C Major
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Solti: Journey of a lifetime
Celebrating the 100th birthday of Sir Georg Solti
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti
Talking heads opine that Solti's career only soared after Bohm retired and Karajan died...it does provide some remarkable anecdotes...such as Solti becoming great cronies with Theodor Adorno...Most... —
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Special offer. Verdi: I Lombardi alla prima crociata
Roberto de Biasio (Arvino), Michele Pertusi (Pagano), Cristina Giannelli (Viclinda), Dimitra Theodossiou (Giselda), Roberto Tagliavini (Pirro), Valdis Jansons (Acciano), Francesco Meli (Oronte), Daniela Pini (Sofia)
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Regio di Parma, Daniele Callegari
Pugelli’s production reveals a series of beautiful backdrops and the costumes are a hippy’s tie-die heaven, albeit rather more chic... The singing is forthright. Michele Pertusi’s bass provides... —
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Mahler: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2
Camilla Tilling (soprano), Lilli Paasikivi (mezzo)
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (HR-Sinfonie Orchester), Paavo Järvi
In general, Järvi favours broad tempos - perhaps a little too broad in the opening movement of the Second Symphony...But the First Symphony...is wholly successful in its balance of detail and... —
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Verdi: Requiem
Julianna Di Giacomo (soprano), Michelle DeYoung (mezzo), Vittorio Grigolo (tenor), Ildebrando D'Arcangelo (bass)
LA Philharmonic & LA Master Chorale, Gustavo Dudamel
The performance is at its best in the contributions of the four soloists. US soprano Julianna Di Giacomo brings vibrant tone and plenty of personal commitment to the top line...DeYoung supplies... —
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Special offer. Mozart: Così fan tutte, K588
Anett Fritsch (Fiordiligi), Paola Gardina (Dorabella), Kerstin Avemo (Despina), Juan Francisco Gatell (Ferrando), Andreas Wolf (Guglielmo), William Shimell (Don Alfonso)
Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro Real de Madrid, Sylvain Cambreling
No lover of radical productions myself, I found it fascinating. You will, too, provided you forget that Cosi is an opera buffa: this is serious stuff...Within the limits of Haneke's very particular... —
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Special offer. Gluck: Orphée et Eurydice
Dmitry Korchak, Andriana Chuchman, Lauren Snouffer; The Joffrey Ballet, Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra and Chorus; Harry Bicket
Korchak is no haute-contre but a robust, heroic tenor. Lauren Snouffer is suitably boyish as Amour...Andriana Chuchman makes a fiery Eurydice...The choreography executed by the Joffrey Ballet... —
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Mahler: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4
Waltraud Meier (mezzo), Genia Kühmeier (soprano)
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchstra (HR-Sinfonie Orchster), Paavo Järvi
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Richard Strauss Gala
Anja Harteros, Camilla Nylund, Christine Goerke (sopranos)
Staatskapelle Dresden, Christian Thielemann
the Staatskapelle Dresden, with its distinctively mellow sound, is ideal for Strauss, and the singers are mostly well chosen for their appointed arias...Goerke has emerged as a true dramatic... —
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Mahler: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (HR-Sinfonie Orchester), Paavo Järvi
the Eighth is - as with all the other performances in the cycle - highly accomplished. Less so the filming...Overall the Seventh belongs with the other mid-period symphonies as the high point... —
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A John Williams Celebration
Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles 2014
Itzhak Perlman (violin)
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Gustavo Dudamel
