Category: Recordings

In its recent collection Mozart Lieder, Salzburg 1958-1984 in its series entitled “Festspiel Dokumente,” Orfeo pays homage to the tradition of Liederabend at the Salzburg Festival with selections from a quarter century of performances.

On any list of great but seldom-performed operas, Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freisch¸tz must rank high.

Recorded live in concert on 19 August 2007, this performance of Gustav Mahler’s Third Symphony by Claudio Abbado is part of the conductor’s cycle involving the Lucerne Festival.

Recorded four years apart, these two classic recordings of Leos Jan·?ek’s dramatic masterpieces now reappear in Decca’s The Originals series, thankfully still with full librettos and excellent booklet essays.

Doris Sennefelder’s booklet essay for this CPO recording of Lehar’s Das Land des L‰chelns details how close the composer was to Puccini.

One of the five operas Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876-1948) based on plays by Carlo Goldoni, La vedova scaltra (1748) is a comedy about a widow’s decision to use deception to choose among her suitors.

Razor-wielding rascals involve themselves in romantic complications in the two sets considered here, with a fine performance of a rarity and an even finer performance of a classic.

In 2008 the Salzburg Festival intended to bring back the two stars of their triumphant 2005 La Traviata, Rolando VillazÛn and Anna Netrebko, for Gounod’s RomÈo et Juliette.

In the continuing series of releases to document the recorded legacy of the Staatskapelle Dresden, vol. 13 collects music by Hans Pfitzner and Richard Strauss with performances from 1939 through 1944.

This two-CD budget series collection brings together two Placido Domingo Wagner recitals, the first from 2000, with Deborah Voigt receiving co-billing, and the second from 2002.