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Daniel Deronda (Unabridged)

Naxos AudioBooks

$163.98 Oct 02, 2015

Following a chance meeting at a European gambling hall, the separate lives of Daniel Deronda and Gwendolen Harleth are immediately intertwined. Daniel, an Englishman of uncertain parentage, becomes Gwendolen's redeemer as she, trapped in a loveless marriage, finds herself drawn to his spiritual and altruistic nature. But Daniel's path is set when he rescues a young Jewish woman from suicide... Daniel Deronda, George Eliot's final novel, is a remarkable work, encompassing themes of religion, imperialism and gender within it's broad scope. Juliet Stevenson is one of the UK's leading actresses, her film credits including Truly, Madly, Deeply and Emma. For Naxos AudioBooks she has recorded Lady Windermere's Fan, Sense and Sensibility, To the Lighthouse, Middlemarch and many more.

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Daniel Deronda (Unabridged)
Naxos AudioBooks Oct 2015
CD
$163.98

Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas / Roberts

Nimbus

$69.99 May 01, 2005

Overall, I’d certainly strongly endorse the complete Nimbus set for reliable performances.

The arrival on the scene of a bright new talent in the Beethoven Piano Sonatas in the form of the young Korean pianist HJ Lim (EMI Classics 50999 7041855 2) has prompted me to return to the Nimbus set. The virtues of complete sets by the likes of Alfred Brendel (Philips 438 1342 – see June 2011/2 Download Roundup) and Wilhelm Kempff (DG – see below) are well enough known but, for some reason, we seem never to have got around to reviewing the Nimbus set with Bernard Roberts. Not the least of its virtues is that, with some ingenious organisation, the CD set is far less bulky than you might imagine: the 11 CDs come in two double-size cases, holding five discs plus booklet and six discs respectively, all housed inside a cardboard slip case.

I actually started to write a review of the complete Nimbus set a year ago, and lost what I’d written, apart from some notes and jottings, when my computer crashed. I was able to piece some of these together in time for the November 2011/2 Download Roundup, but fortunately, when I lost what I’d written, my friend Geoffrey Molyneux, who knows a great deal more about pianism than I ever did and has owned the Nimbus set for some time, came to the rescue. I promised then to patch my notes back together to finish that review but got around only partially to doing it.

Whereas Roberts’ recordings arose from mature consideration, HJ Lim has committed the whole œuvre to disc at an early stage in her career, whether from brave assurance or youthful bravado I was very interested to find out. You can do so for yourself from the Naxos Music Library if you have access to that extremely valuable service. They offer both the first two 2-CD single volumes and the complete set. As they also have the Roberts recordings, that’s a good way to compare for yourself.

Volume 1 from Lim contains Sonatas 29 Hammerklavier, 11, 26 Les Adieux, 4, 9, 10, 13 Quasi una fantasia and 14 Moonlight ( 730092, 2 CDs for around £12.50). The complete set (omitting the Op.49 sonatas because Beethoven didn’t intend them for publication) comes on 8 CDs for around £40 ( 4649522). Those willing to download can obtain Volume 1 for £6.99 from sainsburysentertainment.co.uk. They also have the complete 8-CD set to download for £10.99, though you may prefer to obtain this from amazon.co.uk for £12.99, complete with the pdf version of the booklet.

Lim opens both Volume 1 and the complete set with the Hammerklavier Sonata. She takes the first movement at a cracking pace – 10:24 against Roberts’ 11:42, making her performance commensurate with Earl Wild, at 10:20 one of the fastest ever accounts (Ivory Classics 76001). I was impressed by her technique; it makes a barnstorming opening to the set, but it’s all a bit too much unvaried and ‘hell-for-leather’; at his slightly slower tempo Roberts achieves much more light and shade in this movement and throughout the work, not least in his reading of the slow movement, where his 17:58 allows him to achieve Innigkeit without sounding portentous. At 12:50 Lim is certainly appassionato; she doesn’t sound as rushed as I might have expected from the different timings, but she doesn’t quite achieve the affective quality demanded by the marking con molto sentimento.

Artur Schnabel’s recording of this sonata may come on an album subtitled ‘Scholar of the Piano’ (EMI Icons 2650642) but there’s much more than scholarship involved in his performance. This remains my benchmark, especially for the slow movement: his tempo almost exactly matches that of Roberts, but he captures the affective qualities even more without ever sounding ponderous. His recording comes with a degree of light surface noise, but it’s never excessive and the piano tone is truly remarkable for its age. Nevertheless, Roberts offers a better-recorded modern alternative that I can certainly live with.

I should add that reviewers have been very much divided about Lim’s performances; some have seen a great deal more of value in them than I have. In the finale of the Hammerklavier I hear some of the qualities that her admirers postulate – she’s actually very little faster overall than Schnabel and her playing is certainly risoluto – but my own ultimate judgement hinges on whether I would wish to add her complete recording or Volume 1 to my over-crowded collection. I have to say that I wouldn’t, even at the attractive prices that I’ve mentioned.

On the other hand, I would certainly have considered purchasing the Roberts set, especially at the special price of £28 post free for which it’s offered by MusicWeb International. You won’t even find them as a download for less. I know that I’m effectively blowing our own trumpet, but I dipped into sonatas from every period of Beethoven’s working life, comparing what I heard with other versions that I knew, and found that Roberts stood up well to the competition in every respect. He is not always top dog in a particular sonata, but nearly always close. The whole set is so inexpensive that I would recommend beginners to buy it and to add individual recordings later.

CD 1 of the Nimbus set gets off to a quiet start with Sonata No.1 from 1795. Though there are signs of the distinctive Beethoven manner to come here, Roberts doesn’t stress these by over-egging the pudding; he gives a very satisfying, neat, tidy, but not too delicate account, taken at a fairly brisk pace throughout, though never sounding rushed. The same is true of No.2 and No.3, which open CD 2 and CD 3 respectively.

You might expect Lim to do particularly well in these youthful sonatas, so I turned to her account of No.1 in expectation. Predictably her tempi are consistently a little faster than Roberts’, but not to a huge extent. There’s certainly lightness of touch but it’s allied with underlying strength and I enjoyed this performance.

Nimbus CD 1 closes with the Appassionata Sonata, from Beethoven’s middle period. Roberts gives this, right from the start, the soulful treatment which its name implies. In the opening movement he takes Beethoven’s marking allegro assai with a pinch of salt, perhaps thinking, as I have seen suggested, that Beethoven sometimes confused the French assez (fairly) and the Italian assai (very). Whatever the reason, 10:13 – almost a minute longer than most performances – seems to me to be reasonable for this movement, especially as Roberts indulges in a degree of rubato (not excessive) to achieve it. I’m with Roberts and his slightly weightier tempo here, but if you are looking for a compromise, Jenö Jandó on Naxos (8.550294, with No.21 and No.23) – as usual reliable without being exceptional – splits the difference between Roberts and the ‘mainstream’, as does Alfred Brendel on his early Vox recording (CDX-5042, 2 CDs: Nos.16-19, 21-23 and 26 – or Alto ALC1016, Nos.8, 14, 23 and 26). In his recording of the Appassionata with the Emperor Concerto (Philips 468 6662, with VPO/Rattle), Brendel is even closer to Roberts in this movement.

There’s respect for the marking andante con moto, too, from Roberts in the second movement, though I might have welcomed a slightly faster pace at the outset. In the finale he observes both parts of the marking ( allegro non troppo), so there’s nothing headlong, but there is plenty of power and emotion and the concluding bars are taken at a virtuoso pace. Overall I found this a very satisfying account, bringing a degree of new light to a well-known work without being at all quirky. Listening to it a second time was even more convincing.

Predictably, Lim allies herself throughout with those who take a faster view of this sonata, though her tempi are not extreme she actually takes the opening movement slightly slower than Angela Hewitt on the first volume of her Beethoven recordings. Lim takes the finale at quite a lick but so, for example, does Vladimir Ashkenazy (Decca Eloquence 480 1309). Though her version certainly works for me, so too does Roberts’.

If HJ Lim has set her interpretations down at an early stage in her career, David Wilde is something of a wonder for the opposite reason – though well into his seventies, he’s only just entered the limelight, yet he plays with a combination of the technique of a young virtuoso and the maturity of a seasoned practitioner on his recording of Nos. 21 Waldstein, 17 Tempest and 31 (Delphian DCD34090: Recording of the Month and November 2011/2 Download Roundup.)

The d minor Sonata, Op.31/2, the Tempest, dates from the transitional period between the earliest works, such as the Op.18 Quartets, and the very productive middle period. This was the period of the Third Piano Concerto when Beethoven’s music was beginning to break away from the influence of the previous generation of Haydn and Salieri. Wilde takes a more expansive view of the first movement, adopts roughly the same tempo as Roberts for the adagio, and is slightly faster in the allegretto finale. I thought Roberts somewhat routine in this sonata, especially in the adagio, which sounds ponderous rather than affective.

I certainly preferred Wilde in the finale, though Brian Reinhart, for all his admiration of the album as a whole, had some reservations here. Roberts’ finale offers us the letter of the music with exemplary technique, but it seems to miss the last degree of joy. I appreciate that it’s allegretto, not allegro, but I felt that Wilde’s 7:05 was more in the spirit of the music than Roberts’s 7:26. The latter seems to offer a view of a composer who is not yet completely his own man, not yet what Roberts himself describes in the brief notes as ‘dynamic, deeply expressive and visionary’. Lim rattles through this movement at an unbelievable 6:01; that’s preferable to Roberts and I can only marvel that none of the phrasing is slurred at this speed, but Wilde’s is the version of this sonata to have.

Though my recommendation of the Nimbus set overall holds, therefore, this illustrates the hazards of relying on just one artist throughout; for this sonata I’d certainly add another version. Though I listened to Roberts on CD and to Wilde from an mp3 download (albeit at the full 320kb/s rate, from classicsonline.com), which ought to give Roberts an edge, Wilde sounded more dynamic from the very opening of the first movement, the slow movement a little more expressive and the finale a little more joyful. Both Wilde and Roberts are preferable here to Thomas Sauer, whose recording of the Op.31 Sonatas I found somewhat wanting (MSR Classics MS1284).

David Wilde offers the middle-period Waldstein Sonata, No.21 on his new recording, one of the works also available separately from Nimbus. Wilde, who takes both sections very slightly faster than Roberts, is closer to the general consensus and on the whole slightly preferable. This time I think the contest between the two pianists a little less weighted in Wilde’s favour, though generally agreeing with Brian Reinhart, who thought this probably the highlight of the disc.

Lim plays the Waldstein on the second disc of Volume 2 – CD4 of the complete set. Here again, the tempo of the first movement is too hectic: at 9:58 against Wilde’s 10:48 and Roberts’s 11:05, the music doesn’t have time to breathe. The same is true of the Introduzione, here tracked as a separate movement, as on the Wilde recording. The final Rondo is a real tour de force combined with real delicacy in the slower sections, though the transition between the two can sound a little abrupt and brutal.

BR was slightly less impressed by Wilde’s take on the late sonata, Op.110. These late works are as difficult to bring off as the Late String Quartets with which they are contemporaneous; both perplexed Beethoven’s audiences and both can provide difficult listening even for modern ears.

There’s one set of the late sonatas that remains my benchmark: Wilhelm Kempff on DG E453 0102, an inexpensive 2-disc set of Nos. 27-32 from his 1960s stereo recordings. I didn’t consult him in the case of the Hammerklavier for fear of seeming to be unduly influenced by nostalgia, but I can’t resist calling Kempff into comparison for No.31, Op.110. Jens Laurson, writing about Kempff’s recordings in a survey of what was available at the time (2009) finds it hard to pin down exactly what it is that makes Kempff’s Beethoven so superb. Overall I can’t better his summing up – ‘Solid, in the best, most empathetically positive sense of the word.’

Kempff and Roberts adopt almost exactly the same tempo in each of the opening movements of Op.110, with Wilde just a little slower than either. All three combine the cantabile and molto espressivo aspects of the first movement very well. Wilde is a little faster in the adagio and fuga but, again, there’s very little in it. Kempff, on whose recording DG run these last two sections together, takes just 9:44 overall against Roberts’ 11:24 and Wilde’s 11:15. Both sections from Kempff are faster: his adagio is certainly more non troppo than from Roberts or Wilde, without losing any of its emotive power, and his fugue is certainly allegro without losing sight of the non troppo marking and without sounding hurried. As good as Roberts and Wilde are here, I’d certainly also want Kempff’s recording as an alternative.

Lim is even faster in the adagio and fuga – tracked together on her recording, as with Kempff, and coming in at just 8:34. She starts the adagio portentously and she’s generally both affective and effective in this section; by the clock she’s the fastest of all the recordings that I compared without seeming unduly hasty. Indeed, though she’s a minute faster overall even than Kempff, I enjoyed her take on this sonata more than I had expected.

Lim ends volume 1 with the Moonlight Sonata. In the first movement she’s notably faster than Roberts and at least some of the magic is lost thereby; a good deal less than you might imagine from the comparative timings, but Roberts captures the fantasia and allows us much better to see that the nickname is apt. I didn’t enjoy Lim’s tentative account of the second movement; it’s as if she were thinking out her approach on the spot where Roberts knows where he’s going from the start. Lim’s finale is sufficiently agitato but here again there’s too much of a scrabble, even at a basic tempo not much faster than that of Roberts, and I thought her less than fully involved with the music.

One advantage of the Delphian recording concerns the inclusion of Wilde’s own notes, which are informative not only about the music but also about some of his decisions in performance. Even at the extremely advantageous price, I could have wished that Nimbus had also offered more detailed notes; you get just the playing times plus two pages on the music and a page on Bernard Roberts. If you purchase the Lim complete recording as a download from amazon.co.uk, the booklet of notes comes as part of the deal; I haven’t seen this, but I understand that some of HJ Lim’s thoughts are a little bizarre.

Overall, then, I’d certainly strongly endorse the complete Nimbus set for reliable performances – often much than that – a decent quality of recording and sheer value. I’d want to supplement it with individual recordings from some of the artists whom I’ve mentioned. Regrettably, despite their availability at a most advantageous price, neither of the individual twofers from HJ Lim’s new recordings nor her complete set would be among them. Give her Beethoven a few years to settle down and a complete set from her may well be well worth hearing. Meanwhile, if you’re looking to supplement Roberts with performances from a young pianist on top form, try Ingrid Fliter in Nos. 8 Pathétique, 17 and 23 Appassionata (EMI 045732: Bargain of the Month and September 2011/2 Download Roundup).

