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Menotti: Amahl and the Night Visitors
: :Back in the days when the forces that controlled television actually cared about art, it was perfectly normal to see original plays and live musical performances right in your living room. In 1950, Menotti was commissioned to write an opera for television, and on Christmas Eve, 1951, Amahl and the Night Visitors was performed by the NBC Television Theater. This recording, under the composer's personal direction, was made a few days later, and it remains the definitive version, even though the sound is very dated ...
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World's Very Best Opera for Kids... in English!
from: Children's Group
: :Back in the days when the forces that controlled television actually cared about art, it was perfectly normal to see original plays and live musical performances right in your living room. In 1950, Menotti was commissioned to write an opera for television, and on Christmas Eve, 1951, Amahl and the Night Visitors was performed by the NBC Television Theater. This recording, under the composer's personal direction, was made a few days later, and it remains the definitive version, even though the sound is very dated ...
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Massenet - Thaïs / Fleming, Hampson, Sabbatini, Shkosa, Vidal, Devellereau, Cals, Yves Abel
: :Given the renaissance in recent years of an interest in Jules Massenet--consider, for example, the 1999 release of two Werthers back to back--the time definitely has become ripe for a new account of his late opera, Thaïs. This is the first alternative to appear on CD since the problematic version with Beverly Sills from the 1970s. While far from flawless (curiously, it was recorded in two stretches, with a pause of 15 months between them), it makes a mostly convincing case for the stirring beauty ...
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Songs from the Labyrinth (Music by John Dowland)
from: Deutsche Grammophon
: : In choosing to cover the music of John Dowland (1563-1626), who is known as the 'melancholy madrigalist' from his output of cheerful ditties like 'Flow My Tears,' Police bandleader Sting has entered into a whole new realm of austere eeriness. Originally inspired by the gift of a lute, the rock superstar and activist sings the songs, deliciously sweet and tender or spirited by turn, accompanying himself, with Edin Karamazov sitting on lute and archlute. For listeners accustomed to hearing material of this period interpreted ...
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Essential Bach
from: Decca
: :It is not possible to fit 36 Bach masterpieces on two CDs, so what Essential Bach does is present individual movements from across a range of the composer's work. The anthology is clearly aimed at the newcomer, and the absence of booklet notes to put the music in context is disappointing. We are only given titles, performers, and what films the extracts have been featured in, from Rollerball to The English Patient. On the plus side, most if not all of the music is instantly ...
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Ravel: Boléro
from: Decca
: :It is not possible to fit 36 Bach masterpieces on two CDs, so what Essential Bach does is present individual movements from across a range of the composer's work. The anthology is clearly aimed at the newcomer, and the absence of booklet notes to put the music in context is disappointing. We are only given titles, performers, and what films the extracts have been featured in, from Rollerball to The English Patient. On the plus side, most if not all of the music is instantly ...
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Bach: The Goldberg Variations
: essential recording:The clear-cut rhythms, riveting articulation, and contrapuntal acumen of Glenn Gould's 1955 debut Goldberg Variations characterize this 1981 remake to strikingly different results. This later version is more deliberate in pacing, stark in expression, thoughtful with ornamentation, and tightly organized (if a mite theatrical) in terms of tempo relationships. Whereas there are no repeats from 1955, Gould now observes 'A' section repeats in the canons, the Fughetta, and other fugue-like variations. The rapid, cross- handed sequences still dazzle with pinpointed fingerwork, yet the ...
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Northern Lights
from: Denon Records
: essential recording:The clear-cut rhythms, riveting articulation, and contrapuntal acumen of Glenn Gould's 1955 debut Goldberg Variations characterize this 1981 remake to strikingly different results. This later version is more deliberate in pacing, stark in expression, thoughtful with ornamentation, and tightly organized (if a mite theatrical) in terms of tempo relationships. Whereas there are no repeats from 1955, Gould now observes 'A' section repeats in the canons, the Fughetta, and other fugue-like variations. The rapid, cross- handed sequences still dazzle with pinpointed fingerwork, yet the ...
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The Three Tenors Christmas
: :Resplendent in voice and manner, José Carreras, Placido Domingo, and Luciano Pavarotti deliver 21 songs of traditional sacred music and secular numbers in a remarkable 1999 live recording from the opulent Viennese concert hall (Konzerthaus), with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and a renowned choir. The Three Tenors are practically as famous as the faces of Mount Rushmore and inspire perhaps even more awe and adulation around the world than the four presidents. The performances--whether alone, in tandem, or simply as the threesome that has made ...
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Feather on the Breath of God
from: Hyperion UK
: essential recording:This is the record that started the Hildegard craze back in 1982--and you need only listen to Emma Kirkby glide and soar through Columba aspexit (the opening hymn) to understand why. Gothic Voices performs the music very simply, either alternating soloists and unison choir over a drone or using a single unaccompanied voice. The singers render Hildegard's extravagant poetic imagery and melody not with the rhythmically fluid, ecstatic approach favored by Sequentia, but with equalist rhythm and a calm, meditative quality. Gothic Voices' ...
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