CD-Charts Position 1

.

Haydn: Trumpet Concerto & Hummel: Trumpet Concerto

CD-Charts > Music > Chamber Music
by: Alison Balsom, Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen

Release Date September 01, 2008

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

.

Saint-Saëns: The Complete Works for Piano and Orchestra

CD-Charts > Music > Chamber Music
from: Hyperion

Release Date September 03, 2001
There is no doubt that these are brilliant performances. But the question in my mind is how much do you want three discs of this music? The works are well crafted, certainly, and I suppose they do sparkle. There is often invention that is both surprising and delightful. But after a while one wishes for a bit more of the "red meat" of truly great romantic repertoire. I have something of a soft spot for Saint Saens but discovering his works can be a bit of a mixed experience - sometimes joyful and sometimes almost cringing (at a particularly banal tune, for example). In the end I am not sorry I bought these records and will return to them with pleasure in some moods. But there are byroads of the repertoire that I have mined with more consistently ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

.

Bach - Sacred Arias & Cantatas

CD-Charts > Music > Chamber Music
by: English Concert

Release Date August 25, 2008
This is a long-awaited Bach disc from David Daniels. We are more accustomed to having him sing heroic Handel operatic roles, branch out into American folk songs, or even into Berlioz, but somehow it was inevitable that he would end up recording the Bach arias he has often sung in concert performances of the Passions, the B Minor Mass or Cantatas. And what a disc it has turned out to be. I had never heard him sing Bach before so this disc was a revelation to me. Andreas Scholl has received notable and deserved praise for the purity of his tone and somewhat restrained [Church] interpretation of Bach cantatas for alto, but Daniels' performances here are a different animal, as you would expect from an experienced operatic singer. But these are not vocal ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

.

Jenkins - Quirk

CD-Charts > Music > Chamber Music
by: Karl Jenkins

Release Date October 06, 2008
I am at a loss as to what to think of this DISGRACE TO THE MUSICS, despite my fondness of the energetic track 6. "III. Chasing The Goose" I had found the rest of the work nothing short of a dishevelled mess. It pains my ears to listen to such triffle and if I wanted to emulate the results of this album I would gladly slam my head into a brick wall. Jenkins is simply too inexperienced with the art of orchestra to be appreciated!

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

.

Divenire (Special Edition, BONUS DISC: 3 Brand New Remixes)

CD-Charts > Music > Chamber Music
by: Ludovico Einaudi

Release Date November 05, 2007
I picked this up after I was transfixed by the track Otremare which was used in the film This Is England. I'd read that most of the music by Einaudi sounds similar, yet each track is unique. I couldn't agree more. This is hughly addictive stuff. Mostly piano with the occasional string instrument thrown in, this makes for a great listen while pottering about or just winding down. I don't listen to a great deal of music like this generally so I can't really compare it to anything else or even claim to understand why I like it. But I do really like it.

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

.

Jacqueline Du Pré - Complete EMI Recordings

CD-Charts > Music > Chamber Music
by: Jacqueline Du Pre

Release Date October 22, 2007

Most, if not all, of these recordings have been released previously by EMI, while some of them - notably the 1965 Elgar Cello Concerto - have proved so popular that they have been continuously available since their initial release.

Despite the inevitable duplication - du Pre fans will almost certainly already have the Elgar and Haydn concertos - this is undoubtedly the definitive Jacqueline du Pre collection, providing 17 CDs of cello works by a huge array of composers from baroque (Bach and Handel) to Beethoven and the romantics and modernists such as Chopin & Bruch. There are no fewer than 25 different composers represented.

The set really does demonstrate the versatility of the cellist, with so many works which ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

.

Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos. 1-4

CD-Charts > Music > Chamber Music
from: Universal Classics

Release Date September 18, 1995
No question that Ashkenazy, Argerich, & Michelangeli are geat pianists and that their Rach recordings are among the best. But two interpreters are so outstanding that their recordings are...what can one say...transcendent ?

The recordings by Rachmaninov himself are benchmarks and beyond reproach. Unfortunately he lived at a time when recording technology was primitive, although modern restoration specialists have made a wonderful job of bringing his recordings to life on the Naxos Historical label. If one cannot put up with the shortcomings of restored mechanical/electric recording technology, then the next best option is Horowitz, on whom Rachmaninov himself had conferred his blessing. But the technical quality of the Horowitz recordings ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
Average Rating:

.

Beethoven - Piano Sonatas, Vol 4 (Paul Lewis) Winner of the Gramophone Award for Record of the Year 2008

CD-Charts > Music > Chamber Music
by: Paul Lewis

Release Date April 28, 2008
The reviewer above is spot-on in his assessment of this set. Lewis' virtuosity allows him to sound spontaneous, secure and sensitive at the same time. He presents Beethoven as a much more agreeable character than we are used to when listening to more extreme interpreters such as Kovacevich or Pollini.

The flipside of the human Beethoven is that the frenzy that can be created in the Hammerklavier (one of the previous volumes) or the last movement of Op 111 is replaced by a range of more down-to-earth emotions. Lewis' Beethoven doesn't do jazz. It's different, but extremely impressive nonetheless. And in further agreement with the other reviewer: the ending of Op111 is pure magic...

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

.

Officium

CD-Charts > Music > Chamber Music
from: ECM New Series

Release Date September 05, 1994
I can see how sax fans find this album a revelation but it is a stain on the track record of the Hilliard Ensemble. I can see (kinda) what the involved parties tried to do but it still is painful to listing to it and even with a lot of good will this is simply a waste of money and time. To all those admirers of the Hilliard Ensemble: Don't do it to yourself!

CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

.

Rutter - Requiem; Magnificat

CD-Charts > Music > Chamber Music
from: Collegium

Release Date October 05, 1998
This recording of the Cambridge Singers has them recording pieces composed by their own director, John Rutter. The Magnificat is Rutter's version of a standard piece of liturgical music, an intersection of old and new. This was recorded at one of the Cambridge Singers' favourite venues, the Great Hall of University College School, London; the Requiem was recorded in 1986, and the Magnificat in 1991.

--Music--
'The Magnificat' is one of my favourite pieces of the liturgy, and one I enjoy hearing set to different kinds of music. This is a very lively and spirit-filled rendering, with magnificent vocals expressing the joy that is found in the prayer of Mary - 'My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour'. The repetition of the word ... Read More: