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Wagner: Parsifal
Recommended
Evgeny Nikitin (Amfortas), Christian Elsner (Parsifal), Franz-Josef Selig (Gurnemanz), Michelle DeYoung (Kundry/Stimme aus der Hohe), Dimitry Ivaschenko (Titurel), Eike Wilm Schulte (Klingsor)
Rundfunkchor Berlin & Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Marek Janowski
It has spontaneity of something which has sunk so deeply into the performers' minds and souls that they can throw caution to the wind and still be accurate...Elsner is a wonderfully sensitive... — More…
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New, Offer, Schoenberg: Transfigured Night & Haydn: Cello Concertos Nos. 1 & 2
Recommended
Alisa Weilerstein (cello)
Trondheim Soloists
What an intriguing, captivating sound they make: delicate one moment and then pleasingly robust the next…There's a gutsiness that is echoed by Weilerstein herself as she digs in most enjoyably... — More…
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Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Albert Dohmen (Hans Sachs), Robert Dean Smith (Walther), Edith Haller (Eva), Dietrich Henschel (Beckmesser), Peter Sonn (David), Michelle Breedt (Magdalene), Georg Zeppenfeld (Pogner)
Rundfunkchor Berlin & Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Marek Janowski
[a good Meistersinger] should show teamwork among the soloists and a good balance between the conversational style of much of the singing and the grandeur of the orchestral accompaniment. On... — More…
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Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer
Recommended
Albert Dohmen (Der Holländer), Ricarda Merbeth (Senta), Matti Salminen (Daland), Robert Dean Smith (Erik), Silvia Hablowetz (Mary), Steve Davislim (Steuermann)
Rundfunkchor Berlin & Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Marek Janowski
Janowski's conducting is crisp and fleet-footed, shaping the music naturally and fluently...[Dohmen] is a warm anti-hero, but too soft-grained to sound demonically desperate. Matti Salminen's... — More…
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New, Offer, Stravinsky: Persephone
Andrew Staples & Pauline Cheviller
Finnish National Opera, Esa-Pekka Salonen
Sensuous, vulnerable and imperious by turns, the young French actress Pauline Cheviller is absolutely riveting as the eponymous queen of the underworld (a spoken role in Stravinsky’s 1934 ballet),... — More…
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Carnevale 1729
Ann Hallenberg (mezzo-soprano)
Il Pomo d'Oro, Stefano Montanari
Arias from each role might as well have been tailor-made for Hallenberg’s pinpoint virtuosity and lyricism, communicative use of language, idiomatic embellishment, intelligently sculpted phrasing... — More…
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Puccini: La fanciulla del West
Recommended
Carol Neblett (Minnie), Plácido Domingo (Dick Johnson), Sherrill Milnes (Jack Rance)
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House & Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Zubin Mehta
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Mahler: Song Cycles
Recommended
Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano)
Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Marc Albrecht
A mezzo can bring so many colours to the expression, and in that respect Alice Coote matches the previously unsurpassable challenge of Janet Baker with Barbirolli. There’s even a plus: the height,... — More…
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Scriabin: Symphony No. 1 & The Poem of Ecstasy
Russian National Orchestra & Chamber Choir of the Moscow Conservatory, Mikhail Pletnev
there is a good deal which is captivating in Mikhail Pletnev's excellent performance: in the thistledown Scherzo, the Russian National Orchestra demonstates polished and tight ensemble playing... — More…
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Wagner: Lohengrin
Klaus Florian Vogt (Lohengrin), Annette Dasch (Elsa), Susanne Resmark (Ortrud), Gerd Grochowski (Friedrich von Telramund), Markus Brück (Der Heerrufer des Königs), Günther Groissböck (Heinrich der Vogler)
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin & Rundfunkchor Berlin, Marek Janowski
Janowski has matured into the most reliably impressive Wagner conductor of our time...[Vogt] has a lovely voice, though it occasionally sounds thin; but he is expressive, intelligent and convincing.... — More…