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PYOTR Il'yich TCHAIKOVSKY
Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (complete ballet recorded in 2011) BLU-RAY Amsterdam Music Theatre / Anna Tsygankova, Matthew Golding, James Stout / Ermanno Florio [ Arthaus Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 10/Oct/2012 ] Choreographers Toer van Schayk and Wayne Eagling created a Nutcracker for the children and adults of today. It is more dynamic and exciting, and less sweet than usual. |
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BIZET / RACHMANINOV / SARASATE / RAVEL / de FALLA / BRAHMS
New Year's Concert 1997 (recorded in 2007) Anne Sofie von Otter, Bryn Terfel, Roberto Alagna, Gil Shaham, Mikhail Pletnev / Berliner Philharmoniker, Claudio Abbado [ EuroArts DVD / DVD - released 10/Jul/2008 ] The Berliner Philharmoniker's annual New Year's Eve concert is one of the highlights in the calendar of every classical music fan. The program of the New Year's Eve Concert 1997 bore the title "Dances of Life, Love, and Death"...a homage to Carmen. |
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GEORGES BIZET
Bizet: Carmen (Complete opera recorded in 2002) Glyndebourne Opera / Anne Sofie von Otter, Marcus Haddock, Laurent Naouri, Lisa Milne / Philippe Jordan (cond) [ Opus Arte Essential Opera Collection DVD / 2 DVD - released 20/Oct/2013 ] G: "(Von Otter's) Carmen has loads of overt sexuality - she languidly glides through the Habanera while sucking on a piece of fruit and then a cigar - and she shows plenty of temperament and fatalism tinged with fear later." (Los Angeles Times) |
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GIOVANNI BATTISTA PERGOLESI
Pergolesi: Il Prigionier Superbo / La Serva Padrona (complete operas recorded 2009 & 2011) Antonio Lozano, Maria Rodrìguez Cusì, Marina de Liso, Alessandra Marianelli, Carlo Lepore / Accademia Barocca de I Virtuosi Italiani, Corrado Rovaris [ Arthaus DVD / 2 DVD - released 10/Nov/2012 ] "Marianelli is a sharp-witted, pert-voiced Serpina...Lepore is a suitably blustery Uberto, the playing of Accademia Barocca is exemplary, with some particularly splendid trumpet playing" International Record Review |
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VINCENZO BELLINI
Bellini: Norma (the complete opera, recorded in 2006) The Bavarian State Opera / Edita Gruberova / Zoran Todorovich / Roberto Scandiuzzi / Sonia Ganassi / Markus Herzog / Friedrich Haider [ Deutsche Grammophone DVD / 2 DVD - released 29/Jan/2007 ] "Gruberova delivers her own wholly individual interpretation ... she translates Bellini's interplay of pain, love and desire into physically palpable inner and outer drama. Immensely moving." - Die Welt |
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RICHARD WAGNER
Wagner: Gotterdammerung (Complete opera recorded in 2022) BLU-RAY Bayreuther Festspiele / Clay Hilley, Iréne Theorin, Albert Dohmen, Elisabeth Teige, Michael Kupfer-Radecky / Cornelius Meister (cond) [ Deutsche Grammophon Blu-ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 27/Oct/2023 ] In 2022 Bayreuth Festival 2022 presented a long-awaited new production of Der Ring des Nibelungen, staged by young Austrian director Valentin Schwarz and conducted by Cornelius Meister. |
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RICHARD WAGNER
Wagner: Tannhäuser (Complete Opera recorded in 1989) Bayreuther Festspiele / Richard Versalle, Cheryl Studer, Rutland Engert-Ely, Hans Sotin / Giuseppe Sinopoli (cond) [ EuroArts DVD / 2 DVD - released 21/Feb/2020 ] "Thundering applause", wrote the prestigious "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung", and Rome's "La Republica" noted the "triumphal success and storm of applause" that greeted Giuseppe Sinopoli and the ensemble at Tannhäuser's 1989 Bayreuth Festival... |
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LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN
Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 1, 6 & 8 (recorded 2001) Berliner Philharmoniker [Berlin Philharmonic], Claudio Abbado [ EuroArts DVD / DVD - released 1/Mar/2014 ] Recorded live at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome, February 2001 |
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LIGETI / WAGNER / ELGAR / STRAVINSKY
Sir Simon Rattle & Sol Gabetta (Recorded live at Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, 2014) Sol Gabetta (cello) / Berliner Philharmoniker [Berlin Philharmonic], Simon Rattle [ EuroArts DVD / DVD - released 10/Apr/2017 ] "Rattle's presence can be heard, and felt, in virtually every bar of the score: the way he moulds phrases, nudges details to the fore, bends the line, holds tight to a salient accompanying detail (especially along the lower end of the spectrum) or re |
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WAGNER / BERNSTEIN / MOZART / VERDI / TRADITIONAL / etc
Bryn Terfel - Live in Concert - Songs and Arias Bryn Terfel (baritone) / Radio Filharmonisch Orkest Holland, Edo de Waart [ Deutsche Grammophon DVD / DVD - released 1/Jun/2002 ] "An undemanding popular concert with something for everybody - splendidly performed and brilliantly recorded. Recommended." MusicWeb |