CD-Charts Position 111
Average Rating:

For Lovers Only: The Romantic Pavarotti (Includes Bonus CD)

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

Release Date January 11, 2005
I'm a contractor but I cry every time I listen to the maestro. If you have any sensitivity and/or a nostalgic bone in your body... go for it. I received it as a gift from my wife and purchased a used one on Amazon for my sister. A lot of music with two full CD's and a bonus cd of a few of his early recordings.

CD-Charts Position 112
Average Rating:

Mahler: Symphonie No.8

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

Release Date April 03, 1995

Compared to some lame performances of 8th released in recent years (Chailly's cool headed account for example), Abbado's account of Mahler 8th is not bad. Probably the most impressive recording available after Sinopoli's miraculous account.

In both 1st and 2nd parts, it takes a while until it really heats up, but once it takes off the splendor and sumputuousness of sound is just amazing. Sheer richness of texture and harmony, thanks to excellent recording, really gives the sense of how Mahler tried to be ambitious in composing this symphony. Solists are pretty good too, very passionate but none of the operatic diva non-sense which often spoils so many performances of this symphony. And the magnificent ending with bang.
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CD-Charts Position 113
Average Rating:

Verdi: Il Trovatore

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

Release Date July 28, 1998
AS FAR AS VERDI IS CONCERNED, TWO SOPRANOS RULE OVER MY OPERA COLLECTION: CALLAS AND PRICE. ODDLY ENOUGH, IN THE ROLE OF LEONORA, CALLAS IS THE ONE WHO SOUNDS MORE LIKE A YOUNG GIRL IN LOVE WHEREAS PRICE SOUNDS LIKE A PRINCESS WHO LOSES OUT TO FATE. I HAVE ALWAYS LOVED DOMINGO AND MILNES. AS FOR COSSOTTO, WELL, NO. SHE IS NO SIMIONATO OR EVEN BARBIERI. HOWEVER, LISTEN TO HER IN THE VERDI REQUIEM WITH CABALLE AND YOUR HAIR WILL STAND ON END. ALL IN ALL, TODAY NO ONE SOUNDS LIKE THESE FOUR, ON STAGE OR ON RECORDS. WE HAVE OPERA STARS, NOT OPERA SINGERS.

CD-Charts Position 114
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Brahms: Symphony No. 1; Tragic Overture; Alto Rhapsody

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Composers- A-Z
from: EMI Classics

Release Date June 08, 1999
I purchased the first movement of the symphony as an Amazon MP3 download. It sounds terrible. Maybe good enough for Brittany Spears "music," but adults with ears will find the sound quality of Amazon's MP3 downloads to be worthless.

I checked the specs on this download after placing it into my iTunes:

Length: 14 minutes
Size: 23.3 MB
Bit Rate: 232 kbps (VBR)
Sample Rate: 44.100 kHz

Now compare that to a movement that I recorded to iTunes from a Stravinsky CD (a WAV audio file):

Length: 3 minutes, 11 seconds
Size: 35.1 MB
Bit Rate: 1536 kbps
Sample Rate: 48.000 kHz

As you can see, the Stravinsky CD is clearly superior.

And yet, Amazon is marketing their ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 115
Average Rating:

Ten Top Sopranos

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

Release Date March 16, 1993
Clearly, Maria Callas is one of the most important artists in history and has a well deserved place on any top 10 list. However, all the sopranos here are artists who performed on the decca recording label. Callas did not, hence her exclusion. Also excluded is Sills but I digress...
I love this CD, it's filled with many little gems showing off the best moments in the many different variations of the soprano voice.
Freni = Lyrico Spinto
Battle = Soubrette
Sutherland = Coloratura
Nilsson = Dramatic
Te Kanawa = Lyric (Her Dove sono is positively sublime!!)
Etc.

A wonderful CD which may introduce you to something you've never heard before.

CD-Charts Position 116
Average Rating:

Kiri Sings Gershwin

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Composers- A-Z
from: Angel Records

Release Date October 25, 1990
I am so glad this CD is still in print. It is a wonderful album of Gershwin songs sung buy the wonderful Soprano Kiri Te Kanawa. Here voice is so versatile she can sing anything. This album is one to put in any ones CD collection. Kiri never disappoints. Every album I get from here is different and I think that is just wonderful. Here voice has not changed a bit she still have the same opera range today as when she recorded this album. Kiri is one of my favourite opera singer, she can sing it all.

CD-Charts Position 117
Average Rating:

Cilea: Adriana Lecouvreur

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

Release Date October 11, 1989
Dear frugal opera lover, I have bad news for you: you'll have to buy two Adrianas. You see, one Adriana has to be sung by Magda Olivero - almost certainly, there is a law against not having an Olivero recording of this role, since it was hers from the moment she first adopted it- and Olivero Adrianas only come in live recordings, which is almost never the best thing, and definitely not if the recording predates digital technology. So, whatever recording of Olivero is presently available will give you the best Adriana there ever was, and will likely be wanting in all other aspects.
I have a recording that doesn't seem to be listed on Amazon - perhaps it's out of print - as well as this one, with Renata Scotto. Scotto is very good, but she is absolutely no match for Olivero, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 118
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Verdi: Un Ballo In Maschera (complete opera) with Maria Callas, Giuseppe di Stefano, Tito Gobbi, Antonino Votto, Chorus & Orchestra of La Scala, Milan

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Composers- A-Z
from: EMI Classics

Release Date August 19, 1997
Apart from being heavily filtered and losing the "bloom" of the original recording that was nicely captured in the first CD re-issuse, there is music missing from this issue. A brief but IMPORTANT omission.

There should be 3 fortissimo chords beginning Act1, scene 2 (Ulrica's den, track 10). Unfortunately here there are only 2 chords. This may seem persnickety, but in fact to this or any "Ballo" lover it will be very unsettling, when one knows this opera thoroughly and has been listening to this or any other recording of same opera for 30 of 40 years, one knows bodily, instinctually, to expect those 3 FATEFUL chords before the cellos intone their ominous lament.

EMI has inadvertently cut off the opening 1 of the 3 chords. Alas. Has this error been fixed?

CD-Charts Position 119
Average Rating:

Mahler: Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection"

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

Release Date October 25, 1990
As other reviewers note, this recording is now available in a superb SACD remastering. You will find the SACD at Mahler: Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection" [Hybrid SACD]. At its 2-for-1 discount price, the SACD is a tremendous bargain, so there's no reason to buy the CD version listed here.

CD-Charts Position 120
Average Rating:

Massenet: Cendrillon

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Composers- A-Z
from: Sbme Import

Release Date February 20, 2006
One should not judge a book by its cover. Here, the book cover is 'trashy' as one reviewer put it, quite right, and inappropriate and ridiculous really. And inside there is no libretto, only numbered queues to the first sung lines. Not helpful if you are not familiar with the opera. However, the Cinderella fable is known by most.

For about a third of the price of the original package (1979), you have the identical recording, with Julius Rudel conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra, of Massenet's Cendrillion, with the magical interpretation of Frederica von Stade. She is supported by a superb cast of some of the modern greats of the French repertory, as Nicolai Gedda, Ruth Welting, Jules Bastin and Jane Berbie. Other notable singers include Teresa Cahill and Elizabeth Bainbridge. ... Read More: