Sergiu Celibidache was without question one of the most important and original conductors in recent memory. He was a perfectionist who disliked what he perceived to be the synthetic sounds created in the modern recording studio, preferring the immediacy of the concert platform and the interaction with a live audience. This Bruckner recording celebrates the extraordinary legacy of his collaboration with the Munchner Philharmoniker, from which he was Musical Director between 1979 and his death in 1996. "One of the greatest Bruckner performances I have ever heard - a truly towering act of the re-creative imagination (...). [This performance] is centred in string playing of astonishing depth, eloquence and homogeneity. As with Giulini, it is the viola and cello sections which seem to harbour the very soul of the music. The viola cantilenas in the slow movement (...) are things of rare beauty." Gramophone
Beethoven: Fidelio (2 CD) ARTIST: Otto Klemperer The Home of Opera series offers treasures from the world's greatest opera catalogue, presenting some of the most important and admired recordings of complete operas produced by Warner Classics/EMI Classics over the last 60 years. Otto Klemperer Christa Ludwig Jon Vickers Gottlob Frick Walter Berry Ingeborg Hallstein
The Alban Berg Quartett was a string quartet founded in Vienna, Austria in 1970, named after the composer Alban Berg. It was widely considered to be the most famous string quartet in world during their era. They retired in 2008. This 2 CD set includes Beethoven String Quartets Nos: 7-11 ARTIST: Alban Berg Quartett TITLE: Beethoven: String quartets 7-11 (2CD)
The incomparable violinist Jascha Heifetz lends his prodigious talents to four performances of three famous film composers of the middle of the 20th century. Enjoy the work of Korngold, Rozsa and Waxman like never before in Heifetz's deft hands.
Berlioz: Harold en Italie Les Nuit D'ete - A new aesthetic calls for new forms: such is the challenge the composer set for himself in the two works presented here. In Les Nuits d'ete, Berlioz pioneered - well before Mahler and Ravel - the song cycle for voice and orchestra. In Harold in Italy, scored for large orchestra and solo viola, he experimented with the symphonic genre. These period-instrument performances by Francois-Xavier Roth and Les Siecles feature violist Tabea Zimmermann and vocalist Stephane Degout, heard here in the composer's own version of Les Nuits d'ete for baritone.
Something special happens when she starts to sing - something that sets off a thrill..." wrote Opera News of Vivica Genaux. This collection of three recitals showcases the virtuosity, elegance and expressivity of the Alaska-born mezzo-soprano in repertoire that has proved central to her career: Vivaldi, Handel, Rossini and Donizetti and - a composer she has championed - Johann Adolph Hasse. The recitals in this box were recorded in 2003 (Rossini/Donizetti), 2006 (Handel/Hasse) and 2009 (Vivaldi: Pyrotechnics). It was in Rossini that Vivica Genaux first made her name, particularly as Rosina in Il barbiere de Siviglia. Writing about this Rossini arias album, Time Out New York hailed Genaux "the most exciting singer in the world. Sinewy but lithe, her voice encompasses a wine-rich chest register, juiced up with just enough testosterone to keep things interesting, as well as luminous high notes that would do many a soprano proud." The first Baroque role that Vivica Genaux sung was in Handel's Ariodante, but she went on to make a particular specialty of the music of Hasse. Reviewing this album, Gramophone wrote: "Three well-crafted arias from Hasse's Arminio are ideal fare for Genaux's pinpoint accuracy and florid ornamentation." Of the album 'Pyrotechnics', Vivaldi expert Frederic Delamea wrote: "The dazzling arias in this program - some of which have never been recorded or, indeed, performed in concert - illustrate the different phases and forms of Vivaldian pyrotechnics, exploring every emotion and the most diverse dramatic situations, and continually varying instrumentation, tonality and tempo.
Following the success of her albums of Romantic and Late Romantic repertoire, Vilde Frang has recorded Mozart's Concertos Nos. 1 and 5 Turkish and the Sinfonia Concertante K364, enabling music lovers to hear the Norwegian violinist perform Classical repertoire on disc for the first time. The impetus for this album was a 2012 orchestral tour of Asia conducted by Jonathan Cohen in which Vilde performed Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5. The vibrancy of their musical collaboration was something both artists were keen to repeat and commit to disc. Vilde Frang is joined by Jonathan's Cohen's chamber orchestra, Arcangelo, and by violist Maxim Rysanov in the Sinfonia Concertante.
HARMONIA MUNDI - Stravinsky: The Soldiers Tale (English Version) - Isabelle Faust / Alexander Melnikov / Dominique Horwitz, Isabelle Faust, Lorenzo Coppola, Javier Zafra, Reinhold Friedrich, J�rgen van Rijen, Wies de Boeve, Raymond Curfs 2021 release.
VERITAS X2 SERIES is the leading range of early music recordings on the market. This new batch of ten essential reissues introduces into the Veritas range, for the first time, key recordings from the historic Erato catalogue. John Eliot Gardiner is at his best in this milestone recording showcasing the full splendor of Handel's music. Among the first historically-informed versions of these beloved choral works, the Dixit Dominus initially sold more than 500,000 copies around the world.
