Classical Music

Classical Music

Founded in 1998 with members from the world-famous Gachinger Kantorei, Stuttgart's celebrated men's choir "Die Meistersinger" have devoted themselves to rescuing the rich repository of 19th century works for male voices from obscurity. The "Mannerchor" has a distinguished history throughout the Germanic lands, often serving the community with multiple functions such as a social club, political forum or an ad hoc auxiliary to professional guilds. In keeping with the spirit of the season, "Die Meistersinger" return to offer their perfect blend of voices and rich, goldenhued sound in a program of Christmas favorites.

Classical Music

BETWEEN FRIENDS

This is a DSD (Direct Stream Digital) recording

Includes arroro. Ensemble: Orchestra. Soloists: Marilyn Horne, Martin Katz.
Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensemble: Orchestra. Soloists: Marilyn Horne, Martin Katz.

Sermons and Devotions

MUSICAL WORLD OF JAN STEEN

Bach: Mass in B minor

Anna Maria Kaufmann the Canadian and German Musical and opera singer releases the first album on the Label Solo Musica. It's a Good Day for Singing a Song - the first line of the title song puts it in a nutshell. Anna Maria Kaufmann has fulfilled a musical dream and presents a brilliant selection of their favorite songs on her new album It's a Good Day! Anna Maria Kaufmann leading US on a musical journey into the 1950 's and 1960 's at a time when Bossa Nova Mambo and Cha Cha Cha bring the people to the dance floors. With her unique voice she performs great songs from that time period like Amado Mio and Mambo Italiano. Whether passionate melodies with Latin American rhythms such as Mambo Bacan and Libertango moving ballads such as Moon River or immortal evergreens such as Bel Ami all the songs go immediately direct into the heart.

Drawn from the worldwide catalog holdings of Sony Classical, which includes both the Columbia/CBS and RCA Victor label imprints, the SONY Classical Originals, SONY Classical Masters Singles and Box Sets, SONY Opera and Opera House series offer an extensive selection of highly desirable and collectible pressed import editions, smartly-designed and graphically-pleasing, featuring the most sought after recordings by the world's preeminent, legendary artists both past and present, with many titles newly re-mastered in 24bit High Resolution Audio.

DEBUSSY:POEMES-LIEDER

[I]t is good to be reminded how fine this RCA set is of La bohème... I had forgotten just how persuasive Solti's conducting is here, not just how forceful. He may start with all the speed and brilliance of Toscanini—though allowing Domingo and Milnes plenty of time to breathe and to enunciate words—but the warm Italianate expressiveness is then what strikes home, in Act I reaching a culmination in superb accounts of the two arias plus the duet from Domingo and Caballé, both in expansive, radiant voice. Domingo's heroic forthright view of "Che gelida manina" contrasts perfectly with the delicate, finely detailed, tenderly expressive singing of Caballé in "Si, mi chiamano Mimi", leading to enchanting exchanges in the final duetting of "0 soave fanciulla"... It will take a very special version to oust this from first place on the CD list.

-- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone [9/1986]

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Montserrat Caballé sings Mimì exquisitely, and Domingo’s gloriously sung Rodolfo is most appealing. Milnes is a likeable Marcello – he makes more of the role than many baritones do – and Judith Blegen a colourful Musetta.

-- Charles Osborne, BBC Music Magazine

Drawn from the worldwide catalog holdings of Sony Classical, which includes both the Columbia/CBS and RCA Victor label imprints, the SONY Classical Originals, SONY Classical Masters Singles and Box Sets, and SONY Opera House series offer an extensive selection of highly desirable and collectible EU (Germany) pressed import editions, smartly designed and graphically pleasing, featuring the most sought-after recordings by the world's preeminent, legendary artists both past and present, with many titles newly re-mastered in 24 bit High Resolution Audio.

The remarkable Monks of the Desert, who spend their daily hours praying for peace, working and studying in silence, make their major label debut on Sony Masterworks with an album of Gregorian chant, Blessings, Peace and Harmony. Named after Pope Gregory I, Gregorian chant involves the early Christian liturgical music that originated in medieval times and forms the roots of Western classical music.

“The kind of singing that we do calms the spirit and helps us live in peace with our world and with one another,” says Abbot Philip Lawrence, a scholar of chant who also leads the monastery of Christ in the Desert. “According to various studies, chanting has some strange effect on brain waves,” notes Abbot Philip. In modern times, many people have been attracted to Gregorian chant – believer or non-believer. There is something ethereal and transcendent about the sound, not only as entertainment, but as a deepening of a life of prayer, inner peace and sharing with others. The Monks believe that Gregorian chant is a way of touching hearts and minds. With Blessings, Peace and Harmony they hope to bring others into a world in which peace, inner tranquility and an appreciation of beauty prevail.

On his latest release on Navona Records, WISDOM-LOVE-ETERNITY, composer Michael G. Cunningham presents a collection of his choral works, performed by the K�hn Choir of Prague conducted by Marek Vorl�cek, which explore the spiritual element of the human condition, addressing the uncertainty of death, the inexpressible emotion of love, and humans' search for an understanding of God. Poetry plays a significant role in many of the works in the album. Poetry from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Shakespeare, C. P. Cranch, Francesco Petrarch, Robert Herrick, Robert Burns, P. B. Shelley, and others is introduced, inspiring contemplative, dramatic, and elaborate vocal harmonies, instrumental accompaniment, and musical imagery. Some of Cunningham's more austere writing is found in his setting of text from the Christian liturgy in works such as Come, Holy Spirit (1975) and The West Wind (1961). Audiophile Audition praises Michael G. Cunningham as "a gifted and interesting composer" Cunningham has written over 200 compositions, spanning virtually every medium. He is a respected educator and author, with more than ten books published focusing on the subjects of composition and music theory His works have been performed in Europe, Japan, Australia, and throughout the United States Cunningham's other albums - PARAGONIA, SONIC FLIGHT, GALLERY, and COLONNADE - are available through Navona Records His works are featured on the Navona compilations VOICES OF EARTH & AIR, QUADRANTS, and CONTINUUM

Félicien David was already famous through his ‘ode-symphonie’ Le Désert (1844) when his opera Herculanum was first staged at the Paris Opéra in 1859. This ambitious work, later to gain him entrance to the Opéra-Comique and the Institut de France, also played a part in earning him the Légion d’Honneur. Leaving behind the Middle Eastern inflections of his earlier scores, Herculanum is a remarkably strong composition (vast, intensely dramatic scenes), impressive in the diversity of its style (including Verdian influences) and its vocal variety (including the rare coloratura contralto voice often used by Rossini). There is also a fantastic vein, as made popular by Boieldieu (La Dame blanche, 1825) and Meyerbeer (Robert le Diable, 1831); but the supernatural is used here to serve an openly stated mysticism: the eruption of Vesuvius brings a spectacular, cataclysmic ending, signifying the decadence of the ancient world and the triumph of Christianity.

REVIEW:

Anyone interested in this period of operatic history will find the release fascinating. There’s much to enjoy, too, from the singers, who by and large make as eloquent a case for the piece as one could reasonably imagine. Véronique Gens is in fine, classy form as Lilia, and is well matched by Edgaras Montvidas as Hélios. Karine Deshayes is terrific as Olympia, too, although might perhaps have offered more in the way of imperious hauteur. The lower-voiced men are perhaps a touch disappointing, with Nicolas Courjal a rather too avuncular Satan. Hervé Niquet conducts with spirit, and the orchestra and chorus sing and play with commitment.

-- Gramophone

Melodious Accord

COSA NATURAL

This is the second volume of a two-CD series presenting the first recording of the complete Chants in over 20 years; it also contains the world premiere recording of of Alkan's Chapeau bas! Playing a repertoire from the 18th to the 21st century, Stephanie McCallum is especially noted for her performances of virtuosic music of the 19th century, particularly the music of Liszt and Alkan, and also for her advocacy of demanding contemporary solo and ensemble scores.

Cantigas & Canciones Of Latin America

Mussorgsky: Songs & Dances Of Dath / The Nursery

Theodorakis, M.: Sadduzaer-Passion

Birgit Nilsson. Richard Wagner. It was an operatic marriage made in heaven that lasted for over twenty years and, thanks to recordings, continues to thrill music lovers around the world. She sang her first Wagnerian part in Stockholm. It was Senta in Der fliegende Holl nder. It was greeted rapturously and throughout her long career it was for her Wagner and Strauss roles that she was most noted. Many of the greatest recordings of music dramas and operas by these composers have featured her, and many appear on Decca. However, she also made two Wagner records for Philips - one with Leif Segerstam in 1974 of extended scenes from Walk re and Parsifal, another, in 1972, with Colin Davis of the Wesendonck-Lieder and extracts from Der fliegende Holl nder, Rienzi and the little-known early Wagner opera, Die Feen (The Fairies). Also included are scenes from Tristan und Isolde, one of her great calling cards and of which she made one studio recording with Georg Solti, and another of scenes (with Grace Hoffman as Brang ne) with Hans Knappertsbusch.