C Major
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Andris Nelsons, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Yefim Bronfman at the Lucerne Festival, 5th September 2011
Yefim Bronfman (piano)
Concertgebouw Orchestra, Andris Nelsons
every gesture and expression dovetails with what we hear. Subtle yet soaring, these orchestral performances are shaped by a conductor who enjoys every second of his job, and equally enjoys the... —
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Special offer. Gluck: Alceste
Dorothea Röschmann (Alceste), Charles Castronovo (Admète), Michael Nagy (High Priest of Apollo), Bayerische Staatsoper, Antonello Manacorda
The chorus and orchestra under Antonello Manacorda are fine, as is Tiziano Mancini’s video direction. —
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Kit Armstrong plays Wagner, Liszt and Mozart
Live from the Margravial Opera House, Bayreuth
Kit Armstrong (piano)
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Special offer. Mozart: Die Zauberflöte, K620
Martin Summer (Sarastro), Yasmin Özkan (Queen of the Night), Martin Piskorski (Tamino), Fatma Said (Pamina), Till von Orlowski (Papageno), Sascha Emanuel Kramer (Monostatos), Theresa Zisser (Papagena); Teatro alla Scala, Ádám Fischer, Peter Stein
This is one of those performances which it is easy to criticise on many points, which yet overcomes its faults because it is overall so intensely alive and life-giving…Fischer, perhaps the leading... —
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Special offer. Mozart: Don Giovanni
Ildebrando D'Arcangelo (Don Giovanni), Andrea Concetti (Leporello), Carmela Remigio (Donna Elvira), Myrto Papatanasiu (Donna Anna), Marlin Miller (Don Ottavio), Manuela Bisceglie (Zerlina), William Corrò (Masetto), Enrico Giuseppe Iori (Il Commendatore)
Teatro La Fenice, Riccardo Frizza (conductor),...
A performance and production which are as near perfection as I can ever hope to experience…[D'Arcangelo] has just the right sleazy glamour for the role, both repellent and irresistible...His... —
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Special offer. Mozart: Don Giovanni, K527
Simone Alberghini, Irina Lungu, Julia Novikova, Dmitry Korchak, Jiří Brückler
National Theatre Orchestra, Plácido Domingo (conductor) & Jiří Nekvasil (director)
Katerina Kněžíková (Donna Elvira) is a Prague favourite and despite some vocal brittleness is animated and communicative, especially in her Act II aria ‘Mi tradi’. Irina Lungu (Donna Anna) is... —
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The UNESCO Beethoven Symphony No. 9
Erin Wall (soprano), Annika Schlicht (mezzo-soprano), Attilio Glaser (tenor), René Pape (bass)
Members of the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, World Orchestra for Peace & Würth Philharmoniker, Donald Runnicles
Appeals for peace and unity in Europe may ring hollow soon enough but the performance itself bears repetition, unfailingly lucid and rhythmically sprung in the Toscanini mould…The sound-mixing... —
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Special offer. Mozart: Idomeneo
Bernard Richter (Idomeneo), Rachel Frenkel (Idamante), Valentina Nafornița (Ilia), Irina Lungu (Elettra), Pavel Kolgatin (Arbace)
Wiener Staatsoper, Tomáš Netopil, Kasper Holten
Best of all is Irina Lungu’s Elettra who tears into her final aria ‘D’Oreste, d’Aiace’ as if there were no tomorrow, which of course there isn’t for her!..As you would expect, the chorus of... —