CD-Charts Position 211
Average Rating:

Beethoven: The Complete Symphonies and Piano Concertos

CD-Charts > Music > Opera and Vocal
from: EMI Classics

Release Date November 07, 2000
I'm not an educated musician or something, I was just looking for the Symphonies and found this amazing collection that includes the full piano concertos, and at a great price!

Really easy to recommend.

CD-Charts Position 212
Average Rating:

The Prayer Cycle

CD-Charts > Music > Opera and Vocal
from: Sony

Release Date March 23, 1999
This is a great collection of songs with a consistent tone that allow you to get into a deep, relaxed state. Highly recommend it.

CD-Charts Position 213
Average Rating:

The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace

CD-Charts > Music > Opera and Vocal
from: EMI Classics

Release Date May 10, 2005
I received this CD as a gift from a friend in the UK. He was spot on as to the musical intregrity of this mass. I was moved by the beauty and power of Jenkin's 21st century lyrical move from the Muslim call to prayer, to the amassing of troops, to the battle, and then the end of the fighting. This is a must hear as it is thought provoking: one moves through the emotion and sentiments of war via the music. Honestly, Agnes Dei brought images of Angels coming to claim the souls of those who lost the valient fight. The beauty of Benedictus moved me to tears!

CD-Charts Position 214
Average Rating:

The Most Relaxing Classical Album In the World Ever, Volume II

CD-Charts > Music > Opera and Vocal
by: Gabriel Faure, Frederic Chopin, Antonio Vivaldi, Gustav Mahler, Claude Debussy, Sir Neville Marriner, Maris Jansons, Lorin Maazel, Sir Adrian Boult, Miklos Rozsa, Riccardo Muti, Stephen Cleobury, Sir John Barbirolli, New Philharmonia Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra & Chorus, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Berlin Philharmonic

Release Date March 11, 2003
Beautifully done, arranged, and selected. All are very good performances, and there are many lesser known but wonderful pieces such as the movement from Shostakovich's second piano concerto.

CD-Charts Position 215
Average Rating:

Verdi - Rigoletto / Sutherland, Pavarotti, Milnes, LSO, Bonynge

CD-Charts > Music > Opera and Vocal
by: Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Bonynge, Luciano Pavarotti, Joan Sutherland, London Symphony Orchestra, Sherrill Milnes, Joseph Clement, John Gibbs, Clifford Grant, Kiri Te Kanawa, Gillian Knight, Ricardo Cassinelli, Ambrosian Opera Chorus

Release Date October 25, 1990
Cabe mencionar que hace poco mas de 11 años que tengo este disco que tuvo a bien regalarme un amigo muy querido; de nuevo la fórmula muy efectiva en los años 70's; Pavarotti se muestra como "el mejor duque de la historia" (según críticos conocedores) y que vocalmente está en su punto, basta escuchar el aria "possente amor mi chiama" coronado con un trino para tenor que calidad insuperable; como dijera el propio Verdi "Rigoletto esta concebido como una interminable ristra de dúos", todos ellos memorables; Joanine se luce con la interpretación de una adolescente, imprimiendo una sutil Gilda, conmovedora hasta los huesos (vg en los hermosísimos dúos con Rigoletto) y con un dramatismo excepcional como en el terzetone del tercer acto previo ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 216
Average Rating:

Riders To The Sea- An Opera By Ralph Vaughan Williams

CD-Charts > Music > Opera and Vocal
starring: Sarah Walker, Yvonne Brennan
directed by: Louis Lentin

Release Date August 26, 2008
Cabe mencionar que hace poco mas de 11 años que tengo este disco que tuvo a bien regalarme un amigo muy querido; de nuevo la fórmula muy efectiva en los años 70's; Pavarotti se muestra como "el mejor duque de la historia" (según críticos conocedores) y que vocalmente está en su punto, basta escuchar el aria "possente amor mi chiama" coronado con un trino para tenor que calidad insuperable; como dijera el propio Verdi "Rigoletto esta concebido como una interminable ristra de dúos", todos ellos memorables; Joanine se luce con la interpretación de una adolescente, imprimiendo una sutil Gilda, conmovedora hasta los huesos (vg en los hermosísimos dúos con Rigoletto) y con un dramatismo excepcional como en el terzetone del tercer acto previo ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 217
Average Rating:

Fidelio (Deutsche Oper Berlin)

CD-Charts > Music > Opera and Vocal
starring: Gwyneth Jones, Martti Talvela, Josef Greindl, James King, Barry McDaniel
directed by: Gustav Rudolf Sellner

Release Date August 12, 2008
I totally agree with the first review. I approached this Fidelio with some caution because it was a studio film and I didn't think you can get any emotional impact but I was wrong on that. The production looks like, or at least comes close to, the actual live performance. This is a beautiful production by any standard present or past and the camera work is outstanding. The closeups very effective. But it's the singing that counts and Karl Bohm's masterful conducting. It never surprises me to find the best performances when Bohm is involved. This is a powerful and passionate cast.
Gwyneth Jones is glorious. Her voice is huge and expressive and she always delivers a well acted and involved performance. The rest of the cast is equally as strong. ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 218
Average Rating:

Handel - Orlando

CD-Charts > Music > Opera and Vocal
starring: Handel, Mijanovic, Jankova, Peetz, Christie

Release Date September 30, 2008
"Orlando" is one of Handel's "magic" operas. Like "Alcina" and "Ariodante," it is based on Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso," an epic poem describing the adventures of Orlando (Roland), a knight in Charlemagne's army. Although "Orlando" was not a great success in Handel's lifetime, it has come to be regarded as one of his finest operas. It breaks many of the conventions of 18th century opera seria and moves into what Anthony Hicks calls "fearful and uncharted waters." The famous mad scene at the end of Act II, in which Orlando, driven into a frenzy by his frustrated love for Angelica, imagines himself on a journey to the Underworld, is described by Hicks as "the most astonishing stretch of music to be found in the opera--perhaps in any Baroque opera." ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 219
Average Rating:

Feather on the Breath of God

CD-Charts > Music > Opera and Vocal
from: Hyperion UK

Release Date September 01, 1993
Undoubtedly the best Hildegard recording I've ever heard. I have other Hildegard discs that get played once, but this has been my constant companion for 13 or 14 years. The best yet.

CD-Charts Position 220
Average Rating:

Artur Rubinstein in Concert

CD-Charts > Music > Opera and Vocal
from: Deutsche Grammophon

Release Date June 10, 2008
Following their release of Artur Rubinstein's Grieg, Chopin and Saint-Saëns concertos, Deutsche Grammophon issues another fascinating programme about the great pianist, recorded two years earlier, in August 1973, at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Rubinstein can be heard and seen in Beethoven's 3rd and Brahms's 1st, both accompanied by the Concertgebouw Orchestra under Bernard Haitink.

Produced by the same team, with Hugo Käch directing, the great Max Wilcox who had been recording Rubinstein since 1959 as audio producer, and Robert Hofer responsible for the photography, this DVD provides further insight in the artistry of one of the most significant pianists of the previous century in the indian summer ("autumn" would be too strong a word for ... Read More: