Category: Recordings

Originally recorded in Carnegie Hall on 15 April 1956, Dimitri Mitropoulos’s performance of Mahler’s Third Symphony dates from a time when this particular score was rarely heard in concert.

While undated, this performance of Beethoven’s Fidelio is a solid performance of the opera that has all the earmarks of a radio broadcast.

After an apparently successful premiere in 1781, Mozart’s Idomeneo fell out of favor, not being revived in the composer’s lifetime and staying dormant in the 19th century and first half of the 20th.

A socially conscious artist, caught in the violent gyrations of a country in revolution and war, awaits execution.

It only takes a few moments for the overture to Vincenzo Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi to establish that this opera takes a very different approach to the classic story than does Shakespeare’s play.

This beautiful production premiËred in 1980 and was the first live-telecast from the Met internationally relayed.

Conductor Steven Mercurio appears to have made a highly favorable impression on singers in his career so far (some of the following info comes from his website, http://stevenmercurio.com/).

Iím surprised that such an eminent musicologist as Julian Budden, in his interesting essay accompanying the recording, still lays the blame for the relative failure of Edgar at the librettistís feet.

Putting the “grim” into a classic fairy tale (whether the Brothers Grimm’s or not), this Glyndebourne La Cenerentola from the 2005 festival season establishes a drab, dark mood in its first scenes.

A recording of the complete sacred music of Antonio Vivaldi is a welcome prospect, not least because it offers an opportunity to go beyond the fame and familiarity of Vivaldiís concertos and the ubiquitous ìGloria.î