CD-Charts Position 171
Average Rating:

Cecilia Bartoli - Rossini recital ~ 19 songs & Cantata: Giovanna d'Arco

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Composers- A-Z
from: Universal Int'l

Release Date December 21, 1990
Cecilia Bartoli started her career with Rossini (and Mozart), and became known for it. By this recital I can see how. Though her voice had yet to grow into the lush, full sound she has today, her voice in this recording is yet robust and colorful; and her singing is very beautiful. The personality of each song is present in her performances; her musicality and expressiveness are at times disarming. Her Italian, of course, is beautiful and very clear, but her French is also very good. The songs themselves are passionate as is "Giovanni D'arco" (Joan of Arc), which Cecilia sings dramatically and with depth of character, and sweet, like "Belta crudele," which she sings with a wide range of dynamics from the darling piannisimo to the haunting ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 172
Average Rating:

Caruso Sings Verdi

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

Release Date September 15, 1992
Caruso and Verdi, an unbeatable combination, but the recordings are widely available and can be heard to better effect on other labels, notably the Prima Voce series from Nimbus.

CD-Charts Position 173
Average Rating:

Forgotten Songs: Dawn Upshaw Sings Debussy

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

Release Date March 18, 1997
Full marks to Dawn Upshaw for reviving these forgotten songs. It is this beautiful recording, featuring Upshaw in her prime, which inspired me to reopen my long-forgotten scores of the Debussy mélodies, which I'd studied decades ago and only ever heard performed on disc by a past generation of singers such as Suzanne Danco and Maggie Teyte, whose recordings can now sound somewhat one-dimensional and appear stylistically dated. This recording, in a warm and spacious acoustic, not only gives the songs new colour but makes them seem much more contemporary. The digital sound does full justice to the lovely harmonic treatments of the piano parts, excellently played here.

There are now several recordings by contemporary French vocalists, but ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 174
Average Rating:

An Evening with Franco Corelli

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Composers- A-Z
from: Opera D'oro

Release Date May 18, 1999
I bought this CD as a birthday present for my father and haven't actually heard the content myself. But because I ordered it, Amazon have prompted me to write a review. Certainly the feedback I'm getting is excellent and my Dad has derived hours of listening pleasure from it.

CD-Charts Position 175
Average Rating:

Mahler: Symphony No6; Rückert Lieder

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

Release Date May 12, 1998
This is one of the better versions of Mahler's Sixth for those of us who like to hear authentic cowbells. You can clearly hear the bells, not only in the fourth movement, but also the first and third--and the cowbells sound the way cowbells should, and add what I think Mahler wanted to the impact.

As we would expect from Karajan, the music is crisp and precise, with a transparency that lets us hear things often overlooked. The xylophone is particularly effective in Mahler's version of a Danse Macabre. Author David Hurwitz refers to it as "a magnificently haunted sound."

The final crash in the fourth movement is absolutely annihilating. You've never heard a finish like this one!

Christa Ludwig's singing of the Kindertotenlieder ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 176
Average Rating:

Bach: Cantatas Nos. 80, 140, 147; Motet

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

Release Date January 21, 1997
Makes you wonder why Charles Murray in his book "Human Accomplishment" does not rate Bach higher. I would not recommend listening to anything that brings tears to your eyes while driving! It could cause an accident.

CD-Charts Position 177
Average Rating:

Schubert: Goethe-Lieder / Fischer-Dieskau, Demus, Moore

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

Release Date June 15, 1999
DG released this recording of Schubert lieder based on texts of Wolfgang von Goethe in the late 1990s. I bought it in 1999 on the strength of a review in AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, where the reviewer said "Fischer-Dieskau could do it all" - an apt description. Keep in mind that many of these tracks are with pianist Jorg Demus, and are not the same as those in Fischer-Dieskau's 2 big DG boxes (9 disc each) of Schubert Lieder, which are with pianist Gerald Moore.

These recordings date from the late 1950s and early 1960s when Fischer-Dieskau (b. 1925), was in his mid 30s, and in great shape vocally, performing lieder and opera all over Europe, + prolifically making recordings for EMI and DG which were released on LP in the US and Europe.

This is a valuable disc for those ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 178
Average Rating:

Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 3/Alto Rhapsody

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

Release Date October 12, 1990
I have a few recordings of these works, and to be honest, I never really cared to listen to them. I found the symphony rather dull, and the alto rhapsody simply left me cold. I was told all my life that these were two of the most beautiful works. I even learned that Brahms wrote the Alto rhapsody for the greatest contralto of his day: Pauline Viardot-Garcia (and other things written for her are quite compelling). So the question became: Was it the music, the performances, or me? I gradually concluded it was NOT the music. It was simply enchanting. It wasn't me, because I could see the value in it. So it was the performance. There is something unexplainable in the conducting and the way the orchestra speaks. There are special little details, one hardly notices them at the time, but they seem to ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 179
Average Rating:

Wagner: Parsifal

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

Release Date August 16, 1994
I BOUGHT THIS SET AFTER HAVING BEEN THERE, AT THE MET PERFORMANCES. DOMINGO, NORMAN, LEVINE. FINALLY WAGNER WITH SOUL. PARSIFAL EITHER GETS YOU HIGH OR IT DOES NOT. I REALLY DO NOT CARE FOR THE "FINER" POINTS. THIS RECORDING SOARS. SO DOES THE MUCH MALIGNED CALLAS/CHRISTOFF EVERYONE DESPISES. THESE ARE ALL SINGERS WHO PENETRATE THE METAPHYSICAL MYSTERY OF THE MUSIC AND MAKE IT THEIRS.
GO FIGURE.

CD-Charts Position 180
Average Rating:

Pavarotti's Opera Made Easy-My Favorite Showstoppers

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

Release Date August 23, 1994
If you want to get a complete opera, this CD isn't for you, but it is an excellent compilation of different opera arias from various composers, most of which are Italian. Some highlights are "Vient, Diletto" and "Ah Mes Amis".