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Handel: Solomon /Scholl · Dam-Jensen · Hagley · Bickley · Gritton · Agnew · Harvey · Gabrieli Consort & Players · McCreesh

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by: Susan Gritton, Paul Agnew

Release Date February 08, 1999
What a pleasure it has been, discovering Handel's 'Solomon', through Paul mc'creesh's new recording.I will not attempt to review in detail the contents of three full discs of exquisite music, but will offer an overall impression, with attention paid to one or two special aspects, and musical moments. Of course,for Andreas Scholl fans, his participation on this recording may well be a decisive factor, and his performance in the title role is indeed fantastic, but ( and how fortunate!) equal respects must also be paid to the other singers too: Peter Harvey and Paul Agnew, give splendid performances (sample Agnew's "Golden Columns", on disc three, and you'll realise that the set was worth buying just for that!), not to mention ... Read More:

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Handel: Solomon

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by: Nancy Argenta Barbara Hendricks Carolyn Watkinson Anthony Rolfe Johnson The Monteverdi Choir English Baroque Soloists John Eliot Gardiner

Release Date May 15, 2006
Reviewing a PG Rosette recording in detail after more than two decades would be superfluous. This being my first SOLOMON, I confess that I didn't find much of the score entirely memorable at the beginning, but those gems revealed themselves on repeated hearings; however, my all-time favourite Handel oratorio is still THEODORA. Though I can't find fault with its performative and sonic qualities, this classic recording has to lose a star on account of Gardiner's fatal decision to eliminate five arias: in the accompanying booklet, JEG defends sanctioning the cuts, arguing (unconvincingly for me) that they were composed for specific singers (aren't many of those singer requests masterpieces?), and that they hold up the action (if this were the case, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
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Handel: Oratorios

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by: John Eliot Gardiner

Release Date September 19, 2005
Reviewing a PG Rosette recording in detail after more than two decades would be superfluous. This being my first SOLOMON, I confess that I didn't find much of the score entirely memorable at the beginning, but those gems revealed themselves on repeated hearings; however, my all-time favourite Handel oratorio is still THEODORA. Though I can't find fault with its performative and sonic qualities, this classic recording has to lose a star on account of Gardiner's fatal decision to eliminate five arias: in the accompanying booklet, JEG defends sanctioning the cuts, arguing (unconvincingly for me) that they were composed for specific singers (aren't many of those singer requests masterpieces?), and that they hold up the action (if this were the case, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
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Handel: Solomon

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from: Philips

Release Date October 11, 2004
Reviewing a PG Rosette recording in detail after more than two decades would be superfluous. This being my first SOLOMON, I confess that I didn't find much of the score entirely memorable at the beginning, but those gems revealed themselves on repeated hearings; however, my all-time favourite Handel oratorio is still THEODORA. Though I can't find fault with its performative and sonic qualities, this classic recording has to lose a star on account of Gardiner's fatal decision to eliminate five arias: in the accompanying booklet, JEG defends sanctioning the cuts, arguing (unconvincingly for me) that they were composed for specific singers (aren't many of those singer requests masterpieces?), and that they hold up the action (if this were the case, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 5
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Haydn: The Seasons

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from: Philips

Release Date November 15, 1999
Haydn's 'oratorio' (or whatever) The Seasons received its first performance in 1801, the 70th year of the composer's life. He was at the very height of his creative powers, and his inspiration had received a new jolt, as Beethoven's and Schubert's were later to do, through his exposure to Handel. He was not new to oratorio, indeed his Creation seems to me the only later work of that name that can be mentioned in the same breath as Handel's. He was also not unduly thrilled with the libretto of The Seasons, which comes in English and German versions but which he characterised tersely as 'franzoesischer Quark' (frenchified rubbish). For my own part, it's all one to me whether The Seasons counts as oratorio or not. For me it is an unqualified masterpiece, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
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To the Lighthouse: Audio Book [CASSETTE]

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by: Various Artists

Release Date October 07, 2000
'One sees a fin passing far out. What image can I reach to convey what I mean? Really there is none, I think.'

Woolf writing in her diary of 1925 reveals her life long concern with the problematic representation of experience. Her sense of reality's ineffability haunted all her major novels and in To the Lighthouse perhaps her art found its greatest expression.

The novel begins with a promise, a promise made by a mother to her small child that he can go and visit the lighthouse near where the large family holiday each year. It ends with the Lighthouse being reached finally years later after the mother's death. The process that takes us from a casual promise to its manifestation is for me one of the most magical journeys in literature. ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
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Windhorse Riders

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by: David Hykes

Release Date March 01, 1994
'One sees a fin passing far out. What image can I reach to convey what I mean? Really there is none, I think.'

Woolf writing in her diary of 1925 reveals her life long concern with the problematic representation of experience. Her sense of reality's ineffability haunted all her major novels and in To the Lighthouse perhaps her art found its greatest expression.

The novel begins with a promise, a promise made by a mother to her small child that he can go and visit the lighthouse near where the large family holiday each year. It ends with the Lighthouse being reached finally years later after the mother's death. The process that takes us from a casual promise to its manifestation is for me one of the most magical journeys in literature. ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
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Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf; Lieutenant Kijé / Britten: The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra

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by: Sean Connery Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra Antal Doráti

Release Date February 12, 1996
'One sees a fin passing far out. What image can I reach to convey what I mean? Really there is none, I think.'

Woolf writing in her diary of 1925 reveals her life long concern with the problematic representation of experience. Her sense of reality's ineffability haunted all her major novels and in To the Lighthouse perhaps her art found its greatest expression.

The novel begins with a promise, a promise made by a mother to her small child that he can go and visit the lighthouse near where the large family holiday each year. It ends with the Lighthouse being reached finally years later after the mother's death. The process that takes us from a casual promise to its manifestation is for me one of the most magical journeys in literature. ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
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Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress

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from: DG

Release Date August 09, 1999
This set captures such excellent, vivid and clear performances that the story leaps out by just listening. You won't really even need to follow the printed libretto. Every single character is perfectly sung and the orchestra and conductor are in top form. The whole thing brims with wit and charm making it very very enjoyable. I have listened to it several times already.

CD-Charts Position 10
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Great Arias and Ensembles from Your Favourite Operas, Volume 2

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by: Various Composers

Release Date September 10, 2001
This set captures such excellent, vivid and clear performances that the story leaps out by just listening. You won't really even need to follow the printed libretto. Every single character is perfectly sung and the orchestra and conductor are in top form. The whole thing brims with wit and charm making it very very enjoyable. I have listened to it several times already.