-Charts Position 110
Average Rating:

Handel - Theodora / Daneman, Croft, Taylor, Galstian, Berg, Slaars, Les Arts Florissants, Christie

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

Release Date September 23, 2003
It's a tough choice.
Both William Christie's and Paul McCreesh's Theodora are great.

I think McCreesh's performance is more idiomatic, the choir is better disciplined and the playing and singing overall a tad more controlled and precise.
But Christie is livelier, more dramatic and at times more subtle and elegant too.

They both use different tempi for certain chorals and airs.
The chorus "Come mighty father" for instance is taken more rapidly and rhythmic by McCreesh.
Christie is slightly more timid and 'vocal' and I prefer it that way, his "Come mighty father" is 'lovely' where McCreesh's is 'jolly'

Theodora's air "With darkness deep as is my woe" is taken dramatically broader by McCreesh and I like it better that way, ... Read More: