Two CD collection featuring the finest voices in Opera performing the most beautiful arias by the classic composers. An aria is a self-contained piece for vocals with orchestral accompaniment and this collection gathers together arias that will touch your heart and relax your soul as you are lifted by their beautiful melodies. 40 tracks including solos from Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras, Jennifer Lamore, William Christie, Marcello Viotti and many others. WEA. 2008.
2014 Maria Callas remastered series reissue. With this Abbey Road 24-bit 96kHz remaster, engineers returned to the original master tapes, bringing new clarity & brilliance to her legendary studio recordings. This Tosca, made in 1953 with the forces of LaScala, is a landmark in recording history. Conducted with searing intensity by Victor de Sabata, it teams Callas with two of her closest colleagues, the tenor Giuseppe di Stefano and the baritone Tito Gobbi - a performer who could rival Callas in dramatic finesse and power. Tosca's aria 'Vissi d'arte' (I lived for art) has come to be seen as Callas's personal manifesto.
Paganini: 24 Caprices (2015) Itzhak Perlman - Each of Paganini's 24 Caprices presents the violinist with a specific technical challenge. Emerging triumphant in consistent and spectacular fashion, Itzhak Perlman - always a perceptive musician - also tells a captivating story with every piece. With amazing album cover art.
2014 Maria Callas re-mastered series reissue. With this Abbey Road 24-bit 96kHz re-master, engineers returned to the original master tapes, bringing new clarity & brilliance to her legendary studio recordings. Callas only sang Gilda in Rigoletto in one run of performances, in Mexico City in 1952, and she recorded the role three years later. She moves beyond the girlish tone and sparkling coloratura of the character's first scenes to create a figure of tragic stature as events unfold. 'Once heard, this rendering is never likely to be forgotten, ' was Gramophone's judgment on her interpretation, and the same could apply to Tito Gobbi's, embodying every aspect of the accursed court jester.
2014 Maria Callas remastered series reissue. With this Abbey Road 24-bit 96kHz remaster, engineers returned to the original master tapes, bringing new clarity & brilliance to her legendary studio recordings. Callas sang the role of Turandot 24 times on stage, in the late 1940s. It was the role originally planned for her US debut, but the opera company went bankrupt and the performances (scheduled for Chicago in 1947) never took place. She brings unusual subtlety to Puccini's icy princess, while Elisabeth Schwarzkopf - more readily identified with Fiordiligi and the Marschallin - is surprise casting as the self-sacrificing Liu.
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto No. 2/Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 (2015) Itzhak Perlman, Bernard Haitink, Concertgebouw Orchestra. More than a decade after his first recording of the Mendelssohn and Bruch concertos, Perlman returned to them with Bernard Haitink and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, bringing new insights and an even more acute feeling for their Romantic contrasts and drama.
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto & Serenade melancolique (2015) Itzhak Perlman, Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy In Perlman's words, Tchaikovsky "wears his heart on his sleeve" and his violin concerto is a work of "unabashed Romanticism". While bringing sensitivity and substance to his interpretation, Perlman never slips into sentimentality and he leads an exhilarating dance in the finale.
Brahms: Violin Concerto (2015) Itzhak Perlman, Carlo Maria Giulini, Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Heroic, dramatic, reflective and joyous, Brahms's Violin Concerto - written for the great Joseph Joachim, a close friend of the composer - is one of the monuments of the Romantic repertoire. In a performance of epic sweep, Itzhak Perlman and Carlo Maria Giulini do full justice to it's ambitions.