-- Brian Wilson, MusicWeb International

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Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas / Roberts
Nimbus May 2005
CD
$69.99

Sheppard: Media Vita / Choir Of New College Oxford, Robert Quinney

Linn Records

$20.99 Oct 23, 2020

The Choir of New College Oxford, one of the most acclaimed British choral ensembles, makes its Linn debut with a recording of works by the English Renaissance composer John Sheppard. New College Choir was already 150 years old when Sheppard arrived in Oxford intent on contributing to the wealth of choral polyphony that defined the era. Media vita is his most celebrated work, almost symphonic in its proportions, in which he combines and elevates conventional Tudor musical devices to striking effect. Sheppard’s boundary-pushing polyphony requires the skill and precision of liturgical professionals, and in the hands of director Robert Quinney it is compelling. The programme is completed by several motets in which Sheppard sets text from the Old Testament; we are delighted that four of these motets are premiere recordings: A solis ortus cardine, Inclina Domine, Iudica me Deus and Confitebor tibi. This is another distinctive and stylish performance from this acclaimed choir, which marks the first in a new series of recordings for Linn Records.

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Sheppard: Media Vita / Choir Of New College Oxford, Robert Quinney
Linn Records Oct 2020
CD
$20.99

Solitude -Robert & Clara Schumann: Piano Works / Benjamin Kim, Niek Baar

Channel Classics

$20.99 Sep 08, 2023

The album Solitude features music of Robert Schumann and Clara Schumann. Dutch violinist Niek Baar and American pianist Ben Kim tell us: “Robert Schumann brought us together as duo partners and as friends. His writing, obsessively swinging between fiery turmoil and tender longing, gave us a common language to communicate with one another”. On this recording, Robert Schumann's Violin Sonatas Nos. 2 & 3 are paired with Clara Schumann's 3 Romances, Op. 22. Listening to her romances, we note that Clara quotes Robert's Violin Sonata No. 1. This romantic gesture underlines the artistic bond between Clara and Robert Schumann.

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Solitude -Robert & Clara Schumann: Piano Works / Benjamin Kim, Niek Baar
Channel Classics Sep 2023
CD
$20.99

Arena di Verona Collection, Vol. 1

BelAir Classiques

DVD

$42.99 Jul 26, 2019

For their 88th year the prestigious Arena di Verona Festival paid tribute to internationally acclaimed Italian stage director Franco Zeffirelli. Zeffirelli delivers an opulent staging of the fairy-tale story of the Chinese Princess Turandot, who will only marry a prince capable of solving her riddles. Russian soprano Maria Guleghina gives a brilliant rendition of Turandot. Salvatore Licitra's trump card is his imposingly radiant tenor voice of which he remains in sovereign control even in the role's much-feared highest register. The soprano Tamar Iveri is a beautiful and sensitive Liù. Romeo et Juliette had not been performed at the Arena since 1977. The new production was entrusted to Italian director Francesco Micheli, who opted for a personal, highly original version: 'An arena within the Arena, like a blood-red Elizabethan theatre. A senescent world that will not let it's own children live.' Juliette is sung by Georgian soprano Nino Machaidze, returning to one of her early roles at the Salzburg Festival. Stefano Secco, often heard at the Opera Bastille in Paris and other international venues, is Romeo. Artur Rucinski interprets Mercutio, Romeo's friend and the rival of Jean-Francois Borras's Tybalt. The page Stephano is sung by soprano Ketevan Kemoklidze. Aida To celebrate the bicentennial of Giuseppe Verdi's birth, La Fura dels Baus opens the 'Centenario Festival 2013' of the Arena di Verona. Carlus Padrissa and Alex Olle sign a brilliant new version of Aida. Aida is the most popular opera at the Verona Festival, the only one performed every year, 17000 spectators enjoy the show every evening. This new production is designed by La Fura dels Baus. They transform the arena into a huge desert, creating mechanical animals and manufacture a solar power plant. They use their experience in leading large-scale shows and opera to create the Aida of the XXIst century splendidly conducted by a young talented conductor : Omer Meir Wellber.

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Arena di Verona Collection, Vol. 1
BelAir Classiques Jul 2019
DVD
$42.99

Boito: Nerone

Urania Records

$32.99 Jan 16, 2026

Despite being a work of great importance for the history of Italian opera, Nerone has almost no discography, except for the late Hungaroton edition (with Hungarian interpreters). Fortunately, in 1975, the Italian Rai of Torino produced this precious live edition under the Gavazzeni conduction, without any noise from the audience and with a perfect stereophonic recording. This is the best available performance of an opera that deserves the utmost attention, and which for years has not been available until today, thanks to the restoration by Urania Records.

