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CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS
Saint-Saens: Messe de Requiem / Partsongs Marie-Paule Dotti (sop) Guillemette Laurens (mezzo) Luca Lombardo (tenor) Nicolas Testa, bass Coro della Radio Svizzera, Lugano Orchestra del Italiana [ Chandos Classics / CD - released 6/Jul/2004 ] This is the only available recording of the Requiem Mass, a highly appealing work with beautiful and complex harmonies. |
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GIAN CARLO MENOTTI
Menotti: The Medium / The Telephone (complete operas) Marily Santoro, Julija Samsonova, Elizabeth Hertzberg (sops), Chiara Isotton (soprano), Lorenzo Grante (bass-baritone) / Orchestra Filarmonica Italian [ Brilliant Classics / 2 CD - released 1/Nov/2018 ] A major new, native recording of a sparkling operatic double-bill. After Amelia goes to the ball was staged in 1937 at the Metropolitan Opera with acclaim, Gian Carlo Menotti became hot property. Two further radio operas were comparative failures but... |
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Marina Shaguch, soprano, Alexander Kisselev, bass, Residentie Orchestra The Hague
Nabokov, Nicolas - Ode: Maditation sur la majesta de Dieu / Union Pacific [ Chandos Classics / CD - released 28/Apr/2002 ] "projected with great fervour and commitment by Polyansky" (BBC Music) |
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IGOR STRAVINSKY
Stravinsky: Pulcinella / Le baiser de la fee (The Fairy's Kiss) Mark Beesley (bass) / Robin Leggate (tenor) / Diana Montague, mezzo-soprano / London Symphony Orchestra / Philharmonia Orchestra / Robert Craft [ Naxos Stravinsky Edition Vol 5 / CD - released 23/Mar/2006 ] "This CD attracts another unhesitating recommendation and collectors should add it to the Stravinsky/Craft section on their shelves. This is turning into an excellent set whose recordings have that modern technical advantage over those in the elderly... |
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VARIOUS COMPOSERS
A Yiddish Winterreisse - A Holocaust Survivor's Inner Journey Told Through Yiddish Song Mark Glanville (bass-baritone) / Alexander Knapp (piano) [ Naxos / CD - released 1/Feb/2010 ] A Yiddish Winterreise is a sequence of songs from the Yiddish repertoire devised by opera singer and cantor Mark Glanville, recreating the original, Schubertian journey in a Holocaust context. The singer reflects on the life and world he has just... |
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GEORGE DYSON
Nebuchadnezzar / Woodland Suite / etc Mark Padmore (tenor) Neal Davies (bass-baritone) / BBC Symphony Chorus / BBC Symphony Orchestra / Richard Hickox [ Chandos Classics / CD - released 31/Oct/2007 ] "Enthusiasts for the festive yet idiosyncratic mainstream of British choral music need look no further." (MusicWeb April 2008) |
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FRANCIOS COUPERIN
Couperin, F: Pieces de Viole Markku Luolajan-Mikkola (bass viol), Mikko Perkola (bass viol) & Aapo Häkkinen (harpsichord) [ Avie Records / CD - released 20/Jun/2012 ] |
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JULES EMILE FREDERIC MASSENET
Massenet: Hérodiade Marko Mimica (bass-baritone), Nicole Car (soprano), Étienne Dupuis (baritone), Matthew Polenzani (tenor) [ Naxos / 2 CD - released 22/Nov/2024 ] Many years before Richard Strauss composed his opera on the subject of Salome and John the Baptist, Jules Massenet had explored the same relationship in Hérodiade. |
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HANDEL
Athalia (English oratorio in three acts) Markus Brutscher (tenor) / Friederike Holzhausen (soprano) / Stephan MacLeod (bass) / Frankfurt Baroque Orchestra / Joachim Carlos Martini [ Naxos / 2 CD - released 8/Jan/2005 ] "a thoughtful performance of a musically staisfying piece" - BBC Music Magazine |
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SCHUBERT
Piano Quintet in A 'The Trout' / Variations on Trockne Blumen for flute and piano / Piano Trio (Notturno) in E flat Martin Helmchen (piano) Christian Tetzlaff (violin) Antoine Tamestit (viola) Marie-Elisabeth Hecker (cello) Alois Posch (double bass) [ Pentatone SACD / SACD - released 1/Apr/2009 ] "The players' wide dynamic range lets them wring every drop of energy from the finale without ever forcing the tone, and it's impossible to overpraise Helmchen's sensitivity in both his solo and accompanying roles." (10/10 ClassicsToday.com) |
