Recently in Reviews
09 Nov 2006
A friend who bought this issue grumbled that Dynamic had swindled him out off his money as the whitewashed, less than sharp picture quality is not much better than the pirate issue he once received from a correspondent. »
09 Nov 2006
The back of this DG set relates that the company made the recording "in Modena in conjunction with a series of performances in Italy and Germany." »
29 Oct 2006
Decca/London was somewhat earlier with their series ‘Classic Recitals’ and now Deutsche Gramophon is following without that title. »
29 Oct 2006
Though this La Vestale is sung in its original French, it strikes me as rather odd that the contents in the sleeve notes nevertheless still employs the Italian names Licinio and Giulia. »
29 Oct 2006
As rare as it may be to hear Gounod’s Faust in Bulgarian, the language differences soon pass in a good performance, especially one that includes a live performance of the bass Nicolai Ghiaurov from the prime of his performing career. »
28 Oct 2006
My father was a small bit player in an amateur operetta company from 1947 till 1963 when the company folded. »
28 Oct 2006
SAN FRANCISCO — Christine Brewer took her time mastering Isolde before making her stage debut in the role with the San Francisco Opera in October. »
26 Oct 2006
Those familiar with Antoni Wit’s fine recording of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony will have encountered some Polish singers in the solo parts, and among them is the baritone Wojtek Drabowicz. »
26 Oct 2006
Two of the most famous Wagner interpreters of the twentieth century, Hans Hotter and Birgit Nilsson, are always worth hearing in their studio recordings, and the live recordings capture the spontaneity of an actual performance with such accomplished singers. »
26 Oct 2006
The demise of Tower Records adds another hurdle to the collector's challenge in acquiring rare performances on obscure labels. »
22 Oct 2006
“Cecilia, cast a glance upon the land of Britain, and you will see that in sonorous strains it renews on this day the pleasing memory of your name so dear. . . .” »
21 Oct 2006
As the careers of the “three tenors” drew to a close, it became more and more obvious that replacements would have to be found, if not for all of them, then certainly for one or two. »
19 Oct 2006
A yellow banner in the lower right hand corner of the slip case cover (identical to that of the jewel box and booklet) proclaims this CD as the "first world recording" of Gaetano Donizetti's Alahor in Granata. »
19 Oct 2006
The Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Italy, had as many surprises on the stage inside as the weather had outside. »
17 Oct 2006
Virtuosic, expressive, subtle evocative – these words can be used to describe various aspects of the Lieder of Richard Strauss. »
16 Oct 2006
From the 2004 Aix en Provence Festival comes this Luc Bondy staging of Handel's oratorio Hercules, an achingly serious and sober portrayal of Olympian rage and jealousy. »
16 Oct 2006
In the 1890s, the term “diva” was first used in print to refer to an opera singer or stage star. »
08 Oct 2006
Among the exciting new releases in Naxos’s series of 21st Century Classics is a compilation of four works by Wojciech Kilar (b. 1932), which include two symphonic compositions and two vocal pieces. »
08 Oct 2006
This is a recital disc notable for the compelling presence and intimacy of the vocal performance. »
08 Oct 2006
Introduction: Philip Gossett is one of those rarities in academia: a scholar of the first order and a consummate teacher. »
05 Oct 2006
Among the outstanding interpreters of Mahler’s music, Pierre Boulez stands out for his recent recordings of the composer’s symphonies. Having worked with various international orchestras, Boulez has been preserving on CD some finely shaped performances, and if he intends to create a cycle akin to those of other conductors, he is wisely recording the works one by one and not necessarily in the order in which they were composed. »
02 Oct 2006
The daily Anglican liturgies of Morning and Evening Prayer feature the recitation of the complete Psalter (apportioned in a monthly cycle), and in cathedrals and collegiate chapels, the chanting of the psalms has been cultivated to a degree of great refinement and beauty. »
29 Sep 2006
Of late opera stagings often seem to be slotted into one of two categories: the "traditional," with sets as the original libretto detailed and singers in period costumes; and "non-traditional," "regie theater," or "Eurotrash," what you will. »
29 Sep 2006
Having spent the better part of its life at full-price, the Solti/Nilsson Salome now appears as a mid-priced re-issue. »
29 Sep 2006
This 250th anniversary year of Mozart's birth must be heaven not only Amadeus lovers but also for those with a general inclination toward classical era music. »
29 Sep 2006
While most of the familiar Lieder repertoire stems from the nineteenth century, the powerful attraction the artform spurred composition in this genre through the mid-twentieth century. »
28 Sep 2006
Vanity publishing is not for the print world only, as a release from a company called Jeremiah Productions, called "That's Amore," proves. »
27 Sep 2006
According to Giancarlo Landini, author of the very interesting and detailed sleeve notes, Labo “has been sorely neglected, if not totally forgotten”. »
26 Sep 2006
CPO has recently given us a lot of wonderful Lehar recordings like Eva, Der Rastelbinder or Der Sterngucker (admired by Hofmannsthal who exclaimed after a performance: ‘I wish, Lehar had composed Rosenkavalier’). »
25 Sep 2006
In the 1930s, Poulenc’s turn to writing sacred choral music such as the Litanies à la vierge noire and the Mass in G was closely linked to his new embrace of Roman Catholicism following the death of a close friend, the composer Pierre-Octave Ferroud. »
25 Sep 2006
The Bach Passions combine drama, sublimity of expression, and deeply devotional reflection in such a powerful way that we invariably tend to set them apart from other liturgical works. »
25 Sep 2006
Maybe a looking glass will help you to decipher the reprint in this CD’s inside cover of a small article on the soprano by Terry McEwen, who was Manager of the Classical Divison of London Records at the time of recording. »
25 Sep 2006
Deutsche Grammophon was one of the many labels for which Nilsson recorded and the company decided to commemorate her passing by offering us most of her not so very large catalogue. »
25 Sep 2006
We are reasonably sensitive, I suspect, to the number of ways in which venue can shape the nature and success of musical performance. »
24 Sep 2006
The best Norma on DVD treats the viewer to a blurry picture of washed-out colors and remote, compressed sound. »
24 Sep 2006
The better can be the enemy of the good and this recording proves it. »
24 Sep 2006
In her debut recording the young Roumanian soprano Katarina Jovanic demonstrates her talent in performing an intriguing selection of Lieder by Schubert, Brahms, and Strauss. »
24 Sep 2006
Myto does many an opera-lover a service by offering this enjoyable recording of Rossini's French grand opera, here called Moïse. »
24 Sep 2006
For a period of close to half a century, French grand opera, as exemplified by the works of Giacomo Meyerbeer and his school, was the preferred form of music for the theatre (i.e. opera) in most of the civilized world. »
22 Sep 2006
It is somewhat ironic that until recent years Italy has generally been slow to take a leading role in the historical performance movement: ironic in that historically Italy both dominates and defines the early baroque style and ironic in that that style enshrines the primacy of text— the Italian text. »
22 Sep 2006
I should probably preface my reaction to this release by confessing to the heretical belief, at least from a Wagnerian perspective, that Tristan und Isolde is not really a stageworthy opera. »
20 Sep 2006
The first thing I noticed in the liner notes was the bold print claiming Cimarosa was born in 1797 and died in 1848, which correspond exactly with Donizetti’s lifespan. »
19 Sep 2006
In his introduction to the Welsh National Opera’s celebratory 60th anniversary season programme Carlo Rizzi, their Music Director, declares that “we are bringing the best of Wales to the rest of the world — and the best of the world to Wales”. »
16 Sep 2006
This is a very attractive book, which, in addition to the expected text, has many striking photos, a list of the operas performed in Chicago, indicating all the seasons in which each work was given, and a season by season chronology, limited to professional companies. »
12 Sep 2006
Robert Ashley has the uncanny ability to sprinkle diamonds amidst great swaths of apparently trivial and quotidian detritus–diamonds that trigger the nervous system in an intensely stimulating fashion. »
12 Sep 2006
The later Günter Wand was a remarkable interpreter of Bruckner’s music, as is demonstrated in this live recording from the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. »
09 Sep 2006
Sony Records occasionally still sends the odd CD to reviewers hoping they will give it notice. »
08 Sep 2006
Callas fans better skip this review, as they won’t like the tone, the words, or whatever slights real or imagined they may perceive. »
08 Sep 2006
At the expense of stating a truism, the music of Gustav Mahler, like that of other composers, is best experienced live in the concert hall. »
08 Sep 2006
This Fanciulla is such a wonderful issue because, for once, none of the three protagonists ever recorded their role commercially, so that one is spared the many doublings often met in live recordings. »
07 Sep 2006
During the last few years Antoni Wit has recorded Mahler’s symphonies one by one, such that he is building a fine cycle for the Naxos label. »
