CD-Charts Position 241
Average Rating:

.

Mozart: Horn Concertos

CD-Charts > Music > Classical Instrumental
from: Great Recordings of the Century

Release Date October 05, 1998
I am often concerned when purchasing old analogue recordings, such as those in this EMI series, that there may be a considerable amount of background noise. Fear not! Dennis Brain's renditions of the vivacious Mozart Horn Concertoes are presented excellently here, with only a minimum amount of 'antique hiss'. The age should not put you off.

Besides this, Brain's tone is superb - clear and rich. His phrasing throughout is well-considered, and perfectly matches the spirit of the Horn Concertoes. I wholeheartedly recommend this recording!

CD-Charts Position 242
Average Rating:

.

Wild Swans

CD-Charts > Music > Classical Instrumental
from: ABC Classics

Release Date July 03, 2006
This album is absolutely fantastic and you actually feel what is happening in the fairy tale.

The problem is that people do not know that Elena Kats-Chernin composed this music for a ballet "The Wild Swans" and every piece of music relates to something in the fairy tale. Eliza Aria (the music on the Lloyds advert is the piece composed about the Princess) who was turned mute after a spell was cast upon her by her wicked Stepmother.

In a faraway kingdom, there lives a King with his twelve children: eleven princes and one princess. One day, he decides to remarry. He marries a wicked Queen who is actually a witch. Out of spite, the queen turns her eleven stepsons into swans and forces them to fly away. They carry their ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 243
Average Rating:

.

Copland: Dance Symphony

CD-Charts > Music > Classical Instrumental
by: Aaron Copland, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop

Release Date September 29, 2008
This latest release from Naxos brings together Copland's other purely orchestral `symphonies': Whilst it is the Third symphony which is probably the best known of his symphonic output, and which undoubtedly fulfils the concept of the symphony most powerfully and cogently, these three other works are engaging and distinctive in their own right.

The Symphony No.1 is an arrangement of Copland's symphony for Organ and Orchestra from 1924. As the booklet notes point out, the arrangement was primarily made so that the work could attract a greater number of performances through employing a conventional sized orchestra, yet the irony is that the original version has generally received more outings than the arrangement (comparison between ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 244
Average Rating:

.

Romeo and Juliet (Previn)

CD-Charts > Music > Classical Instrumental
by: Sergey Prokofiev

Release Date October 04, 2004
Ballet scores don't come any better than this. Prokofiev's score is an order of magnitude greater than Tchaikovsky's, and this classic version by Previn and the LSO does full justice to superlative music. It is intelligent, sensual and witty and offers outstanding value.

Prokofiev's score manages to match Shakespeare's drama in its intensity, complexity and economy. A notable feature of the play is its time compression. In the world of the play, all the action takes place in three or four days. In stage-time, this is reduced to a mere trice: 'the two-hour's traffic of our stage'. In Prokofiev's version, ideas come equally thick and fast - and enough of them to last most composers a lifetime. What's more, like the play, the ballet score ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 245
Average Rating:

.

Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake [1966]

CD-Charts > Music > Classical Instrumental
starring: Rudolf Nureyev, Margot Fonteyn
directed by: Truck Branss

Release Date May 09, 2005
NO VERSION CAN COMPARE WITH KIROV. MY FAVOURITE IS MAKHALINA AND ZAKLINSKY. BOLSHOI A CLOSE SECOND THE ROYAL BALLET VERSION IS NOT ONE OF MY PREFERRED VERSIONS.EVEN THE 1966 KIROV VERSION IS BETTER THAN NURYEVS VERSION.

CD-Charts Position 246
Average Rating:

.

Thomas Tallis: Spem in alium

CD-Charts > Music > Classical Instrumental
by: Magnificat

Release Date March 08, 2004
This is a remarkable piece of music by any measure and should be in everyone's classical collection even if you are not normally a fan of vocal or religious music. You'll see many people lavish superlatives on this piece of music - and with absolute justification. In my view no superlative would be over-the-top.

For my part, I could say that it is sublime, superb, even peerless. But actually, I think it is other-worldly. It is quite simply staggering, for several reasons...
1) The ambition of Spem in alium is audacious. Composed circa 1570, written for 40 voices arranged in 8 independent choirs of 5 voices, each voice having a separate part, but all adhering to an overarching sense of cohesion. It is amazingly complex, mesmerisingly beautiful ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 247
Average Rating:

.

Part - Spiegel Im Spiegel

CD-Charts > Music > Classical Instrumental
by: Jürgen Kruse, Benjamin Hudson, Sebastian Klinger

Release Date November 26, 2007
This is a better CD than ECM's Alina, as it covers the same ground - i.e. Arvo's tintinnabuli chamber work - but offers a slightly fuller repertoire. In other words, unlike the ECM, this CD offers three different Spiegels (all largely similiar, it has to be admitted, but beautiful nonetheless, and does include all three versions - for violin, viola and cello, where the ECM only offered violin and cello); Alina in its original version (this is where the ECM disc is at it's best and most annoying in only offering great improvisations on this simplest and most beautiful of Arvo's early tintinnabuli works, but neglecting to include the original version); and the wonderful Variations for Arinuschka. My only slight gripe is that it doesn't include Hymn to a Great City, Arvo's only other - ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 248
Average Rating:

.

Verdi - La Traviata / Sutherland, Pavarotti, Manuguerra, NPO, Bonynge

CD-Charts > Music > Classical Instrumental
by: Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti, Matteo Manuguerra, Richard Bonynge, National Philharmonic Orchestra, Della Jones, John Tomlinson, Jonathan Summers, David Wilson-Johnson

Release Date March 05, 1991
In many ways, this was Sutherland's return to form, for the much criticised mooning is largely absent. The voice is firm, rich, and she's fully in control of it. And for me that's the first problem: There's just no getting away from the fact that here is a very mature, matronly heroine, who sounds in the pink of health. Violetta is supposed to be young and desperately ill...

Some singers allow little vocal frailties into their singing to bring the character alive (Cotrubas, Gheorghiu, Callas). Sutherland never does, and her attempts at being expressive strike me as...manufactured. She sounds like a not-so-young diva enjoying a big sing. But in a role she's grown out of. The artful drawing on the cover, which attempts to take back the years, says it all really.

Read More:

CD-Charts Position 249
Average Rating:

.

David Oistrakh - Complete EMI Recordings

CD-Charts > Music > Classical Instrumental
by: David Oistrakh

Release Date August 04, 2008
What a wonderful collection - truly a definitive archive of one of the century's greatest artists. Oistrakh's combination of power and serenity, with that individual unmistakeable sound make this a must-have for anyone who enjoys listening to the violin. Even more so if you play - to hear just what the instrument is capable of. In particular, the accounts of the Beethoven and Brahms concertos are the finest I have ever heard. Recordings can be cold - you have to play a bit safe - but these recordings have all the magic of a live performance.
I had a number of these recordings on LP - if anything, the sound is better on these CDs and for the huge number of recordings - what a bargain.

CD-Charts Position 250
Average Rating:

.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa - Music From The Motion Picture

CD-Charts > Music > Classical Instrumental
by: Various Artists

Release Date December 01, 2008
What a wonderful collection - truly a definitive archive of one of the century's greatest artists. Oistrakh's combination of power and serenity, with that individual unmistakeable sound make this a must-have for anyone who enjoys listening to the violin. Even more so if you play - to hear just what the instrument is capable of. In particular, the accounts of the Beethoven and Brahms concertos are the finest I have ever heard. Recordings can be cold - you have to play a bit safe - but these recordings have all the magic of a live performance.
I had a number of these recordings on LP - if anything, the sound is better on these CDs and for the huge number of recordings - what a bargain.