Narrow my search:
From
HI-RES$19.89
CD$17.19
Rachel
Rachel Willis-Sørensen
Classical - Released April 8, 2022 | Sony Classical
Hi-Res
Booklet
From
CD$24.49
Mozart: Così fan tutte
René Jacobs
Classical - Released February 26, 1999 | harmonia mundi
From
HI-RES$31.79
CD$24.59
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
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$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
Mozart: Don Giovanni by Wilhelm Furtwängler
Wilhelm Furtwängler
Opera - Released January 8, 2022 | Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording
Hi-Res
From
HI-RES$17.49
CD$13.99
Mahler: Symphony No. 2
Czech Philharmonic
Symphonies - Released April 7, 2023 | PentaTone
Hi-Res
Booklet
The duo of conductor Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic performed Mahler's Symphony No. 2 in C minor ("Resurrection") beginning in the late 2010s, and it is no surprise that by the time of this 2023 release, the third in their series of Mahler symphonies, they had it down to a science. This is not an overly emotive Mahler Second; for a sense of panic and sardonic angst in the symphony's darker earlier phases, consider recordings by Simon Rattle or even Leonard Bernstein. However, that is not the only way to look at Mahler, and Bychkov's soberer approach has a good deal of value. He takes the music at a deliberate pace; at an hour and 26 minutes, this giant work is about six minutes slower than average, and he allows room for a striking wealth of instrumental detail from what is undoubtedly one of the greatest orchestras on the European continent. As the storm and stress build toward the final vocal transfiguration, there is real power here. The soloists are both fine, but soprano Christiane Karg in the final "Aufersteh'n" is a standout. PentaTone's engineers do a superb job in Prague's Rudolfinum, giving the hall's magnificent organ its due and creating space for a good deal of the orchestral detail. A superb Mahler Second that made classical best-seller charts in the spring of 2023.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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$38.99
CD$29.29
Jules Massenet: Ariane
Münchner Rundfunkorchester
Classical - Released September 8, 2023 | Bru Zane
Hi-Res
Booklet
Distinctions
Diapason d'or
For many years, it was only Manon and Werther that were heard among Massenet's operas, but his reputation appears to be on the rise, and his champion, conductor Laurent Campellone, has recorded a good number of them. Ariane, from 1906, is one of the last to receive its recorded premiere. The Palazzetto Bru Zane label, specializing in obscure French opera, does a typically fine job here; the sound is superb, and the cast of singers, led by the soprano Amina Edris in the lead role, offers several revelations. In his later operas, Massenet often attempted to put a French stamp on the newer styles of the day, and here, it is Wagner who gets this treatment; the opera is built around a set of motifs de rappel (or "reminiscence motifs"), whose parentage in Wagner's leitmotifs is clear. This structure is shoehorned into the durable machinery of French opera. There are big entrance scenes, a pantomime, and plenty of spectacular stage machinery to go with the love triangle plot involving Ariane (Ariadne), Phèdre (Phaedra), and Theseus, who gets to take on the Minotaur in a grand scene with Wagnerian bass trumpet and bass trombone. Massenet's orchestration is impressive throughout. The work does not have the inevitability of truly great art, but it is in no way dull, and anyone with any interest in French opera should hear it for the singers alone; enough of those listeners have already weighed in and put the album on classical best-seller lists in the late summer of 2023.© James Manheim /TiVo
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$31.79
CD$24.59
Louise Bertin: Fausto
Les Talens Lyriques
Classical - Released January 26, 2024 | Bru Zane
Hi-Res
Booklet
The classical best-seller charts are unfamiliar environs for the Palazzetto Bru Zane label, which specializes in forgotten 19th century opera. However, this release achieved best-seller status in early 2024, and this is absolutely no surprise, for Louise Bertin's Fausto is a remarkable work. One wonders how long it will take programmers to present it in a cycle with Berlioz's and Gounod's versions of the Faust tale (and perhaps Arrigo Boito's); the work is colorful in the extreme and is sure to be a crowd-pleaser even though it closed after three performances in 1831 and was shelved for the next 190 years. Perhaps the opera mixed so many influences that audiences just did not know what to make of it. Bertin, who was 25 when the work had its premiere in Paris, wrote the libretto herself in Italian. It has all the trappings of Rossinian opera -- fortepiano-accompanied recitative, aria, scena, preghiera, cavatina, big multi-part finales ending with a fast stretta -- but the effect of the music is completely different, and the settings stand up to the weighty aspect of the material. It is as if Weber had written a Faust opera, sometimes even as if Beethoven had written one. The role of Faust is sung by a mezzo-soprano, which is how Bertin wrote it, although a tenor version also exists. This results in intriguing equal-status duets between Karine Deshayes as Fausto and Karina Gauvin as Margarita. Conductor Christophe Rousset catches the ambition and the drama; his ensemble Les Talens Lyriques uses historical instruments but wisely bulks up to an adequate size for the work. Palazzetto Bru Zane, as usual, does the opera justice sonically with a studio recording. This is a remarkable release, not only for lovers of 19th century opera or those interested in music by women, but for anyone.© James Manheim /TiVo
