J.S. BACH
Heavenly Voices: J.S. Bach's most beautiful arias Judit Nemeth (alto) Ibolya Verebits, Teri Dunn, Ingrid Kertesi (sopranos) / Hungarian Festival Choir / Aradia Ensemble / Capella Istropolitana / etc [ Naxos Double / 2 CD - released 1/Dec/2008 ] Over 2 hours of J.S Bach's most glorious music for voice. Including "Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring" and "Where Sheep May Safely Graze". |
MENOTTI
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra / Muero porque no muero Cantata / etc Jennifer Koh (violin), Julia Melinek (soprano) / Spoleto Festival Orch., Hickox [ Chandos Classics / CD - released 29/Jan/2002 ] 'Koh is outstanding, the orchestra first-class.' International Record Review |
FELIX & FANNY MENDELSSOHN
Mendelssohn, (Felix & Fanny): Vom Himmel hoch, MWV A 22 / Gartenlieder, Op.3 / Die erste Walpurgisnacht, Op.60, MWV D 3 Julia Doyle (soprano) Mark Le Brocq (tenor) Ashley Riches (baritone) / Crouch End Festival Chorus, London Mozart Players, David Temple [ Chandos SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 23/Feb/2024 ] "There's a wonderful breadth to the sound caught in St Jude-on-the-Hill in Hampstead Garden Suburb by the Chandos team. This new recording is surely the new benchmark." Gramophone |
WAGNER
Gotterdammerung (complete opera) [Recorded in stereo live at the 1955 Bayreuth Festival] Jutta Vulpius, Elisabeth Schartel, Maria Graf, Wolfgang Windgassen, Georgine von Milinkovic / Bayreuth Festival Chorus & Orchestra / Joseph Keilberth [ Testament / 4 CD Box Set - released 1/Feb/2007 ] "Windgassen may be more vocally secure for Solti but nowhere else is he so tender, so moving as here. Josef Greindl is a far more saturnine, charismatic Hagen here than elsewhere. But it is Astrid Varnay who is the great revelation." Recording of... |
CPE BACH / WF BACH / JC BACH / JCF BACH
The Sons of Bach - Symphonies, Concertos, Chamber Music Kammerorchester 'C.P.E Bach', Hartmut Haenchen conductor, Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra, Bart van Oort fortepiano, London Festival Orchestra, Ross P [ Brilliant Classics / 10 CD - released 1/Nov/2013 ] The Bach family of musicians comprises a dynasty that effectively spanned more than 200 years of composition. Johann Sebastian stands at the top of the hierarchy, but what do we know about the family's other members? This release offers us a... |
AGOSTINO STEFFANI
Steffani: Niobe Regina di Tebe (complete opera) Karina Gauvin, Philippe Jaroussky, Amanda Forsythe, Aaron Sheehan / Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Paul O'Dette and Stephen Stubbs [ Erato / Warner Classics / 3 CD Box Set - released 18/Jan/2015 ] "The performance is never forced but always emotive...An exemplary testament of superb musicianship from all participants...this is a landmark event in Steffani's much-deserved rehabilitation." (Gramophone Magazine Award Nomination 2015 Baroque Vocal |
FRANZ LISZT
St. Stanislaus (Oratorio) Kristine Jepson (mezzo-soprano) / Donnie Ray Albert (baritone) / Cincinnati May Festival Chorus / Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra / James Conlon [ Telarc Records / CD - released 13/Feb/2004 ] Telarc's recording of Franz Liszt's St. Stanislaus with the Cincinnati May Festival Chorus and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under the direction of James Conlon is the first complete recording of the two scenes Liszt finished for his last great... |
GINASTERA / VILLA-LOBOS / MONCAYO / PONCE / etc
Latin American Classics: Volume 1 Festival Orchestra of Mexico. Enrique Batiz [ Naxos / CD - released 20/Aug/2011 ] Latin American Classics |
LEO FALL
Die Kaiserin Lehar Festival Bad Ischl, Marius BurkartMiriam Portmann, Jevgenij Taruntsov [ CPO / 2 CD - released 20/Jul/2015 ] Conspiratorial plots, intrigues, and affairs at the court of the legendary Austrian Empress Maria Theresa dominate the scenario of this marvelous musical love story featuring the Habsburg sovereign. However, the true focus of this wrongly forgotten... |
W. A. MOZART
Lili Kraus plays Mozart Piano Concertos Lili Kraus (piano) / Vienna Festival Orchestra, Stephen Simon [ Sony Classical Masters / 12 CD Box Set - released 26/May/2017 ] The first ever release of Lili Kraus's complete Mozart piano concerto recordings for piano solo on EPIC/Columbia in a single 12 CD edition. All recordings restored from the original analog master tapes using 24 bit / 192 kHz technology. |
BACH / BRAHMS / DVORAK / LUTOSLAWSKI / MOZART / etc
Verbier Festival - The 25th Anniversary Concert (rec 2018) Lisa Batiashvili, Renaud Capuçon, Alexandra Conunova, Vilde Frang, Ilya Gringolts, Leonidas Kavakos, etc / Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra [ Naxos DVD / DVD - released 25/Jan/2020 ] The Verbier Festival is one of classical music's greatest events. In celebration of the festival's 25th anniversary, this unique concert brings together 36 classical stars in an unprecedented evening of ingenious programming and captivating... |
GUSTAV MAHLER
Mahler: Symphony no. 2 in c minor 'Resurrection' Lisa Milne / Birgit Remmert / Budapest Festival Orchestra / Ivan Fischer [ Channel Classics SACD / 2 Hybrid SACD - released 20/Oct/2006 ] "This Budapest band have reserves aplenty, and the cumulative effect is overwhelming. As all good performances of this work must be. I listened to it three times in three days." (Gramophone Magazine Recording of the Month Awards Issue 2006) |
TCHAIKOVSKY
Swan Lake, Op. 20 (complete ballet recorded in 1988) BLU-RAY London Festival Ballet / Evelyn Hart, Peter Schaufuss, Martin James / Graham Bond (conductor) [ Arthaus Monarda Arts Blu-ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 1/Feb/2016 ] Choreography by Natalia Makarova, Sir Frederick Ashton, Marius Petipa Costumes, sets and back projections designed by Günther Schneider-Siemssen Directed for television by Thomas Grimm Natalia Makarova, one of the most important interpreters... |
London Festival Recording Ense
Various: The Four Faces Of Jaz [ Dutton / CD ] |
GUSTAV MAHLER
Mahler: Symphony No. 6 in A minor 'Tragic' (with works by Stravinsky and Webern) Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, Pierre Boulez [ Accentus Music / 2 CD - released 25/Aug/2011 ] The first disc is gorgeously brilliantly programmed and gorgeously played" (BBC Music Magazine) |
PIERRE BOULEZ
Inheriting the Future of Music (plus bonus concert of music of Boulez and Debussy) The Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra / Pierre Boulez [ EuroArts / DVD - released 1/May/2010 ] Gramophone Awards 2010 Finalist - DVD Documentary |
BRAHMS
Andris Nelsons conducts Brahms BLU-RAY Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Andris Nelsons [ Accentus Music Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 26/Jun/2015 ] The entire performance testifies to his utter absorption in the music and to his ability to transmit his feel for style and sonority both to the orchestra and to the audience |
CLAUDE DEBUSSY
Abbado in Lucerne (concert & documentary) Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Claudio Abbado [ EuroArts Music DVD / DVD - released 20/Oct/2008 ] "For some the main attraction of Abbado in Lucerne will be the great Italian maestro conducting Debussy at the 2003 Lucerne Festival. For others it's the documentary, with its footage of some of the last century's greatest conductors in action: every... |
MAHLER
Introducing Mahler: Symphony No. 5 Lucerne Festival Orchestra / Claudio Abbado [ EuroArts DVD / DVD - released 21/Dec/2010 ] "the recorded sound of this Abbado-handpicked orchestra is something special. So is the playing, which has a full-throated, epic splendour from start to finish, under the unobtrusive command of Abbado's conducting." (Classic FM) |
GUSTAV MAHLER
Mahler: Symphony No. 5 (recorded in 2004) Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Claudio Abbado [ EuroArts DVD / DVD - released 10/Sep/2011 ] G - "If anything the mystery will be intensified as one watches Abbado apparently drawing exactly what he wants from well over a hundred musicians by some extra-sensory means. It is fascinating to watch." MUSICWEB.CO.UK |