CD-Charts Position 101
Average Rating:

Chopin and Champagne: Set Your Mood for Romance

CD-Charts > Music > Vocal Non-Opera
from: Philips

Release Date June 13, 1995
This is a most wonderful collection of some of the most beautiful pieces of music to listen to when you want to hear something soothing and relaxing. The piano is much in evidence as you might expect from anything by Chopin and it is played flawlessly and flowingly here. Quite simply, music to calm your mind. If you like peaceful and beautiful poetic sounding music, you can't go wrong with this one. It is marketed as a CD to play when you are involved in some romantic interlude, but it by no means needs to be reserved for only that kind of scenario. This is to be enjoyed anytime you want to wind down and relax, maybe even to meditate to as there are no jarring elements that could come in and interfere with your reverie. The music just flows ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 102
Average Rating:

Flute For Relaxation

CD-Charts > Music > Vocal Non-Opera
from: RCA

Release Date October 10, 2000
This music is really soothing and relaxing. All you have to do is put the CD on and close your eyes. Stress relief on a CD. Great!

CD-Charts Position 103
Average Rating:

Sacred Treasures: Choral Masterworks From Russia

CD-Charts > Music > Vocal Non-Opera
from: Hearts of Space

Release Date February 17, 1998
Sacred Treasures is one of the most beautiful discs I have listened to in a long time. The music evokes a heavenly choir. My personal favorite is track 12, Cherubim by Tchaikovsky. It moves me to a different place. A place I'd like to stay.

CD-Charts Position 104
Average Rating:

Bach: Matthaus-Passion (St Matthew Passion) BWV 244 /Bostridge * Selig * Rubens * Scholl * Gura * Henschel * Collegium Vocale * Herreweghe (+CD-Rom)

CD-Charts > Music > Vocal Non-Opera
by: Collegium Vocale Gent

Release Date November 16, 1999
I'm a musicologist and former choral conductor, and I think this is an absolutely wonderful interpretation by all involved (I find Scholl's countertenor to be a bit harsh, but that's a small point.) I like the forcefulness of the back-and-forth between the two choirs in the first chorus..."Behold! Who? The Bridegroom." It has great rhetorical power, which is an important aspect of the chorus, exhorting the congregation to witness the Passion events.

MAC USERS BEWARE: this was produced back in '99, in the days of OS 9.
The CD-ROM won't work on Macs running OS X.
Macs just evolve too quickly I guess! ;o)

CD-Charts Position 105
Average Rating:

Renee Fleming - The Beautiful Voice ~ Gounod, Lehar, Orff, Puccini, Rachmaninov, Strauss

CD-Charts > Music > Vocal Non-Opera
from: London/Decca

Release Date February 10, 1998
Once again Renee Fleming presents glorious collaborations in a compelling performance. The overall conception is one of beauty and unequivocal direction of line. Fleming begins with "Louise: Depuis le Jour." The spacious long phrases are profoundly evocative and the vocal timbre is crafted with glowing, long-breathed generosity. My most cherished performance is "Songs My Mother Taught Me",(A favorite of Joan Sutherland's) from the Gypsy Melodies Op.55, No.4. It is delighting in sweet textural clarity and brimming over with an infectious sense of inner purpose. Followed by "Martha: Last Rose of Summer," and "Doretta's Dream Song", Fleming sings with such a level of imagination which is rare enough, but once heard it never leaves you. "Carmina Burana: ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 106
Average Rating:

A Festival Of Carols / Robert Shaw Chorale

CD-Charts > Music > Vocal Non-Opera
by: Robert Shaw Chorale

Release Date October 25, 1990
This collection of carols by R. Shaw one of the best I have had the pleasure of experiencing. It is truely a joy.

CD-Charts Position 107
Average Rating:

Vivaldi: Gloria; Bach: Magnificat

CD-Charts > Music > Vocal Non-Opera
from: Telarc

Release Date May 19, 1989
Of all the performances of the Vivaldi Gloria I have listened to, I like this the best. Clarity, emphasis, orchestra, soloists - all excellent. A balanced performance. The Bach is a bonus...

CD-Charts Position 108
Average Rating:

Classic Wynton

CD-Charts > Music > Vocal Non-Opera
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 109
Average Rating:

Classical Wedding Music

CD-Charts > Music > Vocal Non-Opera
by: Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Leonard Bernstein, Claude Debussy, César Franck, George Frideric Handel, Engelbert Humperdinck, Karl Jenkins, Felix Mendelssohn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jean Joseph Mouret, Modest Jeremiah Clarke, Johann Pachelbel, Robert Paterson, Henry Purcell, Franz Schubert, Antonio Vivaldi, Richard Wagner Mussorgsky, Lumiere String Quartet, Victoria Paterson (Violin), Christian Hebel (Violin), Junah Chung (Viola), Eileen Bedlington (Trumpet), Sato Moughalian (Flute), Kristina Musser (Violin) Robert Burkhart (Cello)

Release Date July 10, 2006
This was a well thoughtout group of wedding music and the arrangements and performances were excelent!!

CD-Charts Position 110
Average Rating:

Kathleen Battle · Wynton Marsalis ~ Baroque Duet / Anthony Newman · Orch St. Luke's · Nelson

CD-Charts > Music > Vocal Non-Opera
by: George Frideric Handel, Alessandro Scarlatti, Luca Antonio Predieri, Alessandro Stradella, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Nelson, Kathleen Battle, Wynton Marsalis, Orchestra of St. Lukes, Anthony Newman, John T. Kulowitsch, Krista Bennion Feeney, Eriko Sato, Marc Goldberg

Release Date April 21, 1992
I had heard of this album in 1992, and since then I had not found it available in Brazil. Fortunatelly, I've got it through Amazon now. Despite of the fact that it is not played in the strict baroque style, Battle/Marsalis are great, brilliant, and they turn the difficult duets into delightfull virtuosism. The duets were very well selected, and some I did not know until now, which are also wonderful. This is the kind of CD anyone would enjoy, and I do recommend it.