CD-Charts Position 51
Average Rating:

Sanctuary

CD-Charts > Music > Sacred and Religious
from: EMI Classics

Release Date February 17, 1998
This album is a beautiful example of some of Arvo Part's best works. Each piece is thoroughly enjoyable and the entire collection makes a wonderful addition to anyone's music library. Arvo Part is one of the most important composers in contemporary music.

CD-Charts Position 52
Average Rating:

Prayer: A Windham Hill Collection

CD-Charts > Music > Sacred and Religious
from: RCA

Release Date September 09, 2003
Prayer: A Windham Hill Collection (CD)
by Michael Manring
If you're a high-strung person like me, I recommend this beautiful, gentle, instrumental music that is both soothing and emotionally engaging, yet never maudlin. It has been a "God-send" while driving in heavy morning rush-hour traffic. Despite all the aggravations caused by socially-challenged drivers who don't know how to share the road, I find that I still arrive at work calm and centered thanks to the beneficial effects of this masterful Windham Hill CD. After weeks of listening to it every single morning, it's still not boring. I strongly recommend it for Type A personalities!

CD-Charts Position 53
Average Rating:

Elgar: The Collector's Edition (30 CDs)

CD-Charts > Music > Sacred and Religious
from: Emi Classics

Release Date November 06, 2007
It's hard not to like Elgar -- his music is tuneful, bombastic in all the right ways, and has an air of ceremony that somehow perfectly fits what British music should sound like. I guess it's just that Elgar defines "British" music.

There are certainly highlights in this set -- Falstaff and the Cello Concerto are so good that I think any other performance I'll ever hear of either of them will be ruined because they won't compare. The oratorios The Dream of Gerontius and The Apostles as presented are widely considered the best out there. And I haven't heard better. There's plenty more here to enjoy even if they're not absolutely authoritative.

I don't like Barbirolli's interpretation of the symphonies -- he takes the ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 54
Average Rating:

Faure: Requiem and other choral music

CD-Charts > Music > Sacred and Religious
from: Collegium

Release Date February 29, 2000
After hearing this piece of work on two different occasions on the same day, I felt that I needed to have it. All the choices always make it difficult to choose, so I ended up buying this version. I am utterly amazed with this beautiful piece of music, by its the performers and just the cd in general.

CD-Charts Position 55
Average Rating:

Works of Igor Stravinsky

CD-Charts > Music > Sacred and Religious
from: Sony Classics

Release Date July 23, 2007
I consider this release\compilation to be the greatest classical bargain of 2007-a year of many complete issues such as Bach and Mozart on Brilliant classics(before 07).
Stravinsky is the conductor for almost all the performances with the CBS orchestra and, though recorded in the early to late 60's, the sound is spectacular. I am listening to disc 1(for the tenth time) and still love the ambience of old tape recordings(which I find far superior to much of today's DDD and DSD. I will take warmth, substance, and presence over clinical precision and unrealistic detail any day of the week.
Much of the works here are the performances of said works. Of course the rite of spring has been reproduced about as many times as the bible, so it is difficult to ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 56
Average Rating:

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

CD-Charts > Music > Sacred and Religious
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, and along with the opening ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 57
Average Rating:

Mendelssohn: Songs Without Words

CD-Charts > Music > Sacred and Religious
from: Deutsche Grammophon

Release Date April 15, 1997
Beautifully interpreted, Barenbolm plays delicately and skillfully. This music is perhaps the epitome of the romantic classical era of piano music. Mendelssohn composed piece after piece of melodic and engaging piano music that eventually became this complete cycle. Some pieces may grab you more than others but overall, everyone of them expresses emotion. It surprises me that these pieces are not better known to anyone who loves classical piano music.

CD-Charts Position 58
Average Rating:

Essential Tchaikovsky

CD-Charts > Music > Sacred and Religious
from: Decca

Release Date March 12, 2002
There's something for every Tchaikovsky lover on this disc. From Swan Lake to Onegin, many of Tchaikovsky's most-known melodies are on this disc. I'd have preferred more than an excerpt of the first movement of Piano Concerto No. 1, but this disc is a great introduction to Tchaikovsky's works.

CD-Charts Position 59
Average Rating:

The Story of Schubert

CD-Charts > Music > Sacred and Religious
from: Vox (Classical)

Release Date February 28, 1994
this collection deserves more than 5 stars.peter maag and the philharmonica hungarica are in top form.this is the best ever of schubert's fifth and eigth i have ever listened to.it is not karl bohm or leonard bernstein or george szell or lorin maazel.
truly the hungarians inspired by maag easily beat all the other top orchestras.
the orchestral texture is transparent with a perfect balance among the string sections ,the woodwind and the brass sections.peter maag obviously loves this music and brings out the heavenly beauty ,the pathos and the monumental dramatic quality of these works.
just listen to schubert's fifth second movement which ends with a heart rending cello phrase.
it is a shame that the well established record companies have not thought it fit to record ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 60
Average Rating:

Norton Recorded Anthology of Western Music, Concise Version (6 Compact Discs)

CD-Charts > Music > Sacred and Religious
from: W. W. Norton

Release Date January 01, 2006
this collection deserves more than 5 stars.peter maag and the philharmonica hungarica are in top form.this is the best ever of schubert's fifth and eigth i have ever listened to.it is not karl bohm or leonard bernstein or george szell or lorin maazel.
truly the hungarians inspired by maag easily beat all the other top orchestras.
the orchestral texture is transparent with a perfect balance among the string sections ,the woodwind and the brass sections.peter maag obviously loves this music and brings out the heavenly beauty ,the pathos and the monumental dramatic quality of these works.
just listen to schubert's fifth second movement which ends with a heart rending cello phrase.
it is a shame that the well established record companies have not thought it fit to record ... Read More: