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Mozart - Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)
from: Decca
: :This will be the Magic Flute chosen by most people who want to live with just one. It finds Georg Solti in a relatively relaxed state of mind, with an excellent if not particularly famous cast, and an orchestra and chorus that any conductor would give his left arm (not the one that welds the baton) to work with. The singers are not particularly well-known (London seems to have set up Solti as the star of this production) but a lack of celebrity attitudes and close attention to the conductor have ...
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Haydn - L'anima del filosofo ossia Orfeo ed Euridice / Bartoli · Heilmann · D'Arcangelo · AAM · Hogwood
from: Decca
: essential recording:A surprising fact from the musicological realm is that Haydn wrote about the same number of operas as Mozart--though it's true that some of them were written for the marionette theater at Esterhaza, rather than the opera house. In other words, old 'Gius[eppe] Haydn'--as the title page of this opera refers to him--was a master. Better known to some by its alternate title, L'anima del filosofo, Haydn's Orfeo ed Euridice was written in 1791 for the King's Theater, Haymarket, during the composer's first English sojourn, but went unperformed there ...
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Mozart: Litaniae Lauretanae K. 195 - Missa Brevis K. 275, etc... / Bonney, Mei, von Magnus, Azesberger, Heilmann, Cachemaille; Harnoncourt
: essential recording:A surprising fact from the musicological realm is that Haydn wrote about the same number of operas as Mozart--though it's true that some of them were written for the marionette theater at Esterhaza, rather than the opera house. In other words, old 'Gius[eppe] Haydn'--as the title page of this opera refers to him--was a master. Better known to some by its alternate title, L'anima del filosofo, Haydn's Orfeo ed Euridice was written in 1791 for the King's Theater, Haymarket, during the composer's first English sojourn, but went unperformed there ...
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Mozart - La finta giardiniera / Gruberova · T. Moser · Heilmann · Margiono · Bacelli · Upshaw · Scharinger · Harnoncourt
: essential recording:A surprising fact from the musicological realm is that Haydn wrote about the same number of operas as Mozart--though it's true that some of them were written for the marionette theater at Esterhaza, rather than the opera house. In other words, old 'Gius[eppe] Haydn'--as the title page of this opera refers to him--was a master. Better known to some by its alternate title, L'anima del filosofo, Haydn's Orfeo ed Euridice was written in 1791 for the King's Theater, Haymarket, during the composer's first English sojourn, but went unperformed there ...
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Mozart: Requiem
from: RCA
: :In part because no one knows what Mozart really intended, interpretations of his Requiem range from the grand and operatic, of which this recording is an example, to the intimate, restrained, and idiosyncratic. There is room for all of them. This is a good place to start for those who like a big chorus, big orchestra, and big sound. A gloriously theatrical reading, it is forceful in the climaxes, warmly expressive in the softer pages. The wonderful solo quartet, showcased to great effect in the Recordare, seems to have just stepped ...
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Mendelssohn: Ein Sommernachtstraum/Die erste Walpurgisnacht
from: Teldec
: :In part because no one knows what Mozart really intended, interpretations of his Requiem range from the grand and operatic, of which this recording is an example, to the intimate, restrained, and idiosyncratic. There is room for all of them. This is a good place to start for those who like a big chorus, big orchestra, and big sound. A gloriously theatrical reading, it is forceful in the climaxes, warmly expressive in the softer pages. The wonderful solo quartet, showcased to great effect in the Recordare, seems to have just stepped ...
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Mozart - Don Giovanni / Keenlyside, Salminen, Remigio, Heilmann, Terfel, Isokoski, D'Arcangelo, Pace, Abbado
: :Despite an amazing portrayal of Leporello by hotshot Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel and a nice Ottavio from Uwe Heilmann, this Don Giovanni is sorely lacking in appeal. Keenlyside is a fine Don, but can't compare with the best, and the rest of the cast seem to be phoning in their parts. Occasionally Isokoski as Elvira lights up, but it's not often enough--one must blame, I fear, Abbado for the amazing lack of oomph in this set. Of course everyone sings and plays well, but this is, after all, one of the ...
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Angels of Ecstasy, Vol. 2
from: RCA
: :Despite an amazing portrayal of Leporello by hotshot Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel and a nice Ottavio from Uwe Heilmann, this Don Giovanni is sorely lacking in appeal. Keenlyside is a fine Don, but can't compare with the best, and the rest of the cast seem to be phoning in their parts. Occasionally Isokoski as Elvira lights up, but it's not often enough--one must blame, I fear, Abbado for the amazing lack of oomph in this set. Of course everyone sings and plays well, but this is, after all, one of the ...
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Mozart - La clemenza di Tito / Bartoli · Heilmann · D. Jones · Montague · Cachemaille · Bonney · AAM · Hogwood
from: L'Oiseau-Lyres (Decca)
: essential recording:This is an opera seria, the same kind of opera composed by Handel a half-century earlier and many others in the century before him. It was already very old-fashioned when Mozart took it up (on a royal commission, an offer he couldn't refuse), finishing it only a few months before his death. The plot is creaky: Vitellia, angry that Tito (the Emperor Titus) plans to marry another woman, coaxes Sesto (who is hopelessly in love with her) to assassinate Tito. While the plot inches forward (Sesto is very reluctant--Tito ...
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Mozart: Regina Coeli in C; Inter Natos Mulierum, offertory in G
from: Teldec
: essential recording:This is an opera seria, the same kind of opera composed by Handel a half-century earlier and many others in the century before him. It was already very old-fashioned when Mozart took it up (on a royal commission, an offer he couldn't refuse), finishing it only a few months before his death. The plot is creaky: Vitellia, angry that Tito (the Emperor Titus) plans to marry another woman, coaxes Sesto (who is hopelessly in love with her) to assassinate Tito. While the plot inches forward (Sesto is very reluctant--Tito ...
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