Narrow my search:
From
CD$21.49
Bellini: Norma
Riccardo Muti/Jane Eaglen
Classical - Released January 1, 1995 | Warner Classics
From
HI-RES$31.79
CD$24.59
Maurice Yvain: Yes!
Les Frivolités Parisiennes
Classical - Released March 22, 2024 | Alpha Classics
Hi-Res
Booklet
From
HI-RES$17.49
CD$13.99
Casta Diva - Operatic arias transcribed for trumpet
Matilda Lloyd
Opera - Released April 28, 2023 | Chandos
Hi-Res
Booklet
Five years after her solo debut recording, Direct Message, which programmed 20th and 21st century works for trumpet and piano, trumpet player Matilda Lloyd departs the traditional repertoire (aside from the two Arban arrangements from the Complete Conservatory Method for Trumpet). Instead of following more well-worn routes, Lloyd elects to present a program of Romantic period opera arias, mostly in arrangements for trumpet and chamber orchestra (undertaken here by the Britten Sinfonia under Rumon Gamba) by William Foster, who worked closely with Lloyd on this project. Lloyd's skill as a musician is evident throughout, though the two Arban tracks most clearly allow her abilities to shine. The arrangements throughout are good, though how much they add to the performances rather than transcriptions and transpositions is up for debate. Lloyd notes with excitement the decision to include two pieces by Pauline Viardot, and one of the highlights here is the treatment of Viardot's Havanaise. This is certainly a trumpet release aimed at a wider audience than trumpet and brass circles, and it has already found success on the retail market. Chandos delivers just the right atmosphere from the Church of St. Augustine, Kilburn, in London. The future is bright for this trumpeter, and one looks forward to where her path may take her.
© Keith Finke /TiVo
From
HI-RES$18.09
CD$15.69
Dreams (Gounod, Donizetti, Bellini)
Pretty Yende
Opera Extracts - Released October 27, 2017 | Sony Classical
Hi-Res
Booklet
Distinctions
Choc de Classica
Soprano Pretty Yende made a big splash with her debut album, A Journey, which musically reenacted her path from small-town South Africa to Europe's major operatic stages. On that album she had both star quality and rough spots, and it was a matter of some interest to learn whether she was just a novelty or a major new voice. As it happens, Yende's second album, Dreams, does not answer the question. There is still the fact that Yende is one of those performers who just transmit; even in the chilly language of digital ones and zeroes, she has charisma. And in Italian bel canto repertoire she's clearly progressing. In both the more ornate Donizetti excerpts from Lucia di Lammermoor (sample "Ohimè! Sorge il tremendo fantasma" to hear Yende's control in quiet passages in the stratosphere) and in the more melodic Bellini, Yende delivers very fetching sounds. In the French music the news is not so good; Yende can't live up to the striking opening gesture in "Ah! je veux vivire" from Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, and her voice shows strain here. Still, most of the music sounds great, and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano "Giuseppe Verdi" under Giacomo Sagripanti has an ideally subdued way of accompanying her. The indications are at this point that the way to deal with Yende is to play to her considerable strengths. Just before this album's release, Yende pulled out of a Rome production of Fra Diavolo for unspecified artistic reasons. One hopes that vocal problems were not involved.© TiVo
From
HI-RES$21.99
CD$16.99
Camille Saint-Saëns: Phryné
Hervé Niquet
Opera - Released February 11, 2022 | Bru Zane
Hi-Res
Booklet
Everyone knows Camille Saint-Saëns has a great sense of humour thanks to his Carnaval des Animaux in which no one escapes ridicule, not even him. Now the Palazzetto Bru Zane Foundation and Hervé Niquet have unearthed Phryné, a forgotten comic opera from 1893 enriched with recitatives composed by André Messager three years later.Received with immense and lasting success in its time, this brilliant work eventually fell into the abyss, never to be seen again. Fortunately, fans of Saint-Saëns made great efforts to rediscover his works on the centenary of his death in 2021. Phryné captures the "Grecomania" that was prevalent in all the arts in France at this time, especially in Offenbach’s music and even in architecture (just think of the beautiful Parisian district of New Athens in the 9th arrondissement). Ironically, and perhaps a little cheekily, Saint-Saens confessed that he was “working on this little piece with infinite pleasure” and was infatuated with this courtesan musician who had served as a model for the sculptor Praxitele.Always keen to discover a forgotten repertoire, Hervé Niquet brought together a few singers, Florie Valiquette, Cyrille Dubois, Anaïs Constans and Thomas Dolié, to breathe some life back into Phryné with his Concert Spirituel, with the aim of producing a concert version to be performed in the Opéra de Rouen Normandie in 2021. Though Lucien Augé’s libretto may seem tasteless today with its hefty dose of misogyny, Saint-Saens’ music is simply delicious, with a succession of arias and ensembles. This modest and charming opera-comedy, which Charles Gounod so enjoyed, offers a less serious and less academic take of a composer that well and truly deserves to be rediscovered. © François Hudry/Qobuz
