In the wake of the smash Broadway revival and Oscar-winning film, let's look back at the 1975 original, one of the shining moments in Bob Fosse's career. Fosse, Chita Rivera and Jerry Orbach won Tony nods; the sparkling score includes All That Jazz; Me and My Baby; Funny Honey; I Can't Do It Alone, and more!

Zorba (1983 Broadway Cast Recording)

Casey & Jacobs: Grease (The New Broadway Cast Recording)

Richard Rodgers himself oversaw this wonderful production, and this CD debut brings you the complete 1965 Music Theater of Lincoln Center revival recording. Opera singer Rise Stevens and TV star Darren McGavin light up this show, featuring the first complete version of the Uncle Tom's Cabin ballet sequence.

On Broadway sees Australian actor and singer David Campbell interpreting a host of beloved musical theatre songs on record for the first time. The album combines songs from hit shows in which David has starred (Les Miserables, Guys & Dolls, Carousel) with songs from other hit musicals (Oklahoma!, Hello, Dolly!) (Sony)

Sony presents the next installment of Christian Thielemann’s complete cycle of Anton Bruckner’s symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic - the orchestra’s first Bruckner cycle under a single conductor.

The Vienna Philharmonic premiered four of Anton Bruckner’s nine symphonies, including No. 4 in 1881 and has enjoyed a unique relationship with the Austrian composer’s music since 1873. Christian Thielemann, Principal Conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden, Artistic Director of the Salzburg Easter Festival since 2013 and Music Director of the Bayreuth Festival, is his generation’s most esteemed interpreter of the Romantic Austro-German repertoire. In the midst of a mutually stimulating relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic, he conducted his first New Year’s Concert with the orchestra in 2019.

REVIEW:

From expectant pizzicatos and hallowed strings to the blazing brass at the finish, for eighty-two minutes Christian Thielemann and the Vienna Philharmonic engage and illuminate us with this majestic, sonorous and deeply expressive account of the mighty Fifth (Nowak’s edition), captured during March last year in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein, resplendently and with focus within the generous acoustic.

It’s an eloquent and powerful performance, detailed, dynamic, as capable of cathedral hush and awe as being sonically magnificent in Heaven-reaching fortissimos, the latter avoiding coarseness and brass-heavy balances. Drama, too, in the way Thielemann adjusts tempos without losing the movements’ threads and invests such as a quiet bass line with significance.

-- Colin's Column

The Overture is played with a sombre foreboding, the Peasants' March has a good raw sound, and the Wolfs Glen is vividly characterized. Among the singers, the most distinguished performance comes from Sharon Sweet. She has a most expressive sense of phrasing, always feeling the words and varying her rich, warm tone to convey them. Her two main numbers, ''Leise, leise'' and ''Und ob die Wolke'', are beautifully contemplative; and she joins sensitively in the Trio and the other ensembles. Ruth Ziesak's Aennchen sounds indeed a relation, with a family kinship in manner: she is less soubrettish than most singers of the role, but lively enough, and she makes an amusing success of the silly song about the dog. There is a magnificent Kaspar from Kurt Rydl, who glitters darkly in the Drinking Song, delivers ''Schweig! Schweig!'' with appalling menace, and speaks his lines in the Wolfs Glen more powerfully than any other performer of the role. Peter Seiffert brings to Max a good reputation as a Heldentenor in Wagner and Strauss; but there is an edge to his voice, and he can sound strained and even tremulous, as if he is trying too hard with melodic lines that for much of the time owe more to French example.

