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Dvorák - Rusalka / Fleming · Heppner · Zajick · Hawlata · Urbanová · Czech Phil · Sir Charles Mackerras
: essential recording:Though Czech opera has often had questionable export value due to linguistic barriers, this first truly international recording of Dvorák's most viable opera--inspired by Wagner's love of mythology and Verdi's melodic drama--suggests that non-Czech artists can be more than just credible. As a water sprite who becomes human for love of a prince, Renée Fleming gives her best recorded performance so far with a dramatic heat and theatrical dimension (plus her customary vocal luster) that her Czech predecessors haven't always mustered. Ben Heppner ...
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The Greatest Opera Show on Earth
from: Polygram Records
: :This really is a remarkable collection, and anyone even remotely interested in opera is bound to be vastly entertained by it. Almost everything and everyone is here, albeit in small doses: Tebaldi, Pavarotti (a lot), Bjoerling, Bartoli, Sutherland, Solti, Karajan, Troyanos, Gheorghiu, Nucci; the composers are Puccini, Verdi, Bizet, and all the other usual suspects. There are plenty of fine compilation sets on the market, and this is one of the best. One can only hope that it whets listeners' appetites for whole operas. --Robert ...
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Renee Fleming - The Beautiful Voice ~ Gounod, Lehar, Orff, Puccini, Rachmaninov, Strauss
from: London/Decca
: essential recording:This vocal recital certainly lives up to its title, perhaps too well. It's a collection of arias and songs Fleming has sung for years that for some may be too much frosting and not enough cake. Surely, her performances are rich with interpretive nuances, wonder-filled portamentos and word colorings that reflect a long history with this repertoire, which ranges from Charpentier's 'Depuis le jour' to Rachmaninoff's 'Vocalise.' Some may find Fleming a bit much, but agree with her or not, she's far more ...
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Schubert: Die Winterreise / Fischer-Dieskau
from: Deutsche Grammophon
: essential recording:Any great concert singer is likely to have a lifelong obsession with Schubert's greatest song cycle, which tracks the winter journey of a jilted lover wandering into the snow finding ever-greater depths of alienation. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau seemed to record the piece every 10 years or so, but this 1966 outing is said to be his favorite, and it's easy to understand why. All of his customary intelligence is in full evidence, but the voice is particularly resplendent. While this carries an obvious sensual ...
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Dvorák: Cello Concerto; Bruch: Dol Nidrei; Bloch: Schelomo
: :Another legendary George Szell recording, this time partnering him with Pierre Fournier, the magnificent French cellist. At the very beginning of his career, Szell recorded this concerto in Prague with the Czech Philharmonic and none other than Pablo Casals. That recording, made around 1938, is still available. This stereo remake with the Berlin Philharmonic shows both artists at the very peak of their form. The the couplings, too, are uniquely appealing. That this compelling performance is available on DG's budget line underscores one of the ...
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Virgil Fox Plays the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ
: :'Johann Sebastian Bach is glad you're here!' So Virgil Fox told his audience of 5,500 in St. Mary's Cathedral, San Francisco. The legendary organist played two 'Bach Gamut' concerts, in all musical keys from A to G, in September 1976. This album is volume 1 of the recordings of those historic occasions. Never before released, it reminds us of the power of the artist, Virgil Fox; of the composer, J.S. Bach; and of the cathedral's Fratelli Ruffatti four-manual, 89-rank pipe organ, and the Rodgers ...
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Mendelssohn - Elijah / Terfel, Fleming, Bardon, Ainsley, Fulgoni, Paul Daniel
: :Mendelssohn (1809-1847) is a perennially underrated composer who finally may be coming to greater appreciation. Certainly this fine recording (in English) of a masterpiece that he believed joined the Jewish faith of his fathers with his own Protestant Christianity should not hurt his reputation. The superb Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel gives a dramatically charged performance in the title role, while soprano Renee Fleming sings with beauty and limpid understanding; the cast is almost uniformly strong. The Edinburgh Festival Chorus, directed by David Jones, sings with ...
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Great Recordings Of The Century - Schubert: Die Schone Mullerin / Fischer-Dieskau, Moore
: essential recording:Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau has become an all-pervasive and increasingly mannered recording presence in the last few decades of his life. As a result, it takes an earlier, fresher recording such as this to remind you what a great singer he was. This 1961 outing with Schubert's second-greatest song cycle (the first being Winterreise) is consistently lively, straightforward, passionate, and sincere, almost completely devoid of the show-off trickery that mars many of his later efforts. Best of all, the voice has a supple richness that ...
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Mozart - Così fan tutte / Fleming, von Otter, Scarabelli, Lopardo, Bär, Pertusi, Solti
: :This delicately balanced story of two engaged couples who are inveigled into a brief flirtation with infidelity inspired some of the finest music Mozart ever composed. It is often textured with the fine nuances of chamber music, with some particularly delectable woodwind parts, and it progresses from contrived artificiality--when the two men make a rash bet with a friend about the unshakable faithfulness of their fiancées--into intense despair when that fidelity begins to be shaken. There is also slapstick-level comedy. It is all held together ...
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Schubert: Goethe-Lieder / Fischer-Dieskau, Demus, Moore
from: Deutsche Grammophon
: :This delicately balanced story of two engaged couples who are inveigled into a brief flirtation with infidelity inspired some of the finest music Mozart ever composed. It is often textured with the fine nuances of chamber music, with some particularly delectable woodwind parts, and it progresses from contrived artificiality--when the two men make a rash bet with a friend about the unshakable faithfulness of their fiancées--into intense despair when that fidelity begins to be shaken. There is also slapstick-level comedy. It is all held together ...
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