Category: Recordings

It has been nearly thirty years since the centenary production of the Ring at Bayreuth, and the controversy and even scandal that it generated have long since faded into memory.

The symphonies of Anton Bruckner deserve excellent performances to convey the intensity that the composer intended for them, and sometimes an individual performance can offer the opportunity to understand them more clearly.

Handel went to London as a free-lance musician ñ i.e., ìon his own bottomî ñ in autumn 1710. His Rinaldo of February 1711, with its dazzling arias and scenic spectacles, was resoundingly successful.

Inspired by the elitist poets of late nineteenth century Paris, Debussy was eager to join their ranks by developing musical ideas that evoked the same emotional response as the poetry he admired. Originally, PrÈlude ‡ líaprËs-midi díun faune was a collaborative project between Debussy and StÈphane MallarmÈ, a poet highly regarded by the composer.

Perhaps instead of waiting for the next great new opera, focus should be on finding the next great opera composer.

Clearly someone at Naxos loves Rossini. The label only recently released a good Cenerentola with the most excellent Joyce Di Donato, and the back catalog contains many titles, including highly praised sets of Barbieri (with Ramon Vargas) and Tancredi (featuring Ewa Podles).

I wonder if a record company, any record company, would have taken the trouble of recording these songs if the composer had been Zoltan Kocsis or Deszˆ Ranki instead of Imre (his real first name) K·lm·n?

Known for his virtuosity as a pianist, Ignacy Paderewski (1860-1941) is also known as a composer. While most of his works involve piano, he left a single opera, Manru, a three-act work that he composed between 1892 and 1901.

Two of Finlandís greatest artistic luminariesócomposer Aulis Sallinen (b. 1935) and poet Lassi Nummi (b. 1928)ócame together to produce a fine new work, The Barabbas Dialogues (2004), which has been recently recorded and released on CD on the CPO label.

In an era where new studio recordings by major orchestras have dwindled to a pathetic dribble, leaving many fine institutions to start their own in-house labels, the Berlin Philharmonic still has an active contract with a major company (its conductorís label of many years, EMI) and releases come on a regular basis. A recent one features some of Benjamin Brittenís great work for instruments and tenor.