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Boito: Nerone
Urania Records Jan 2026
CD
$32.99

The Decameron (Unabridged)

Naxos AudioBooks

$73.95 ~~$147.98~~ Save 50% Nov 10, 2017

The Decameron is one of the greatest literary works of the Middle Ages. Ten young people have fled the terrible effects of the Black Death in Florence and, in an idyllic setting, tell a series of brilliant stories, by turns humorous, bawdy, tragic and provocative. This celebration of physical and sexual vitality is Boccaccio’s answer to the sublime other-worldliness of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Known for its widespread influence including Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and poetry by Keats, The Decameron is also a valuable document of life at the time of the Black Death. This is the first unabridged cast recording in English and includes prolific stage actor Simon Russell Beale. Ten original songs are featured, composed by West End composer Steven Edis. Guido Waldman’s vibrant translation captures the exuberance of Boccaccio’s masterpiece.

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The Decameron (Unabridged)
Naxos AudioBooks Nov 2017
CD
~~$147.98~~ $73.95

Donizetti: Roberto Devereux

BelAir Classiques

Blu-Ray

$31.99 Nov 11, 2016

In the last and most dramatic aria in “Roberto Devereux,” one of the four Tudor period operas composed by Donizetti in 1837 (along with “Anna Bolena,” “Maria Stuarda,” and “Il Castello di Kenilworth,”) the protagonist, Queen Elizabeth I of England, exclaims: “I do not reign, I do not live.” This statement encapsulates great operatic themes, and it is the culmination of an opera that reveals the passions of characters who live among palace intrigues. Written in the mature period of the leader of Italian romanticism, the opera displays a great vocal virtuosity, and is an example of Donizetti prizing the voice above all in the genre. The staging, by South African director Alessandro Talevi, who has been very successful in great opera houses as well as with more experimental theatre, places the play in an undetermined period, focusing on the chiaroscuro. Bruno Campanella conducts the production with Mariella Devia in the lead. “This was a most promising start to the season, a first-class rendition of a neglected work and a joyful confirmation of Mariella Devia’s well-deserved place in bel canto history.” (Bachtrack.com)

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Donizetti: Roberto Devereux
BelAir Classiques Nov 2016
Blu-Ray
$31.99

ROBERTO DEVEREUX
VIDEO ARTISTS INT'L Jun 2001
DVD
$37.49

Weber: Overtures / Kantorow, Tapiola Sinfonietta

BIS

SACD

$21.99 Jun 01, 2011

Although celebrated as the father of German Romantic opera, Carl Maria von Weber is today generally known for one opera alone: Der Freischütz. Most of his other works for the stage - including the incidental music for several plays - are nowadays rarely performed. But their overtures have survived the test of time and are popular fillers at orchestral concerts, imbued as they are with Weber's particular mix of Romantic drama and lyricism and Classical lightness of touch. Striking is also the inimitable, colourful instrumentation, which is given free reins in these scores for librettos and plays that are set in China and Arabia, and among Spanish gypsies and knights in 12th-century France. The present disc includes ten of these gems, from the overture to Weber's first surviving opera Peter Schmoll und seine Nachbarn - composed at the age of fifteen - to that of Oberon, written in London for Covent Garden less than two months before his death from tuberculosis, aged 39. The team of Jean-Jacques Kantorow and the Tapiola Sinfonietta have recorded numerous discs for BIS, by composers as diverse as Saint-Saëns, Mozart, Shostakovich and Rautavaara. Acclaimed releases have also been dedicated to the music of Weber, most recently his symphonies on a disc which was described as 'without doubt among the finest additions to the Weber discography in recent years' by the reviewer of the German magazine Fono Forum. His French colleague in Diapason was equally enthusiastic, remarking upon the dramatic qualities of the recording: 'Kantorow stages a theatre of sounds in which each instrument is an actor...'

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Weber: Overtures / Kantorow, Tapiola Sinfonietta
BIS Jun 2011
SACD
$21.99

Schubert: Male Choruses / Robert Sund, Orphei Drängar
BIS May 2000
CD
$21.99

Johann Bernhard Bach: Ouvertures / Joubert-Caillet, L'Acheron

Ricercar

$20.99 Oct 28, 2016

Johann Bernhard Bach (1676-1749) is a relatively unknown member of the Bach family. He is more widely known by association to his famous first cousin once removed, Johann Sebastian. A disciple of Pachelbel, Johann Bernhard was in the service of the court of Eisenach and left us only instrumental music. His four Ouvertures for orchestra constitute the obvious link between French music of the Grand Siecle and the compositions that Johann Sebastian would write in Weimar and Cothen. This release is an interesting missing link to be rediscovered.

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Johann Bernhard Bach: Ouvertures / Joubert-Caillet, L'Acheron
Ricercar Oct 2016
CD
$20.99

Berg: Wozzeck / Albrecht, Dutch National Opera, Netherlands Philharmonic [Blu-ray]

Naxos AudioVisual

Blu-Ray

$34.99 Nov 09, 2018

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

Based on real events and drawing on Georg Büchner’s revolutionary play, Alban Berg’s Wozzeck turns a grimly tragic narrative of violence and murder into one of the most powerful and original operas of the 20th century. Berg’s uncompromising portrayal of brutality and madness generated much controversy, but the significance of Wozzeck was soon recognised; its compelling lyrical expansiveness, large-scale dramatic gestures and remarkable musical structures producing music of overwhelming emotional intensity. The Financial Times declared this to be "a beautiful, moving, engrossing production… this is a consummate Wozzeck, blending clarity, lyricism, compassion and crushing force."

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REVIEW:

Marc Albrecht embeds Wozzeck within a lineage of lyrically sprung, dance-driven operas from Weber’s Oberon to Der Rosenkavalier, taking in Lortzing and Die Fledermaus along the way. The singing is accomplished with style, especially the astonishingly secure Captain of Marcel Beekman and the engagingly sinister comic turn of Willard White as the Doctor. Even were it not among the most beautifully played and sung accounts on record and film, this Wozzeck would command attention for Krzysztof Warlikowski’s staging.

– Gramophone

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Berg: Wozzeck / Albrecht, Dutch National Opera, Netherlands Philharmonic [Blu-ray]
Naxos AudioVisual Nov 2018
Blu-Ray
$34.99

Weber: Overtures / Neeme Järvi, The Philharmonia

Chandos

$21.99 Aug 01, 1992

Recorded in: St Jude on the Hill, Hampstead, London 29-20 April 1989 and 30 April 1990 Recorded in: All Saints' Church, Tooting, London 19 October 1990 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Ben Connellan (Assistant) Jeffrey Ginn (Assistant) Peter Newble (Assistant)

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Weber: Overtures / Neeme Järvi, The Philharmonia
Chandos Aug 1992
CD
$21.99

Verdi: Oberto / Gardelli, Dimitrova, Bergonzi, Panerai
Orfeo Feb 1987
CD
$32.99

Ockeghem: Complete Songs, Vol. 2 / Metcalfe, Blue Heron

Blue Heron Renaissance Choir

$21.99 May 03, 2024

Johannes Ockeghem (c. 1420-1497) was one of the most celebrated musicians of the fifteenth century and one of the greatest composers of all time. He was every bit the equal of J.S. Bach in contrapuntal technique and profound expressivity, and like Bach able to combine the most rigorous intellectual structure with a beguiling sensuality. His two dozen songs set French lyric poetry in the courtly forms of his era—rondeau, virelai, and ballade—to exquisitely crafted polyphony in which all voices are granted equally beautiful and compelling melodies.

This CD is the companion to Blue Heron’s 2019 release, Johannes Ockeghem: Complete Songs, Volume 1, which was named to the Bestenliste of the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik and acclaimed in Gramophone as “performances of absolute clarity, beautifully in tune, beautifully balanced and beautifully recorded”; Early Music enthused that “the Boston-based ensemble is at its finest—a summit quite sublime.… The group’s extraordinary rapport with the music is evident everywhere in the recording; each melodic line is not only clear and precise but also imbued with obvious affection.”

Besides twelve of Ockeghem’s songs, the disc includes two related works (Gilles Binchois’s Pour prison, quoted by Ockeghem in his song La despourveue, and Johannes Cornago’s Qu’es mi vida, arranged by Ockeghem) and an anonymous instrumental arrangement of Ockeghem’s Je n’ay dueil. The CD booklet contains complete texts and translations, and notes by music historian Sean Gallagher and Blue Heron’s artistic director, Scott Metcalfe.

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Ockeghem: Complete Songs, Vol. 2 / Metcalfe, Blue Heron
Blue Heron Renaissance Choir May 2024
CD
$21.99

Ockeghem: Complete Songs, Vol. 1 / Metcalfe, Blue Heron

Blue Heron Renaissance Choir

$21.99 Nov 01, 2019

A New York Times 25 Best Classical Track Selection for 2019

One year after winning the 2018 Gramophone Classical Music Award for Early Music for the fifth album in its series Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks, and just one month after releasing the world premiere recording of Cipriano de Rore’s I madrigali a cinque voci, Blue Heron announces the release of the first in a new series of recordings dedicated to the music of Johannes Ockeghem and his contemporaries. Johannes Ockeghem: Complete Songs, vol. 1 is the first of two releases which will present all of Ockeghem’s songs in a complete set; the second is planned for release in 2022. The songs have not been recorded complete since the early 1980s. Johannes Ockeghem (c. 1420-1497) was one of the most celebrated musicians of the fifteenth century and is one of the greatest composers of all time, every bit the equal of J.S. Bach in contrapuntal technique and profound expressivity, and like Bach able to combine the most rigorous intellectual structure with a beguiling sensuality. His two dozen songs set French lyric poetry in the courtly forms of the fifteenth century—rondeau, virelai, and ballade—to exquisitely crafted polyphony in which all voices are granted equally beautiful and compelling melodies. Besides eleven of Ockeghem’s songs, the disc includes two related works: the anonymous En atendant vostre venue from the recently-discovered Leuven Chansonnier (probably copied c. 1475 in the Loire Valley, where Ockeghem lived and worked), whose text borrows the first line of Ockeghem’s Quant de vous seul, and Au travail suis by the composer Barbingant, which quotes both text and music from the opening of Ockeghem’s Ma maistresse. The booklet contains complete texts and translations and notes on the music and performance practice by Sean Gallagher and Blue Heron’s music director Scott Metcalfe.

