C Major
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It is an extraordinary work, weird and lovable…The Dresden Staatskapelle is, as always, a wonder to hear and to behold…though the assembled audience goes wild at the end, [Thielemann] seems... —
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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. —
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Midsummer Night's Gala Grafenegg
Pretty Yende (soprano), Joseph Calleja (tenor), Harriet Krijgh (cello)
Tonkunstler Orchestra, Yutaka Sado
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Best of Verdi Opera Choruses
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Regio di Parma, Orchestra e Coro del Teatro di San Carlo, Nicola Luisotti, Yuri Temirkanov, Boris Brott
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Special offer. Puccini: Turandot
Maria Guleghina (Turandot), Marco Berti (Calaf), Alexia Voulgaridou (Liù), Alexander Tsymbalyuk (Timur), Javier Agulló (Altoum), Fabio Previati (Ping), Vincenç Esteve (Pang), Roger Padullés (Pong), Ventseslav Anastasov (Un mandarino)
Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, Zubin Mehta
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Karajan and Menuhin
Yehudi Menuhin (violin)
Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Symphoniker, Herbert von Karajan
an electrifying performance by a rejuvenated Berlin Philharmonic at the peak of its powers; it is also a visually stunning record of a masterclass in virtuoso conducting...[The bonus-feature]... —
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Special offer. Verdi: Falstaff
Ambrogio Maestri (Falstaff), Luca Salsi (Ford), Antonio Gandia (Fenton), Svetla Vassileva (Alice Ford), Romina Tomasoni (Mistress Quickly), Daniela Pini (Meg Page), Barbara Bargnesi (Nannetta)
Teatro Regio di Parma, Andrea Battistoni
Medcalf's Falstaff...makes use of Ambrogio Maestri's Falstaff (terrific diction)...Svetla Vassileva's Alice (as glamorous as she is witty) or Romina Tomasoni's amusingly British Quickly. —
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Leonard Bernstein conducts Debussy
Orchestra dell'Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome, Leonard Bernstein
In Debussy's best-known orchestral works, Bernstein conveys his every last wish —
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An impulsive first movement with forensic attention to the grim reapers of the wind section…and a series of scarifying climaxes, the last and biggest of which is truly a ride to the abyss…[this]... —