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WAGNER
Tristan und Isolde (Complete opera) Martina Dike, mezzo-soprano / John Erik Eleby, bass / Hedwig Fassbender, mezzo-soprano / Royal Swedish Opera Orchestra / Leif Segerstam [ Naxos Historical Opera / 3 CD - released 26/Aug/2005 ] "If you were judging this recording only on the soloists (the excellent German soprano Hedwig Fassbender and the lackluster Wolfgang Millgram) it wouldn't be in the running but what lifts it above average is the wonderful playing of the Swedish Opera... |
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DVORAK
Complete Choruses & Duets (Incls Moravian Duets) Martina Kritznerova (soprano) Å arka Mistrova (mezzo) Daniela Demuthova (alto) Michal KruÅek (bass) / Prague Singers under Stanislav Mistr [ Brilliant Classics / 3 CD - released 28/Mar/2006 ] New recordings of excellent performances by the multiple prize winning Prague singers under Stanislav Mistr. |
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ROSSSINI
Petite Messe solennelle Martina Musacchio (soprano) Claudia Bandera (alto) Guillermo Domínguez (tenor) Johannes Mannov (bass) / Basel Madrigal Choir, Fritz Näf [ ALTO / CD - released 1/Nov/2010 ] "Petite Messe solenelle must be one of the most genial contributions to the church liturgy in the history of music. 'Petite' does not refer to size, which is comparable in length to Verdi's Requiem....but what a spontaneous and infectious piece of... |
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CHRISTOPHER TYLER NICKEL
Nickel: Concertos for Oboe Mary Lynch (oboe and oboe d'amore), Harrison Linsey (bass oboe), Northwest Sinfonia, David Sabee [ Avie / CD - released 18/Sep/2020 ] Christopher Tyler Nickel's contemporary classical compositions pack a bracing and emotional punch. His award-winning works for the concert hall, stage and screen have been heard in over 160 countries by audiences in the tens of thousands... |
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MOZART / PAISIELLO / SALIERI / SARTI / SOLER
Arias for Benucci: Arias written for the buffo bass-baritone Francesco Benucci, Mozart's first Figaro Matthew Rose (bass) / Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen [ Hyperion / CD - released 5/Nov/2015 ] Matthew Rose, Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen throw themselves into the riotous world of Francesco Benucci, the larger-than-life opera star for whom Mozart created the role of Figaro. |
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ERROLLYN WALLEN
Photography Matthew Sharp (cello) Ensemble X, Nicholas Kok, The Continuum Ensemble, Philip Headlam, Tim Harries (bass guitar), Quartet X, Errollyn Wallen [ NMC / CD - released 18/Mar/2016 ] After reading Music at Goldsmiths', King's College London and King's College Cambridge she performed as a keyboard player with numerous bands, on the comedy circuit, ran a commercial recording studio and wrote the music and performed live as a... |
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JOSEPH HAYDN
Haydn: Schopfung (Die) (The Creation) Max Ciolek (choirmaster) Sunhae Im (soprano) Jan Kobow (tenor) Hanno Muller-Brachmann (bass-baritone) / Capella Augustina / Andreas Spering [ Naxos SACD / 2 Hybrid SACD - released 23/Jun/2005 ] "From the very first chord one feels that this recording is something special. The sound is crisp, well-balanced and detailed without being over-analytical." (MusicWeb May 2005) |
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SCHUBERT
European Poets, Vol. 2 (Includes An Silvia, D 891) Maya Boog (soprano) Ulrich Eisenlohr (piano) with Wolf Matthias Friedrich (bass-baritone) [ Naxos Schubert Lieder Edition Vol 14 / 2 CD - released 24/Feb/2004 ] Schubert as a composer of Italian arias? As a setter of gloomy, bloodthirsty Scottish ballads? He was both |
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J.S. BACH
Cantatas (Vol 10) Nos 179, 105 & 186 Miah Persson (soprano) Robin Blaze (counter-tenor) Peter Kooij (bass) / Collegium Japan, Suzuki [ BIS / CD - released 1/Aug/2003 ] Recording of the Month - Gramophone Magazine (Awards Issue 99) |
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JACQUES IBERT
Chamber Music Michael Dussek (piano), Bryan Lewis (harp), Richard Alsop (double bass), Bridge Quartet [ Somm / CD - released 1/Oct/2013 ] Released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his death, French composer Jacques Ibert is a major composer who won the Prix de Rome in his youth was a pupil of Fauré. |