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LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN
Beethoven: Missa Solemnis BLU-RAY Marlis Petersen (soprano) Elisabeth Kulman (contralto) Werner Güra (tenor) Gerald Finley (bass) / Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, Nikolaus Ha [ C Major Blu-ray / Blu-ray - released 29/Apr/2013 ] "This is exceptional. There are certainly many different valid ways to perform the Missa solemnis, but it's hard to imagine they will surpass this outstanding version." BBC Music |
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JOHN STAINER
Stainer: The Crucifixion Martyn Hill (tenor) / Michael George (bass) / Margaret Philips (organ) / BBC Singers / Leith Hill Festival Singers / Brian Kay [ Chandos Classics / CD - released 15/Jan/2005 ] Recorded in: All Saints' Church, Tooting, London 13,14 January 1997 |
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SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN
Sullivan: Songs Mary Bevan (soprano), Ben Johnson (tenor), Ashley Riches (bass-baritone) & David Owen Norris (piano) [ Chandos / 2 CD - released 26/Mar/2017 ] "the powerful Tennyson cycle The Window, George Herbert's Sweet Day and many others - thanks to Norris's inspired direction - make you realise what a fine, underrated songwriter Sullivan was." Sunday Times |
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SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN
Sullivan: The Harmonious Echo Mary Bevan (soprano), Kitty Whately (mezzo), Ben Johnson (tenor), Ashley Riches (bass-baritone), David Owen-Norris (piano) [ Chandos / CD - released 4/Jun/2021 ] Although most widely remembered for his operettas in partnership with W.S. Gilbert, Sir Arthur Sullivan was the most famous of all British composers of the nineteenth century. He was revered as a composer of oratorios, and was urged by Queen Victoria... |
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GIUSEPPE VERDI
Verdi: Nabucco (highlights from the complete opera) Matteo Manuguerra (baritone) Renata Scotto (soprano) Elena Obraztsova (mezzo-soprano) Nicolai Ghiaurov (bass) / Philharmonia Orchestra / Riccardo Muti [ EMI Classics / CD - released 1/Jul/2011 ] "The excerpts chosen give a fair picture of the opera, even though there are important scenes that could have been included in full. No texts but a fairly detailed cue synopsis. The sound is impressive" (MusicWeb Jan 2008) |
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HANNS EISLER
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Eisler: Deutsche Sinfonie Op. 50 Matthias Goerne (baritone), Hendrikje Wangemann (soprano), Annette Markert (contralto), Peter Lika (bass) / Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Lothar Zagros [ Decca Records Entartete Musik / CD - released 22/Oct/1995 ] "The performance is very, very good indeed. It's not a "star turn" by any means. Zagrosek and his players direct all their energies to illuminate the work. Singers' diction is crisp." ClassicalNet |
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STEPHEN WILKINSON
The Sunlight On the Garden Mhairi Lawson (soprano), Clare Wilkinson (mezzo-soprano), James Gilchrist (tenor), Matthew Brook (bass) [ Signum / CD - released 30/Aug/2017 ] One of the UK's leading choral directors for over 50 years, Stephen Wilkinson MBE has led both professional and amateur choirs across Europe, and is particularly renowned for his work with the BBC Northern Singers and the William Byrd Singers of... |
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FINZI / GURNEY / FARRAR / BROWNE / KELLY / BUTTERWORTH
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: War's Embers: a legacy of songs by composers who perished or suffered in World War 1 Michael George (bass) Martyn Hill (tenor) Stephen Varcoe (baritone) Clifford Benson (piano) [ Hyperion Helios / CD - released 20/Sep/2009 ] 'If you enjoy English song, this set is a must ... The singers are Britain's best, and their excellence is matched by the accompaniments of Clifford Benson' (BBC Music Magazine) |
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GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Telemann: Der Tod Jesu (Passion Oratorio), TWV 5:6 Dorothee Mields (soprano), Britta Schwarz (alto), Jan Kobow (tenor), Klaus Mertens (bass) / Telemann-Kammerorchester Michaelstein, Ludger Remy [ CPO / CD - released 5/Jun/2000 ] "The performance does the work full justice....The recorded sound, too, is restrained and sympathetic. Yet another pleasant Telemann surprise." Gramophone. |
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ROSSINI / HOFFMEISTER
Rossini / Hoffmeister: Quartets with Double Bass, Vol. 2 Minna Pensola (violin I), Antti Tikkanen (violin II / (viola), Tuomas Lehto (cello), Niek de Groot (double bass) [ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 10/May/2019 ] This second and last volume completes two different sets of string quartets: the four so-called Solo Quartets by Franz Anton Hoffmeister and Gioachino Rossini's six String Sonatas (or Sonate a quattro). Both sets differ from the 'normal'... |
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JOHN BLOW
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Blow: Venus & Adonis Nancy Argenta (sop), Lynne Dawson (sop), Stephen Varcoe (bass) / London Baroque, Charles Medlam [ Harmonia Mundi Musique d'abord / CD - released 29/Sep/1992 ] First performed before the court at Oxford in 1681, Venus and Adonis was presented as a "masque for the entertainment of the King" (Charles II). Like Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, it is in fact a true opera. |
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EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA
Rautavaara: Vigilia - All-Night Vigil in Memory of St. John the Baptist Niall Chorell (tenor), Tuukka Haapaniemi (bass), Helsinki Chamber Choir / Nils Schweckendiek [ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 6/Sep/2019 ] "the 21 professional voices sing with tremendous flexibility and clarity, meaning that however full and generous the choral textures may be, clarity is always achieved. It helps that BIS have recorded the performance magnificently." MusicWeb |
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ARRIGO BOITO
Nicolai Ghiaurov in Boito's 'Mefistofele' / Opera Arias for bass Nicolai Ghiaurov (bass), with Franco Tagliavini / Coro del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Orchestra del [ Decca Most Wanted Recitals Vol. 17 / CD - released 16/Oct/2016 ] ". . . [a] well-engineered release . . . [Franco Tagliavini's Faust here] makes an appealing, clean Italianate sound . . ." OperaNews |
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KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKI
Penderecki: Symphony No.6 'Chinese Songs' Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, Antoni Wit, with Jarosław Bręk (bass-baritone), David Guerrier (trumpet) Aleksandra Kuls (violin) [ Naxos / CD - released 13/Oct/2023 ] Penderecki's Symphony No. 6 'Chinese Songs' is an intimate, chamber-scale work for bass- baritone and orchestra. It sets eight Chinese poems in German adaptations linked with interludes for the two-stringed erhu. It proved to be Penderecki's last... |
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J.S. BACH
Bach: Cantatas for solo bass (BWV 56, 82, 158) Peter Kooy (bass) La Chapelle Royale, Philippe Herreweghe [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 18/Nov/2022 ] These three cantatas for bass solo are based on episodes from the life of Christ (the healing of the lame man, the presentation in the temple, scenes from the Passion) with implications of the benevolence and consolation of death. |
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JEAN SIBELIUS
Sibelius: Jedermann / Earnest Melodies / etc Pia Pajala (soprano) Tuomas Katajala (tenor), Nicholas Soderland (bass) Mikaela Palmu (violin) / Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, Leif Segerstam [ Naxos / CD - released 1/Oct/2015 ] Rarely performed but recognized as a hidden masterpiece, Sibelius's score for Jedermann is unusual in that the music closely follows the words and action of this morality play, intensifying Everyman's hubris, penance, escape from the Devil's clutches... |
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GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Handel: Dettingen Te Deum / Dettingen Anthem Stephen Varcoe (bass) Christopher Tipping (Altus) Harry Christophers (Tenor) / The English Concert, Trevor Prinnock [ Archiv / Deutsche Grammophon / CD - released 2/Feb/1984 ] Originally recorded in London 1982 & 1983 |
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FOLEY / PERKINSON / GERSHWIN / STILL / PRICE / COLERIDGE-TAYLOR / DVORAK
Roots Randall Goosby (violin), Zhu Wang (piano), Xavier Dubois Foley (double bass) [ Decca / CD - released 30/Jul/2021 ] "This is selfless, stylish playing which - paradoxically - ends up by projecting the personalities of both artists with even more freshness and warmth." Gramophone Editor's Choice August 2021 |
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RUTLAND BOUGHTON
Boughton: The Immortal Hour (complete opera recording) Roderick Kennedy (bass) David Wilson-Johnson (baritone) Maldwyn Davies (tenor) Anne Dawson (soprano) / English Chamber Orchestra, Alan G Melville [ Hyperion Dyad / 2 CD - released 20/Jan/2010 ] 'This superb complete recording was a salutary shock: the opera is a kind of masterpiece, bleak, passionate and inspired ... Enthusiastically recommended' (BBC Music Magazine Top 1000 CDs Guide) |
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ARTHUR SULLIVAN
Sullivan: On Shore and Sea / Kenilworth Sally Silver (sop); Nico Darmanin (ten); Louise Winter (mezzo); Donald Maxwell (bass-bar) / Orchestra of Victorian Opera Northwest, Richard Bonynge [ Dutton Epoch / CD - released 20/Sep/2014 ] "Rousing applause for Dutton and these musicians for this disc of first commercial recordings. A red letter day for these are substantial and very rare Sullivan works. They emerge in good heart under veteran Richard Bonynge's life-ebullient convictio |