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Wagner: Siegfried

Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra

Classical - Released January 1, 1984 | Decca Music Group Ltd.

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Bach: Cantatas 54, 82 & 170 "Widerstehe", "Ich habe genug" & "Vergnügte Ruh"

Iestyn Davies

Classical - Released December 30, 2016 | Hyperion

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Richard Wagner : Siegfried

Richard Wagner

Opera - Released September 1, 2013 | PentaTone

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 5 de Diapason
The penultimate music drama in Der Ring des Nibelungen, Siegfried is also the next-to-last release in Marek Janowski’s series of Richard Wagner’s mature operas for PentaTone. Continuing the Ring with the same high standards of musicianship and production exhibited earlier in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, Janowski delivers an exciting and highly detailed account in this live unstaged performance with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. Stephen Gould gives a commanding performance as the hero Siegfried, and his strong singing is reminiscent at times of the great heldentenors in this role. Joined by Christian Elsner as Mime, Violeta Urmana as Brünnhilde, Tomasz Konieczny as the Wanderer, and Matti Salminen as Fafner, the cast is solid and cohesive, and their parts are clearly audible, thanks to careful microphone placement. But the real star of this and Janowski’s other Wagner recordings is the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, whose amazing clarity make this a Siegfried for admirers of Wagner’s brilliant orchestral writing. Audiophiles will be thoroughly impressed with the fidelity of the sound on these hybrid multichannel SACDs, and while this rendition has serious competition from the great performances of the past, it’s unbeatable for its close-up presence, vibrant colors, and wide dynamic range. Highly recommended.© TiVo
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Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier

Leonard Bernstein

Classical - Released July 11, 2014 | Sony Classical

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Franz Schubert : Fierrabras

The Chamber Orchestra of Europe

Full Operas - Released January 1, 1990 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

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Bach Cantatas No. 54, 82, 170

Nathalie Stutzmann

Classical - Released May 3, 1996 | Sony Classical - Sony Music

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Schubert/Schumann Songs

Elly Ameling

Classical - Released January 1, 1980 | deutsche harmonia mundi

Distinctions The Qobuz Ideal Discography
It's not that the songs are fantastic, although Schubert and Schumann's songs are fantastic. It's not that Elly Ameling was young and full of spunk, although the young Elly Ameling was quite full of spunk. It's not that Jörg Demus is not a congenial accompanist, although he is as comfortable as a sofa and a tumbler of port. No, the reason that this disc is so terrific is that it disproves every rotten thing anyone's ever said about performances of Romantic music on period instruments because this is simply one of the most enchanting discs of echt Romantische Lieder ever recorded. Ameling's voice is so fresh and sweet, her tone so light and her technique so supple that she seems less a singer of the songs than the songs themselves given voice. And Demus' playing is so delicate but so strong, so lightly drawn, and so richly colored that one does not miss the sound of a concert grand, but rather revels in the sonorities of a hammerflugel. Only clarinetist Hans Deinzer in Schubert's Der Hirt auf dem Felsen (D. 965) takes some getting used to, and that's mostly because his tone is so wonderfully ripe and his playing is so marvelously dexterous. If all recordings of Romantic music played on period instruments sounded like this, all recordings of Romantic music would be played on period instruments. This is an exquisitely beautiful recording.© TiVo
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Strauss, R.: Josephs Legende

Giuseppe Sinopoli

Classical - Released January 1, 2000 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

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Hammond Pops 9

Klaus Wunderlich

World - Released February 22, 2022 | Streetheat Music

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Wagner: Götterdämmerung

Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra

Classical - Released June 30, 2023 | Decca Music Group Ltd.

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Wagner: Das Rheingold

Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra

Classical - Released October 14, 1997 | Decca Music Group Ltd.

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Wagner: Siegfried, WWV 86C

Simon O´Neill

Opera - Released September 22, 2023 | BR-Klassik

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Taken from several live performances at the Gasteig in Munich in early 2023, this recording of Wagner's Siegfried made classical best-seller charts later that year. It is part of a series that began in 2016, intending to record the entire Ring Cycle live. The recordings have all been successful, and this is testimony to the skills of conductor Simon Rattle. There are conductors' Wagner performances, and there are singers' Wagner performances. This is the former. The Bavarian Radio Symphony seizes the listener's attention from the opening bell, and the energy never flags. There is nothing objectionable about the singers, but few of them will stick in one's head. The exception, perhaps, is soprano Anja Kampe as Brunnhilde (and Danae Kontora as the Voice of the Forest Bird); Kampe, of course, doesn't enter until the end, but at that point, everything comes together for a really thrilling conclusion of "radiant love, laughing death." Although these were live performances, they might just as well have been made in a studio; Bavarian Radio's engineering in its hometown is superbly detailed, and the audience discipline is awesome (no applause or other crowd noise of any kind is retained). There is a liveliness to Rattle's Wagner that sets it apart from performances in the German tradition, and it is fully on display in this recording.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Der ferne Klang... Orchestral Works & Songs by Franz Schreker

Konzerthausorchester Berlin

Classical - Released March 17, 2023 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

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In the early '20s, Franz Schreker was one of the best-known composers in the world. His music was suppressed by the Nazis because he was Jewish, and due to the High Modernism of the postwar period, a second totalitarianism, his reputation did not recover. This was a shame, for Schreker was anything but a conservative, and it is good to see that he is finally getting his due. What he needed at this point was a high-profile recording with top soloists, and that is exactly what he gets here from Christoph Eschenbach and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, with soprano Chen Reiss and baritone Matthias Goerne. Deutsche Grammophon's PR text refers to "Schreker's sumptuous, hyper-Romantic music," but this is not quite right. Schreker could sometimes be that, as in the Romantische Suite that closes the album, but Straussian late Romanticism was only one of his influences. In terms of using tone color as a structural element, Schreker was in every way a contemporary of Schoenberg (his close friend) and Webern. Eschenbach's generous selection of orchestral songs here provides a good way to appreciate this quality; sample Die Dunkelheit sinkt schwer wie Blei from the Fünf Gesänge, with its mysterious strumming-like sounds. The text of that song is from a German translation of the Thousand and One Nights anthology, and Reiss sounds great in the Zwei lyrische Gesänge to texts (in German) by, of all people, Walt Whitman. Schreker could be neoclassic (in the economical Kleine Suite); he could be Impressionist-tinged; he mastered a full Expressionist idiom in the opera that gives the album its title, represented here by a substantial instrumental excerpt. This double-album release conveys the breadth of Schreker's musical language, but he is never blankly eclectic. A wonderful album that will help to rewrite the 20th century canon.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Ein Deutsches Barockrequiem

Vox Luminis

Classical - Released April 14, 2023 | Ricercar

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 4F de Télérama - Gramophone: Recording of the Month
For more than forty years, the Liège musicologist Jérôme Lejeune has been tirelessly managing the prized Ricercar record label. He founded in 1980, before which he studied the viola da gamba with Wieland Kuijken. Often unearthed from the depths of the archives, they’ve released more than 400 rare baroque records; featuring interpretive performances by Bernard Foccroulle on the organ, François Fernandez on the violin and Philippe Pierlot on the viol. Together they form the very essence of the Ricercar Consort.Other musicians and ensembles have also recorded at this precious Belgian label for initiates, such as the Vox Luminis ensemble. They were the masterminds behind the Ein Deutsches Barockrequiem, an analogy to Brahms' German Requiem which, through the music of Heinrich Schütz (whom Brahms knew very well), drew inspiration from the same musical sources of old Baroque Germany.The result of long and patient musicological research, this programme closely follows the texts chosen by Brahms for his sacred work from a Lutheran perspective where, through the music of a dozen composers, death is tamed in a serene and comforting manner. This hypothetical reconstruction, for the simple pleasure of the mind, sheds a somewhat unusual light on a little-known part of this Germanic sacred repertoire. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Telemann: A Christmas Oratorio

Kleine Konzert, Das

Classical - Released November 11, 2023 | CPO

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Georg Philipp Telemann never wrote a Christmas oratorio, but that hasn't stopped performers from assembling them out of holiday-season cantatas. The one here by veteran choral conductor Hermann Max and his instrumental group Das Kleine Konzert isn't the first one. It is not even the first one on the CPO label. There is no basis for objecting to this kind of creative repertory expansion, for Bach's Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248, was put together in basically the same way. Telemann isn't Bach, though most listeners will find satisfying listening here for the holiday season or any other time, and this album, in fact, made classical best-seller lists in early 2024. Max and company program five Telemann cantatas, unfailingly tuneful and well-made in the composer's characteristic way. One striking thing is that there are two quite late works from the 1750s and 1760s; the others are from earlier in Telemann's career, yet the style remains consistent. In some genres, Telemann caught on to the emerging light styles coming from Italy, but in church cantatas, he seems to have played it straighter. Max is not known as an adherent of the one-voice-per-part philosophy, yet here, his choruses are taken by the four soloists from his fine Rheinische Kantorei choir; there is no chorus. This is less than ideal. From what we know of Telemann's late occasional works, they were big, festive affairs. However, the decision was likely the result of COVID-era restrictions (the album was recorded in December of 2020), and in the airy acoustic of Cologne's Trinitatiskirche, one doesn't miss the choir much. Moreover, the choruses are mostly not simply chorales but are more complex polyphonic pieces; one quotes the old In dulci jubilo hymn, a pure Telemann move. The interpretations generally have Max's characteristic warmth, and the soloists (in the solos) are idiomatic and direct. Telemann lovers will enjoy this release.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Encounter

Igor Levit

Classical - Released September 11, 2020 | Sony Classical

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or / Arte
The latest album ‘Encounter’ by the German-Russian pianist is a particularly astonishing one, blending the diverse works of great composers such as Bach, Brahms and Morton Feldman. While the 2020 health crisis, due to the covid19 virus, has caused great anxiety among the general population it has also ignited the imagination of artists and musicians alike. Locked down in his apartment like so many us, the pianist Igor Levitt broadcasted a daily, live performance on his social media, even going as far as playing a 20 hour piece, Vexations by Erik Satie. ‘Encounter’, the product of Levitt’s self-isolation during lockdown, brings together an intelligent and pleasing array of composers. From Bach arranged by Busoni at the Palais de Mari, or the latest work from Morton Feldman for solo piano, to Brahms arranged by Reger, these are intimate connections between composers, as much as they are moments of solidarity at a time or great loneliness and isolation. Levitt’s poignant introspection and devotion to humanity shines throughout his album. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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The Golden Ring: Great Scenes from Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen

Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra

Classical - Released October 28, 2022 | Decca Music Group Ltd.

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Georg Solti's recording of Wagner's Ring Cycle with the Vienna Philharmonic and a galaxy of star singers, made between 1958 and 1965, has twice (by Gramophone magazine and the BBC) been called the greatest recording ever made. Among opera fans, a notoriously fractious bunch, there is, of course, debate over this, but no one considers it anything other than a stupendous engineering achievement. It is probably the only opera recording where an engineer is credited in the blurb title; Decca refers to it as the "Solti Culshaw Decca recording," in honor of original engineer John Culshaw, for whom no detail was too small to be attended. Decca is reissuing the original operas in 2022 and 2023, together with the present single-disc set of excerpts. For audiophile listeners, this will be pretty much essential, and the booklet is full of fascinating details about the sound (the Sofiensaal in Vienna, which Decca used as its studio for many years, was a former bathhouse -- the Sofienbad -- and its acoustics were due to "not just the high-vaulted ceiling of the original baths but also because the pool was covered over, creating a cavity beneath the floor and stage area"). Even after almost 65 years, these early stereo recordings sound great; the brass pop and the singers are very sharply defined. Those singers -- Kirsten Flagstad, Hans Hotter, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Christa Ludwig, Joan Sutherland, and the list goes on and on -- still leave one wondering who is going to fill their shoes. This is a remastering from the original tapes that has sharpened the sound still further; a good deal of restoration work was done, including baking some tapes at 55 degrees Celsius. A nice touch is the reproduction of the cheesy original album art. The bottom line is that this recording is not only for audiophiles but also for anyone wanting a single-album summary of the Ring; sample the famous numbers, like the "Ride of the Valkyries," Siegfried's horn, and perhaps the final number from Götterdämmerung, which ties some of the cycle together, and one gets a glimmer of what Wagner is really all about. © James Manheim /TiVo
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Echo: Schubert, Loewe, Schumann & Wolf

Georg Nigl

Classical - Released May 5, 2023 | Alpha Classics

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 4F de Télérama
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Schubert : Lieder, Schöne Müllerin, Winterreise...

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

Classical - Released January 1, 2005 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or - 4F de Télérama - Choc de Classica
This collection of all of Schubert's songs for low voice is one of the landmark recordings of the 20th century because it features two of the greatest Schubertians of their era, baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and pianist Gerald Moore. The recordings, made by Deutsche Grammophon between 1966 and 1972, come from Fischer-Dieskau's prime, when he was in his early to mid-thirties, his voice fully mature and its youthful bloom gloriously resplendent. He brought an acute, probing intelligence to everything he performed, as well as a penetrating, unmannered musicality, and those qualities are everywhere apparent in his Schubert lieder. Moore was primarily known as an accompanist, and in that role he was perhaps unsurpassed, but his contribution to the music is no way secondary. His playing has interpretive distinctiveness as well as the instinctive musicality of a performer deeply immersed in Schubert's sound world. The singer and pianist made multiple recordings of many of these songs and while aficionados may prefer a version of a song or cycle other than the one offered here, the version here is never less than superb.The set, which includes 463 songs on 21 discs, should be of utmost interest to any fans of the singer and pianist, and to anyone who loves Schubert, and to anyone who loves collaborative music-making of the highest order. The value of the limited edition set released in celebration of the singer's 85th birthday makes it a terrific bargain. The remastering is mostly exemplary and the sound is immaculate, warm, and present. There are a few technical glitches, like a slight click and skip in the introduction to "Wasserflut," but overall the sound is first-class. The balance is just about ideal; it's easy to shut one's eyes and imagine the performers there in the same room. Very highly recommended.© TiVo