CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

.

Handel: Solomon

Search: Welcome
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 2
Average Rating:

.

Handel: Oratorios

Search: Welcome
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 3
Average Rating:

.

Handel: Solomon

Search: Welcome
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 4
Average Rating:

.

Striking 12 [Us Import]

Search: Welcome
by: Striking 12

Release Date March 22, 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 5
Average Rating:

.

Off the Rails

Search: Welcome
by: Rosena Horan

Release Date June 11, 1996
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 6
Average Rating:

.

Haydn: The Seasons

Search: Welcome
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 7
Average Rating:

.

Handel: Jeptha

Search: Welcome
by: Lynne Dawson Ruth Holton Anne Sofie Otter Michael Chance Nigel Robson Stephen Varcoe The Monteverdi Choir English Baroque Soloists John Eliot Gardiner

Release Date June 16, 2008
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 8
Average Rating:

.

Live From Hell

Search: Welcome
by: Richard Lewis

Release Date February 13, 2001
Hey--you gotta love this comedian--cool actor too--ever see him in the indie "Drunks"?--But it's his insanely rigorous honesty as a comedian--this honesty and on-the-edge style which he illustrates in his new, outrageous memoir, "The Other Great Depression"--that gives this double CD an amazing wallop. I have seen Richard Lewis live many times--even at Carnegie Hall but this rare set in Hollywood back in the mid-eighties is like insanely funny--and then his fearless intereview with Esquire pop scene journalist, Bill Zehme is easily the most bold and bizarre and hilarious comedy conversation I have ever heard--Mind-blowing, stream-of-consciousness riffs-- like the stuff just pours out of Lewis like a neurotic waterfall! It's like you ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

.

Freedom Song [CASSETTE]

Search: Welcome
by: James Horner, Sweet Honey in the Rock

Release Date February 15, 2000
Hey--you gotta love this comedian--cool actor too--ever see him in the indie "Drunks"?--But it's his insanely rigorous honesty as a comedian--this honesty and on-the-edge style which he illustrates in his new, outrageous memoir, "The Other Great Depression"--that gives this double CD an amazing wallop. I have seen Richard Lewis live many times--even at Carnegie Hall but this rare set in Hollywood back in the mid-eighties is like insanely funny--and then his fearless intereview with Esquire pop scene journalist, Bill Zehme is easily the most bold and bizarre and hilarious comedy conversation I have ever heard--Mind-blowing, stream-of-consciousness riffs-- like the stuff just pours out of Lewis like a neurotic waterfall! It's like you ... Read More: