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Mozart: Così fan tutte

René Jacobs

Classical - Released February 26, 1999 | harmonia mundi

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Mozart : Così fan tutte, K. 588 (Live)

Wolfgang Sawallisch

Opera - Released February 16, 2018 | Orfeo

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Mozart: Cosi fan tutte

Sir Colin Davis

Classical - Released October 26, 2010 | Opus Arte

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Mozart: Così fan tutte (Highlights)

Teodor Currentzis

Classical - Released October 9, 2015 | Sony Classical

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You may have heard about the radical Mozart performances coming out of the provincial city of Perm, Russia, led by conductor Teodor Currentzis. He's in the middle of a cycle of Mozart's operas with libretti by Lorenzo da Ponte, with a sure-to-be-explosive Don Giovanni yet to come as of late 2015. This single-album set of excerpts from Currentzis' reading of Così fan tutte has sold well out of the blocks, perhaps to listeners curious to hear what the fuss is about, but unwilling to invest in an entire box set. With only snatches of recitative and transition, you miss the outrageous continuo group of fortepiano, lute, cello/gamba, and, yes, hurdy-gurdy. That's a major omission, but all the other aspects of the full opera, and of Currentzis' gleeful disregard for convention, are amply represented. Consider the garish tempo contrasts, with the blistering overture pushed right up to the boundary of playability, while soon after that in Act One the trio "Soave sia il vento" is glacial. That number is one of the many places where it's apparent that soprano Simone Kermes, as Fiordiligi, is perhaps Currentzis' ideal collaborator, able to cope with extravagant musical demands, to deliver fresh characterizations, and generally to enter into the spirit of the thing and make you believe that maybe, just maybe, everybody will be performing Mozart this way in 30 years. In general the characterizations are strong and appealing; Currentzis may be a wild man, but he does not unduly draw attention to himself. And the work of his hand-built Musicaeterna, his historical-instruments group in Perm, is sharp as a tack here: it's an ensemble that can react to all of this conductor's demands. You may get a shock from this, but it's a good kind of shock, and the excerpt album can be generally recommended.© TiVo
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Mozart: Così fan tutte (Highlights - Sung in German)

Otmar Suitner

Opera - Released January 1, 1970 | Eterna

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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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Puccini: Tosca by Maria Callas

Maria Callas

Opera - Released October 24, 2022 | Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording

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Beatrice di Tenda

Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin

Classical - Released January 1, 1993 | Brilliant Classics

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Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia

Teresa Berganza

Opera - Released January 1, 1972 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions The Qobuz Ideal Discography
This is a Barbiere "di qualità, di qualità": in fact, of very great quality indeed, from Deutsche Grammophon. Recorded in London in the summer of 1971, it is one of the first meetings of Claudio Abbado and the London Symphony Orchestra. It is also the first of Alberto Zedda's philological editions of Rossini's works, whose scores have been covered over by inherited errors for over a century. Getting rid of the additions which have, quite wrongly, become traditional, means restoring certain interruptions and the fine instrumentation of the period; and above all, singing and playing without exaggerations, thanks to an innate sense for the theatre. It's a spot of spring cleaning which has restored the youth of the 24-year-old composer's masterpiece. Bravo, signor barbiere, ma bravo! It is a dream record, with singers who are well-versed in the repertoire. Everyone is right where they need to be, from Teresa Berganza's wiley and cheeky Rosina, to the refined and hard-working Figaro played by Hermann Prey, via Luigi Alva's frivolous Count and the utterly ridiculous Basilio played by the outrageous Paolo Montarsolo. We're amused by their antics, as we admire the well-oiled and unstoppable machine of Rossini's theatre, under the unceasingly inventive and thrilling baton of Claudio Abbado. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Parry: Scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, Blest Pair of Sirens

London Mozart Players

Choral Music (Choirs) - Released September 8, 2023 | Chandos

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Gramophone: Recording of the Month
Hubert Parry's Scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, from 1880, here receives its world-recorded premiere. Perhaps recording companies thought there wouldn't be much of a market for a heavy 19th century choral work with, it must be said, a ponderous text by Percy Bysshe Shelley (Prometheus was a play intended to be read, not performed, just to give an idea). How wrong they were. This release made classical best-seller lists in the summer of 2023, and it is altogether enjoyable. At the time, Parry was under the spell of Wagner, whom he traveled to Bayreuth to meet. That influence certainly shows up in Scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, with its basically declamatory text, partly through-composed music, wind-and-brass-heavy orchestration, and splashes of chromaticism. Yet what is remarkable is that the music does not come off as an imitation of Wagner at all. Rather, it uses elements of his style to match a specific kind of English literary text. The work gradually disappeared, but it would be surprising if Elgar, whom it clearly prefigures, did not know it well. The performances here are luminous, with William Vann using the lighter-than-expected London Mozart Players to create transparent textures against which he can set the substantial voices of Sarah Fox, Sarah Connolly, and other soloists. Parry did write some shorter pieces that remain in the repertory; one of these, Blest Pair of Sirens, is included here as a finale. However, the Scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound are the main news here, and this performance, showing how this kind of thing should be done, may generate a new life for the work. © James Manheim /TiVo
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Psyché

Christophe Rousset

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

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Mozart: Violin Conc. No.5 - Vieuxtemps: Violin Conc. No.4

Hilary Hahn

Classical - Released February 9, 2014 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

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Violinist Hilary Hahn was one of a crop of teen violin prodigies who emerged in the late 1990s. Thirty five years old when this album appeared in 2015, she seems to have made the transition to maturity better than any of the others. The rather odd pairing of Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K. 219, with the little-known Violin Concerto No. 4 in D minor, Op. 31, of Henri Vieuxtemps is explained by Hahn as personal: she learned both works early in her education. As it happens, she welds the two works together into a program that might have been heard in Paris in 1880, and her playing has the same distinction. Hahn turns the Mozart into a kind of curtain raiser, with the gentle introduction of the violin soloist in the first movement used to display the breathtaking purity of tone of this musician who is the last student of Ysaÿe and carries a deep sense of tradition in her playing. The Mozart hints at wonders to come, and indeed they are here: the four-movement Vieuxtemps concerto is filled with incredible virtuoso challenges married to a quasi-symphonic form. The way the first movement sets up a strong thematic contrast between an almost pastoral opening and a stormier second subject group, and then lets the violinist transcend this contrast, is superb; it would not work without an absolutely top-notch player, and that is what Hahn has become. She gets able, alert support from the Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under Paavo Järvi, and the only thing that's just adequate is the sound: the program wasn't recorded all at the same time or place (although Hahn has clearly thought it through as an entity), and the splice is audible.© TiVo
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Haydn: Cello Concertos; C.P.E. Bach: Cello Concerto

Steven Isserlis

Classical - Released September 1, 2017 | Hyperion

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Vivaldi : Il Giustino

Ottavio Dantone

Full Operas - Released November 16, 2018 | naïve classique

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 5 de Diapason - Gramophone Editor's Choice - Choc de Classica
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Maurice Yvain: Yes!

Les Frivolités Parisiennes

Classical - Released March 22, 2024 | Alpha Classics

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Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice

René Jacobs

Classical - Released September 28, 2001 | harmonia mundi

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Un jardin à l'italienne (Aria, Cantatas & Madrigals)

William Christie

Classical - Released September 8, 2017 | harmonia mundi

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 4 étoiles Classica
The six young singers of the Academy of Le Jardin des Voix, selected from several hundred candidates, offer us a musical journey through some of the finest pieces in the Italian repertory, from a Banchieri madrigal to Haydn’s Orlando paladino. Thanks to an outstanding training programme and the musical values transmitted by William Christie and Paul Agnew, here is a chance to discover both some splendid vocal gems and a group of new performers who honour them with talent, grace and humour. Sheer delight! © harmonia mundi
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Amadè

Julie Fuchs

Classical - Released November 18, 2022 | Sony Classical

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Puccini : Tosca (Remastered)

Zubin Mehta

Classical - Released January 1, 1973 | Sony Classical

Hi-Res Distinctions The Qobuz Ideal Discography
In unison with Zubin Mehta's inspired direction, where dramatic intensity and tenderness contrast, the cast is excellent, especially the three leading roles : Leontyne Price for her vocal quality and commitment to the limits, Domingo at the top of his voice, true and nuanced, and magnificent baritone Sherrill Milnes. A very lively and vibrant performance of the highest standard, probably the best in the entire discography. (Qobuz)
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Mio caro Händel

Simone Kermes

Classical - Released February 8, 2019 | Sony Classical

Hi-Res Booklet
While the German soprano follows in the footsteps of Cecilia Bartoli, her virtuoso voice separates her fans from the purists who prefer a less fanciful vocal-line. This long-awaited new album from Simone Kermes shows off her masterful voice in almost every register and there is no sign of the excessiveness for which she has previously been criticised. Typically referred to as a “Ba-rock” star, some people are irritated by her gestures and extreme theatrics during her concerts, but those mannerisms are long forgotten here in the absence of any images. The title of the album, “Mio caro Händel”, says a lot about the affinity Simone Kermes feels with the Saxon composer. She has selected his most popular pieces, such as Ombra mai fù(Largo of Love), Piangeró la sorte mia(I will lament my fate) and Lascia ch’io pianga(Let me weep), along with some much less well-known pieces, which are some of the most wonderful revelations and rare musical gems on the album. The singer recorded this testimony of love to Händel in Berlin’s famous Jesus-Christus-Kirche in 2018 accompanied by Amici Veneziani, an ensemble put together especially for her which mostly comprises of German musicians and is led by Russian violinist Boris Begelman. As a great traveller who went all over Europe, this captures Händel’s European spirit perfectly. © François Hudry/Qobuz