WALTER PISTON
Piston: Chamber Music including the Quintet for Flute & Sting Quartet 1999 Australian Festival of Chamber Music [ Naxos American Classics / CD - released 15/Jan/2002 ] "The Naxos American Classics series is throwing up both intriguing repertoire and some appealing performances" The Strad |
SAVERIO MERCADANTE
Mercadante: Francesca da Rimini (complete opera recorded in 2016) BLU-RAY Festival della Valle d'Itria, Martina Franca / Leonor Bonilla, Aya Wakizono, Merto Süngü, Antonio Di Matteo / Fabio Luisi (cond) [ Dynamic Blu-Ray / Blu-ray - released 1/Feb/2020 ] Written almost two centuries ago by Saverio Mercadante, coveted by many theatres of the day, Francesca da Rimini was, in fact, never staged. Every time it was scheduled for performance, something happened and it got canceled. |
LULLY
Thesee (complete opera) Aaron Engebreth, Aaron Sheehan, Amanda Forsythe, Teresa Warkim, Yulia Van Doren / Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra & Chorus / Paul O'Dette [ CPO / 3 CD Box Set - released 10/Sep/2008 ] GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE AWARD NOMINATION 2008 - Baroque Vocal - "Still often underrated, Lully is an operatic giant, and this fine recording makes eloquent proof" Gramophone Magazine |
BLOW
Venus and Adonis (complete opera) Amanda Forsythe / Tyler Duncan / Mireille Lebel / Boston Early Music Festival Vocal & Chamber Ensembles / Paul O'Dette & Stephen Stubbs [ CPO Records / CD - released 18/May/2011 ] Again in cooperation with the Boston Early Music Festival, we are now releasing yet another baroque opera, this time a work by John Blow regarded as the first »real« English opera. |
MAHLER
Symphony No. 3 (recorded at the Lucerne Festival, 2007) BLU-RAY Anna Larsson (alto) / Arnold Schoenberg Choir / Lucerne Festival Orchestra / Claudio Abbado [ EuroArts Music Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 20/Jan/2010 ] G : - "This is easily the greatest, most concentrated, most moving and beautifully played performance of this massive work I've yet encountered" (Keith). This DVD was a Staff Pick DVD for 2010. |
GUSTAV MAHLER
Mahler: Symphony No. 3 (recorded at the Lucerne Festival, 2007) Anna Larsson (alto) / Arnold Schoenberg Choir / Lucerne Festival Orchestra / Claudio Abbado [ EuroArts Music DVD / DVD - released 20/Oct/2008 ] G - "One of the greatest Mahlerians alive today, Abbado conducting Mahler's Third Symphony with his own Lucerne Festival Orchestra is not to be missed...Anna Larsson is ethereal in the fourth movement's Nietzschian text, the finale a sublimely... |
W. A. MOZART
Mozart: Violin Concertos 1 & 2 Arabella Steinbacher (violin) / Festival Strings Lucerne, Daniel Dodds [ Pentatone / CD - released 1/Oct/2021 ] After having recorded Mozart's last three violin concertos in 2014, Arabella Steinbacher, the Festival Strings Lucerne and its leader Daniel Dodds now complete the cycle by presenting Mozart's less well-known, but equally enchanting Violin Concertos... |
W. A. MOZART
Mozart: Violin Concertos 3, 4 & 5 Arabella Steinbacher (violin) / Festival Strings Lucerne, Daniel Dodds [ Pentatone SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 12/Mar/2015 ] "Performances that exude sheer joy, from a soloist who sounds completely at ease in these works." (Gramophone Award Nomination 2015 - Concerto) |
ARTHUR BLISS
BLISS conducts BLISS (rec 1946 - 1962) Jennifer Vyvyan, Richard Lewis / BBC Symphony / The Festival Choir / London Symphony / Sir Artrhur Bliss [ Dutton / 2 CD - released 13/May/2013 ] "Dutton assembles a series of recordings made under the aegis of the Bliss Trust 1946-1962 by composer Sir Arthur Bliss (1891-1975) and several of his devoted conductors, including the esteemed Constant Lambert (1905-1951) in the March: The Phoenix. |
RICHARD WAGNER
Wagner: Die Walkure (complete opera) (Recorded in stereo live at the 1955 Bayreuth Festival) Astrid Varnay / Gre Brouwenstijn / Hans Hotter / Ramon Vinay / Bayreuth Festival Orchestra / Joseph Keilberth [ Testament / 4 CD Box Set - released 23/Jun/2006 ] "The second instalment of what is proving to be a definitive Ring...Hans Hotter is the crowning glory of this instalment, fresher-voiced than for Solti. But there isn't a weak link in a cast that we can only dream of today. As for Joseph Keilberth,... |
J. S. BACH
Bach: St John Passion (complete oratorio) Bach Camerata, Crouch End Festival Chorus, David Temple [ Chandos SACD / 2 Hybrid SACD - released 28/Apr/2017 ] "The solo line-up is without a weak link; among its glories Sophie Bevan's deeply affecting 'Zerfliesse, mein Herze', Benjamin Hulett's finely nuanced 'Erwage', and Robin Blaze's exquisitely judged 'Es ist vollbracht'." BBC Music |
