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Mozart - Don Giovanni / Gilfry, Orgonasova, Margiono, James, Prégardien, D'Arcangelo, Gardiner
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Schubert: Schwanengesang and songs after Seidl [Hybrid SACD]
from: Challenge Classics
:Album Description:With this performance of the immortal 'Schwanengesang,' Christoph Prégardien and Andreas Staier plant a bright, clearly waving flag amidst the many fine recordings of this famous song cycle. Includes beautiful songs after texts from the poet Johann David Seidl. Historically reliable, recently recorded performance. 'The silvery-toned tenor ... is still among the best.' -- Gramophone Editor's Choice [CHR 72292]
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Bach: Weihnachts-Oratorium/Larsson, von Magnus, Prégardien, Martens, Koopman
: :When this recording was released in 1996, the words most often used to describe it were 'luminous' and 'radiant.' The adjectives fit: the choir and orchestra have a glowing sound that makes the chorales in particular wondrous to hear. The most extroverted choruses and arias lack the extra measure of vigorous excitement of John Eliot Gardiner's performance, but Koopman's tender approach is beguiling. What's more, his male soloists are marvelous: bass Klaus Mertens is sensitive and energetic in equal measure; Christoph Prégardien manages the fearsome tenor arias easily and his singing ...
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Bach - Mass In B Minor
from: Harmonia Mundi (France)
: essential recording:This recording is, quite frankly, a marvel. In the opening bars of the Kyrie, where tradition dictates a powerful, agonized cry for mercy, Philippe Herreweghe offers a gentle, awestruck plea that took this listener's breath away. Extroverted movements like the Gloria, Et resurrexit, and Sanctus lack nothing in excitement; Qui tollis and Dona nobis pacem feel like fervent prayers. Herreweghe's luminous Collegium Vocale and skillful, sensitive instrumentalists make every gesture, large and small, seem exactly right. The soloists have attractive voices that blend with the period instruments and each ...
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Schubert: Winterreise
from: Elektra / Wea
: essential recording:This recording is, quite frankly, a marvel. In the opening bars of the Kyrie, where tradition dictates a powerful, agonized cry for mercy, Philippe Herreweghe offers a gentle, awestruck plea that took this listener's breath away. Extroverted movements like the Gloria, Et resurrexit, and Sanctus lack nothing in excitement; Qui tollis and Dona nobis pacem feel like fervent prayers. Herreweghe's luminous Collegium Vocale and skillful, sensitive instrumentalists make every gesture, large and small, seem exactly right. The soloists have attractive voices that blend with the period instruments and each ...
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Haydn - Armida / Bartoli · Petibon · Prégardien · M. Schäfer · Wier · Harnoncourt
: :Thanks to his omnivorous curiosity, conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt has revived an authentic masterpiece. Several opera composers--Lully, Handel, and Gluck--had already availed themselves of the amorous and stormy adventures of the knight Rinaldo and the enchantress Armida, drawn from Tasso's Jerusalem Liberated. Composed in 1784, Haydn's Armida was his the final opera he wrote for his patron Prince Esterházy, but it was also the composer's debut opera seria. Even so--and just like Mozart--Haydn knew how to free himself from the rigid and monotonous alternation of aria and recitative that customarily governed this ...
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Robert Schumann: Das Paradies und die Peri / Requiem für Mignon / Nachtlied - The Monteverdi Choir / Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique / John Eliot Gardiner
: :This lovely, unjustly neglected work should have become part of the mainstream repertoire long ago. Based on a Persian legend retold by poet Thomas Moore, the story is an endearing mixture of Western and Eastern religion. Setting a Christian vision of Heaven in Allah's garden, it tells of a supplicant tainted not by guilt but by inheritance, who must be cleansed by compassion and undaunted personal effort to be admitted to Paradise. The music is basically lyrical, tender, and serene but encompasses the depths and heights of intensity, lamentation, devotion, ecstasy, ...
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Schubert: Winterreise (Chamber Version by Normand Forget)
from: Atma Classique
: :This lovely, unjustly neglected work should have become part of the mainstream repertoire long ago. Based on a Persian legend retold by poet Thomas Moore, the story is an endearing mixture of Western and Eastern religion. Setting a Christian vision of Heaven in Allah's garden, it tells of a supplicant tainted not by guilt but by inheritance, who must be cleansed by compassion and undaunted personal effort to be admitted to Paradise. The music is basically lyrical, tender, and serene but encompasses the depths and heights of intensity, lamentation, devotion, ecstasy, ...
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Mozart - Requiem / Panzarella, Stutzmann, Prégardin, Berg, Les Arts Florissants, Christie
: :This lovely, unjustly neglected work should have become part of the mainstream repertoire long ago. Based on a Persian legend retold by poet Thomas Moore, the story is an endearing mixture of Western and Eastern religion. Setting a Christian vision of Heaven in Allah's garden, it tells of a supplicant tainted not by guilt but by inheritance, who must be cleansed by compassion and undaunted personal effort to be admitted to Paradise. The music is basically lyrical, tender, and serene but encompasses the depths and heights of intensity, lamentation, devotion, ecstasy, ...
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Haydn: 6 Great Masses
from: Philips
: :This lovely, unjustly neglected work should have become part of the mainstream repertoire long ago. Based on a Persian legend retold by poet Thomas Moore, the story is an endearing mixture of Western and Eastern religion. Setting a Christian vision of Heaven in Allah's garden, it tells of a supplicant tainted not by guilt but by inheritance, who must be cleansed by compassion and undaunted personal effort to be admitted to Paradise. The music is basically lyrical, tender, and serene but encompasses the depths and heights of intensity, lamentation, devotion, ecstasy, ...
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