Your basket is empty

Categories:
Narrow my search:

Results 1 to 20 out of a total of 4538
From
HI-RES$17.49
CD$13.99

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
From
HI-RES$24.71
CD$19.77

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

Wolfgang Sawallisch

Opera - Released February 16, 2018 | Orfeo

Hi-Res Booklet
From
HI-RES$24.70
CD$19.76

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

Teresa Stich-Randall

Opera - Released December 31, 2021 | Vanguard Classics

Hi-Res Booklet
From
CD$24.49

Mozart: Così fan tutte

René Jacobs

Classical - Released February 26, 1999 | harmonia mundi

From
HI-RES$18.09
CD$15.69

Mozart: Così fan tutte (Highlights)

Teodor Currentzis

Classical - Released October 9, 2015 | Sony Classical

Hi-Res
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
From
HI-RES$18.09
CD$15.69

Handel

Sonya Yoncheva

Opera Extracts - Released February 3, 2017 | Sony Classical

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 5 Sterne Fono Forum Klassik
The young Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva, trying to break out from a pack of singers of Eastern European or Russian origin, here takes on one of the black-belt level assignments: an album of Handel arias. The results draw on Yoncheva's previous experience in Baroque repertory (she was a protégée of conductor William Christie) and validate her signing by the major Sony label. Yoncheva has many things going for her, including an ineffable diva quality that serves her well with these substantial Handel heroines. Some of these roles were written for the powerful voice of the castrato (the opening "Se pietà di me non senti" was first sung by the greatest countertenor of the age, Senesino) and Yoncheva's rather metallic voice doesn't yet have that kind of depth. But her voice is growing, and she has something else to offer here: Handel's women call for dramatic intelligence, and Yoncheva has that in spades. Sample her work in the arioso "Pensieri, voi me tormentate" (Thoughts, you torment me), a torrent of panic and resolution from the fine early opera Agrippina, about the mother of Nero. That's one of two selections from Agrippina, and most of the arias are in pairs, giving Yoncheva the chance to inhabit each character a bit. The arias are mostly in Italian; with those in English you can tell that Yoncheva is not a native speaker, but you can't quite pin down her origin. The final "When I am laid in earth," by Henry Purcell, may seem tacked onto a program of Handel, but the long and the short of it is that Yoncheva's deliberate reading draws you into this aria as few of the hundreds of other recordings of it do. The recording benefits from live-wire sympathetic accompaniment from the Academia Montis Regalis under Alessandro De Marchi, and it fulfills one of the original functions of recordings: it makes you want to pay money to see the star live on-stage.© TiVo
From
CD$19.77

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte

Sir Colin Davis

Classical - Released October 26, 2010 | Opus Arte

From
CD$4.09

Mozart: Così fan tutte (Highlights - Sung in German)

Otmar Suitner

Opera - Released January 1, 1970 | Eterna

From
HI-RES$24.70
CD$19.76

Psyché

Christophe Rousset

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

Hi-Res Booklet
From
HI-RES$21.99
CD$15.49

Rameau : Castor et Pollux

Raphaël Pichon

Full Operas - Released April 27, 2015 | harmonia mundi

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 4F de Télérama
From
HI-RES$17.49
CD$13.99

Mozart Concertante

Aleksandra Kurzak

Opera - Released October 22, 2021 | Aparté

Hi-Res Booklet
The Polish soprano Aleksandra Kurzak needs no introduction. After having dazzled the opera stage and the discographic world both in duets and solo, she has devoted the whole of her new recording to Mozart. From The Magic Flute to Zaide, Mitridate and La Clemenza di Tito, the soprano embraces with equal talent the most famous arias of the master of Salzburg… and the verve of her concert presence. Far from limiting herself to just the lyrical attractiveness, she reveals its depth and brilliance by exploring the richness of the dialogue between voice and instruments: the brilliant musicians of the Morphing Chamber Orchestra of Vienna and Aleksandra Kurzak answer to each other, imitate and seek out each other. With them the arias of Mozart become the setting for a theatrical performance that is intimate, droll, and incredibly lively, in which the instruments have their own role to play in the unfolding drama. As an echo to this is added the Sinfonia concertante, for violin, viola and orchestra, one of the composer’s masterpieces in the genre, featuring the international soloists Yuuki Wong and Tomasz Wabnic. © Aparté
From
HI-RES$14.49
CD$10.49

Arias for Anna De Amicis

Teodora Gheorghiu

Classical - Released September 27, 2011 | Aparté

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Qobuzissime
From
CD$10.99

Leontyne Price - In Concert at the Met

Leontyne Price

Vocal Recitals - Released January 1, 1983 | RCA Red Seal

From
HI-RES$17.49
CD$13.99

Mozart: Piano Concertos Vol. 8

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet

Concertos - Released October 6, 2023 | Chandos

Hi-Res Booklet
With this 2023 release, the cycle of Mozart's mature piano concertos by pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, with the Manchester Camerata under conductor Gabor Takács-Nagy, reaches its end. The series, with a modern piano but an economical approach that shows some influence from the historical performance movement, has found both critical and popular success, and this finale will not disappoint. Bavouzet is a technically clean pianist who can impress with the elegance of any given phrase, but what strikes the listener considering his Mozart work as a whole is the way he approaches each piece as an individual. His Mozart is entirely different from his Haydn, as revealed in a long series of fine piano sonata recordings, and he is very sensitive to the development of Mozart's style, capturing subtle interaction between piano and winds in the big middle-period concertos and backing off to a simpler melodicism in these late ones. In the Piano Concerto No. 26 in D major, K. 537 ("Coronation"), he prepares his own version of the incompletely notated left-hand part, and he adds some light ornamentation to the rather bare, slow movement. Bavouzet's Mozart albums have included overtures from the period of the concertos involved, and here, one gets no fewer than three from the last three Mozart operas. Takács-Nagy integrates these with the concertos beautifully, and the program as a whole has a satisfying effect that brings to mind Mozart's remark about the connoisseurs and the amateurs; the album can be appreciated at multiple levels. Chandos' engineering work at the Stoller Hall in Manchester is once again exemplary. This release made classical best-seller lists in the autumn of 2023.© James Manheim /TiVo
From
HI-RES$21.99
CD$16.99

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
From
HI-RES$17.59
CD$15.09

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

Christopher Purves

Classical - Released December 2, 2012 | Hyperion

Hi-Res Booklet
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
From
HI-RES$24.70
CD$19.76

Bastien et Bastienne · La Servante maîtresse

Gaétan Jarry

Classical - Released September 8, 2023 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

Hi-Res Booklet
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
CD$15.49

Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice

René Jacobs

Classical - Released September 28, 2001 | harmonia mundi

Booklet
From
HI-RES$30.99
CD$21.99

Salieri : Tarare

Christophe Rousset

Classical - Released June 7, 2019 | Aparté

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 5 de Diapason - Gramophone Editor's Choice - Choc de Classica
While Mozart was largely overlooked in the French capital, Antonio Salieri took on the reigns of the Académie Royale de Musique (Paris Opera), a fruitful collaboration that was completely broken up by the French Revolution. After the success of his work Les Danaïdes, composed for Paris in 1784, Salieri worked tirelessly with Beaumarchais, spurred on by the success and scandal of his Figaro, on a new project which would become Tarare. Beaumarchais moved himself shamelessly toward stardom, skillfully self-promoting and attending rehearsals so as to assure that the orchestra played pianissimo to emphasize the primacy of his verse during performances. Beaumarchais found that the music was too overwhelming to “embellish the lyrics”.Created one year after Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (which was relatively well-received in Vienna before triumphing in Prague), Tarare was an immense success in Paris maintaining the status of the composer’s repertoire despite the political turmoil of the time before disappearing from view around 1826, thereon ceasing to be played. Beaumarchais’ words were immediately adapted into Italian by Lorenzo Da Ponte to be performed and met with equal success in Vienna. Tarare is half lyrical tragedy, half comic opera with a hint of orientalism.After resuscitating Les Danaïdes and Les Horaces, Christophe Rousset finished off his series of recordings dedicated to Salieri’s French operas for the Parisian public. Tarare is very much of its time, that of the Lumières, and used the power of art to challenge despotism in all its forms. Thanks to Christophe Rousset’s excellent delivery and lively direction, this recording enables one to judge the merits of the composition and the chasm that separates an honest and talented musician from a solitary and impassioned one like Mozart. © François Hudry/Qobuz