From
HI-RES$7.78$15.56(50%)
CD$6.23$12.45(50%)
Henry Vieuxtemps: Violin Works
Alexander Markov
Classical - Released August 26, 2022 | Naxos
Hi-Res
Booklet
Vieuxtemps transformed the technique and aesthetic of violin playing in the 19th century, and as a virtuoso exponent and composer he was considered a worthy successor to Paganini. His works for violin and orchestra illustrate two notable features – a liking for variation form and the fusion of emotional density with virtuosic flair. These can be heard in the impressive Variations on a Theme from Beethoven’s "Romance No. 1" and his Fantasie in E major "La sentimentale", one of his very greatest concert fantasies, where the music is influenced by bel canto. All of the works on this album were discovered after the composer’s death apart from the unfinished Violin Concerto No. 8 – one of Vieuxtemps’ last compositions and dedicated to his most illustrious pupil, Eugène Ysaÿe. © Naxos
From
CD$12.45
La bellezza: The Beauty of 17th Century Violin Music
Musica Alchemica
Classical - Released March 20, 2020 | Pan Classics
Booklet
Distinctions
Diapason d'or
The 17th century was marked on the one hand by war, infirmity and devastation, but at the same time by great innovations in research and science. In music, which until then had been characterized by structure and order, new ideals such as virtuosity and emotionality developed and created an antipole to the problems of the time. The new view of "Beauty - Belezza" places Lina Tur Bonet at the centre of her very personal programme, which brings together what she considers to be the most beautiful and stirring violin works of the period, presented in her own virtuoso and highly emotional style of playing. © Pan Classics
From
HI-RES$45.09
CD$39.09
Tchaikovsky: The Sleeping Beauty - A Dramatic Symphony
Kristjan Järvi
Classical - Released November 13, 2020 | Sony Classical - Sony Music
Hi-Res
Booklet
From
HI-RES$21.99
CD$16.99
Il gioco della cieca. Madrigali, Canzoni & Villanelle per cantare, et sonare
Concerto di Margherita
Classical - Released February 4, 2022 | Arcana
Hi-Res
Booklet
A young ensemble of instrumentalists and singers revives the precious historical practice of singers accompanying themselves (already brought back into currency by the soloist Vivabiancaluna Biffi), thus producing a wholly new sound in music usually assigned to unaccompanied voices. With Concerto di Margherita, self-accompanied singing becomes "collective" for the first time in our era, and is amplified in a shared gesture in which all the members of the group – playing and singing together with extraordinary coordination – produce a sonority unprecedented in this repertory. Created at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland, the group (which is named after the Duchess of Ferrara, Margherita Gonzaga) performs as a consort of five voices, theorbo, harp, viola da gamba, guitar and lutes, inspired by the "Concerto delle dame" of Ferrara. The recording debut of Concerto di Margherita presents arrangements of a wide range of instrumental and vocal works (madrigals, villanellas and canzonas), drawing on music by De Wert, Gastoldi, Monteverdi and the "blind man’s buff" scene from Giovanni Battista Guarini’s Il pastor fido (1580). © Arcana
From
HI-RES$15.09
CD$13.09
Sturm und Drang, Vol. 2
The Mozartists
Classical - Released October 9, 2020 | Signum Records
Hi-Res
From
HI-RES$12.36$24.71(50%)
CD$9.89$19.77(50%)
Lully: Acis et Galatée, LWV 73
Jean-François Lombard
Opera - Released October 13, 2023 | Naxos
Hi-Res
Booklet
From
CD$19.99
Jacques Offenbach : La Vie parisienne (5 septembre 1954)
Jules Gresssier
Classical - Released April 15, 2014 | Ina, musique(s)
From
CD$21.49
Bellini: I Capuleti ed I Montecchi
Riccardo Muti/Agnes Baltsa/Edita Gruberova/Gwynne Howell/Dano Raffanti/Sir John Tomlinson
Classical - Released January 1, 1985 | Warner Classics
From
HI-RES$11.49
CD$9.19
Dvořák: The Complete Piano Trios
Boris Giltburg
Classical - Released September 22, 2023 | Supraphon a.s.
Hi-Res
Distinctions
Diapason d'or -
Choc de Classica
This recording landed on classical best-seller lists in the autumn of 2023, and several factors combined to place it there. One is the sensitive ensemble work throughout from the trio of violinist Veronika Jarůšková, cellist Peter Jarůšek, and pianist Boris Giltburg. Jarůšková and Jarůšek are members of the fine Pavel Haas Quartet, but the trio, as such, is quite new, and Giltburg, moreover, is better known for virtuoso repertory than for chamber music. One would never know it from the seamlessly executed conceptions and transitions, with Giltburg in no way spilling out of the texture. Another factor is the presence of the first two Dvořák trios, early but by no means immature works. Recordings of them are not common, but hear the absolutely characteristic opening of the Piano Trio No. 1 in B flat major, Op. 21, with its pentatonic melody; handled as sensitively as it is here by Jarůšková, the work is the equal of any of the later trios. Lastly, there is the fresh reading of the Piano Trio, Op. 90 ("Dumky"), one of Dvořák's most popular works. Several movements receive interesting interpretations. Consider the beginning, where the Lento maestoso designation is applied to the movement as a whole, with the opening chords kept consistent in tempo with what follows. This diverts the emotional center to the beautifully sad counterpoint between the cello and violin as the movement continues. The sound from the Wyastone Estate is warm but a bit close up, one of few complaints, and this is a major chamber music release that will yield a great deal of satisfying listening.© James Manheim /TiVo
From
HI-RES$13.99
CD$9.49
Robert Schumann: Complete Piano Trios, Quartet & Quintet
Trio Wanderer
Chamber Music - Released April 30, 2021 | harmonia mundi
Hi-Res
Booklet
Distinctions
Diapason d'or -
Diapason d'or / Arte
Constantly shifting from the most impulsive exuberance to the most restrained meditation, from the most intense passion to the most innocent tenderness, this programme forms a representative panorama of Schumann’s chamber music. Going beyond the Piano Trios, which already give us a fully rounded account of Schumann, the Trio Wanderer have invited their favourite partners to join them for their interpretation of two supreme masterpieces, the Piano Quartet and Piano Quintet. © harmonia mundi
From
HI-RES$71.29
CD$64.59
The Tchaikovsky Project - Complete Symphonies - Orchestral Works - Complete Piano Concertos
Semyon Bychkov
Classical - Released August 30, 2019 | Decca Music Group Ltd.
Hi-Res
Booklet
Studio recordings are rare things today. Orchestras are of such great quality that publishers prefer live recordings, which are much cheaper than long studio sessions, with their complex production workloads. And so this is a rather "old-fashioned" (it's fashionable) publication here from Decca, directed by Smyon Bychkov, a conductor who has rarely appeared on records for some years. Born in the Soviet Union in 1952, Semyon Bychkov was destined for a fine career in his country when, at the age of 21, he was offered the opportunity to replace the titan Mravinski at the head of the Leningrad (today St Petersburg) Philharmonic Orchestra. But his contract was cancelled because of his political opinions: a move that obliged him to seek refuge in the USA, where his career truly began in earnest. Obtaining US nationality, he became the director of the Paris Orchestra for ten years, before accepting a similar post at the head of the WDR Cologne Radio Orchestra. Named the resident at the prestigious Czech Philharmonia following the premature death of its leader Jiří Bělohlávek, Semyon Bychkov started work on this anthology of Tchaikovsky's symphonic works, including the six symphonies, the rare and little-loved "Manfred" Symphony (in its original, uncut version, including the harmonium stipulated by the conductor), the piano concertos and the Serenade for strings. This was marathon job taken at a record-breaking sprint between 2015 and 2019. In the course of this project, the Russian conductor undertook minute work on the scores and studying the personal history of the composer, in particular around the Pathétique Symphony. For him, it wasn't a requiem to Tchaikovsky, but rather a "revolt against death and not the idea of death itself". As for the famous First Concerto, played here by Kirill Gerstein, he presents the more intimate original version, which is less emphatic than the one we are used to hearing. A fine piece of work with what Bychkov has described as an ideal orchestra, which mixes the highest expression of the Slavic spirit with a Western spirit: a synthesis which sums up Tchaikovsky's music itself. © François Hudry/Qobuz
From
HI-RES$24.70
CD$19.76
Atys
Christophe Rousset
Opera - Released January 5, 2024 | Château de Versailles Spectacles
Hi-Res
Booklet
Backed by the Sun King despite a lukewarm audience reception at first, Lully's Atys (1676) went on to become one of the composer's most successful operas, with revivals at French court theaters as late as 1753. In modern times, however, it is a considerably rarer item due to the massive forces and time required. Christophe Rousset was in the pit as harpsichordist when conductor William Christie gave the first modern revival of the work in the late '80s. That experience marks this 2024 release, which made classical best-seller lists at the beginning of that year. That is not common for a hefty five-act Baroque opera, but even a bit of sampling will confirm why it happened: Rousset, from the keyboard, brings tremendous energy to the opera. He pushes the tempo in the numerous dances and entrance numbers, and the musicians of Les Talens Lyriques and the singers of the Choeur du Chambre de Namur, all of whom have worked closely with Rousset in the past, keep right up. The singers in the solo roles are all fine; haut-contre Reinoud Van Mechelen in the title role and Ambroisine Bré as the goddess Cybèle, who sets the tragic plot in motion, are standouts. The sound from the increasingly engineering-expert Château de Versailles label is exceptionally clear in complex textures, and the sensuous cover art (representing, it is true, not the Roman mythological figure of Atys but Hippomène and Atalante) is a bonus. In the end, this is Rousset's Atys, and that is a very good thing.© James Manheim /TiVo
From
HI-RES$13.99
CD$9.49
Schumann : Symphonien 1 - 4
Sir Simon Rattle
Classical - Released May 23, 2014 | Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Hi-Res
Booklet
And so, after much expectation, the entire set of Schumann’s Symphonies by Simon Rattle has finally been released with Berliner Philharmoniker’s brand new own label. The 2013 live recordings are extraordinarily thorough: Rattle has truly outdone himself. His direction is incredibly clear, and he benefits from a smaller orchestra with a reduced amount of strings. This is a more ‘reasonable’ set up, as it restores balance between the different instruments. This is especially the case in the sections containing a lot of wood instruments, as all too often conductors let the strings drown out all other sounds without worrying about the ‘chamber music’ essence of the symphonies. It is also noteworthy that the fourth symphony is offered in its original 1841 version, which chronologically makes it his second production. The rearranged version of 1851 is thicker, and contains considerable differences in the music itself. This was not Brahms’ preferred version, and so he published the 1841 original version in 1891, just after Clara Schumann had placed the 1851 rearrangement on the market.
Suppose you have a more precise idea of what you want. If you are searching for the album "Bad" by Michael Jackson, type michael jackson bad. The album in question will be displayed at the top, as it is the most relevant.
By default, search results are sorted in order of relevance. The drop-down menu to the right of "Sort by" allows you to display the results in the desired order.