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Mahler: Complete Symphonies Nos 1-9 / SOLTI /DECCA/10 CD BOX SET

by: SOLTI

Release Date November 05, 1991
This set is revelatory. Just listen to the famous Adagietto from the Fifth. How bloated and pretentious Bernstein sounds beside it. Only Barbirolli and Walter match the level of intensity of Solti, and his has the supreme advantage of the Chicago Symphony at its peak of perfection. I am beginning to think after listening to this, the Brahms and the Beethoven cycles, that under Solti they might well have been the finest orchestra ever, and that includes the Berlin band.

Indeed,the playing in every symphony is little short of miraculous and as for the interpretations they rescue this composer from an undeserved reputation as a self-indugent neurotic.

Whatever other versions of the complete symphonies you possess (I have ... Read More:

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Puccini - Tosca

by: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

Release Date November 12, 2001
This is without doubt the best of the most recent versions of Tosca. Everyone is on tip top form and Pappano really excels in this music. There really isn't a weak link in this set. I did think Raimondi may be past his best but his performance is excellent. What happened to Angela between this recording and her performance at CG in the role we may never know, but there is no comparison between this top flight performance and the one she phoned in when I saw her at Covent Garden. Buy this set it is glorious.

CD-Charts Position 3
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Record of Singing, Vol.3

from: Testament

Release Date February 09, 2003
This series, produced by EMI in the days of LPs, is one of the great achievements of the gramophone - they rightfully belong up there with the Decca Ring, the EMI Callas series, and any other candidates you care to name. Together they provide a truly comprehensive survey of singing right through the age of recording up to the early days of the LP. Sadly, to the best of my knowledge, only Volumes 3 & 4 have appeared on CD - the very earliest era of recording and the period up to the introduction of electrical recording methods that were originally on Volumes 1 and 2 really deserve to be heard again.

Volume 3, the collection under discussion here, covers the period from 1926-1939. This was a veritable Golden Age of Singing - in Wagner it was the era of Leider, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
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Korngold: Die Tote Stadt

from: Naxos

Release Date August 04, 1997
I can't believe I haven't reviewed this before now (June 2007), this is an absolute favorite of mine and I play it often. The sound is ravishing (especially for Naxos) and the singing and orchestral playing is equally ravishing and exciting! Sunnegardh as Paul can sound a little strained perhaps but its a demanding role he brings off superbly well overall. Dalayman is everything you'd expect of her and the rest is strongly cast. Segerstam draws every last nuance from the RSO. Whilst its true the libretto is only in German that's hardly a problem with the excellent synopsis that is provided in a better than usual Naxos booklet. At any price this is a superb performance and highly recommended - Korngold wrote some of the most hauntingly lovely music and much of it is here in between ... Read More:

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World of Britten

from: Decca

Release Date February 02, 1993
Nearly all the pieces contained on this disc feature Britten himself, either conducting or in some other performing/ supervisory capacity. In addition, Decca producer John Culshaw's far-sightedness in recording works in stereo way back in the early 1950s means the label possesses a formidable array of gorgeously preserved and authoritative readings of Britten pieces, many of which have been cherry-picked to form this delightful entry into his world. Two popular orchestral pieces, The Young Person's Guide... and Simple Symphony, are included in their entirety (in what can for once be described in that oft-misused term, as 'definitive' recordings) and there are good, representative excerpts from several Britten operas, folksong arrangements and - of course - choral pieces. If you are ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
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The Best of Carl Orff

from: Conifer Classics

Release Date October 18, 1999
From the almighty power of O Fortuna to the eerily sad and atmospheric Gassenhauer this is a striking and shamefully (with the exception of Carmina Burana) overlooked collection

CD-Charts Position 7
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Britten: Noye's Fludde

from: London

Release Date June 08, 1993
This audio CD includes two works by the composer Benjamin Britten, the opera Noye's Fludde and the work for boy's choir The Golden Vanity.

The CD itself comes with an excellent, informative booklet with full librettos of both Noye's Fludde and The Golden Vanity. This is particularly useful in the case of the opera which is in medaeival English (spellings and all - hence the unusual spelling of the title) and uses the original script from the Chester miracle play. Playing time totals 65.5 minutes.

The recording of Noye's Fludde has been remastered from the original 1961 LP record. It includes the following cast:-

Trevor Anthony - the voice of God
Owen Brannigan - Noye
Sheila Rex - Mrs Noye
David Pinto - Sem
Darien Angadi - Ham ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
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Martinu: The Greek Passion

from: Supraphon

Release Date July 30, 2001
This audio CD includes two works by the composer Benjamin Britten, the opera Noye's Fludde and the work for boy's choir The Golden Vanity.

The CD itself comes with an excellent, informative booklet with full librettos of both Noye's Fludde and The Golden Vanity. This is particularly useful in the case of the opera which is in medaeival English (spellings and all - hence the unusual spelling of the title) and uses the original script from the Chester miracle play. Playing time totals 65.5 minutes.

The recording of Noye's Fludde has been remastered from the original 1961 LP record. It includes the following cast:-

Trevor Anthony - the voice of God
Owen Brannigan - Noye
Sheila Rex - Mrs Noye
David Pinto - Sem
Darien Angadi - Ham ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
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Verdi - Otello / Pavarotti . Te Kanawa . Nucci . CSO . Solti

from: Decca

Release Date October 08, 1991
This was Solti's farewell as music director of the Chicago Symphony. The audience was wildly enthusiastic and so am I. As recorded, Pavarotti's voice is by no means too light for the role: it rings out with full, golden tone and is innately moving. Domingo may be more subtle at times. If you want a grossly unsubtle Otello then there is Vickers.Kiri Te Kanawa is at her loveliest, as she always was for Solti. The orchestral sound is gorgeous. Highlights include the cellos introducing the love scene,which I have heard so seamlessly played, and the garden scene, where the mandoline solo is magical in the way it blends with the orchestra. I have read a few condescending remarks by critics about this set: ignore them. This was a truly unique and historic occasion.

CD-Charts Position 10
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Puccini: Suor Angelica

from: Classics

Release Date November 02, 1996
Having never been a great fan of Puccini, I was amazed at the intensity and emotion that the music on this CD was able to convey.

The opera begins quietly with Suor Angelica and the the other nuns in the convent, building steadily through the confrontation with her aunt, sung superbly by Marjana Lipovsek, to the dramatic, highly charged emotional climax of Suor Angelica's supplications to the Virgin Mother.

My primary reason for buying this CD was Lucia Popp, and as Suor Angelica, she does not disappoint. Her vocals provide the lead character with the necessary sense of emotional vulnerability and desperation, which is so often found lacking in other recordings. Her desperate supplications to Mary in the final scene cannot fail to make the hairs stand up on the back of ... Read More: