CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

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Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen

from: Decca

Release Date October 06, 1997
Three stars only? For the Solti ring? Surely not? Well yes actually.

How to explain this? Solti's was the second set I brought - largely because it was so famous that I thought that I simply had to have it. The first set I acquired was a ludicrously cheap version of Furtwangler's set from Turin (with Martha Modl, Ludwig Suthaus, Ferdinand Franz et al). I really didn't know anything about the Ring at the time except a few bits that I'd heard over the years. Having it all meant that I could dip in and out and out and gradually, with the help of the ENO guides, I found my way round these astonishing works.

It's very difficult to be objective about Furtwangler. If I had to summarise what is great about him in the ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

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Unsuk Chin - Alice In Wonderland

by: Sally Matthews, Piia Komsi, Dietrich Henschel, Gwyneth Jones
starring: Unsuk Chin, Kent Nagano, Bavarian State Opera

Release Date April 28, 2008
Three stars only? For the Solti ring? Surely not? Well yes actually.

How to explain this? Solti's was the second set I brought - largely because it was so famous that I thought that I simply had to have it. The first set I acquired was a ludicrously cheap version of Furtwangler's set from Turin (with Martha Modl, Ludwig Suthaus, Ferdinand Franz et al). I really didn't know anything about the Ring at the time except a few bits that I'd heard over the years. Having it all meant that I could dip in and out and out and gradually, with the help of the ENO guides, I found my way round these astonishing works.

It's very difficult to be objective about Furtwangler. If I had to summarise what is great about him in the ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

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World of Verdi

from: Decca

Release Date February 18, 1992
Three stars only? For the Solti ring? Surely not? Well yes actually.

How to explain this? Solti's was the second set I brought - largely because it was so famous that I thought that I simply had to have it. The first set I acquired was a ludicrously cheap version of Furtwangler's set from Turin (with Martha Modl, Ludwig Suthaus, Ferdinand Franz et al). I really didn't know anything about the Ring at the time except a few bits that I'd heard over the years. Having it all meant that I could dip in and out and out and gradually, with the help of the ENO guides, I found my way round these astonishing works.

It's very difficult to be objective about Furtwangler. If I had to summarise what is great about him in the ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

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Classical Gold

from: Deutsche Grammophon

Release Date April 28, 2003
I used to turn my nose up at Classical music and haven't listened to it since my school music lessons.

That is until I drove back the other week one evening after a Fell race up the Wrekin in Shropshire.

I tuned into Classic FM and found that I really enjoyed one of their Live Concerts. I knew that my wife had been talking of sitting in her conservatory and relaxing to this sort of music and here I was driving home watching the sun set and listening to very nice sounds.

Well that weekend I bourght this box set from Smith's and I haven't had it off the CD or my Computer since.

Maybe I'm getting old now as I approach 50 but there are so many familiar tunes in this collection and they are all wonderfully recorded ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

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Mendelssohn: Elijah

from: Double Forte

Release Date November 08, 1999
I used to turn my nose up at Classical music and haven't listened to it since my school music lessons.

That is until I drove back the other week one evening after a Fell race up the Wrekin in Shropshire.

I tuned into Classic FM and found that I really enjoyed one of their Live Concerts. I knew that my wife had been talking of sitting in her conservatory and relaxing to this sort of music and here I was driving home watching the sun set and listening to very nice sounds.

Well that weekend I bourght this box set from Smith's and I haven't had it off the CD or my Computer since.

Maybe I'm getting old now as I approach 50 but there are so many familiar tunes in this collection and they are all wonderfully recorded ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

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Wagner: Götterdämmerung

from: Decca

Release Date October 06, 1997
Recorded during the 1960s, by Decca, produced by John Culshaw who had a vision of presenting Wagner's Opera, the final of his Der Ring Des Nibelungen Tetralogy exactly as Wagner himself would have wanted. He almost succeeds admirably despite the enormous undertaking of this production. Of course, Culshaw had at his disposal one of the world's great orchestra's, The Vienna Philharmonic, ably conducted magnificently by Sir Georg Solti. But, the recording does belong to the singers, many of them the finest available at that time. I cannot imagine a Siegfried, with his youthful and exciting voice sounding better than Wolfgang Windgassen. Nor can I imagine a Brunnhilde being sung with such passion as Birgit Nillson managed to achieve. And there are the supporting ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

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Wagner: Lohengrin

from: DG

Release Date June 10, 1996
Having been slightly disappointed by the live 1954 Jochum and 1953 Keilberth recordings - mainly because of deficiencies in Windassen's assumption of the eponymous hero and even in some of the deeper voices - turning to this recording was balm to my ears. In the reviews I have read, no-one has much remarked on the beauty of sound; a slight reverberance, real depth, crisp detail and a proper sense of theatre without the Bayreuth hackers who blight the quieter moments in the live recordings, especially the Jochum. The next thing to emphasise is the beauty of the voices. Several performances here are definitive; Kubelik was always so sympathetic to his artists and he gives them space to make their points without dragging. One first hears Nienstedt, Ridderbusch and ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
Average Rating:

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Humperdinck - Hänsel und Gretel

from: Philips

Release Date September 01, 1993
Having been slightly disappointed by the live 1954 Jochum and 1953 Keilberth recordings - mainly because of deficiencies in Windassen's assumption of the eponymous hero and even in some of the deeper voices - turning to this recording was balm to my ears. In the reviews I have read, no-one has much remarked on the beauty of sound; a slight reverberance, real depth, crisp detail and a proper sense of theatre without the Bayreuth hackers who blight the quieter moments in the live recordings, especially the Jochum. The next thing to emphasise is the beauty of the voices. Several performances here are definitive; Kubelik was always so sympathetic to his artists and he gives them space to make their points without dragging. One first hears Nienstedt, Ridderbusch and ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

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Wagner Edition - Die Walküre

from: Philips

Release Date October 01, 1999
Having been slightly disappointed by the live 1954 Jochum and 1953 Keilberth recordings - mainly because of deficiencies in Windassen's assumption of the eponymous hero and even in some of the deeper voices - turning to this recording was balm to my ears. In the reviews I have read, no-one has much remarked on the beauty of sound; a slight reverberance, real depth, crisp detail and a proper sense of theatre without the Bayreuth hackers who blight the quieter moments in the live recordings, especially the Jochum. The next thing to emphasise is the beauty of the voices. Several performances here are definitive; Kubelik was always so sympathetic to his artists and he gives them space to make their points without dragging. One first hears Nienstedt, Ridderbusch and ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

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Verdi: Otello

from: Opera

Release Date November 21, 2000
This Otello may not seem ideal on paper, but it actually has a lot to offer. First of all Barbirollis's taut direction never loses tension, and even if James McCracken exaggerates the Moor's outcries, he often shows real insight, and it's good to hear a singer with the right vocal weight for the part. Gwyneth Jones can for once be heard at the peak of her powers. Fischer Dieskau's Iago is in my opinion the only snag. His intonation often seems careless and the voice lacks the necessary bite.