Category: Recordings

Musicologists should be eager to welcome the ìfirst modern recordingsî of any work; surely having the opportunity to hear a long-lost musical treasure, rather than having it stare off the page in black-and-white, is something to be celebrated.

As the Vivaldi edition continues, Opus 111 is releasing a series of individual volumes dedicated to cantatas interspersed with other chamber works.

This recording is another gem from the Complete Vivaldi Edition, a collaboration of NaÔve (opus 111) and various Piedmontese institutions [see this authorís review of Vivaldiís Orlando in that series].

Irish composer Gerald Barry insists that ìReally, my music is very straightforward.

Nikolaus Lehnhoffís Parsifal, first staged by English National Opera in 1999, is given on this Opus Arte DVD in a 2004 performance led by Kent Nagano at the Baden-Baden summer festival.

Henryk GÛreckiís Symphony no. 3 (1976), his ìSymphony of Sorrowful Songs,î as it is called, is one of the most popular recordings of late twentieth-century music.

Premiered in 1792 (just months after the death of Mozart), Il Matrimonio Segreto won over Vienna from the start, and Domenico Cimarosaís opera would remain his most popular work.

The religious turmoil of sixteenth-century England was characterized not only by factionalism and polarity, but also famously by the charting of a via media, a middle path, through opposing views.

The late Gary Bertini (1927-2005) was noted for his fine interpretations of Mahlerís work, and his cycle with EMI was esteemed highly. An accomplished musician, Bertini founded the Israeli Chamber Orchestra in 1965, and later become chief conductor of the Jerusalem Symphony.

This 2005 release was filmed at a performance in La Scalaís temporary home, Milanís Teatro degli Arcimboldi, in April 2004. It is based on the Burmeister version of the ballet of some 50 years ago, first introduced in the West by the Paris Opera.