CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

Fischer: Brahms Piano Sonata No. 3; Bartók: 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs

Search: Song V
from: BBC Legends

Release Date November 28, 2000
Your initial post: Mar 13, 2008 6:46 PM PDT

Preface: I wrote the following in response to Ryan Morris review. I'm adding some notes to that response.
T. R. Wilson says:
Dear Ryan Morris, RIGHT ON! That you should write so insightfully about Maestra Fischer is amazing, in that you never heard her live, and this was your "first expererience" with her playing. I did my undergraduate study with one of her very dear, close friends and colleagues, Edward Kilenyi, and the met Fischer in NYC, hearing her live many times. You are right, her Brahms sonata is simply the only recording of it that comes close to anything. This entire recording is just astounding, as was every one of the 9 or 10 times I heard her in person. I always ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

Sibelius: The Tempest

Search: Song V
from: Ondine

Release Date February 01, 1995
Your initial post: Mar 13, 2008 6:46 PM PDT

Preface: I wrote the following in response to Ryan Morris review. I'm adding some notes to that response.
T. R. Wilson says:
Dear Ryan Morris, RIGHT ON! That you should write so insightfully about Maestra Fischer is amazing, in that you never heard her live, and this was your "first expererience" with her playing. I did my undergraduate study with one of her very dear, close friends and colleagues, Edward Kilenyi, and the met Fischer in NYC, hearing her live many times. You are right, her Brahms sonata is simply the only recording of it that comes close to anything. This entire recording is just astounding, as was every one of the 9 or 10 times I heard her in person. I always ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

Shalom Aleichem

Search: Song V
by: Steve Tapper and Audie Bridges

Release Date February 06, 2001
Your initial post: Mar 13, 2008 6:46 PM PDT

Preface: I wrote the following in response to Ryan Morris review. I'm adding some notes to that response.
T. R. Wilson says:
Dear Ryan Morris, RIGHT ON! That you should write so insightfully about Maestra Fischer is amazing, in that you never heard her live, and this was your "first expererience" with her playing. I did my undergraduate study with one of her very dear, close friends and colleagues, Edward Kilenyi, and the met Fischer in NYC, hearing her live many times. You are right, her Brahms sonata is simply the only recording of it that comes close to anything. This entire recording is just astounding, as was every one of the 9 or 10 times I heard her in person. I always ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

Boulez conducts Webern

Search: Song V
from: Deutsche Grammophon

Release Date March 14, 1995

Boulez' masterful readings of Webern's early chamber and choral works are well worth adding to his complete survey of the composer's opus. All works are performed by the finest musicians including the pianist P-L Aimard renowned for his Debussy and Ravel recordings, two outstanding sopranos with pure-toned voice and BBC singers, each performance totally captivating and very imaginative. Beautifully recorded with details and realistic sound image.

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

Complete Webern

Search: Song V
by: Anton von Webern, Clemens Hagen, David Finckel, Anton Webern, Pierre Boulez, Ensemble InterContemporain, Mary Ann McCormick, Berliner Philharmoniker, Eric Schneider, Gianluca Cascioli, Krystian Zimerman, Oleg Maisenberg, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Christiane Oelze, Francoise Pollet, Lawrence Dutton, Gidon Kremer, Philip Setzer

Release Date May 09, 2000
I share the very positive sentiments of the other reviewers. I have heard both of the Boulez anthologies and prefer this one, although the other is excellent too. Compared to the classic Karajan Webern single CD with the same orchestra, which I also admire, the newer Boulez performances of the same pieces are marked by equally fantastic orchestral playing, and even better recording quality, which makes the extreme dynamics of Webern's writing more effective. If there is a better Opus 1 by any composer than Webern's Passacaglia, I would like to hear it. The Schubert and especially Bach arrangements on the first CD are first class. In my view, all the performances are successful - with special kudos to the soprano Christiane Oelze and the Emerson String ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht Op4; Pieces Op16/1-5

Search: Song V
from: London / Decca

Release Date October 14, 1997
As the other two reviewers point out, this is a matchless bargain, containing as it does some famous Decca recordings that either have been out of print or were attached to larger productions (the Anja Silja vocal works were a supplement to Dohnanyi's Wozzeck). The Mehta contributions date from almost 40 years ago but are in remarkably voluptuous, up-close sound, even by current standards. Mehta is what the british would call a "positive" conductor, meaning that he eschews tragedy, I suppose. His three contributions are almost sunny, in fact, and I doubt anyone has made a Verklarte Nacht with less aangst. Karajan has more to say in the Variations, but Mehta's surface sheen is easier to listen to.

Dohnanyi's approach to Schoenberg is cooler, more detached, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

Thomas Hampson sings Beethoven, Berlioz, Franz, Grieg, Liszt, Loewe, Schumann, Wagner: Songs (including 'Dichterliebe' and 'An Die Ferne Geliebte') (2 CD Set)

Search: Song V
from: EMI Classics Imports

Release Date October 01, 2002
As the other two reviewers point out, this is a matchless bargain, containing as it does some famous Decca recordings that either have been out of print or were attached to larger productions (the Anja Silja vocal works were a supplement to Dohnanyi's Wozzeck). The Mehta contributions date from almost 40 years ago but are in remarkably voluptuous, up-close sound, even by current standards. Mehta is what the british would call a "positive" conductor, meaning that he eschews tragedy, I suppose. His three contributions are almost sunny, in fact, and I doubt anyone has made a Verklarte Nacht with less aangst. Karajan has more to say in the Variations, but Mehta's surface sheen is easier to listen to.

Dohnanyi's approach to Schoenberg is cooler, more detached, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
Average Rating:

Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream; Grieg: Peer Gynt (Highlights)

Search: Song V
from: Class. for Pleas. Us

Release Date June 04, 2002
As the other two reviewers point out, this is a matchless bargain, containing as it does some famous Decca recordings that either have been out of print or were attached to larger productions (the Anja Silja vocal works were a supplement to Dohnanyi's Wozzeck). The Mehta contributions date from almost 40 years ago but are in remarkably voluptuous, up-close sound, even by current standards. Mehta is what the british would call a "positive" conductor, meaning that he eschews tragedy, I suppose. His three contributions are almost sunny, in fact, and I doubt anyone has made a Verklarte Nacht with less aangst. Karajan has more to say in the Variations, but Mehta's surface sheen is easier to listen to.

Dohnanyi's approach to Schoenberg is cooler, more detached, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

From the Grotto: Nathan Currier

Search: Song V
from: Composers Recordings

Release Date February 01, 2001
As the other two reviewers point out, this is a matchless bargain, containing as it does some famous Decca recordings that either have been out of print or were attached to larger productions (the Anja Silja vocal works were a supplement to Dohnanyi's Wozzeck). The Mehta contributions date from almost 40 years ago but are in remarkably voluptuous, up-close sound, even by current standards. Mehta is what the british would call a "positive" conductor, meaning that he eschews tragedy, I suppose. His three contributions are almost sunny, in fact, and I doubt anyone has made a Verklarte Nacht with less aangst. Karajan has more to say in the Variations, but Mehta's surface sheen is easier to listen to.

Dohnanyi's approach to Schoenberg is cooler, more detached, ... Read More: