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La flûte enchantée

Sigiswald Kuijken

Opera - Released March 9, 2005 | Brilliant Classics

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There is magic in this Die Zauberflöte -- the warmly glowing intonation of La Petite Bande, the pure Pamina of Suzie LeBlanc, the idealized Sorastro of Cornelius Hauptmann, the ardent Tamino of Christoph Genz, the robust Papageno of Stephan Genz, the lovely Papagna of Marie Kuijken, the deeply knowing conducting of Sigiswald Kuijken, even the corny thundercrashes -- but there is also one huge drawback -- the spoken dialogue. The amount of spoken dialogue included has always been a crucial issue for recordings of Die Zauberflöte -- too little and the story is all but incomprehensible, too much and listeners may grow restless waiting for the characters to stop speaking to each other in German, especially if they themselves don't speak German. For the completists and German speakers, Kuijken has included all the spoken dialogue. While this has its charms -- Genz's Papageno's fright is quite convincing -- the dialogue stops the music dead in its tracks every three to five minutes. Depending on the listener, this will either delightfully enhance or fatally detract from what is otherwise a thoroughly beguiling Die Zauberflöte. Amati's sound is deep and clear, but a little reverberant and very live.© TiVo
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La Flûte Enchantée

Hervé Niquet

Classical - Released April 23, 2021 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

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J'écoute Bach et Haendel avec ma maman

Anne Queffélec

Classical - Released December 3, 2012 | Mirare

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Berlioz: Les nuits d'été, Op. 7, H 81b - Ravel: Shéhérazade, M. 41 - Saint-Saëns: Mélodies persanes, Op. 26

Marie-Nicole Lemieux

Classical - Released September 29, 2023 | Warner Classics

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This is a nicely programmed album consisting of French song cycles spaced several decades apart from the 19th and early 20th centuries. One of them, the Mélodies Persanes ("Persian Songs") of Saint-Saëns, is not a common item; with its bouncy text-setting, nobody would compare it to the deep Eastern influences woven into various Ravel works, but then, Ravel was inspired to execute those by listening to Saint-Saëns. In Berlioz's Les nuits d'été and Ravel's Shéhérazade, contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux has plenty of competition, but there is less for the Saint-Saëns. Another attraction is the work of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo under conductor Kazumi Yamada, neither a household name. The group is velvety smooth in the Berlioz cycle, with quiet and perfectly controlled string sound throughout. The strings match the voice of Lemieux beautifully; both have a luxuriance that fits the extravagantly Romantic texts of the Berlioz. So, everything is in place here, and listeners' reactions to the whole are likely to come down to their feelings about Lemieux's voice itself. It has a rapid, confident vibrato that is remarkably pitch-accurate as it moves up and down within her range. To these ears, it is beautiful. It also doesn't vary much according to the text; the Saint-Saëns songs and Ravel's Asie, which are intended to evoke exotic melodic traits, sound much like the Berlioz. A bit of sampling will likely determine one's enjoyment of the album in general, and there are certainly many things to like here.© James Manheim /TiVo
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El Nour

Fatma Said

Classical - Released October 16, 2020 | Warner Classics

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Qobuzissime
"Vieux pays merveilleux des contes de nourrice" (‘Old marvellous land of nursery tales’): These few words describe the irresistible and striking interpretation of Ravel's Shéhérazade, now of a bygone era. The timbral lows and highs radiate from Egyptian soprano Fatma Said’s voice. Her exemplary diction shines. Each word is intelligible and each sound exists to colour the word, emphasising its meaning. Nobody would have thought that the singer’s extremely versatile musicality – reminiscent of Regine Crespin’s vibrant performances – would find an even greater versatility in the orchestral version, with Malcolm Martineau’s beautifully timbred and precise piano occasionally slowing things down.The program completely immerses itself in Spain, with Rafael Aguirre’s subtle guitar substituting itself for Martineau’s piano. Other facets of Fatma Said’s voice are her musical agility and ethereal spirit, which are revealed in the two Falla pieces. The Canción de Marinela by José Serrano, where her voice thickens, will remain an unforgettable moment of sweet sensuality. It's easy to start dreaming of Said exploring some other roles in zarzuelas, for which she would be divine! The three songs by Federico García Lorca, excerpts of the 13 Canciones españolas antiguas, are rather modest and of a noble elegance, even in the carnal arabesques of Nana de Sevilla. This is the perfect transition for the ‘Arabic’ songs that Fatma Said chooses next.She introduces, for example, a pretty melody from Egyptian composer Gamal Abdel-Rahim (1924-1988), before flying off into the gorgeous Adieux de l’hôtesse arabe by Bizet where Burcu Karadağ's nev (a sort of reed flute) improvises in counterpoint alongside the vocals. The last four pieces return to the Egyptian and Lebanese standards, in a jazzy and nostalgic atmosphere. This is a captivating album with overwhelming emotion! © Pierre-Yves Lascar/Qobuz
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Satie: Gymnopedies

Denis Pascal

Classical - Released December 2, 2022 | La Musica

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 4F de Télérama - Choc de Classica
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Berlioz: Herminie, Les Nuits d'été / Ravel: Schéhérazade

Véronique Gens

Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released May 3, 2012 | Ondine

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 4F de Télérama - 4 étoiles Classica - La Clef du mois RESMUSICA
The vocal works of Hector Berlioz are less familiar than his gigantic orchestral pieces, but in the right hands they're delightful. This release by French soprano Véronique Gens, who is at the absolute peak of her powers, has all you could ask. It has the sheer creamy goodness of Gens' voice, made still tastier by her obvious enthusiasm for the likes of Ravel's Asie (Asia) from the Shéhérazade set. It offers a distinction from earlier traversals of the same material: the song cycle Les Nuits d'été (Summer Nights), especially, has been the province of big dramatic sopranos, but Gens' reading is more chamber-sized, and indeed more in line with the medium-sized halls Berlioz would have known in material of this kind. The album has a novel item: the early Berlioz cantata Herminie, written in 1828 as one of his unsuccessful attempts to capture the Prix de Rome. (He finally succeeded with Sardanapale in 1830.) The music of this piece has links to the Symphonie fantastique, and in general it has the fearlessly showy lyricism that makes the music of the young Berlioz so attractive. The album boasts excellent orchestral support from the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire under conductor John Axelrod, who fully merits his full-page picture in the CD version's booklet. Sound ideally suited to the dimensions of Gens' voice is just a bonus by this time. This is state-of-the-art Berlioz (and Ravel). © TiVo
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Amadè

Julie Fuchs

Classical - Released November 18, 2022 | Sony Classical

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Ravel: Shéhérazade - Berlioz: Les Nuits d'été

Sir John Barbirolli

Classical - Released February 22, 2019 | Warner Classics

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Les prophéties d'une plume

Cenza

Hip-Hop/Rap - Released May 19, 2017 | L'uzine

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Rencontre

Raquel Camarinha, Yoan Héreau

Classical - Released September 28, 2018 | naïve classique

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Psyché

Ambroisine Bré

Classical - Released February 11, 2022 | Grande Ourse

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The Cleveland Orchestra plays Ravel

The Cleveland Orchestra

Classical - Released December 17, 2022 | UME - Global Clearing House

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Delius: A Mass of Life

Frederick Delius

Classical - Released November 24, 2023 | Lawo Classics

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The most popular works by Frederick Delius, like Summer Night on the River and On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring are orchestral tone poems with a British tinge, seeming to offer a British counterpart to Debussy's Impressionism. Eine Messe des Lebens ("A Mass of Life") has little that is British about it at all unless it be a general commonality of mood with the vast spectaculars written for England's choral festivals. This work has had its champions, including Sir Thomas Beecham, but it has rarely been performed or recorded. The fact that it is in German is one impediment; the work sets texts from Friedrich Nietzsche's Also sprach Zarathustra. Many readers of the day put a grandiose spin on that work; nowadays, it is seen more as lyrical and poetic. The Richard Strauss tone poem based on Also sprach Zarathustra reflects the former view, and so does the Delius work, although it has some almost static mystical passages. There are influences from English choral music, from Wagner, perhaps from Grieg. The work requires a double chorus and a large orchestra; this live performance from Bergen in 2022, with the Bergen Philharmonic, four soloists, and one Norwegian and one English chorus, must have been a logistical challenge. Eine Messe des Lebens (which is in no sense a mass) is something of a beast, but conductor Mark Elder makes a strong case for it. His handling of the large forces is lucid and moves clearly toward goal points, and he balances the choruses, soloists (the principal being baritone Roderick Williams, in fine form), and orchestra well; perhaps the prize should go to the LAWO Classics engineers who kept all these layers clear in a live concert situation. This recording may or may not rescue Eine Messe des Lebens from obscurity, but those interested in Delius, and for that matter in Nietzsche and his reception, should definitely hear it.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Morgenstund

Schiller

Electronic - Released March 22, 2019 | NITRON concepts

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Bach : "Actus tragicus" (Cantatas BWV 4, 12, 106, 196)

Konrad Junghänel

Cantatas (sacred) - Released July 31, 2007 | harmonia mundi

Distinctions Diapason d'or de l'année - Diapason d'or - Choc du Monde de la Musique - 4F de Télérama
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Paradise Lost

Anna Prohaska

Classical - Released April 10, 2020 | Alpha Classics

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The gestation of this project lasted two years. Anna Prohaska and Julius Drake finally concentrated their research on the themes of Eve, Paradise and banishment. Some songs were obvious choices, such as Fauré’s Paradis, in which God appears to Eve and asks her to name each flower and animal, or Purcell’s Sleep, Adam, sleep with its references to Genesis. But Anna Prohaska also wished to illustrate the cliché of the woman who brought original sin into the world and her status as a tempter who leads man astray, as in Brahms’s Salamander, Wolf’s Die Bekehrte or Ravel’s Air du Feu. In Das Paradies und die Peri, Schumann conjures up the image of Syria’s rose-covered plains. Bernstein also transports us to the desert with Silhouette.. John Milton’s seventeenth-century masterpiece Paradise Lost was the inspiration for Charles Ives and Benjamin Britten, also featured in this very rich programme that constitutes an invitation to travel and reflection. © Alpha Classics
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Bach: Early Cantatas, Vol. 1

Emma Kirkby

Cantatas (sacred) - Released February 1, 2005 | Chandos

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