Jazz
Charlie Alexander
98 products
Love's Labour's Won (Aka Much Ado About Nothing)
Glazunov: Orchestral Works Vol 7 / Anissimov, Moscow So
Anton Rubinstein: Etudes, Barcarolles / Alexander Paley
Shakespeare: Love’s Labour’s Lost / Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Also Available, a two disc set: Love’s Labour’s Lost & Love's Labour’s Won, on DVD and Blu-ray.
Rachmaninov: The Bells, The Rock / Anissimov, Field, Et Al
The RTÉ Philharmonic Choir, an Irish-based ensemble, makes a pretty impressive show of itself throughout this performance, not least for its convincingly Slavic sound. Ireland's National Symphony also transcends geography, paradoxically sounding more Russian than Pletnev's Russian National band does on his recent Deutsche Grammophon recording. For this Anissimov certainly deserves the credit: listen to how his trumpets peal against the strings in the second movement's great ascending orchestral interlude, or how in the finale the winds and brass snarl like ghostly specters from the yet-to-be-composed Symphonic Dances. Helen Field's singing in the wedding song is at once soothing and seductive, while Oleg Melnikov intones the bells of death with the requisite gravity and sense of finality. Despite the enormous dynamic range inherent in this work, Naxos' recording captures it all vividly, managing to convey both size and detail. Budget or no, these are Bells you ought to hear.
--Victor Carr Jr., ClassicsToday.com
Christmas Time Is Here / Alexander, Pacific Chorale

A full-throated and robust celebration of Christmas from the 160-voice Pacific Chorale! “Christmas Time is Here” is a marvelous compilation of colorful arrangements for choir with instrumental accompaniment from brass, harp and percussion. You will find many traditional carols in inventive, original, arrangements culminating in a joyful listening experience!
Pacific Chorale has delighted national and international audiences with concerts of great choral music performed at the highest musical standards since 1968. Under the artistic leadership of John Alexender, Pacific Chorale produces a series of concerts each year at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, where it serves as the resident choir.
Pacific Chorale has received numerous awards, including Chorus America’s prestigious “Margaret Hills Achievement Award for Choral Excellence” and the first national “Education Outreach Award”. Arts Orange County honored the Choral with the 2002 “Outstanding Arts Organization (Music)” Award, and the Orange County Department of Education presented the Chorale with its 2002 “Outstanding Contributions to Education” Award. In 2005, Pacific Chorale received the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Alice Parker Award for adventurous programming.
THRENODIES - PIANO WORKS BY BRIDGE BRITTERN BERG &
Gilbert & Sullivan: The Mikado / Castles-onion, Butel, Breen, Fiebig, Fyfe, Dark
SULLIVAN The Mikado • Brian Castles-Onion, cond; Richard Alexander ( Mikado ); Kaneen Breen ( Nanki-Poo ); Mitchell Butel ( Ko-Ko ); Warwick Fyfe ( Pooh-Bah ); Taryn Fiebig ( Yum-Yum ); Jacqueline Dark ( Katisha ); Op Australia Ch; Victoria O • OPERA AUSTRALIA Z56016CD (2 CDs: 88:00)
Every time I listen to Gilbert and Sullivan I find myself “whistling all the airs to that infernal nonsense,” in this case, Mikado . Well, not whistling actually; I don’t whistle well, but those airs do run around in my head for days and days. The Mikado is one of G&S’s cleverest and most tuneful works for the stage and that makes it one of the best operettas in the English language. Like Offenbach’s French satires, Gilbert’s librettos don’t translate quite as brilliantly to other languages, for the reason that he not only pokes fun at British customs and institutions, he satirizes the English language itself. Sullivan’s infernally catchy tunes, however, translate just fine. You can hum them in French or German or Swahili, and many do. Long the patent-holder of all Gilbert and Sullivan material, the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company did posterity no favors by declining to video-record its classic productions, in the fear that the videos would help put them out of business. Well, D’Oyly Carte went out of business anyway, after some hundred years of nurturing and protecting the G&S legacy, but for those of us who never attended a live performance, opportunities to see traditional, well-sung airings of the G&S canon with just the right British comedic insouciance are few and far between.
Happily, we have one such here. Opera Australia imported this 1985 production from Sadler’s Wells and video-recorded it once before, in 1987 (see Barry Brenesal’s review in Fanfare 35:4). Now the Aussies have dusted it off and trotted it out again with a new cast and generally excellent results. G&S depends on comedic timing and delivery (as well as many other things) to make an effect, and here two of the principals, the Ko-Ko of Mitchell Butel and the Nanki-Poo of Kanen Breen, are both very good and very funny (they both sing pretty well, too). Breen reminds me a bit of Bill Murray’s wisecracking, streetwise army buddy in Stripes , a little more hip than your usual Nanki-Poo, but very entertaining. The third male principal, Warwick Fyfe as Pooh-Bah, is not to the comedic manor born, but he turns in a solid performance, and Gilbert’s clever witticisms do most of the work for him. The three little maids in this production have none of them been schoolgirls for quite some time, but the Yum-Yum of Taryn Fiebig is sung solidly and she more than holds up her end in the comedic dialog. There are several other roles of relative importance in The Mikado and they are all performed very competently here. The Katisha, Jacqueline Dark, actually stars in the extra feature on the disc. We watch while she sits and prattles on while being made up as the rather fearsome daughter-in-law-elect. The sets and costumes just about steal the show; they are traditional, lavish, and colorful. Jugs and ewers of all types and sizes dominate the décor. Pooh-Bah seems to reside, or at least travel in, a large colorful wardrobe. It is all a bit silly, but great fun. Ko-Ko’s “list” song has been modernized to somewhat dubious effect, and one or two other Aussie verbal modifications sneak in without really hurting the show.
Actually, I misled you in the opening paragraph, for The Mikado is the one G&S work for which the D’Oyly Carte Company did make a video, for some unknown reason. Still available on VAI, it displays all of the company’s great artistry and impeccable timing honed over years and years of public performances. Not only do they all know how to deliver a comedic line, they know to anticipate audience reaction and pause perfectly for it. Unfortunately, the production is filmed without an audience present, and the D’Oyly Carte forces seem a little thrown off by it. The 1966 video stars as Ko-Ko a young John Reed, the best G&S comedic performer of his time and possibly of all time. He is a treat to watch and he definitely will be missed. The company was known in The Mikado for its snapping fan work; they actually brought in Japanese women before the premiere to show the company how to use the fans, and show the women how to walk properly. All of that is still on display in 1966. The VAI production is a classic that belongs in any G&S fan’s library. Avoid the 1982 Brent Walker production (and just about all of them for the other works as well). There is a fascinating 1939 film still available on DVD that uses several D’Oyly Carte performers of the era, including Martyn Greene, John Reed’s predecessor and highly regarded himself. This Opera Australia release is a worthy successor to the D’Oyly Carte tradition; it is funny, highly entertaining, and captures the work in much better quality video and sound than previously, especially enjoyable on Blu-ray high definition.
FANFARE: Bill White
GLOBE UNITY
Schnittke: Discoveries
Love's Labour's Won (Aka Much Ado About Nothing)
CHILL WITH RACHMANINOV
Shakespeare: Love's Labour's Lost - Love's Labour's Won (Spe
Sayve: Ad Vesperas / Ensemble Polyharmonique, Concerto Imperiale
In the 17th century the city of Liège, capital of an enormous diocese and of a principality within the Empire, was described as a “priests’ paradise” on account of its imposing cathedral, its seven collegiate churches, about thirty parish churches, and its numerous abbeys and monasteries. This recording does more than justice to two manuscript which provides rare evidence of the polyphonic repertoire in use by the Liège religious orders in the first half of the 17th century: Grand livre de chœur de Saint-Lambert and Livre d’orgue des frères croisiers. The fifty-odd 4- to 8-part motets assembled in the Grand livre de chœur are by the hand of Liège composers from the first half of the 17th century who, with the exception of Gilles Hayne, were all active at the cathedral. These motets illustrate the permanence of the rite in honor of the patron saint of the diocese, Bishop Lambert, and other acts of devotions in favor in Liège at the time. Following the traditional format of the evening office, the vespers presented here alternate psalms and antiphons and end with a Magnificat with a particularly rich tonal texture. Sayve’s Magnificat for double chorus, preserved in the national library at Ljubljana, here receives its first recording. Drawing on extant sources of composers who all maintained a link with Liège, the Polyharmonique and Concerto Imperiale ensembles, under the direction of Alexander Schneider et Fabien Moulaert, here offers a program remarkable for its great stylistic and musical coherence.
French Bel Canto Arias - Rossini & Donizetti / Lisette Oropesa
A New Yorker Notable Recording of 2022!
On her second solo album Lisette Oropesa has combined two of her greatest loves, the French language and Italian bel canto. This recording with the Dresdner Philharmonie under the baton of Corrado Rovaris showcases the variety of lesser-known and more popular works by Rossini and Donizetti, featuring arias that contain coloratura, lyricism, drama, heightened emotion, and even comedy. Star soprano Lisette Oropesa made her Pentatone debut with Ombra Compagna, Mozart Concert Arias in 2021, and sung the title heroine in a complete recording of Verdi’s La Traviata, also released on the label in 2022. The Dresdner Philharmonie was involved in that same recording, and has also participated in several other recordings released by Pentatone, such as Weber’s Der Freischütz (2019), Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, Puccini’s Il Tabarro (both 2020) and Beethoven’s Fidelio (2021). Conductor Corrado Rovaris particularly excels in bel canto and verismo repertoire, and makes his Pentatone debut.
REVIEW:
Oropesa's very first notes here, from Le Siège de Corinthe, are warm and pleading, the tone round and full–and utterly beautiful. As the voice rises, it doesn’t lose texture. The coloratura is close to flawless, as is her pitch. The roulades and runs are so fierce in the Rossini selections that, let’s face it, a touch of hesitation is to be expected and it is just that–a touch.
This is very difficult music–just think of how few recital CDs have included these two scenes. The necessary legato, the sadness, the darkening of the tone, and the purposeful use of vibrato are rare indeed; there is a true musician in the house.
Mathilde’s aria from Guillaume Tell is sure-fire. She manages it beautifully, the start of each phrase knowing full well the direction in which it’s going, the breath control natural. “Salut à la France” is divine: carefree, joyous, full of perfect downward scales and staccatos, and capped with a fine E-flat.
More than anything else, you come away from this recital with the realization that Oropesa and, indeed, the Dresden Philharmonic and conductor Corrado Rovaris, have fashioned a warmhearted, stylistically impeccable look at French bel canto, frequently overlooked. There’s nothing hackneyed here, and no ear fatigue listening to a high solo voice for 65 minutes...what a fine disc!
-- ClassicsToday (Robert Levine)
HINDSIGHT
NEW YORK CALLING
TWO OF A KIND
ERIC ALEXANDER IN EUROPE
FULL RANGE
IRON INTO WIND
SCHLIPPENBACH PLAYS MONK
BREAK A VASE
SCHLIPPENBACH TRIO
