STRAUSS / CHOPIN / DELIBES / SHOSTAKOVICH / TCHAIKOVSKY / etc
50 X Waltz Various performers from the vast Decca catalogue [ Decca / 3 CD Box Set - released 10/Oct/2014 ] Famous Waltzes By Johann Strauss II, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Delibes, Chopin, Waldteufel, Berlioz, Lehar and others. |
JOSEF HAYDN
Haydn: 24 Minuets Philharmonia Hungarica, Antal Dorati [ Decca Australian Eloquence / CD - released 27/Jul/2005 ] "An essential addition to any collection of his orchestral music." (10/10 for performance and sound quality ClassicsToday.com) |
GIOVANNI BATTISTA PERGOLESI
Pergolesi: Adriano in Siria (Complete opera recorded live in 2011) BLU-RAY Teatro Comunale Pergolesi / Marina Comparato, Lucia Cirillo, Annamaria Dell'Oste / Ottavio Dantone (cond) [ Opus Arte Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 20/Apr/2012 ] "Top marks go to conductor and director for giving the music space to breathe. The vocal cast is almost uniformly brilliant. Dell'Oste is in a class of her own: she turns coloratura into eloquent, heart-rending declarations" (BBC Music) |
JONATHAN DOVE
Dove: The Adventures of Pinocchio (Complete opera recorded in 2008) BLU-RAY Opera North / Victoria Simmonds, Jonathan Summers, Mary Plazas, Rebecca Bottone / David Parry, conductor [ Opus Arte Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 1/Apr/2009 ] "Plaudits should also go to the chorus, whose scenes are always visually and sonically spectacular, while the stunning surround sound of the DVD capturing every detail of Opera North's bold undertaking." (BBC Music Five Stars) |
CHRISTOPHER BLAKE
Angel at Ahipara Strings of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Kenneth Young [ Atoll Records New Zealand / CD - released 20/May/2012 ] Works for string orchestra based on four images from A Journey (1994) by Robin Morrison, a photographic presentation of Northland, New Zealand. |
AURORA AUSTRALIS
Aurora Australis: Asia Pacific Festival 2007 New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Contemporary Music Ensemble Korea, Strike Percussion Ensemble, STROMA, New Zealand Trio, etc [ Atoll / Lilburn Trust / 2 CD - released 20/Jul/2012 ] |
J. S. BACH
Bach: Cantatas For Bass Matthias Goerne (baritone), Freiburger Barockorchester, Gottfried von der Goltz [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 25/Aug/2017 ] "Freiburg Baroque are at the top of their game: lithe, shapely, tuneful...And the singing? Matthias Goerne is all breath and vowels and gravel and intensity." The Guardian, 17th August 2017 *** |
J. S. BACH
Bach: The Motets The Norwegian Soloists' Choir Ensemble Allegria Grete Pedersen, conductor [ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 1/Dec/2017 ] Bach's motets are surrounded by much uncertainty. To begin with, we do not know how many he actually composed, as some have been lost while others have been wrongly attributed to him. Although several of the motets were written for funerals, it is... |
LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN
Beethoven: Favourite Piano Sonatas (incls "Moonlight") Radu Lupu (piano) [ Decca SBS Australian Eloquence / CD - released 5/Mar/2000 ] "full of absorbing and inspired pianism" (Classics Today) |
BEETHOVEN
Piano Trio Op 1, No 3 (with Brahms - Piano Trio in C) Turnovsky Trio [ Trust / CD - released 1/Aug/2000 ] The debut album by the Turnovsky Trio! |
LEONARD BERNSTEIN
Bernstein: Mass Kevin Vortmann (tenor) / Philadelphia Orchestra, Westminster Symphonic Choir, Temple University Concert Choir, The American Boychoir, Yannick Né [ Deutsche Grammophon / 2 CD - released 1/Apr/2018 ] "Nézet-Séguin might seem like just a bystander amid all the activity, but the fact that this recorded account is as coherent as it is attests to his multitasking strengths." Philadelphia Inquirer |
GEORGES BIZET
Bizet: Carmen (complete opera recorded live August 2002) BLU-RAY Glyndebourne Opera / Anne Sofie von Otter, Laurent Naouri, Marcus Haddock, Lisa Milne / Philippe Jordan (cond) [ Opus Arte Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 1/Dec/2008 ] Blu-Ray - - "(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) |
CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS / FRANCIS POULENC
Celebrating the Organ Thomas Trotter at the Organ of Auckland Town Hall, with the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra [ Atoll / CD - released 20/Jun/2010 ] "Three cheers (and more) for Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's new Celebrating the Organ CD." (William Dart NZ Herald) |
FELIX MENDELSSOHN
Mendelssohn: Choral Works (Lieder) Op. 41, 48, 59, 88, & 100 RIAS Kammerchor, Hans-Christoph Rademann [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 10/Aug/2018 ] "This is first-class singing, captured in equally first-rate sound (from Berlin's Jesus-Christus-Kirche)-and if you want to fall in love with Mendelssohn's choral writing, this is where it will happen. Highly recommended!" 10/10 Classics Today |
MAURICE RAVEL
Ravel: Complete Piano Works Michael Endres (piano) [ Oehms Classics / 2 CD - released 20/Apr/2011 ] The German/New Zealand Pianist Michael Endres has been described by Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe as, "…one of the most interesting pianists recording today " and by British Gramophone Magazine "…he is an outstanding Schubert Interpreter ". |
SCHUBERT
Complete Schubert Edition: Schiller Settings Thomas Allen (baritone) / Graham Johnson (piano) [ Hyperion Schubert Edition Vol 16 / CD - released 1/Jul/2008 ] 'Thomas Alen is in commanding form, singing with unforced beauty of tone and intelligent, unobtrusive attention to the words' (Classic CD) |
BÉLA BARTÓK
Bartok: Piano Concerto No 3 / Concerto For Orchestra Javier Perianes (piano), Münchner Philharmoniker, Pablo Heras-Casado [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 5/Jan/2018 ] The inexhaustible strength of a genius Neither the disillusionment that set in after his exile to the United States nor his declining health stopped Bartók from fulfilling his commission for the Concerto for Orchestra nor from writing the Third Piano... |
RICHARD WAGNER
Wagner: Das Rheingold (complete opera recorded 2012) Mariinsky Orchestra, Valéry Gergiev (conductor) [ Mariinsky / CD - released 2/Aug/2013 ] [Gergiev] draws plenty of vivid drama and glowing colour from the Mariinsky players, particularly the uniquely silken but powerful brass...Mikhail Petrenko and Evgeny Nikitin [make a] rich-voiced pair of giants, a splendid characterisation. (Gramopho |
BEETHOVEN
Diabelli Variations / 6 Bagatelles Gary Cooper (fortepiano) [ Channel Classics SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 20/Mar/2012 ] |
GIACHES DE WERT
Giaches de Wert: Divine Theatre - Sacred Motets Stile Antico [ Harmonia Mundi SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 1/Mar/2017 ] "It is a testament to Werts's emotional immediacy that this album is one of their (Stile Antico's) most engaging recording; polyphony to grab one's attention rather than to carpet a devotional daydream" Gramophone Award Nomination 2017 - Early Music |