CD-Charts Position 1

George Lloyd conducts George Lloyd

Search: Transformation
from: Albany Records

Release Date August 13, 1993

CD-Charts Position 2

Music for Feng Shui

Search: Transformation
by: Various Artists

Release Date March 03, 1998

CD-Charts Position 3
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Frankel: Curse of the Werewolf

Search: Transformation
from: Naxos

Release Date May 16, 2006
Being a fan of classic horror films, I had already been well acquainted with Benjamin Frankel's outstanding score for Terence Fisher's 1961 masterpiece, THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF. Little did I know, however, that Frankel was actually one of Britain's premiere composers for his time, and aside from his work on cinematic scores, he was also prolific as a composer of concert works.

This installment of Naxos's FILM MUSIC CLASSICS series features Frankel's film works exclusively, and what is presented is incredibly listenable and engrossing. The featured score here is Frankel's WEREWOLF music, which is worth the price of the disc alone. Full of menace one minute, tender and melodic the next, this is a first-class score. Hearing it for ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
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A Midsummer Night's Dream

Search: Transformation
by: Korngold/Mendelssohn

Release Date June 22, 1999
This is the first high fidelity-stereo recording of the musical score of Max Reinhardt's classic 1935 film version of William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream". The 1935 version,while less than perfectly acted,nevertheless was beautifully photographed and had a haunting,storybook-like atmosphere (in the forest scenes) largely--and perhaps deliberately--missing from most other film versions (the recent Kevin Kline-Michelle Pfieffer Technicolor version is the only one which even comes close to duplicating the forest scenes of the '35 version). The 1935 film is also the only one (apart from the ballet versions) that makes extensive use of Mendelssohn's music. The great Erich Wolfgang Korngold,composer for most of the famous Errol Flynn swashbucklers ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 5
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Earth and Air and Rain

Search: Transformation
from: Hyperion UK

Release Date November 11, 1993
These are settings of words of Thomas Hardy by the early twentieth century English composer Gerald Finzi. They are much like the song cycles of Vaughan Williams or George Butterworth--lyric, not very harmonically adventurous. The poems are typical Hardy, about as depressing as possible. The poems are mostly obscure; excepy for "Channel Firing" I had not seen any of them before I heard this album. Finzi's music perfectly fits the words, and the voices of Varcoe and Hill perfectly fit the music. These songs are the best of the English lieder before Britten. i think they belong on the saame shelf with Brahms and Schubert. This is a really tremendous album, and if you think you might even remotely be interested in it, I urge you to acquire it at once.

CD-Charts Position 6
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Finzi: Song Cycles

Search: Transformation
from: Gasparo

Release Date January 01, 1998
These are settings of words of Thomas Hardy by the early twentieth century English composer Gerald Finzi. They are much like the song cycles of Vaughan Williams or George Butterworth--lyric, not very harmonically adventurous. The poems are typical Hardy, about as depressing as possible. The poems are mostly obscure; excepy for "Channel Firing" I had not seen any of them before I heard this album. Finzi's music perfectly fits the words, and the voices of Varcoe and Hill perfectly fit the music. These songs are the best of the English lieder before Britten. i think they belong on the saame shelf with Brahms and Schubert. This is a really tremendous album, and if you think you might even remotely be interested in it, I urge you to acquire it at once.

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

Power Transformations: Meditation Techniques for Increased Velocity and Higher Consciousness

Search: Transformation
by: James Arthur Ray

Release Date January 01, 2004
These are settings of words of Thomas Hardy by the early twentieth century English composer Gerald Finzi. They are much like the song cycles of Vaughan Williams or George Butterworth--lyric, not very harmonically adventurous. The poems are typical Hardy, about as depressing as possible. The poems are mostly obscure; excepy for "Channel Firing" I had not seen any of them before I heard this album. Finzi's music perfectly fits the words, and the voices of Varcoe and Hill perfectly fit the music. These songs are the best of the English lieder before Britten. i think they belong on the saame shelf with Brahms and Schubert. This is a really tremendous album, and if you think you might even remotely be interested in it, I urge you to acquire it at once.

CD-Charts Position 8
Average Rating:

Reign of Fire

Search: Transformation

Release Date September 01, 1997
Listening to Reign of Fire is like hearing a a score to a film that lies just beyond memory -- the poweful and well-defined themes seem to tell a story. Both the music (composed by Novak) and the performance are excellent. Anyone expecting wishy-washy New Age or ambient repetition is bound to be startled -- this is theme-based composition drawing equally from classical and jazz styles. The organization behind this concept album is also interesting. Rather than astrological links, Novak has connected each piece to a particular star in the sky visible during one season. Each composition describes a progressively later stage in a person's life -- and each associated star, is, in turn, at a later stage of its life cycle. Highly recommended stimulating intellectual listening!

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

Siegfried Wagner - Scenes & Arias for Mezzo-Soprano (CPO)

Search: Transformation
from: CPO

Release Date August 15, 2000
Listening to Reign of Fire is like hearing a a score to a film that lies just beyond memory -- the poweful and well-defined themes seem to tell a story. Both the music (composed by Novak) and the performance are excellent. Anyone expecting wishy-washy New Age or ambient repetition is bound to be startled -- this is theme-based composition drawing equally from classical and jazz styles. The organization behind this concept album is also interesting. Rather than astrological links, Novak has connected each piece to a particular star in the sky visible during one season. Each composition describes a progressively later stage in a person's life -- and each associated star, is, in turn, at a later stage of its life cycle. Highly recommended stimulating intellectual listening!

CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

Wagner: Parsifal

Search: Transformation
from: Warner Music France

Release Date August 12, 2002
Little to add to the long, thoughtful reviews below, except to say this is in my opinion the single greatest recording of any opera, ever. Wagner's final work is a re-working of the Fisher King myth: how a holy innocent restores fertility to the sickly realm of the Grail Knights, a fallen land in perpetual winter, besieged by a warlock, one of their number gone to the dark side, and his bevvy of flower-tarts/temptresses. Wagner's text is a potent blend of Christian, Buddhist and Pagan myths; his score, spare, voluptuous, and rapt, the helmet-horned histrionics of yore dialled down to an oozing liquid musical synesthesia that SOUNDS JUST LIKE blood flowing from Christs wound, cleansing water, sacramental wine, tears of compassion -- is his very finest, most miraculous achievement. ... Read More: