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LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN
Beethoven: Complete Symphonies (Nos 1-9) Barbara Bonney, Birgit Remmert, Kurt Streit, Thomas Hampson / City Of Birmingham Symphony Chorus / Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Sir Simon Rattle [ Warner Classics / 5 CD Box Set - released 1/Jul/2010 ] A superbly played account by one of the world's great orchestras. ***** Five Stars (Pick of the Month) BBC Music Magazine |
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W. A. MOZART
Die Zauberflote [The Magic Flute] (complete opera recorded in 1988) Barbara Bonny / Edita Gruberova / Hans Peter Blochwitz / Thomas Hampson / Zurich Opera / Nikolaus Harnoncourt [ Warner Classics Opera Collection / 2 CD - released 1/Sep/2009 ] "Harnoncourt's Mozart can veer between the playful and the over solemn, but here it's spot on and sustained by a strong cast. Gruberova is a stellar Queen of the Night." BBC Music Magazine, January 2010 *** |
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ARNOLD SCHOENBERG
Schoenberg: Gurrelieder Barbara Haveman, Claudia Mahnke, Brandon Jovanovich, Gerhard Siegel, Thomas Bauer, Johannes Martin Kränzle (speaker) / Kartäuserkantorei Köln [ Hyperion / 2 CD - released 25/Jul/2015 ] "Excellent performances throughout from orchestra, soloists and choruses - rarely have the lush textures of Schoenberg's late-Romantic cantata sounded this fresh." (Gramophone Award WINNER 2016 - Choral) |
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BRITTEN / DELIUS / ELGAR / VAUGHAN WILLIAMS / TIPPETT / HOLST
The British Line: A celebration of British Music BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis, with Dame Evelyn Glennie, Thomas Hampson, Tasmin Little, Sir Bryn Terfel, etc [ Warner Classics / 16 CD Box Set - released 19/Jul/2019 ] In 1991, Hamburg-based record label Teldec Classics embarked on a fruitful partnership with Sir Andrew Davis and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. "The British Line" was soon to become an essential series of critically acclaimed digital recordings of major... |
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RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
Dona Nobis Pacem & Towards the Unknown Region Sir Thomas Allen (baritone), John Mark Ainsley (tenor), Corydon Singers, Matthew Best [ Hyperion / CD - released 19/Jul/1993 ] |
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VARIOUS COMPOSERS
Troubadours, Trouveres, Minstrels Studio der Frühen Musik, Thomas Binkley [ Warner Classics Das Alte Werk / 2 CD - released 5/May/2008 ] "The Studio's cult mezzo Andrea von Ramm and lutenist-director Binkley still chill the blood in the lament of a pilgrim captured by Saracens, just one highlight of this classic, bold imaginative survey." (BBC Music Five Stars) |
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HENRY PURCELL
Purcell: Dido & Aeneas (complete opera) Catherine Bott, Emma Kirkby, John Mark Ainsley, David Thomas / Chorus and Orchestra of The Academy of Ancient Music, Christopher Hogwood [ Decca / CD - released 23/Jan/2006 ] "…Catherine Bott's Dido is perfectly rendered as part of an integrated recorded sound in a performance that's breathtakingly well nuanced. Emma Kirkby's Belinda is similarly finely turned In addition" (BBC Music) |
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W. A. MOZART
Mozart: Sinfonia concertante KV 297b / Sinfonia concertante KV 364 Thomas Brandis (violin) Giusto Cappone (viola) Karl Steins (oboe) Karl Leister (clarinet) etc / Berliner Philharmoniker [Berlin Philharmonic], Karl Bo [ Deutsche Grammophon The Originals / CD - released 5/May/2003 ] "The account of the Sinfonia concertante (K297b) is of superlative quality, sounding amazingly idiomatic and well blended, with the balance between soloists and orchestra nicely managed. This is altogether refreshing." Penguin Guide to Compact Discs |
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Charles Lloyd / Bill Frisell / Thomas Morgan
Trios: Chapel [ Blue Note / Verve Records / CD - released 24/Jun/2022 ] Charles Lloyd has long been a free spirit, master musician, and visionary. For more than 6 decades the legendary saxophonist and composer has loomed large over the music world, and at 84 years old he remains at the height of his powers and as... |
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W. A. MOZART
La Finta Giardinera (complete opera recorded in 1992) CHARLOTTE MARIGONO, THOMAS MOSER, ANTON SCHARINGER, DAWN UPSHAW / CONCENTUS MUSICUS WIEN, Nikolaus Harnoncourt [ Warner Das Alte Werk / 3 CD Box Set - released 26/Oct/2009 ] |
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j. S. BACH
Bach:: Composer Series Alice Harnoncourt, Herbert Tachezi, Paul Esswood, Thomas Hampson, Nikolaus Harnoncourt [ Teldec Warner Classics / 2 CD - released 17/Aug/2009 ] Nikolaus Harnoncourt at Eighty - Harnoncourt & Bach |
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DOWLAND
Collected Works The Consort Of Musicke / Anthony Rooley with Emma Kirkby, Glenda Simpson, John York Skinner, Martyn Hill & David Thomas [ Decca Budget Boxes / 12 CD Box Set - released 1/Aug/2012 ] '...this box cannot be recommended too highly' The Penguin Guide To Compact Discs |
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FRANZ LISZT
Liszt: Missa Choralis & Via Crucis Corydon Singers, Thomas Trotter, organ, Matthew Best [ Hyperion / CD - released 10/Nov/2000 ] 'I find the Corydon singers' performance of 'Via Crucis' utterly compelling and truly memorable…an essential Passiontide recording'(Organists'Review) |
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AARON COPLAND
Copland: Old American Songs / Eight Poems of Emily Dickinson / Billy the Kid Thomas Hampson, Dawn Upshaw /Saint Paul Chamvber Orchestra, Hugh Wolff [ Teldec Apex / CD - released 6/Jun/2005 ] BARGAIN OF THE MONTH MusicWeb October 2005 "Copland is in the first rank of those whose skill has created an American music, quite distinct from that of their own roots. A great disc." (MusicWeb Oct 2005) |
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JOHANNES BRAHMS
Brahms: A German Requiem [Ein Deutsches Requiem] Dorothea Roschmann (soprano) Thomas Quasthoff (baritone) / Berlin Radio Choir / Berliner Philharmoniker / Sir Simon Rattle [ Warner Classics / CD - released 1/Apr/2007 ] 'This strikes me as probably the best new version of the Requiem I've heard in quite some years' Disc of the Month BBC Music Magazine (April 2007) |
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Edita Gruberova, John Aler, Thomas Hampson, Berlin Philharmonic, Ozawa
Orff - Carmina Burana [ Philips 50 / CD - released 20/Jan/2001 ] Classic recordings digitally remastered and reduced in price |
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W. A. MOZART
Mozart: Don Giovanni (complete opera recorded in 2009) Thomas Hampson, Robert Holl, Edita Gruberova, Roberta Alexander, Barbara Bonney, / Royal Concertgebouw orchestra, Nikolaus Harnoncourt [ Warner Classics The Home of Opera / 3 CD - released 2/Sep/2016 ] "No interpretation of this endlessly fascinating work will ever hold all the answers, but this one provides a good deal of them in its lean, direct and perceptive way." Gramophone |
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JOSEF HAYDN
Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons) Elsie Morison (soprano) Alexander Young, Michael Langdon / Beecham Choral Society / Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Sir Thomas Beecham [ EMI Gemini / 2 CD - released 12/Nov/2004 ] In 1798 Haydn's oratorio Die Schöpfung (The Creation) received its première; such was the enthusiasm that a sequel was duly requested. The subject was to be the four seasons of the year rather than the seven days of creation - which still allowed the... |
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J.S. BACH
Wedding Cantata, Hunt Cantata & Ich habe genug Emma Kirkby (soprano) David Thomas, Jennifer Smith / The Parley of Instruments [ Hyperion Dyad / 2 CD - released 1/Jan/2001 ] 'Still by far the best version. The stronger sense of occasion is boosted by Peter Holman's inspired topping and tailing with sinfonias' (International Record Review) |