This two-disc set entitled An Anthology of English Song is just what it says it is: a very generous collection of 53 selections drawn from 13 separate discs of songs by English composers from Stanford to Britten. Some were first issued in the '90s on the late Collins label. Some were first issued in the 2000s on the vibrant Naxos label. But all ...
A live set of Beethoven's symphonies is almost guaranteed to have some flaws, and as much as one may enjoy the exciting playing on this 2006 Edinburgh Festival cycle by Charles Mackerras with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra, audio defects detract a little from the package. In the four discs with the first ensemble, ...
With this re-release of Britten's orchestral music, another wonderful volume of the late and lamented Collins Classics Britten series is back in circulation. Led by Steuart Bedford, Collins' Britten series was a planned complete edition of the music of the great twentieth century English composer. Unfortunately, after superb releases of the song ...
Granville Bantock (1868-1946) was never one for doing things on a small scale, and his complete setting of Edward Fitzgerald's translation of The Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyám attests to the scope of his vision. The oratorio, which lasts over three hours and requires a huge orchestra and chorus, is unlikely to find a place on many concert programs, ...
Graham Johnson's Schubert edition covers all of Schubert's secular vocal compositions with piano accompaniment. However, this volume of the Schubert edition slips in a little Schubert pseudo-sacred music: a hymn to the Almighty, a hymn to the Unending, a pagan lamentation, a pantheistic hymn to the evening and another pantheistic hymn to the stars ...
This Peter Grimes from 2004 is most noteworthy for the outstanding performance of the LSO, which plays with sonic depth and vigor and benefits from conductor Colin Davis' many years of experience with the piece. It may be the finest orchestral realization of the score yet put to record. The cast is also excellent, headlined by Glenn Winslade and ...
Originally released by Koch, these recordings of key works in Arnold Schoenberg's oeuvre are now part of Naxos' Robert Craft Collection, a series of reissues that reaffirms the conductor's unflagging devotion to modern music, even if the performances and recording quality periodically flag. The pieces predate Schoenberg's discovery of the twelve ...
Handel's oratorios don't get any better than Samson. Composed directly after Messiah, Samson is a tragedy of Biblical proportions with standout roles for the soloists, wonderfully effective parts for the chorus, and brilliant scoring for the orchestra. In its day, Samson was one of Handel's most popular works, and it remained so up through the ...
Any volume of Graham Johnson's Schubert edition that has one of the numerous settings of Matthisson's Der Geistertanz is a good volume. And that this volume starts with the men of the London Schubert Chorale belting out the slightly inebriated 1816 setting from the D. 494 is a great start to what proves to be a great volume in the series. How ...
Richard Blackford avoids making a direct political indictment in Voices of Exile (2001), his five-part cantata for tape, vocalists, choir, and orchestra, yet he aims to show that displacement, torture, and imprisonment are universal conditions, and that the experiences of refugees can best be understood through the words of poets who have suffered ...
Barber fans will welcome this new recording of Vanessa, which joins an aging original-cast production from the 1950s, and a budget version on Naxos, as only the third recording made to date. It is an excellent performance that rivals the RCA original for artistic quality (and far surpasses it in clarity and richness of sound), and could easily be ...
Another volume of Graham Johnson's Schubert edition, another Schubertiad. And that is a good thing: the opportunity to hear a disc of Schubert songs grouped with intelligence and taste and featuring different singers in the songs most appropriate to them is a wonderful thing. This diversity-in-unity approach works especially well in Schubert songs ...
Raymond Leppard conducted Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor with the Ambrosian Singers and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1994, and his meticulous recording is a testament to the performers' skills and the potential of digital technology, if not really a document of a great performance. While the music may impress through its ...
One would have thought that at some point Graham Johnson would simply have run out of great Schubert songs in compiling his Schubert edition. And one would have been wrong: even here at volume 35 in a program with the unwieldy title of Schubert, 1822 -- 1825, Johnson has seemingly saved some of the best for nearly the end. But what else could a ...
It's a lovely idea: a series of recordings of the works of Lennox and Michael Berkeley with the works of father and son placed side by side. No one could deny both composers their place among the pantheon of English composers for the last 100 years. And no one would deny that the juxtaposition of the works of the father and son create new contexts ...
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![The Beethoven Symphonies Live from The Edinburgh Festival [Box Set]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/m40950yfkq0_t.jpg)
![Bantock: Omar Khayyám [Hybrid SACD]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/m42004b1iai_t.jpg)
![Barber: Vanessa [Hybrid SACD]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/m06152iyssg_t.jpg)
![Great Choral Favourites [Box Set]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/m04029xb9s4_t.jpg)
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