CD-Charts Position 81
Average Rating:

Bernstein Conducts Candide

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

Release Date April 15, 1997
(Note: This review substantially repeats an earlier one for a highlights album from DG.)

Since almost everyone owns a CD burner now, it's possible to compile a hybrid performance that merges the classic 1956 original cast recording (Sony) with this very complete DG performance from 1989, featuring Bernstein on the podium and nearly every delicious bit he composed for the show over a period of three decades. (One could also dip into the excellent revival by the Scottish National Opera, whose singers are as operatric as DG's but younger and often better.) Candide is the sum of original inspiration and a lot of mixed after-thoughts.

I mention this recourse to a hybrid rendition becasue for all its virtues--this is a well ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 82
Average Rating:

Saariaho: Private Gardens / Dawn Upshaw

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Performers- A-Z
by: Kaija Saariaho, Dawn Upshaw, Florent Jodelet, Anssi Karttunen, Reijo Kiilunen, Camilla Hoitenga

Release Date February 17, 1998
The Ondine disc PRIVATE GARDENS collects four works, all played by their dedicatees, which epitomize the work of Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho in the 1990s. "Lohn" was written with Dawn Upshaw in mind like many of Saariaho's vocal works, as "Pres" was dedicated to cellist Anssi Karttunen like most of her cello works, and all works use electronics. In this day Saariaho was concerned primarily with timbre, in which exploration the electronics were a great resource. Recent Saariaho has eschewed electronics and has moved more towards melody, a development I'm still unsure about, but there is no doubt that what Saariaho was doing in this era was exciting.

"Lohn" for soprano and electronics (1996) uses as its text a poem by Jaufre Rudel, the troubadour ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 83
Average Rating:

The Very Best of Beniamino Gigli

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

Release Date September 02, 2003
I bought this compilation along with "The Very Best of Franco Corelli" because of the low price tag. I was highly anticipating Corelli's superpowered renditions of my favorites but it turns out that THIS compilation was the better shopping decision. Though Gigli seems to add certain inflections and high notes in places where one wouldn't normally expect, he makes it seem as if the songs were written that way(maybe they were). Gigli's voice soars above the outdated recording equipment used to capture it. He sings with sweetness and power, a rare combination. The religious and italian party songs are gems and the "Nessun Dorma" is done well even though he was at the end of his career. Gigli is always called "a worthy successor to Caruso" or "the best since Caruso". After ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 84
Average Rating:

Mozart: Clarinet Concerto / Oboe Concerto -Antony Pay / Michel Piguet / The Academy of Ancient Music / Christopher Hogwood

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

Release Date October 25, 1990
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
CLARINET CONCERTO K.622 & OBOE CONCERTO K.314
ANTHONY PAY,Clarinet & MICHEL PIGUET,Oboe
CHRISTOPHER HOGWOOD, CONDUCTOR
ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC (AAM)

RATED 5-STARS by classical music critics/enthusiasts as the numero uno authentic period-instrument interpretations of MOZART'S CLARINET CONCERTO K.622 & OBOE CONCERTO K.314! This CD by the ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC (AAM), one of the world's first and numero uno critically acclaimed classical period instrument orchestras, is a MUST HAVE CD FOR ALL MOZART AFICIONADOS!

CHRISTOPHER HOGWOOD is a world-famous English conductor, harpsichordist, writer, and scholar of classical music. In 1973, Christopher Hogwood founded the ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 85
Average Rating:

Handel: Messiah (Complete Oratorio); Battle, Quivar, Aler, Ramey, Davis

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Performers- A-Z
by: George Frideric Handel, Andrew Davis, Kathleen Battle, Florence Quivar, John Aler, Samuel Ramey, Toronto Symphony Orchestra & Toronto Mendelssohn Choir

Release Date October 25, 1990
This is the most exquisite version of "Messiah" I have heard to date. Although I am not a professional musician, I have a good ear and these artists are simply flawless! I particularly appreciate the occasional personal flourish at the end of some arias--a tiny bit of artistic license that still respects the glorious work of Handel. My only complaint relates to the production side of this CD set: the overture and all solos are so quiet, I have to crank up the volume, yet when any chorus begins, the sound is nearly deafening. This peculiar lack of balance is truly disappointing, but something I can live with for the stellar quality of the music.

CD-Charts Position 86
Average Rating:

Ellis Island

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Performers- A-Z
by: The Irish Tenors, Brendan Graham, Chauncey Olcott, Irish Traditional, Johnny Cash, John Francis Patterson, Dermot MacMurrough, C. Kirkham, Eric Bogle, Burton Lane, Thomas Osbourne Davis, Irving Berlin, Frank McNamara

Release Date March 06, 2001
A glorious concert in a historic setting, with all involved in top notch form. Finbar finds a great old Johnny Cash number, Ronan sings a Glocka
Mora to end all, and Anthony Kearns sings murderously difficult versions
of Macushla and The Croppy Boy like an angel. And their Courtin' and Irish
Medleys, and their "Nation Once Again" trios are simply glorious glees.

With the benefit of a grand theme, this is perhaps the best, and best balanced, of all their programs.

CD-Charts Position 87
Average Rating:

A Portrait Of Anonymous 4

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Performers- A-Z
by: Anonymous 4

Release Date April 10, 1997
This item is a gift for a cousin. She really likes this group, and I was able to find a nice selection on Amazon.

CD-Charts Position 88
Average Rating:

Bach- St. Matthäus-Passion/Te Kanawa, von Otter, Rolfe-Johnson, Blochitz, Krause, Solti (Highlights)

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Performers- A-Z
by: Kiri Te Kanawa, Anne Sofie von Otter, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Tom Krause, Glen Ellyn Children's Chorus

Release Date March 30, 1990
A number of years ago, maybe 17, I had two seats at the Chicago Symphony with Sir Georg Solti the resident conductor emiritus and 2 floor seats to see Michael Jordon, Scottie Pippen and John Paxson at the Bulls. It was a heady season and I probably saw more of Jordon but only because I had more tickets.

Sir Georg was an institution, like Mazur and Bernstein. He lacked the flamboyance of the latter, and of course Kurt Mazur would on occassion address the orchestra pit with neither podium nor music sheets nor baton. That was pretty impressive too the first time I saw him (Fantasy Overture, NYP).

But it seems to me that Matthew Passion brings a need for unison between the conductor and the musicians and the chorus dare I say slightly more than other efforts and ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 89
Average Rating:

Viaggio Italiano / Andrea Bocelli

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

Release Date November 18, 1997
As always, Andrea Bocelli's singing has moved me deeply emotionally. You can tell that his range of emotions, inflections and performance come from deep within his very heart and being. He is, indeed, a fantastic tenor - albeit perhaps not a perfectionist which to me is not as important as his deep feeling for the words and music he is singing. His voice does, indeed, appear to come directly from heaven. As for the more famous tenors, I prefer Andrea Bocelli over ALL of them. His deep feeling for and of music puts the perfectionist "all star" tenors to shame.

CD-Charts Position 90
Average Rating:

Wolcum Yule: Celtic and British Songs and Carols - Anonymous 4 with Andrew Lawrence-King

CD-Charts > Music > Featured Performers- A-Z
by: John Tavener, Richard Rodney Bennett, Peter Maxwell Davies, Geoffrey Burgon, Henry VIII, Benjamin Britten, Anonymous 4, Andrew Lawrence-King

Release Date October 14, 2003
Very pretty with vocals and insturmentals. However, if you're looking for something that's actually Pagan and has Yule carols keep looking.