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GEORGE GERSHWIN
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Gershwin: Porgy and Bess (highlights from the complete Opera) Willard White / Cynthia Haymon / Cynthia Clarey / London Philharmonic conducted by Sir Simon Rattle [ EMI Music / CD - released 15/Jun/1997 ] "A performance that entranced audiences at Glyndebourne and which crosses over to CD virtually intact, revealing what a great dramatic world Gershwin conjured up." (Gramophone) |
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HANS WERNER HENZE
Hans Werner Henze: The Bassarids Salzburg Festival / Sean Panikkar, Russell Braun, Willard White, Nikolai Schukoff / Vienna Philharmonic, Kent Nagano [ Arthaus Musik DVD / 2 DVD - released 11/Oct/2019 ] The opera, inspired by Euripides' tragedy The Bacchae, is as seductive as it is topical: When Dionysus - is he a charlatan? is he a demigod? - bursts into the intact world of ancient Thebes, he plunges a city into chaos. In stark contrast to his... |
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MENDELSSOHN
Elijah, Op. 70 Willard White, Rosalind Plowright, Linda Finnie & Arthur Davies / London Symphony Orchestra, Richard Hickox [ Chandos 241 / 2 CD - released 10/Aug/2014 ] 'Never was there a more complete triumph', wrote The Times after the premiere of Mendelssohn's Elijah. The performance, conducted by the composer at the 1846 Birmingham Music Festival, marked the beginning of the life of Elijah as one of the... |
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MICHAEL TIPPETT
A Child of Our Time (Oratorio) Cynthia Haymon soprano, Cynthia Clarey alto, Damon Evans tenor, Willard White bass, London Symphony Chorus. London Symphony Orchestra. Richard Hickox [ Chandos Classics The Hickox Legacy / CD - released 1/Aug/2015 ] "Hickox's version establishes its place against severe competition largely through the exceptionally rich recording and its distinctive choice of soloists, a quartet of black singers." (Three Stars Penguin Stereo Guide) |
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BARTOK
Bluebeard's Castle Elena Zhidkova & Sir Willard White / London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus, Valery Gergiev [ LSO Live SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 5/Sep/2014 ] "…Gergiev and his superlative orchestral forces and vocal soloists, supported by magnificent sound quality, present the enigmatic piece with great power, leaving us, as adequate performances always do, feeling stunned and somewhat bewildered." (BBC) |
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ANTONIN DVORAK
Dvorak: Rusalka, Op. 114 (complete opera recorded in 2012) BLU-RAY La Monnaie Opera / Myrtò Papatanasiu, Pavel Černoch, Annalena Persson, Willard White / Ádám Fischer (cond) [ EuroArts Blu-ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 10/Jul/2016 ] "The cast throw themselves into [the production] with admirable energy, but it's simply too calculated and posturing...musically this isn't at all bad. Adam Fischer's conducting is smooth, rich and idiomatic, his principals good." (BBC Music) |
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KURT WEILL
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (complete opera recorded in 2010) Measha Brueggergosman / Jane Henschel / Willard White / Michael Konig / Teatro Real Madrid / Pablo Heras-Casado [ Bel Air Classiques DVD / DVD - released 9/Nov/2011 ] Bel Air present the hard-hitting new production of Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by Catalan collective, La Fura dels Baus, from the Teatro Real de Madrid. |
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WAGNER
Die Walkure (Complete Opera recorded in 2007) Osterfesrspiele Salzburg / Robert Gambill / Mikhail Petrenko / Willard White / Joanna Porackova / Eva Johansson / Simon Rattle (cond) [ Bel Air Classiques DVD / 2 DVD - released 20/Nov/2008 ] "In what is both Mr. Rattle's and Aix's first Ring Cycle, "Die Walküre," the Ring's second chapter, was magically transformed by the enclosed space and lively acoustics of the Grand Théâtre de Provence." New York Times, July 5, 2007 |
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HANS WERNER HENZE
Hans Werner Henze: The Bassarids (Complete Opera) BLU-RAY Salzburg Festival / Sean Panikkar, Russell Braun, Willard White, Nikolai Schukoff / Vienna Philharmonic, Kent Nagano [ Arthaus Musik Blu-ray / 2 Blu-ray Disc - released 11/Oct/2019 ] The opera, inspired by Euripides' tragedy The Bacchae, is as seductive as it is topical: When Dionysus - is he a charlatan? is he a demigod? - bursts into the intact world of ancient Thebes, he plunges a city into chaos. In stark contrast to his... |
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BARTOK / STRAVINSKY / BERNSTEIN / SHOSTAKOVICH / MAHLER / R. STRAUSS / etc
Orchestral Music in the 20th Century Sir Simon Rattle, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, with Felicity Palmer, Gidon Kremer, Anne Sofie von Otter, Willard White, etc [ Arthaus Musik DVD / 7 DVD Box Set - released 1/Jan/1999 ] "The series was one of the last intelligent contributions to classical music by British television and, even by 1996, one suspects that only a musician of Rattle's stature and determination could have got it made." Gramophone |