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REVIEW:

Though these works for multiple singers are thick with contrapuntal lines, and have a tinge of austere Renaissance sacred music, they are also gorgeous, sensual and nuanced, as Blue Heron’s splendid account of “Permanent vierge” demonstrates.

– New York Times (Anthony Tommasini)

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Ockeghem: Complete Songs, Vol. 1 / Metcalfe, Blue Heron
Blue Heron Renaissance Choir Nov 2019
CD
$21.99

Jacobean Lute Music / Jakob Lindberg

BIS

SACD

$21.99 Jan 28, 2014

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

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The lute music from this period represents some of the best ever written for the instrument. Under Lindberg's fingers, and on his beloved Sixtus Rauwolf lute (c. 1590), even the relatively straightforward anonymous Scottish pieces included here are imbued with the same affecting lyricism he lavishes on the [other] works.

– Gramophone

***** (out of 5)
The sound of Jakob Lindberg's lute, made by Sixtus Rauwolf in the last decade of the 16th century, is unusually warm. A meticulously voiced recital that moves between court, theatre, and tavern. Lindberg conjures an age that was as perilous as it was rich in musical invention.

– BBC Music Magazine

JACOBEAN LUTE MUSIC • Jakob Lindberg (lt) • BIS 2055 (81:12)

Works by: DOWLAND, ROBINSON, R. JOHNSON, BACHELER, HELY, J. GAULTIER, ANONYMOUS

Jakob Lindberg here turns to familiar territory, and deals with it in exemplary, historically informed fashion. His phrasing is impeccable, and the articulation of multiple lines, always clear and balanced. Great reserves of color can be heard in the slower, longer works, such as the pavans by Robert Johnson and Danile Bacheler, while all the divisions in the many faster pieces are tossed off with deceptive ease, and on occasion, an appropriate dash of humor. Not the least of the disc’s charms is the program itself, cleverly varied by length, character, complexity, and textures over a succession of works.

In short, this is one of Lindberg’s most immediately accessible releases to date. I’ve heard him accused in the past of too great a sense of restraint, but never found this true, myself; and here there certainly is no room for that complaint. Without ever waxing sentimental, a rich vein of expressiveness should be obvious to all on this generously timed disc. Highly recommended.

FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

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Jacobean Lute Music / Jakob Lindberg
BIS Jan 2014
SACD
$21.99

Dufay: Motets, Hymns & Chansons, De Lantins, Ockeghem / Blue Heron

Blue Heron Renaissance Choir

$18.99 Mar 01, 2007

"This debut marks Blue Heron as a leading new actor in the field of early Renaissance music, both for studying the sources and bringing them to life. Altogether, this is one of the finest Dufay collections to come out in recent years."

- Fanfare

Music by Guillaume Du Fay (1397-1474)
Blue Heron’s first CD offers an entrancing selection of music by one of the greatest composers of the 15th century. The program includes three isorhythmic motets (Apostolo glorioso, Rite majorem Jacobum canamus, and Ecclesie militantis), the glorious, large-scale Sanctus “Papale” in its first recording in three decades, two hymns with alternatim plainchant verses, and a generous sampling of secular songs. While the disc is mostly devoted to the music of Du Fay, it also includes a song by Du Fay’s contemporary Hugo de Lantins (Mon doulx espoir), and a marvelous motet-chanson by his friend and colleague of the next generation, Johannes Ockeghem (Permanent vierge). The music was recorded in September 2006 at the Church of the Redeemer in Chestnut Hill, MA and the CD was released in March 2007 on the Blue Heron label as BHCD 1001.

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Dufay: Motets, Hymns & Chansons, De Lantins, Ockeghem / Blue Heron
Blue Heron Renaissance Choir Mar 2007
CD
$18.99

Donizetti: Roberto Devereux

Dynamic

Blu-Ray

$36.99 Nov 18, 2016

“Roberto Devereux” (1837) saw the light of day during a period of intense creativity for Donizetti. After its premiere and up until 1848, Devereux was performed almost uninterruptedly. In the years that followed it would also enjoy a successful international career, throughout Europe and in the Americas, with versions in French, German, Russian, and Hungarian. When Donizetti moved to Paris in 1838, he enriched the opera with the overture that paraphrases the British anthem “God Save The Queen.” The Queen dominates from her very entrance, a true protagonist, here performed by the great Mariella Devia: her pure voice, perfect intonation, great stage presence, all combined with the technical qualities of her voice, led to an extended standing ovation. It was a great success, too, for Sonia Ganassi (Sarah) and the tenor Stefan Pop (Devereux).

