CD-Charts Position 11
Average Rating:

Mozart - Requiem / Augér, Bartoli, Cole, Pape, Wiener Phil., Solti

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

Release Date March 10, 1992
To my great surprise, in the last two decades of his life Solti turned into a marvelous Mozart interpreter. His '80's Figaro, and '90's Magic Flute and Cosi fan Tutte are among my favorite versions, Sir Georg's sometimes abrasive nervous energy (and scholarly use of reduced orchestral forces) makes for fantastically dramatic, anti-romantic readings. This requiem, recorded on the 200th anniversary of Mozart's death in St Stephen's cathedral in Vienna benefits from an awesome reverberant acoustic, a quartet of fabluous operatic singers (and let's face it, this is an opera manque, religiose, not religious, "the sickly sweets of operatic sin" as Stravinsky called it, and a good thing too I say). Excerpts of the actual Mass ceremony are interspersed, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 12
Average Rating:

Carl Orff: Carmina Burana

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

Release Date May 14, 1996
I would like to clear up some confusion: THIS IS NOT THE RECORDED PERFORMANCE THAT CARL ORFF CONDONED!! Orff attended the rehearsals of Eugen Jochum's earlier **1953** mono recording of Carmina Burana and approved that final performance. That version is available on another DGG recording of all three pieces Orff wrote in a similar vein; the album is entitled "Trionfi". The 1953 recording presents a very different version than this stereo one that Jochum recorded 15 years later in 1968 AND WHICH ORFF DID NOT HEAR!! The earlier version is grittier, perhaps not as smoothly played or expertly sung, but altogether more primal and exciting. The early mono sound of that 1953 version is very good, easily the equal of the stereo sound except for the ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 13
Average Rating:

Lanza: Greatest Hits

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

Release Date April 11, 1995
Excellent product. CD just as described and fast delivery. Love Mario Lanza and his voice.

CD-Charts Position 14
Average Rating:

The Complete EMI Recordings 1946-1984, Vol. 1: Orchestral [Box Set]

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

Release Date April 01, 2008
EMI has been releasing a great many ambitious box sets lately, some devoted to specific composers with as many as 30 CDs, but this dwarfs them all, and I'm just talking about volume one, the orchestral collection. Was i glad to see it done? Certainly! Do I heartily wish that a little more care had gone into the planning and execution? Heartily! The idea is a fine one, assembling all of Karajan's official EMI orchestral recordings in one package, and remastering many of them once again. But the execution is amateurish -- the paltry booklet giving the tracklist for each CD has no index, so if you are, say, only interested at a particular moment in hearing Karajan's interpretations of Johann Strauss II or Liszt, or even Bruckner (or any other composer, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 15
Average Rating:

The 3 Tenors in Concert 1994

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

Release Date August 30, 1994
when the cd arrived it played perfect. had all the literature and was perfect in everyway, better than a cd store. thanks amazon

CD-Charts Position 16
Average Rating:

The Mario Lanza Collection (3CD)

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

Release Date November 12, 1991
I don't know how this could be any better. Mario sings like an angel and I love most of the selections. I have thoroughly enoyed listening to my cd's, over and over.

CD-Charts Position 17
Average Rating:

The Only Classical CD You'll Ever Need!

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

Release Date July 19, 1994
As an 18 year old univeristy student i would have to rate "The Only Classical Cd You'll Ever Need" as excellent. I dont know much about classical music but i was able to recognize almost every song and able to appreciate the music. Classical music is excellent to study to when i am up late for an exam and amazing to calm down to will i am simply resting. For anyone who has never been interested in classical music i would recomend this CD as a great start to an appreciation for an amazing genre of music.

CD-Charts Position 18
Average Rating:

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

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

Release Date January 12, 1999
While there are other wonderful performances of tese works, Klemperer & Wunderlich and Ludwig are the equal of any. Baker/Haitink being the only other great contender . They're each great in their own way.

CD-Charts Position 19
Average Rating:

Classic Wynton

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

Release Date November 10, 1998
It's easy to think that the culture is in decline (mostly because it is), but Wynton is proof that we are not done for yet. He is the real thing, whether you like classical or jazz or whatever. He is a master. I love this recording of some very familiar pieces, recorded here by a real virtuoso. Just as we were getting used to mediocrity, Wynton comes along and reminds us all that perfection is worth pursuing despite our teachers' insistence that we can feel good about ourselves no matter what we do. Here is the personification of artistry and the claim that greatness is worth pursuing and is achievable.

CD-Charts Position 20
Average Rating:

Andrea Bocelli - The Opera Album ~ Aria

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

Release Date April 07, 1998
Let's not try to analyze every phrase, every note, every sustained pitch. Let's just listen to a tenor who sings from the heart. Pavarotti, he is not--but who is? Domingo he is not--but who is? In fact, who else is Bocelli?
As a tenor fanatic, I try to listen to as many tenors as I can--even some for whom I do not care (see my review on Carlo Bergonzi). There is enjoyment in all of them.
Now, one comment specifically on this recording. I have not been enthusiastic about some of Bocelli's other repertoire. But this entry into operatic arias ranks at the top of his list.