– Gramophone

Also available on Blu-ray

This is L.A. Opera's latest production of Giuseppe Verdi's ''Macbeth'' featuring Placido Domingo in the title role alongside the Russian mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Semenchuk as Lady Macbeth. The opera is staged by Darko Tresnjak, who won a Tony Award for his direction of the Broadway music ''A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder.'' ''Placido Domingo commands the stage and the music he sings...He was genuinely impressive.'' (Los Angeles Times) ''When I was a young tenor, I loved playing romantic or heroic leading roles. When I began to add baritone parts to my repertoire six years ago, I was particularly interested in playing fathers, as I could draw from my own experience as a family man. Macbeth is a completely different kind of role for me. He is a murderer, but I think that he is also something of a victim, drawn into his crimes by the witches and by Lady Macbeth.'' (Placido Domingo)

Also available on standard DVD

This is L.A. Opera's latest production of Giuseppe Verdi's ''Macbeth'' featuring Placido Domingo in the title role alongside the Russian mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Semenchuk as Lady Macbeth. The opera is staged by Darko Tresnjak, who won a Tony Award for his direction of the Broadway music ''A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder.'' ''Placido Domingo commands the stage and the music he sings...He was genuinely impressive.'' (Los Angeles Times) ''When I was a young tenor, I loved playing romantic or heroic leading roles. When I began to add baritone parts to my repertoire six years ago, I was particularly interested in playing fathers, as I could draw from my own experience as a family man. Macbeth is a completely different kind of role for me. He is a murderer, but I think that he is also something of a victim, drawn into his crimes by the witches and by Lady Macbeth.'' (Placido Domingo)

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 24bit High Resolution Audio.

Since there are dozens of recordings of Il trovatore available, of which a half dozen are more than good, no one would have guessed that the world needed another. But here, taken from a series of live performances at La Scala in December of 2000, Riccardo Muti gives us a thrilling reading, filled with a type of energy we rarely encounter live and even more rarely on disc. The score is presented complete, with all repeats, and no optional high notes. (Muti attempts to justify the omission of Manrico’s optional high C at the close of “Di quella pira” in the booklet; it reads like nonsense: “…he runs off to save this crazy old lady he is not even sure is his mother…. This is someone who sings and holds high Cs? Where is the truth in that?” Huh, Riccardo?). Nevertheless both Leonora and Azucena add tiny but appealing embellishments (more like variations) to their vocal lines once or twice: so how is that justified?

Never mind—Muti whips the orchestra into a fantastic frenzy during Manrico’s manic cabaletta; elsewhere it sighs with Leonora or accompanies ideally. Perhaps the most impressive thing about this set is its rhythmic thrust and accuracy; no singer is allowed to hold back the musical line, and by not permitting any star-turn rubatos the action remains vibrant. The Leonora/di Luna duet in Act 4 moves along at a remarkable clip, almost breathlessly, reminiscent of Donizetti at his best. And there is less of the oom-pah-in-the-orchestra effect audible in this performance than in any other of this work I can think of; and while the ghastly story unfolds well, it is the peaceful, one-on-one moments that stay in the memory.

Frittoli is an elegant Leonora, singing with accuracy and dignity. The sound itself is not soft and caressing, but she does nice things with words and dynamics. The late Salvatore Licitra would appear to have been a real “Italian” tenor, capable of nice mobidezza in “Ah si, ben mio,” and in the soft scenes with Azucena; elsewhere he’s generous of voice and exciting. Violetta Urmana has a voice almost too beautiful for Azucena; we’ve all come to prefer a chestier, more aggressive sound (Cossotto, Bumbry, etc), but here she’s in keeping with the intimacy Muti’s after and she sings not only realistically but gorgeously. Leo Nucci is a bit long in the tooth to be a brute of a di Luna, and he wavers from pitch occasionally, but his innate musicality saves the day.

The La Scala forces play and sing for Muti as if they feared for their lives—you can draw your own conclusions. The engineers have captured the stage ambiance and balance beautifully while keeping extraneous sounds very limited; the audience was apparently forced to sit on its collective hands until the end of acts and were threatened with death if they coughed or sniffled. In all, this Trovatore is an ear-opener.

--Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

This album is part of the 25-disc box set Un siècle de musique fracaise, which explores French music from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century. This disc profiles French composer Pierre Boulez, and includes his famous Le Marteau sans Maitre.

A budget-priced collection of highlights from among the composer's solo piano, chamber, vocal, and orchestral works, including his famous Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani in G minor.

A symphonic profile of eight outstanding French composers of the 19th & 20th centuries, with the majority of recordings featuring Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

These two discs profile French composer Erik Satie, and include his famous works Gymnopedies, gnossiennes et autres pieces pour piano.