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Donizetti: Roberto Devereux
Dynamic Nov 2016
Blu-Ray
$36.99

DREAM OF GERONTIUS OP 38
DECCA Jul 2017
CD
$25.38

JAZZ AT OBERLIN (ORIGINAL JAZZ CLASSICS SERIES)

CRAFT RECORDINGS

Vinyl

$42.49 Nov 10, 2023

The Dave Brubeck Quartet - "Jazz At Oberlin (Original Jazz Classics Series)" / Recorded at Oberlin College, Ohio in 1953, the Dave Brubeck Quartet's Jazz at Oberlin album is one of the earliest works in the cool jazz genre. As well as Dave Brubeck (piano) the album also features Paul Desmond (alto sax), Lloyd Davis (drums) and Ron Cotty (bass). This new edition of the album is released as part of the Original Jazz Classics Series and is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI with all-analog mastering from the original tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio. It is presented in a tip-on jacket. Special Pkg:180g Heavy

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JAZZ AT OBERLIN (ORIGINAL JAZZ CLASSICS SERIES)
CRAFT RECORDINGS Nov 2023
Vinyl
$42.49

Weber: Der Freischütz (Semperoper Edition, Vol. 5) (1951)

Profil

$32.99 Jun 26, 2012

Der Freischutz has since it's premiere been an indispensable part of the operatic repertory, possibly never more significantly than for the Dresden Opera. This exceptional addition to the Semperoper Edition, recorded in 1951, is presented as an historic recording of the 1000th performance of the work by Dresen Opera. This production was undertaken with the utmost care and attention to detail, focusing on ultimate fidelity to the composer's intention. An edition for all time.

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Weber: Der Freischütz (Semperoper Edition, Vol. 5) (1951)
Profil Jun 2012
CD
$32.99

Verdi: Nabucco / Oren, Gagnidze, Arena di Verona

BelAir Classiques

DVD

$34.99 Jul 20, 2018

Verdi’s third opera was created at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1842, in the epicentre of the “Risorgimento” and the capital of Italian nationalism, at a time where the supporters of Italian independence from Austrian occupation were starting to make their voices heard. The “Chorus of the Hebrew slaves,” a pivotal point in the third act where the Jews, exiled from Babylon by Nabuchodonosor, mourn their country, “so beautiful and lost,” immediately resonated with the Italian nationalists and has ever since been a symbol of Italian national identity. French director Arnaud Bernard goes as far as to center the entire opera during the popular uprisings of 1848 and in the insides of the Milanese opera house. A clever way to emphasize on the legends that have been building around Verdi’s operas and the role they played in the political process of uniting the Italian peninsula. Soprano Susanna Branchini steals the stage as Nabuchodonosor’s daughter Abigaille, while Israeli-born conductor Daniel Oren conducts with great panache this “lyrical epic” that holds such a special place in the heart of all Italians. As a film director, Ingmar Bergman was also a choreographer. His “invisible hand” is constantly directing the actor in a slow dance around the room. The renowned and innovative Swedish choreographers Alexander Ekman, Pär Isberg, Pontus Lidberg and Joakim Stephenson, with principal dancers Jenny Nilson, Nathalie Nordquist, Oscar Salomonsson and Nadja Sellrup from the Royal Swedish Ballet, interpret Ingmar Bergman through four unique dance performances reflecting on human relations and intense feelings. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Bergman’s birth, this movie is not only a tribute to the Swedish cineaste’s unique aesthetics, but also a way to deepen his search of the ineffable, his reflection on the visual poetry of movement, and on the emotional powers of silent contemplation. The movie won the Special Mention award at Golden Prague International Film Festival 2017 for exceptional artistic achievement.

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Verdi: Nabucco / Oren, Gagnidze, Arena di Verona
BelAir Classiques Jul 2018
DVD
$34.99

Robert Johnson: The Prince's Almain And Other Dances For Lute / Nigel North

Naxos

$19.99 Nov 16, 2010

Playing a golden-toned 10-course lute and using original manuscript sources or his own sensitive reconstructions, British lutenist Nigel North presents a delightful recital of dances by Robert Johnson, a contemporary of Shakespeare for whose plays he wrote songs and incidental music. Although they use the old forms of pavan, galliard, almain and fantasie, Johnson’s exquisite works tend towards the more expansive, lyrical style that would later flourish in the Baroque period.
Nigel North’s critically acclaimed boxed set of Dowland’s Complete Lute Music is also available (Naxos 8.504016).

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Robert Johnson: The Prince's Almain And Other Dances For Lute / Nigel North
Naxos Nov 2010
CD
$19.99