CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

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

Search: Song VI
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:

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

Search: Song VI
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, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
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 VI
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, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

From the Grotto: Nathan Currier

Search: Song VI
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, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

Sir William Walton: The Complete Works

Search: Song VI
from: Chandos

Release Date February 20, 1996
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, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

William Walton: A Centenary Celebration

Search: Song VI
from: Chandos

Release Date March 26, 2002
This disc is unacceptable unless you like tracks that are incomplete. It is one thing to have excerpts and another to end the track only 10 measures from the actual ending of the piece! Buy a disc with reasonably complete pieces instead. I am not even "filing" this with my other classical CDs. (It will be filed somewhere else.)

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

Adiemus II: Cantata Mundi

Search: Song VI
from: Sony

Release Date August 26, 1997
This CD is the best of two different Musical Types. The orchestrtion and the choral components are wonderfully matched. When you listen to this you can go on a journey that is so magical!

CD-Charts Position 8
Average Rating:

Portrait

Search: Song VI
by: Gavin Bryars

Release Date June 02, 2003
This CD is the best of two different Musical Types. The orchestrtion and the choral components are wonderfully matched. When you listen to this you can go on a journey that is so magical!

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

Bryars: Cadman Requiem, Adnan Songbook, etc. / Hilliard Ensemble, Fretwork

Search: Song VI
by: Fretwork

Release Date January 12, 1999
While I enjoy Gavin Bryars, in general I have to be in the perfect mood to listen intently or he dissolves into noise. That is not true of any of the pieces on this disk. The title piece, Cadman Requiem is a magnificant piece of deep prolonged sounds creating a dark and reflective Requiem. This is music perfectly fitted to the words. The Hilliard Ensemble does a splendid job in fitting the voices to the deep strings.

The Adnan Songbook puts six of the Lebanese-American poet's poems to music. Bryars lets the words, the voice take the spotlight against a very quiet and melodic musical backdrop.

Epilogue From Wonderlawn is a varied piece, approaching the musical style that forces one to truly concentrate on Bryars' music.

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CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

Svyati: Steven Isserlis Plays the Music of John Tavener

Search: Song VI
by: John Tavener, Steven Isserlis

Release Date March 11, 1997
This is one of the top eight or so Tavener CDs I've heard (out of around 30).