CD-Charts Position 41
Average Rating:

The Most Famous Opera Duets

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

Release Date April 12, 1994
Maybe these don't represent absolutely the greatest duets in all opera. But they represent some awfully good ones! The CD begins with a duet from "Les Pecheurs des Perles" (Puccini) and ends with the gloomy Miserere (from "Il Trovatore," by Verdi). In between are many more operas, from Donizetti and Mozart to Strauss and Wagner. Some of the finer singers of the past half century appear in various of these duets.

A bit more detail on a handful of these to illustrate.

"Sull'aria" from Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro." Heather Harper and Judith Blegen sing the parts here. This is a sweet duet from the opera. The singer's voices meld well together and this represents a poignantly sung piece.

"Ah! Verrana a ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 42
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Bach: Brandenburg Concertos No. 5 & 6/Orchestral Suite No. 1; Neville Marriner; Academy of St. Martin in the Fields

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Performers- A-Z
by: Johann Sebastian Bach, Sir Neville Marriner, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields

Release Date July 13, 2004
This is a fine reading of the lesser-appreciated Brandenburgs. While the 3rd is the "greatest hit" of the six, I think these last two are also beautiful in their own way.
Marriner sure has the Touch, and despite this performance being on modern and not period instruments, I prefer it to some of the more "faithful" BCs I've heard, mainly due to the heartfelt perfection of the playing. Bach was all about perfection, on many levels, and these guys bring home how incredibly layered and harmonically rich these pieces are.
Hard to pass up for five bucks.

CD-Charts Position 43
Average Rating:

Adams: Harmonium

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Performers- A-Z
from: Ecm Records

Release Date April 18, 2000
Harmonium is a giant of a work for chorus and large orchestra. In it, John Adams accomplishes the impossible by creating a work that sounds remarkably simple if you allow your attention just to bounce across the surface. When you listen, the work becomes a deeply complex, multi-layered piece. In concert, there's no way you can miss the detail. You can't turn the volume down on forces like this! John Adams sets poems by John Donne and Emily Dickinson, the latter choice a harrowing vision of death juxtaposed with ecstasy. The setting of the words is quite masterly, confirming John Adams as one of the most accomplished as well as one of the most original voices in music. My only criticism of the cd is its length. There's a single work and the total ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 44
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Appalachian Journey

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

Release Date March 21, 2000
A most interesting and varied collection ....beautifully put together and recorded...Appalachian at it's finest and all topped off by Yo Yo Ma....

Tracks #6 and #14 and are particularly beautiful and moving

CD-Charts Position 45
Average Rating:

Puccini - La Bohème / Freni, Pavarotti, Harwood, Ghiaurov, Karajan

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Performers- A-Z
by: Giacomo Puccini, Mirella Freni, Luciano Pavarotti, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan, Elizabeth Harwood, Rolando Panerai, Nicolai Ghiaurov

Release Date October 25, 1990
When you compare Freni with the light roles that she used to sing in the 60s and this Freni, you will think they are two different singers. But what is truly amazed is the fact that not only her voice changed, but she became bar none to one the hardest heavy lyric soprano roles ever: Mimi. And when she has Pavarotti next to her, it is like heaven. But, wait... Who is conducting is Karajan, unarguably one of the best puccinian ever. This is a record to listen, re-listen, re-listen, re-listen until I don't know when...

CD-Charts Position 46
Average Rating:

Debussy for Daydreaming

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

Release Date April 11, 1995
Definitely for daydreaming, or for putting the little one down at bedtime. Good start to those wanting to see if they like Debussy. Includes many of his most famous works (Clair de lune, etc.)

CD-Charts Position 47
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Elgar: Pomp & Circumstance Marches; Enigma Variations; Cockaigne Overture

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Performers- A-Z
from: EMI / Seraphim

Release Date October 17, 1995
I ordered the recording and the score to see if I could break the code. Besides identifying each variation with one of Elgar's friends, is there something in the main motif itself? Like the digits of pi? Has anyone found the pattern?

CD-Charts Position 48
Average Rating:

Tchaikovsky: Concerto No. 1/Rachmaninoff: Concerto No. 2

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

Release Date January 12, 1993
What stands out about this disc is how scrupulous Cliburn is in avoiding any scratches. I cant find anything close to an error, in either piece. It's a marvel of a recording. Not only that, the clarity of his playing per se is a marvel to behold. The pedal never blurs anything together. Runs were articulate. The orchestra was also crisp and sharp.

The only extremely minor thing I could find wrong with this piece is that sometimes Cliburn slows down during fast passages, when a more brusque approach would have worked. Perhaps a more impersonal, mechanical, or machine-like approach would have made the fast passages more fluent, more in tempo. These slowdowns can be found in the first movement of Tchaikovsky.

The Rachmaninoff was also clean but slow.

CD-Charts Position 49
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Andrea Bocelli - Sacred Arias / Myung-Whun Chung

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Performers- A-Z
by: George Frideric Handel, Giulio Caccini, Charles Gounod, Franz Schubert, Cesar Franck, Gioachino Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Wagner, Pietro Mascagni, Louis Niedermeyer, Franz Xaver Gruber, John Francis Wade, Jean-Paul Lecot, Myung-Whun Chung, Andrea Bocelli

Release Date November 09, 1999
What a wonderful CD! This is music I will listen to over and over - his voice is amazing!

CD-Charts Position 50
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The Essential Yo-Yo Ma

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

Release Date August 16, 2005
My nephew mentioned his desire to hear some classical music (Yo-Yo Ma, especially) on the boring trips back & forth from college. He really seemed to enjoy receiving the CD for Christmas!