From
HI-RES$16.59
CD$14.39
Handel: Israel in Egypt, HWV 54
Apollo's Fire
Classical - Released October 6, 2023 | Avie Records
Hi-Res
Handel's oratorio Israel in Egypt, HWV 54, bombed at its first performance in 1739 and was heavily revised by Handel. The revisions go even further here, in what is marked as an adaptation by Apollo's Fire director Jeannette Sorrell. She makes wholesale cuts, removing numerous arias, consolidating others, and leaving only a few recitatives. Sorrell retains, however, the three-part structure of Handel's first attempt (the librettist was probably Charles Jennens of Messiah), consisting of the "Lamentations by the Israelites for the Death of Joseph," "Exodus," and "Moses' Song." She also keeps the chorus-heavy quality of Handel's originals. The nearly three-hour oratorio usually heard is sliced to just over 74 minutes. All this might seem an unwarranted intrusion, but Handel himself obviously struggled with the material of this oratorio, which isn't one of his more commonly heard works. And lo, Sorrell's reworking succeeds solidly, creating convincing dramatic arcs where they previously existed only in outline. The ten plagues are shortened considerably but make more of an impact in their abbreviated form. The greatest strength here is the choral writing, in many places the equal of anything in Messiah. Apollo's Fire is a rather underrated choral-orchestral group from the U.S. Midwest that offers a satisfyingly good-sized choir with clear text articulation and a fine sense of expressing what they are singing about. A strong offering that will be appreciated by Handel lovers during the 2023 holiday season and beyond.© James Manheim /TiVo
From
HI-RES$17.59
CD$15.09
Machaut: The Fount of Grace
Orlando Consort
Classical - Released July 7, 2023 | Hyperion
Hi-Res
Booklet
From
HI-RES$21.99
CD$16.99
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23, Symphony No. 40 & Don Giovanni Overture
Julien Chauvin
Classical - Released September 23, 2022 | Alpha Classics
Hi-Res
Booklet
Julien Chauvin meets up with one of the great harpsichordists and fortepianists of our time, Andreas Staier, who is a leading interpreter of the Mozart Concertos. He presents us with his vision of the Keyboard Concerto No. 23 and its famous Adagio, "one of the most heart-rending slow movements ever written by Mozart... Performers often tend to take it too slowly, certainly thinking that this will accentuate the tragic side, but Julien Chauvin and I spontaneously agreed on a slightly faster tempo, which respects the basic pulse of this movement in siciliana rhythm. When you start with the right tempo, it’s amazing how the whole discourse comes together perfectly, in a very logical and simple manner", says Staier, who plays a magnificent instrument by Christoph Kern after a 1790 fortepiano by Anton Walter, the great maker of Mozart’s time. Also on the programme is the Symphony No. 40, in which, says Julien Chauvin, "Mozart explores types of writing that he pushes to their most extreme limits. This is the case in the finale, where we find a succession of dissonant disjunct intervals at the opening of the development which, on closer inspection, present us with the full chromatic scale (except for G natural, the symphony’s tonic). And so the twelve-note series was born!" © Alpha Classics
From
HI-RES$21.99
CD$16.99
So Romantique !
Cyrille Dubois
Classical - Released March 10, 2023 | Alpha Classics
Hi-Res
Booklet
From
HI-RES$21.99
CD$15.49
Mozart : Die Entführung aus dem Serail
René Jacobs
Classical - Released October 15, 2015 | harmonia mundi
Hi-Res
Booklet
Distinctions
4 étoiles Classica
From
HI-RES$30.69
CD$26.59
Femmes
Raphaela Gromes
Classical - Released February 3, 2023 | Sony Classical - Sony Music
Hi-Res
Booklet
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$12.79
CD$10.19
O sole mio: Mandolin Concertos & Songs
Julien Martineau
Classical - Released September 29, 2023 | naïve
Hi-Res
From
HI-RES$14.99
CD$9.99
Antonio Salieri : Les Horaces
Christophe Rousset
Full Operas - Released August 31, 2018 | Aparté
Hi-Res
Booklet
Distinctions
5 de Diapason -
5 Sterne Fono Forum Klassik -
Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik
Ever since Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus and the subsequent film by Milos Forman, the operas of Mozart's rival Antonio Salieri have enjoyed a revival: historians determined that not only did Salieri not poison Mozart, he admired him, and Mozart at least respected the older Italian. Indeed, Les Horaces (1786) represents several accomplishments that were not on Mozart's résumé: it is a full-scale French opera, and its recitatives are orchestrally accompanied and contribute elegantly to the action. Berlioz, always an astute critic, numbered himself among the admirers of Salieri's French operas of the 1780s; this one was not as successful as the others, but that could have been due to any number of factors. The plot deals with a woman, Camille, whose romantic life is caught between factions in a war in early Roman times, and Rousset's live reading here benefits from a strong soprano lead, Dutch singer and French Baroque specialist Judith van Wanroij. Other singers likewise step up, but the real credit goes to Rousset, who gets the strengths of Salieri's score: the grand intermèdes, and the exciting finale of Act 1, where the joining-together of action and music is in Mozart's league even if the tunes are not. Also praiseworthy is the engineering work of the curiously named Little Tribeca team, who obtain the best possible sound from none other than Versailles. Highly recommended to those who have dismissed Salieri: this is a sympathetic and enthusiastic performance of his music.
© TiVo
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.