C Major
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Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro
Mari Eriksmoen (Susanna, Andrè Schuen (Figaro), Christine Schäfer (Countess), Bo Skovhus (Count), Elisabeth Kulman (Cherubino)
Concentus Musicus Wien, Arnold Schoenberg Chor, Nikolaus Harnoncourt
this is a Mozart with a difference: rather than interpreting, singers and orchestra confront text and music with a liveliness and intensity that should also compel viewers to see things differently. —
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Special offer. Mozart: Don Giovanni
Carlos Álvarez (Don Giovanni), Alex Esposito (Leporello), Irina Lungu (Donna Anna), Maria José Siri (Donna Elvira), Saimir Pirgu (Don Ottavio), Natalia Roman (Zerlina), Christian Senn (Masetto), Rafał Siwek (Il Commendatore)
Arena di Verona, Stefano Montanari, Franco Zeffirelli
They really don’t make them like this any more…The production is lavish and highly populated, 18th-century Seville in all its Baroque glory...Although the playing of the Arena di Verona Orchestra... —
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Special offer. Mozart: Don Giovanni
Carlos Álvarez (Don Giovanni), Alex Esposito (Leporello), Irina Lungu (Donna Anna), Maria José Siri (Donna Elvira), Saimir Pirgu (Don Ottavio), Natalia Roman (Zerlina), Christian Senn (Masetto), Rafał Siwek (Il Commendatore)
Arena di Verona, Stefano Montanari, Franco Zeffirelli
They really don’t make them like this any more…The production is lavish and highly populated, 18th-century Seville in all its Baroque glory...Although the playing of the Arena di Verona Orchestra... —
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Special offer. Bellini: Norma
Sondra Radvanovsky (Norma), Gregory Kunde (Pollione), Ekaterina Gubanova (Adalgisa), Raymond Aceto (Oroveso), Ana Puche (Clotilde) & Francisco Vas (Flavio)
Symphony Orchestra & Chorus of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Renato Palumbo (conductor) & Kevin Newbury (stage director)
[Radvanovsky’s] ‘Casta diva’ is dispatched with juicy flair, but it’s in the preceding lines tht the soprano really shows her mettle. Here Radvanovsky astutely establishes Norma’s divided loyalties... —
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András Schiff at Mozartwoche
Recording Date: Mozartwoche Salzburg, 2015
András Schiff (piano & conductor)
Orchestra Cappella Andrea Barca
This is not Beethoven the nascent revolutionary, angrily tearing up the keyboard, but Beethoven the classicist…the slow movement of K482 is a highlight, with some particularly rapt playing from... —
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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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It’s fascinating viewing, by turns enchanting and disquieting, but you might, as I did, find your eye simply being drawn back to Goerne. He sings the cycle now with a new and powerful tragic... —
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Mozart: Requiem in D minor, K626
Genia Kühmeier (soprano), Elisabeth Kulman (mezzo-soprano), Julien Behr (tenor), Charles Dekeyse (bass)
Salzburger Bachchor, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Académie Équestre de Versailles, Bartabas, Marc Minkowski
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Bernstein was periodically accused of self-indulgence in other repertoire. That’s a charge that could never stick in these joyous performances of three G major symphonies…Rather, there is grace,... —
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Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 7-9
and documentaries about each Symphony
Annette Dasch (soprano), Mihoko Fujimura (alto), Piotr Beczala (tenor) & Georg Zeppenfeld (bass)
Wiener Philharmoniker, Christian Thielemann
The performances, the Vienna Philharmonic on top form, can't help sounding wonderful...oddly, it is the discussions that are the most enjoyable elements in this ambitious set. —
