W.A. MOZART
Don Giovanni (complete opera) Alexandrina Pendatchanska (sop) Olga Pasichnyk (sop) Johannes Weisser (bar) Lorenzo Regazzo (bass) / Freiburger Barockorchester / Rene Jacobs [ Harmonia Mundi / 3 CD - released 12/Oct/2007 ] "Jacob's period Don is among the liveliest and most enjoyable on offer" (Recording of the Month Gramophone Awards Issue 2007) |
FINZI / BRITTEN / HOLST
Works for Choir and Orchestra Alison Barlow (sop) John Mark Ainsley (ten) David Hoult (bar) Stephen Varcoe (bar) / Britten Singers, City of London Sinfonia, Richard Hickox [ Chandos Hickox Legacy / CD - released 19/Jul/2013 ] "If any lover of the music of English twentieth century composers does not have this disc in their collection, they should take steps to rectify the omission immediately." (Recording of the Month musicWeb Aug 2013) |
ELGAR
The Apostles (complete oratorio) Anna Leese (sop) Louise Poole (mezzo) Andrew Staples (ten) Colin Campbell (bar) / Canterbury Choral Society / Philharmonia Orchestra / Richard Cooke [ Quartz / 2 CD - released 6/Feb/2007 ] Elgar embarked seriously on The Apostles in 1902 and the first performance took place in October of the following year at the Birmingham Festival conducted by Hans Richter. |
MENDELSSOHN
Die erste Walpurgisnacht / etc Annelies Burmeister (contralto), Eberhard Buchner (tenor) & Siegfried Lorentz (bar) / Rundfunkchor Leipzig, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Kurt Masur [ Brilliant Classics / CD - released 22/Feb/2016 ] "Mendelssohn's Druidic cantata is a relative rarity, but makes a fresh, vital impression in this Leipzig performance under seasoned Mendelssohnian Kurt Masur. Three overtures add ballast, and are also excellent." (BBC Music January 2016) |
GIACOMO PUCCINI
The very best of Puccini: Excerpts from operatic and orchestral works Armando Ariostini (baritone) Lando Bartolini (tenor) Felipe Bou (bass) Silvano Carroli (bar) Giovanna Casolla (sop) Masako Deguci (sop) & many more [ Naxos / 2 CD - released 8/Dec/2005 ] Presented in a stylish slipcase with a modern take on John Minnion's composer cartoons, with detailed track listings and accessible texts on the composer's life and an overview of their most famous works. |
Bar-Kays
Soul Finger (LP) [ Music On Vinyl / LP - released 20/Mar/2020 ] Soul Finger is the debut album of the Bar-Kays, recorded by Tom Dowd and Chris Huston. The instrumental band was tutored by Al Jackson, Jr. and the other members of Booker T. & the M.G.'s, which shows in the tightness of the rhythm section. This is... |
Bar-Kays
Too Hot To Sleep / Flying High On Your Love [ Superbird / CD - released 27/Apr/2010 ] |
The Bar-kays
Gotta Groove/Black Rock [ Ace Records U.K. / CD ] |
J. S. BACH
Bach: Mass in B Minor, BWV 232 Christina Landshamer (sop) Anke Vondung (mezzo) Kenneth Tarver (ten) & Andreas Wolf (bass-bar) / Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks & Concerto Köln, Peter [ BR Klassik / 3 CD Box Set - released 9/Jun/2017 ] For Bach, the Mass in B minor marked the culmination and also the end point of his life's work as a composer. This "great Catholic Mass," the only mass he composed, and in which he set to music the complete Ordinary of the Latin Mass, was his last... |
LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN
Beethoven: Der glorreiche Augenblick / Choral Fantasia Claire Rutter (soprano) Matilde Wallevik (mezzo-soprano) Peter Hoare (tenor) & Stephen Gadd (bar) / Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Hilary Davan Wetton [ Naxos / CD - released 10/Aug/2012 ] "With first-rate recorded sound, the disc is strongly recommended." (BBC Music) |
LORD BERNERS
Berners: Le Carrosse du Saint-Sacrement (Sung in English) Cynthia Buchan (mezzo), John Winifred (ten), Ian Caddy, Thomas Lawlor (bass-baritone), Anthony Smith (bar) / BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra; RTÉ Sinf [ Naxos / CD - released 22/Apr/2022 ] "..very satisfying: everyone sings and plays with obvious enjoyment. Again, Berners' temperament was obviously attuned to its times and his music partakes of the then prevailing mood of light-headedness and nonchalance." British Music Society |
MAHLER
Kindertotenlieder (with orchestral works by Mozart & Richard Strauss) [recorded live in 1962] Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (bar) / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Karl Boehm [ Testament / 2 CD - released 15/Mar/2015 ] "Born in Graz in Austria in 1894, Karl Böhm began his professional career at the Munich Opera working alongside Bruno Walter and Richard Strauss. It was here that he acquired his Mozart style: cogent, balanced, and subtly various. Strauss, in... |
MANUEL de FALLA
El Amor Brujo / El Retablo de maese Pedro [Master Peter's Puppet Show] Ginesa Ortega (sngr) Joan Martin (treb) Joan Cabero (ten) Ifiaki Fresiin (bar) / Orquestra de Cambra Teatre Lliure, Josep Pons [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 20/May/2011 ] "Ginesa Ortega is most effective as the passionate gitana Candelas, a lady of such strong personality that one suspects that even a sturdy gipsy lover might be flattened by its force...This is an attractive disc." (Gramophone) |
DEL TREDICI / THEOFANIDIS / BERNSTEIN
Paul Revere's Ride / The Here and Now / Lamentation from Jeremiah Hila Plitmann (sop) Richard Clement (tenor) Brett Polegato (bar) Nancy Maultsby (mezzo) / Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus / Robert Spano [ Telarc SACD / SACD - released 12/Dec/2005 ] "Two Americans stir widely varying styles into tthe cookpot for two tasty dishes" Editor's Choice from Gramophone Magazine (December 2005) |
JOSEF HAYDN
Piano Sonatas Iddo Bar-Shai (piano) [ Mirare / CD - released 1/Oct/2009 ] The Israeli pianist Bar-Shai was born in 1977 and is becoming well-known through his many performances an broadcasts both as a soloist and a chamber musician. Here, he turns his attention to four of Haydn's piano sonatas - works which deserve more... |
PUCCINI
Tosca (Complete Opera in English) Jane Eaglen soprano, Dennis O'Neill tenor, Gregory Yurisich bar, Philharmonia Or [ Chandos Opera in English / 2 CD - released 20/Sep/2001 ] 'Jane Eaglen's Tosca is a high-voltage performance.'-BBC Music Magazine |
CAMPRA
French Cantatas Jill Feldman (sop) Dominique Visse (counter-ten) Jean-Francois Gardeil (bar) / Les Arts Florissants. William Christie, dir [ Harmonia Mundi musique d'abord / CD - released 20/Feb/2010 ] Une Europe galante… 'I have attempted as well as I could to mix the delicacy of French music with the vivacity of Italian music,' André Campra wrote in the Preface to his first book of cantatas. The clear-sightedness of the composer from... |
ANTONIN DVORAK
Dvorak: Stabat Mater Op 58 / Psalm CXLIX Op 79 John Aler (ten) / Christine Brewer (sop) / Ding Gao (bar) / Washington Orchestra [ Naxos / 2 CD - released 3/Oct/2002 ] "This live recording adds a distinguished feather to the cap of Naxos... The heartfelt quality of Dvorak's music, affected by the death of his two-day old daughter Josefa, inspires an intense performance from Robert Schafer and his Washington forces.... |
ALEXANDER KASTALSKY
Kastalsky: Requiem Joseph Charles Beutel (bass-bar), Anna Dennis (sop) Cathedral Choral Society, The Clarion Choir, Chamber Choir of St. Tikhon's Monastery [ Naxos / CD - released 28/Aug/2020 ] Alexander Kastalsky was a student of Tchaikovsky and a mentor to Rachmaninov, becoming director of the Moscow Synodal School until the Bolshevik regime banned all sacred music. |