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Handel: Finest Arias for Base (Bass) Voice, Vol. 1

Christopher Purves

Classical - Released December 2, 2012 | Hyperion

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There's no shortage of Handel aria recitals these days, especially in Britain, but this one by bass baritone Christopher Purves stands out from the crowd in several respects. First of all, it is rare in collecting arias for bass voice, which was, in Handel's time as it was later on, generally associated with a few fixed and generally negative character types (tyrants, rogues, repressive patriarchs). Second, it's a very pleasantly varied collection of tunes, including displays of brilliant passagework, out-of-the-norm writing in service of characterization (Fra l'ombre e gl'orrori, from Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, track 4), and high climactic drama (the big, three-part Revenge, Timotheus cries, from Alexander's Feast, track 19, is a familiar example). Finally, Purves unearths some rarely heard pieces and programs them intelligently. When did anyone last year anything from Muzio Scevola, or Riccardo Primo, rè d'Inghilterra, which must have pleased London audiences in 1727 despite its Italian-language text. Purves does not have the biggest voice in the bass baritone universe, and there could be a bit more sound in the very low notes. But the dimensions of the music are right for the period. He's pleasingly accurate in the passagework, and he's a real actor who makes these potentially stilted characters come alive. Listeners will want to hear Purves in a small production of one of these operas after hearing this album, preferably accompanied by the strong historical-instrument group Arcangelo under Jonathan Cohen, as he is here.© TiVo
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Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro

René Jacobs

Opera - Released January 1, 2004 | harmonia mundi

Distinctions Gramophone Record of the Year
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Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice

René Jacobs

Classical - Released September 28, 2001 | harmonia mundi

Booklet
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Gluck: Orphée et Eurydice, Tragic Opera in three acts

Hans Rosbaud

Classical - Released January 5, 2022 | Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording

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Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice - 1762 Edition with 1774 Paris Revisions

Teresa Stich-Randall

Opera - Released December 31, 2021 | Vanguard Classics

Hi-Res Booklet
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Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice (Live Version)

Jean-Claude Malgoire

Opera - Released January 1, 1994 | naïve classique

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Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 & Schulhoff: Five Pieces

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

Classical - Released July 28, 2023 | Reference Recordings

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Gramophone: Recording of the Month
This release made classical best-seller lists in the summer of 2023. It might seem that few listeners would be moved to add yet another version of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64, to their collections, but this is one of the strongest readings to come along in some years. Conductor Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony have specialized in big, bold interpretations of traditional Romantic repertory, and this one is no exception. It is an intense, brooding Tchaikovsky Fifth in the vein mined by the great Russian conductors of the middle 20th century (Honeck is not afraid to let the brass blare), and parts of it are really transcendent. After a bleak, moody first movement, hear the perfectly suspended horn solo in the second movement, sneaking in quietly at first, almost beneath notice. This is a virtuoso piece of playing, and even those not enamored of everything Honeck does will be hard-pressed to contend that he has not raised the Pittsburgh Symphony, which he has led since 2008, to the top rank of American orchestras. The work that rings down the curtain of this live recording is also unusual; the orchestration of Erwin Schulhoff's Five Pieces for String Quartet is by Honeck himself, with Tomás Ille. Another draw here for physical album buyers is the set of detailed booklet notes by Honeck; few conductors do that, and they offer plenty of insight into his interpretations. Top it off with clean live sound from Pittsburgh's Heinz Hall (no audience noise or applause), and the result is a superior Tchaikovsky recording.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Mozart Recital

Su Yeon Kim

Classical - Released July 7, 2023 | Steinway and Sons

Hi-Res Booklet
Where to begin with the wonders of this album by the young pianist Su Yeon Kim, making her debut on the Steinway & Sons label? She should fit right in there, mixing charisma with the bold pianistic approach the label favors. Kim manages to dredge up some Mozart works that are genuinely unfamiliar, make good cases for them, and execute them brilliantly. Consider the Variations on "Unser dummer Pöbel meint," K. 455, where Mozart builds some of the most virtuosic music he ever wrote onto an almost absurdly clumsy theme. Kim's reading is absolutely clean, and she catches the spontaneity and humor Mozart's pianism must have had in its own day. Equally obscure are the four excerpts from the 12 Contredanses for Count Czernin, K. 269b, which also have a variation aspect; they are multistrain dances unlike anything else Mozart wrote (except for his other contradances), and Kim again sees how Mozart could bring original thinking even to music in such a small form. The two piano sonatas that form the centerpieces of the program are full of structural insights; Kim has a precise touch that does not lose warmth. Most of the music is lighthearted, which makes the grim Adagio in B minor, K. 540, all the more moving. There are many more attractions here for listeners to discover, among them Steinway's clear sound from the Sono Luminus studios, in one of the finest Mozart recitals to come along in some time. May there be more from where this one came.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3 & Academic Festival Overture

Otto Klemperer

Classical - Released June 2, 2023 | Warner Classics

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Maria Mater Meretrix

Anna Prohaska

Classical - Released April 14, 2023 | Alpha Classics

Hi-Res Booklet
By no means should you be expecting the "typical" productions we so often associate with the violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja. Together with the soprano Anna Prohaska, she has developed a highly original programme which brings violin and vocals together. In this respect, while we were delighted to find a recording of the beautiful and all too rare Maria-Triptychon, which Frank Martin wrote in 1968 for Irmgard Seefried and her violinist husband Wolfgang Schneiderhan, we wonder whether it was really necessary to dismantle this polyptych whose three movements tell the story of the mother of Christ with perfect fluidity.It must be said that the entirety of this unusual album feels rather all over the place, very much like György Kurtág who unsurprisingly features in this curious inventory of a thousand years of music, from Hildegard von Bingen to the present day.We need to look elsewhere for the main theme and, more precisely, at the questioning of the two musicians around the subject of female emancipation and “the sensitive exploration of their common experiences as women evolving in the current music industry.” This quest for content, set to music around the figure of Mary, evokes a mixture of shimmering colours created by the Camerata de Berne orchestra, and depicts a journey through the ages and arias which incorporates so many of the contradictions of human nature. We highly recommend that you immerse yourself fully, and listen to these twenty tracks from beginning to end. This way you will be better able to appreciate this strangely fascinating patchwork, which feels like a work of art in its own right. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Beethoven: Symphonies 1-9 & Overtures (Remastered HD)

Herbert von Karajan

Classical - Released March 24, 2014 | Warner Classics International

Hi-Res Booklet
The Karajan Official Remastered Edition is a series of remasterings, from the original master tapes, of the finest recordings the Austrian conductor made for EMI between 1946 et 1984 including Karajan's first — and probably most thrilling — recording of the complete Beethoven Symphonies, made in the early 1950s (1951-1955) with London's Philharmonia Orchestra recently founded by Walter Legge. The recording of the Ninth Symphony is available here in stereo for the very first time, taken from original, unreleased tapes.
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Fauré: Requiem - Poulenc: Figure Humaine - Debussy: 3 Chansons

Mathieu Romano

Masses, Passions, Requiems - Released March 1, 2019 | Aparté

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 4F de Télérama
Fauré's Requiem, “funeral lullaby” written for enjoyment as the composer put it, has a unique place in history. It's soft, simple and modest poetry conveys moments of gentle contemplation and moving expressiveness which are entrusted to both the choir and the two soloists. With his Ensemble Aedes and the orchestra Les Siècles, Mathieu Romano is committed to render a Requiem faithful to its first performance. We hear thus the score in its original 1893 orchestration, where the organ plays a great role, and where Latin is pronounced in the French way as it used to be. The clearest articulation of the Ensemble Aedes then perfectly fits Éluard’s Figure humaine set to music by Francis Poulenc. We have never heard these sublime poems sung with such intelligibility before! Finally, the three Songs by Debussy elegantly close the album. Here again, the quality and clarity of the voices are stunning. Artistic director and founder of Ensemble Aedes has established himself as a magician of voices in a cappella scores. And voices ideally melt with the strings of Les Siècles under his baton. A 100% French cast in a 100% French music disc for a triple rediscovery. Essential! © Aparté
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Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre: Céphale et Procris

Reinoud Van Mechelen

Classical - Released February 9, 2024 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or
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Psyché

Christophe Rousset

Classical - Released January 13, 2023 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

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Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos. 3, 7 & 8

Antje Weithaas

Classical - Released October 27, 2023 | CAvi-music

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Poulenc: La voix humaine

Véronique Gens

Classical - Released January 13, 2023 | Alpha Classics

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Choc de Classica
Francis Poulenc's La Voix Humaine ("The Human Voice") is a one-woman opera, less than an hour long, about a woman on the phone with her boyfriend as they break up. Set to a text by Jean Cocteau, it puts the woman through strong mood swings. (Country music fans may wish to compare it to As Soon as I Hang Up the Phone, although there, the boyfriend is present to deliver the final blow.) Soprano Véronique Gens is best known for music from the 17th century up to Mozart, but it is easy to believe the claim in the publicity materials for this release that she had always wanted to record this work; its direct, conversational quality, interspersed with occasional freakouts, fits her manner beautifully. It might seem that those freakouts require a bit more intensity than Gens gives them here, but that is not really in the Cocteau spirit and certainly not in the Poulenc spirit. Gens receives sensitive support from the Orchestre National de Lille under Alexandre Bloch, who also ring down the curtain with a lithe performance of the joyous Sinfonietta. There are other strong performances of Poulenc's little opera, which ought to be much more frequently heard and would be ideal for university voice programs, but this one is instantly appealing and quite memorable, and it is no surprise that it made classical best-seller charts in early 2023. © James Manheim /TiVo
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Écho & Narcisse

Hervé Niquet

Classical - Released August 25, 2023 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

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Legros, haute-contre de Gluck

Reinoud Van Mechelen

Classical - Released September 22, 2023 | Alpha Classics

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Machaut: The Fount of Grace

Orlando Consort

Classical - Released July 7, 2023 | Hyperion

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