BEETHOVEN
Symphony No 9 'Choral' (rec 1954) Gre Brouwenstijn (soprano), Ira Malaniuk (alto), Wolfgang Windgassen (tenor) & Ludwig Weber (bass) / Bayreuth Festival Chorus, Wilhelm Furtwängler [ Orfeo / CD - released 1/Sep/2013 ] "Orfeo offers the best sound yet for this performance, even though the vocal soloists remain painfully spotlit. Furtwängler conducts with spacious grandeur and elemental drive." (BBC Music) |
RICHARD WAGNER
Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer [The Flying Dutchman] (Complete opera recorded in 2021) BLU-RAY & DVD Bayreuth Festival / John Lundgren, Georg Zeppenfeld, Asmik Grigorian, Attilio Glaser / Oksana Lyniv (conductor) [ Deutsche Grammophon DVD / Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc/DVD - released 20/Apr/2024 ] "Lyniv's conducting is superb in terms of pacing and tonal weight and balance...Grigorian and Zeppenfeld sing as fluently and fearlessly as they act." Gramophone Magazine September 2022 Blu-ray of the Month |
RICHARD WAGNER
Wagner: Lohengrin (complete opera recorded at the Bayreuth Festival, August 2011 BLU-RAY Bayreuth Festival / Klaus Florian Vogt, Annette Dasch, Petra Lang, Jukka Rasilainen / Andris Nelsons (cond) [ Opus Arte Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 1/Jan/2017 ] Hans Neuenfels's striking new production of Wagner's fairytale opera gives this medieval story of doomed love and sorcery the Bayreuth treatment. As controversial as it is stimulating, this production was the talk of the 2011 Festival, and showcases... |
RICHARD WAGNER
Wagner: Tannhauser (complete opera recorded live in 2019) Bayreuth Festival / Stephen Gould, Lise Davidsen, Elena Zhidkova, Markus Eiche / Valery Gergiev (cond) [ Deutsche Grammophon DVD / 2 DVD - released 15/May/2020 ] "In his Bayreuth debut, Valery Gergiev conducts with such verve that at multiple turns it was like hearing the score anew." Limelight |
RICHARD WAGNER
Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (complete opera recorded live in 2008) Bayreuth Festival / Michael Volle, Klaus Florian Vogt, Johannes Martin Kränzle, Anne Schwanewilms / Philippe Jordan (cond) [ Deutsche DVD / 2 DVD - released 20/Jun/2019 ] "The performances of the cast are of a high standard dramatically and mostly musically. Volle now paces himself well and Lehmkuhl is a magical and unclichéd Magdalene." Gramophone |
RICHARD WAGNER
Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (complete opera recorded live in 2008) BLU-RAY Bayreuth Festival / Michael Volle, Klaus Florian Vogt, Johannes Martin Kränzle, Anne Schwanewilms / Philippe Jordan (cond) [ Deutsche Blu-ray / 2 Blu-ray - released 5/Dec/2019 ] "The performances of the cast are of a high standard dramatically and mostly musically. Volle now paces himself well and Lehmkuhl is a magical and unclichéd Magdalene." Gramophone |
RICHARD WAGNER
Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (complete opera recorded live in 2009) BLU-RAY Bayreuth Festival / Robert Dean Smith, Robert Holl, Irene Theorin, Jukka Rasilainen / Peter Schneider (cond) [ Opus Arte Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 20/Feb/2010 ] G - 'In Tristan the standard of conducting and singing is high. Peter Schneider draws seamless playing from the orchestra, contouring Wagner's long arcs of sound as only someone of his experience can do.' The Financial Times |
RICHARD WAGNER
Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer [The Flying Dutchman] (Complete opera recorded in 2013) Bayreuth Festival / Samuel Youn, Franz-Josef Selig, Ricarda Merbeth / Christian Thielemann (conductor) [ Opus Arte DVD / DVD - released 20/Aug/2014 ] 2013's revival of Jan Philipp Gloger's controversial 2012 production was greeted (as so often in Bayreuth) with huge acclaim. He translates the tale of the Dutchman, whose travails can only be redeemed through the unconditional love of a woman... |
WAGNER
Der fliegende Holländer [The Flying Dutchman] (Complete opera recorded in 2013) BLU-RAY Bayreuth Festival / Samuel Youn, Franz-Josef Selig, Ricarda Merbeth / Christian Thielemann (conductor) [ Opus Arte Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 20/Aug/2014 ] 2013's revival of Jan Philipp Gloger's controversial 2012 production was greeted (as so often in Bayreuth) with huge acclaim. He translates the tale of the Dutchman, whose travails can only be redeemed through the unconditional love of a woman... |