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Bach: The Art of Fugue
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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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Cecilia Bartoli - If You Love Me (Se tu m'ami ), 18th-Century Italian Songs
: :The 17th-century Italian art song repertory traditionally reserved for novice singers is given new life via Bartoli's artistry. With impeccable diction and evocative phrasing, she captures every innuendo of these simple, but passionate, pieces. No two repetitive phrases are alike; she chisels every line into a landscape of interpretive magnificence. Scarlatti's simple 'O Cessate di Piagarmi' becomes a testament of innocent pain and plaintiveness. Giordano's 'Caro Mio Ben' is transformed into a tender cry for love. All embellishments are imaginative and well executed. Accompaniment by ...
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Called to Serve
: :The music on Called to Serve celebrates the zeal and memories of missionary work and has a wonderful selection of church hymns and music that inspires and lifts in ways that few collections of songs can. From the stirring refrain of the title song--which heralds many missionaries as they start their service--to the tender submission to God's will in 'I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go' to the fervor of 'This Is the Christ' and 'I Believe in Christ,' this music imbues the ...
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Alina - Arvo Pärt
: 's Best of 2000:Arvo Pärt's Alina follows a simple-enough formula. Two stark instrumental works from the master of holy minimalism repeat each other, each time slightly different. But the blissful results--quiet, haunting, and thoroughly hypnotizing--meld to create one of classical music's best albums of 2000. It's as intense and sublime as contemporary classical music can be. --Jason Verlinde Amazon.com:This is a remarkable release, both for its beauty and its novelty at programming. Für Alina is a two-minute solo piano piece composed by Pärt in l976 ...
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Andrea Bocelli: Under the Desert Sky [DVD Included]
: :It's impossible to hear Andrea Bocelli singing Perry Como's 'It's Impossible' without being overcome by a sense of utter enchantment. As the ripe-hearted have known since 1997's Romanza, though, Bocelli's French-perfume-like appeal generally lingers well beyond a single song, suffusing entire lovestruck evenings with its richness and warmth. And so it goes with Under the Desert Sky. Recorded at a floating concert venue near Las Vegas (thus the title), Bocelli's first CD/DVD combo plays like an elaborate seduction. Cue up the DVD, and the crossover ...
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Elgar: Pomp & Circumstance Marches; Enigma Variations; Cockaigne Overture
from: EMI / Seraphim
: : Sir Adrian Boult's recording of the Enigma Variations with the London Symphony was made when both he and the orchestra were at their peak. It reflects an extraordinary blend of spontaneity and the grand manner, and shows great insight into the score. Smooth, flowing, and majestic yet animated, it is a finely molded account in which every variation counts toward the whole. Boult's approach is direct and eloquent rather than rhetorical, but very expressive. The sound is closely miked and remastered at a very ...
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The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection
from: Decca Broadway
: essential recording:Sarah Brightman's career was launched by her success in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera, so it's no surprise to hear the soprano paying homage to the composer on this disc. Really a Brightman best-of, the album includes the Phantom theme (a duet with Michael Crawford), the light-opera fare of 'Chanson D'enfance' from Aspects of Love, 'Don't Cry for Me, Argentina' from Evita, and numerous other Lloyd Webber classics. Throughout, Brightman's diminutive voice lends a fragility to these musical theater tunes that ...
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Puccini - La Rondine / Gheorghiu · Alagna · Matteuzzi · Mula · Rinaldi · Ciofi · Bacelli · LSO · Pappano
from: EMI Classics
: :This is one of the problem operas of Puccini's maturity, something he began writing while under the spell of Lehar's The Merry Widow that never quite came together as a piece of theater. But the score contains some of Puccini's most congenial music and attractive scoring. An alert, resourceful new presence on the opera scene, conductor Antonio Pappano is just the one to make the best possible attempt at holding it together. Stars Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna show you why the opera world was ...
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Bach: Brandenburg Concertos No. 5 & 6/Orchestral Suite No. 1; Neville Marriner; Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
: :This is one of the problem operas of Puccini's maturity, something he began writing while under the spell of Lehar's The Merry Widow that never quite came together as a piece of theater. But the score contains some of Puccini's most congenial music and attractive scoring. An alert, resourceful new presence on the opera scene, conductor Antonio Pappano is just the one to make the best possible attempt at holding it together. Stars Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna show you why the opera world was ...
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